S4E13: Holy hell has been unleashed upon the town of Charming, California on this week’s Sons of Anarchy. Trusted Sons, Otto and Juice have turned rat and have each gave information to the Feds about the club and the big deal between the Gallindo cartel and the IRA that is about to go down. Opie shot Clay, taking revenge for the Sons president killing his father. Jax and Tara are still trying to escape their fates and leave Charming in their rearview forever, and as far as the club knows, it was a rival club that tried to kill Tara, not Clay. There’s one episode left of the best season yet of Sons of Anarchy and there are still plenty of loose ends to tie up. I’m done trying to think up catchy motorcycle puns, but still enjoy bringing you guys some recap joy. So unless you’re all still in a turkey coma get ready part one of the season finale of Sons of Anarchy.
“Just what I need, another promise.” – Opie
Unfortunately, Opie wasn’t able to get the job done last week and Clay is still breathing. Opie tries to finish the job, but Jax stops him by shooting him in the arm. Unser and one of the prospects storm into the clubhouse and the cover up is decided. Clay weakly spurts out the idea to blame the shooting on black, which inevitably leads the club to think that the Niners were responsible. Jax and Opie drive off. Opie vows to finish the job but Jax demands that Opie allows him to find out the truth. Opie tells Jax everything he knows; everything Unser told him at the cabin. Jax asks that Opie lay low while he finds out the truth. At the hospital, the docs get Clay into surgery while Unser gives the fake story to Sherriff Roosevelt. Chibs and Tig hypothesize that the Niners were behind the shooting and Tig takes off, feeling guilty that he wasn’t there to protect Clay.
At the station house, Roosevelt gives the news to Potter, who is still in good spirits and high hopes because even though Clay will probably be in the hospital when the meeting takes place, Potter will still be able to nab Jax during the meeting between the IRA and the Gallindo cartel.
Jax meets up with Lenny Janowitz at Stockton Prison who informs him about Otto flipping. Jax talks to Romero Parada and Luis Torres, who will use their influence to find out more intel and decide whether to continue the deal with the IRA or not. Romero pays good money for information and finds out that Otto didn’t flip. I guess he deserves a refund because while Otto doesn’t know anything about Gallindo, he did serve Bobby up on a silver platter to Agent Potter.
“If we get out of this alive, then you know that Jax and I are leaving.” – Tara
Jax returns home to clean up and Tara finds the bloody clothes. Despite the “rough night” that Jax had, he still vows to Tara that they’re leaving Charming. Gemma comes to visit Tara, and a prospect immediately tells her that Jax is looking for her. Gemma tells her about Clay and that Opie shot him because Clay killed Piney with a shotgun to his chest – and that Clay did it because he thought Piney had the letters. Gemma lays it on the line and tells Tara that it was Clay who hired the men who tried to take Tara out. Ready to play her trump card, Gemma asks Tara for the letters under the guise that she will give them to Clay in hopes that he’ll back off. Tara makes her own vow to Gemma: if this goes down, she and Jax will be leaving Charming. Gemma goes to the warehouse that houses the letters and besides the maguffin to end all maguffins, she finds pictures of her younger self and the first man she loved, John Teller. She takes some of the letters, leaving the ones that implicate her and Unser.
“Crimson and Clover, over and over.” – The song playing while Tig goes after the One–Niners
Racked with guilt over not being at the clubhouse to protect Clay, Tig goes after the One–Niners, who he believes are responsible. He drives his car straight at a bunch of them who are sitting down to eat lunch. As always on this show, committing revenge for reasons that aren’t true lead to bad results and Tig is hunted down as he tries to leave Oakland. Tig rides his ass off through traffic in a thrilling chase scene between him and the gaining One–Niners, with Jax, Chibs, and Happy, etc. riding like hell to catch up to the mayhem. Jax takes out LeRoy’s driver and the Sons ride off, victorious for now. Thanks to Clay, Jax, and Opie’s cover-up, the Niners are ready to head to war. While Jax is trying to reprimand his soldier, the club is informed that Clay woke up and Tig rides off to see him. He admits being wrong about laying down his patch. Gemma arrives at the hospital to console the poor guy.
“I know how dangerous secrets can be, and it’s time we all knew the truth.” – Gemma
In what has to be the biggest scene in the entire series, Gemma visits Jax at the clubhouse. She explains exactly how Clay went about attempting to kill John, and how he succeeded. It’s a powerful scene that drudges up a whole lot of the past. While these are truths we’ve all known for a long time, Jax learns the truth for the first time here and no matter how powerful the scene is, it does seem like the boy who would be king gets pulled around by the women in his life.
Jax meticulously pours over the letters from John to Maureen Ashby while Unser gives Gemma the news that Clay is out of Intensive Care. Gemma tells Unser that Jax is reading the letters, but that she didn’t give Jax the ones the implicate her and Unser. Tara arrives and is thoroughly behind Jax, giving him blood thinner to inject into Clay’s IV, which will kill him.
Twenty years of backstory, as well as the contents of this season, laid out in a mere five minutes is not a shock but a necessity. Gemma, in a last ditch effort to keep her son from leaving, plays her trump card: the truth. And it’s all under the guise of being a caring mother who wants what’s best for her son. He’s always had to choose between his club and his family and Jax has spent the past few years desperately trying to have both. Thanks to Gemma, he no longer has that option. Staying in Charming to finish Clay off and take the gavel will surely push Tara away forever.
I never would have thought that biggest moment in Sons history would be a part of one of the slower hours in Sons history. The pieces might have been set last week, but thanks to Opie, everything changed once the king was put in check. This week, the pieces moved again. Jax is at the head of the club with the means to stay there and kill Clay. Jax is also ready to kill Clay and leave Charming. We’re also left wondering if Romero was given bad intel or if the Gallindo cartel is ready to cut and run at the Sons’ expense. Once again, the show is centered on Jax and Clay and their complicated relationship, which is exactly the way it should be. The end for Clay is next week, there’s not a whole lot of ways for him to weasel out of what he has to answer for.
