Rarely are titles of episodes more indicative of what’s to come than for this Sons of Anarchy recap. If you don’t have a Bible handy, I’ll just paraphrase John 8:32 and tell you it’s the one that says “the truth shall set you free.” Well, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) gets a whole Old Testament load of truth this episode, and it’s going to make the rest of the season one to remember.
The episode starts with an only so-so attempt to draw parallels between couples Jax and Tara (Maggie Siff) and Gemma (Katey Sagal) and Nero (Jimmy Smits). Essentially, the point is to show how the older couple is growing closer while the younger pair continue their separate trajectories. Gemma tells Nero about the situation with Tara, and his reaction is to somehow blame all the secrets in their lives for getting them to this point. Jax tries to get closer to Tara, letting her know about club business such as the Irish wanting to break Clay out of prison, and telling her he loves her. He means it, but is also understanding when she just can’t quite do the same yet. It is striking how odd it seems to see them sharing a scene and more than just functional dialogue. It makes you realize just how far apart they’ve been this season.
Patterson (CCH Pounder) pays a visit to Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar) and, over his objections orders an onslaught of surveillance on not only SAMCRO, but Nero’s crew and even Barofsky’s (Peter Weller) business concerns. Roosevelt doesn’t believe this will be effective, as he knows the gangs will just lay low until the heat goes down, but Patterson is adamant. When he shows up at the sweet shop later with the new police escorts, Roosevelt basically lets Jax and crew know what’s going on, and says he hopes none of this has to be violent.
But when Roosevelt gets there, he finds the front window of the sweet shop smashed, and Tig’s bike all beat to hell. Rival gang? Nah, more like an 18-year-old girl with some misdirected rage. Her identity is quickly learned to be Brooke (Haley McFarland), whose mother was killed in the same traffic accident that claimed the life of Jax’s old man. All these years later, she blames the Sons for her mother’s death. … Yeah, didn’t sound too convincing to me either. This season has had its share of side trips — Venus comes to mind, of course — but this one seems to be a bit undercooked and a rather obvious attempt to string themes together. Jax goes to meet with Brooke’s father, who is played by a guy who acts like he won a contest to appear in a cameo, and learns that they’re just about to lose their house. His heart is touched, so he arranges for the family to keep their house. When he finally gets a sitdown with Brooke, Jax finds a kindred spirit and they end up having a nice conversation. So yeah, I’m hoping that’s about the last of that particular storyline we’ll see, unless they’ve got something much stronger in store.
We also catch up with Clay, who was surprisingly absent last episode, and it turns out Ron Perlman probably needed the rest in order to get through one of the strangest scenes in Sons of Anarchy’s history. During a prison church sermon, Clay gets up and starts acting like a freaking loon, spouting off about how it’s not Jesus who will save humanity but, um, a lady’s private parts. He talks like a stereotypical Southern revival preacher, moves we have never seen out of Clay at all, and pretty much gets out of hand. When the guards come to lead him away, Clay suddenly gets violent and bites the nose off one of them. OK, so we figure this is some sort of plan having to do with his impending breakout, and sure enough he ends up in the infirmary wearing a Hannibal Lecter-type mask where a shady doctor awaits him. With a cellphone. He makes a call, but we don’t get to hear it. But we do see the shady doctor, who looks like a swarthy, gone-to-seed version of George Clooney, earn some more cash by letting the guys Clay attacked have a few minutes with him, which they put to maximum abusive use.
So while Jax doesn’t really have any near-death experiences this go-round, but he does have some terrible confrontations. When Nero tries to talk to him a little bit about the situation with Tara and Gemma, Jax immediately gets hostile, telling him to butt out and that if they want to keep their business relationship, he needs to stay out of it. The next time they meet it’s even worse, since Jax learns that Nero went to Tara at the hospital to talk things over. Jax doesn’t give any warnings this time, he just comes out swinging. The pair end up in a knock-down, drag-out brawl that only ends when Gemma steps in. That temporarily focuses Jax’s anger at his mother, until Nero reveals the truth about Gemma’s awful conjugal visit with Clay. This is after Gemma thought it necessary to tell Jax about Nero’s attempt to take the blame for the gun charge and lay himself down at Patterson’s mercy.
They do successfully get Jax to at least entertain the possibility that there might be more to the incident with Tara than he initially thought. Gemma and Nero also have a breakthrough personally, as Gemma comes clean — in much more detail and candor than we’ve ever heard before — about her role in the death of John Teller. She admits to giving Clay her blessing to do the deed, and that she knew it needed to be done.
On the business side of things, Barosky walks into Diosa with Collette (Kim Dickens) and essentially lets him know that until things settle down with Patterson, he’s ending their relationship. So Jax gets the idea to go to Patterson and attempt to strike a deal. In exchange for full immunity for the Sons, he’s willing to give her Galen (Timothy V. Murphy). Patterson agrees, and it’s all set to go down within 10 days.
But Jax’s biggest concern is finding out the truth about Tara. He lies in wait at Unser’s (Dayton Callie) trailer as Lowen (Robin Weigert) pays a visit. He shows her a gun, which seems an odd way to start a meeting, and asks her — ahem, point blank — if Tara is divorcing him, and if she faked the pregnancy. After a shaken Lowen gives him the bad news, Jax is absolutely murderous, but shows restrain in not actually murdering anyone. Later, Unser reminds Jax that he promised him that no one would get hurt.
Tara wasn’t around to hear this, obviously, and it probably wouldn’t have given her much peace if she had. Lowen calls Tara and lets her know that Jax has found everything out, and the last thing we see this episode is Tara sitting at home, rocking Thomas to sleep, and keeping a gun at her side as she waits for her husband to come home.
So yeah, this all came to a head much faster than it could have, and I’m as anxious as anyone to see what happens next. Amazing, isn’t it, how the season initially seemed to be shaping up to be a Lee Toric showcase, but now that weirdo guy is largely forgotten, a small cog in the Season 6 machine.
