Episode Title: “One One Six”
Writers: Chris Collins & Adria Lang
Director: Peter Weller
Previously on “Sons of Anarchy”:
Given the way that some fans romanticize Charlie Hunnam’s Jax Teller, “Sons of Anarchy” occasionally reminds its audience that these are bad people who are living dangerous lives. And they make a lot of mistakes that tend to leave other people ruined or worse.
Do you still think that Jax is a good man after what he pulled tonight? As far as Jax not following in the footsteps of Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman)… that ship sailed last season. The only area that Jax has any moral high ground on his stepfather is that he doesn’t hit his wife.
Kurt Sutter… don’t get any ideas! This show is dark enough already.
There are full spoilers ahead for “One One Six,” so you should probably skip this review if you aren’t current with “Sons of Anarchy” or else Juice will cry while washing his hands.
With Jax and Tara (Maggie Siff), the silence between them speaks volumes about where their marriage is. I loved their wordless meeting outside the courthouse; which was bookended by a very non-passionate love scene that left tears in Tara’s eyes.
Tara knows that their marriage is over and she’s already planning for a divorce. Even before that reveal, this is foreshadowed by Siff’s performance and the script as Tara has an unenthusiastic reaction to Jax’s spiel about getting the club out of guns and into slightly more legitimate businesses where no one gets hurt. We’ve heard this song before and so has Tara. She’s just stopped believing it.
If Jax can sense the change in his wife’s attitude towards him, he doesn’t acknowledge it. His mother, Gemma (Katey Sagal) is sharp enough to pick up on Tara’s new state of mind, but she doesn’t press her too hard. And I think Tara has learned her lesson about sharing her thoughts with Gemma.
One of the other big reveals in the episode is that Tara may be pregnant. Since Tara’s not a cheater like her husband, I presume the father is Jax. That’s assuming that Tara is pregnant and that she’ll keep the child. But you can’t make those assumptions on this show. Last season’s finale depicted Jax and Tara in the midst of their biggest fight as a couple. That emotional distance never went away and neither of them seem to seriously be trying to bridge the gap between them. If Jax thought that Tara was going to take his children away, how far do you think he’d go to stop her?
We already know how far Jax will go to protect this club. In this episode alone, Jax orders Jean Carlos “Juice” Ortiz (Theo Rossi) to smother Darvany (Samaire Armstrong), the mother of the 11 year old child who shot up his school in last week’s cliffhanger. This was after Darvany tried to get out of SAMCRO’s protective custody with her lover, Arcadio (Dave Navarro).
At least Juice feels guilty about it, but he still commits the murder in the vain hope that Jax will someday forgive him for betraying the club. Jax even plays up that forgiveness by giving Juice extra attention when he leaves. Jax barely reacts to Darvany’s death at all, leaving Nero Padilla (Jimmy Smits) as the emotional heart of the scene.
As Nero explains it, he had to kill Arcadio because he betrayed him. Darvany was relatively innocent and he doesn’t kill people like that. Nor can he condone it. So, Jax lies to his face and Nero seems to accept it. But there’s only so long that Jax can keep snowing Nero before getting some serious pushback. Nero’s already shown his dissatisfaction with Jax’s business decisions, but he’s not the only one. The new SAMCRO VP, Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) also seems to be unhappy with the way that Jax is running things.
Meanwhile, Lee Toric (Donal Logue) uses the school shooting to his advantage by enlisting the local DA, Tyne Patterson (CCH Pounder) to use SAMCRO as the scapegoat for the tragedy. Patterson knows that its BS, but she’s willing to accept Toric’s help despite his colorful record as a former Marshal. Toric also has Clay seemingly ready to turn rat on SAMCRO, but only after he gets some face time with Gemma and Jax.
Jax stays away from Clay this week, but the jailhouse visit between Clay and Gemma was terrific. Keep in mind, Gemma both loves and hates Clay… and he still has the ability to get under her skin. Gemma couldn’t get out of the room fast enough to hide the way he drove her to tears. They know each other well, so I’m sure that Clay’s words had the desired effect. And Gemma correctly guessed that Clay’s sudden change in behavior meant that he was about to betray SAMCRO.
Even so, Clay won’t sign the cooperation agreement fast enough for Toric, so Toric forges Clay’s signature to get Patterson to extend Clay’s stint in protective custody. That might be the first huge mistake that Toric has made to date, but it probably won’t be enough to derail his plans once it inevitably comes out that he forged a legal document.
In another subplot, Galen O’Shay (Timothy V. Murphy) and the Real IRA won’t let Jax get the club out of running guns… because the plot demands that Galen be a huge dick about it. The antagonism between Galen and Jax has been around for a few seasons now, but I’m over the IRA on this show. Once the club made the trip to Ireland back in season 3, that plotline should have been made into a distant memory. The only interesting thing to come out of it is that Jax is intentionally keeping the guns off the streets and pissing off Chibs in the process.
Somewhere on the road, Bobby Muson (Mark Boone Junior) appears to be tracking down unhappy members of the Sons’ other charters. I’m assuming that Bobby is going to form his own charter with these recruits, but his plans haven’t yet been made clear. As a teaser in this episode and the previous one, it’s fine. But hopefully this subplot won’t wear out its welcome.
I’m still not convinced that the school shooting plot was even needed for this season, especially with Darvany and her lover out of the way so quickly. But this was a more solid episode than the season premiere. I’m not completely satisfied with the direction of the overall story, but I’m willing to give Sutter and company a chance to get the show where they want it to be.
