(SPOILER ALERT: Read no further, unless you want to know what happened during the latest episode of “Sons of Anarchy” on FX):
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In “Separation of Crows,” this week’s episode of “Sons of Anarchy,” Bobby lost another body part, Jax admitted that August Marks is smarter than him, and we learned — much to our chagrin — that not even pet birds and stuffed animals are safe in the world of this demented little motorcycle drama.
But through it all, one question kept bouncing around in my head: Will Gemma’s horrible sin ever come to light?
That’s the key narrative thread that keeps me coming back for more in this final season of “SOA.” What will happen when Jax finds out that his own mother brutally killed his wife, Tara? How explosive will it get? What will the fallout be?
Like most fans of the show, I’ve simply assumed that Gemma will be exposed — probably late this season, or even in the series finale. It’s just a matter of time — and just a matter of how Jax finds out, right?
But recently I’ve started to wonder if it really will go down that way. And now I pose this question to you insightful readers: Can you actually envision a scenario in which the series ends without Jax ever discovering the truth about his murderous mama? And if that happens, will you be incredibly disappointed?
There were two occasions in this episode where the writers teased us (or at least, me) into thinking the truth might slip out tonight. One came when Juice — a newly minted inmate — pushed to make a deal, telling Althea and Unser that he’ll reveal who killed Tara and Eli.
Wow. Would he really rat out Gemma? Turns out that, no, he plans to lie and finger a couple of guys in Lin’s crew.
The other time came when Gemma attempted to have a little heart-to-heart with Abel, who has become a little hellion in school, where he bashed in some poor kid’s head with a lunch pail. (That, I assume, will go on his permanent record). With others in the room listening, Abel claimed it was an accident. Gemma asked the boy if he knew what an accident was. Abel snapped back, “Do you?”
I wondered if Abel might dare spill the beans right then and there. Remember, he recently overheard his grandmother whispering a confession of sorts. Alas, Abel kept mum and Gemma’s secret was safe for at least one more week.
Meanwhile, Jax continued to prove that lying just comes naturally to members of the Teller family. This most recent transgression came as members of the club attempted to track down the guy who ratted them out to Lin. Their search to Jury, who agreed to meet them alongside a lonely country road. (Which begs the question: Why would anyone ever agree to meet these thugs in any place other than a crowded restaurant or shopping mall?).
Jax pulled Jury aside to talk and Jerry said some provocative things about how Jax’s father would be so disappointed in his boy right now (“You’re poison!”) — and hinted that John Teller actually committed suicide. The key thing here is that Jury vehemently denied being the mole, but Jax was so ticked off that he shot Jury dead and then had the audacity to tell his SAMCRO brothers that Jerry DID admit to being the mole. Oh, this guy has no shame! And now even Chibs is expressing some doubts about the way Jax is handling things.
“There’s going to be questions about the rights and wrongs about the whole thing,” he says, pointing out that Jax certainly didn’t follow club protocol.
That was a very different posture from the one Chibs was taking at the start of the episode. Having just been delivered Bobby’s eye in a box, Jax admitted to his right-hand man that he was “out of his depth” and that Marks turned out to be “smarter than I am.”Chibs would have none of it. He delivered a pep talk to Jax, telling him he needed to be “focused and strong” for his guys and that they all had “a duty — a mission” to follow through.
That mission seems to be increasingly difficult now that we’ve learned how ruthless Marks can be. His goon, Moses Cartwright, we learn, is a former military dude assigned to Special Ops. He takes no crap. And after biding his time with a stubbornly defiant Bobby, he produces a knife and proceeds to slice into Bobby’s hand. (Have you become numb to such scenes? Or do you still wince like crazy?)
Cartwright, we presume, is also behind the vicious deeds committed late in the episode. That’s when Gemma discovers that her birds have been hacked to death and left in her bed. But that’s not all. In the boys’ bedroom, a little stuffed animal has been pinned to the wall with a dagger, right next to a scrawled message that reads: “No son is safe.”
Clearly, things have gotten way, way, WAY out of control. It’s time for the lies to stop. But in this horrifying story, they never do.
Contact Chuck Barney at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.ChuckBarney, or Twitter.com/chuckbarney
