As a parting shot, Tara reminds Wendy that, in the eyes of the court, she is a surgeon, and Wendy … is a lot of other things, so she’ll never get custody of Abel. Since this subplot is not my favorite, I am free to focus on other things in this scene, like poor Thomas. When Wendy first comes into the office, Thomas is happily sucking on a bottle. Tara is holding it for him with her pot-smoking “good” hand, but when she lets go of the bottle for a moment, we see that Thomas is perfectly capable of holding the bottle himself while he drinks. Then, for some reason, Tara yanks the bottle away from Thomas and hands him a pacifier instead. The baby literally takes the paci out of his mouth and looks at it, as if to say, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Give me back my THC-laced milk!
In “solitary”, Jax and Opie are rooming together, presumably because the San Joaquin County Correctional Facility solitary confinement unit does not have enough cells for every individual involved in the riot, or maybe because Jax and Opie having a heart-to-heart furthers the plot in this episode.
Nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen, nobody knows our soooooorrrowwwwwwwww
Before Opie can get the full story out of Jax (he knows Jax well enough to know he was omitting some of the demands Pope made when he spilled the beans to them in the yard), the shift sergeant comes in to have his tete-a-tete with Jax. He orders Opie out, but Jax insists he stays, cementing their closeness and shortening Opie’s “catch up” curve. The sergeant, in cruel Damon Pope fashion, tells Jax he’ll give him a few minutes to tell him who the sacrificial Son will be, but that he needs to know soon, because the guards have bets on how long the fight will last before the Son is killed. BTW, “Pope” is my new substitute word for mean/cruel/sadistic in my real life. When my four-year-old pulls the wings off her fifth bug victim of the day, I call her Pope. When another one of my kids tells me I look like I have a baby in my belly, I say, “How very Pope of you.”
Pope in Mormon’s sheep’s clothing
After that little bombshell, Jax fills Opie in entirely … on everything, even the true circumstances of Piney’s death. Here’s the short story for those of you just joining us: Clay, Jax’s stepdad and former SAMCRO President, killed Opie’s dad, Piney, because Piney was threatening to reveal to the club that Clay killed JT (Jax’s biological dad and Gemma’s first husband) to keep the club running guns, which JT was going to put at stop to as President. Opie’s not too happy about the truth-telling and the timing of it.
I can’t handle the truth — especially so much in one sentence!
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Applepie – we never saw this coming.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/27/sons-of-anarchy-actor-dead-in-hollywood-murder-mystery/
Sad
Lab – saw that this morning too. Poor half sack!! But messed up he beat his elderly landlord to death! Wtf?!
I missed this ep on account of being sick and falling asleep early and I’m super pissed I missed it (even though the next morning I got every last detail of it out of my friend who is equally obsessed). I’ve never hated and loved Kurt Sutter so much at the same time. He killed Opie which is the ultimate hate. But I understand why he did it for the series which is why I love him. Ryan Hurst is a hell of an actor and he will be sorely missed from the show, but I can’t wait to see how this shapes the rest of the season and series cause it without a doubt will. All because of effin Clay..arghhhhhh!!!
Awesome recap for an awesome episode, Apple.
I hate that Opie was the one to die. After Jax, he was my fav. I feel like we should have seen his death coming. He admitted to Layla (???) that he didn’t think he loved anyone anymore. Almost everyone he loved has died and the club completely ruined his life. It was his time and I am glad Kurt Sutter wrote it the way he did.
I looooooooove the Tara/Gemma story line!!! I have read where viewers are getting mad b/c Tara is turing into Gemma. I don’t think that’s that case. I think that story line is to show us how much the club can change your life, even if you are a renowned surgeon.
I want to know more about Nero and Carla’a relationship.
Does anyone else think it was Clay that called the cops on Diosa???
Lastly, I think the reason Jax told Tig that he always needs to side w/ him is because he thought him and Clay were BFF. Anytime Clay needed something shady done, he called on Tig. He is a wild card in Jax’s eyes. Now he will have control over him, not Clay.
Plockeness –
I am with you in loving the tara/gemma story, especially now with tara becoming a bit of a bad ass. I got chills when she said Jax would kill gemma (subtley reminding her of the threat of missing details of the JT letters).
Wow, I kept thinking they would find a way to get out of there without someone dying. Common sense said it had to be Opie (his story arc this year leaned to him saying good bye), but I really just didn’t want it to happen. I love SOA keeing us on our toes with surprises, but this one is going to leave me missing my favorite character.
Also agree that it was Clay who called the cops. Clay-Nero are headed for a fight.
And as a male I have to say that the porn story was just to balance out the 36 times this show has shown Jax’s naked butt!!!!
I will take seeing Jax’s naked ass any day!!!!!!!!
Mjh – I got chills when Tara said that to Gemma too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gemma’s face was priceless.
Sad sad sad…poor Lyla…does she get stuck raising Opie’s kids now? They weren’t ever divorced, right? Those poor kids. For all the crap the show took for not killing off Clay, I do think this death (sad though it is for fans) is good for the momentum of the show.
Very sad about Johnny Lewis. He was a good character actor. I always enjoyed seeing him pop up in random movies, shows, etc.
Omg!!!!!!! I’m shock. I just watched the ep. I was studying during the show and purposely avoided all SOA news. All though it did seem like his character was done, I expected his leaving would be much later in theshow. I def didn’t see him dying. Op was my fav character after Jax. The club did a number on that family.
I believe that the hispanic inmate was referencing the SHU – segregated housing unit – in maximum security prison. That’s where a lot of the biggest baddest leaders of gangs are nowadays and they run their gangs from inside the prison walls. The guys on the outside are usually subordinate to them and their reach is very long. So I think they were talking about some super heavy head gang honcho who is locked up in the SHU somewhere, Pelican Bay maybe, or San Quentin. That’s what I got out of that reference anyway.
Oh, and I should add that the head of the Mexican Mafia is in a SHU somewhere, don’t recall which one. So…. you be the judge.
Wow. Just wow. This show just keeps getting better. I remember as last season was unfolding thinking that it must be reaching it’s apex as a quality show. Opie shooting Clay, Gemma giving Jax the green-light to kill Clay in the hospital bed, etc. I thought it would be very difficult for the show to top these moments. Boy was I wrong! I mean, Opie was kind of like the heart of this show. He was the kind of character that could really do no wrong. Even when he did bad things, you still liked the guy and were always pulling for him. Killing him off was a sad, but brilliant play. It just goes to show you that in SoA, nobody is safe from a great storyline. Well done!
The PAUSE they took before his head exploded was JUST enough time to give us hope that somehow Ope could win or Jax would rescue him. They really tugged on the viewers heart strings with that pause. And then his head explodes.
The way the director handled that scene is seriously going to send me to therapy. Worse than Tig watching his daughter die…
And the fact that Ope was only in jail to protect Jax in the first place really keeps me up at night.
@Amanda, I thought the same thing in that moment. I really thought they were gonna find a way to come out on top. That look Jax was giving Tig gave me chills. In that moment I knew Tig’s fate was sealed.
@suedisco, I think Lyla will end keeping the kids because there really isn’t anywhere else for them to go. I don’t think Ope’s mom would do.
I’m still reeling from this episode. I kept thinking….maybe Ope would pull through, it wasn’t until the blow to the back of his head I knew there was no hope. Pass the Kleenex.