Remember how season three ended, where Jax got everything he wanted -- no consequences for the club, a sweet legal deal for himself, his family whole again and waiting on the outside? Well, he almost pulls it off again this time. The key word there is almost.
Early in this overlong episode, Jax and Patterson have a discussion where she lays out some hard truths for him: If Jax lets the mother of his children go to jail for the sins of the club, the moral weight of what he’s done will tear him apart. She tells him that before he’s the president of a biker club, he’s a husband, father and man – and he needs to honor those roles first.
So when the club manages to hunt Tara down in Lodi (thanks to the tail they’ve put on her lawyer, because apparently it never occurred to anyone in the DA’s office to finesse any communications with a skittish witness and her lawyer?)… Jax and Tara have a conversation in the park where she basically asks him to kill her out of the kids’ eyesight and she tells him she’s not a fan of dying but since this is apparently how the Teller family solves its marital issues, at least she tried like hell to free the boys from the cycle of violence that has Jax trapped in a ceaseless waking nightmare. Jax, who spent the morning monologuing about living in a constant state of terror and had lunch with a lady who forced him to think about his priorities, tells Tara he’s not going to kill her.
Instead, he offers Patterson a deal: If she drops all charges against Tara and leaves the club the hell out of things, he’ll take the rap for supplying the gun for the school shooting. Patterson okays the deal, and for the first time all season, Jax and Tara really reconnect. Tara even tells Jax she loves him, which totally makes his day. Then Tara drops off the boys at the candy store so they can have a last afternoon with their father before he goes into the pokey, and she heads home…
Meanwhile, Gemma’s had a hell of a day, what with being furious about Tara’s presumed ratting, then getting dumped by Nero. When Unser runs to her with half-baked suppositions about Tara cutting deals and selling out Jax, a post-breakup, very much drunk Gemma drives over to Jax & Tara’s house.
So Tara walks in and is promptly ambushed by her drunken, enraged mother-in-law. Gemma shoves Tara’s head into a dishpan full of water and stabs her at the base of the neck repeatedly. When Roosevelt comes in to see what in the hell just happened, Gemma babbles that she had to do it for the good of her son because Tara ratted. Roosevelt corrects Gemma -- Jax made a deal to protect Tara, and Tara never ratted. Gemma is horrified. And that is when Juice comes in and shoots Roosevelt dead, I guess out of misplaced fury for the events of season 4, but mostly because Jax knows that Juice spilled the beans about Darveny’s murder and has branded him a club traitor. Protecting the murderer of the person Jax loves most in the world makes sense – the enemy of the enemy and all that.
So. Juice is now an accessory to one murder and the killer of a second sheriff within the space of a week. Gemma killed Tara, mostly because Unser spun her up with his supposition, the lovesick little walking tumor that he is.
And Jax comes home to say goodbye to his wife before turning himself in, only to discover a dead sheriff on his kitchen floor and his wife’s body lying in the doorway to the pantry. Patterson finds him sitting on the kitchen floor, clutching Tara and sobbing as he sits amidst the bodies and blood.
There is also some hoohah about the Mayans being super-pissed about the gun deals and getting super-aggro about it, and Nero jumping to the Mayans for real and for true, so that will probably be a thing in season seven.
But who gives a crap about the gun business? I’m looking forward to season 7 because with Tara’s death, Jax’s last best hope for "being a man, husband and father before everything else" died. He’s going to spend season 7 indulging the need for vengeance, and when it finally hits him that his mother killed both his father and his wife, the clash of the show’s two biggest monsters is going to be glorious.
It’s just too bad it took Tara’s death to get us here. Buried inside this overlong episode -- symptomatic of a flabby and overindulgent season -- is a tripartite tragedy: Little boys lost their mother before they were even old enough to remember her; a woman whose family life was never easy died at the hands of "family"; a man lost the last person who loved him without an agenda and believed in his capacity for good.
This show has always been about the lasting damage done to people in broken families – and about the damage they do in return. Tonight’s episode only underscored how the cycle of damage can smash through generation after generation without stopping.
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.
