So you know how last week we were all, “Wow, Clay has really sunk to a lowly state over the course of the series?” Well, Clay gets a break this week (in a manner of speaking) because tonight is Tara’s turn to realize that when she got her biker ex to kill her stalker ATF ex, her life really didn’t take a turn for the better.
To make her long and depressing main storyline short: Jax tells he needs space. Wendy disappoints her by being high and useless. Margaret tells her that Gemma and Jax have put the fear into her and she’s fleeing to Sedona until this goes away. And Gemma corners Tara and tells her to get over the silly idea that she’ll be allowed to parent her own children, finishing with the line that Tara’s sole remaining act of mothering is to decide whether Gemma will tell her sons “Mommy moved away” or “Mommy passed away.”
THEN Tara finds out firsthand that Jax’s definition of “space” is, in fact, “approximately four to six inches of depth in Colette’s ladyparts.”
(That Jax appears not to be enjoying the sex is beside the point; the point is that Tara caught him violating the one thing she requested of him. That Jax might then be like, “Hey, you lied about being pregnant, so any and all preexisting conditions in our relationship are off the table” is beside the point in Tara’s head. Because he’s made her crazy.)
Tara pulls a gun on him, then realizes, “Holy shit, in just under three years, I have gone from being a promising pediatric surgeon to being a gun-pulling lunatic who will likely be dead or behind bars in the three episodes,” and speeds off, leaving Jax somewhat stunned. By the end of the episode, she goes to Patterson and offers to tell her anything in exchange for getting the boys into witness protection, but Patterson’s got bigger career fish to fry (i.e. the IRA), so she tells Tara a deal’s off the table. Tara flees into the night, saying in numb despair, “No one can help me.”
Science has not yet invented the scale needed to measure how much I hope Rat’s actually a Fed and he’ll take it upon himself to disappear Tara and the boys into witness protection. Because I get that this is Hamlet on Harleys and all that, but I am longing for Tara to deliver Gemma the ultimate eff-you by somehow succeeding in a manner neither woman could have anticipated.
Meanwhile, Unser and Nero save Wendy from a stupid death-by-smoke-inhalation contrivance (which is too bad, because that character’s backslid this season and is once again a waste of time) and Gemma decides to take Wendy under her wing, no doubt reasoning that Abel’s biological mom will be easier to keep under control than Abel’s day-to-day mother was.
Also, Clay’s trial date has been moved up two weeks and so it’s become quite urgent that he be broken out of prison sooner rather than later. The Irish make it clear that they expect SAMCRO to do the dirty work of breaking Clay out of his prison transport, so now we know what topic is going to dominate the three episodes and Jax is totally looking forward to selling out the Irish to Patterson.
There’s also some complication with the Irish shooting up the Chinese in order to make a customer-service point to the Italians, but at this point, I get the feeling that Kurt Sutter is making up the inter-ethnic tensions among Northern California’s criminal elements in revenge for a traumatic ride through “It’s A Small World” down in Disney. So stay tuned for future episodes where Tig learns there's just one moon and a golden sun, and a smile means friendship for everyone, while Jax deals with a gang of gatki-wearing Sami criminals in San Joaquin county. It is only a matter of time.
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Before we start this recap, I want to let you all know up front: I hated this episode.
I mean, really hated it. I can see where it’s a solid contribution for the season and contains turning points for characters and relationships blah-de-blah, but for me, this was the episode where I just reached the end of my tether with one of the principle constraints of the Sons of Anarchy universe. I am really over the "It’s Gemma’s World, We’re All Living In It" conceit, and I don’t trust the writers’ room to ever address this, because in six seasons of monstrous behavior, attempted murder, blatant emotional blackmail, bullying and lying, NOT ONCE has anyone in Gemma’s life ever held her accountable for her actions, and this episode certainly doesn’t suggest that anyone will start now.
So if this recap feels a little perfunctory, know it’s because I really hated this episode. I still gave it a decent grade, because it’s well acted and you can see the pieces moving into place for the final four-and-a-half- or five-hour run we have left. But I protest a fictional world that seems to be sending the moral message of "There are consequences for everyone," and then exempts the most destructive force on the show from that guiding principle.
