December 16, 2025 • 44 mins
You spoke, I listened! This episode was first uploaded to the Belated Binge: Sons of Anarchy specific feed.
SPOILER WARNING for Sons of Anarchy
S2 E6 Falx CerebiIn this episode of SOA, Clay manages to get the whole SAMCRO chapter thrown in jail, Opie is a total jack@$$ to Jax, and Tara gets to bond with Gemma by using Ima’s car for target practice!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I am so happy to be recording anepisode of this podcast covering
Sons of Anarchy and I'm coming back to a bit of a doozy episode
where Clay gets the, you know, almost entire charter thrown in
jail. Way to go Clay.
The belated binge podcast. Hi and welcome to belated binge.
(00:22):
My name is Zach. Exploring iconic series I nearly
missed out on like Sons of Anarchy, which I didn't watch
for the first time until like four years after the season
finale aired on TV. Today we are on Season 2 Episode
6 Bree, which I can almost guarantee I'm saying
(00:44):
incorrectly. And before we dig into this
episode, there will be spoilers.There will probably be some
language. There will definitely be adult
situations with this particular show, so wear earbuds as
necessary. Shout out to the bonus Binge
squad on patreonpatreon.com/belated
Binge. In our last episode, Gemma broke
(01:08):
Tara's nose and Opie met Lila. It was super cute.
Zobel played two blackmail cardson Hail, one in the form of a
video of Opie blowing up Darby'smeth lab and the other of of
Hale appearing to take a bribe, which was actually an envelope
(01:30):
with invitations to his grand opening.
But you know, no sound, just himtaking an envelope.
Unser let's Hale know what happened to Gemma, which is
totally not going to ever come up for plot reasons.
Ever ever ever ever. Because of this show is not
about drama in the slightest. Hale let Clayney and Jax both
(01:54):
know about Zobel's evidence against Opie as well as a shady
deal that his brother had made which turns out to be kind of a
big deal in that episode. And oh I almost forgot chibs got
blown the fuck up. So it there a lot happened in
the last episode. It's kind of what I'm saying.
(02:15):
Which is kind of this shows thing.
So today we continue our binge and of course I have to do it in
the way that I do with all of these Sons of Anarchy episodes.
And that is trying to take this chaotic ride of bikes, bullets
and brotherhood and spin this episode into a love story
(02:37):
somehow. Love is patient, love is kind,
love is supporting your partner.When they fill a porn stars car
full of 38 caliper bullets. At least they better.
This episode opens with Chibs being loaded up into an
(03:00):
ambulance, which is a cheerful way to start an episode.
It's the literal aftermath of him being blown up.
So we actually get Tara just front and center closing the
doors on things because she was there.
I mentioned that because that comes up here in a little bit.
Clay and Unser start off things by scheming on how to make sure
(03:22):
no real cops find out that therewas actually a bomb that went
off and it wasn't an accident. And these two are kind of
ridiculous in the way that they go about things.
How in the world is it supposed to work that Unser is the only
(03:47):
guy that is helping them and he is also like the main chief
sheriff and nobody else is supposed to get suspicious when
he's trying to pull strings, particularly with like other
departments coming in to do the investigating if he's the only
(04:09):
thing in their way trying to stop them from figuring out what
actually happened. And we're just going to take it
on face value that did you just coinc?
Quinky dink, Quinky dink. Sure, sure, that could that
could totally, totally play. But he's not actually the only
(04:32):
one that is trying to help the club because at this very
moment, Jackson Hale are also having their own kind of pow
wow. Jax knows that they're getting
set up by Zobelle with all of this and that they're just
riding head first into an ambush.
But nobody else wants to listen except for Bobby.
Bobby is actually rational and is thinks logically, which is
(04:57):
rare amongst this group right now in the show because it's a
lot of just a lot of just pent up anger happening a whole lot,
particularly from the head of the table.
But again, we'll get to that in a second.
He, Jax and Hale come to a bit of an agreement that they are
going to try to help each other.Hale is going to try to help by
(05:23):
getting to Zobel and Weston 1st and arresting them, or at least
taking them in as a people of interest in the crime to at
least hold them long enough for hopefully Clay to take a deep
breath. Maybe do some yoga, become Zen,
find his center, or at least just not do something incredibly
(05:48):
fucking stupid because he's fully capable of it as we see in
a bit. And Jax is going to help him do
that for the same end. He wants to try to keep his club
from riding head on into that ambush and I just find it
(06:09):
unfortunate. And this is one of those
spoilers that we don't actually get to see this relationship get
maximized on the show. This arc was clearly being set
up for Jackson Hale to be the like lawman and outlaw
(06:31):
partnership a la Clay and Unser.That could have been a really
cool relationship to explore because what we don't know is
how Unser and Clay came to be together in this thing.
Now we get hints at it throughout the series and we see
(06:51):
how Unser feels about Gemma and how that could be tied into his
motives to try to help Clay in the club.
We don't really know. We know that there were things
that happened in terms of Clay and Unser being involved with J
TS death and all of that stuff, but it it's never really spelled
out for us, right? We don't get everything just
(07:14):
laid out on a platter. We didn't get to see any of it
happened, but with Hale and Jax,we absolutely could have.
And having them actually coming from the very first episode,
right, The pilot episode, one ofthe first scenes we see are Jax
and Hale and they're button heads and they're setting that
(07:35):
up for them to be like enemies, right?
Hale would do nothing. Or that's that's a bad way of
speaking. I'm hosting a podcast here and I
can't use the English language. Let me rephrase that to say
there's nothing he wouldn't do to get Jax in the club behind
(07:57):
bars. And yet over time, he and Jax,
being two guys that actually grew up together in this town,
actually care about the people in this town who took completely
different paths. They diverged to go in total
(08:18):
opposite directions. However, they come back to
essentially the same place of trying to help the people of
this town in their own ways. One, being a man of the law and
one being completely outlaw. And if we could have gotten to
see that whole potential arc between the two of how they got
(08:40):
from point A to point B on that journey, I think it could have
been incredibly interesting storytelling to explore.
But of course, that's not what ends up happening.
We get a really good season of it right now.
And then what happens to Hail happens to hail because of
(09:03):
Sheridan and all whatever, whatever.
And like exact things happened behind the scenes.
I truly haven't done all of thatresearch to tell you with any
kind of like, so this is what happened.
I'm I'm I'm not a gossip columnist.
I'm a podcaster that's a fan of this TV show, but I mean,
(09:28):
Sheridan obviously did OK for himself with the whole
Yellowstone of it all. So I don't think he's sad about
it. But I'm sad about it because
while I enjoyed the shit out of the show, Yellowstone as well,
and I don't know, send me some kind of message or something if
you want to have Yellowstone be one of the shows done on this
(09:49):
podcast at some point in time. I'm open to that possibility,
but what I am sad about is that this Hail character really had
some runway to be really cool from a storytelling standpoint.
