For a series that has built entire seasons off of twists in the previous finale, it was a little disappointing to not get any sort of set-up for the next season as this episode winded down
Is the club with or against Jax? After this season, it's hard to tell.
This week's season finale of Sons of Anarchy started as a slow rumble, but it never grew to any sort of crescendo. For a series that has built entire seasons off of twists in the previous finale, it was a little disappointing to not get any sort of set-up for the next season as this episode winded down. So, what did the season five finale do right? Quite a bit. Read on to find out.
The most pressing issue facing Jax (Charlie Hunnam) heading into this episode was how he was going to deal with his promise to deliver Tig (Kim Coates) to Damon Pope (Harold Perrineau). For a while there, I truly believed Jax was going to go through with letting Tig die. I think the writers have done a fine job of making us believe Tig deserved whatever he was going to get throughout the series, but I will say Koates' acting was at an all-time high in this episode, which made me truly feel bad for his character as he saw the end drawing near. And then, Jax flipped everything on its head. I liked the urgency in the scene in which he saves Tig; it gave it the necessary feeling of a high-risk plan. What I was less-than-thrilled with was the fact that the writers killed off Pope. I wrote last week about how I was disappointed with him as a villain this season, and his death cements his place in the SOA history books as one of the worst antagonists of the series, in terms of danger and effectiveness.
On the flip side, though, Jax made Tig kill Pope with Clay's (Ron Perlamn) gun. It took me a couple seconds to connect the dots, but I think this was one of the best payoffs the writers have ever achieved on the show. I honestly would have bought it if Jax didn't make another move at Clay this season, as the club's vote seemed rather final. It was nice to see that he was able to adapt, and follow through with his original goal. On top of that, he went down a very risky, and dark road to get there. He lied to just about everyone in the club to get rid of Clay, and this cannot bode well for Jax in the future.
The other half of that storyline, Clay, is what helped to sell the plot to me this week. Perlman has been great in the past couple episodes, and he continued this week. He isn't the overconfident, cocky man that we've seen strut around Charming before. He genuinely wanted to get away with Gemma (Katey Sagal) for a bit before starting on his new business venture, which I believe he never intended to use to undermine the club. The hurt inhis eyes as his wife and new best friend, Juice (Theo Rossi) lied to Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar) was believable and effective. It seems like his life is in legitimate danger as he heads off to jail, but we weren't given any sort of conclusion to this plot, which means we'll have to wait a full year to see if, and how long, he lives.
Beyond these main arcs, though, this episode struggled. The writers, of course, couldn't abandon the stories they have been setting up all season, but I'm about as tired of Gemma and Nero (Jimmy Smits) as I can get. To compare: I am a huge fan of Smits on the show, and his scenes with his gang, and with Jax, have been some of the best of the season. This includes their final scene of the year, where he made a deal to get out of the life if Jax would, right now. Then there's all his high-school romance stuff with Gemma, which is tired and, frankly, painful to watch. Hopefully, Smits will return next season, and we can focus more on his gangster life, and less on his love life.
The closest thing we've been getting in the way of hints as to how next season could go is with Tara (Maggie Siff), and her impending lawsuit surrounding the murder of the sister of Lee Toric's (Donal Logue) sister by Otto (Kurt Sutter). It seemed for a while that the writers were just going to kill this with an underwhelming lack of confession by Otto, but instead we got an amazingly gruesome scene in which the SAMCRO member bit off his own tongue, and spit it at Toric behind the glass. We still don't know much about Toric, but I hope he returns next season, because I would love to see Donal Logue play a villain who can truly threaten the club.
The episode ended with perhaps the best twist of the night, with Roosevelt coming to arrest Tara. It seems like Gemma may be the one responsible for Tara's arrest despite the lack of testimony from Otto, and the final shot of her, Jax, and her grandson was a chilling suggestion that she may be making a push to reclaim her family from Tara. At the same time, I wouldn't put it past Toric to trump up evidence to get Tara locked up, as they've set him up as a character willing to cross the line from time to time to get what he wants. While I like the idea of Tara having to actually do something on the show, it's very unclear where the show could go from here.
Which is the inherent problem I have with this episode as a season finale. We didn't get any of the shocking deaths or out-of-nowhere twists from finales past, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. But, we still have no idea what's to come next season, or if the next season will be the last one for the show. I think this was a rough year for Sons of Anarchy and the so-so quality of the finale punctuates that lackluster feel. I'm of the belief that the show desperately needs to end, and soon. We'd all benefit from the pressure of a final season, and I think the show is still riding high enough that it can end before things get truly dire. As it stands, this was a decent episode, but not one that leaves me craving more Sons of Anarchy. I'm content to wait a year, and see if the show can come back stronger than it left us.