So, let’s begin …
Tara wakes up alone in her bed, the gun nowhere in sight. She hears rustling and goes into full awake/alert/panic mode, the runs into Thomas’s room only to see an empty crib. (Which raises a question: If she’s that worried about someone absconding with the baby, why not sleep on that futon?).
In full frantic mode, Tara bolts into Abel’s room calling his name, only to run into Jax, holding Thomas. "You should let him sleep," Jax says of the older boy, and then walks to the kitchen with his baby. He hands Thomas over to Tara, who clutches the baby with relief. As Jax picks up his packed bag, he tells Tara, "There will be someone watching you. Don’t try to take them anywhere." Then he heads out, telling Tara that he doesn’t know what he’s going to do, but if he doesn’t get some distance on the situation, "someone’s going to get hurt."
We go into an opening musical montage. There's bikers adoring Gemma as they try to put the garage to rights; Unser walking out of his trailer to look at the clubhouse; Rat putting up a banner saying "Our prices are da bomb" (heh); Nero and Colette reviewing the paperwork for the nice-and-legal Diosa Del Sur, Jax taking a long ride on a country road; Tara walking her boys to the daycare and one of the new guys (West, I think?) ducking out of an alcove to watch her; Clay not having a very good time of it; and Wendy zoned out on smack. Wait, no, that’s Wendy throwing up from heroin sickness. My bad!
Anyway, life is going on for the bikers as Katey Sagal gets in a little album promotion. We see Jax walking into the chapel of the school that Matthew Jennings shot up, and he watches two boys come down the aisle together, laughing and joking. I wonder if he sees what he and Opie could have been if their dads hadn’t been bikers? Or if he’s seeing what he wants for his sons? Either way, the sight of two young men with actual futures seems to give Jax food for thought.
We end the montage back in jail, where Clay and his cell mate Tyson are discussing the fine art of jury selection. The inmate in charge of the book cart comes by again and Clay passes along the news that his trial’s been moved up and his transport is the day. To underscore how serious this is, Clay reminds us, "Pope was capital [murder]. That guilty verdict can send me anywhere and all this goes away." If it’s wrong to hope that Clay gets sent to Pelican Bay and Bachman skitters out of his Crescent City lair to "fix" things, then I don’t want to be right.
And now, the second indication that today’s going to be a really crappy one for Tara. Margaret comes in to let Tara know that she is scared spitless of both Gemma and Jax, and so she’s cashing in three weeks of vacation and taking off for Sedona to get her head together. Tara manages to keep it together and even manages a tight smile and a thank you to Margaret, who sobs "Please be careful" before walking out of the office. Once Margaret’s left, Tara lets herself look dismayed.
Jax’s ride to get space and clarity has taken him to Diosa Del Sur, where Nero is waiting for him. Since the first words out of Nero’s mouth are not "I am not going to wait around until Gemma decides I need to be killed, so here is a flash drive with any Diosa documentation you need, vaya con dios, forget I exist" that we can only conclude that Nero has decided the abundant charms of Gemma Teller Morrow more than outweigh the odds that his painful ending will come at her hands.
Anyway, Jax, Nero and Colette all bask in the glorious sight of Diosa Del Sur’s legal license as a massage parlor, and then we find out Jax is planning on sleeping over at the whorehouse for a few nights. That will certainly work wonders for his marriage! Colette coos that Jax can put his stuff in her room, then fishes, "Any reason why you’re not sleeping at home?" Jax sighs, "You don’t want to know."
Before Jax and Colette can get too comfortable, a boatload of bikers and Gemma descends on the place because … club business. Clay wants to see Gemma that day and Galen wants to see the club. Okay and okay. Jax then pulls a move that infuriates me so much, I refuse to transcribe it, but it comes down to him publicly apologizing to his mother for his taking his wife’s side in the recent unpleasantness. Way to make sure a group of men with poor impulse control have no reason to treat the mother of your children with basic decency, Jax!
On a related note, I hope when Tara DOES file for divorce, her new lawyer adds "Mother-in-law issues" to the petition somewhere.
