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S07.E02: Toil And Till

Tara Ariano

By Tara Ariano
in Sons Of Anarchy [V]

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Insomnia

Insomnia

There is just no one to root for any more. None of the people left are heroes or redeemable in any sort of way. They are the badguys, they have always been the bad guys, even Opie was a badguy. Let's face it;  they all belong to an outlaw biker gang who sells drugs, and weapons, kill people at the drop of a hat, and all sorts of illegal shit. That's the lifestyle, and that's the show I signed up for, and I'm okay with that.

 

But the show I signed up for also had Jax nominally trying to get out, and the outlaw biker gang at least trying to blend in and seem normal Now, no one cares. And there are no good guys. It's just badguys against badguys for conflict's sake. But there is no one for people to cheer for and hope they make it to the end. Not from a story point of view. Sure, I want Chibs to live, because I love and understand his accent. I want Juice to stay alive so that he can do more naked push-ups. But no matter how much Juice cries against a wall he's just as bad as all the others. He doesn't feel remorse for his actions, he feels remorse for getting caught, and for any hurt he has done to the Club.

 

Don't get me wrong, sometimes I like a badguy to win.

Arlington Road

is still one of my favourite movies to date. When Dexter started it was one of my favourite shows, and he was a serial killer. But because he was killing other bad people, he was somewhat redeemable to the audience because he was doing a "good" thing in the end. SoA has turned in to bad people doing bad things  to keep upping the ante from the last bad thing. I don't mind shock value every once in a while - we need to be shown as an audience that these are bad people we are cheering on; we're really not supposed to like them. But shock value just to see how much you can get away with doesn't really do it for me.

 

I'm still going to watch, and it's not even hate watching yet. I am a completionist, and want to see how it ends. But SoA probably isn't going to be a show that in a few years I pick up again and watch, and if I ever do it'll only be the first few seasons.

  • Love 10
Ohwell

Ohwell

To be honest, if this weren't the last season, this show wouldn't be on my must-see list.  I do want to see how it all ends but I won't be watching any reruns.  It's no Breaking Bad.

 

However, if Gemma is left standing and unscathed, then I will be disappointed.  I have a feeling that Sutter won't kill his wife off, but I want this show to end with her left with nothing and nobody.

  • Love 5
daughtersofanarchy

daughtersofanarchy

After the firefight and chase scene with the Chinese, when the Sons had their latest dead body collection all lined up, and Jax turned the suitcase over to Jury, Jax and Chibs walked over to the two helper guys.  Jax told them he was going to bring them some nice money and, by the way, what was their address?  I turned to dh and said, "Jax is going to kill them.  They're outsiders and loose ends."  How come those two guys couldn't figure that out?  Jury recruited them, and Jury would be the one to settle up with them.  They had to know that.  Why in the world would Jax make a special trip to their place to give them money.  Well, he wouldn't.

 

Now, if I'm remembering this right, after the Sons killed the two helpers and set up the scene to make them look like they had whacked the Chinese, Bobby called Lin and told him the Sons had found out who did the deed, and that the intel was good solid intel, and gave the location where the perps could be found.  Obviously we assume Lin & company will be going right over there

 

We see Jury going in and finding the two dead guys and getting all broken up, then picking up the gun and giving it a close look, and getting even more broken up.  At that same time, there is a knock at the door.  I didn't imagine this, right?  There's a knock at the door and Jury looks toward the door.  I think this is Lin and his guys.

 

If it's Lin, Jury is going to die, unless he can talk faster than a speeding bullet and tell the Chinese that this is a setup, that Jax set this up.  Jury is wearing his cut, isn't he?  Even if he isn't, I'm sure Lin knows who he is anyway.

 

I can imagine how this would play out if Jury dies.  Lin confronts Jax about who they found at the house.  Jax won't have to fake shock, he will be shocked about Jury.  Jax will be able to say he's been betrayed by Jury and his chapter, that he had no idea, no idea at all, and that will be why Lin will buy the scenario of who took out his guys.  Because the show must go on, my friends. 

  • Love 6
monakane

monakane

 

There is just no one to root for any more.

 

I used to root for Jax when he wanted a different life for his family.  The moment he stuck the needle in Wendy's arm, I lost all sympathy for him and I hope he gets what he has coming to him.  Of all the shitty things he's done over the years, that one bothered me the most.  Maybe it was the intimacy of the act or the fact that she is his son's mother.  I'm not sure why it was so disturbing to me, but it was.

 

Only in the Sons universe is a pimp the most sympathetic character.

  • Love 13
spaceytraci1208

spaceytraci1208

How is that none of these idiot criminals get shot or killed when they go after other armed to the teeth criminals? Were the Chinese using blanks or have really poor aim?

