Boo! Boooooooooooooo! There is nobody in this episode who did not disappoint me with their idiocy in some way. Let us begin with the pointing of fingers and the naming of names!
Nero Padilla, Whatever Survival Instincts Are, You Have Their Exact Opposite Number: Proving that jail time did nothing to help him clear his head, Nero runs back to Gemma's arms, then runs all around town attempting to make things right between Gemma and Jax, Gemma and Tara, then Gemma and Jax AGAIN. The Tara/Nero business is noteworthy for several reasons. First, because the scene makes a big point of showing Abel taking his heart meds, so you know that's coming back into play later. Second, because Tara points out that Gemma's breakups tend to be messy and plants the suggestion that she is not above making herself a widow when it's convenient. And third, because Tara overplays her hand later by calling Jax and alleging that Nero called her all sorts of names, which gets refuted after many punches.
However, while Nero helps Jax internalize the value that Mother Is Always Right – by pointing out that Gemma put on a prison sex show to keep this damned Irish plot going – he does end up thinking on what Tara said, and he has a heart-to-heart with Gemma about John Teller. Gemma admits that she figured John had to die and she gave her blessing for the killing. That the scene does not end in a puff of Nero-shaped smoke beggars belief. He does leave for the night, but you know he'll remain entangled, because the show wants us to believe she's irresistible to all who succumb to her charms.
Gemma Teller, Your Ability to Find a New Low, Then Keep Tunneling, Is Remarkable: She spends most of the episode winding Nero up and aiming him where she wants him to go, or wagging a finger at Jax, or generally being a stand-in for the worst excesses of the writers' room. Yep, another episode where the all-powerful puppetmaster Gemma gets her way in everything.
(I am consoling myself by thinking that we are at the end of Act II in the seasonal arc, and everything should go to shit for nearly everyone from here.)
Margaret Murphy, You Need to Learn the Direct Dial Number for Hospital Security. Because the Gemma of this week's episode is a deductive genius, it is no problem for her to lure Margaret into Tara's office on false pretenses and catch her in a lie about medical records. And the whole thing could have been prevented if Margaret had gone to the head of security, flashed a picture of Gemma, and said, “This woman assaulted me and brutalized one of our doctors to the point where she needed a restraining order. She's not allowed in our hospital.” WHY WAS THAT NOT PART OF OPERATION FREE TARA?
Clay Morrow, You Need to Maybe Re-examine Whether Death Wouldn't be the Kinder Option at This Point. After disrupting the church Bible study a monologue about the miracle qualities of the female anatomy – truly epic work, that – causing a riot and busting a guard or two, Clay lands in the infirmary for the sole purpose of talking to the Irish on a phone. (The doctor's on their payroll.) Then, because the doctor will take money from anyone, he keeps Clay strapped to a gurney so the screws can beat him. Clay ends the episode in a straitjacket, in a padded cell.
Tyne Patterson, Why Are You Even Thinking About Making a Deal with Jax? Colette and Barofsky pull the plug on the Diosa Del Sur collaboration, having come to the belated realization that criminal bikers who have attracted the attention of the DA don't make great business partners. Since this threatens Jax's dream of going legit, he goes to Patterson with an offer he hopes she won't refuse: Legal Christmas for him and his, and in return he'll deliver the Irish to her. That this screws both Clay and August doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest.
Jax Teller, You are Your Mother's Puppet. The plot-of-the-week has Jax hunting down a mentally ill teenager who bashed Tig's bike and smashed the front of the store. It turns out she was motivated by revenge, as her mom died in the traffic pileup that resulted from John Teller's trip underneath the 18-wheeler. Jax finds this out from the girl's father, does a double take at the picture of the dead mother, then pressures Oswald into helping out the poor guy. But the week's adventures trigger his ongoing parental guilt over how SAMCRO has a long history of destroying families and now Jax has feelings about his dad all over again. He is then putty in his mother's hands, and it takes only a few more scenes before he's identified Tara as Teller Enemy Number One.
