The Breakdown
We start this week off in respective homes. Jax in his, washing his face and tending to his children, and Gemma in hers. Nero’s in bed, and Gemma opts for a little prayer time. She tells Nero about the deal with Tara, and he says she’s gonna need more than just the word of Wendy. Jax tells Tara that he understands why she’s putting distance between them. She’s not even able to tell Jax she loves him.
DA meets up with Roosevelt, and says she wants extra units for the 24 hour surveillance on Jax. He says it’s a waste of man power, since they’ll be good boys for a while, what with the headlines & all. She doesn’t care, and feels she can still catch them slipping.
Jax heads to the club-house, gets an update on where the customers are standing with them now that they’re bowing out. Uncer shows up and asks for a minute of Tellar’s time. Before he can say anything, a young girl starts wailing on Tig’s bike with a wrench and then throws it through the shop’s window. Jax chases after her, and once he grabs her to ask her what the hell is up, she screams rape, and Jax lets her go. Uncer says he knows her, and apparently her mom died in a car accident that was caused by the truck that hit & killed Jax’s father, so they think that may be why she did what she did. Roosevelt shows up to tell Jax about the tail. Barosky calls up and says he needs to meet with them.
Tara meets with her lawyer to iron out some details. All of her pregnancy records were signed by her boss, Margret Murphy. Her lawyer asks if she plans on any other drama, and Tara tells her she knows everything.
Clay is in jail-church this afternoon. He creates a ruckus by going on and on about pussy, and then bites a guards nose off. Again, Sutter, thank you for having someone go on and on about “tight, wet, pussy” while I’m watching this show with my mom. It appears the whole ordeal is a set up that’ll have something to do with the Irish.
Nero tries to talk to Jax about what went down, and he shoots that business down with the quickness. Barosky shows up, and he’s had his cafe shut down, while the latest hooker/escort chick didn’t get her license, all because of the DA. He says something is going to have to be done soon, because she’s making good on her threats. Gemma shows up, and lets Jax know that at one point Nero gave himself up as the gun source to protect the club. Tig & Juice show up and say they have the address for the girl who trashed Tig’s bike. They then venture off to the place. Once there, they meet the father, and he invites Jax in. He tells him that her daughter has a lot of mental issues, and recently came across some things of her mothers that may have set her off. Jax sees a photo of the mother and says she looks familiar.
Nero shows up at the hospital daycare to speak with Tara. He says that they both know Gemma won’t lay down, and that this is only going to get messy. She then tells him that Gemma killed John Teller, and probably would have killed Clay too.
Clay is laid up in the hospital looking like a futuristic Hannibal Lecture, when a DR comes in, hands him a cell phone, and undoes his restraints.
At the hospital, Tara’s boss Margret, shows up to Tara’s office, only to find Gemma. She pulls a mindfreak and gets the Doc to admit that the whole pregnancy & miscarriage were a scam.
Jax & the boys have chapel, and all agree to making some form of offer to the DA. Jax shows up at her office, telling her he’ll deliver Gaelan O’Shay with a load of KG9s. He wants immunity for the club on all gun charges, past & present. He also wants her to take a look at Tara’s case again. She agrees, and lets him know if she doesn’t hear from him by the deadline of 10 days, she’ll make his life hell.
Jax meets up with Oswald, the guy who once had a daughter raped by a carny. Jax says that he no longer needs his property, as they’re out of guns. It turns out the father of the girl with the pipe-wrench works for Oswald at the mill, and Jax wants him to see what he can do for the guy about losing his house. In return, Oswald says he’s gonna run for Mayor, and could use some favors from the club.
At the pokey, Clay is done with his phone call, and next up come two guards, one of which was the guy who Clay bit. They start working him over, old fashion style.
At Nero’s place of business, Jax meets up with him and they start beating the hell out of each other, because Tara told Jax that Nero showed up and called her a liar, and a manipulative bitch. Gemma shows up and they finally break it up. Nero spills the beans about what happened with Gemma during the conjugal visit with Clay, and then Gemma finally tells Jax the truth about Tara. Everything.
Back at the shop, Tara’s lawyer meets up with Uncer. She heads into his trailer, and out comes Jax. He asks if she’s divorcing him & taking the kids; she gives a meek reply of yes. The pregnancy a lie? Yup. He tells her to get out. Uncer asks Jax if he got what he wanted, and says he promised that no one gets hurt.
On her way out, the lawyer calls Tara.
Gemma is fixing up Nero, who wants to know if there’s any truth to what he heard about her killing John. She says yes, she did. He cheated on her, and was on a trip with his new girlfriend when Gemma lost her baby, Thomas. She says afterward, he became a weak-link and no longer cared for his family, or club.
Jax shows up at the club, and the girl who trashed the place is there, and only wants to speak to him. I hope they patted her down. She just wants to know why Jax did what he did, talking to her father’s boss, after what she did. He says it was his way of apologizing to her mother.
End of the Episode Musical Montage
We see Clay in the psych ward, in a padded room with a straight jacket. Gemma’s at home, smoking. Nero’s at the club, reflecting. Jax is at the club, sitting alone, having a smoke. The girl with the pipe wrench is walking home, and we see a girl her age going through a dumpster, and then stares at the pipe-wrench girl as she walks past. Finally, we come back to Tara who’s sitting with the baby, revolver in lap.
The Breakdown
This was easily the best episode of the season so far. I was drawn in completely, and was not looking forward to seeing the reaper. They addressed a ton of things with this episode, without it feeling bloated. A lot of secrets came out, probably breaking a TV record for most things revealed in one episode. The show is building up to a lot of crescendos, and thankfully Sutter is a guy you can trust to not screw things up. They did a hell of a job this week, great stuff.