And this season, I believe, is kind of that.
(10:10):
Like that little tease of just abeginning of what we could have
had and we end up not actually getting.
It's also funny that Jackson Clay are both having cops on the
same force try to track down thesame dudes in the same town for
(10:30):
the same club for the same crimebut for completely polar
opposite reasons. Jax is trying to protect the
club and Clay right now is doingeverything he can to freaking
destroy it. So that leads us into a scene
which is weird to me. And it's between Jax and Tara.
(10:50):
Gemma's there as a bystander formost of this.
And I don't know, it's just odd.It's when it's, it's everybody's
in the aftermath, right? And Jax is trying to play this
whole Chips thing off like Tara doesn't know what just happened
and like he doesn't know who didit.
(11:13):
And it just feels very inconsistent with how these two
are as characters together to this point.
Right? Like they hit that moment where
he's like super sharing, open and honest and tells her
everything. I mean, when like when they went
(11:33):
and got the fake revenge for Opie, he's like, yeah, I helped
Opie kill a man today in retaliation for Donna.
Now I'm going to go to bed. He said that in like a towel.
I'm sure every female viewer or listener of this podcast knows
that scene quite well. I can't blame you because
obviously now, obviously, right?But then other times he's trying
(12:02):
to play things off like she's a complete idiot and doesn't know
what's going on. And I don't really, I don't
really get that inconsistency, particularly at this point in
the show, because they haven't had reason, but they haven't
come up against anything at thismoment for him to stop sharing
(12:27):
with her, for him to stop trusting her.
Later on, you can convince me that he stops telling her stuff
and he has some sometimes flog reasoning, but there's at least
reasoning there. I don't feel like there's been
that right now. And so that's a little bit
weird. And she has to like, she has to
almost smack him upside the headand be like, we were both here.
(12:51):
We both watched that car blow up.
What do you mean we don't know what happened?
We watched it happen. And just as I'm defending her
intelligence, she asks some stupid ass shit like, are you in
danger? Am I?
(13:13):
What do you think? That was a bomb, remember?
Bombs are pretty dangerous, lastI checked.
And as you so astutely pointed out, Miss Surgeon, you watched
that happen. Of course you're in danger.
(13:33):
And the fact that that is somehow a surprise or somehow
like, not just a given, All right, We have to suspend
disbelief to watch a show like this, right?
This, this type of television show happens within the real
(13:53):
world, but it happens on such a scale that you have to realize
that if true reality was a part of this, then we wouldn't have
gotten to episode 2 with how much shit goes on in this show,
and we surely wouldn't have gotten through seven seasons.
(14:14):
But for any intelligent human being, which you would have to
be to become a surgeon to know, getting involved with someone
who lives outside the law, you're going to be in some
semblance of danger by default. There's literally no way to
(14:38):
avoid that because he is living his entire existence outside the
law, which means at any time he could be going to prison, he
could be getting shot at or murdered or whatever, or any
other slew of possibilities because he's living a completely
(15:01):
different life than you and me. This show doesn't have the
boring podcaster person in it, right?
That character wouldn't play here very well.
And Dara has to know that like, of course you're in danger.
Come on. Is it always literally a car
(15:21):
bomb blowing up in your parking lot?
No, but it's always going to be something that could happen and
blow up your life, literally or metaphorically.
And she is shocked by this. But you can see in this scene
where I want to give a lot of acting credit, you can see in
(15:48):
Tara's eyes the moment where shestarts to realize that it's
probably the same people that assaulted Gemma.
And there's this little light that, like, pops in her eyes and
then immediately gets burned out.
It's subtle, but it's really, really good.
Like, it's incredibly believableand just for a human being to be
(16:10):
able to make those types of emotions show just in their eyes
while they're having a completely separate conversation
and like, doing it on cue. And I'm imagining like, what
acting might be like because I've never done it.
But like, just being able to cuethat up.
It's phenomenal. But of course, Gemma doesn't
want to hear it because Gemma's like, this is not on me.
(16:31):
Of course, now the meeting that follows where Jax goes into the
clubhouse and it's time for everybody to get around the
table. It actually goes kind of funny.
Bobby asks if the plan should bethat they just roll up and chop
dudes head off in the middle of broad daylight.
And Happy is down for this. Happy.
(16:53):
Happy brings so much humor to this show without ever actually
having to crack a smile. He's just so unhinged and his
character is absolute gold. And of course though Clay just
wants to go kill Zobel without aplan.
Specifically without a plan. He specifically says he doesn't
(17:15):
want a plan. He doesn't care what the plan
is, he just wants to murder him.Which just goes back to how Jax
knows that they're getting played like a fiddle and Clay is
not just taking the bait. He's already chomped on the
bait. He's he's hooked, and he's just
along for the ride now because. He can't even see 4 inches past
(17:40):
his face with the amount of ragethat he has, and it's exactly
what Zobel wants. But of course Clay knows best.
Just axe Opie, who gets all up in Jax's shit, claiming that
he's all ego, just trying to take over the club and he needs
to just sit back and wait his turn.
(18:01):
And that's what you get for trying to help somebody who is
as toxic as Opie. And it's incredibly frustrating
as a viewer knowing that Jax's problem with Clay is about Opie,
it's about Donna. And to have Opie lashing out and
(18:22):
accusing Jax of being selfish isheartbreaking.
But like, manly heartbreaking, of course.
And credits baby IRA guy comes to pay a visit with his chest
(18:42):
all puffed out and both of the cops that are on the case.
Sherlock Holmestyle or whatever.Very elementary Watson.
I watched elementary recently bythe way.
It's a good show. I enjoyed it.
I'm I'm not a Sherlock guy like I like.
I don't, I haven't consumed muchSherlock Holmes material, but I
(19:05):
enjoyed that whatever modern rendition of it.
I guess you could say modern adaptation.
Anyway, both of the cops that are on the case, Unser and Hale,
come through at the exact same time with leads on Zobelle and
Weston, and Opie's a snitch who tells Daddy Clay on Jacks.
(19:32):
He then becomes Jax's shadow, following him around and he
becomes very annoying. And this is not a good Opie
episode. We're going to talk more about
Opie though in a little bit whenwe do shine a headlight on a
character and I'm going to try my best to see the other side.
(19:53):
But first Juice gets interruptedtrying to clean up the crime
scene by the actual like Labtec police people.
And in between there's like a chase scene after Jax gets rid
of Opie. And for whatever reason when I
(20:14):
was watching this episode, I felt like I remembered that
chase scene being so much longer.
Like I thought that they actually played some cat and
mouse and like Jax really had towork to get away.
