Sons of Anarchy was all about relationships and connections tonight, which made it darkly funny that it started off with a montage of some of the unsexiest sex scenes I’ve ever seen. Tully rapes Juice in prison, Gemma seems utterly disinterested in doggy style, and even Rat Boy is fooling around behind his 16-year-old girlfriend’s back. But showing how connections fail makes for a good contrast when we’re also showed how they succeed. SoA did that with aplomb in “Faith and Despondency,” and more excitingly, it actually headed into something resembling endgame.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still a Sons of Anarchy episode, which means there were a shit-ton of plots to deal with. But – and this is promising – Kurt Sutter seems to be starting to tie up loose ends, instead of unraveling several more. The war with August Marks seems to be coming to an actual close, which is good for the whole show.
Moses puts Tyler on the spot and demands to know where SAMCRO is hiding the pastor’s wife and stepson. Moses decides to do things the hard way, and kidnaps Rat Boy and T.O., the President of the Grim Bastards and also Theo Huxtable. Once again, Rat Boy proves to be a tough son of a bitch, as T.O. gives up the location of the cabin, which Moses and his goons head to forthwith.
Only, YA BURNT, MOSES, because it was really a Nazi/biker ambush! Yeah, SAMCRO and Tully’s crew shoot the hell out of Moses’s hit squad, and to cap things off, Jax & Co. dispose of Moses in a karmically fucked up way, by ripping his eye out, cutting his fingers off, and shooting him in the head. I talk a lot about the ludicrous amounts of violence in Sons of Anarchy‘s seventh season, but you know what, sometimes it’s nice to see the good guys kill the bad guy. Well, “good” guys.
Meanwhile, Abel, the worst child actor in history, is doing weird shit at Courtney Love Elementary – namely, cutting himself with a fork and blaming it on Gemma. The good thing for her is that no one in the family believes that she actually hurt Abel; the bad thing is that since we as viewers know how despicable and loathsome Gemma is at her core, it’s hard to feel bad for her. Come to think of it, at this point you almost want bad things to happen to her. Killing Tara was one thing; Gemma was scared and confused and acting in what she thought was the best interest of her family. It’s everything she’s done after killing Tara that has stripped her of all sympathy. And at this point in the season, any attempt to turn this around would probably just be too little, too late. I can’t imagine anyone feeling less than elated at Gemma’s demise. Sorry, Katey Segal, no Emmy for you this year.
My favorite scene of the night – and of this entire season – happened between Tig and Venus, who finally had sex, which left Tig feeling…strange. Which is understandable (literally, Venus understands perfectly how he feels). She thinks it’d be best if they gave each other some space; he wants to stay together and learn how to live outside the box permanently. These two crazy kids genuinely love each other, and Kim Coates is doing his best work of the series opposite Walton Goggins (who is downright heartbreaking in this scene). Honestly, if Tig and Venus are able to ride off into the sunset toegether, then this season will totally redeem itself.
While that was my favorite scene, it wasn’t the most important. That came at the end, when Sutter (and longtime SoA director Paris Barclay) hit us with the one-two gut punch of Jax telling Abel that Wendy is his mother, and Abel asking Jax why Gemma killed Tara. See what I mean? Endgame. We didn’t want a war with the Chinese or with August Marks, we wanted this.
A Few Thoughts
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Gemma is considering relocating to Norco, if she lives that long
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I guess Tully just wants to read poetry to Juice while they do blow. If it weren’t for the rape, that sounds like a pretty good night
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Jax was so affectionate towards Rat tonight that now I’m scared Rat will die next
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Great hour for Drea de Matteo. I’m really glad she’s been promoted to the main cast and isn’t just billed as a guest star. I mean, she can even pretend not to be bummed that Abel is her kid – that’s acting
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