The following contains spoilers for Sons of Anarchy
Sons of Anarchy Recap: “Toad’s Wild Ride”
Original Air Date (FX): Tuesday October 23, 2012
Season 5 Episode 7
Here we are again, SOA fans. Another week, another batch of chaos to sift through. Honestly, if I didn’t know Kurt Sutter had signed a deal guaranteeing a 6th season, I’d think this was it. This is absolutely Sopranos calibre television, when it was at its best; the characters have been consistently and relentlessly faced with one crisis after the next, from the death of Opie to some of the things you’re about to see in Toad’s Wild Ride.
Up to this point, the situations these characters faced were serious, sure, but there always seemed to be a way to wiggle out of it. Tara was stalked, Jax shot her stalker, no one was really the wiser. Problem solved. Abel was kidnapped, and even though that took us to Ireland for an exceedingly long time, it turned out fine in the end. Even Clay getting shot in the chest didn’t boast any real consequences for either him or Opie. Of course there have been a few exceptions to this rule (Donna’s death, Clay killing Piney), but the sheer weight of the events this season eclipses all of that; we passed that marker at “Pope burns Tig’s daughter alive” and then were slammed with “Opie gets killed in prison” and “Carla shoots herself on Gemma’s rug” and even “Walton Goggins plays a transsexual hooker”.
Ready for more? Here we go.
Previously on Sons: Jax makes a deal to go into the porn/escort business with Nero, Tara unsuccessfully tries to get Otto to recant his testimony against the club, Jax and Tara are going on vacation, Gemma and Unser have a weird relationship, Joel McHale is all about the cougars, and Clay is a sociopath whether he has full use of both lungs or not.
Clay is holding a meeting with the Nomads. You see, Clay never really wants to kill anyone, they just seem to get in his way. For a man who does nothing but commit crime, I think it needs to be said that Clay doesn’t seem to be all that good at it. He keeps “accidentally” getting people killed, in addition to the fact that his instincts are always wrong, and his plans never play out the way he wants. But he knows Unser is onto him, and he tells the guys this during a heated discussion about what to do next. The Nomads also reveal what the initial deal was: Get Clay back at the head of the table by making Jax look inept, like he can’t control crime in Charming, and then Clay gives them a piece of his profits on everything. But considering they’ve basically botched the whole thing, Clay tells them to get the hell out of town.
Meanwhile, back in Cougartown, Gemma once again seems confused about why she’s naked in a motel, as she wakes up next to guest star Joel McHale. Honestly, Gemma, if you can’t even remember all the sex you’re having, that seems to be a pretty large waste of sex. She also seems occasionally alarmed by the fact that she’s bisexual, but that’s a whole other conversation entirely. Now, at this point you may be thinking, “What’s Joel McHale doing on Sons of Anarchy?”, and I’m right there with you. But, short-lived as his cameo is, it’s also a little fantastic. Because he steals Gemma’s wallet and her car while she’s in the bathroom.
Jax and Bobby meet with Unser to talk about the crime wave, and (finally) everyone is wise to Clay. Apparently, Unser has turned his trailer into an episode of Law and Order as he’s spent what seems to be all his free time investigating the home invasions. Maybe if Gemma had dated him, he wouldn’t be so on the ball with this one. Unser asks Jax, “Who has something to gain by making the club look weak? Turning the town and the sheriffs against them?” Then the lightbulb goes on in Jax’s head. Sometimes I think Jax actually looks amused by the horrible things Clay does, but then I realize that little smirk on his face is probably because he’s visualizing the day when he shoots him in the head. Or I could be projecting, because that’s what I’m visualizing. Time will tell. The real point of this scene is when Jax tells Unser to go check in on the Nomads and feel out the situation. Is that a smart call, or the worst one he could have made? We’ll see.
Chuck Zito is heading out of town for a few weeks, and Jax takes a little time to make him extraordinarily uncomfortable before he goes, with a conversation about how he’ll need his input on how to maim and/or kill the people responsible for all the crimes. Well done, Jax Teller.
On Jax’s orders, Unser goes by the Nomads’ house to “welcome” them to Charming. The one who looks too much like Jason Lee tells him to get lost, and the other guy who isn’t smart enough to cover the gaping scratches on his collarbone agrees. Honestly, you know for a fact the police are looking for a man who got scratched while killing the Sheriff’s pregnant wife, and you can’t wear a t-shirt that covers the evidence? Not a very crime-savvy group, this one. And it’s a little ironic that Clay is using these guys to make it look like Jax has poor judgement, and can’t keep things under control, when that’s essentially Clay’s calling card.