Not the case. He just kind of like ran a red
once and I I didn't I didn't even see him shift.
He just opened throttle in whatever gear he was in and just
(20:39):
went through a red light and then OB tried to follow and
almost hit a car and tada seen over.
I didn't remember it that way for whatever reason.
I guess I just like melded some of the future chase scenes
together into my memory of like,oh, that must have been when
this. Nope, Nope, nothing, nothing
really happened. So then we've got answer who is
(21:03):
at the garage with juice, and they're trying to figure out how
to screw up the investigation sothat obviously nobody can tell
that a car bomb went off. And Unser gets this great idea
to pour a cup of his piss onto the lab kit so they don't get
good samples as evidence. Why this doesn't go to plan is
(21:29):
anyone's guess. It couldn't have anything to do
with there being no plan and these two dudes both being about
as subtle as a car bomb was in the 1st place.
Because none of this is in what's?
What's the word in can? Would in can in clandestine?
(21:50):
What is that? Is that a $2.00 word?
Did I use it right? It's probably completely wrong.
Just don't. Don't Google it or ask Chachi BT
or Alexa or whatever. Robot is listening to this right
now. But the good news is at least
they got to cover one of the tech's faces in unserous urine.
(22:13):
His radioactive waste is gross. Just gross.
Funny though. We need the humor in this show.
I am going to be very I think I'm going to be sad in later
seasons when the humor is mostlygone and we miss the balance.
I still think that's why season one.
(22:35):
I'm not going to say that season1 is the best written season of
this show, but I think it's the most enjoyable watch because I
think it has the most like humorto balance out the series.
And Zobelle is heading into another phase of his plan.
And by this it's he seems to want to also dismantle the
(23:01):
business for the club. And he's meeting with the IRA
contacts directly in person, butonly adults are allowed in the
meeting, which is mostly just sothat we can get a little meet
cute for Edmund, the son and Zobel's daughter, right?
Like that's the only reason that's here because of course,
spoiler, they're going to end updoing the hippity dippity and
(23:25):
that's going to matter later. So now Jax and Hale wind up at
Weston's house at the same time as the rest of the club is at
Weston's house and he gets to meet Weston's psycho kid.
And at this point I'm just goingto ask the question on the
Internet for all to hear. Would it really have been all
(23:46):
bad if the club just shot up thewhole house and took him out?
Yeah, I'm kidding, sort of. I, no, I don't condone shooting
children, even fictional racist ones.
But this kid looks like a murderous member of the Cub
Scouts and I, I hate his existence and that Weston
(24:12):
created it. He this, this kid is the worst.
And Clay just throws A temper tantrum in Zobel's shop like a
leather wearing Cub Scout leaderwith a drinking problem and a
lot of rage. So much rage.
But we do get to find out in thenext scene that Chibs is alive.
(24:32):
His brain is bleeding, but he isalive.
And this is when Tara and Gemma are talking to each other in the
hospital getting an update on chibs status.
And that is when we get the scene between Gemma and Hale to
take place, where we learn that Hale completely sucks at keeping
(24:53):
secrets because you know he was supposed to keep that secret and
he made it like half an episode.Admitting to Gemma that he knows
at least gets him a line on the daughter, which is good.
It's not great for Unser when Gemma, you know, lets him know
(25:16):
her displeasure that he shared her confidential situation with
Hale. But I do like this moment for
Hale. I think it's really humanizing
for him. And it's another thing that that
I think that they were doing intentionally at this point in
time. I think we were really supposed
(25:37):
to get a lot of Hale. I think he was supposed to be a
really big part of this show. And I think he could have been a
really, like I said earlier, a very entertaining and enjoyable
story to tell had it been able to go to the places that, you
(25:58):
know, were possible. And it's moments like this that
just like, again, humanize him and let you realize that like
this dude actually gives a shit about these people, despite the
fact that everyone thinks that he would hate them all because
he wears a badge. And to this point, we thought
that too. And I don't know, I just I like
(26:19):
it. This is, this is good
storytelling, having having moments like this for him.
Next thing we have is Darby on the run, Hale and Jax pulling
him over again. They kind of, it's quite the
jump right from Hale talking to Gemma and then all the sudden
he's with Jax and they're pulling Darby over.
(26:40):
Or at least they've gotten Darbyafter he's been pulled over,
whatever. But they're questioning him
together and he does give up theblonde, which is Zobel's
daughter. And Hale does successfully keep
that secret from Jax. So that one he did and he did it
smooth because he he did, he he clearly wasn't struggling to lie
to Jax's face about it to protect Gemma, which I actually
(27:04):
find interesting again, from that storytelling perspective
and that humanization perspective.
It seems like when he first found out, it seemed like he was
going to struggle to keep that from Jax because, you know,
that's Jax's mom. Like that's a big, that's heavy
information to have when you're talking straight to the dudes
(27:27):
face and he gave them other information, but he didn't
obviously reveal that part. And then, but in this moment, I
think they could have and maybe there was a take where they did
it, Maybe there wasn't. I think it could have been
really interesting to have Hale take a moment almost like have a
(27:49):
have a have a sobering like facial gesture of some kind
before he lied to Jax. That could have been really
could have been really interesting to show that he was
like at least struggling withholding that secret in.
But no, he was he he was on it and had no problem with his
(28:11):
poker face in the slightest withJax.
And so that leads us into getting back to Gemma and Tara,
who, you know, most of the scenes that either of them are
in are together or a lot of themanyways.
I don't want to say most Gemma'sin a lot.
Most of what Tara does is with Gemma and they're having this
(28:31):
like bonding moment after Tara gets a ride home.
She's clearly been rattled by all of this crap.
And they start bonding over firearms and Gemma goes and gets
her bins and it's like an A la carte buffet line of choose your
own adventure with, you know, fucking guns.
(28:52):
But the shooting lesson is just great.
It's hysterical. They put up posters at the porn
studio. And Gemma does try to, like,
help teach Tara how to, you know, shoot, which is
interesting because they had that moment in Season 1 where
Tara was like, I totally know how to shoot.
And he was she was all like protruding false confidence
(29:15):
about it. And in this moment, she doesn't
even try to hide the fact that she doesn't know what she's
doing. And Gemma is totally fine with
helping her, which is which is cool because for them, again,
they were they were very, you know, they were very at each
other's throats throughout Season 1.
Here in Season 2, Tara's got this giant secret of Gemma's and
they're really starting to come together in this like
(29:39):
mentorship, you know, Gemma to Tara.
And that's obviously something that becomes part of the story
later. How all of that, how all of that
story evolves. And this is these are just those
fun kind of early moments of these two, these two getting
along. And it's kind of funny.
It's not as funny as them shooting up Ima's car, though,
(30:01):
because that's hilarious. At least it wasn't her face, I
suppose. I don't know if insurance covers
what just happened, but, you know, it's fun.
