Tonight's episode of SONS OF ANARCHY was brimming with romance and echoing with gunfire. I learned a lot about love, low-income housing, and how to properly drop off your child at school. In terms of the latter, if you enjoy imbibing your mocha flavored coffee drinks orally, you do not honk at Gemma (Katey Sagal) even if she isn't correctly utilizing the drop off lane.
In the premiere, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and his crew murdered a man of God. On paper this seems harsh, but as the pastor (Marc Lear) was sporting a pair of pantyhose and filming two other people have sex, it's hard to remember him fondly. It turns out that Pastor Jonathan Haddem was an integral part of a deal that August Marks (Billy Brown) was trying to close, and he was less than impressed that he couldn't track him down. So to keep Marks from looking for Haddem and exposing one of their many murders, they had to find the pastor's wife so she could sign off on the arrangement.
After digging up the pastor's body and implementing some tech savviness, the boys linked him to our favorite transgender escort, Venus (Walton Goggins). Venus mentioned a lake house where she and Haddem used to have private time - she was not a fan of sleazy motels. The SAMCRO fellas broke in and Tig (Kim Coates) got shot. Poor Tig, but more importantly, they found the wife and she explained that the deal involved building low income houses that would never actually get built. Despite Jax's feelings toward this sort of immorality (the man is a mortal saint), he basically told her that she needed to honor the agreement that her pervy husband put in motion. After all, it was that or eventually be killed. You can't argue with logic.
Despite the underlying Oedipal tendencies threaded throughout the show, Gemma seemed to understand that Jax would eventually need to sow his oats. She just wasn't too keen on him doing it with Colette Jane (Kim Dickens), mistress of Diosa. However, those feelings faded when Colette helped Gemma evade her biker watchdog. She decided that Colette might actually be good for Jax. You know, the man who went insane following the death of his wife, and is currently involved in assassinating most of the criminal element in Charming. There was always time for romance.
This fact is also illustrated in a tender scene between Tig and Venus, where Venus explains her poetic origin story and they exchange a passionate kiss. Sure he was a step from bleeding out on the couch, but there's no stopping desire. Even Sheriff Jarry (Annabeth Gish) and Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) couldn't stop from a little g-rated hand holding as he drove her away from the recently bombed SAMCRO ice cream shoppe. Jarry was there having a meeting with the boys when one of Lin's men tossed a grenade through the window. Jarry spotted him and thought she was putting all the pieces together. Lin must've had one of his men kill Tara, SAMCRO must've retaliated, and now no child was safe to get frozen treats. Chibs and his accent knew when to seize a perfect opportunity, and dodged her statements with the offer of a ride. It was with a lengthy soulful gaze (completely unsafe as he was no longer looking at the road), that Chibs took Jarry's hand and her heart. BOOM!
I haven't forgotten about Juice (Theo Rossi). He was peppered here and there during the episode; nude briefly again because... no one knows, but surely no one is complaining. After hearing that an APB had been released for him, he explained that he wasn't sticking around because he had a death wish. He was lonely and talking to himself; the voices in his head were getting to him. He wept. I wept. We all wept for Juice.
Nero (Jimmy Smits) got a call warning him that things were about to go down at Diosa. Jax had to put on his Elvis Costello night driving glasses and they all headed over. There were dead bodies everywhere, including Colette. Well shucks, dead so soon after Gemma had given her the green light to bed her son.
Previews for next week's episode imply that the level of Crazy will continue to increase. One thing I can't stop thinking about though: he's always around all this blood, dirt, and grime; how does Jax keeps those sneakers so white?
What do you think of the episode? Let me know n the comments below.