Now it's time to deal with the Irish. The camera makes a point of lingering on Galen as he talks to someone saying, "Consider it handled. I’ll make sure it’s done. They’re here now." I’m sure we’ll find out later to whom he’s speaking and exactly what is being "handled" and "done." We get to the point of the scene, which is that the Italian customers are playing hard-to-get, which is unfortunate because they’re Jax’s largest customer.
The club is on their way to meet with Cacuzza. First, they make their sales pitch for continuing the gun-buying relationship, and then the family will make their bid. Fortunately, Galen’s got nine cases of new AKs with new scopes and grips, so this sales demonstration is about to get more compelling. He’s going to bring them to the meeting and "help you close the deal." Jax is all, "PLEASE, DO NOT BOTHER," but Galen’s all, "Ha! Noooooo, I insist. At least take Connor." We all know this isn’t going to end well, right?
But that is not the end of bad news as delivered by the Irish! Jax asks why Galen’s so eager to close the Italian deal today and Galen says they’ve received word that Clay’s trial date has been moved up and he is being transported tomorrow. Jax protests that his crew isn’t part of taking down the transport and Galen just rides over him with, "I have the vehicles, the plan and the crew. It’ll happen without a hitch." On this show, I believe those are called "famous last words."
Jax asks, "And what if we say no?" Galen says, “You really can’t, Jackson,” which is fairly toothless, if you ask me. This group of bikers has already rebounded from him killing two of their own and blowing up their clubhouse. Short of him going after old ladies and kids, what’s left? Neverthless, Jax makes a big show of reluctantly agreeing.
There’s a biker confab and everyone seems incredibly worried, and almost like they’ve forgotten that they’re all planning on handing over the Irish to the DA as soon as possible. You’d think they’d be relieved that this is going to be over soon. However, Tig astutely notes that Galen is the most dangerous kind of lunatic of all -- a smart one with a knack for survival -- and that does not bode well for the club. Jax sighs, "We were so close. I don’t want our last push out of guns to end in a pile of dead cops." Eh, the public is slightly more tolerant of that than they are of a pile of dead kids, so you’d still be coming out ahead, Jax.
Now the scene where Tara serves Wendy a heaping helping of furious scorn. On one level, I do feel for Wendy, as the life she built as a sober person has been dismantled at every level by Jax, Gemma, and/or Tara. On the other hand, she really has screwed Tara over, and it seems that Tara is livid not because she has to deal with the fallout but because she now has nobody safe with whom to entrust her boys.
Does anyone else see an echo of Season 1 here? Donna was trying so hard to keep her family out of the life and keep her kids from reliving Opie’s clearly awful childhood, and that ended up with them orphaned and being nominally cared for by Opie’s second wife. And now we have Tara scrambling to get her children out of the life, and every link in her safety net is dissolving.
If this show teaches us nothing else, it should be this: Ladies, develop a posse of good girlfriends. You never know when you’ll need them. Also, if you ever sleep with a biker, double down on birth control.
As Tara storms out of Wendy’s place, high off her proclamation that she’s not afraid of Jax or Gemma any more, she catches sight of Juice in the rearview mirror. And that is when she throws the SUV into reverse and runs over his bike. Readers, I cheer every time I rerun that scene.
Now, the sales pitch to the Irish. It involves bullets and shooting big guns. The Irish make a compelling case for how much they want the business when they start randomly shooting at Chinese gangsters. And it works! Cacuzza and Galen dicker over the particulars of the gun markup -- yada yada yada -- and then Cacuzza grins, "I was never going to go with the chinks." Jax heroically refrains from face-palming over how very aggravating everyone involved with the gun business is, on every level, and the rest of his biker brethren have the courtesy to wait for the Italians to leave before they begin clucking over the pending Chinese beat down they know is coming.
Gemma pulls into the T-M lot (I love the posters advertising a "price blowout") with Nero right behind her. She’s barely out of the car before Unser’s scurrying up to recap the Tara/Wendy confrontation from Wendy’s point of view. You’re DEAD TO ME, Wayne.