That leads us into a scene whereHale is with Zobel's daughter.
He puts on a glove, threatens to, like, cut open his own arm
(30:22):
and blame her for it, and he's getting played this whole time.
He should have seen it come. And she gave up the information
way too quick and easy after being way too overtly
confrontational for no reason inthe beginning.
And it just, I don't know, this one, this one never really did
anything for me. But of course, it led to him
(30:42):
sending the cavalry to exactly where Zobel wanted them because
everybody's taking the bait. Tara and Jax do have a cute
little moment and it's what I referenced in the make this
episode of love story part to open the show.
And it's when he she comes by tosee him at the clubhouse and he
(31:06):
mentions, you know, hey, I got acall from Luann.
Apparently there was a firearm incident at Kara Kara.
And she's like, oh, yeah. No, I don't even know what
you're what you're what you mean?
And wait, is it Cara Cara yet? I may have the name wrong.
(31:26):
Is it red? Is it just are they calling it
Cara Cara already or is it red? What do you I, I don't know the
name doesn't matter at the porn studio and Tarek plays it off
like I don't know what you mean and you know, I love you, you
better. And it's kind of a cute little
moment for the two of them. Unfortunately, the club figures
(31:47):
out where Zobel is as well, thanks to Juice hacking into the
computer and finding the the meeting invitation or whatever
the in Zobel's calendar, and they piece the things together
all super quick and like investigators, and now
(32:08):
everything is screwed. Jax is freaking out, jumps in to
try to find him. He's turning a wrench at this
point, by the way, because we still haven't given up the whole
like these guys are just mechanics thing.
That goes away later, obviously.But he's not the only one
freaking out. Gemma's freaking out.
Gemma is completely spiraling. She goes to the police station,
(32:31):
terrifies Unser and Hail. And also you can just you can
tell that she's feeling the weight of everything that's
happening and actually is considering, oh, shit, is this
my fault? Are these the same people?
If I would have said something, would this not be happening?
And she's she's going through itAnd Unser's very supportive as
(32:53):
he always is. And Q set up, they're going to
storm the church. They think it's a rowdy Nazi
group. Of course that right where
Zobell wants him to be. The cops are already on their
way. Jax warns everybody hey, if we
do this we're going to jail. And Clay doesn't give a shit
because Clay knows best and refuses to use his brain ever at
(33:17):
all. And of course it's not a
membership rally for the Aryan Brotherhood at all.
It's like a fucking church groupand they already had a gun stage
to fire away from the cameras. And all of this goes perfectly
according to Zobel's plan. They played the dumb ass bikers
to be dumb ass bikers and it's not checkmate but it's damn
(33:39):
close because they can't go after him because there's
cameras already set up. They get try to get out of the
church, the cops are already there and they're totally
screwed. Obie's the only one that gets
away. He's chasing Zobelle in pursuit
and runs into a parked car and we get a montage of Tara reading
(34:00):
JT's book. We have Gemma lighting candles
and praying and we have Opie watching the club all get loaded
up for jail. And that is the episode.
It's kind of a big episode because they all get arrested,
but also like not the really themost things happening if
compared to other episodes of this show.
(34:22):
So before we shine one headlighton a specific character, I would
like to ask you to please leave a five star review in whatever
podcast app you are using right now.
And if it allows for you to comment with your review, I'd
love it if you would say something nice.
It would make me feel all warm and fuzzy and special.
But it was also help the evil algorithms let some other new
(34:44):
people hear it now. So for our character headlight
segment, as I mentioned earlier,we're going to talk about Opie
and why he's being such a Dick to Jax.
And I wanted to flip it right. My first instinct was to say how
(35:06):
Opie is just being the worst right now because he is.
I love Opie, the fictional Opie.And I don't even know if I've
told this story on the podcast. I, I love the fact that I get to
now retroactively see Opie as a sneaker head because I saw on,
(35:31):
on Reinhurst's Instagram one daysomething about, I don't know,
there was like a story or something about sneakers in his
closet or something. And I commented something along
the lines of like, you know, canI now retroactively say that
Opie was a sneaker head? And he responded or his team,
(35:52):
whoever is actually running thataccount was like, you know, that
is head cannon approved commenceimagination.
And it brought a bunch of joy tomy life because I'm just a nerd
with a podcast that not many people listen to.
And he made my day anyways. So I unrelated love Opie as a
(36:19):
character, hate what's happeningright now because he is he's
being a Dick. So I was like, let me see if I
can flip it and see things from Opie's perspective.
And this is what I this is all Ican really come up with.
So his wife has been murdered. He thinks that it was the a
(36:40):
member of the Mayans and it was just like a Patsy that Clay
tells him did it because obviously he can't say, well,
yeah, you know me and Tig. But once he gets the guy, Jax
won't let him torture A confession out of him.
(37:00):
Jax also covered up Opie like carving the anarchy a into the
guy's stomach, chest, stomach, wherever it was into his flesh.
Jax covered that up so that the Mayans wouldn't see the the tag
the way that Opie wanted it. He sees Jackson Clay completely
(37:23):
at each other's throats since he's been back from, you know,
abandoning his children after the funeral.
I'm never going to let that one go.
But he is lost, right? He's lost without his wife,
without Donna. Opie clearly doesn't know what
to do. He doesn't know kind of who he
is. Maybe he doesn't.
(37:45):
I mean, maybe he feels like he knows who he is or the the
version of who he is that he's trying to to escape into.
But he's he's clearly lost. And instead of focusing all of
his energy on his kids, he's decided to focus all of his
energy on the club. And Clay is in charge of said
club. And if Jackson Clay keep on
(38:06):
fighting, it's going to fracturethe club.
He can't have his club broken. It's all he has other than his
kids, of course. Again, I'm never going to let
this go. So in a state of like trying to
(38:27):
make the world make sense, he seems to want to simply fall in
line in club pecking order and just follow that wherever it
leads. And doesn't matter if he has to
flirt with death and nearly blowing himself up in the meth
lab walking out into live gunfire, he's not thinking
(38:49):
straight. And all he's thinking about is
get in deeper with Club Sam Crowis the answer.
Sam Crow is what's going to Get Me Out of this fuckery that my
life has become, and it's going to point me in the direction
that I need to be. And Jax is the only person who
(39:14):
is in the club and is trying to make sure that his family is OK,
that his kids are OK, that he isactually OK.
And he doesn't want that becausehe knows that they aren't.
And he's clearly not trying to face the truth himself.
(39:35):
So he lashes out and part of lashing out is trying to flip it
and hurt Jax, try to hit back, try to say like the thing that's
going to dig in the most againstJax to protect himself from
(39:56):
what's digging at him when Jax comes to check on him.