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We open in the Charming graveyard on a tight shot of a bas-relief carving of the blessed mother atop a tombstone. The camera tracks to Donna Winston's grave and then we see Jax, sitting against Opie's headstone and writing the following:
"There are lessons to be found here, but mostly I do this so you can know me. Lately, as I write these, I realize they are as much for me as they are for you. This is the one place I can be completely open. The pen and paper has no judgment, no vote. It simply receives my truth and allows me to turn the page –"
I'm sorry. I have to interject here. Is it just me or does this seem less like Jax writing to his sons and more like Kurt Sutter writing to the audience? In a way, this is almost like Prospero's final soliloquy in The Tempest, which concludes, " As you from crimes would pardoned be/ Let your indulgence set me free." ANYWAY. We're an entire episode plus a season away from the series wrap-up, so let's resume Jax's monologue and see if there are any other allusions:
"Today, this is my truth. I am terrified a great deal of the time: afraid of what I've done, of what I'm doing and of what I might have to do. It's not a crippling fear. In fact, it's just the opposite. I thrive on it. I crave it. I need that rush of terror to get me out of bed in the morning. It's in my DNA. I have tremendous remorse for the acts of violence I've committed, both planned and spontaneous. But I think what brings me the most sorrow is that I've learned to justify this behavior. I always find a reason, a cause, a need that allows me the karmic lubrication to stuff my guilt into its savage compartment. I've become the thing… the one I hated. And with that awareness comes periods of days, sometimes weeks, when I have to avoid looking into a mirror. My self-hate is so deep, so palpable, I fear I'll lunge at my own image, shatter the glass and cut myself with shards of broken reflection --"
I'm sorry, I have to interject again: "Cut myself with shards of broken reflection?" Really? I sincerely hope that whatever extra material is released with this season's DVD, "Jackson Teller's literary selections and what they mean to him" is included as a short film. Because I'd love to see how the people who write this guy -- who barely squeaked through the GED, remember, and whose days are simply crammed with biking through the San Joaquin, Alameda and Amador counties -- can justify Jax's ear for florid language. OKAY. Let's see if we can finish this "Tell, don't show" look into the wine-dark heart of Jax Teller:
"Since my best friend was killed, I've lost my center. Ope was always my pull back to true north. Now, my doubt and sense of fraudulence bark so loudly in my own head, most of the time, I can't hear anything else. Love, camaraderie, freedom… all the things I want from this life are lost in the din. Forgive my indulgence, sons, but today may be a day we both remember. A defining day. And at the very least, I want you to be able to look back at this entry and know your father was completely honest. So you know I speak the truth when I tell you that you are the most important thing to me. I will never hurt you, never abandon you. I love, Abel. I love you, Thomas. More than anything or anyone. I always will. Everything I do is for my sons."
On that concluding note, Jax tucks away his notebook and prepares to begin another day in which he'll likely kill people, break the law and engage in the kinds of behavior that reduce the odds that he'll be a loving and hands-on presence in his sons' lives for more than a few minutes at a time.
Also, through that entire 400-word monologue, we've gotten ironically-timed flashes to the panoply of unhappy players in the SAMCRO universe, including a shot of Clay's grave as Jax intones, "I've become the thing I hated" and Nero looking unhappy as Jax moans, "my doubt and sense of fraudulence bark so loudly in my own head, most of the time, I can't hear anything else." And then there's Tara hanging out in the hotel room and looking tense with "you are the most important thing to me. I will never hurt you, never abandon you."
And then Jax leaves the cemetery to go run over a dove as he rides to clear his head. If you get a chance, go back and watch the Season 1 finale, which also begins with Jax attempting to find clarity among the dead (he's sleeping on his dad's grave then) and driving down the road past the dove atop a street sign. There's a reason we see Jax turn the dove into a red smear on the pavement, and I'm sure there's a reason we're bouncing back to the Season 1 finale.
After the credits roll, Roosevelt and Patterson confer on the Tara situation, and Roosevelt subtly plugs for Tara: "She's out of options. By this time, they'll know she took the boys. There's no turning back." ATF agent Bowman's all, "Jax wouldn't really kill his own wife, would he?" and after both Patterson and Roosevelt stop laughing at the agent's sweet, childlike naïveté they're all, "Well, we're banking on that possibility to help things break our way."
Over at the SAMCRO Sweet Shoppe, Gemma's having a cup of coffee (as poured by the girl who was rendered motherless during Gemma and Clay's move to kill John Teller, natch) and once the series regulars come in, we establish that everyone is staking out everywhere in the hopes that Tara will turn up. Gemma frets that Tara's already in protection, and Bobby employs actual human logic to debunk that assumption: "Then why would there be sheriffs outside the house? If she gave up the club, we'd already be in custody."
Tig is all, "I would prefer to discuss how I'm going to stupidly murder this woman like I stupidly murder all other women -- around the tacky redwood table in church?" and everyone troops into the backroom. Gemma snags Juice on his way in and asks him for a minute. She then throws a wad of money at Brooke to go get sandwich fixings -- an obvious move to get privacy, and one that Chucky misses until the savvy Brooke grabs him and drags him out with promises to introduce Chucky to "Knee-pads Nina," adding, "She likes them kind of freaky." Chucky would like to know why she's called "Knee-Pads" and Brooke laughs, "Where were you hatched." "New Jersey," he replies. Of course.
