“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
Jax Teller began the final season of “Sons of Anarchy” pulling teeth out of a man’s skull. Now, his violent acts have cost one of his closest allies an eye, and quite possibly his life. Somewhere in the great beyond, Hammurabi is laughing at the irony. (And yes, Hammurabi is a “Sons of Anarchy” fan. Who knew?)
No more time to waste. We’re in full-on SPOILER mode to talk about “Greensleeves,” one of the biggest episodes of this very bloody season.
A New Shot of Juice
FX
Somehow, Juice’s continued survival isn’t the biggest story of the night — even if it is a big deal. Against all conventional wisdom, SAMCRO elects to keep Juice alive, and in active play. In order to earn his way back into the club’s good graces, Juice is sent on what could very well be a suicide mission to get himself locked up in prison, so that he can kill Henry Lin on Jax’s behalf.
“I know it’s a big risk,” Jax says, in what’s easily one of the biggest understatements in the show’s seven-season history. Chibs insists that all Juice wants is to return to the fold of the club. Is he right?
Juice does as he’s told, shooting at cops and getting locked up as a result. But the plan doesn’t fully work. Instead of landing in gen-pop alongside Lin, Juice is locked away in a cell for two. He gains a roommate who claims to be pals with Ron Tully, the Aryan leader played by Marilyn Manson. Can Juice trust his new neighbor, or is there more to the story?
Nero Buys The Farm
FX
“Are you a gangster?” “I don’t think so.”
Finally, Nero Padilla is ready to make a level-headed decision. Rather than continue working with SAMCRO, after all the horrors at Diosa and the war against Lin, Nero decides that it’s time to move on, with plans to take over his uncle’s farm, far away from Charming. He asks Jax to buy him out, and offers his share of Diosa to Mayan leader Marcus Alvarez.
“Why do you think I want out?” an amused and at-peace Nero tells Jax. “I should’ve listened to my gut months ago.”
But Nero doesn’t want to put Charming in the rearview mirror, not completely. He wants Gemma to come with him. She says there’s too much happening with the club for her to leave Charming, but promises she’ll think about Nero’s offer.
Gemma’s Confession
FX
Not long after Nero’s offer, the boys of SAMCRO command Gemma to come to their cabin in the woods, on Jax’s orders. “It’s a family problem,” says Happy. “A mother-son thing.”
Gemma becomes paranoid that Juice told Jax that she’s the one who killed Tara, and now she’s going to pay the ultimate price. Before she leaves for the cabin, she stops by her home to pick up some things, and makes a big confession to baby Thomas:
“Sometimes, sweetheart, accidents just happen. They happen for love. They happen for reasons we don’t understand,” she says, holding the baby, crying her eyes out. “Killing your mommy was an accident. It was such an awful accident. I didn’t want to kill her. I didn’t mean it. I loved your mommy so much. I’m so sorry.”
Baby Thomas does not understand Gemma’s confession, because he’s a baby, and does not yet speak English. Toddler Abel is a different story. He overhears the whole thing, listening to Gemma’s confession through a crack in the door. We don’t know how much of Gemma’s words he understands — but he hears it all. How he processes that information, and who he decides to share it with, should be the subject of some major drama in the weeks ahead.
(Oh, and SAMCRO needs Gemma at the cabin so she can help kick someone’s heroin habit. All that freaking out for nothing!)
Jax’s Anti-Semantic Adventure
FX
Jax is this close to putting all of his recent drama behind him. Lin’s locked away and in Juice’s crosshairs. The Sons, Mayans and Niners are all aligned. Now it’s just a matter of dealing with August Marks.
Jax reasons that Marks is so politically-connected that he needs to be taken down with “leverage, not blood.” In order to get that leverage, SAMCRO deposits the dead pastor’s body on one of Marks’ properties, and has the pastor’s family sign a confession that implicates Marks in the murder. But their word is only reliable in their community if Jax can take care of Adam “Greensleeves” Greenblatt, an Oakland pimp extorting money out of the family because he has video evidence of the pastor’s sexual misconduct.
Long story short, Jax and Chibs pay Greensleeves a visit, and Jax throws him through a window, impaling him on a shard of glass, while Chibs provides some uncomfortable anti-semitic (or is it anti-semantic?) commentary about “the Jew pimp.” Not cool, Chibs.
Bob-Eye Elvis
FX
Anyway, all should be going well with Jax’s plan to blackmail Marks into backing down, right? Wrong.
August Marks warned Jax that he’s the deadliest man on the street, and he proves it, by responding to SAMCRO’s truce offering with an eye. No, not an “aye.” An actual eye. Specifically, Bobby “Elvis” Munson’s eyeball.
Marks’ security chief Moses Cartwright (played by Mathew St. Patrick, aka Keith from “Six Feet Under,” a welcome new addition to the “Sons” cast) runs Bobby off the road, ties him up, and cuts out his eye, recording the entire thing on an iPad for Jax to see. As if that’s not bad enough, Bobby remains in Marks’ custody. One little eyeball could look like a minor league injury compared to what comes next.
Can Jax and the club save Bobby from Marks? Or is one of SAMCRO’s most tried and true soldiers about to meet Mr. Mayhem? We’ll see soon enough — unlike poor Bobby.
Too soon?
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