Wayne Unser, You're an Enabling Sneak: So remember how last week, Unser gave Gemma the straight talk and pointed out that she had two possible roads, and the harder one was the one likely to lead back to the boys? And how Gemma was basically like, "Screw you, the scenery on this one is better?" We may as well pretend that little moral examination never took place, because this week, Unser lured Lowen to his trailer and trapped her there with a weapon-wielding Jax. And that is how Jax terrifies Lowen into spilling all the deets on Tara's legal maneuvers.
Tara Knowles, What the Hell are You Still Doing in Charming? Are you serious that the lady who engineered an elaborate medical hoax and airtight legal case did not have "Make reservation at Extended Stay in Contra Costa County; go there ASAP" on her to-do list? She knows Gemma is relentless and a big fan of killing whatever gets in her way. She knows Jax is going to flip his lid when she drops the divorce bomb. She knows Jax has an entire murderous biker club at his disposal. So why …? I can't even with this one. That peashooter she has tucked underneath the baby will do nothing for her.
Homeless lady, be a Little Less Oblique with Your Obligatory Seasonal Appearance. Because after six seasons, it's time for you to mean something.
THE QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "It's the wife!" – Tara, responding to Nero's feeble shrug that the foul fates which befall his old lady's guys was just "the life."
Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter, editor and blogger. She regularly tweets here, blathers about comics here, and posts the oddball personal piece of writing here.
We have reached the point in the TV season where the "Previously on" segment is longer than many actual sitcom's running times. Which, given the epic length of most Sons of Anarchy episodes is, should not surprise anyone. I do wonder why the show is launching ever-longer "previously" segments, because anyone who is nine episodes into the sixth season of this show is obviously someone who’s already committed.
Anyway, Jax is up for the day and splashes some water over his face and hair. It will surprise none of you to know that his hair is so shellacked that the water just beads and runs off. He spares a gaze in the mirror as if to confirm that his pecs can indeed be confused for beef Chiclets, then he runs off to tend to the crying Thomas.
We cut to Gemma attempting to pray by the side of her bed, but someone is clearly distracted or else we’d see the lightning bolt come down and incinerate her. Or perhaps she’s praying to a dark, evil force, which would explain why everything always works out for her in the Charming universe.
Jax is feeding Thomas in the kitchen and Tara comes over to take the baby, which seems like a jerk move, if you ask me. Then we cut to Gemma and Nero having coffee while she tells him what she’s been up to while he was in the pokey. Then back to Jax telling Tara all manner of club business while she asks, "Are you sure you want to tell me this." "Yeah, I do," says Jax, explaining for the same viewers that need the "Previously on" segment why Clay is still alive and not once uttering the words, "Also, Ron Perlman is a series regular and despite this show’s high body count, it is amazingly hard to die on Sons of Anarchy once you’re in the opening credits."
Tara gets up and says "I don’t think you should tell me anything else" and Jax calls out, "I know you think you’re doing what you’ve got to do. Putting distance between us. I get it. I spent all night trying to figure out how to help you with these charges, Tara." Tara rolls her eyes and acidly points out, "You can’t." Jax gets up and turns on the puppy dog eyes with, "But I can keep my promise as a husband." Oh, why start now? Jax continues, "To be honest. Which I haven’t. I’ve been trying to protect you from everything, which clearly hasn’t worked. At all." When he kisses her and says, "I love you," Tara replies only, "Me too." Jax notes, "You know, since you got out of Stockton, you haven’t been able to say, 'I love you.' I know that must be hard for you. I’m sorry. I’ll stop telling you. Just know it’s what I feel."
Hands up, everyone who thinks this is not only a spectacular misread of the situation, but is also too little, too late?
Meanwhile, Nero is mooning over how lovely, damaged Gemma would never, ever engineer a situation to her own convenience when it comes to her grandchildren. It is a testament to Jimmy Smits’ unending fog of charisma that I can watch Nero sigh about how magnificent Gemma is and not want to see him re-create his TV debut.
Patterson comes in to the San Joaquin sheriff station, presumably to give everyone a moment of bowel-loosening terror in case their morning coffee isn’t doing enough for their digestive health. She and Roosevelt repair to his office to recap the events of the prior episode. (Look, just because we’ve already sat through 900 minutes of The Gemma Teller Morrow Padilla is Invincible Show this season doesn’t mean we can’t remember what happened from week to week). We get to the point of this scene: Patterson’s allocating resources to put 24/7 surveillance on Jax Teller. Roosevelt is all, "You really think that’s the best use of our resources?" Yeah…think outside the box! There are hundreds of gangsters in the greater northern California area who would probably be happy to do the job in exchange for a "Get out of jail free" card to be used later.