Gemma approves of Brooke -- "She's got sass" -- and Juice says, "Yeah, she's cute. Nuts, but cute." So you've got a shot, Juice. We find out Jax is letting Brooke work off the damage she did. Then Gemma and Juice have an oblique discussion about how they're coping with Clay's murder. Long story short: Neither is doing well, and both are in denial over how poorly they're coping. Then it's on to whether or not Juice's overdose was intentional -- "Are you grateful or disappointed [to be alive]?" Gemma asks and Juice replies, "I don't want to die, Gem. I'm just a little unsure how to live in all this right now. You gonna tell Jax?" Gemma claims she won't. Then Juice fishes for any inkling of what Nero said about Juice's post-OD conversations. "I think I might have overshared on a few things," he says. Gemma deadpans, "It's okay. He knew you were gay." Then they laugh because there is nothing at all suspicious about a young man in the prime of his life in a heavily masculine culture living like a virtual monk.
Seriously, though: Gemma puts in a good word for Nero, then tells Juice to get it together: "Vulnerability is a liability. No place for it in this life, trust me."
Jax chooses that moment to come in. Within moments, Patterson's swung by, and she says, "We should talk, Jackson." Miraculously, everyone clears out. Jax slides into a booth and stares impassively. Patterson starts off, "Our ties seem to be getting deeper… do you know where your wife is?" Jax dances around: "She took the boys. Little retreat." "Where to?" Patterson presses. "Why do you care?" Jax feints. Patterson says bluntly, "We had a meeting. She missed it. I'm just trying to find out if we're going to reschedule." Jax shrugs, "When I see her, I'll let her know."
Then Patterson sits in the booth opposite Jax and proceeds to nail him to table with a look and a few well-chosen words: "Do you ever struggle with your need to be a good man?" Jax says slowly and calmly, "I struggle with all my needs, just like everyone else." Patterson continues like she hasn't heard him: "My guess is you struggle with it every day. What you are crashing into who you are. I know much you love Tara, and I see how deeply she loves you. Betrayal's a very intense feeling -- one that can only be matched by the maternal instinct of a mother protecting her young." Jax continues in his My patience is a gift; pray I do not decide to rescind it tone, "I don't need a lesson in family feelings. If you have something to say, then say it." Patterson nails Jax with another look and says, "Whatever decisions happen here today, the outcome lands on you. Are you willing to let your family pay the price for your mistakes?"
This is pretty much when I began bedazzling my "PATTERSON 4 LYFE" tee, because I love how she found Jax's psychological sore point -- he's living an adult life circumscribed by his parents' foibles -- and is pressing down hard to ask if he wants to do to his children what was done to him.
Patterson continues, softly and inexorably, "Is that what a good man would do? Because if that happens, I promise you, son, it's going to destroy you and everything else that you love. And that's not the law in me talking -- that's the flawed mother who made a lot of mistakes. You're a husband, and a father and a man before all of [waves hand in a circle toward Jax's cut] this. Own your place."
Patterson makes her exit then, leaving a quietly devastated Jax in her wake. In a parallel universe, CCH Pounder walks off the set to thunderous applause and a shower of awards for her stellar supporting actress work this season. She really has done a phenomenal job giving Patterson all manner of complex moral shading, palpable ambition and a fierce conscience.
Then we go to church, and while it's a fine showcase for the ensemble and every actor is bringing their full characterization to the table, this scene is sort of the equivalent of eating a Hershey bar after you've just had a box of Recchiuti dark chocolate sea salt caramels. The upshot is, everyone freaks out about Tara talking but nobody wants to be the one to suggest killing her until Jax brings it up. Bobby says vehemently, "We will make that call when we know more. Right now, we just need to find out where the hell she is." Good for Bobby, keeping a level head in all this.
And you know what just hit me? Of all the men sitting around that table, not a one beside Jax is married? Oh, you can claim Chibs is still married to Fiona, but not in any real or practical sense of the word -- she's several thousand miles to the east. But none of the regulars -- Tig, Bobby, Chibs (with an asterisk), Juice, Happy or Rat -- have old ladies. Does that not strike anyone else as kind of weird? It's like SAMCRO has that weird, meerkat-like "Only one breeding pair per social group" thing going on.
Then, in keeping with the SAMCRO tradition of one more thing happening on an already crappy day, Alvarez shows up to make a social call. Well, more precisely it's a business call: Alvarez is not happy with Jax's disruption of the delicate gangland ecosystem in Oakland, and since Jax decided to monkey with the status quo without giving Alvarez the courtesy of a heads-up or offer of taking over the gun business, Alvarez has decided to open a Stockton chapter of the Mayans without giving Jax the courtesy of a heads-up. I like that Alvarez is re-emerging as an antagonist, and I hope we can expect great (i.e. bloody and explosive) things in the future.
