The Juice is loose!

Seriously, it may have been one of the smaller things happening, but an awesome through-line of this episode was Juice acting like a crazy ass, has nothing to lose, manly motherfucker.  When some crooked cops pull over the MC on it’s way to a SAMCRO mega meeting, Juice gets confrontational and when shit goes down, steals a cop bike.  Later in the episode when he finds his stripped bike in a chop shop, he goes nuts on the shop owner.  Last season I’d come to the conclusion that Juice was one of the only ones I’d really liked, but he’d become relegated to a subservient role.  There was a whole storyline where he went through insane hoops for sheriff Eli to ensure the club didn’t discover his black heritage.  That ended with a fizzle as the Sons kind of just collectively shrugged their shoulders.   But since then he’s been Clay’s bitch boy, Jax’s bitch boy, and Chib’s punching bag.  So, for me, it was nice to see Juice going HAM.

Speaking of Eli, Sheriff Roosevelt is now investigating Toric thanks to a tip off by Gemma.  He may not be on the Son’s payroll, but he sure becomes righteous at good times for the club.  He discovers Toric’s drug kit and two bullet holes in the hotel room floor.  DA Patterson, played by CCH Pounder, does not want to cut Nero loose just yet however.  She’s grasping for all the leverage against Samcro that she can get, which includes pressuring Tara to link SAMCRO to the school shooting weapon.  Tara, for all the sneaky shit she is doing, doesn’t want to go that far.  This Tara divorce, moving the kids situation better pay off hard, because it’s not moving forward but we still need ten minutes reminder that it’s happening every episode.

Gemma went nuts at the police station to see Nero, and I highly enjoyed watching Nero hang his head in resignation at seeing Gemma start a fight with cops.  I really thing Nero might be my favorite character on Sons of Anarchy right now, and he’s not even a Son.  So it’s nice to see people so firmly in his corner.  At Nero’s whore house Gemma runs into Venus Van Dam, played by the always great Walton Goggins.  Last time we saw Venus, she was played up for laughs primarily and that is what I thought we were going to get this time.  Instead it turned into a sweet moment, fleshing out Nero’s character and affirming his status as a good dude.  Walton Goggins is so fantastic that he can turn this ridiculous character into somebody sympathetic.

Jax takes the charter on a road trip for a meeting of all Sons charters.  Jax needs to address the entire club regarding the gun business, and address them he does.  He gives a pretty fantastic speech that laid out a few things: Jax isn’t his father.  He’s not questioning his lifestyle, and won’t be weakened by doubt.  He isn’t Clay, trying to make the easy buck at the expense of lives.  And he is not looking to blame anyone.  Jax just wants to set the Sons on a more legitimate path less thick with peril.  As he finishes his speech the entire club starts pounding the table as a sign of agreement.  It’s like a motorcycle slow clap.  Bobby’s back, as we discover that he wasn’t starting a new Nomad group but recruiting for the MC.  Overall this was another solid entry for SOA.  I’m enjoying the new hour and a half length this season as it allows events to unfold instead of setting up shit and having to wait for it to pay off at the beginning of next week’s episode.  Four stars out of five.   

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So why do I still watch it?  Because, as I said, this show is fucking crazy!  This episode, and the past few episodes have been banana-balls nutso.  I love it.  I love it in the same way I love the Fast and the Furious series.  I shouldn’t love it, but by god do I ever.  The Sons are on full lockdown and are after the Irish.  After some handy torture by our hero Jax, SAMCRO finds Connor, one of the local head honchos for the Irish.  He puts Jax in touch with the real heads of the IRA and Jax pleads his case to set up August Marks as the new gun runner even though Marks is black and the Irish are notoriously racist.  We find out after the call that Gaalan, the guy who killed two Sons, was sitting in with the Irish bosses the whole time.   Oops, Jax! Probably not gonna work out for you.  I liked seeing Chibs’ reaction when he found out that Jax offered the deal to the IRA without consulting the club first.  I’ve enjoyed this season’s more assertive Chibs.  In the past I felt that he’s been too much of a yes-man.  “What’d you do Jax?  Slaughter a nursery filled with babies?  I tried to tell ya ‘bout them babies Jackie boy.  D’ya want me to slaughter a couple more nurseries to sort of even the score?”  Maybe not that bad, but I haven’t seen him so much as an independent character before.

Tara’s still trying to get the kids out of Charming.  Yada bladda chadda.  That’s a story line that’s taking two seasons too long. Peter Weller time!  Jesus, that dude looks haggard.  It looks like Red Forman had his gang shoot up Peter Weller’s face, but it was already made of steel and just left dings everywhere.  Nero is cool.  I don’t know, Jimmy Smits just makes an aging gangsta so darn likeable.  I think Nero and Jax have a great rapport, and I enjoy it whenever they’re doing anything.  When they’re driving and joking around I just find myself smiling.

The Irish has plans to bust Clay out of prison and have him run guns with a new crew of his own.  Clay’s reaction is to contact SAMCRO and ask what he should do.  I feel like this show is trying to get me to sympathize with Clay now, but I just can’t.  Sorry, you’ve done too much shit Clay.  You were behind the murder of Opie’s wife, Opie’s father, Jax’s father, Eli’s wife.  Probably a lot more.  I can’t get behind you now because you look sad about it.  The only way he could contact the club was to set up a conjugal visit in prison, wherein the visitor has to pay $500 to get two minutes of talk time without any kind of recording devices.  It has to be a wife, so it had to be Gemma.  In a Pulp Fiction style WTF-worthy twist, the corrupt prison guards decide that a conjugal visit should involve sex.  So they force Gemma and Clay to fuck while they jack off.  It was a pretty rough scene, and a small part of me kept hoping that Gemma and Clay would go apeshit and mess up the guards but it didn’t happen.  They played it safe.  Actually I don’t know if they used a condom, but they definitely got it on.  Gemma deals with it for the time being, but seeing as how she told Nero, and Nero’s now off to prison, I’m sure something will happen.  Oh yeah, Eli arrested Nero.  At the clubhouse, which was boomin’.

The bosses at the IRA told Jax to gather the entire MC at 8:00 so they could discuss the new deal.  So Jax does exactly that, probably too hopeful for peace to suspect foul play.  How Jax pieced the puzzle together was kind of goofy though, in my opinion.  He saw an Irish pen and it was left by an Irishman who dropped off a keg of beer.  First, why would the Irishman have or leave a shamrock pen?  It’s like the show wants me to believe one of two things: either every Irishman carries shamrock pens 24/7, you know because they’re Irish,  or that the IRA was trying to send a message.  Which doesn’t make sense.  If they were trying to send a message, who would it be for?  The large group of people they’d hoped to blow to smithereens?  Also, lastly, nobody tapped the keg?  It was a full clubhouse!  Nonetheless, despite all those questions, it was still a scene rife with tension.  Jax rescuing Abel, Chibs staying behind for them both.  I know I was holding my breath.

They’re always after me for not selling arms

All in all I loved this episode.  It was crazy, and reminded me of everything that I’ve come to love this show for.  Gunfights!  ‘Splosions!  Random sex perversions!  Four and a half stars out of five!

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