look2thecookie

At first I was just as horrified by this turn of events, but then I thought that it may have been Jax's way of "seeing" Tara one last time. That's our protagonist for ya.

For me one of the best lines of the episode was at the end when Jax tells the club, "I'm sorry that the family I was given has created so much chaos in the family I've chosen." Initially this line rang very false to me, because I assumed Jax was referring to SAMCRO as the "family he's chosen." But then I realized that the family Jax has chosen is actually his family with Tara and the boys. In this case, that line recalls the Jax of season 4 when he was aware of how poisonous the club was for his family. This acknowledgement seems to be the first time in a while that Jax has actually been self-reflective. Some may see this as inconsistent writing, but I always felt that the Jax of seasons 5-7 was hiding behind something of a front. He spent the first half of the series in one frame of mind, and the second half in another. Now it's time to face the consequences of that "to be or not to be" conflict that he has lived.

Marks also threatened Jax and SAMCRO in an episode earlier this season when the two were in Marks's car talking about the need for trust in their relationship (after he probably saw through Jax's lie about SAMCRO not being behind the recent hit on the Chinese). Marks said something like, "Don't cross me Jackson...I will have no remorse in killing you or any of the Sons." Jax went full-on veiled angry face as Marks was saying this to him in the car. I think this provided him with the motivation to take out Marks.

Here is a very twisted thought: What if Gemma discovers that Abel knows her secret and has to kill Abel before he blurts it out to Jax? Or is this going completely over the edge? This kind of situation would be the ultimate test of Gemma's maniacal sense of self-preservation.

This completely; however, for six seasons viewers wondered similar things about why on earth Tara would stick around with such a low-life criminal. Jax's got the Kavorka. I honestly still can't decide whether this 90 minute (!) episode with almost no new plot developments was completely brilliant or kind of terrible. I am a loyal viewer to the end, but at times the episode was so slow that I found myself mainly interested in contemplating Jax's lustrous head of hair and picturing him standing in front of the mirror every morning hitting it with his arsenal of styling products. Let's hope things pick up a little bit next week.

Can we talk about the weird Oedipal/Pygmalion subtext happening this season? Gemma has created/molded/manipulated Jax in her own image and now she has him all to herself and is completely in love with her creation. On the other hand, Jax seems to be OK with the idea that his mother is the only woman he can have in his life right now. At the end of this episode, the way Jax had his arm draped over Gemma's shoulders as they were walking up to the house of the abusive father was exactly the way he had flirtatiously draped his arm over Tara's shoulders in an episode in season 5 (and others too probably, but that is the one that was brought to mind). If this season is all about "shock value," which certainly seems to be the case after the first three episodes, then I really wouldn't be surprised if there is a cringe-worthy Jax/Gemma scene coming up that takes place either on or near her bed, or worse, has some kind of awkward mother/son kiss or something. I know seems outrageous, but nothing appears to be off limits at this point. Will Sutter go there?

Jax's plan for destroying Lin that he described to Jury ("I'll gain his total trust, and then once I'm inside I'll kill the first person he wants spared, then everyone he cares about, then let him sit in agony over it before I kill him...etc.") sounds a lot like a larger metaphor for everything Gemma has done to Jax over his entire life. Could also be foreshadowing for how Jax may eventually kill Gemma, especially if he is in fact aware that she is the villain. Or maybe August Marks will finally get his revenge for Pope's death against Jax in a similar way. Either way, that seemed like an important sequence that will be replicated in some way this season.

redapplecigs - I agree completely and felt that nearly the entire episode possessed that surreal quality. In terms of the car scene, I'm not sure if it was specifically filmed to reflect a hazy state (the colors seemed a little washed out) or if it was just the overwhelming subtext that we are placing upon these scenes now. Perhaps it is a combination of both. One of my favorite moments in this episode was Jax's reaction when Nero went to hug him in the ice cream shop. It went by quickly, but the split-second reaction in Jax's eyes broke that stone-cold expression just long enough to reveal how little Jax trusts anyone outside of his inner-circle and showed a little bit of Jax's mental/emotional state beneath all the stoicism. I thought it was brilliant, subtle acting. Like many of you, I've also been intrigued by the Shakespearean parallels in this show, and I think that Jax is completely and appropriately in fifth act Hamlet mode right now. Hamlet reaches a point of no return by the end of the play once he recognizes that he is no better than his cold-blooded step-father. We'll see if Jax's storyline eventually diverges from that, but whoever mentioned here in a previous post that Alvarez may represent the "Fortinbras" character is definitely on to something. Fortinbras' army hovers over Denmark as an outside threat for the entire play, just as the Mayans have been threatening SAMCRO from the beginning. I never realized that connection until it was brought up here, so thanks for that!