Things are going well over at Caracara; the whores are happy, Nero is happy, Chibs and Tig are really happy. Who’s not happy is Gemma. Nero lets Jax know he just got a call, and all they head over to help Gemma with her one night stand and subsequent theft situation. Jax basically calls Gemma a whore, and Nero gives him a little insight into Gemma’s reckless behavior. “She’s caught between a husband she hates and a kid she thinks hates her,” he says. “Women like your mom, Jax, they don’t do so good without family.” But there’s no time to think about that, because Joel McHale is trying to sell the SUV at a chop shop, and there’s beating to be done.
While this is going on, Tara is sitting around at the club, looking for ways to manipulate Otto the next time she sees him in prison. Clay wanders in. This is the point at which Tara really should scream bloody murder and run the other way, but instead she settles for a few passive aggressive statements about him being “dead already” while Clay’s work wife waits outside. And you all know exactly who I’m talking about. Juice gives clay a message that the Nomads want to talk to him.
What follows is a fantastic scene where the Sons chase Joel McHale all over town, complete with gunfire, punching, and a promise to finish this later, considering they’re doing all of this on the side of the freeway while people honk at them. Jax takes everything Joel McHale has, and sends him walking.
Back at the Club, Clay is planning Unser’s murder the with Nomads, Tara asks Bobby and then Gemma to help with the Otto manipulation situation, and Jax and Tara talk about getting out of town again.
Clearly influenced by what Nero said about Gemma and family, Jax sits down with her to sort out their issues. Gemma confesses to acting like a train wreck because she needs Jax’s love too much, and Jax attempts to make it right by mending the divide with her. We’ll see if it lasts.
Think I skimmed over the “Unser’s murder” part too quickly? We’re back to that now. Clay told the Nomads (minus Chuck Zito, who already skipped town) to come by Unser’s trailer after he disarms him, stage another break-in, and shoot him. But things are never really as they seem with Clay, because what he really was planning was a double-cross, where he and Unser shoot the Nomads as they break in, effectively cleaning up the evidence that implicates Clay as the ringleader of this disaster. It all goes according to plan, this time, as Unser and Clay kill the two Nomads who break in on his orders, and Unser still can’t pin any of this directly on Clay. However, I think Juice is starting to get the picture. Work wives always know.
After everyone finds out what happened at Unser’s, Gemma goes over to make sure he’s all right. Unser, once again, spins a tale that protects Clay. For everything Unser knows, and has to know about all of this right now, he seriously can’t seem to stop enabling Clay by covering for him. Old habits die hard?
And just in case you think we’ve seen the last of Joel McHale in this episode, we haven’t. Nero catches up with him on another “date”, and beats him to a pulp. And while I’m a little disappointed Joel didn’t have more lines in this one, the way they worked him into the show was classic.
Finally (FINALLY), before leaving town, Jax goes over to Clay’s house to confront him about what he did. “You’re using the Nomads to undermine my leadership,” he says. “You’re the one behind these home invasions. Now it’s backfired.” Clay denies it, of course, and blames it on Pope again. Jax, thankfully, doesn’t seem to buy it this time. He suggests they find Frankie (Zito), get the truth, and let the club “decide who lives and who dies”. “Fair enough,” Clay says. This should be interesting.
It’s nighttime, and we’re at the end of the show. This is the part that already has SOA fans in an uproar. We see Gemma, very drunk/drugged, putting the boys in the car and climbing into the driver’s seat, in front of two clubs members who SHOULD DRIVE HER HOME. Seriously. One of them was Juice, and he knows better.
We then see Jax driving up to the cabin with Chibs, getting shot at by men in a van, and running their bikes off the road. They manage to take one shooter down, while the other gets away. But when they pull the mask off the dead man, he’s black. Could Pope actually want Jax dead after all, or is Clay starting to get smarter by hiring people he can pin on Pope if they get caught? The plot thickens.
As Gemma drives the boys home, she veers back and forth on the road. You can see exactly where this is going. She almost hits a semi, and swerves off the road straight into a large ditch. The baby seems to be fine, but the jury is still out on Gemma and Abel. Given the fact that the last thing we see in this episode is Abel’s blood dripping all over his stuffed animal, chances are good he’s dead. Which means that touching scene we just saw between Jax and Gemma is the last time those two will be like that, ever again.
And so ends another incredible, shocking, episode of Sons of Anarchy.
What did you think of “Toad’s Wild Ride”? Is Abel dead? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned for more of DarkMedia’s weekly coverage of the show.
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