Written By David Oliver
Plot: In the aftermath of the Diosa slaughter, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and the MC plot their revenge against the Chinese. Meanwhile, Juice (Theo Rossi) spirals out of control, Nero (Jimmy Smits) gets caught in the middle of the gang war and Abel (Ryder and Evan Londo) does something disturbing.
“Whatever the reason, nothing justifies what happened here,” Jax says regarding the brutal murder of the women at Diosa Norte. Let’s remember that: these are all people with families. All murdered on this show are people, which makes the body count of this series that much more upsetting.
Meanwhile, Gemma (Katey Sagal) and Juice plan to leave town, Gemma using her father’s health as an excuse to tell Jax, but she gets word of Diosa and has to stay back and help out. Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) gets word too, who’s just getting out of the shower, and there’s someone in his bed – none other than Sheriff Jarry (Annabeth Gish)! Love the pair’s chemistry, though I don’t see them both making it out alive this season.
“If I don’t get some cooperation this hole cracks wide open,” Jarry says, trying to reason with Jax to give her intel on the Diosa murder.
Lin (Kenneth Choi) meets with Nero, who is furious at Jax for lying to him, but understands when Jax explains the Chinese killed Tara (Maggie Siff), according to Gemma. Nero says he is tired of all the fighting – especially considering Lin threatened his son.
All are rocked by the Diosa tragedy. Gemma comforts Lyla (Winter Ave Zoli), who serves as a mouthpiece for every audience member: “Why does this keep happening? Why do people keep dying?”
Jax acknowledges Chucky (Michael Ornstein) is part of the family something you wouldn’t think of the chronic masturbator from the early seasons.
Abel – who is a terrible actor, by the way – tries to understand what happened, asking if somebody died and if Jax is responsible for protecting everyone. “It’s my job to keep them safe,” Jax says, who thanks Wendy (Drea de Matteo) for doing well with Abel.
Except it may be too late – Gemma and others find Abel holding a hammer with his baby brother next to him. He says, he won’t let anybody hurt him, “I’ll take care of him,” and hits the wall with the hammer, making the baby cry. Gemma is horrified. There will totally be a flash-forward at the end of the series with Abel as the head of the MC, calling it now.
The MC, with the help of Barosky (Peter Weller), tracks down the man who the Chinese paid off to avoid the warehouse so they could steal their guns back. Tig (Kim Coates) almost shoves a flute up the guy’s butt (the scene takes place in a music shop) as revenge, but Barosky kills him first.
Meanwhile, Juice kills an Asian man who enters his hotel room, thinking it’s one of Lin’s guys. After shooting him once, killing him, Juice says “don’t look at me” and shoots him an inexplicable many more times. Too bad Juice was wrong, and this was just a hotel employee. Juice is 100 percent out of control – who knows what he is going to do next?
Unser (Dayton Callie) tells Jarry the Chinese killed Tara. Jax and Chibs meet with the Chinese and stage a fake police heist, leaving Jax the opportunity to finish off Lin once and for all. But before he gets the chance to beat him to a dead, dead pulp, the real cops are coming (aka Jarry and co.) and they get out of there. Jarry called Chibs with the heads-up, a sign of strong loyalty.
The episode’s final montage of “Age of Aquarius” was absolutely eerie, especially toward the end of it with “let the sunshine in” considering the show’s consistent dark tone and brutal violence.
The MC guns down more Chinese while Juice opens up to Gemma and explains how he betrayed Jax and that’s why he’s wanted dead. While Juice was sleeping, Gemma kept a gun by her side for protection.
Juice sees this, and after a brief altercation the car goes off the side of the road. The two get out of the car and Gemma says “I couldn’t trust you” to Juice. This may not have been the best thing to say, considering Juice is nothing but a loose cannon right now. What’s going to happen next? Will he kill the woman he’s trusted the most for some time? Can’t wait for next week.
What I love about all this is that this entire season’s violence is all because Gemma lied about who killed Tara. The lies these characters tell are the catalyst for all chaos, just like in a Shakespeare tragedy. Brilliant writing, Kurt Sutter.
Rating: 9/10
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