Roosevelt’s objections are equally pragmatic: SAMCRO’s M.O. is to go "total boy scout" in the wake of negative press until the heat dies down. There’s no point in tailing boring, behaving bikers. Patterson replies, "It’s about consistency, patience. The minute we ease, turn our backs, walk away, that’s the minute we allow another tragedy to happen."
Chuckie is kazoo'ing away as he squeegees the front window of the new clubhouse-cum-sweet shop. As Jax pulls in, he notices a young woman with a dreamy expression sitting by the bikes. Then he goes in and gets some expository update from Happy: Most of their gun customers are fine with doing business with the Irish via Clay rather than the club, except for the Italians. However, the Irish are "setting something up" so Clay can have access to a phone in the prison and reach out to the Italians. Unser comes in then and everyone quiets for a moment, and Bobby drawls, "Wow. You didn’t die yet?" No. Because he’s in the credits. Aw, it’s just a prelude to a Bobby hug, and then Unser says he’s there to talk to Jax. Everyone else tactfully beats feet, and the two settle down to a breakfast of beer. Jax thanks Unser for how he’s been there for Tara and the boys. He's twisting the knife a little, since it’s obvious that Unser’s there to do the exact opposite of help either Tara or the boys. Right as Unser’s making the case for Gemma; Jax is distracted by the dreamy-faced young woman whaling away at Tig’s bike with a wrench, then tossing the tool through the sweet shop’s plate-glass window. Chucky looks to be near tears for how his handiwork is shattered.
Jax takes off running after the girl, because nothing will make Charming feel good about bikers in the downtown area like one of them screaming as he chases a teenaged girl. The girl is smart enough to realize this and screams, "Rape!" right as Jax is shouting, "Who are you? Why’d you do that?" Her screams actually work, and Jax is left with a giant crowd of civilians staring at him with reproach.
Clay is now sitting in the prison Bible study, and I just have to wonder if the guards at Stockton are too addled from all that anal rape they’re doing to ask themselves why Clay Morrow’s got God all of a sudden and what could be in it for him. The pastor says today’s lesson will be on John 8:32 -- "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" -- and he begins trying to make the Bible here and happening and the Gospel of Now, but it’s kind of hard to hear over the rain of anvils thudding all around him, each reading, "IT’S IRONIC BECAUSE THIS ENTIRE SERIES IS ABOUT HOW LYING NEVER WORKS OUT IN THE LONG RUN."
Back at the sweet shop, Unser is telling everyone how Gary Putner’s troubled daughter (mental illness since early adolescence, a juvenile record) is the one who smashed up Tig’s bike and broke the window. Tig falls through the front window and asks, "Why my bike? I mean, really? Do all teenage girls just hate me?" They should. Your track record with women (accidentally murdered, accidentally murdered, set on fire) is terrible. Everyone in the club says as much. Anyway, Putner’s a mechanics foreman at Oswald’s mill and not naturally inclined to regard SAMCRO as a sworn enemy but -- and this is a big but -- the daughter might because her mother died in the multicar pile-up that John Teller’s motorcycle accident caused. “So she blames us for her mother’s death,” Jax says. "Eighteen years later?" Bobby asks incredulously, having somehow missed how he’s surrounded by people who are absolutely fixated on nurturing grudges until the grudges themselves are old enough to collect social security.
Roosevelt pulls up right then, and Jax heads out to see what he wants. Roosevelt asks what’s up with the window and Jax shrugs, "I don't know. Some people don’t like ice cream." "Extremely lactose intolerant, huh?" Roosevelt asks. Ha! I love it when the show remembers that it used to be really funny. Anyway, Roosevelt’s here to warn the club they’re going to have a shadow for a while, courtesy of Patterson: "She’s looking for that gun source and she’s only got one suspect on her list. This tail is going to happen. Let’s not make it ugly, all right?" Jax sighs that he gets it, and no sooner does Roosevelt leave than everyone is all up in his grill over Gemma, over the Irish, over Diosa Del Sur. I’d feel sorry for the guy but, let us not forget, Jax has chosen the club repeatedly, so he’s basically getting a tenth of what he deserves.
