Sons of Anarchy - S7E11- Suits of Woe
Previously on Sons of Anarchy, ‘Faith and Despondency’
‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
Hamlet
After that big revelation, Jax stayed up all night watching over Abel. Over breakfast, Wendy admits to helping Juice with Wayne at Gemma’s behest. He’s understanding but furious, knowing she didn’t have a choice and realizing that which he feared may be very true. Abel seems much improved by the unburdening of his wee, robotic soul.
Jax pounds on Wayne’s door. All he says is how wrecked Gemma was after Tara’s murder, but didn’t tell him what she’d seen, and furthermore Chris Dun had an alibi. Jax begs for a talk with Juice, and Wayne agrees to set it up but then he is DONE.
Chibs starts to kiss the still-sleeping Jarry goodbye, but stops himself. Too much. Then we see she was awake. Point of fact: Every time she puts him on the spot and forces him to reinvest, she never says a word. Is Jarry behind all of this?
Juice rehearses his duty, ever hopeful that killing Lin will get him back in the club. Child, child. The dirty guard appears as promised, taking him down to the boiler room. Notice how reluctant Juice is. With iPhone in hand, he records the handcuffed, reluctant Lin’s confession that Barosky was the rat, then stabs him despite having promised his life. “I’m a rat,” he tells Lin as blood gushes to the floor. “What makes you think I’m not a liar too?” He smirks to Lin’s face, but when he turns to change, his face droops. More blood on his soul.
After a morning smoke break with “Tara,” Gemma arrives at work to Wayne’s news about Juice and Dun’s alibi, which of course she blows off just like Wayne said she would. But after she leaves, Wayne sends Chucky on his little blue moped to watch over her.
Not surprisingly, the forum didn’t go well for Jax so they need that confession, because Mayhem is required for unjust member vs member kills. Tully delivers that confession in their secure Stockton room before Juice arrives, menacing him as he walks in.
Alone with Juice in one of the most epic scenes ever, Jax chokes up at the Barosky reveal, then tells Juice about Dun. Did Gemma owe Juice a favor? Juice grows upset about Abel cutting himself, and Jax finishes the story, crying openly. “Is he delusional… or is he tormented? Every scenario seems insane to me.” He needs the truth, and knows Juice has it. Juice breaks, because he can’t let another innocent soul go down. He tells him the entire story, his tears drying as he finishes, relieved. But Jax is focused on the weight of what this means. “Bobby’s dead,” Jax tells him angrily, detailing his murder. “Thank you for the truth. I’ll make sure it’s quick.” Oh, Juice.
Juice gets in one last good deed: he calls Gemma, who is taking her damn time packing, to warn her and apologize. She hangs up on him, horrified.
As Tig and Chibs pour over Bobby’s financial books, Jax comes in with the bad news that Lin is dead, but Barosky was the rat. While they set the stage to hit Barosky, he’s got to talk to his Mom… who is still packing, because obviously you need your entire wardrobe on the lam. Wendy apologizes for having to tell Jax. Gemma agrees it was the right time to tell Abel who his real mother was, then takes a moment with Thomas. I was really worried she’d take him.
With Lyla serving as notary, Nero signs over Diosa to Alvarez. Lyla—porn producer, bookkeeper, notary public. She and Wendy should get married after everyone dies. Anyway, as soon as Nero gets the cash, Montez and Quinn bust in looking for Gemma… who suddenly has the fire of god, wheeling her suitcase out as someone pounds on the door. She changed her suitcase?! Chucky tells her to hit him so he can claim she stole a car. Happy and Rat bust in, then back out after hearing the story. “You’re my best friend, Gem,” he says. “I accept that,” she echoes his once-favorite line, kissing him on the head.
Jarry gives Wayne the news about Lin and PS? The room tape was blank, so they got nothing out of making that happen. Before talking to them, Jax verifies with Chibs things are still going with Jarry, but not too deep. “No deeper,” Chibs lies. See what I’m saying? Even though Barosky was named, they make a point to say he’s ultimately a cop and this whole event has done nothing but further her purpose: clean up Charming.
Jax asks Wayne to lure Gemma back, but Wayne goes ballistic, telling him he was a crap father and a crap husband until Jax slugs him and huffs off. Is Wayne going Old Man Crazy? Crazy like a fox: He was goading Jax to get to the truth, and since he didn’t get it, it’s got to be bad. He presses assault charges to slow Jax’s deadly roll.
Next they’re onto Juice, where their exchange reaches absurdist levels reminiscent of the Hamlet-related Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead:
“What’d you tell Jax?”
“The truth.”
“Why is he looking for Gemma?”
“Gemma knows the truth.”
“About…”
“About everything. Gemma knows every truth behind every lie, inside every secret. She’s the gate keeper.”
They try offering him a chance.
“I have no chance, neither do you…. It’s too late. For all of us.”
Jarry looks wide eyed at Wayne, like, I don’t remember signing up for that plan.
Once Juice gets back to his room, the crooked cops come escort him to the infirmary, and by “escort” I mean “break his face.” Sigh. Also? They mention they’re now in the Asians’ pockets. Is the tide turning against Tully? Could Juice kill Tully? YAS PLEASE.
Nero finds Gemma across from her birth home, next to her father’s church. Ignoring his questions, she rambles that her mom didn’t want kids, but she couldn’t wait. She wanted a dozen sons. “Everything in my life, I pretty much torched…. But I was a good mother.” She asks him not to return Jax’s incoming call til she’s gone for good. He answers anyway, asking them both loudly what’s going on, swearing he ain’t sayin’ NOTHIN’ til he knows the truth. Which Jax provides.
Brilliantly, all we see is Nero’s silent reaction as Gemma stands, back to him. He cries, practically crumpling his phone. “It’s complicated,” she says simply. He tells her to go, so she takes his car, leaving him sobbing on the sidewalk.
Waiting for Godot Barosky at Scoops, Jax admits to nothing, irritating Chibs and Tig, but the cops arrive to arrest him so they buy Jax time til he can get out and jack a sports car, leading the cops on a crazy high speed chase.
Gemma visits Abel through the playground fence, giving him the little ring Jax got when he first supposedly joined the Club and says she loves him. She tells Courtney Love to take care of her grandson, walking slowly away. Abel stands apart from his friends, watching her retreat. “Bye Grandma,” he calls. This must be the twin with acting skills. (I know, I’m awful.)
Having shaken the cops, Jax exchanges the car for sanctuary at Alvarez’s warehouse, promising to handle Barosky quietly and then square up on new territory and guns. He then holds chapel privately, dropping the bomb. They absorb the shock one by one. He explains that the brutality of Tara’s murder truly seemed like a gang message to him, so he believed. “That mistake is mine, and mine alone.” He plans to come clean with the other presidents, doing what he can to make it right.
After all the guys hug Jax goodnight, Nero arrives, the one father figure he can still trust with the whole truth. “How do I come back from this?” Jax wonders. “Maybe it’s time to honor Tara’s wish,” Nero suggests. Nero tries to talk him out of killing Gemma on the grounds that matricide would destroy Jax. Jax bursts into tears, conflicted by the love he still has for her, then sobs on Nero’s Dad Sweater.
As Wayne and Chucky commiserate over the loss of their best murderous girl, Gemma smokes and sings a hymn as she drives past the road sign for Portenta, Fortuna, and Eureka. I’m sure that’s totally not significant, guys.
