(4.01
“Out”)
The boys are out of prison, Jax with some fun new
scars. Otto’s still inside, and
happens to find a razor blade in his boiled egg (I’m not sure how that works,
but ok), which he turns on his wrist, but he’s found by a guard. Charming changed in the time they were
away. Opie is getting
married. Jacob Hale is building a
fancy new sub-division, the type of McMansion development that Charming has
been so lacking in. Tara had her baby!!!
(Thomas, named after Jax’s deceased brother.) And there is literally a new Sheriff in town. Riding through town on their way to the
welcome home party at the garage, the Sons are stopped by Sheriff Eli Roosevelt
(Rockmond Dunbar), instated during the time of incarceration, and unwilling to
see any cuts on the newly paroled riders.
After the happy reunions at Teller-Morrow (where Gemma gives Jax a paper
bag containing “the one he picked out”) it’s back to business. Even with tidy profits, it’s time to
renegotiate SAMCRO’s place in the deal between them, the Irish, and the
Russians. Since they have a tail,
everyone rolls out: Clay, Jax and Opie to the meeting with everyone else
providing a distraction for the all too easily manipulated cops. While his employees are being played,
the new Sheriff is attending a super secret meeting with an odd looking man
whose renting the top floor of his building: ASUDA Potter. He explains to Roosevelt the design of
the governments RICO case involving SAMCRO, the Irish and the Russians, which
is progressing nicely due to a highly placed FBI agent within the Russians, and
asks for Roosevelt’s cooperation, as Charming will most likely be the site of
the showdown. All cop, Roosevelt
accepts. At the meet with the
Russians, the FBI agent observes Jax agreeing to the “it’s all just business”
apology offered for his shiving in prison (hence the new scars), a new deal is
struck and Opie invites them all to the wedding, a lovely pretext for sneaking
off to look at guns. Back to
Charming for um, reunion time.
Pillow-talk topics include: (for Gemma and Clay) Unser’s declining
health, Clay’s declining health, and retirement; (for Jax and Tara) getting
married, how to raise their boys, that John Teller was a coward not to take his
sons out of the life, and how Jax just needs to bide his time and save some
money so that the can leave SAMCRO and never look back. Now in the infirmary, Otto is handed a
scalpel as another prisoner is wheeled in next to him. (This can’t possibly end well.) Also on the list of things that are most
likely HUGE mistakes, time for Opie and Lyla’s wedding. All the gangs are there (on reservation
land, so cuts allowed), and Lyla emerges looking much more like the bachelor
party entertainment than the bride, but after a few (thankfully) short and awkward
vows, Opie and Lyla are pronounced man and wife. During the reception Chibs and Juice sneak off with some of
the Russians (including an un-miked FBI agent) to look at the guns. Otto
unhooks the cuff on his bed. Clay
and Jax take Putlova off to fire off a few from a particularly lethal looking
handgun. In the warehouse, they test the merchandise on the Russians who
brought them their, killing them all.
Otto shoves the scalpel through the ear and into the brain of the man
strapped in the next bed, saying, “this is for Jax Teller.” And out in the woods Clay shoots
Putlova’s bodyguards before the others hold him down so Jax can stab him
repeatedly in the chest, which is just business after all. The now dead FBI agent is the last body
to be dumped onto the new Hale development sight.
Well wasn’t that just a hi-we’re-back bitchslap?
I mean that as a compliment.
I admit that I find the details of
who-has-a-deal-with-who-and-for-what-and-why rather hard to follow on this
show: it’s always very intricate and usually changes in the time it takes to
flip the safety off. Therefore it
was rather helpful to introduce two new law enforcement characters to explain
to each other where the criminal enterprises of the Sons stand. Without seeming forced or condescending,
we got a quick update to bridge us from the previous seasons, and part of the
organic presentation was the initial strength of our new lawmen. Potter, a smoking, paranoid,
motorcycle-riding wisp of a dude, is a bit odd, but in now way quirky or cutesy. He’s like the anti-Stahl: patient
observation and quiet cunning instead of furious proclamations and half-baked
ideas. He admits he needs
Roosevelt’s help because his team has no credibility in gang warfare, while
Roosevelt has vast experience. He doesn’t
strong-arm what he needs, but there’s no doubt (to him or to us) that he is
going to get it. One look at his
extensive walls of photos and relationships is enough to make clear that this
man won’t be taken in by any Jax Teller triple/ quadruple/ whatever
–crosses. And Roosevelt, what a
welcome addition to Charming. He’s
the savvy, upright, committed Sheriff that the town (and the club, because
without the law, there’s no such thing as outlaws) so desperately needs in the
void left behind by David Hale’s untimely death. But as a transplant, and therefore without Hale’s hometown
attachment to Charming, Roosevelt stands a better chance of protecting the town
because of his emotional distance.
But there is another new character, even if he won’t have
any lines. Emily the Roommate can
tell you I was genuinely distressed over whether or not Tara was going to have
an abortion. (I missed the video
that would have put me out of my misery sooner.) It’s not just that I’m Pro-Life, but also that it would have
been out of character for Tara.
And it would have just upset me to no end to see Tara have a similar
look to the one on Lyla’s face when Opie mentioned expanding their family. Welcome Thomas Teller, I’m so happy to
meet you. Now please make yourself
useful and help you dad propose to your mom.
Seriously, Jax’s proposal to Tara was so frakking prefect I
wanted to die inside. Not some
over-the-top declaration of adoration everlasting, but rather a humble
acknowledgment of the family that they already are, Jax unreservedly opened
himself up to Tara’s rejection by letting it show in his eager expression and
halting sentence just how important her answer is. And as much as he avows that Tara is his savior, brought to
him to take him out of the violence of his life, he came to her having thought
out her needs, demonstrating to her that he’s asking her to marry him so that
he can be her husband, not with the expectation that she will simply be his
wife. Perfect.
And it was nice to have that perfection for half an episode,
because at the end we had to question if it had all been a lie. Where exactly does Jax think he can go
where the repercussions of this won’t follow him? The merits of eye-for-an-eye justice are debatable. Putlova tried to kill Jax, so within
the context of their criminal world, Jax killing Putlova makes sense, and could
possibly be something that everyone could move past. Slaughtering all the Russians is more of the scorched-earth
approach, and given that one of those Russians was an undercover FBI agent, the
landscape surrounding SAMCRO now looks to be as salted as Carthage after Cato
finally got his way in the Roman Senate.
Sons of Anarchy, how
I have missed you.
The TV Girl
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