The Breakdown
The Mad King opens up with a few teams of two hanging outside separate Irish bars & hangouts, looking for Gailand and his friends. At the club house, it’s lockdown. Over at the pokey, Clay has himself a new bunk mate. Nero locks up at the bothel. Roosevelt looks over the crime scene photos of Otto & Marshall.
At the location Happy & Jax are watching, one of Gailand’s crew arrives. One head insides, the other waits in the car. Jax gets inside and chases after the guy who arrived first, and beats some info out of him in regards to the location of their Irish friends. He’s told that they’re picking Conner up at a beverage supply company.
At the police station, the DA meets up with Roosevelt. She wants him to find a way into the MC through the Bizlats, while she’s gonna work Tara for information.
Back at the shop, Nero arrives, and soon after so does Jax. He talks with Tara for a minute before he and Nero head out, who happen to have Roosevelt on their tail. Nero & Jax discuss business on their way to the latest hooker house. Outside, Brasky arrives and wants to know why Roosevelt is staking out the house. He gets about as much info as you’d expect before hitting the bricks. Back inside, Brasky wants to know why, and they try to clam his fears. The rest of the Sons arrive, and Jax takes off with them.
Over at the shop, Tara & Uncer talk for a moment. He offers his help, due to what he saw the other day at the hospital.
The Sons arrive where Gailand’s right hand man is and quickly hop on the good foot to do the bad thing. It takes a minute, but they get what they came for. They take him back to their barn storage place in order to find out how to call the Irish Kings. Once he does, he offers peace. No more blood shed. He offers up August Mark’s as a suitable replacement. Once the phone is hung up, we see that Gailand has been there all along. He tells the guys at the table that he’s going to have Clay remain as their Northern California connection. He also says that Jax will get what he wants; out of guns, and ties severed.
In the poke, Clay gets a book with a message inside.
Gemma shows up at Wendy’s work and says he wants a copy of the will, in order to show Jax what’s going on, as she believes all this Irish business has pushed her exit strategy into over-drive. She gives Wendy some baby photos of Abel, and as she leaves, it appears Wendy may be feeling bad about the whole ordeal.
Back at the shop, Jax is told that Clay has set up a conjugal visit with Gemma, and says she needs to bring a cool $500 to bribe the guards.
Nero shows up at the station to ask why Roosevelt is following him, and he lets him know he’s after Jax & the club.
At the hospital, while Tara is talking with her lawyer, Wendy shows up for a chit-chat. As I suspected, she isn’t cool with lying to everyone anymore. Tara talks her off the ledge, but I suspect that something is afoot.
Back at the jailhouse rock, Gemma shows up, pays the guard, and gets her two minutes with Clay. He says the Irish reached out to him. He tells Gemma that Jax is trying to get the club out of guns, which is apparently news to her. He also informs her that they plan on springing Clay from jail during his transport in two weeks. Clay will go underground, and run things from Belfast. Just as she’s about to leave, the guards let it be known that before they leave, Clay & Gemma are to get down to the business of getting down while the guards watch. If Clay won’t do it, then one of the other guards will. Also, let this be known, while the guard is saying “show me your tits” and other such things are going on, that I’m watching this with my mom. Thank you, Sutter. This scene felt a little random, but it never hurts to have some villains on the docket that you want to see gutted, and gutted badly.
Jax & Nero meet up with Brasky, and he isn’t happy with how the DA is dying to get the club & Nero’s gang for the school shooting. Chibs shows up with Gemma, and has a talk with Jax, to fill him in on what’s going on. He calls the Irish, and they say they’ll have an answer, and conditions at 8pm. Chibs doubts this, as he believes the Irish’s hate for anything non-white trumps all.
Gemma talks to Nero, and says she doesn’t want to keep things from him.
Back at the station, Roosevelt gets the DNA results from Nero’s truck.
End of the Episode Music Montage
Tara hangs out with the boys at the club house. Nero & Gemma arrive at the club, and it’s unclear if she told him everything. Roosevelt shows up. 2 minutes before 8pm, Jax sees a Shamrock pen on the counter, and asks Chucky where he got it from. He says the delivery man left it. What delivery man? The guy who brought in the keg. Just then it hits Jax, and he gets everyone out of the club house just in time as the whole place explodes. We then get the logo.
The Analysis
One hell of an episode. This season is really picking up steam, and making me more & more pissed off each time I see that logo appear on screen. The Irish are fantastic villains, because they truly aren’t afraid of anything, and will do whatever, to whomever. I’m very interested to see where Clay falls on the side of all this, as well as Jax’s next course of action. Tara’s mission to get the boys out will no doubt be stronger than ever, and who the hell could blame her?