They always seem to be facing-off against the A-Team. One of my favorite moments was from early season 2 after Donna's been killed and Opie feels he has nothing to live for. The Sons are in a shoot-out with the Niners (I think) and Opie just comes walking into the crossfire, Terminator-style and starts blasting. Pretty sure he remained unscathed...

  • Love 5
Snookums

Snookums

Wendy laughing in the car with Nero. I was thinking either Wendy's super-attracted to Nero, or Drea de Matteo is super-attracted to Jimmy Smits.

 

 

I blame neither. Every time she looked at him, though, I thought "Drea De Matteo has untrustworthy eyes." I had to remind myself that so far her character is the only one not openly setting anybody up.

How is that none of these idiot criminals get shot or killed when they go after other armed to the teeth criminals? Were the Chinese using blanks or have really poor aim?

 

 

 

This has always bugged the shit out of me. Especially during this particular fight with Chibs standing there, no cover of any kind, just super casually shooting from the hip. Yes it looked cool but NOBODY on the other side, lifelong killers and criminals one and all, thought to aim at the moron making himself the biggest target in a three mile radius???

  • Love 4
TigerLynx

TigerLynx

I still love Happy and Tig.  They are hilarious.

 

I'm sad Chibbs has lost his functioning brain cells, but I appreciate that Chibbs wears BOOTS, and not stupid tennis shoes like Jax.

 

Nero and Wendy are either going to end up with Abel and Thomas, or end up dead.  At one time, I thought Lila might end up with Jax's children like she did Opie's.

 

Juice and Unser are never going to die.  Juice will be crying forever, and Unser will continue to not solve crimes even when he knows who did it.  {face palm}  I've ended my friendships with Cancer and the Tree because of this.

  • Love 3
Insomnia

Insomnia

(edited)

If it's Lin, Jury is going to die, unless he can talk faster than a speeding bullet and tell the Chinese that this is a setup, that Jax set this up.  Jury is wearing his cut, isn't he?  Even if he isn't, I'm sure Lin knows who he is anyway.

 

Wearing his cut might save him, if Lin comes in and shoots after. If he goes in guns a blazin' then he won't likely live. With the cut on though, they might assume someone stayed behind even though Bobby said they didn't care, at least until Lin gets there.

 

And since shooting first is pretty much a Redwood Original defining trait... Jury might end up okay. He probably will, at least until we can find out who the guy with the dog tags was to him, anyway. And who that is will decide on if he gives up the Club or not. Because if he does die, it'll be way too easy to be all "YOU KILLED THE GUY WE LEFT BEHIND FOR YOU UNTIL YOU GOT THERE?" And then shoots him dead. Because while it is as subtle as everything else this season, it would shit on Jax's whole revenge scheme. And then what would Jax Manson do for the rest of the season? Kill Juice? That's what? Half an episode tops given Juice's hiding abilities and how many people know where he is?

Edited by Insomnia
  • Love 2
lacEdoll

lacEdoll

The only place those kids belong is with anyone besides these f'd up Charming bikers...not with Wendy or Nero. Certainly not Gemma or Jax. They need to be taken into protective custody and placed into a loving home...and raised somewhere far far away just as Tara wanted.

Wendy is barely functional, Nero is under Gemma's spell. And Jax, well I think he knows far more than he's being given credit for.

  • Love 3
Lonesome Rhodes

Lonesome Rhodes

Lin has no idea where Dun (dude Jax vivisected last week) is and he knows the last time he saw him was in the SAMCRO-controlled ho house.  But, he won't make the connection.  No sirree.

 

The one thing that was actually awesome in this ep was the convo between Wendy and Nero about the nature of addiction.  Really good stuff.  One of the truisms in recovery is that the relapse does not occur immediately prior to using again.  The relapse occurred some period of time before when the attitude or thinking of the addict got wrong.  From that point, relapse is inevitable.  Wendy's admission that she still likes the action and that she harbors murderous anger told Nero that she is simply marking time until she uses again.  

 

Yes, she was managing pretty well until Jax injected her, but too much of her could not pull away from the excitement/glamour/emotional pull of SAMCRO.  Now, she is a goner.  Just a matter of time.  Cash this check, Sutter!

  • Love 5
terrymct

terrymct

However, if Gemma is left standing and unscathed, then I will be disappointed.  I have a feeling that Sutter won't kill his wife off, but I want this show to end with her left with nothing and nobody.

 

 

He COULD kill her off if it gave his Katie Seagal a massively dramatic scene or series of scenes for which they anticipate an Emmy.

terrymct

terrymct

So I am kind of rooting for Wendy and Nero - which makes me afraid Mommie Dearest will kill them.

