S07.E13: Papa's Goods

[Captanne]

I just LOVED that parade on the 580.  I thought that was neat as hell.

 

Oh, for goodness sake, I loved the whole series and I still miss it.

 

I mentioned elsewhere that years ago there was a great Quebec series called "The Last Chapter" ("Le Dernier Chapitre") about a motorcycle gang that ranged up and down the 401 in Canada.  If you need a fix, I recommend it.  (In my perfect world, that's where Sutter got the idea.)

 

 

 

 From IMdB:  When a Canadian Biker Gang decides to expand into Ontario despite the will of some Quebec members, internal tensions grow, as well as unintended rivalries. The police watches [sic] everything from a distance.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340473/

Edited December 23, 2014 by Captanne

[DrSpaceman]

It all may merely come down to matters of taste.  I loved Sons of Anarchy from beginning to end.  As it was said earlier, some episodes were better than others, but I thought they lived up to the potential -- and, in someways went beyond.  Attempting to "update" Shakespeare is no small feat (Kurosawa did it and the RSC did it with Richard III set in WWII, Nazi Germany).  I give Sutter full credit for doing that successfully.  I really felt "Hamlet" played out.  SoA may be used in a High School to tell the story.  

 

Then, I give Sutter credit for carrying that over 7 seasons.  Most shows I like don't last for more than four and the fourth is pretty much an abortion.  

 

That the strain of carrying a 5 Act 17th Century Play for 7 years made it get soapy?

 

I can live with that.

 

Also, with personal taste in mind, I watch soap operas (made it through General Hospital from 1983 through 2013!) and I didn't find SoA soapy for one second.  I saw it as political intrigue's failure to cope with family corruption.  But no soap.  That is explicitly my own opinion.

 

ETA:  Chaos Theory makes an excellent point.  The Ireland story did get soapy but I think that had intent (which, to my mind is redeeming) because they had to explain JT's relationship in and to Ireland.  It wasn't pointless, "Chad slept with my heretofore unknown twin?!!" but more, "We need the personal drama to set up why Gemma ended up turning to Clay."

 

In Hamlet, Gertrude turns to Claudius because "that's how things were done.  When the husband died, the brother took the widow."  We don't have that social construct so one had to be manufactured.

Overall I enjoyed the series, but i didn't enjoy the last season that much.

The 90 minute episodes I found to be too long

I didn't find the last season to be "soapy" as much as I found it to be just confusing. By the end I couldn't follow the plots and who they were doing what for, who they were double crossing (though in the end basically, everyone)

The show lost all subtlety in the final season and they just seemed to be killing massive amounts of people for shock value more than for true story telling or plot development reasons.

And just in general I did not like the Jax story arc for the final season. For the entire series they had him set on the "new" type of leader that was moving the biker club in a new direction more fit for the changing times, and I found this to be interesting and a struggle but a refreshing attempt.

Then his wife dies, he basically says "screw it", and goes on a killing rampage where in the end he cannot escape from the consequences. I sort of understand the reasoning. The loss of his one true life was finally too much and I suppose it was to show he finally was reverting back to his "true" self, but I don't know......I didn't like that shift. I stopped caring about Jax as a character as much as he simply devolved into the stereotypical thug biker and met the same fate as his father and stepfather and those before him. I know in the end he takes his own life and is supposedly sacrificing himself to save his sons, says so in his big ending speech to Nero basically, but still, I didn't like how the final chapter with Jax happened. I felt the show had the potential to be unique with a final ending fitting of a modern tail with a view of how a really outdated biker gang from a bygone era grapples with the modern world, yet in the end Sutter's message seemed to be that doesn't happen, they can't change, and whether Jax saves his own biological "sons" or not, with the way he left things the "Sons" as a group, his other family, really are just bound to perpetuate the same cycle of violence, death and mayhem that has always been present.

I thought the finale was OK, more of my disappointment was in the final season overall.

[tpplay]

And in any case.  Saving one's sons doesn't make a person a Christ-like figure.  They're his sons.  That's his job, for Christ's sake.

[Bryce Lynch]

Geez, how old is Abel again? He's not very good at coloring.

Give Abel a break. He was a crank baby.

[vadare]

I know it's been a couple of years, but I finally got around to binge watching the final season.  Thank you Netflix and a week's worth of dog/house sitting.