He adds that Wendy thinks Tara seems "unraveled" and the whole backing-over-Juice’s-bike thing seems to support this theory. (I love how everyone’s assuming that Tara’s crazy here instead of thinking, “Perhaps she’s just really pissed off.") Gemma decides that it makes total sense to stick Tara’s erstwhile tail in the hospital so he can stalk her boys now. Unser stammers that he should be the one to go check on Tara while Gemma tends to Wendy, but Gemma pulls a Jedi mind trick ("You should go check on Wendy") and says she has to deal with Clay. Nero decides that what Gemma needs is two men doing her bidding, so he tells Unser, "Maybe I should go with you, talk to Wendy, junkie to junkie." Unser is not thrilled about this. As he heads off to give Gemma’s latest round of commands to Rat, Gemma whispers to Nero, "Just a heads up, he’s kind of in love with me. Have fun." Nero just rolls his eyes.
As Gemma drives off, she checks the piece in her purse, which should be our first clue she’s not heading immediately to the prison to deal with Clay.
At home, Tara’s pulling the gun out of the safe in her bedroom – what happened to the piece she had on her lap? Why is she not armed at all times if she’s that freaked out about her husband’s merry band of psychos that she’s backing over their bikes? Ugh, so many questions. That Gemma’s got a restraining order against her and is still fine with popping in and out of Tara’s house tells us everything we need to know about how confident she is that the law (and, more importantly, her son) will break her way.
Gemma immediately goes on the offensive. "Coming by to get some of the boys’ things, in case they need to spend some time at Grandmas," she says. Tara does not point out, "Two words: Restraining order," and then shut this down, which is her first tactical error in this conversation. However, Tara does do an awesome redirect. "Know why you hate what I did so much? Because it’s something you would have done. You’ve been my teacher, Gemma, my old lady coach since I came back to Charming. I’d thought you would be proud of me, pushing the envelope to protect my family," she says. However, since Gemma is all about avoiding and minimizing the consequences of her actions if they detract from the Myth of God’s Righteous Mother, she is not about to admit that Tara out-Gemma’d her. So she goes for the jugular by asking, "Do you have any idea who your husband is? What he’s capable of? My son loves deep, hates deeper. It’s in our genes. Betrayal is unforgivable. What you did, what you were planning to do, there’s no coming back from that. All you can do now is tell him you’re sorry and go away."
Tara has been maintaining an admirable poker face through all of this, and she says softly, "I’ll never do that. Not without my sons." Gemma steps into Tara’s space and says, "You need to hear this, Tara, and understand it on every level. Thomas and Abel will not be raised by you. What you do now will determine how we deliver that message. 'Mommy moved away' or 'Mommy passed away?' Your call." Having delivered her death threats to the woman she knows is "unraveling," Gemma leaves. And once she does, Tara collapses onto the couch. But, kudos to her for staying upright and unmoving in the face of Hurricane Gemma. I’d like to hope that’s what goaded Gemma into making that oblique threat that she can get Jax to kill the mother of his boys.
SIDEBAR: If I were to engage in magical thinking -- i.e. believing in a fictional universe where consequences actually applied to Gemma for more than 15 minutes at a go -- I’d say this is the scene where Gemma sealed her own fate. Why? Two reasons: First, much has been made of how Jax doesn’t hurt women, which we know to be hilariously untrue on a macro level (Ima and Wendy can tell you otherwise), but is absolutely true on a Tara-only basis. After all, the women he’s harmed over the course of the series have been hurt when they upset Tara. Jax is kind of a caveman when it comes to his lady. Second, this entire series has been about Jax trying to break his sons out of the intergenerational cycle of violence that has been his unwelcome legacy. Two episodes ago, Venus made the fun house mirror speech to Gemma’s about the generational legacy of hate, only instead of embracing it, Venus said she had to break free of her family legacy to make a better life for her son. That really hit Jax where he lived. If I were to engage in magical thinking, I’d predict that Gemma’s going to push to eliminate Tara and she will discover that she’s been very wrong about who her son wants to be. END SIDEBAR.
All right, enough with wild speculations. Let’s get back to the fallout from the latest round of Irish idiocy. The guys are all hanging out in nature and Chibs is saying he can’t raise the Chinese. Jax sighs and moves on to the item on his to-do list: "I’m going to make sure tomorrow’s job doesn’t end up in a 44-minute gunfight with 200 sheriffs" I love that it’s a reference to this show’s over-the-top set pieces, but I feel it’s only fair to warn you that if one of the future episodes of this show does feature a long gunfight with many law enforcement officials, I’m recapping it with "And now, a 44-minute gunfight with 200 sheriffs."