Tara is signing things for Lowen and I think it’s a tad telling that Lowen’s wearing a snakeskin print today instead of her usual gunmetal neutrals. (Say it with me: "Kelli Jones is a genius"). The women are talking allocation of assets: Tara’s moved her salaried income into a new account, but she’s leaving the cash in the safety deposit box. Honestly, if I were Tara, I’d take the blood money because I’d feel like I’d earned it, but if I were Tara, I’d have also cut and run a few seasons back because no man, no matter how edible his glutes, is worth the trouble that Gemma brings. ANYWAY, Lowen drops a file folder on the desk as if it’s covered in fecal material and says, "I looked over your medical documentation: positive pregnancy, ultrasounds, doctor’s signatures … all expedited by Margaret Murphy. Using false medical records to substantiate a custody order is a felony … we’re two weeks away from standing in front of a jury. If there’s any more drama you’ve got planned, I need to know now." Tara smiles ruefully and says, "You know everything." Yes. Because you know what always works out well for people? When they trust know-it-all-snakes. Just ask Eve!
The poor pastor is still trying to deliver his sermon to a captive audience when Clay gets a bod from another inmate and hijacks the spectacle with this monologue, which I have transcribed for you in its full glory just in case you want to make a gif to put on Pinterest with the rest of the Sons of Anarchy images you can find there:
"Let me get something straight, Rev. Some Jew gets nailed to a cross, like, a thousand who-gives-a-shit years ago, and he’s going to be the magic pill that pulls all of us scumbags to happiness and freedom? Wow. Wow! You know what God gave me, brother? You know what sets me free? Pussy. Sweet, holy pussy. You see, God, He put man on this planet for three reasons: eating, fighting, and tearing up tight, wet, pussy! That – that is what cleans my dark glasses, my brother. I can’t sit! I got the Lord in me! He wants me up, He wants me preaching, He wants me to spread the gospel: Pussy the healer, pussy the redeemer. Can I get an Amen for pussy?"
No, but you can have a riot. Clay bites off a guard’s nose and as he’s wrestled to the ground, he screams through a bloody grin, "I 'nose' the truth now, brother! I’m free! Sweet pussy has set me free!"
Jax visits Nero at Diosa and asks to "catch up before Barofsky ruins our day," which is code for "I am going to run interference for your mom because, like every man of Viagra-popping age on this show, I am but a helpless sailor lured in by the siren song of her love." Jax has no patience for Nero suggesting that Tara’s a liar, which is a good news/bad news thing because hooray for standing by your woman and boo for the fact that well, Tara is a liar.
Anyway, it’s time for Barofsky to ruin everyone’s day. Colette’s along just to amp up the tension. Barofsky’s bakery has been shut down for health violations courtesy of Patterson, and Diosa Del Sur didn’t make the escort rating either. Barofsky points out, "She wants you for that school shooting, man, and she’s going to continue to strangle everybody in bed with you. I ain’t no rat, but I ain’t no martyr either." Nero pleads that they just have to wait Patterson out and Barofsky snaps, "No, you wait -- out of Stockton. I can’t take the hit. I gotta eject, say so long to Handsome Jack and the biker brigade." Oh, Barofsky, I love you forever for that line alone. Please be spun off into your own show on FX where you spend your time baking cookies and building a modest criminal empire in Stockton. I’ll watch.
As if that wasn’t enough to piss on Jax’s Wheaties, along comes his mother to tell him how he needs to listen to his new daddy Nero. She pounds on the guilt buttons she installed early on, spilling the beans on how Nero almost took a deal rather than tell Patterson what actually happened, and the fact that Nero might have been motivated by getting his son really good medical care enters nowhere into her poisonous little monologue. Although Jax is sorry Nero went through that experience, the real lesson here is that Patterson’s sort of an unstoppable force, so the club had better figure out how to handle her. "Shoot the DA" is probably not the recommended course of action, and it’s fortunate Tig’s not in the immediate vicinity or else we’d be looking at yet another impulse murder that makes things even more tricky for the club.