 

Tig is an awful person like the rest of them but he does make me laugh sometimes, plus Kim Coates is such an awesome guy which colors all my reactions towards Tig more positively than they probably should.

 

I think I'm rooting for Wendy and Nero, too.  They're the only ones with potential to survive at the moment.

 

I also like that Tig is styled like a demented member of the Three Musketeers fell back through time.   The long, almost feminine hair, the jewelry, the body conscious black clothes.   He's D'Artagnan's warped heir.

  • Love 8
leisawoo

leisawoo

My entry in What's In Sutter's Head (don't worry too much about it, I never win this game):

 

Jax is not a moron. He saw the crime scene, he saw the murder weapon. He saw who was left standing and he sees his mother's reactions to events and statements people make and listens to the meaning behind her words.  He knows she did it.  

 

What I think is happening is that Jax has declared (to himself) a pox on all your houses. The way he described what he would do to Lin as the killer of Tara is really what he has planned for them all.  He has turned on everyone, every last murderous sociopathic thug who populates his universe. When Tara was alive he tried to change the club but every turn he made blew up on him. He had to kill more and more just to try to get out of the gun business and go semi-legit for her and his sons. All he got from it is estranged from Tara and losing her to his murderous duplicitious mother. She poisons anything she touches, and he knows that. But what he knows now more than ever is that he does too. He sees Abel's dead eyes. It has already begun for the little guy. It'll work it's poison on Thomas soon. Tara couldn't save them. He can't save them. All he can do is destroy the destroyers around them. 

 

So he is taking out everyone. He is setting up everyone against everyone else, setting them afire against each other. He has no conscience about killing any of these people, including the Indian Hills guy's kid who, like Jax himself and like Abel and Thomas eventually, is a killer.  What I don't know is whether he thinks of Nero and Wendy in this way or whether they will come under the same judgment and be targeted. Will he give his sons to them?  I doubt it. I think he would give his sons to someone else, someone who is unconnected and who can protect them from both vengeance and their heritage. It is their only hope in my opinion.  

 

His final acts will be to watch Gemma absorb all of this and suffer for it, and watch 'her boys' ripped away from her and then die a terrible, painful, torturous death at the hands of her own son. He may then go on his way alone, or kill himself. Something that will take him out of the life and forever away from both his shattered soul and the lives of his sons. And his sons will grow up happy and unaware of their bloody terrible past.  Except maybe there's already a seed in Abel. He does look kind of horror story kind of creepy.  

 

That's my entry in what's in Sutter's head.  Now I get to watch the season and see how each turn takes me down the wrong turn.  That is my special fate.

Beautiful! I kinda hope that is what happens. Great vision.

  • Love 1
BigMamaThorton

BigMamaThorton

I find that I was intrigued by the two mini hand sanitizers sitting on the table next to Juice prior to releasing Unser, and the egregiously white kicks on Jax despite literally standing in dirt.

 

So, my love affair with SOA is wheezing the throws of a death rattle.

 

Called Wendy/Nero last week.  Just saying'…..

 

Ultimately, I'm left rather bored thus far, but will hang in for the apocalyptic denouement.

 

In for a penny and all that…. 

  • Love 3
Febgirl

Febgirl

 

In for a penny and all that….

     Same.   Right now, I'm playing the " This is what I think should happen, based on what we've seen, but won't" game 

My hope is, that someone in the club wises up, and stands up to Jax, instead of just saying "we're all in".  My money would be on Tig. because at this point Bobby and Chibs are just "company men".

  • Love 1
moviewhore

moviewhore

As much as I'd love to think Jax is just fucking with everybody knowing his mom killed Tara I don't see him having that kind of brainpower.  I think, on very windy days, he hears a loud whistle due to the empty space between his ears..

 

I'm just tired of the show now.  I'm tired of Jax's bullshit and his stupidity. 

 

 

  • Love 7
Pickles Aplenty

Pickles Aplenty

(edited)

I think, if Jax even has an inkling that Gemma killed Tara and is lying through her teeth about the whole thing, he has pushed it so far back in his mind that he won't be ready to confront it for a while.  Jax and Gemma have always had a codependent relationship, so I find it hard to believe that he would accept the fact that Gemma is the true villain and go about some calculating revenge plot just to slam her with the truth after he's finished his killing spree.  Jax would wrestle with that shit like there was no tomorrow, and I don't think he could kill Gemma, even if he wanted to.  If Gemma dies, it will probably be by someone else's hand.  That's just what I think.

Edited by Billina
  • Love 1
RedHackle

RedHackle

Like so many others here, I am all but just hate-watching this show at this point.  But there has been the tiniest spark in the back of my head that there is some kind of super-quadruple-cross coming up, like what Jax pulled with Stahl.  andyourlittledog2,  I think you may have nailed it - that's really the only possible explanation at this point that makes an ounce of sense. 

