All right, so now I know why FX didn’t send along a screener for this week’s episode ahead of time. I mean, yes, it always help when doing a Sons of Anarchy recap to have time to process what you’ve seen, but in this case, secrecy had to be a priority. To say this is a game-changer might be underselling it a bit. So if you haven’t seen the episode yet — the title of which translates to “Nothing Personal” — run away, run far away, because you can’t unhear these spoilers.
Let’s just come out with it. Halfway through this episode, Clay’s luck finally runs out. After a daring, meticulously planned but rather sloppily executed escape from the prison transport vehicles — during which Bobby (Mark Boone Junior) takes a bullet to the chest and a sheriff’s deputy is run over and killed — Clay (Ron Perlman) is taken to a warehouse where he’s going to meet up with Galen (Timothy V. Murphy) to be taken to Belfast. But Jax (Charlie Hunnam) has other plans. Votes have been taken apparently, ones unanimously dictated that the deal with the Irish should not go through as planned. As Galen reaches out to shake Jax’s hand on a job well done, Jax casually whips out a gun and blasts half his head off. Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) and Tig (Kim Coates) then quickly dispatch Galen’s two henchmen, leaving a pile of Irish bodies and a very stunned Clay wondering what’s going on. It doesn’t take him long to figure it out, however. He knows he’s about to meet Mr. Mayhem.
There’s a bit of business to take care of first, allowing Clay to walk outside with his group one last time, and in the process saying goodbye to Gemma (Katey Sagal), who had no idea this was coming and is not ready for it. He notices Nero (Jimmy Smits) and tells her that he’s happy she won’t be alone. In a bit of cruelty, Jax asks Clay what he would do now in this situation to make things right with the Irish. Clay basically lays out the scenario Jax has in mind, to make it look like Jax and Galen had a long-simmering beef and things went sour. So into the office they go, with the shades open enough that Gemma can see what’s happening, and Jax puts a bullet right into his stepfather’s throat. As Clay lays on the ground bleeding out, Jax puts several more bullets into him. Hamlet has killed Claudius, and Sons of Anarchy will never be the same.
Keep in mind now, the episode is barely halfway over at this point.
Jax reaches out to Nero, assuring him that while this is all very sudden and horrific, it’s simply putting to bed SAMCRO’s violent past and making way for its legitimate future.
The fallout of this is far-reaching, of course, with Patterson (CCH Pounder) and Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar) — but especially Patterson — livid at this turn of events. Yes, Jax delivered Galen and the guns, which he left with the bodies, but he certainly played her. As a reaction, she calls Tara (Maggie Siff) to ask her to meet her. Tara gets this call as she’s sitting in an SUV with Nero and a crying Gemma while on their way to the hospital so she can grab some equipment to treat Bobby’s bullet wound. She meets the officers, on the sly of course, at her office and that’s when Patterson tells her the deal is back on. If Tara turns state’s evidence against the Sons, if she can help prove they were responsible for Clay’s escape and the sheriff’s death, then she will get immunity in nurse Toric’s death and witness protection. Tara is gobsmacked, as one might expect, and she asks if a bullet from Bobby’s torso would be sufficient proof. It would be indeed, so now Tara has yet another plan.
As all this is happening, the strangest thing happens as fences seem to be getting mended. Tara, Jax and Gemma all seem to grow closer, or at least non-murderous toward each other. Perhaps in death Clay could help bring them back together. But that’s probably too good to hope for, eh? After she removes the bullet, she and Jax share a moment where he tells her that he understands why she did everything she did, and that he is sorry that being with him brought her to that point.
The episode ends as Tara clutches the bullet, wondering what her next move will be. We know what it should be, but since when has Tara ever done what she should?
The other big event this episode, although we can probably be sure nothing will really come of it, is that Unser (Dayton Callie) told Gemma that he’s in love with her. That’s why he keeps coming back. Well, duh, we knew that, right? But hey, that was quite a step for him to say it. Nero also got off a classic line, when Gemma suggests that he marry her. He says, “No offense, Mama, but I’ve seen what happens to your husbands. It ain’t pretty.” “No,” Gemma says, completely crushed. “It’s not.” He also compares himself to Michael Corleone, providing a somewhat protracted version of “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
You have to love a show where you continuously wonder where they could possibly go next. Whatever else you can say about the show, things matter on Sons of Anarchy, and it’s just too bad we’ll have to wait two weeks to be shocked again. Happy Thanksgiving! And RIP Clay, you old bastard. Like Tara says, you should’ve been dead a long time ago, but it was quite entertaining having you around.
Photo: Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX