Sons of Anarchy Season 6 recap: “Wolfsangel”

I’m of two minds about “Wolfsangel.” On the one hand, it’s amazing that a show can still genuinely shock me six seasons in. On the other, Sons of Anarchy Season 6 is dancing on that razor-thin line separating shocking twists from just jerking you around. The next few episodes will tell the tale.

Instead of taking you through every event in detail, then giving you the big news, I need to just get this out there right now. Lee Toric (Donal Logue) is dead. The former U.S. Marshal out for vengeance against SAMCRO for the brutal murder of his sister, the man we have spent several episodes getting to know bit by bit as he builds evidence against the club, the man who proved he is not above manipulating the law or even killing a random hooker in order to do so, is murdered at the hands of Otto (Kurt Sutter). It’s a typically bloody, hopeless showdown in the prison’s infirmary unit, Toric’s throat slashed by a shiv that Clay (Ron Perlman) had slipped into Otto’s hand during an encounter that Toric had set up to give Clay a glimpse at his future. That Otto is finally shot dead immediately afterward barely registers due to the shock, and if it does it’s wholly unsatisfying, as it seems a relatively unremarkable way for such a scumbag like Otto to go out.

You keep thinking that maybe Toric can survive his injuries, maybe it’ll just be a close call. Then his corpse just sits there on the chair,  unmoving, and eventually we see him in a body bag. Yep, he’s dead.

And what is it all for, Kurt Sutter? Since you presumably made the decision to kill Toric on the page, then got to make it happen yourself onscreen, what is it that you have planned for us? The 15-round fight was just hitting the middle rounds, with Toric getting out to an early lead on points. We knew not to count the Sons out, that even though it would probably get to the point where they’d need a knockout to win, they always seemed to find a way to survive. Among Toric’s last words, as he’s struggling with Otto for his very life, are ones you can imagine hearing coming out of Sutter’s mouth as he gleefully planned his latest plot firebomb: “I didn’t see that coming.”

So yeah, there’s that.  It’s hard to even remember much of what else happened — and there was a lot — just because I had so much invested on the Toric vs. SAMCRO plot, but let’s give it a shot. We start out at Unser’s trailer, where he wakes up to find some ski-masked intruders who beat the crap out of him. Nothing he hasn’t been through before, but this time he gets hung up with what looks like a swastika carved into his chest.

Then there’s the little matter of Tig (Kim Coates) coming face to face with Marks’ (Billy Brown) crew. Last week, it looked as though Jax had finally given Tig up for good, but Jax (Charlie Hunnam) is greeted the next morning with a knock on the door from a shaken but very much alive Tig. Turns out what they wanted was to have Tig tell Jax that Marks needed a face-to-face. Tig seems a little suspicious but leaves somewhat reassured that he and Jax are OK. Apparently Marks was testing Jax’s loyalty, and that he’s far more interested in taking over the gun trade with the Irish than exacting his dead boss’ retribution. That whole gun deal hits a snag, though, when a couple of emissaries from the San Bernardino chapter (Robert Patrick, John Hensley) show up to regretfully inform Jax that their charter voted down the guns.

Our first glimpse of Toric is outside the brothel while Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar) and other cops lead Nero (Jimmy Smits) away for  questioning in the death of the hooker. Nero is understandably relaxed, seeing as how he knows he didn’t do anything, even though Roosevelt seems pretty certain he did it. But when Nero mentions Toric’s involvement, Roosevelt starts to suspect something is amiss. When the evidence comes back that some of the woman’s hair was found in Nero’s truck, Roosevelt spies Nero talking calmly with Gemma (Katey Sagal) and comes to the conclusion that this is not the demeanor of a guilty man. He lets Nero go, knowing it’s a setup.