Tara's hanging in her hotel room with Thomas, the only living baby who loves staying in his car seat, and she decides to call her attorney, who takes the call at the top of his lungs in the middle of a crowded courthouse and blares, "THE DEAL IS STILL ON, BUT IT HAS TO HAPPEN TODAY." Tara's okay with that.
Then she heads inside to break the news to the boys. She tells Abel, "That was my friend who was helping with our trip. It's going to be so much fun. They're going to take us to a cool place with lots of fun things to play with. Then we get to pick anywhere in the world we want to go." Abel looks frankly skeptical about this deal. I personally think Tara's big mistake was talking to Abel like he was a rational human being, because he is three years old and therefore the exact opposite of rational and/or possibly "human." I say this as the mother of a three-year-old. If I needed to relocate in a hurry and get her buy-in on the deal, I think my discussion with her would go like this:
ME: We're going someplace new. KIDDO: Does this place have popcorn and Charlie Brown on the TV? ME: [crosses fingers behind my back]: …Why wouldn't it?
KIDDO: I plan on taking three stuffed friends plus eight imaginary pets to be named later. Let's roll.Anyway, Tara tries to explain things to Abel without using words like "arrest" and "RICO" and "we have to permanently change identities." She tells Abel that Thomas isn't buying into this whole thing yet and "He's going to really need his big brother," which prompts Abel to clamber on the bed and say, "Hey, stinky monkey!" and begin playing sweetly with his brother. Tara watches them and smiles.
Meanwhile, Tara's lawyer is being stalked by Bobby and Juice. The former quips, "Let's play 'follow the lawyer,'" and Juice replies, "I'd rather play 'let's run over the lawyer.'" "It's still early," Bobby drawls.
We transition to a meet between the Sons, the Mayans and Pope's people. There's a lot of handshaking around, and Jax heads over to make small talk with Nero. If by "small talk," you mean "pissy inquiry about how long Nero's been sitting on the intel that the Mayans were planning to set up in Stockton." Nero is a tad miffed that Jax thinks he'd keep that intel quiet; he's also miffed at Jax insinuating all manner of weaselly things with, "You and Alvarez got family ties. Did time together…" Nero huffs, "Yeah, we know each other. But I don't keep secrets from friends?" Jax immediately -- and correctly -- assumes Nero has a beef with him.
Nero asks, "You believe in karma, mano? Something greater that's moving all the pieces around?" Jax: "NOT TODAY." Nero continues, "I do. I know it. Shit, I feel it every time I see my boy. You ever think maybe, all these bad things that are happening to the mother of your children, just maybe that's because of some heinous thing that you did to another child's mother?" Jax is all, "Is this 'Make me feel responsible for how my actions affect others' day? Did you and Patterson message on Facebook about this?" Nero says, "Please don't lie to me twice, Jax. I know what happened with Darveny. I know what you had Juice do." Jax asks, "What did" Juice do?" "Killed an innocent woman. And then you looked me in the eye and you lied to me about it. You embraced me and called me 'brother.' Think shit like that just gets buried? Think it goes away? It don't, mano. It just comes back. And when it does, it makes you pay," Nero says.
So here's what happens : We find out that August Marks had the good sense to absent himself from all street-level work, and that's what his man Tyler is for. Alvarez does not appreciate this and snaps at Jax, "Wake up, ese! I'm just a wetback thug and you're an obsolete white boy. There's no room for us at [Marks'] table."
The Mayans make a show of playing nicely with the Marks organization, but the minute the Sons roll out, Alvarez demonstrates his capacity for double-crossing. In lieu of giving Tyler and company a boatload of cash for guns, Alvarez and friends give them a lot of bullets in very uncomfortable places. Well, if you can't get a seat at the table, killing some of the current diners is a fine way to create an opening, yes?
While that's going on, Jax is conferring with Barofsky and asking for help in looking for Tara. Barofsky offers his sympathy, and then changes the conversation. Good news -- the Navy is back and Colette's doubled her business. "So things are stabilizing around here," Barofsky concludes. Jax is all, "Yeah, about that…"
Enter Rat with news of Tara: She's about to meet with her lawyer at Abel's favorite park in Lodi. Now, I don't know how many of you readers are Northern Californians and play the "Where is Charming?" game, but I am and I do, and this Lodi thing now has me wondering exactly how close Charming is alleged to be, because if Abel's frequently a park over there regularly, that suggests it's not too far off -- yet Charming's in the mountains and Lodi is kind of in the middle of a heck of a lot of flat farmland. And you know what? This is the kind of thing only northern Californians care about, I think. The upshot is, Tara's about to hunted down by a bunch of felons with poor impulse control.
Tig and Chibs are left behind in Barofsky's place while everyone else hustles out the door, which is when Barofsky recaps what happened in the prior scene between the Mayans and the Marks organization. Since one of the Marks guys had One-Niner ink, it looks like that gang war may be back on now. Hooray, more violence for Oakland! That's just what the city needs.
