We’re back, Crow Lovers! And so is SAMCRO for the final time.
Now, I now that makes you sad. In the last 12 months, we in TV land have had to say goodbye to everyone from Heisenberg’s Baby Blue to Sookie and The Gang . And now, it’s time for the Reaper’s last round-up. But “All Things Must Pass” as someone once said. So, instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, let’s get to the nit and grit of Season Seven…
The season opens with Jax beating a man to a pulp in County lockup, capping off the the savagery by practicing some down home dentistry and using a page from the Inglorious Basterds playbook. The bloody deed done, we find out that Jax is bringing a peace offering to the Aryan Brotherhood’s new inside leader, Tully ( played with effective menace by Marilyn Manson) gaining him a sit down. With the Supes’ snitch dealt with, Jax is given a pass for the Club’s past sins against the AB. With this new era of good feeling, Jax says he needs a potential future favor from Tully. With a cool eye, Tully agrees to keeping the lines of communication open (and starts a new American party game: Guess at home which one of Marilyn Manson’s Nazi tats are real).
The opening also gives us a glimpse at the Club and the rest our players. Wendy checks herself out of rehab… Gemma is taking care of the boys while being tailed by Ratboy… Juice in working out in the buff… Chief Unser is tending to Tara’s fresh grave site… Out in Stockton, Nero and the Mayas are trying to keep track of the shifting alliances between the Irish, the Tong, the One9ers and themselves (can’t tell your ethnic crime organizations without a scorecard!).
The rest of the Club is in Oakland, helping the Grim Bastards sort out a local beef concerning some GB’s who were run over on the highway. After a John Woo style face-off with the EastUp Clique and after applying some motorcycle-aided motivation to a wheelchair bound OG, SAMCRO finds out they are looking for a blue Impala, owned by an old associate of Damien Pope.
Meanwhile in lockup, Patterson tells at stone faced Jax that she has no evidence to keep him in Tara’s murder and that she is kicking him. She relates a personal insight that she too has been the victim of murderous violence, including the death of a son. While failing to sway Jax to spill what he knows, he asks Patterson why she has shared this personal tale. She relates that it was a last ditch attempt to break through the wall and to reach the inner man and father. Jax holds his peace and is booted into the care of Gemma, who is already on site.
Meanwhile at Wendy’s, the fragile mother-in-waiting enters her apartment to find that Juice is hiding out there. He begs Wendy to keep quiet about his presence until he can get some funds together to flee Charming. Wendy reluctantly agrees to to keep quiet, despite being clueless about Juice’s crimes or the reason that Jax wants him pinched.
In the car with Jax and Gemma, Gemma alternates between mooning over Jax and blowing smoke up his posterior about Tara. Jax seems distracted, but thanks her for holding things together. He then relates to her that he needs her help for all the moves that he is now forced to make to hold SAMCRO together.
After dropping Jax at the Ice Cream shop, Gemma spies Wendy coming down the street. Big Mama cuts her off before she can get to Jax, knowing that some aspect of her game within the game is up. After their normal unpleasantries, Gemma finds out that Juice hasn’t spilled the full bag of beans and offers to smooth things over with Jax. Jax and the Brothers scope the pair out, leading to Jax asking Wendy what she is doing there. Gemma spins a tale of Wendy being invited to help with the boys. Jax absent-mindedly agrees with the new role for his Ex.
At the table, the Club gives a status update. Happy has done some dirt for the Italians, the new porn site in Stockton is almost ready, the Irish deal with Marks is going through… Jax address the group with an apology. He says that his desire to take the Club legit blinded him from the ever-present dangers of the Outlaw life. And that Tara paid the price for his foolishness. He says he is all in again and that he needs every man at the table to be all in with him. It’s his Captain Ahab in the Storm moment and we can sense that this will not end well.
At Wendy’s, Gemma re-enforces the need for Juice to stay low. Juice queries Gemma about how she can be so detached from what they’ve done, especially to Jax. She rationalizes that if Jax were to find the truth, it would just mean more death and depravity… And that her lies are holding back the wolves. It’s a wonderful Gemma-like moment. Sympathetic, self-serving and logical all at once.
