This was the first club vote in a while that I care about
Jax went down a very dark road this week.
This week's episode of Sons of Anarchy started off hot on the heels of Bobby's (Mark Boone Junior) apparent betrayal of his president to Clay (Ron Perlman). We quickly learned what Bobby had done, which was get Clay to confess, and in turn he would not vote for Clay to die. This was the first club vote in a while that I care about, and normally something like this would have been saved for the final minutes of an episode. Instead, this vote set the stage for one of the darkest episode of Sons of Anarchy to date.
We stuck pretty close to Jax (Charlie Hunnam) this week, so I will too. Even before the vote, the episode started with an outstanding narration by Hunnam as Jax wrote in his journal, much like his father once did. I wish every episode used the journal, as it gives the writers a chance to get a little more dense (perhaps too much so, for a biker), and it gives the show a literary, noir-ish feel. After the vote, Jax pummeled Clay's face to a pulp, which was his first step down a very dark path. It became clear at that point that his anger at Clay, and focus on his own end goal made him forget about the rest of the club, who was standing by watching.
From there, we learned that the Chinese needed more time than they let on to set up their end of the Cartel deal, which led to yet another scene between Jax and Galen (Timothy V. Murphy). This time, though, their moment together was inexplicably interrupted by the Cartel. Something about being impatient idiots? I don't know, I refused to listen. This scene did set up the rest of the episode, but I feel like the writers just kind of trampled through any logic that the viewers might throw at this scene.
Jax briefly met up with Damon Pope (Harold Perrineau) for yet another disappointing scene, in which Pope continued to act like the ticking clock to remind us that something will eventually happen this season. I've been consistently disappointed by antagonists on this show since the second season, and this season has proven to be no different. I believe that Donal Logue showing up as Lee Toric is a set-up for next season, and as I've been a fan of his work in the past I am hopeful he can breath fresh life into the other half of the Sons of Anarchy storylines.
This week also gave Wendy (Drea de Matteo) another chance to be a terrible person. To be fair, I've grown sympathetic to her in past weeks, and I could see why Tara (Maggie Siff) might chose her over anyone else to watch the kids if anything should happen. I still don't think it was a great idea, but it was an idea, I guess? Anyways, bringing Wendy back into the mix set off a chain reaction that including the IRA picking her up in retaliation for the Cartel's stupidity, which led to her threatening to go to the police. Tara followed up this threat with her usual method - asking Jax what to do. Thankfully, Jax was fully prepared to solve the issue. I wasn't sure what Jax was going to do, but I never would have expected him to force Wendy to shoot up again, in an attempt to undermine her credibility. This was an outstanding final scene - one of the best the show has ever done - and I love watching Jax fall deeper and deeper into the same hole Clay was no doubt in at one point; he just doesn't know it yet.
There were some other great moments in this episode, including the many moments of Jax's anger at Bobby, and Tig (Kim Coates) telling Clay he earned his vote to kill him. Even more symbolic was watching Clay get his tattoos inked over. Next week will show us if Jax is able to even get close to successfully pulling off the hit he put on Clay, and if he gives up Tig. This episode of Sons of Anarchy truly got me excited for next week's finale.