What do they say about glass houses?
It's absolutely frustrating as hell to watch because we love
Opie and we hate to see him in this state and we hate to see
him being a total Jackass, but that's how you try to
(40:18):
rationalize it. I think before we go, we're
going to give out some new patches and fire off some
bullets. Make sure you're following
social media at Bladed Binge forthis episode.
I've only got a couple of new patches to give out.
One of them is going to go to Hail for working with Jax,
trying to help the club. Not just working with him, but
(40:41):
legitimately trying to keep the rest of the club from following
Clay to prison. It just, you know, doesn't work.
But it's not because of his efforts.
He was great. I'm also going to give out a new
patch for Gemma for her shootinglesson and trying to help Tara
(41:03):
feel better about the situation that they're in and kind of
reassure her that things aren't always this crazy.
Even though we know how this show goes if we've seen it
before. We're going to also aim some
bullets at Clay. He's an idiot.
This entire episode season really, at least to this point,
(41:25):
it's been bananas how frustrating Clay has been.
And so we're going to right at him.
I got one for Weston as well forindoctrinating his children and
raising such just an awful, awful little piece of shit.
I've got one for Zoe Bell, obviously, for the whole master
(41:48):
plan that's going just the way that he wanted it to, and for
Opie for being such a Dick to Jax this whole episode and
cuddling up to Clay, the guy whose fault it is that your life
is in a wreck. And I know he doesn't know that.
And yes, Jax has kept that information from him.
And I don't agree with that decision that Jax has made
(42:09):
either. But yeah, anyways, I I said I
would try to see things from Opie's perspective.
I didn't say I didn't still fucking hate it.
OK, before we go, let's rewrite this episode of Sons of Anarchy,
one small change at a time. For this one, we're going to
(42:31):
say, what if Jackson Clay actually did work together in
this episode? Is there anything they could
have actually done differently that would have not played right
into Zo Bell's plan? Or was this an inevitable track?
No matter how well they thought it out, how well they planned
(42:52):
it, no matter how united they may have been, would they have
ended up in the same outcome? Or if they had put their heads
together and not been such just idiots together, would they have
ended up at a different fate? You can comment on your thoughts
(43:15):
on that question if you are watching this on YouTube or
Spotify allows comments as well.There's also an exclusive
Facebook group for listeners of this podcast with a link in the
show notes for this episode. I'm also open to starting a
Discord if you would like to letme know.
If you would be interested in participating in said Discord, I
(43:37):
am happy to fire that up in lieuof a Facebook group because it
is 2025 at the point of recording this almost the very
end of it, and I don't know if you're still using Facebook,
maybe Discord is your preference.
So you just let me know the bestresponses might even find their
way into a future episode of this podcast.
(43:58):
If you did enjoy it though, giveme a follow or subscribe on
whatever app that you're using. Thank you so much for being
here. And remember, life is short by
the motorcycle. And when you do wear a helmet,
dress for the slide, not the ride.
And make sure you take Belated Binge along for that ride.
I am so happy to be recording anepisode of this podcast covering
Sons of Anarchy and I'm coming back to a bit of a doozy episode
where Clay gets the, you know, almost entire charter thrown in
jail. Way to go Clay.
The belated binge podcast. Hi and welcome to belated binge.
(00:22):
My name is Zach. Exploring iconic series I nearly
missed out on like Sons of Anarchy, which I didn't watch
for the first time until like four years after the season
finale aired on TV. Today we are on Season 2 Episode
6 Bree, which I can almost guarantee I'm saying
(00:44):
incorrectly. And before we dig into this
episode, there will be spoilers.There will probably be some
language. There will definitely be adult
situations with this particular show, so wear earbuds as
necessary. Shout out to the bonus Binge
squad on patreonpatreon.com/belated
Binge. In our last episode, Gemma broke
(01:08):
Tara's nose and Opie met Lila. It was super cute.
Zobel played two blackmail cardson Hail, one in the form of a
video of Opie blowing up Darby'smeth lab and the other of of
Hale appearing to take a bribe, which was actually an envelope
(01:30):
with invitations to his grand opening.
But you know, no sound, just himtaking an envelope.
Unser let's Hale know what happened to Gemma, which is
totally not going to ever come up for plot reasons.
Ever ever ever ever. Because of this show is not
about drama in the slightest. Hale let Clayney and Jax both
(01:54):
know about Zobel's evidence against Opie as well as a shady
deal that his brother had made which turns out to be kind of a
big deal in that episode. And oh I almost forgot chibs got
blown the fuck up. So it there a lot happened in
the last episode. It's kind of what I'm saying.
(02:15):
Which is kind of this shows thing.
So today we continue our binge and of course I have to do it in
the way that I do with all of these Sons of Anarchy episodes.
And that is trying to take this chaotic ride of bikes, bullets
and brotherhood and spin this episode into a love story
(02:37):
somehow. Love is patient, love is kind,
love is supporting your partner.When they fill a porn stars car
full of 38 caliper bullets. At least they better.
This episode opens with Chibs being loaded up into an
(03:00):
ambulance, which is a cheerful way to start an episode.
It's the literal aftermath of him being blown up.
So we actually get Tara just front and center closing the
doors on things because she was there.
I mentioned that because that comes up here in a little bit.
Clay and Unser start off things by scheming on how to make sure
(03:22):
no real cops find out that therewas actually a bomb that went
off and it wasn't an accident. And these two are kind of
ridiculous in the way that they go about things.
How in the world is it supposed to work that Unser is the only
(03:47):
guy that is helping them and he is also like the main chief
sheriff and nobody else is supposed to get suspicious when
he's trying to pull strings, particularly with like other
departments coming in to do the investigating if he's the only
(04:09):
thing in their way trying to stop them from figuring out what
actually happened. And we're just going to take it
on face value that did you just coinc?
Quinky dink, Quinky dink. Sure, sure, that could that
could totally, totally play. But he's not actually the only
(04:32):
one that is trying to help the club because at this very
moment, Jackson Hale are also having their own kind of pow
wow. Jax knows that they're getting
set up by Zobelle with all of this and that they're just
riding head first into an ambush.
But nobody else wants to listen except for Bobby.
Bobby is actually rational and is thinks logically, which is
(04:57):
rare amongst this group right now in the show because it's a
lot of just a lot of just pent up anger happening a whole lot,
particularly from the head of the table.
But again, we'll get to that in a second.
