Another week, another step closer to total ruin. That’s the mode Sons of Anarchy is in this season, as we continue what’s essentially the fifth act of one long tragedy. We feel the full weight of the show’s dramatic structure and its Shakespearean inspiration this week, as various characters’ decisions have repercussions throughout Charming. The story’s beats may be familiar, but that familiarity lends a sense of inevitability that enhances the story rather than detracts from it.
The show has a lot of balls in the air at the moment, and it’s impossible not to be impressed that, so far, it hasn’t dropped any of them. In fact, “Some Strange Eruption” even begins to bring the various threads together, the many strands of Jax’s scheme quickly pulling themselves into a know. While it’s entirely too obvious that Nero is setting Lin up, it’s much less obvious that Unser will learn of the meeting as well, and alert the legit police in Stockton. And it’s even less obvious that Gemma would panic and take Juice, her last loose end, and eliminate him. By the time Gemma is cowering on the ground, Juice’s gun leveled at her temple, Sons has found a way to genuinely surprise the viewer.
This is a show that had lost any element of surprise prior to this season, mind you. Any number of plot twists in recent memory, beginning with the absurd revelation of Romeo as CIA agent, have been convoluted, unnecessary, unjustified extensions of a plot that was clearly stalling its endgame. But what Kurt Sutter and his team have successfully (unbelievably?) managed is to take all of that accumulation and still make it add up to something. Juice’s confession to Gemma, that he killed that boy’s mother under Jax’s orders, is a moment that arises from character, and which serves to develop character. Theo Rossi deserves the highest praise this week, for fully portraying the rapid, confused decision-making processes that Juice undergoes this week. “I betrayed our king,” is a powerful admission that doubles as a revelation. Moving Juice into this role makes sense dramatically and narratively, and the idea of him setting out on a crusade against the club, with Gemma as his hostage or worse, is a compelling one.
It does take entirely too long to get to this point, though. The episode dances around Jax’s double-cross of Lin, and then Unser intervenes, leaving the conflict off for another day. There isn’t nearly enough of interest in the various scenes that set-up this double cross; for now, all interest lies in what’s happening surrounding Jax, and not what’s happening to him. It’s in this area that the show has some trouble this week, as delaying the moment Jax learns the truth about Tara is the only way to maintain the show. Once he knows what Gemma did, there is no turning back for the narrative.
That knowledge also deflates the cliffhanger ending a bit. Juice is almost certainly not going to kill Gemma. But even if the show does take a left turn and kill her now, that feels like a distinct disappointment, as well. That’s so unlikely as not to be worth worrying over, though. Instead, the show goes to lengths to underscore the idea that all this violence is laid directly at Jax’s feet. Abel watches over Thomas with a hammer, to protect him, because that’s what he learned from his father and grandmother. Juice kills an innocent man, because he’s terrified that everyone is trying to kill him.
There’s just enough toward the end of this episode to suggest continued forward momentum, but this episode is a lot of middle, too, and for the first time this season, it does feel a bit like marking time. It’s not necessarily a dealbreaker at this stage, though. There’s more than enough else of interest in this episode. Dayton Callie turns in some great work this week, as Unser gets pulled in two very different directions as he tries to remain loyal both to the club and to his conscience. Annabeth Gish is also hugely entertaining, putting a refreshing spin on the sheriff role. I’m enjoying Jarry’s morally great characterization; she’s clearly a good person, but she’s no squeaky clean cop, either.
The middle of any story is tough, especially coming after several seasons’ worth of middle. Sons was never going to sustain the momentum of those first several episodes, but nor does it lose enough momentum here to be more than, occasionally, a little boring. There’s enough good characterization, and enough new wrinkling of the plot, to hold interest, and the tone remains on point. Tragedy will always take a moment to reflect on how very bad things are, and the massacre on Diosa is a significant enough event that it warrants the extra time spent on the fallout. With that out of the way, the show can soldier on—if we’re still in this same place this time next week, well, then we’ll talk.
Stray Observation:
– My lone stray observation this week isn’t really all that stray, because that horrid cover of “Age of Aquarius” dominated all of my thoughts on this episode. “Age of Aquarius” is a deeply silly song to begin with, and makes for one of the more egregious, ridiculous montages we’ve had in quite some time on this show.
Michael Wampler is a graduate of The College of New Jersey, where he completed both B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature. He currently lives and works in Princeton, NJ while he shops around his debut novel and slowly picks away at his second. Favorite shows include Weeds, Lost, Hannibal and Mad Men (among many more). When not watching or writing about television, he enjoys reading, going for runs, and building his record collection.