Back at the shop, Nero has shown up and after a stiff hug-out reunion with Jax, they go into the alley to talk turkey. Outside, Nero offers to make a sit-down with the Mayas and the Tong to smooth over each being cut out of the Irish gun business. Jax immediately agrees and says he wants to go Stockton for a meeting. We can see something dark is turning behind Jax’s eyes.
At the TM, Patterson reunites with Chief Unser and asks him to consider helping the incoming replacement for Chief Eli. While reluctant, Unser doesn’t say no either. At the new porn palace, Nero and Gemma have a meeting of the minds (and the lips).
While Nero is setting up the meeting, the Club gets word from the GB’s about their Impala. The two groups track it to an apartment house and storm in ready to handle anything they find… Until they show up in the middle of the strangest swirled up, boy-on-girl-on-boy-on-boy foursome ever seen on television ( I think someone at FX’s Standards and Practices eyes must have melted). Weirder still, Girl on Bottom pulls down on the Club (because nothing says sexy-time like a Nine Millimeter in bed) and the obligatory shoot out ends with a room full of dead sex tape wanna-bes.
Just to make everything Sutter-level strange, all the men involved with the bloodletting are pastors at a local Oakland church. And since SOA is DOA after this season, why not hit all the hot button issues you can? This particular side-show leaves the Club and the Bastards no closer to finding their mysterious Impala driver. Cross, the head of the GBs, tell Jax he needs a scalp and soon. Jax reassures him and tell him he needs a favor tonight after his coming home party.
It’s that party he pitches to the Tong and the Mayas, saying that cold beer, hot porn stars and side business will heal all wounds between them. He promises that Conner will hook the Tong up with some indie gun business outside of Mark’s deal with the IRA. Lin is skeptical, but agrees to go when the Maya do.
At Wendy’s, she tells Juice he can hang until further notice: she’s gonna stay with Gemma. Unser comes by to spirit her away and notices several items out of place for a gal just out of rehab. A goofy bottle of freshly bought Orange Juice is on the counter. When she asks for her jacket, he sees a man’s travel bag. Is Wendy this careless, or has she been taking notes fro Gemma?
At the party, Buckcherry is in full throat as once-and-future enemies do it like rock stars. However, one Tong solider sits alone, nursing his glass. Gemma comes by and chats him up, asking him why he isn’t taking part in the festivities. He says someone’s gotta keep the game face on to protect Lin. When he relates that he’s not much of a partyer and has no social life, Gemma urges him to eat, drink and be merry… And we know what that means.
Meanwhile, Unser sneaks back into Wendy’s to check his mystery bag. Only to be caught by an armed Juice. No bueno. Even worse is the party scene… While the action is breaking up, Jax approaches Cross and tells him he wants the Tong soldier followed and captured by the GB’s. Cross says he needs to be in on the reasoning for crossing the Tong. Jax summons Gemma, who sinks to an all time record low, by fingering the completely innocent Tong member as Tara’s killer. Crossing over the line isn’t the word here, as she (and everyone) knows she’s signing the man’s death warrant.
The last 4 1/2 minutes of the episode are accompanied by the Forest Rangers super inventive re-imagining of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” But singing to Bismillah isn’t going to help the Tong solider as the GB’s bring him to Jax’s house and leave him to the mercies of the Club. Before the bloodletting starts, Gemma dreamily talks in the dark to herself. Or is it to Tara? Either way, Jax goes medieval on the poor guy, crossing a line of his own. He caps off the massacre by plunging the same style serving fork used on Tara into the man’s head, proving that you can find a place for those things outside Turkey Day.
So what do we think, Crow Lovers? Has Jax flipped completely? Or does it matter that he seems to not care about who gets killed anymore? Will Gemma’s flimsy story be exposed? And will New Evil Juice take out Unser to save his own butt (which we saw more of than needed is episode)? Will the final SAMCRO body-count make George R R Martin say “Damn, that’s harsh”? Be back next week, but until then, discuss here on DarkMedia and on our Facebook page!
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