Chibs assures Barofsky that none of this will spill into Stockton -- for one thing, traffic through the Altamont pass is a bitch -- but Barofsky scoffs, "You sure about that? Where's your boy Nero land in all this?"
Nero is currently landing in a very awkward conversation with Alvarez, who shrugs that he didn't really expect to gun down a boatload of Marks' people, it just happened to shake out that way. Nero protests, "I can't be part of that, Marcus. I got more than just business with the MC." Alvarez tactfully refrains from suggesting that Nero consider dating someone who comes with less baggage (especially since that baggage includes two coffins crammed full of husbands). Instead, he says, "I know you've been trying to get out of the streets. You deserve it. Pass it on to [Fiasco] over there. He looks eager." He is also named "Fiasco," which is less a confidence-inspiring nickname and more like a forehead-smacking prophecy.
Alvarez asks gently, "You still dreaming about that farm, huh? Then retire, ese. Go get that shit." Nero laughs, "Just fade away." Alvarez replies, "Yeah. Alive and with someone. That don't happen very often -- not to guys like us, ese." Nero nods thoughtfully. Then Alvarez offers Nero a graceful way out: He can send Fiasco to represent at the night's planned meet-up between Lin and Alvarez, and then… fade away. (The meeting presages a planned, protracted war for territory between Marks' organization, Lin's organization and the Mayans) Nero looks thoughtful.
Bobby and Juice lurk in a van and watch Tara get the kids out of the car. She meets up with the lawyer and Juice mutters darkly, "Mommy dearest." I'm so confused. Do we need more clues that Juice has become an irredeemable ass?
ANYWAY: Tara's legal deal is everything she could have wanted, provided she helps them make the RICO case. She hesitates for only a moment, and then gives the information about where the feds can pick her and the boys up. Since Abel's having a good time, Tara asks if everyone can let her have some time with the boys at the park.
The lawyer leaves and Bobby marvels, "It looks like she's staying." He does not add pointedly, "Unlike some people, I believe in collecting evidence before jumping to conclusions."
Zip! We're back to Charming. Gemma lets Unser in to her kitchen and they gossip about whether not Tara's made a deal yet. Unser asks what happens if Tara runs and Gemma says smoothly, "Jax will find her. Do what needs to be done." Unser declines to react. There's a brief back-and-forth on what a swell guy the tacitly endorsing murder Unser is for going to Clay's crappy convict funeral, and then Gemma throws him a bone with a kiss to the side of the head and, "I don't know what I'd do without you, Wayne. I love you."
Then Wendy comes out, uses Tara's absence as an excuse to drag her feet on entering rehab and then gets called on it by Gemma, who says sternly, "You know the drill. We'll see you on family day." Wendy nearly collapses as she realizes, "Oh, Jesus Christ… you guys are my family." "Yes, we are," Gemma sing-songs. Then she heads off to Diosa, leaving Unser and Wendy to have a completely unnecessary scene about how they're stuck in Charming for various reasons having to do with loving not wisely but well. Wendy does note ruefully, "Jax had a good heart. I always felt safe with him. I'm afraid that's gone."
And speaking of women who no longer feel safe because of Jax Teller, guess who's just jumped out of her skin because Jax showed up at the park with three of his friends as enforcers? It takes real guts to show up for a marital discussion with a posse, y'all. In dick moves number one and two, Jax has his pals steer the children away from Tara, then orders her to "Sit down."
With a look of resigned dread on her face, Tara does. She does not look at Jax, but at Thomas as he's carried away. She asks only, "What are you going to do?" Jax is glaring at Tara as if he's hoping to bore a hole into her brain and see what the hamfat she's thinking, and he says, "I just need to talk to you. I know you think you need to do this, but I can't let you. You know that." Tara's hands are skittering along the table in a sign of her fear, but she manages to stay dry-eyed as she stammers, "Please don't… hurt me in front of the kids." Jax's face softens and he says, "That's not what I want."
Tara is all shakes as she says, "But that's all there is. There is no other ending. I… I have sacrificed everything for you. I have tried… to see what you see, how you see it, but I can't. [sobbing] All I see are the lies and the violence and how it's changed you, turned you into a monster." Cut to Jax's face. He looks honestly wounded, yet relieved that Tara's somehow cut to diagnosing the same sickness he hates in himself. Tara says, "I'll die if I have to. At least I know that I tried to save them from becoming what you are." Jax looks gobsmacked by this. How? This can't possibly be news to him. Have not all of their conversations for the last few seasons revolved around the following motifs?
A: "Your mom is crazy." "I know. My mom is crazy."
B: "I love you and want to be honest with you." "OK." "[Lies about club business]" "Um. OK?"