SIDEBAR: Is it just me, or has this season made it look like being in a motorcycle gang is the most boring thing ever? With the amount of phone answering and message taking and standing around these guys do, they’re basically receptionists for Jax, and the pay seems to be for crap. Is there not one SAMCRO member who is all, "I just want to ride bikes and sleep with women who look like Scarlett Johansson from the neck down and 'Faces of Meth' from the neck up and not have to worry about Stockton’s stringent civic codes." END SIDEBAR.
And now, a bunch of bikers descend on poor Gary Putner’s modest bungalow. Jax introduces himself and says, "I’m looking for your kid." Putner replies, "Me too. I heard about what happened. You the one that chased her?" Jax says he didn’t hurt the girl -- he just wants some answers. Putner invites him in. Jax goes in and the remaining bikers head back to wait by the curb. Because, again, being in a motorcycle gang is the most boring thing ever.
Inside, the house is in disarray, with bubble wrap everywhere and things in various states of being packed. Putner explains, "Brooke’s got some stuff. Anxiety. Bipolar. Her mom had it too." Jax asks, "Do you know who I am? Is that why she attacked us, do you think? Because of my dad?" Gary points out that not everyone in Charming spends all their time thinking about the Teller family psychodrama, as he has his own problems. (See also: mentally ill daughter and he’s about to lose his house). While packing the house, Brooke was triggered by seeing old photos of her mom and the newspaper article about her death. Jax looks at the wedding photo: the wide-eyed woman with dark hair obviously seems very familiar to him. Gary promises to straighten out Brooke and pay her damages, and Jax ends up patting him on the back and assuring him there’s no need.
We’re at the daycare in the hospital, where Tara’s cuddling Abel and giving him a few pills. Nero comes strolling up, and Tara immediately goes into high alert. But she agrees to talk to Nero. They briefly allude to Abel’s medicine (it’s for his heart arrhythmia), which I mention only because I think it’s going to be relevant at a later date, and Tara gets to the point with, "I assume you’re not just here to check on the health of my family."
"Actually, I am," says Nero, which is mistake number one, because the last thing Tara wants to hear right now is that Gemma’s her family. He very kindly says, "Doc, you don’t strike me as being a malicious kind of person. I’m sure whatever it was that happened between you and Gemma, you did what you thought was right. "Tara doubles down on her scheme: "Gemma attacked me, caused a miscarriage." Nero says, "Riiiiiiiiiight. I guess I’m asking if you could take another look at what’s been done. The rip it’s causing in your family." Tara politely tells him to buzz off and Nero warns her, "I know Gemma and so do you. She’s not going to lay down for this. Maybe we could find some kind of middle ground here, because if not … this is not going to end up well for anyone."
SIDEBAR: I know I give Nero a lot of shit for being Gemma’s newest enabler, but I do think he’s not an idiot and he’s trying to intervene here as much for Gemma as on her behalf. He wants to save her from her worst self. (Contrast that with Clay, who knew what Gemma was capable of and pointed it in whatever direction was the most convenient for him). Nero is probably the most morally evolved character on the show. It’s going to be what ruins him. There is not a single person who gets involved with SAMCRO who leaves the situation better off. That goes double for Nero, who is going to have a crisis of conscience at some point. END SIDEBAR.
Tara points out that Nero is also part of the "not well for anyone" crew – "You’ve seen what happens to the men she’s with. One husband dead, another in jail." "Yeah, well, that’s the life," Nero says feebly. Tara turns around and snaps, "No! It’s the wife! She killed John Teller! Probably would have done the same to Clay. You want it to 'end well'? I suggest you get out now before you end up dead too."
Tara stalks off and Nero is all, Well, that could have gone better. Also, am I dating a black widow?
So Clay’s in the prison infirmary, kitted out in the Wal-Mart equivalent of the Hannibal Lector don’t-eat-the-people mask and biding his time until the doctor who’s on the Irish payroll comes in with a mobile phone so Clay can begin reaching out to the Irish’s more truculent customers.
And now, the scene that made me want to punch things. Margaret is striding through the halls of the hospital all business-y when she gets a message that Tara wants to meet in her office. So off she goes to the office … only to discover that Gemma’s lurking there. Which… WHY? WHY? It’s been two days since Gemma choked Margaret in the commissary and attacked Tara. Why is Gemma’s picture not tacked up at all desks with this message: "If you see this woman, call security?"
