After last week’s explosive climax, can Jax pull the Sons back together at their weakest moment? Last week’s Sons of Anarchy was a brutal one, with Galen and the Irish sending a big message to the crew by blowing up the Teller-Morrow building. Thankfully, this week slowed things down a bit and let the crew get their footing.
Jax assembles the chapters of all the area’s motorcycle crews and lays it down: ever since they got involved in running guns for the Irish, everything’s gone to hell. Corpses on all sides of the line aren’t good for business, so stepping away is the only sane decision. He then brokers a peace with the Irish and returns their man Connor unharmed. Unfortunately, it still looks like Galen and crew are going ahead with their plan to bust Clay out of jail and put him in charge of gun distribution, which can only end badly.
As an awesome close to Jax’s rallying the troops, Bobby Elvis is back – it turns out his walkabout over the last few weeks wasn’t to form a new club, but rather to go on a recruiting drive for the Sons. With the deaths of Filthy Phil and V-Lin some fresh blood is pretty necessary, and hopefully these new dudes aren’t here just to catch bullets.
Nero is still in jail, and while Eli Roosevelt (who is increasingly becoming an Unser-esque semi-ally to the Sons) thinks Toric framed him, the new D.A. Patterson doesn’t care – she’s determined to pin the school shooting on the Sons’ gun business, no matter what it takes. She goes wild on Tara (you know a Black lady is serious when her wig comes off) in one of the show’s best scenes. Tara obviously wants out – she tells Unser that she’s still planning on going ahead with the divorce and taking the kids when (and if) she’s released.
The show also had a fun little side story about Juice getting his balls back by screwing with some corrupt Charming cops. He’s still working on redeeming himself after being Clay’s buttboy for two seasons, and this bit had some of the episode’s best dialogue. Oh, and we also saw the return of Walton Goggins as transsexual hooker Venus Van Dam for some (as yet unexplained) reason. Maybe he just wanted to wear the fake boobs again.
The show ended with Jax and Bobby hugging it out. Maybe the first part of the season’s detour into a more ruthless, brutal Jax was just a side trip, but I’m more likely to believe that it’s just been stuffed under the carpet for a little bit. No matter how the show started out, Jax Teller isn’t the hero.