Guys, Kurt Sutter has lost control of Sons of Anarchy. Its final season has been so scattered and unfocused, that when it attempts to pump the brakes and spend time with just one or two storylines, as it does with “What a Piece of Work is Man,” it just ends up boring (great title, though). By the end of “Piece of Work,” a major character is dead – which we all saw coming – and Jax is now at war with both the Chinese and August Marks. He’s literally fighting a war on two fronts, which history has shown us is impossible. You couldn’t ask for a better metaphor than that.
After a seriously boring opening, the various stories start unfolding, the only one of which that shows any promise is the one involving the club needing Gemma to identify Chris Dunn as Tara’s killer. Why Gemma seems reluctant to do this is anyone’s guess, cause she’s the one who got the poor bastard tortured to death while “Bohemian Rhapsody” played in the first place. Anyway, she does it, and naturally ends up getting into a fight with Jarry, because Gemma flares up like a spitting lizard from Jurassic Park any time she’s in the same room as a strong woman who hasn’t been reduced to a caricature of herself.
What excites me about this is that Gemma might finally get caught in her web of bullshit – Jarry finds out that Chris Dunn was in Las Vegas the night of Tara’s murder. She and Unser decide to keep this info to themselves, and it’s nice to see Unser acting like a real cop again, even though it all but guarantees his death, probably at Gemma’s hands, because Kurt Sutter is trying his damnedest to get his wife an Emmy nomination.
Poor Juice, though. Or I guess I should say “poor Theo Rossi.” Juice has been utterly stripped of any agency, and I think he gets in all of two or three lines tonight. He literally spends the episode being shuffled from one cell to another, and winds up in solitary when his story about Chris Dunn doesn’t add up. Sutter needs this to go somewhere, and fast, because Juice is being totally squandered right now.
Another promising development is the looming forum that SAMCIH (screw it, I’m using what should be the correct acronym) plans on having to discuss Jury’s death at Jax’s hands. While I don’t think that Jax will be unseated by a majority vote (before taking it to appellate court, of course), I do like the idea of a biker entmoot.
So, that character death: RIP Bobby Munson. You were too beautiful for this world. I joke, but I will miss Mark Boone Junior’s tough, heartfelt performance. Since Opie’s death, Bobby largely served as Jax’s conscience, but just as he did with Opie’s death, Sutter is showing the audience that Jax has no time (nor any use) for a conscience right now.
Jax is contrite as all hell about Bobby’s death, but not nearly as contrite as Gemma, who breaks down over Bobby’s body, because this wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t make up some cockamamie lie about the Chinese killing Tara. (Orlin West is arguably dead because of her too, but no one gives a shit about West.)
The episode ends with the club having Marks arrested for killing the pastor (but not until Chibs bangs Sheriff Jarry on the hood of her cruiser while Quinn is like 20 feet away). The look that Jax and Moses Cartwright exchange says that this isn’t over, not by a long shot, but I’d be lying if I said that a war between the club and “black” is what I wanted out of this show’s farewell season.
A Few Thoughts
- Deputy Eglee said nothing about the club being involved in her shooting. Shocker!
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Is anyone else weirdly invested in Rat Boy and Brooke’s relationship? I guess it’s nice to know that someone has a chance of being happy at the end of all this
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I guess Unser is really sticking to this “real cop” thing, because otherwise I have no explanation for why he gives a shit if Henry Lin gets killed in prison
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Maybe before Gemma launches into one of her now-obligatory tearful monologues, she should check to see if Abel is standing right behind her. He usually is
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Quinn looks like a cartoon of a biker
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Thanks for everything, Mark Boone Junior
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