C. "I would like to make sure our children don't end up following in your footsteps." "Me too!" "Good -- here is my plan for making that happen." " …"
ANYWAY. Jax points out that at multiple points over the past few years, Tara has made it clear that she's with him voluntarily. "You came back to me. You're part of what I am, Tara. You always have been." Tara looks at him and attempts to smile before saying, "That was my mistake. Thinking our love, our bond was stronger than your… history. But it's not. You were going to pull them out of this, remember? You were going to break the cycle. I know the turmoil you live with, Jax. I feel the pain you wake up with every day. And now you condemn your sons to that same torture? [Fresh tears] They will suffer with this." Tara loses it and sobs -- and Jax is not looking too steady at the moment -- and then she weeps, "Will you let me say goodbye to them before you take me?"
Jax grabs Tara by the arm -- it's worth noting that this whole time, his hand wearing the wedding ring has been resting atop the hand with the "SO" and "NS" rings, and it's that hand he uses to grab hers -- and holds on tight with both hands saying, "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not going to hurt them. You don't have to run. Not anymore." Tara asks, "What am I supposed to do?" And Jax looks relieved to say, "Just be a good mother. Save our boys. Please."p>
(Hands up, all of you who suspect that one of the reasons Jax seems so relieved is because he loves it when someone provides him the opportunity to feel like he's doing the right thing. And look! "I didn't kill my wife because she's going to make life better for my boys!" falls right into that category.)
Meanwhile, Nero's just found Gemma in his office. She asks if he's been tootling around Stockton, and Nero is moderately evasive about how he's been spending his day. Gemma asks what's going on and Nero says, "I've just got some shit that I've got to work out, and I need to be alone for a while." Gemma's all, "Come again?" and after the two of them have a contest to see who's the most angry and stressed, Nero says, "What if I were to say to you right now, 'Let's just go, Mama. Run away. You and me. Out of Stockton, out of Charming. Would you come with me? Leave all this behind? Your boy? Your club?" Gemma looks at him with dry eyes and says, "You know I can't make that choice." Nero replies, "I know. But I have to." Gemma is honestly incredulous that she's being dumped. Usually, her break-ups involve a homicide or two. This is a whole new way of becoming single.
Patterson, Roosevelt and Bowman have all showed up at Tara's hotel room. All of them are somewhat nonplussed to find Jax chillaxing in her hotel room armchair, and Tara says calmly to Patterson, "We need to speak alone. Please." With a regal nod of the head, Patterson's cleared the room of the other two and faces the married couple. She asks, "What is this?"
In a shot I am SURE was staged to make Jax look especially kingly, we see the seated man saying, calmly, "This is me, owning my place. Here's how it works. I turn myself in as the source of the KG-9 that Matthew Jennings used. Just me. Not my club. You drop all charges against Tara." Patterson says, "I can't protect her with that." "I won't need it," says Tara. Jax asserts confidently, "Nothing will happen to her or my boys. She's free to take them anywhere she wants." Tara turns to Jax in slight surprise and he gives the tiniest of nods. Jax stands up and presses his case: "You get the real devil responsible for the deaths of four kids, and an innocent woman is set free." Patterson asks where the Teller kids are, and Jax says they're at the SAMCRO sweet shoppe; he'd like to hang with them before he meets Patterson at his house and turns himself in at 6 p.m. Tara pipes up that her lawyer is putting together the deal now, so feel free to take it or leave it. Patterson takes it.
After she's left, Tara sits and whispers to Jax, "Thank you." Jax says only, "I love you." Tara goes to him and says, "I love you." The two of them embrace, and we see a lot of the "SO""NS" rings as Jax and Tara come together.
Then we transition to Jax sitting in church with Chibs and Bobby, breaking the news on what he's doing. He says, "I can't ask my wife to take the hit for us, and I'm not letting it land on the club. Maybe this is what was supposed to happen. I've been so hell-bent on trying to get us out of guns." Bobby and Chibs look skeptical about the fickle finger of fate, and Bobby grouses about how Jax is going to be buried in charges. Jax figures turning himself in buys him some good will and he'll likely be sentenced to a mere 25 years -- "Parole in ten, maybe seven if I'm lucky." Honestly, seven to ten years of not having to deal with the ridiculous exploits of the club and/or his mother probably sounds like a vacation after the brief yet eventful few months that Jax has been out of the pokey.
Jax says he's fine with all this, adding that this way, he'll get to see his kids growing up (something that would not have happened if Tara went into WitPro), then announces that Bobby Elvis is now president. Cut sideways to Chibs looking a little skeptical about this as Jax explains, "You're always talking about what's best for the club, Bobby. You leading is best. With [Chibs] at your left, we have a chance. Just keep moving toward legitimate shit. Get Caracara up and running, TM back on track. SAMCRO will be fine."