As Jax goes to call Patterson, Chibs and Bobby quietly chat about how things are probably going to get worse before they get better. We zoom over to Patterson’s office, and the phone conversation can basically be summed up like this:
JAX: I’ll give you Galen O’Shay in the 48 hours.
PATTERSON: Care to narrow down the timeframe from there?
JAX: Nope! But my crew and my wife are still covered, right?
PATTERSON: I’m totally trustworthy! (crosses fingers)
JAX: By the way, expect a 44-minute gunfight with 200 sheriffs. Click..
Once Jax hangs up, Bobby asks, "Think she’ll take the bait?" Jax shrugs and is all all, "Hey, this worked in Season 3."
Cut to Nero trying to make awkward small talk with Unser, and after a few failed attempts, Nero says pointedly, "I guess the cancer’s eaten away at the part of your brain that can actually hold a conversation." "No, it’s eaten away at my patience for people I don’t give a shit about," Unser replies, testily. (You know, Wayne, if you’re going to get pissy at people, start with yourself and your entire life is the sum of all the pro-Gemma choices you’ve made.) Somehow, the two manage to settle on a conversational topic they have in common: How awesome it is when you’re in Gemma’s good graces.
Now the scene where we find out that the reason the Sons weren’t able to raise the Chinese earlier is because those guys get terrible reception in their Gun Closet, which is obviously where they were since they’re now turning the full force of their inventory onto SAMCRO. Despite the fusillade of bullets rending the air, not a single one hits a motorcycle or a rider. In fact, it takes Jax riding his bike through a chain-link fence to get him off his ride, and from there, it’s only a matter of time before the Chinese have all the guys on the ground and disarmed. Why they bother keeping them alive is anyone’s guess? If I were lured into a bad business deal with fatalities and I had an opportunity to make a point with the business end of a revolver, I would not spend the five minutes listening to someone make excuses for the crackpot Irish.
Yet, somehow, this is what happens. Lin listens to Jax babble for a bit and then says, "Relax. If I wanted you dead, I could have killed you six times already." Jax looks stunned. If it weren’t for the digital rights protection on my iTunes, I’d absolutely screen cap this, because there is practically a question mark floating over his head as he asks, "Well, what the hell do you want?"
Lin says, "You’re getting out of guns. We should have that business. The cartel shipments have been grinding to a halt. We need the street. This is our territory. We own it. We deserve it." Jax manfully keeps his head from exploding at this complication with, "It’s not that simple, sir." Lin replies, "Then let me dumb it down for you, son. The only way any of you walk away from here is if you shut down the Irish pipeline and my family take control over the guns in Northern California." Jax looks at Bobby, who eloquently rolls his eyes, and then at Chibs, who gives him a "What the hell" look with his eyebrows. (Behind him, Tig seems to be squinting all, "Wait for it, something’s coming.")
Jax shrugs, "I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?" Lin confirms, and then adds, "You close the deal when you tell me where I can find Mr. Galen O’Shay and their guns. I need to even the score after what they did today." Jax makes a show of reluctantly telling Lin about a new shipment coming in tomorrow, and then says he’ll tell Lin when and where the drop is. Lin decides to "keep everyone honest" by taking one of the SAMCRO boys hostage. "I like the crazy-looking one," he finishes. Instead of sniping, "Oh, THAT narrows it down," Jax makes a show about Lin not taking hostages. Lin is all, "Perhaps you would care to be my guest?" and that is when Happy decides he would love to participate in a cultural exchange program.
Tara is skulking around the hospital for some reason (oh, let’s say she was giving Thomas his medicine) and notices Happy sitting outside the day care center entrance. Oh my GOD, why this hospital is okay with randos skulking in the hall outside a day care center is just beyond me. She and Juice have a brief and nasty exchange where Juice says with a grin, "I’m keeping an eye on Abel and Thomas to make sure they’re not going anywhere they’re not supposed to. A request of their grandmother." Then he gets some of his own back against Tara by directing her to Diosa Del Sur, where Jax is "meeting with his partner, Colette."
