“Sons of Anarchy” recap: Potlatch

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX
Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

Not to be too bloodthirsty, but it’s about time somebody died for real on Sons of Anarchy. After all these catastrophic injuries to minor characters who easily could have been written out, one would hate to think Sons was going the way of Heroes, not letting anyone really die. I have no objection to not killing people, just please stop gravely injuring them frequently enough that we never feel they’re in any real danger.

Now this episode’s death, which had been rumored to be of a character that had been present since the beginning of the show, isn’t as earth-shattering as it could have been, but it does bring the danger back a little bit.

Speaking of danger, Tara and Jax’s relationship seems to be hitting a rough patch, with her confronting Jax about his stated desire to change the club vs. the continual violence she sees. He tells her change will take time, but how long is she willing to wait? It’s starting to hurt her at work, too, with her boss making it very clear she doesn’t approve of the bikers and low-lives always coming to see her at the hospital. Gemma does not help matters by having a “passionate conversation” with the woman, leading Tara to tell Gemma off at a hastily arranged dinner designed to soothe over the boiling tensions.

Clay pays a visit to Oswald to thank him for bailing them out. He returns the knife they had kept as leverage and the two talk about the upcoming mayoral race, how Jacob Hale is going to run and basically be a front man for Zobelle. Looks like things might be a little political in the next few episodes. Can’t wait to see Clay and the gang going door-to-door or working a phone bank.

A couple of long-lost characters make an appearance: Chibs’ wife, Fiona, shows up at his hospital room, and Gemma is none too pleased. Apparently the two have a history. And Chuckie, he of the onanistic tendencies, comes back to the club after having paid his debt to the Chinese gang. He’s a little less off-putting these days, after Lin had all but two of his fingers cut off. He can still punch a calculator, though. Clay doesn’t want him at first, but Tig, for some reason, says they’ll take him, knowing that the Chinese were just going to kill him.

Chuckie does get his chance to shine on a revenge mission to Georgie’s porn studio. Georgie had stolen Luann’s latest work, along with a camera, and scared Lila, which has Opie on the warpath. Jax, Bobby and Opie send Chuckie in as a decoy (he uses his index fingers to poke the security guard in the eye) while they rush into Georgie’s office. They take their movie back, dump Georgie’s laptop in the aquarium, and threaten him should he ever decide to cross them again. Georgie talks tough, and after they’re gone, he plots his own revenge, which becomes tragically apparent a few scenes later.

From Georgie’s office, they stop in at Leroy’s club only to find out it’s now run by the Mayans. Oops. They’re detained while Alvarez comes to gloat and glower over them, but when he says he’s going to take their jackets, Jax gets defiant and says they’ll have to kill him first. No shots are fired, but Alvarez does spit on Jax’s jacket and says the next time a Son comes to Mayan territory, he doesn’t leave.

On the gun-running front, SAMCRO gets an unexpected order for AK-47s from Lin, so they run over to the Irish to get their supply. When Edmond is dodgy and says they already sold them, the gang leaves but knows that the Irish are now selling guns to Zobelle. After they’re gone, Zobelle’s daughter Polly emerges from the bedroom, bats her eyelashes and continues to probe Edmond for information without his suspecting a thing. When they do see the transaction go down, there’s a shootout between the Sons and some Aryans where bullets fly but nobody gets hurt. Weston, though, gets some attitude from a jealous underling, who proceeds to go to Zobelle to try to undermine the guy. Zobelle doesn’t seem to bite, saying that Weston is a good soldier; he just doesn’t understand the need for the interracial alliances the League is entering into in order to eliminate SAMCRO. The latest such relationship is with none other than the Mayans. Zobelle sweet-talks Alvarez and gives him some more free guns. I’m curious to see what the strategy is here, since the League’s stated goal is to get the Sons to stop selling guns to the Mayans in the first place.

At the potluck, things quickly devolve as Tara lays into Gemma after telling her that her boss has filed a hostile work environment claim against her, and she obscenely insults Lila in front of the kids. Clay gets pissed at Jax for not being around for the shootout, then at going up to Georgie’s office on his own. Bobby and Tig almost come to blows over another disagreement. Hale then comes in and breaks it all up with the sobering news that Luann has been found on the side of the road, beaten to death with a baseball bat. Clay and Jax almost get into it again, with it all culminating in Jax screaming at his stepfather, “I’m not the one murdering women!”

Pass the potato salad, anyone?

Stray bullets:

  • Tig’s reaction to Half-Sack’s neuticle: “Is it gay that I want to see it?”
  • After telling Opie he’s gotta “hit that” when it comes to Lila, Jax asks him what he knows about hooking up with porn stars. Remembering his dalliance with Luann, Bobby turns into a stuttering mess.
  • Gemma’s feelings toward Chibs’ wife: “There have been three women I’m afraid of. My mother, my 3rd-grade math teacher, and that Irish bitch.”
  • Keep checking this site for a chat with Katey Sagal about what’s in store for the rest of Season 2.