Sons of Anarchy Review: “What a Piece of Work Is Man” (7×09)

“What a Piece of Work Is Man,” indeed.

This week's episode is still over-stuffed, and the pacing is drawn out at times, but it at least features periodic jolts of excitement in most of the ongoing stories. It at least raises stakes, and at least bothers to feign forward momentum on the season's major arc.

The current tango with Marks comes to a bloody end, as he executes Bobby in front of Jax as repayment for Jax's war on the Chinese. The fact that it took three episodes and several beatings sort of deflates the moment's tension, as Bobby's death is as predictable as it is inevitable. But that doesn't mean that the last few episodes haven't been a nice final showcase for Mark Boone, Jr., and it doesn't make the loss of Bobby any less significant. Along with Chibs, Bobby has been the most frequent voice of reason at the table, and so that he should be a casualty of the club's descent into darkness is appropriately tragic.

What's even more promising is that Marks remains the “big bad” of the season at episode's end—at least, to the extent that Jax doesn't fill that role himself. Jax doubles down on his war following Bobby's death, seemingly learning nothing from the actions he's taken so far, but the show is no longer making any bones about this. The pastor's wife claims to see that Jax is “fundamentally decent,” but even Jax isn't claiming that anymore. Instead the show goes to great lengths to isolate Jax and SAMCRO from the world around them.

The Indian Hills charter is summoning a forum of all Sons charters, with the implicit threat that they wish to disband SAMCRO. More even than last week, they function as audience surrogates, which at this stage is hugely important to the show's narrative. Even Marks brings Jax to task, placing all the spilt blood at his feet. “Is this what you wanted?” he asks as they negotiate. “Piles of bodies?” And when he actually does murder Bobby, he puts a gun to Jax's head as well: “This is on you, Jackson.” That's a powerful statement to have the show's ostensible villain make, especially since it's a true one. Of course it's no big revelation that Jax and the club have long lost any hope at redemption or forgiveness, but by bringing in the other charters' viewpoints as well, the show at least has the means to challenge and vilify the club's actions.

Unser's investigation into Tara's murder turns up new developments, as well, as Jarry learns that the Chinese man Gemma pinned the murder on was in jail in a different state the night of Tara's murder. They're playing dumb for now, but while this is only a baby step, it is at least some progress in this story. Plus, Abel spies on Gemma as she confesses to yet another inanimate object, this time Bobby's boy. This is hardly necessary, and in fact just feels silly, especially since it's not like Abel's gonna piece together this whole complicated conspiracy. He already knows the one important detail; anything else until he tells someone else (my money's on Wendy) is just redundant filler. It's also another lazy (and unnecessary) way to emphasize the dangers of the SAMCRO life. Everyone is pretty much straight up ignoring what is clearly a severely damaged child, which is perhaps the most egregious example yet of just how much these people have normalized and rationalized their destructive lives. Neither they nor the show treat Abel like a real person, and if there's going to be no commitment on that level, well, then who cares?

Let's be honest: the episode doesn't really shake anything up. It's a workman-like installment of Sons, advancing the pieces it needs to, and while some of the moves are more interesting than they've been at times, they're the expected moves. Where the show succeeds as always is in its acting, and if nothing else, “What a Piece of Work Is Man” gives its actors the material to deliver some good performances. There's still too much filler, and not enough genuinely gripping material to justify the bloated run-times. But if you treat like a primetime soap and approach it with a generous fast-forward button trigger finger, you can do worse.

Stray Observations:

• What a beautiful shot of Gemma smoking in the cabin kitchen, with everything behind her swallowed in pitch darkness. Major kudos to Peter Weller for that one alone, but really, there are a lot of beautiful compositions this week. Even Chibs fucking Jarry in a parking garage is almost well-shot enough to excuse how stupid the scene itself is.
• Juice's story is on a mega-slow burn this week, as he enacts Jax's plan to have Lin killed, only to have Jarry toss him back into solitary at the last minute. If that's not a perfect microcosm of bullshit Sons plotting, I don't know what is.
• Did Theo Rossi show his ass? Did he ever.