Bobby now asks Chibs to join him in steering the club through this exciting period of rebuilding. Chibs avers that he will. Jax turns to Chibs and says, "One more thing: I was wrong about Juice. He can't be trusted." Chibs rolls his eyes all, Some days, it's just not worth it to gnaw throw the restraints, but promises to bring Bobby up to speed on the whole rotten Juice saga. Then he promises to Jax to look out for Tara and the boys. Jax says, "Whatever Tara wants, you support it." Both Bobby and Chibs say, "Of course."
Then it's time for the biker declarations of love, which seem a lot less ambiguous and soul-searing for Jax than the spousal declarations of love.
We go to Gemma's, where it turns out she's been keeping a crow caged in her living room, because that's not at all symbolic of the turbulence she introduces to the club and vice versa. Gemma has been drinking heavily, which makes sense after a breakup and also highlights one of the sad truths of this show, which is that a whole hell of a lot of pain and suffering could be prevented if the women on this show actually had a circle of good girlfriends to be all, "Girrrrrrrrrrl," at the right moments. Every woman seems so profoundly isolated. That can't be good for any of them.
ANYWAY. It's Unser, who is there for a vigorous aerobic workout, namely leading Gemma on an exercise in jumping to conclusions. For reasons known only to Kurt Sutter, we have a situation where Tara's lawyer is somehow calling the retired sheriff for access to the police archives and arrest records, and from that call, Unser has concluded that Tara's made a deal and Jax is going to be arrested.
Gemma, who is a crafty drunk, fools Unser into thinking she's not going anywhere ("It doesn't matter -- I'm never going to see my grandsons again"), but then fakes a heart incident, so as he scampers off to get Mother's Little Heartstarters, she steals the truck keys he so stupidly left on her counter and heads out to ruin someone's afternoon.
Brooke finishes sweeping up the SAMCRO sweet shoppe, gives Jax a very sweet, daughterly kiss on the temple and tells the bemused biker, "Thank you." Jax, who is dandling Thomas on his knee, nods and looks content. Unser them comes along to spoil his afternoon by saying, "I know some of what's happening… someone better fill your mom in." Jax drawls that they've been trying to find her, and Unser's all, "We have no idea where she went. She was in pretty bad shape. She took my truck." Juice volunteers to go find Gemma, and Jax nods to that.
He looks grim as he follows Juice out of the shoppe, and Juice completely misses it. Instead, as the other man flings himself at Jax with a "I'm going to miss you, brother," we see Jax's face twist with hate and he whispers, "You betrayed me." There's a long moment where Jax is holding Juice's face in his hands, and I am sure every viewer of a certain age watched that moment and shouted, "I knew it was you, Fredo!"
Anyway, Jax rolls back into the shoppe and leaves Juice on the sidewalk wondering what the hell his motivation is now.
Meanwhile, at the Teller-Knowles house, Roosevelt's helping Tara bring in her stuff. They both notice the truck in the driveway, and Roosevelt asks, "Is Wayne here?' "I'm not sure," Tara says, somehow not alarmed by the prospect of running into Gemma's Number One Lackey -- whom, let us not forget, she held at gunpoint a scant 24 hours before -- just randomly wandering around her house.
As Tara heads up the walk, Roosevelt says, "I'm glad it turned out this way, Tara. I know it's still a sad day for your family, but it's the right thing." Tara smiles a bit, then walks into the house.
The house is super-quiet and Roosevelt tells Tara he'll wait outside for Patterson. Tara thanks him (for everything), and he squeezes her arm. Tara looks around her living room -- her house that she'll get to raise her boys in -- then smiles for a moment. Then she hears a noise in the kitchen and calls, "Wayne, is that you?"
No… it is Gemma, who brutally attacks Tara and manages to hold her head under the water in the full dishpan. As Tara struggles to free herself. Gemma grabs a barbecue fork that's nearby and stabs, over and over again, at the base of Tara's neck until the water turns cloudy red and the bubbles cease to rise to the surface.
And that is how Tara dies -- in pain and terror, at the hands of the woman who promised her that the only way her story would end would be with, "Mommy went away" or "Mommy passed away."
Naturally, this is when Juice rolls up, looking for Gemma and he realizes right as Roosevelt does that Gemma's inside. Cue the giant crashing noise, and both men are sprinting into the house.
Tara's body is on the floor in a pool of bloody water. Gemma has slid down to it, clearly taken aback by what she's just done. Roosevelt takes a gander at the room -- the sink full of dark water, the smeary red dripping from the counter to the floor, the body -- and listens to Gemma pant, "It had to be done, it had to be done. I had work to do. It had to be done."