ANYWAY, Gemma quickly intimidates Margaret into admitting the medical records are fake, which is also belief-beggaring bullshit. Margaret is a former drug dealer who also did no small amount of code-switching between classes; it’s something she and Tara have in common. She should have been able to think on her feet here and bluff Gemma, as opposed to reacting with the kind of numb shock you’d expect of a lifelong middle-class lady who doesn’t deal regularly with folks of Gemma’s ilk.
So let’s review. Of the four people involved in Tara’s scheme, Gemma’s already gotten to two (Unser, Margaret) in less than an hour. Truly, she’s the biker gang answer to Sherlock Holmes. OF COURSE. (I have reached the point in the season -- possibly the series -- where I am sick unto boredom over how everything’s turning up Gemma. I really hope the last few episodes turn that trend around).
Now we’re at chapel, having a typically dramatic vote where everyone present gets to say "Yeah" in an appropriately grave manner. Jax says, "All right. I’ll go make the offer," and we get a close-up on the reaper on the table.
And what offer might that be? We’re finding out along with Patterson. She invites Jax into her office to take a seat, he cocks an eyebrow as if to suggest that she may regret the invitation, then sits. Patterson says she’s surprised to see Jax sitting across from her, and Jax replies with self-deprecating deference, "No more surprised than I am." Now I am the first to call Jax a venal idiot when it’s warranted, but I have to admit: he is a born negotiator. At least, with everyone except Tara and Gemma. In every interaction he has with others, he establishes common ground by letting the other person feel as if they’re in control of the conversation, he is never showy about wielding authority (I think it’s brilliant how he persistently plays the role of eager student to August every time they meet), and he always manages to find a way to make the argument that giving him what he wants will give the other person what they want too.
Jax tells Patterson, "I’m here to make you an offer." She laughs, "You really have some balls, kid" and he replies, "I also have an Irishman who sells KG-9s." I love it -- this gets the Irish off his case and very likely gets Clay killed in the process. He offers her Galen O’Shay and a shipment of guns, to be delivered in the ten days, and in return, all he wants is immunity for the MC for all gun charges, past and present. He adds, "I want a legitimate club. That can’t happen while people are trying to crush us, ruining all of our business relationships. Let us breathe in Stockton. We won’t break the law, and the violence stops." Patterson gives him a long, level look before saying, "If you thought you could deliver the IRA, then I thought you would also have a personal request." Jax does: Kindly review his wife’s case, because it’s a work of fiction by one Lee Toric.
"So I’m supposed to expedite all of these things on good faith? Just assume it’s all real?" Patterson replies. Jax tells her she doesn’t have to have faith, just "have everything ready to go and the space to put it in motion. If the Irish think we’re being tailed, the whole thing implodes. I’ll tell you where to find Galan and the guns." Patterson asks, "And you and the club just skate away without so much as a slap on the wrists?" "You can slap my wrists until they’re bloody, lady. I don’t give a shit. I’m giving you a win well above your pay grade. You get your devil and you punch your ticket out of this cesspool, so let’s not get too lost in righteousness. I’m the scumbag outlaw and you’re the pillar of justice, and neither one of us likes looking at ourselves in the mirror," Jax replies.
That last sentence hits Patterson where she lives. She tells Jax they have a deal via this threat: "If I don’t hear from you in the ten days, I will spend the seven remaining months in this office making your life as miserable as the law allows. And your wife will be in jail until your boys graduate from high school." Jax’s calm poker face actually cracks on that last threat and he swallows hard. After he leaves, Patterson shakes her head all, What the hell just happened here?
Cut to the old T-M site, where Jax is meeting with Oswald to remind him what a scumbag outlaw he is by … asking Oswald to help Gary Putner. "I’d help him, but we’re tapped," Jax says. "Why is this so important to you?” Oswald asks and Jax can only reply, "I don’t know." I personally think it’s part of his ongoing guilt trip over how his decisions will affect Thomas and Abel, and seeing motherless Brooke suggests a future for his boys that scares the hell out of him.