He, Jax and Hale come to a bit of an agreement that they are
going to try to help each other.Hale is going to try to help by
(05:23):
getting to Zobel and Weston 1st and arresting them, or at least
taking them in as a people of interest in the crime to at
least hold them long enough for hopefully Clay to take a deep
breath. Maybe do some yoga, become Zen,
find his center, or at least just not do something incredibly
(05:48):
fucking stupid because he's fully capable of it as we see in
a bit. And Jax is going to help him do
that for the same end. He wants to try to keep his club
from riding head on into that ambush and I just find it
(06:09):
unfortunate. And this is one of those
spoilers that we don't actually get to see this relationship get
maximized on the show. This arc was clearly being set
up for Jackson Hale to be the like lawman and outlaw
(06:31):
partnership a la Clay and Unser.That could have been a really
cool relationship to explore because what we don't know is
how Unser and Clay came to be together in this thing.
Now we get hints at it throughout the series and we see
(06:51):
how Unser feels about Gemma and how that could be tied into his
motives to try to help Clay in the club.
We don't really know. We know that there were things
that happened in terms of Clay and Unser being involved with J
TS death and all of that stuff, but it it's never really spelled
out for us, right? We don't get everything just
(07:14):
laid out on a platter. We didn't get to see any of it
happened, but with Hale and Jax,we absolutely could have.
And having them actually coming from the very first episode,
right, The pilot episode, one ofthe first scenes we see are Jax
and Hale and they're button heads and they're setting that
(07:35):
up for them to be like enemies, right?
Hale would do nothing. Or that's that's a bad way of
speaking. I'm hosting a podcast here and I
can't use the English language. Let me rephrase that to say
there's nothing he wouldn't do to get Jax in the club behind
(07:57):
bars. And yet over time, he and Jax,
being two guys that actually grew up together in this town,
actually care about the people in this town who took completely
different paths. They diverged to go in total
(08:18):
opposite directions. However, they come back to
essentially the same place of trying to help the people of
this town in their own ways. One, being a man of the law and
one being completely outlaw. And if we could have gotten to
see that whole potential arc between the two of how they got
(08:40):
from point A to point B on that journey, I think it could have
been incredibly interesting storytelling to explore.
But of course, that's not what ends up happening.
We get a really good season of it right now.
And then what happens to Hail happens to hail because of
(09:03):
Sheridan and all whatever, whatever.
And like exact things happened behind the scenes.
I truly haven't done all of thatresearch to tell you with any
kind of like, so this is what happened.
I'm I'm I'm not a gossip columnist.
I'm a podcaster that's a fan of this TV show, but I mean,
(09:28):
Sheridan obviously did OK for himself with the whole
Yellowstone of it all. So I don't think he's sad about
it. But I'm sad about it because
while I enjoyed the shit out of the show, Yellowstone as well,
and I don't know, send me some kind of message or something if
you want to have Yellowstone be one of the shows done on this
(09:49):
podcast at some point in time. I'm open to that possibility,
but what I am sad about is that this Hail character really had
some runway to be really cool from a storytelling standpoint.
And this season, I believe, is kind of that.
(10:10):
Like that little tease of just abeginning of what we could have
had and we end up not actually getting.
It's also funny that Jackson Clay are both having cops on the
same force try to track down thesame dudes in the same town for
(10:30):
the same club for the same crimebut for completely polar
opposite reasons. Jax is trying to protect the
club and Clay right now is doingeverything he can to freaking
destroy it. So that leads us into a scene
which is weird to me. And it's between Jax and Tara.
(10:50):
Gemma's there as a bystander formost of this.
And I don't know, it's just odd.It's when it's, it's everybody's
in the aftermath, right? And Jax is trying to play this
whole Chips thing off like Tara doesn't know what just happened
and like he doesn't know who didit.
(11:13):
And it just feels very inconsistent with how these two
are as characters together to this point.
Right? Like they hit that moment where
he's like super sharing, open and honest and tells her
everything. I mean, when like when they went
(11:33):
and got the fake revenge for Opie, he's like, yeah, I helped
Opie kill a man today in retaliation for Donna.
Now I'm going to go to bed. He said that in like a towel.
I'm sure every female viewer or listener of this podcast knows
that scene quite well. I can't blame you because
obviously now, obviously, right?But then other times he's trying
(12:02):
to play things off like she's a complete idiot and doesn't know
what's going on. And I don't really, I don't
really get that inconsistency, particularly at this point in
the show, because they haven't had reason, but they haven't
come up against anything at thismoment for him to stop sharing
(12:27):
with her, for him to stop trusting her.
Later on, you can convince me that he stops telling her stuff
and he has some sometimes flog reasoning, but there's at least
reasoning there. I don't feel like there's been
that right now. And so that's a little bit
weird. And she has to like, she has to
almost smack him upside the headand be like, we were both here.
(12:51):
We both watched that car blow up.
What do you mean we don't know what happened?
We watched it happen. And just as I'm defending her
intelligence, she asks some stupid ass shit like, are you in
danger? Am I?
(13:13):
What do you think? That was a bomb, remember?
Bombs are pretty dangerous, lastI checked.
And as you so astutely pointed out, Miss Surgeon, you watched
that happen. Of course you're in danger.
(13:33):
And the fact that that is somehow a surprise or somehow
like, not just a given, All right, We have to suspend
disbelief to watch a show like this, right?
This, this type of television show happens within the real
(13:53):
world, but it happens on such a scale that you have to realize
that if true reality was a part of this, then we wouldn't have
gotten to episode 2 with how much shit goes on in this show,
and we surely wouldn't have gotten through seven seasons.
(14:14):
But for any intelligent human being, which you would have to
be to become a surgeon to know, getting involved with someone
who lives outside the law, you're going to be in some
semblance of danger by default. There's literally no way to
(14:38):
avoid that because he is living his entire existence outside the
law, which means at any time he could be going to prison, he
could be getting shot at or murdered or whatever, or any
other slew of possibilities because he's living a completely
(15:01):
different life than you and me. This show doesn't have the
boring podcaster person in it, right?
That character wouldn't play here very well.
And Dara has to know that like, of course you're in danger.
Come on. Is it always literally a car
(15:21):
bomb blowing up in your parking lot?
No, but it's always going to be something that could happen and
blow up your life, literally or metaphorically.
And she is shocked by this. But you can see in this scene
where I want to give a lot of acting credit, you can see in
(15:48):
Tara's eyes the moment where shestarts to realize that it's
probably the same people that assaulted Gemma.
And there's this little light that, like, pops in her eyes and
then immediately gets burned out.
It's subtle, but it's really, really good.
Like, it's incredibly believableand just for a human being to be
(16:10):
able to make those types of emotions show just in their eyes
while they're having a completely separate conversation
and like, doing it on cue. And I'm imagining like, what
acting might be like because I've never done it.
But like, just being able to cuethat up.
It's phenomenal. But of course, Gemma doesn't
want to hear it because Gemma's like, this is not on me.
(16:31):
Of course, now the meeting that follows where Jax goes into the
clubhouse and it's time for everybody to get around the
table. It actually goes kind of funny.