In case anyone had any lingering doubts about whether or not Juice had a death wish, the answer is, "Yes."
Unser and Nero are knocking on Wendy’s door, and it only takes them a few minutes to realize the smoky smell is coming from inside the apartment. Rather than call the fire department, the stage-four cancer patient and middle-aged-guy-with-a-heart-condition decide to run toward the danger. They kick the door open (I know), go inside and discover that Wendy is passed out and a pan’s on fire. Once she’s outside, Nero breaks the news to Unser that Wendy is higher than my raised eyebrows. "Hey, I’m glad you were here," Unser says. Nero raises an eyebrow and quips, "Don’t suck up to me now, homes. It’s, like, embarrassing."
Gemma’s meeting to talk with Clay at the prison. As has been the case all season, he’s hunched in on himself when talking to Gemma. I’m struck anew by what a subtle actor Ron Perlman can be. With the set of his shoulders he can convey how Clay is trying to present himself to Gemma as a harmless supplicant. Gemma, however, is having none of it. Clay pushes over a file folder and says that his lawyer drafted a letter of intent. He’s giving Gemma all of his assets. Clay’s half of TM, the house, his bikes, whatever he has left in the bank … it all belongs to Gemma now. Gemma tries to keep her poker face, but she asks, "Why are you doing this?"
Clay tells her that he figures once the Irish have broken him out of the prison transport and he’s building a new life in Belfast, he won’t be able to grant Gemma a legal divorce, and he wants to make sure she’s taken care of. Gemma can only manage to say, "Yeah. Okay." A minute’s small talk about Clay’s pending escape and Gemma smiles faintly as she says, "Well, I … I hope it all turns out the way you want it.” Clay does not even look at her as he mumbles, "I’m sure it will." Eventually, Gemma whispers her thanks and goes toward the door, and right as she’s about to exit the room, Clay calls, "See you on the other side." Gemma turns, genuinely shocked and startled by that. Oh, these two. I genuinely loved their relationship, but I’m also enjoying seeing how steadfast Clay is in his love among the ruins. It almost makes one feel bad for what Clay could have been.
Now we’re at Diosa Del Sur, where Jax is holding a rather unorthodox employee offsite for the guys, and taking Colette up on her offer to help him "unwind."
Gemma shows up at Wendy’s place where, amazingly, no neighbors have called the fire department despite the abundant smoke, nor have they called the cops after witnessing two men kicking down a door in the middle of the day. Wendy has the worst neighbors ever. In any event, Nero points out that Wendy was trying to get into sober living or rehab, and Gemma notices that Wendy’s tacked up the pictures of Abel she gave her during a manipulative ploy. Gemma says, "Wayne, pack her a bag. [Wendy’s going to] rehab. The 'I’ll rip your tits off if you use again' rehab." "I love that place," Nero deadpans and Gemma rolls her eyes all, Oh, YOU. She and Nero wrestle Wendy toward the truck and Gemma says that they’re going "home, sweetheart."
We all know Gemma’s not helping Wendy clean up for any altruistic reason. Hands up, all of you who think that at this point, Wendy OD’ing might actually be a mercy to everyone not named "Gemma." Hands up, all of you who are wondering where in hell Wendy’s girlfriend has been for the past month in Charming time. (The woman’s missed a lot, is what I’m saying.) Now wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care! Since nobody on staff appears to!
Hoo boy, Tara’s just walked into Diosa Del Sur and it has not taken her long to figure out that the reason the redhead with the lush cleavage is giving her the runaround is because the "client" Colette is upstairs with is, in fact, Jax.
Then she interrupts what looks like genuinely joyless sex. The look on Jax’s face when Tara bursts in is almost like relief. But then things go ‘hood rat as Tara pulls Colette off Jax by her hair and delivers a few good blows to the face. Jax pulls Tara off Colette and she hauls off and gets a good slap in on him too. Right then, Tig (in patterned boxers, hee!) comes in and offers to … watch Colette administer first aid to herself? Anyway, he rather unnecessarily tells Jax to go and deal with Tara, who has stormed off. In the room, Colette asks, "Who the hell was that?" and Tig cringes, "The wife." Suddenly, the whole thing makes sense to Colette.