The skinhead attack on Teller Morrow was blowback from Clay’s action in prison, offing an Aryan shot caller in return for protection by a rival faction. Jax wants to know who in the area might be responsible, so the Sons pay a visit to their old friend Darby (Mitch Pileggi), who has seemingly reformed — now married, doing “the Jesus thing” — and wants no part of what they’re asking him. But he ends up giving them some information about an old brethren of his who is out of jail and looking to recruit. They drag Darby to the guy’s property on the outskirts of town, where the plan is for Tig and prospect Rat to pose as a father and son interested in joining the cause. That all goes south, however, when Juice and Darby are picked up by the Aryans and brought in for punishment. Through some quick action, Rat starts a shootout and everybody gets away unharmed. They’ve even nabbed a skinhead for their trouble, although the kick him out of the moving truck not too far down the freeway. While it all seems to be OK for now, unfortunately it’s not long before Darby’s words, “This is all going to end up bad,” become painfully true.

While this is going on, Jax is having a disastrous meeting with Galen (Timothy V. Murphy), and things get physical when Jax calls Galen on his claim that the guns are still somehow tied to the greater good over in Ireland. Jax knows it’s just for money and power. They have a quick scuffle, and Galen mimics Jax’s phrase “hands off,” an incident that will become more menacing later in the episode.

Sons of Anarchy Season 6

We learn a bit more about Tara’s custody maneuvering. In short, she’s recruited Wendy (Drea De Matteo) to cozy up to Gemma and even feed Gemma some information about what Tara has going on. I know what Tara’s ultimate goal is, but still don’t quite see her full game plan yet. Wendy does meet with Tara (Maggie Siff) and Lowen (Robin Weigert) and give her some written accounts of her time with Jax, records of all the horrible stuff that went down that would not make Jax look like a good parent. Unser does spy what’s going on, and while he keeps cool about it, he does let Tara know that eventually he’s going to need to know what’s going on.

OK, now for some painful stuff. Phil (Christopher Douglas Reed) calls Jax and says there’s a shipment of guns being brought to the warehouse by the Irish, which is very much not fitting with protocol. Jax tells Phil to wait, that they’re on their way. Only by the time Jax gets there, all he finds are the corpses of Phil, who is shot point blank in the forehead by Galen, and V-Lin (Walter Wong). “Get the saw,” Galen says, and they proceed to cut off the hands of the dead men and leave them — along with the KG-9’s — as a message to Jax that things will go as planned. Jax, since he can’t quite get revenge on the Irish just then, takes the guns and shoots up the skinhead stronghold.

And now for Toric’s last act. He comes into Clay’s cell, threatening him yet again, and takes him to the infirmary so that he can see Otto’s pathetic state for himself. Clay is genuinely moved, but he also is able to think of another nefarious, murderous plot on his feet. As he’s giving Otto a final hug goodbye, he slips him the shiv, knowing he’ll make good use of it. Toric is infuriated when Clay still refuses to turn on the club, so his next tactic is to get Otto to give him dirt on Clay. Otto seems to agree and asks to have his restraints loosened so he can write it down. (You know, since he bit his own tongue off and can’t talk.)

We’ve seen this movie before, right?

Toric waits to read what Otto has written, only to find not a confession but just about the most vulgar note imaginable regarding Toric’s dead sister. That sets the marshal off and he gets into a scrape with Otto that quickly ends with Otto holding Toric at knifepoint. Then, as Clay would say, things play out as expected. Otto slashes Toric’s throat then is gunned down by prison guards.

So, OK then, Kurt, what’s your next move? Toric still had lots of balls in the air, and whether Roosevelt can ever prove the guy was trying to frame Nero, his death at the hands of Otto is going to put the club in even more danger. It’s probably not going to do Nero any favors either. And now at long last Otto is gone, with no more possibilities of him showing up at inopportune times for more sadism and savagery.

But with Toric gone, who will be the big menace for the club? The Irish, sure, but that’s not overly compelling, not the way Toric was. Killing him off sure as hell worked for the dramatics of this episode, but I can’t help but feel a huge void going into next week. I suppose CCH Pounder will finally take center stage, and Tara’s custody plot will no doubt get more screen time. Four episodes in and it feels like we’re about to start an entirely new season.

Photo: Credit: Michael Becker/FX