Bobby asks if the plan should bethat they just roll up and chop
dudes head off in the middle of broad daylight.
And Happy is down for this. Happy.
(16:53):
Happy brings so much humor to this show without ever actually
having to crack a smile. He's just so unhinged and his
character is absolute gold. And of course though Clay just
wants to go kill Zobel without aplan.
Specifically without a plan. He specifically says he doesn't
(17:15):
want a plan. He doesn't care what the plan
is, he just wants to murder him.Which just goes back to how Jax
knows that they're getting played like a fiddle and Clay is
not just taking the bait. He's already chomped on the
bait. He's he's hooked, and he's just
along for the ride now because. He can't even see 4 inches past
(17:40):
his face with the amount of ragethat he has, and it's exactly
what Zobel wants. But of course Clay knows best.
Just axe Opie, who gets all up in Jax's shit, claiming that
he's all ego, just trying to take over the club and he needs
to just sit back and wait his turn.
(18:01):
And that's what you get for trying to help somebody who is
as toxic as Opie. And it's incredibly frustrating
as a viewer knowing that Jax's problem with Clay is about Opie,
it's about Donna. And to have Opie lashing out and
(18:22):
accusing Jax of being selfish isheartbreaking.
But like, manly heartbreaking, of course.
And credits baby IRA guy comes to pay a visit with his chest
(18:42):
all puffed out and both of the cops that are on the case.
Sherlock Holmestyle or whatever.Very elementary Watson.
I watched elementary recently bythe way.
It's a good show. I enjoyed it.
I'm I'm not a Sherlock guy like I like.
I don't, I haven't consumed muchSherlock Holmes material, but I
(19:05):
enjoyed that whatever modern rendition of it.
I guess you could say modern adaptation.
Anyway, both of the cops that are on the case, Unser and Hale,
come through at the exact same time with leads on Zobelle and
Weston, and Opie's a snitch who tells Daddy Clay on Jacks.
(19:32):
He then becomes Jax's shadow, following him around and he
becomes very annoying. And this is not a good Opie
episode. We're going to talk more about
Opie though in a little bit whenwe do shine a headlight on a
character and I'm going to try my best to see the other side.
(19:53):
But first Juice gets interruptedtrying to clean up the crime
scene by the actual like Labtec police people.
And in between there's like a chase scene after Jax gets rid
of Opie. And for whatever reason when I
(20:14):
was watching this episode, I felt like I remembered that
chase scene being so much longer.
Like I thought that they actually played some cat and
mouse and like Jax really had towork to get away.
Not the case. He just kind of like ran a red
once and I I didn't I didn't even see him shift.
He just opened throttle in whatever gear he was in and just
(20:39):
went through a red light and then OB tried to follow and
almost hit a car and tada seen over.
I didn't remember it that way for whatever reason.
I guess I just like melded some of the future chase scenes
together into my memory of like,oh, that must have been when
this. Nope, Nope, nothing, nothing
really happened. So then we've got answer who is
(21:03):
at the garage with juice, and they're trying to figure out how
to screw up the investigation sothat obviously nobody can tell
that a car bomb went off. And Unser gets this great idea
to pour a cup of his piss onto the lab kit so they don't get
good samples as evidence. Why this doesn't go to plan is
(21:29):
anyone's guess. It couldn't have anything to do
with there being no plan and these two dudes both being about
as subtle as a car bomb was in the 1st place.
Because none of this is in what's?
What's the word in can? Would in can in clandestine?
(21:50):
What is that? Is that a $2.00 word?
Did I use it right? It's probably completely wrong.
Just don't. Don't Google it or ask Chachi BT
or Alexa or whatever. Robot is listening to this right
now. But the good news is at least
they got to cover one of the tech's faces in unserous urine.
(22:13):
His radioactive waste is gross. Just gross.
Funny though. We need the humor in this show.
I am going to be very I think I'm going to be sad in later
seasons when the humor is mostlygone and we miss the balance.
I still think that's why season one.
(22:35):
I'm not going to say that season1 is the best written season of
this show, but I think it's the most enjoyable watch because I
think it has the most like humorto balance out the series.
And Zobelle is heading into another phase of his plan.
And by this it's he seems to want to also dismantle the
(23:01):
business for the club. And he's meeting with the IRA
contacts directly in person, butonly adults are allowed in the
meeting, which is mostly just sothat we can get a little meet
cute for Edmund, the son and Zobel's daughter, right?
Like that's the only reason that's here because of course,
spoiler, they're going to end updoing the hippity dippity and
(23:25):
that's going to matter later. So now Jax and Hale wind up at
Weston's house at the same time as the rest of the club is at
Weston's house and he gets to meet Weston's psycho kid.
And at this point I'm just goingto ask the question on the
Internet for all to hear. Would it really have been all
(23:46):
bad if the club just shot up thewhole house and took him out?
Yeah, I'm kidding, sort of. I, no, I don't condone shooting
children, even fictional racist ones.
But this kid looks like a murderous member of the Cub
Scouts and I, I hate his existence and that Weston
(24:12):
created it. He this, this kid is the worst.
And Clay just throws A temper tantrum in Zobel's shop like a
leather wearing Cub Scout leaderwith a drinking problem and a
lot of rage. So much rage.
But we do get to find out in thenext scene that Chibs is alive.
(24:32):
His brain is bleeding, but he isalive.
And this is when Tara and Gemma are talking to each other in the
hospital getting an update on chibs status.
And that is when we get the scene between Gemma and Hale to
take place, where we learn that Hale completely sucks at keeping
(24:53):
secrets because you know he was supposed to keep that secret and
he made it like half an episode.Admitting to Gemma that he knows
at least gets him a line on the daughter, which is good.
It's not great for Unser when Gemma, you know, lets him know
(25:16):
her displeasure that he shared her confidential situation with
Hale. But I do like this moment for
Hale. I think it's really humanizing
for him. And it's another thing that that
I think that they were doing intentionally at this point in
time. I think we were really supposed
(25:37):
to get a lot of Hale. I think he was supposed to be a
really big part of this show. And I think he could have been a
really, like I said earlier, a very entertaining and enjoyable
story to tell had it been able to go to the places that, you
(25:58):
know, were possible. And it's moments like this that
just like, again, humanize him and let you realize that like
this dude actually gives a shit about these people, despite the
fact that everyone thinks that he would hate them all because
he wears a badge. And to this point, we thought
that too. And I don't know, I just I like
(26:19):
it. This is, this is good
storytelling, having having moments like this for him.
Next thing we have is Darby on the run, Hale and Jax pulling
him over again. They kind of, it's quite the
jump right from Hale talking to Gemma and then all the sudden
he's with Jax and they're pulling Darby over.
