S4E6: It’s time for the case of the missing coke. It’s time to get in your Mystery Machine for Sons of Anarchy. Scoobie Snacks not included.
“Killing each other ain’t gonna solve anything!”–Clay
Our show begins right where last week’s left off, the Sons and Mayans wondering where the missing key of coke is and the two MCs arguing about it. Mayan president, Alvarez says matter of factly, “it doesn’t matter if it’s a Mayan or a Son; they’re dead.” Clay and Jax rule out Juice (who actually is the coke thief) with a quick discussion and Jax heads off to grab Happy for some of his interrogation tactics. First up for questioning is the Sons’ newest member, Eric Miles. While Happy’s having his fun, the Prospects proclaim their innocence to Clay. Happy’s fun, unbeknownst to the Prospects is just him bashing a hammer onto a table while Miles pretends to squeal in agony. Obviously Juice’s guilt is rising over the missing brick he stole and he thinks his club mates are being tortured for it. Jax forces the Prospects, Phil and Ratboy, into a game of Russian Roulette, and you guessed it: there are no bullets in the gun, it’s all in good fun and it’s all in the name of routing out the yak thief.
“She’s half of Satan’s spawn.”–Gemma
Tig’s daughter, Dawn – “the crazy one” – shows up at Teller–Morrow with some bad news about her sister, Margeaux, who she claims is anorexic. Meanwhile Gemma, Tara, and little Thomas Teller find Ima, the porn star, still at the shop from a night with Opie. Gemma and Tara threaten her and tell her to leave. While Tara briefly thinks Jax cheated on her again, Lyla shows up to ask where Opie is and she realizes that Opie was the one who cheated. Lyla spots the gash’s car, but before Lyla can put the boots to her, Ima pulls a gun and tells Lyla to ask Opie why he cheated instead on her. Tara and Gemma again threaten her, she better keep that gun close. While this is nothing more than a B story, a lot of B stories on the show intersect with the main plots and this one’s no different, forcing Clay, Jax, and Opie to leave the drug warehouse to deal with it. Upon returning, Piney tosses a fist into his son’s face, “Your d**k almost got people killed. I don’t even know who you are anymore.” All this over Lyla taking birth control (which Opie found out about last week); damn right the old man should have punched him. Pulling a gun in a room with a baby is not cool at all. As for Dawn, Bobby gets a hold of Margeaux, who is living happily and healthily in Chicago. Even though Tig learns that she’s drifting him, the thought of seeing his daughter is more important and he gives her the money.
“Knocked up and kidnapped kind of wipes the slate clean. I wouldn’t recommend it as a fix.”–Jax to Opie
Jax and Opie have one of their heart-to-hearts about Opie’s infidelity. Opie isn’t sure about his relationship with Lyla anymore. More importantly, afterwards Tara pours her own heart out to Jax “I’m the mother of your sons, you don’t just hurt me, you hurt all of us.” Gemma in not so many words suggests to her son to shut Ima up, “that wound isn’t going to heal fully. I’d make sure it doesn’t come back.” Sometime later, Opie and Lyla have their tete–a–tete and Lyla tells Opie about her abortion. Opie says he’s going to crash at the clubhouse until Lyla figures out what she wants to do. This is a story that has been ever-present but rarely spoken about: Opie’s continuing decent into the MC and away from any real family. We first met him as family man who was just part of the MC. Then the MC murdered his wife in a hit that was meant for him. He’s been headed down the road to motorcycle madness ever since. The show’s done a good job of portraying these changes ever so slightly and actor Ryan Hurst has done an outstanding job of deftly portraying them. Even though it’s a side story, I’m always pulling for Opie, hoping one day we’ll see him happy again. As for Jax’s part, smashing Ima’s head into a mirror and spitting on her is enough to keep her away.
“Burdens on you to find out the truth, otherwise you’re both dead.”–Chibs
Chibs, Happy, and the two prospects are still in the warehouse and the boys are still being forced to play the Russian roulette bluff. Chibs tells the prospects they had better find out the truth. Back at the club, Miles tells Clay that he checked the tapes and no one entered the warehouse except for their guys. Clay gets the word from Alvarez that he’s questioned his guys and none of the Mayans took the coke. Juice takes one last stab at the Sons’ prospects, telling them that there are guys coming to the warehouse and if the missing kilo isn’t here, it spells trouble for the club. Juice tells the prospects that he, Chibs, and Happy are going to have a smoke and if the missing kilo is around somewhere, “just put it back.” Juice dips away from Chibs and Happy to retrieve the missing key, unfortunately for him, Miles finds him. Instead of trying to talk it out, there’s an all too brief, but violent skirmish that ends with Juice shooting Miles; one of the show’s more gruesome murders of late. It’s bad enough Juice has been living in fear of Sheriff Roosevelt ratting him out to the Sons about his African-American heritage, but now he’s got the guilt of murdering an innocent man and covering his own ass. At least he’s found his scapegoat to blame the missing kilo on. Luckily for him, Chibs and Happy believe his story. Although, the look Chibs gives Juice while he’s getting stitched up would lead you to believe that the ex–IRA member does suspect Juice after all.
“She’s our doc, she’s got a level of access that I’m afraid is going to expose us.”–Clay
When Parada comes to pick up his drugs, Clay meets with him secret, asking him to set up a hit on his soon-to-be daughter-in-law. Hopefully, with Unser still in his back pocket, Clay had him on Tara, but after he meets with Sheriff Roosevelt and explains that Tara is in danger and anonymously puts a threatening letter on his car, it could be that he’s trying warn Tara without giving himself up.
Whew, I’m surprised this wasn’t one of the show’s 90-minute episodes, since there was a lot ground to cover. “With an X,” demonstrated why Sons of Anarchy is so captivating. With very little action, the plot’s drama was at the forefront and was all-engrossing. Even little B stories that seemingly mean nothing feel significant, because on this show the B stories wind up being more important by season’s end. We’ll probably see Dawn again. As for Ima, Jax’s threats will surely rise up again to hurt the club. After all, one of last year’s B-plots resulted in Tara’s kidnapping.
We saw a week of no action, and I’m still pumped up for the next episode. Kudos to creator Kurt Sutter, episode director Guy Ferland, and writers, Chris Collins and Regina Corrado for putting together a fine hour of drama.
