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“Sons of Anarchy”: 5 most shocking deaths

(WARNING: This post contains massive spoilers for several seasons of Sons of Anarchy, so if you’re not caught up, get thee to a DVD player or streaming device and make it happen.)

It’s a dicey proposition trying to rank the most shocking deaths in a show like Sons of Anarchy. You always have to consider it a work in progress. To wit, I started this blog a few weeks ago after Lee Toric’s wtf death scene, before other assignments sort of put it on the back burner until time got away from me. Well, then Kurt Sutter and Company go and kill off one of the main characters on this week’s episode and it makes me glad I waited.

So, at least for this week, here are five deaths that shocked Sons of Anarchy viewers:

1) Clay Morrow

RIP in “Aud Ron Pearsanta”

Tara (Maggie Siff) spoke for all of us when she said Clay (Ron Perlman) should have been dead a long time ago, but like Gemma (Katey Sagal), it was still hard for us to watch it happen. After a spectacular breakout orchestrated by Galen (Timothy V. Murphy) and the Irish, and carried out by the Sons, Clay thought he was going to be off to Belfast for his new life heading up the overseas gun trade. But then Jax (Charlie Humman) put a bullet in Galen’s head and Clay knew it was all over. After so many brushes with death, and so many improbable escapes, it was still hard to believe it was actually going to happen. But happen it did, and with Jax’s barrage of bullets ended the conflict that for most shows would be a series-ender. We still have one-plus season to go. Despite all their troubles, which included horrific physical violence, Gemma broke down and wept for her husband. The reason is summed up nicely in Nero’s (Jimmy Smits) comment, which doubles for the audience’s reaction: Good or bad, Clay was a huge part of her life, and it was tough to see him go.

2) Opie Winston

RIP: “Laying Pipe”

Let’s face it, these are not good people we’re dealing with on Sons of Anarchy. Even among the best of them, and you could certainly say Opie (Ryan Hurst) was that, there were horrible instances of violence and murder on the resume. And loyalty is one thing, but Opie willingly went back to the club that had killed his wife AND father (more on them later). It seems fitting then that his death also was borne out of that legacy, as he sacrificed himself to save his fellow Sons. When Damon Pope (Harold Perrineau), seeking vengeance over the death of his daughter via Tig (Kim Coates), he demanded one of Jax’s men die while they were in prison, Opie stopped Jax from taking the fall and got himself thrown into a room where death — via a group of large men carrying pipes — waited. That last blow to Opie’s head remains one of the series’ most enduring images.

3) Donna Lerner

RIP in “The Sleep of Babies”

This was the death that, way back in the first season, showed you what kind of show we were dealing with here. Donna (Sprague Grayden) was the wife who waited for Opie while he was in prison, and agreed to stay with him, along with their two kids, if he agreed to change his lifestyle. That meant no more club. But it was a hopeless pursuit, and Opie was not equipped to follow through. Instead when word got out that the Feds were trying to get Opie to turn, Clay made the call to take Opie out by shooting him in the back of the head while driving his truck. Only Opie didn’t take the truck that night. Poor Donna did, and her death started her husband down a path from which he couldn’t deviate from or survive.

4) Lee Toric

RIP in “Wolfsangel”

The end of Season 5 and the first several episodes of Season 6 made it seem like retired US Marshal Lee Toric (Donal Logue) was going to be the opponent that might actually do some real damage to SAMCRO. He was technically on the right side of the law, willing to go just as dirty — if not dirtier — than the Sons to win, and he was out for revenge. Otto (Kurt Sutter) had brutally murdered his sister, and Toric seemed to be putting together the pieces for an ultimate takedown plan. … Until he got a little sloppy and managed to get his throat slit by Otto. At the time it seemed to derail the entire season, but just a few episodes later, Toric seems like a footnote.

5) Piney

RIP in “Family Recipe”

Piney (William Lucking) always looked about half … make that three-quarters dead anyway, lugging around that oxygen tank of his and that gravelly voice. Being an original member of SAMCRO, he could get away with a hell of a lot, but when he got involved in the blackmail scheme surrounding proof that Clay was involved in John Teller’s murder, that was where the line was drawn. Clay went up to Piney’s cabin, saying he wanted to talk it out, and ended up blowing him away with a shotgun. This is just about the peak of Clay’s bloodthirstiness — remember he also put a cartel hit out on Tara, which if successful would have topped this list — and in a way we’re happy Piney no longer has to function in a world that has clearly moved on from him and no longer makes sense. Opie never got along much with his father, but his death, and eventually learning that Clay was responsible, was pivotal in Opie deciding he’d had enough of the world as well.

As a bonus, here are five folks we can’t believe aren’t dead yet:

Tig — The resident hothead of the group has got himself, and the club, into more trouble than anyone can keep track of, and there have been several scenes that felt like they would be his sendoff. But he’s still here, and — prediction time! — probably will be like that cockroach that outlives us all.

Chucky (Michael Ornstein) — This isn’t shock as much as a request: Can we kill this guy off please? It creeps me out devoting even this much headspace to him.

Juice (Theo Rossi) — Not even an attempted suicide and being found out that he killed another club member because he didn’t want him to tell the club he was helping out the Feds could keep this guy down.

Unser — He has terminal cancer, right?

Margaret Murphy (McNally Sagal) — The most lenient boss in TV history, having survived a hostage situation with Tara, the perennially suffering hospital administrator seems ripe to meet her end via an innocent-bystander or collateral-damage situation. Perhaps being Katey Sagal’s sister-in-law means extra job security.

Photos: (Ron Perlman, Donal Logue) Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX; (Ryan Hurst) Credit: Frank Ockenfels/FX; (William Lucking) Credit: James Minchin III/FX;

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