 

As for how frustrating this show is to watch at this point, I will say this - it gave us more good seasons than True Blood did.  No, that's not saying much.

  • Love 1
Kel Varnsen

Kel Varnsen

Now, if I'm remembering this right, after the Sons killed the two helpers and set up the scene to make them look like they had whacked the Chinese, Bobby called Lin and told him the Sons had found out who did the deed, and that the intel was good solid intel, and gave the location where the perps could be found.  Obviously we assume Lin & company will be going right over there

So when SAMCRO killed those two guys what kind of scene were they trying to present to Lin? Were they trying to make it look like these guys robbed the truck, hid the guns and then came home, took a few bong hits and accidentally killed each other? Or that an unknown third party found the house, killed the guys and then didn't steal the drugs. Because it is not like Jax can admit that SAMCRO found and killed them.

 

Also the fact that unser said that the guys in SAMCRO were smart made me laugh and laugh. I mean how come jax thought he would question the guy from Lin's crew he killed this week but not the one last week. And that shoot out car chase was ridiculous.

  • Love 1
Ottis

Ottis

(edited)
There is just no one to root for any more. None of the people left are heroes or redeemable in any sort of way.

 

 

That's been true for at least the last two seasons, maybe three.

 

To state Jax is smart during the same episode where he continues to ignite an all out war on the word of his mother (AND gives another chapter president the whole story, which conveniently fills in the gaps later when that president finds the same gun he saw during the heist) does not compute. But then so much of this show doesn't. The person who made the most sense was Jury, who pointed out to Jax that last time they talked, Jax was trying to get out of that business. Not sure why Jury brought more muscle; that seemed like a surprise to Jax. Not sure why Jax thinks that muscle would squeal and no one else present would ... can he vouch for all of Jury's guys?

 

I honestly can no longer follow the motives of anyone on this show. Jax does something that puts every life in his club and family at stake (attack "yellow") after spending several seasons telling us how he wants out. We're supposed to believe he is doing this out of pure revenge, and yet everyone he talks to tells him revenge is never a solution and Nero calls Jax "smart." Juice keeps hanging around even though he knows he is on a hit list AND has info to bargain with. Gemma keeps Juice alive even though she knows he could sink her. The Chinese gang leader assume the SOA did the hit based on the fact that *as far as he knows* no one but the Sons and Irish knew of the delivery, as if it isn't possible for a new player to hear something. It is like everyone is preprogrammed to act these ways regardless of what happens around them.

Edited by Ottis
Guest Accused Dingo

Guest Accused Dingo

(edited)

I don't need to root for anyone to enjoy a show. This is not the first time I have loved a show with only assholes on it. It is still one of mu favorite shows on tv. (I said favorite not best written). Its a soap opera with bikers.

I am actually hoping Gemma survives. If there was a show where the villain wins in the end then this is it. I can see all of Jax's scheming work for awhile then backfire nuclear and him dying in the end. My dream scenario is Gemma sitting in Jax's presidents chair holding Abel in her arms. Fast forward a Decade or so and Thomas has just been jumped into SAMCRO and takes a seat next to his brother the future king.

Edited by Accused Dingo
  • Love 3
Artsda

Artsda

I don't need to root for anyone to enjoy a show. This is not the first time I have loved a show with only assholes on it. It is still one of mu favorite shows on tv. (I said favorite not best written). Its a soap opera with bikers.

I am actually hoping Gemma survives. If there was a show where the villain wins in the end then this is it. I can see all of Jax's scheming work for awhile then backfire nuclear and him dying in the end. My dream scenario is Gemma sitting in Jax's presidents chair holding Abel in her arms. Fast forward a Decade or so and Thomas has just been jumped into SAMCRO and takes a seat next to his brother the future king.

ITA. From episode one this wasn't a root for people show. They were drug selling, arms selling, killers from the pilot and never changed or claimed to be good guys. We weren't supposed to root for Jax to get out and leave the club, the whole show is about the brotherhood these guys have and their club.  

  • Love 2
NoWillToResist

NoWillToResist

Was that kid Jury was cradling his son or something? It feels a bit too personal in that ending scene. He had to be more than just local muscle to Jury. Seeing Jury like that because of Jax, shows how different this is compared to the season 1 'Patch Over' episode where Jax was trying to help him compared to Clay who wasn't.

 

Loved Jimmy Smits' reaction to Wendy calling him and Gemma "mom and dad". Heh.

 

I honestly cannot fathom why Jax would use such a clearly unique weapon to kill those two guys. Good lord.

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