Spoilers for tonight's "Sons of Anarchy" coming up just as soon as I deputize the nomads... "Jesus, Gemma, when does this settle? When does it stop?" -TaraI had the pleasure of watching "Fa Guan" and the show's next two episodes over this weekend, and it should tell you how mind-blowing the next two(*) are that I would call this tremendous outing easily my third-favorite of the bunch.
"I don't know, baby." -Gemma
(*) Next week's episode is 56 minutes long without commercials, and will run 90 minutes with from 10-11:30 Eastern. So be prepared for longer-than-normal commercial breaks.
I have one complaint about "Fa Guan" (which, per Kurt Sutter, is Chinese for "The Judge") that I want to get out of the way first, which is that it seems like the writers are making things a bit too easy on Ethan Zobelle. I get that he's a criminal mastermind, that the club doesn't have all the information we have (like the attack on Gemma) and also that he has the good fortune to be going after SAMCRO at the perfect moment when the club is distracted by the Jax/Clay beef. But it felt like there were too many moments in "Fa Guan" where Jax or Clay ignored the possibility that Zobelle - who has caused them so much trouble already and seems to be attacking them on a different front each week - might be behind any of their porn problems. And then for Darby, who just found out he got screwed over by Zobelle, to go to Caracara accompanied only by Ethan's goons... well, I know (as Frank Pembleton put it) crime makes you stupid, but that stupid?
And yet, if I could put my frequent cries of, "Why aren't you thinking it's Zobelle?" aside, "Fa Guan" continued the season's riveting downward spiral for SAMCRO. The series began with the club's gun factory burning to the ground with people inside, and now the porn factory has suffered the same fate, possibly taking Chuck and/or Darby with it. And Jax, consumed with his hatred of Clay, and frustrated that things in the club are getting worse, not better, takes the radical step of deciding to go nomad(**).
(**) Next week's episode will explain a little more about how being a nomad works, but keep in mind that Happy was a member of the Tacoma charter who went nomad so he could be closer to his sick mom in Bakersfield. He hangs a lot with our charter, but he's not a voting member.
Though Jax is wrong to blame Clay for the destruction of Caracara, you can see his anger and self-loathing grow throughout the episode, starting with that devastating visit to Otto in jail. Kurt Sutter did a really nice job playing Otto's bitterness towards the club - the very quiet way he said, "You should go, Jax" spoke volumes about how angry he is, and yet how hard that is on him, since the club is all he has left - and I loved the way they left the glimpse of the wheelchair until the final shot of the scene, like an added punch to the gut.
Things only get worse as Clay tries to use Luann's murder as an excuse to shut down Caracara and flex his own muscles as club leader, and while Jax calls his bluff - for the second time in a week daring an enemy to shoot him - neither the fight in jail nor Gemma's potluck dinner nor Bobby's pleas for healing has done the least bit of good in repairing this rift. Though Jax isn't nearly to blame for Luann's death as Clay is for Donna's, hearing Clay accuse him of getting someone's wife killed was perhaps one indignity too many.
And then there's Clay's ongoing campaign to bind Opie to him by appealing to the big man's violent side, which ties into Tig's increasing post-Donna aversion to the dirty work. That comes to a head in that harrowing sequence at the judge's house, with Opie making things too personal as he screams, "Look what you've done to your family!" while Tig - knowing all too well what he did to Opie's family - practically goes fetal.
This is not the club that Jax knows and loves. This is not who Jax's best friend wants to be. And yet this is what everything and everyone around him is becoming. Is it any wonder he just wants to hop on his bike and head for parts unknown?
Some other thoughts on "Fa Guan":
• Keeping things all in the family, this episode was co-written by Liz Sagal, one of Katey Sagal's younger sisters. Liz and identical twin Jean spent a few years co-starring on the '80s sitcom "Double Trouble." (Here's the two of them in a short promo.)
• Outside of Don Draper (or insert name of your favorite "Mad Men" character here), does any character on television smoke as much as Jax Teller? That nicotine habit leads to that great moment right after Opie flips out on the judge, as Jax and Opie stand outside on the porch, just smoking and thinking about how they got to this point.
• Unser's story acquires more pathos, as we find out that his wife bailed on him during his cancer treatments, but he manages to use that news to help out Gemma by inviting her to join him at a revival service. And note the return - looking somewhat the worse for wear - of the homeless girl whom both Gemma and Jax met last season. I'm not exactly sure whether she's supposed to be real, or a ghost, or an angel, or a symbol, or just Sutter exercising a bit of literary license, but I can handle a little magical realism (if that's what she's about) in these very brief, occasional doses. Even bikers (and their old ladies) need a little help now and then, right? And Katey was her usual stellar self at showing Gemma's reluctantly to let the music and the mood of the service wash over her. (Side note: I'm perfectly happy with my inherited religion, but if I were ever of a mind to comparison shop, presence of a gospel choir would be high up on the priorities list.)
• Maybe I'm just trying harder, or maybe my confession a few weeks ago that I couldn't understand Chibbs helped lift some kind of mental block, because he made perfect sense to me in this one. Interesting to see Tara getting in deeper with the club, by helping out Chibbs (telling him how to lie so he could stay on the critical list) on her own turf at the hospital.
• Hale's also getting in deeper with the club than he might have ever planned, choosing to let Clay take out Darby's meth lab rather than doing it himself. Hale still means well, and I believe him when he says he intends to go right back to attacking the club as soon as the greater evil of Zobelle is out of the way, but why do I have the feeling that this is how Clay and Unser's relationship began several decades ago?
• One other plot nitpick: early in the episode, Clay's on the phone with SAMCRO's lawyer, Rosen (played in previous episodes by Tom Everett Scott, but unseen here), who apparently says he can get the charges from the church assault dropped because the video was inconclusive and the church members don't want to testify. But isn't there still the rather large matter of the Sons being caught red-handed by the cops while carrying a bunch of illegal weapons? And wouldn't respectable Ethan testify rather than let his new enemies walk?
• God, Ryan Hurst is just sensational, whether in an explosive scene like Opie flipping out on the judge, or a much smaller one like Opie's reaction to being kissed by Lyla. He's so sad, and so reluctant to get involved with another woman this soon after Donna's murder, yet you can tell how much he needs this.
• Things could be (a bit) worse for Otto, I suppose: he could find out that Bobby was having sex with Luann (which Bobby admits to Jax was "a little scary").
• Half-Sack's boxing skills, not mentioned since midway through season one, come in handy when he punches out one of Darby's goons during the raid on the meth lab.
• As the reluctant judge, Hey, It's That Guy! Michael O'Neill adds a new item to the list of acceptable occupations for which he may be cast. Others include cop, FBI agent, CIA agent, special forces soldier and, possibly, stern private school headmaster or stuffy dean.
• Is Neeta a 24-hour nanny? Or does Abel just nap a ton? Jax and Betty Draper either have outstanding child care or very well-rested babies, I think.
What did everybody else think?
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