"What did you do?" Roosevelt gasps and Gemma sniffs, "She did this. She did this. She made a deal. She-she betrayed him." Roosevelt reels in pity and horror, and looks down at Gemma with a heartbroken look. He says, "Tara didn't rat, Gemma. Jax gave himself up to protect her. To keep her safe." Gemma -- who, let us not forget, is not sober -- can only gape as she struggles to comprehend the scope of the fuck-up she has just committed. Roosevelt clicks his radio and begins, "We got a…" when he is plugged several times from behind, by Juice. Roosevelt looks surprised more than anything else, then he falls to the floor.
I can't even imagine how Roosevelt's family is going to do with planning his funeral so soon after they buried Rita Roosevelt. Two family members murdered less than four months apart (according to this show's timeline) -- it's just a tragedy for the people left behind.
Juice then looks around the scene, takes in Gemma's body and the bloody fork, sees Gemma, then nods and extends a hand. Gemma, sobbing, takes it. She goes to hug him, but he seems unyielding against her sobs.
And now, a musical montage. Jax cuddles with his boys, and then hands them off to Chibs ("Tara will come for them after I go"). He hugs his way through the club -- Happy and Chibs are both visibly crying -- and reassures Tig, "We're all good." Then Jax, winking back tears, heads toward his bike.
We continue the montage: Wendy in rehab; Unser hanging out on the steps of his trailer and looking up to see Gemma pulling up in his truck. Her hair is soaking wet -- she's obviously washed off the evidence -- and she sobs her way over to him. To the sweet shoppe, where the bikers are all doting on the boys. Well, everyone except Tig, who is doting on his dog.
Jax rolls through the streets he used to rule without question. Then we go to a Chinese/Maams meeting, and guess whose showing up in his Cosby Dad sweater? Nero! Then we go to Gemma, lying with her head in Wayne's lap, and he pets her hair for comfort. You know, this is the greatest night of his life, because now that Gemma's other great loves are out of the picture, he can make his move!
We see Juice heading to a bank of dumpsters. In the first, he deposits part of the dishpan that Tara was drowned in, the iron she was brained with, and in another, he deposits the fork. As Juice does this, the homeless lady/harbinger is walking down the alley. (I'm not quite convinced she's Brooke's mom, but we'll see, I hope.)
Jax lets himself into the quiet house and calls, "Babe?" He hangs up his cut and as he walks into the kitchen, he sees the blood spattering across the floor and a limp foot. Out comes the gun and Jax walks in to see Roosevelt prone on the floor and just beyond him, Tara's body on its side. She's surrounded by broken crockery. There is still her blood in the sink and on the counter, pooled by her head. Jax stumbles over, sobbing. He drops his gun and doesn't notice, then falls by Tara, gathers her up and strokes her hair before kissing her. Then he holds her, sobbing.
Patterson walks in on this scene, and admittedly, it doesn't look good if your first impression is a dead cop, a dead woman and her violent felon husband holding her and sobbing, "I'm so sorry." Patterson gives the scene another look: The dead cop, plugged in the back, the gun abandoned on the ground, the man holding his dead wife and wailing. The season ends on a shot of Jax sobbing as he looks at Tara in his arms.
So, you know, kind of a downer. And yet, entirely unsurprising, what with beginning the episode with a shot of Donna's tombstone and continuing with two noted Characters With a Conscience (i.e. Patterson and Nero) warning Jax that if he didn't accept responsibility for his actions, his family would suffer.
So long as one avoids thinking things like, "The last three years of Tara's life were bookended by a psycho stalker ex and a psycho killer mother-in-law, and the in-between included a kidnapping, an abduction, the ruin of her career and the threat of jail" or "Tara did not even live long enough to celebrate a Christmas with her whole family," it's easy to think that this season ended strong because it set up the stakes and motives for the final act in the series as a whole. As Gemma herself said in the Season 1 finale: "Motherless children -- they make people do drastic things."
She was saying that to Clay in the wake of his revelation that Donna had died because Tig jumped to conclusions regarding someone's ratting on the club. And now, Tara is dead because Unser jumped to conclusions regarding someone's ratting on the club. The parallels between these two events are deliberate, I'm sure.
Abel and Thomas are motherless children. (Thomas isn't even going to remember his mother. And when I think of how Tara didn't even live to see her baby reach his first birthday, it makes me feel like crying.) Motherless children – they make people do drastic things. We'll see what those are as this story hurtles through its final act in 2014. See you all then.
One final note: As always, big thanks to all of you who take the time to read the recaps and reach out, either in comments, on the forums or via Twitter (hit me at @lschmeiser). I have been doing this gig since 2000, and I think the SoA fans are my favorites – please keep in touch. I also want to thank the always-on TWoP Howard, who goes above and beyond as a forum moderator, and the preternaturally patient site editors Daniel Manu and Angel Cohen. Without them, none of this works.
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.
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