 

Overall, I too found the body count overwhelming and the who-needs-to-be-shot-next plotline confusing, but I enjoyed it anyway.  Here are a few observations:

 

Many people have complained (with good reason, IMO) about the writing, but I think we can all agree that every actor on this show did the absolute best they could with it and did it very well.  (Of course, then Hal Holbrooke arrived and taught a clinic.)  But I also want to give a shout-out of appreciation to the celebrity cameos that came on.  I was pleasantly surprised by all of them...yes, even Lea Michelle.  Jimmy Smitts was fantastic for the two seasons he was on, Walter Goggins...OMG Wow! and I'm giving a warm round of applause to both Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson.  (And yes, y'all are all welcome for having that song stuck in your head now.)

 

I think Althea was a mirror into Unser past with the club.  She made the same or similar choices he did only she literally got into bed with the club instead of just figuratively getting into bed with them.  We only saw the long term effects of a life of being connected to the Club.  By the time the show started Unser had already made his bed and was sleeping in it.   Unser was never able to get out from under the club.  In the end they were all he had left.   In the end it was the club that killed him.  Unser was the future of what happens when a cop gets entwined with the club.   Althea is the present.  The early days when it is all sex and money.  When all you can see is the benefits it brings.  Where the idea of having ties to the club brings with it the mistaken impression they will tell you the truth or at least curtail the violence.  It is a mistake thought.  Unser and Althea both meant well and both thought that being on friendly terms with the club would curtail the violence but in the end they both realized the truth but by the time Unser did he was far to deep to get out but Althea wasn't.  She was able to cut her ties to the club and become the cop she was supposed to be.  That was her last scene.  Putting out an APB on Jax.  I think that scene was meant to show that she had chosen her job over the club something that Unser was never able to do.  

 

ITDisagree.  I think she's going to try, but I think this is going to be a long, tortuous back-and-forth, on-again-off-again, open secret: that the President of the local MC is boning the town sheriff.  (I know I couldn't turn down.)  Welcome to 21st Century Mayberry.  The writer below makes the same point.  (Read the italics.)

 

Which makes the whole "If you really love me you'll fuck me on my cop car while one of your Outlaw brothers watches." all the more weird.

 

I fully expected Chibbs to say that No, it was because she still had feelings for him, not the other way around. I'm glad he went with the threat though. It didn't need to be said, it was so obvious. Should the show have gone on, I doubt she would have chosen her job over the club for very long.

 

I totally thought he was going to say that as well.  Great minds....

 

The crows flying over the highway chase involved symbolism also.  A Scottish legend states that crows take the dead to the afterlife and therefore know the fate of those individuals.  7 crows flew over the scene before the crash.  There are 10 meanings depending the number of crows at the scene.  'Seven is for a secret; never to be told'.  And the Shakespearean quote at the end confirms that Jax did love deeply and had the inner components for redemption.  He just made the wrong choices and his values were comprimised by his upbringing.

 

Thank you very much!  I figured there was a reason they put the bad CGI crows in the picture.

 

Re:  Abel's fate

 

To those of you who didn't like the ambiguity of that scene, a few lines of fan fiction.

 

Abel falls asleep and drops the ring. It gets lost in the mommy-car Bermuda Triangle under the seats. A month from now, Wendy finally finds the time to vacuum out the car and the ring gets sucked up along with the stale Cheerios and cold, limp french fries.  Gemma screams "NOOOOOOOOO!!" from the special place in Hell that was created for her.

 

Re:  Wendy, Nero, and the kids

 

I think Wendy will stay with Nero until all of the legal affairs get straightened out, then she'll decide what to do.  By then maybe...just maybe...she and Nero will be a couple and the two of them will raise the three boys and live happily ever after.  That's a definite option.  I think that might be where KS was going with it because they were becoming a little more than just chummy.  However, it also leaves it open to the two of them just be platonic friends. 

 

Either way, as someone else pointed out, Tara wins from the grave.  The boys are away from Charming and out of the clutches of both Gemma and SAMCRO.

 

And, as long as we're dreaming here, she and Jax are back together.

[Captanne]

In Scottish lore, it's called the Crow Road.

[Dobian]

Finally finished my Netflix run through this show.  It was a great ride, pun intended.  Plus I'm from the Bay Area and enjoyed all the local references (though I knew they filmed this in So Cal and could tell right away from the topography of many of the outdoor scenes...if you're from California you are quick to spot this).  The ending was very appropriate and poetic.  You knew it had to end this way, it was classic Greek tragedy.  I was glad they finally revealed who the homeless woman was who showed up throughout the series.  So she was a guardian angel.  A great series, I will or miss it.