The other two pieces of useful information in this scene: Jax is confident they’ll no longer need the warehouse to store guns, and Oswald is planning to run for mayor because "Hale’s done." Jax promises to do whatever favors Oswald may need. He will probably come to regret that.
So, let’s just wrap up the rest of the Clay plot line right here, right now. To the great surprise of nobody, the good Dr. Trout is not only on the Irish payroll, he’s also not above taking some cash from the guards for a little revenge beating, and thus is Clay strapped to a gurney before he’s worked over by two screws. The and last Clay scene shows him sitting in a padded room, swaddled in a straitjacket and probably wondering if this Irish gig is really all it’s cracked up to be. But as eye-rolling as Clay’s continued survival is on this show, I do enjoy the sweeping arc of tragedy that Clay’s traveled over six seasons, from happily married king of Charming and biker club president to alone, lonely and beaten in prison.
So the scene is Happy and Quinn luring Nero into the Diosa kitchen for Jax’s "update on the DA," which is code for "Jax would like to beat the shit out of you now." Jax, it seems, is not only furious that Nero chased down Tara at the hospital, he’s also angry that Nero called Tara a liar and a manipulative bitch. Oh, Tara. That is the exact opposite of a good lie. Everyone knows that to lie well, you have to swaddle the falsehood in a cocoon of easily verifiable truths. For Tara to do the opposite means that now everything she says will be under suspicion.
Anyway, these two fight all over the kitchen and naturally, Gemma is the one to break it up, and in the ensuing screaming match, Nero lets fly with "You got no idea what’s she’s done for you!" and spills the beans on Gemma’s conjugal with Clay a few episodes back. Once Gemma sees that Jax is marinating in guilt, she presses her advantage and tells him she’s fresh from seeing Margaret and has "proof" that Tara lied about being pregnant, because it was all a set up for Tara to leave him and take the boys.
Now, on his own, Jax might be like, "I am all for giving Tara a head start and we’ll meet up again in a few months after I’ve done what I needed to with the club." But this is the same guy who was all for Abel being adopted by that nice Irish couple because that was the best way to give his son a clean new life – but when Gemma’s in the picture, there’s a reality distortion field in play. And suddenly, trapping the boys in Charming and routing his wife seems like the smart play.
And now, the scene that has me spitting mad at Unser. He’s lured Lowen to his trailer under false pretenses, gotten her to go inside using the kind of verbiage and body language that screams "SHADY!" (Watch Robert De Niro trying to convince Lorraine Bracco to walk into a dark alley at the end of Goodfellas and you’ll see the template for this sequence). And once Lowen is trapped in the trailer, a weapon-wielding Jax terrifies her into spilling all the details of her recent work with Tara. Once she’s gone, she manages to recover her wits enough to call Tara and warn her that Jax knows everything.
How he can sermonize at Tara before turning tail to help Gemma destroy her makes him the biggest damned hypocrite, I swear. I am sincerely hoping for him to suffer a belated attack of conscience and to live long enough to see what he’s done.
Back at the trailer, Unser is telling Jax, "You made me a promise, son. No one gets hurt." Jax whispers, "Yeah. Nobody gets hurt." But I’m thinking it’s not Jax who’s a real danger to Tara, you know?
Now that four out of four of Tara’s allies have been turned (remember, Wendy was the first one Gemma went after ) what’s ? Well, Gemma will have to figure that out after she finishes patching up Nero and he has a heart-to-heart with her.
Nero raises the question of whether there was any truth in what Tara said about John Teller’s fate. Gemma sighs and says, "John was trying to get the club out of guns. It was as tense then as it is now. He was making trips back and forth to Belfast, trying to make it right with the Irish. He fell in love with someone, Maureen Ashby. Her brother was a priest, a friend of John’s, helping broker a peaceful transition with the IRA. I found out. Started spending time with Clay. My Thomas died when John was away on one of those trips, and I wasn’t kind when he got home. The pain and anger of losing my baby, I made sure it landed on him. He came … undone after that. Talks with the IRA fell apart. Clay and McGee put them back together again, in the other direction, solidified the gun trade for the club. It made them players. But JT, he started writing in this journal, a manuscript. It was a bleeding confession. He was questioning all his choices, regretting everything he’d ever done in SAMCRO. He stopped caring about the club. About his family. It was a dangerous time here -- the Mayan War, Feds infiltrating MCs. Everyone was scared. JT was a weak link."
