Sons of Anarchy Season 5, Episode 12: “Darthy”
Written by Kurt Sutter
Directed by Peter Weller
Airs Tuesdays at 10pm (ET) on FX
So Clay gets to take off for a nice little trip of recovery to Ireland and for some reason it seems highly likely that Tiggy might just join in on that trip, while Jax will be left dealing with the rage of Pope. However this plays out, it’s doubtful that the ties between Pope and Jax will remain this calm in the future. And while Pope should be feared, with the character traits Jax is showing lately, he should be more than capable to keep up. After all, “you can’t sit in this chair without being a savage”. You’d think self-awareness could prevent certain developments, but judging by Jax jumping Wendy at the end of this week’s episode he’s on his best way to it. Jax force-injecting her drugs in order to keep her away from his family makes Gemma’s leaving drugs for just-gotten-clean Wendy in season one seem rather angelic (Oh and quick thought, is Jax turning into his own mother now with all the scheming and that?).
This week’s biker madness starts off with the outcome of Bobby’s plan for saving, yet exiling, Clay, and that he does by yaying for Clay to be kicked out of the MC but preventing him to meet his maker by naying for Clay to meet Mr. Mayhem (man, someone on the writer’s team must love that line, ‘cause “meeting Mr. Mayhem” has been mentioned countless times this season!). So Bobby tries his best to mend what’s broken and keep Jax sane, who couldn’t care less about any of that and rather chooses to stick needles into ex-junkies’ necks and threaten to rip poor Bobby Elvis’ head off when he attempts to talk it out (it’s clear that Jax hasn’t reached his revenge-driven low point yet, but Bobby is just too good-hearted to get angry with).
On another note, if Sutter is still pushing that Hamlet plot forward, Jax’s insanity could all be part of the natural development of this Shakespearean tragedy, even though Jax’s rage-driven madness doesn’t strike as a well thought out game of make believe. However, the big show down between Jax and Clay seems to be off for this season, which leaves a possible vicious and bloody finale filled with Pope on a vengeful mission. That is, if Tig does take off to find his luck with Clay somewhere over the rainbow.
But Jax is not the only one who clearly can’t let go. Nero is right there with him and seems rather eager to get back in the game. And while it will be slightly scary to see Nero in full on tough guy mode – surely last week was only the tip of the iceberg – it seems as if Jimmy Smits might get more than a one season guest role (let’s keep our fingers crossed he doesn’t get hit by a bullet becoming one of the casualties that we’ll surely see in next week’s finale). Still unsure of how long Donal Logue aka Lee Toric, former U.S. Marshal looking for a new job, will stick around, but since Unser has been instructed to investigate, he might be around for next year as well.
He does turn up the heat on the possible consequences of Otto’s cross stabbing of his sister and the threat of his revenge (the man seems to be reading Watchfiends & Rack Screams for fun during his leisure time) will either drive Tara right to Oregon or deeper into the club’s protective yet dark arms. As much as it would be the right thing for Tara to take that Oregon offer and get herself and with kids as far away from Charming and the club‘s business as possible, with Jax being further than ever from turning his back on the MC, she’d have to do it by herself and for some reason that just doesn’t seem like a likely option.
But what’s your scoop on this week’s turn of events? Anybody willing to take a good guess of who is on next week’s hit list? How explosive will season five’s finale get? And with whom, if anyone, will Gemma ride off into the sunset? How much further will Jax’s hate drive him until he realizes he can’t be the man the club needs him to be while driven purely by hate and revenge? And what did I skip over that you would have wanted to mention?
Merle Fischer