SONS OF ANARCHY: "So"

First off, I just want to say I’m thrilled SAMCRO is back on the air. Along with Breaking Bad and Mad Men, it’s one of my three favorite current shows. And I think Tuesday’s premiere did a terrific job of seizing on the emotional intensity of last season’s finale, specifically the final ten minutes, and using it to propel the narrative and the tone of season 3.

Season 2 ended with a desperate chase to stop Cameron Hayes from absconding with Jax’s son Abel. The final image of Jax on his knees screaming in anguish was devastating. Season 3 picks up just a few days later. I love this decision because it allows us to experience the initial devastation of our characters; their emotions at their rawest. I also think situations like this are what define characters. Through the choices Jax makes during this crisis, we’ll learn which father he’s becoming, John Teller or Clay Morrow-and the final moments of the episode might lead us to believe it’s Clay.

In the chase for Abel at the end of season 2, we saw Jax in front of the motorcycle pack, as well as being the first one down the docks to stop Cameron. The point is—he had fire in his belly. His fear and anger and adrenaline propelled him. But three days later, all that fire appears to be gone. This is a problem in Jax’s circle. Showing weakness, even in response to something like losing your son, can be fatal. Jax spends most of this episode feeble and weak: someone who seems to have no fight left in him:


-The guys first find him drunk and incapacitated. They have to run the shower over him just to get him conscious.

-On their way down to Cameron’s boat, Jax lags behind. Clay has to ask, “You with us?” That question has large implications, such as, “Are you one of us?” and “If you are, you better start acting like it.”

-When the two gangsters show up for Cameron’s boat, Jax is the last man after them. Moreover, he stops the first chance he gets, ostensibly to help Opie untangle himself, but really because he wants no part of the impending melee.

-When the Sons are cornered by the rival gang who now own Cameron’s boat, Jax convinces them to talk, not through intimidation or cunning, but through pity, through the look and tone of a man who is genuinely desperate and terrified. And those are two things a SAMCRO VP can’t afford to be.


Clay tries to help Jax by gently prodding him through most of the episode. But after Jax’s display, Clay senses that if Jax doesn’t pull himself out of it now, he might lose his reputation forever. So he cuts through the bullshit and tells him the men need to see him angry. Doesn’t matter if it’s because Abel’s dead and he wants revenge, or if it’s because Abel’s alive and Jax “will kill to get him back.” The point is, all Sons from all charters are watching Jax and wondering what kind of man he is. In the world of SAMCRO, the only acceptable response to a tragedy of like this is lethal fury. It’s a gauge of masculinity, pure and simple.

In the episode’s final scene, it’s clear that Clay’s speech worked, and also that Jax had been suppressing his anger, and that it was always there and ready to explode. Jax beats the assassin’s head into the concrete like a mad man, very possibly to death. Thus erasing the question of whether he’s weak, and begging the question of whether he’s unstable: a much better question to have hanging over you in the world of SAMCRO.

I wouldn’t assume Clay’s motives are purely altruistic, though. Keep in mind, while it’s been about a year since Clay & Jax’s near-war for most of us, for them it’s only been a couple weeks. Clay may see a golden opportunity to make Jax forget about John Teller once and for all. That’s my biggest concern for Jax after the episode: In the search for Abel, will he go so far and lose himself so deeply that he ceases to be the man who questions the reasons behind the violence? Will he cease to be the man who wants reform? I, personally, have invested myself in Jax’s long term struggle to achieve Michael Corleone’s dream and make his family business legit. So I’m hoping Jax won’t lose the thing that makes him Jax.

But part of our anti-hero wants to lose himself in the anger and depression. That's part of why he tried to send Tara away. One reason, to be sure, was his stated one, a deep sense of guilt about bringing her into this life and putting her in danger. But part of it is also that if Tara stays, if he still has to see her on a daily basis, he’s not going to be able to lose himself completely. He’ll have to keep it together for her. Trying to end that relationship was a self-destructive act on Jax’s part.

Ironically, insisting on staying may be a self-destructive act on Tara’s part. She’s also experienced a great trauma and is struggling to deal with it. She even breaks down during an operation and has to excuse herself. But how is she supposed to deal with it, except by going back to the people who have become her family? That’s what’s so terrifying to her about Jax breaking up with her, not just losing him, but about losing her whole network of support and community at the moment she needs it most.

But at the same time, she’s deluding herself if she thinks she’s a better person with Jax than without him. Without him she was a doctor. With him, she’s a doctor who breaks down during surgery, punches her boss in the face and threatens the woman's children. Tara’s letting herself believe this lie because the alternative-dealing with everything she’s going through alone-is just too scary. But it may cost her a couple more pieces of her soul in the long run.

Charlie Hunnam was amazing throughout the episode and it seems like season 3 may center around Jax even more than the first two. Jax’s transition from incapacitating grief to terrifying rage was front and center throughout and totally riveting.

Gemma was pushed to the side a bit this episode, not even being told that her grandson is missing. But she's still been through a trauma just as much as Jax and Tara. Gemma is coming to grips with having just killed someone and with being framed and having to flee from the police. It’s clear that being trapped in a motel doesn’t agree with her. Also, Gemma doesn’t have her family to lean on in the same way Jax and Tara do because of her fugitive status.

We see a lot of parallels between mother and son in the way Jax and Gemma handle their respective traumas. Jax ends the episode with a psychotic act of violence misdirected (albeit at someone who still completely deserves it) from the person he really wants to kill. Similarly, we see Gemma stab that poor man in the groin just for stopping her from stealing his car. By the end, we see that Gemma has the same desire to retreat that Jax does. She returns to her father where she doesn’t have to be the strong, powerful matriarch. She can be a kid again. Note the way she calls him “daddy” and the way she rests her head against his knee in the closing montage.

The scene between father and daughter was surprisingly affecting, considering we'd just met the man. He's lost his mind to dementia and his wife has just passed away (I believe she saw her mother’s obit in the paper and then went to see her father…but I wouldn’t bet my life on that). When she hears her dad call out for his wife, "Rosie," with no clue that she’s gone, Gemma realizes he needs her as much as she needs him.

The episode’s final scene was definitely in keeping with Sons of Anarchy tradition. I wonder if we should now start to expect some horrific tragedy at the end of every season premiere? Poor Hale is dead just like that…so much for his hopes to reform Charming (which functioned so well in tandem to Jax’s desire to reform SAMCRO itself). Guess the island was finished with him. Prediction: Jacob Hale is responsible for the attempt on SAMCRO and inadvertently for his own brother’s death.

If this episode was all about how our characters initially cope with thtragedy, the next episode should help clarify their long term trajectories.


Other thoughts:

-Gemma had some great moments: every scene with her dad; stabbing that man; admitting to being a little crazy; and her awesome line, “If I wanted him dickless, it’d be layin’ on the ground next to him.”

-Really enjoyed Half-Sack’s funeral with everyone wearing their jackets and Half-Sack’s cut laid on top of his coffin. All that ritual and tradition really conveys the history and sense of brotherhood behind the club. Reminds me of a mob funeral.

-This was a very good episode for Tara. Her breakdown and both of her scenes with Jax were highly charged. Strange moment when the hospital administrator Tara bloodied catches her falling apart. I wonder if that was just an interesting moment or if the administrator will have a substantive role this season.

-Was good to see Paula Malcomson, a.k.a. Trixie from “Deadwood.” I wonder how the Charming and Belfast story lines will string together. I just hope they work in tandem rather than feeling like 2 separate stories. But Kurt Sutter has done nothing to shake my confidence so far.