What is fascinating about this monologue is how you can hear the roots of Gemma’s obsession with the club being watered and nourished in the re-telling: John not only left Gemma, he left the club. That Gemma shifts her loyalties so completely from her husband (and presumably his goals) to the club when it embraces the opposite of Teller’s views is significant.
Nero listens to this and crouches in front of Gemma to say gently, "You didn’t answer the question." Gemma says, "I didn’t kill him. But I knew it had to be done, the same way you knew it had to be done with Arcadio. We live and die by that code. We know it now, and I knew it then. And I did not hide my opinion from the man I’d fallen in love with. I gave my blessing for Clay to kill John Teller." Nero is rocked by this revelation, but he remains listening. Or possibly frozen in horror. Gemma exits with, "I’ve never told that to anyone, including my son."
Well, we’ll see if Nero blurts out that little anecdote of Gemma’s the time there’s a testy family argument.
When Jax comes back to the sweet shop, it turns out Brooke is waiting for him at one of the booths. Jax asks everyone else in the shop to clear out and they all go, Chucky and his kazoo tootling sadly as he departs. Brooke opens with, "Guy with the kazoo’s pretty interesting." "We found him in a basket on our doorstep," Jax quips, trying to keep things moving. Brooke apologizes for the window and the bike, and says, "I’m not really sure what happened. I found the article and then you guys moved in here. I’ve, I’ve got some shit going on. You know, in my head." Jax’s says sadly, "We all do."
SIDEBAR: On one level, it is really easy to feel sorry for Jax. Remembering that seasons four through six have unfolded in a span of two or three months (at most), this guy has dealt with. A harrowing business arrangement with a cartel that turns out to have been backed by the CIA; his wife’s attempted kidnapping by the cartel, leaving her with what is likely a career-ending injury; his stepfather putting out a hit on his wife; his ex-wife threatening legal custody action against him and his current wife; his stepfather beating his mother; his stepfather murdering his best friend’s father; his mother getting ridiculously high and rolling the car while driving his children around; the club attracting the wrong kind of attention from Oakland crime tycoon Damon Pope; his best friend choosing to get beaten to death to spare Jax from making that choice; realizing that several club members are working against him or were working with the cops; his wife getting set up by crazy old Otto; the Irish blowing up his clubhouse; several club members being killed. It’s amazing that he’s not in a catatonic stupor somewhere, or calling the feds all, "Please, put me in witness protection just so I can get some rest." END SIDEBAR
Still, a lot of this shit could have been prevented if Jax learned how to tell his mother "no" and just walked away from the club back in season four. So it’s kind of hard to feel too bad for a guy who just refuses to fix what’s broken in his life.
ANYWAY, what Brooke wants to know is why Jax wanted to help her family keep their house after what she did that morning. Jax replies, "It’s my way of saying sorry to a mother." Brooke sobs and Jax leans over to take her hand. What’s striking about how this scene is composed and shot is how it echoes the coloring and composition of the famous Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks. It also strikes me as unutterably sad that the only authentic human connection Jax has had all day was with a young woman whose mother died because of his mother’s decision.
Tara is rocking Thomas on her lap and singing, "May all your dreams/ bring you peace in the darkness/ May your head rise over the rain/ may the light from above always bring you to love/ may you stay in the arms of the angels."
And on that lovely song, "Lullaby for a Soldier (Arms of the Angels)," which I did not realize was sung by Maggie Siff, we go to a montage of everyone seeming very lonely. Perhaps more significantly, we see the young Brooke walking by the homeless woman who’s appeared every season. This time, the homeless lady is pulling things out of the dumpster behind the sweet shop, then turning a hungry expression on Brooke. I really hope we’re not seeing who Brooke will be in a decade. I also hope there’s no BS about how she’s secretly Brooke’s mother.
And we finish the montage with Tara rocking her baby, and as the camera pans down, we see that beneath that luscious little round baby rump, she’s tucked a gun against the possibility of the baby’s father walking through the door.
Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter, editor and blogger. She regularly tweets here, blathers about comics here, and posts the oddball personal piece of writing here.