Tara’s running back toward her car, and Jax catches her from behind. Tara wheels around, gun in hand, and yells at him to stay away from her. Jax immediately asks, "What are you doing with that?" and that seems to be when it hits Tara that this is her life: Threatened with death by her mother-in-law, stalked by the felons that are her husband’s friends, and spending her afternoon slapping whores and pulling guns on the father of her children.
This was probably the nightmare that Tara fled as a teenager.
She says disbelievingly, "Look what you’ve done to me." Cut to Jax, who seems genuinely appalled. Tara laughs disbelievingly and asks, "What’s happening to me? What happened to me??" and sobs once as she gets in the car and drives off. Jax watches her go. I personally think he’s more than a little taken aback by the idea that Tara’s gone from love to hate. Remember, she fought for their relationship and for their family in season three with this bit:
"I didn't come back to Charming to run away from Kohn. And I didn't stay because of what we did to him. When Donna was killed, those things you said to me in the hospital about my life being a series of hit-and-runs. That my face was the only one you saw. It was the truth! I have created this ... very serious life for myself. And when I'm inside it, I barely know myself. I have these moments sometimes in the middle of a surgery, when suddenly I'm aware of, of ... my hands, doing these extraordinary things. And I think, 'Whose hands are these? What am I -- I doing here?' When I'm with you, I never ask that question … We don't know who we are until we're connected to someone else. We're just better human beings when we're with the person we're supposed to be with. I wasn't supposed to leave. I belong here."
What she’s saying is that basically, the connection between the two of them has degraded her to the point where she’s a stranger to herself. For Jax, who has consistently tried to keep the club from touching his wife or children, this accusation is possibly worse than the secret divorce plan.
We move into the montage portion of events. Jax is the one picking up the boys from the daycare while Tara sits in her car and makes a phone call. Gemma tends to a sick Wendy, who is coming down in Jax’s old bedroom. Unser and Nero hang out at Gemma’s kitchen table, Unser offering Nero a hit off his joint and Nero waving him off for some coffee. Clay lies supine on his bunk, eyes open and face haunted. Jax puts Abel to bed (and that child is the only 3-year-old on the planet who effing stays put and doesn’t engage in stall-tactic dramatics when it’s bedtime, I swear). Then he goes into a bedroom and just broods for a while. We fade to the boys whooping it up at Diosa Del Sur and Colette fuming over the damage to her face. Then we cut to Happy, who is watching Chinese cartoons while he eats a carton of lo mein. One wrist is handcuffed to a pipe, but honestly, it looks like it’s Happy’s idea of a perfect Saturday night. His captors are all, "I don’t think we’re getting through to this guy."
Jax works to rebuild his father’s bike, with the baby monitor on the workbench in case one of the boys needs him. And it’s easy to snicker, "The bike is a metaphor for the club! Jax trying to restore the bike is yet another way he’s trying to restore his father’s legacy!" but I like how the show is acknowledging that Jax is just so emotionally wrung out and mentally tired, the only thing he can do right now is try to work with his hands and hope that comes out right.
It is also striking how often Jax ends up alone at night. You’d think that a married guy with a couple dozen "brothers" and a mom who puts the "mother" in "smother" wouldn’t lack for company to lift his mood, but he does. Heavy lies the head and all that.
The musical montage ends with Tara walking into Patterson’s office saying that she’s there to talk. She’ll give the DA Jax if Patterson can guarantee witness protection and safety for her boys. Because Patterson has her eyes on a much bigger prize -- the Real IRA -- she turns down the opportunity to nail the guys who actually did help put that KG-9 in young Matthew Jennings' hands.
Tara realizes that she’s all out of bargaining chips right at the moment that the DA realizes she’s probably talking to a dead woman walking. Because Patterson still has one or two flickers of human conscience left, she asks if Tara’s in danger and says her office can help. Tara, who has basically had every support in her life knocked out from under her in a 12-hour period and whispers, "Nobody can help me," then flees.
I, for one, have no effing idea where this is going to go. Well, beyond "wherever Gemma wants it to," of course.
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.