“Sons of Anarchy” recap: Service

By Stacey Harrison

You always knew Opie would find out. But what would he do about it? Would he do what most of us believe we would do, and quit the group that sanctioned and carried out his wife’s murder? As each character in this show can attest, the ties to SAMCRO run deep, and not even Donna’s death can come between Opie and his gang.

Maybe it has something to do with how he found out. Having Tig break down out of guilt — which was compounded by a near-miss sexual encounter with Gemma that really came out of left field — and spill his guts probably put Opie in a better frame of mind to put the blame on Stahl. His decision to stalk her, put a gun to her head but not actually kill her sums up his character nicely — along with his stopping short of killing the judge’s son a few episodes back. Opie looks mean, and is willing to get his hands dirty, but he just ain’t a killer. As he puts it, “The outlaw had mercy.”

The sequence leading up to Tig’s confession, though, is one of the best of the whole series. Gemma has just explained to Tara that now that Clay knows about her rape, he won’t want her anymore. Men — SAMCRO men, anyway — must feel like they own their lady’s genitalia. So when Tig is over collecting personal weapons (nice metaphor, eh?) for a gun deal, Gemma decides to use him to find some fulfillment. Their fumbling is beyond awkward, and once Tig catches a glance at a Teller family photo, he just can’t do it. It’s after that when he heads to the shop and tells Opie about Donna. And he sits and takes Opie’s ring-laden punches, welcoming them as penance.

Opie’s interaction with Stahl is less convincing in both his essentially trying to scare her, and her subsequent breakdown. Chalk it up to a rare misfire in Ally Walker’s acting, but I just didn’t buy the sobbing. It will be interesting to see what happens from here, though. Maybe Stahl will reconsider her tactics — she’s using the same maneuvers to make Cameron and Chibs look like rats in order to make them play ball.

In any event, Opie is now on board with Jax’s plan to take the club in a different direction. He fully understands it when Jax says that they made Clay, and now they have to unmake him. To further the point, Jax gives him a copy of his dad’s book.

As for the more immediate enemy, Clay and Jax put their differences aside and unite to exact vengeance for Gemma. But they now both agree that their retaliation must be smart, that they must “swallow the urge to kill them,” and bide their time. Zobelle, meanwhile, blissfully ignorant, is off cementing his relationship with the Mayans but will no doubt be none too pleased to hear his Irish pipeline has dried up as Jimmy O makes peace with Clay and the Sons.

The episode features another great misdirection ploy that Sons is so good at: Much of the episode is set up to make you think Piney is going on a suicide mission. He kisses his ex-wife, goes through a chest full of old stuff and heads to the club carrying a gun. He goes in and fires a few shots at Clay, not even coming close to hitting anything but the table and the wall. Man, that old guy is a terrible shot. But Piney lives to suck oxygen through his tubes another day, as Opie intervenes and explains that his father was trying to protect him — taking down Clay himself instead of having Opie do it. Clay, perhaps not able to bring himself to refuse anything Opie asks for the time being, lets Piney walk out.

Tig is still making amends at the end of the episode, telling Clay that Gemma needs to know he still wants her. Clay responds by ravishing Gemma at the office, hopefully giving her some closure before the bloodbath begins.

Stray bullets:

— As Clay and Jax are telling the rest of the club about Gemma’s rape, everyone gets misty-eyed and sympathetic. It’s easy to get caught up in, until you remember how many awful things each and every one of these guys has probably done to innocent people over the years.

— Bobby’s assessment of what would happen if other SAMCRO chapters got wind of the truth behind Donna’s death: “That’s some bad PR, brother.”

— Most unnecessary plot line, brought to a new level of unnecessity: Half-Sack’s testicle implant, which has become seriously infected.