(26:40):
Or at least they've gotten Darbyafter he's been pulled over,
whatever. But they're questioning him
together and he does give up theblonde, which is Zobel's
daughter. And Hale does successfully keep
that secret from Jax. So that one he did and he did it
smooth because he he did, he he clearly wasn't struggling to lie
to Jax's face about it to protect Gemma, which I actually
(27:04):
find interesting again, from that storytelling perspective
and that humanization perspective.
It seems like when he first found out, it seemed like he was
going to struggle to keep that from Jax because, you know,
that's Jax's mom. Like that's a big, that's heavy
information to have when you're talking straight to the dudes
(27:27):
face and he gave them other information, but he didn't
obviously reveal that part. And then, but in this moment, I
think they could have and maybe there was a take where they did
it, Maybe there wasn't. I think it could have been
really interesting to have Hale take a moment almost like have a
(27:49):
have a have a sobering like facial gesture of some kind
before he lied to Jax. That could have been really
could have been really interesting to show that he was
like at least struggling withholding that secret in.
But no, he was he he was on it and had no problem with his
(28:11):
poker face in the slightest withJax.
And so that leads us into getting back to Gemma and Tara,
who, you know, most of the scenes that either of them are
in are together or a lot of themanyways.
I don't want to say most Gemma'sin a lot.
Most of what Tara does is with Gemma and they're having this
(28:31):
like bonding moment after Tara gets a ride home.
She's clearly been rattled by all of this crap.
And they start bonding over firearms and Gemma goes and gets
her bins and it's like an A la carte buffet line of choose your
own adventure with, you know, fucking guns.
(28:52):
But the shooting lesson is just great.
It's hysterical. They put up posters at the porn
studio. And Gemma does try to, like,
help teach Tara how to, you know, shoot, which is
interesting because they had that moment in Season 1 where
Tara was like, I totally know how to shoot.
And he was she was all like protruding false confidence
(29:15):
about it. And in this moment, she doesn't
even try to hide the fact that she doesn't know what she's
doing. And Gemma is totally fine with
helping her, which is which is cool because for them, again,
they were they were very, you know, they were very at each
other's throats throughout Season 1.
Here in Season 2, Tara's got this giant secret of Gemma's and
they're really starting to come together in this like
(29:39):
mentorship, you know, Gemma to Tara.
And that's obviously something that becomes part of the story
later. How all of that, how all of that
story evolves. And this is these are just those
fun kind of early moments of these two, these two getting
along. And it's kind of funny.
It's not as funny as them shooting up Ima's car, though,
(30:01):
because that's hilarious. At least it wasn't her face, I
suppose. I don't know if insurance covers
what just happened, but, you know, it's fun.
That leads us into a scene whereHale is with Zobel's daughter.
He puts on a glove, threatens to, like, cut open his own arm
(30:22):
and blame her for it, and he's getting played this whole time.
He should have seen it come. And she gave up the information
way too quick and easy after being way too overtly
confrontational for no reason inthe beginning.
And it just, I don't know, this one, this one never really did
anything for me. But of course, it led to him
(30:42):
sending the cavalry to exactly where Zobel wanted them because
everybody's taking the bait. Tara and Jax do have a cute
little moment and it's what I referenced in the make this
episode of love story part to open the show.
And it's when he she comes by tosee him at the clubhouse and he
(31:06):
mentions, you know, hey, I got acall from Luann.
Apparently there was a firearm incident at Kara Kara.
And she's like, oh, yeah. No, I don't even know what
you're what you're what you mean?
And wait, is it Cara Cara yet? I may have the name wrong.
(31:26):
Is it red? Is it just are they calling it
Cara Cara already or is it red? What do you I, I don't know the
name doesn't matter at the porn studio and Tarek plays it off
like I don't know what you mean and you know, I love you, you
better. And it's kind of a cute little
moment for the two of them. Unfortunately, the club figures
(31:47):
out where Zobel is as well, thanks to Juice hacking into the
computer and finding the the meeting invitation or whatever
the in Zobel's calendar, and they piece the things together
all super quick and like investigators, and now
(32:08):
everything is screwed. Jax is freaking out, jumps in to
try to find him. He's turning a wrench at this
point, by the way, because we still haven't given up the whole
like these guys are just mechanics thing.
That goes away later, obviously.But he's not the only one
freaking out. Gemma's freaking out.
Gemma is completely spiraling. She goes to the police station,
(32:31):
terrifies Unser and Hail. And also you can just you can
tell that she's feeling the weight of everything that's
happening and actually is considering, oh, shit, is this
my fault? Are these the same people?
If I would have said something, would this not be happening?
And she's she's going through itAnd Unser's very supportive as
(32:53):
he always is. And Q set up, they're going to
storm the church. They think it's a rowdy Nazi
group. Of course that right where
Zobell wants him to be. The cops are already on their
way. Jax warns everybody hey, if we
do this we're going to jail. And Clay doesn't give a shit
because Clay knows best and refuses to use his brain ever at
(33:17):
all. And of course it's not a
membership rally for the Aryan Brotherhood at all.
It's like a fucking church groupand they already had a gun stage
to fire away from the cameras. And all of this goes perfectly
according to Zobel's plan. They played the dumb ass bikers
to be dumb ass bikers and it's not checkmate but it's damn
(33:39):
close because they can't go after him because there's
cameras already set up. They get try to get out of the
church, the cops are already there and they're totally
screwed. Obie's the only one that gets
away. He's chasing Zobelle in pursuit
and runs into a parked car and we get a montage of Tara reading
(34:00):
JT's book. We have Gemma lighting candles
and praying and we have Opie watching the club all get loaded
up for jail. And that is the episode.
It's kind of a big episode because they all get arrested,
but also like not the really themost things happening if
compared to other episodes of this show.
(34:22):
So before we shine one headlighton a specific character, I would
like to ask you to please leave a five star review in whatever
podcast app you are using right now.
And if it allows for you to comment with your review, I'd
love it if you would say something nice.
It would make me feel all warm and fuzzy and special.
But it was also help the evil algorithms let some other new
(34:44):
people hear it now. So for our character headlight
segment, as I mentioned earlier,we're going to talk about Opie
and why he's being such a Dick to Jax.
And I wanted to flip it right. My first instinct was to say how
(35:06):
Opie is just being the worst right now because he is.
I love Opie, the fictional Opie.And I don't even know if I've
told this story on the podcast. I, I love the fact that I get to
now retroactively see Opie as a sneaker head because I saw on,
(35:31):
on Reinhurst's Instagram one daysomething about, I don't know,
there was like a story or something about sneakers in his
closet or something. And I commented something along
the lines of like, you know, canI now retroactively say that
Opie was a sneaker head? And he responded or his team,
(35:52):
whoever is actually running thataccount was like, you know, that
is head cannon approved commenceimagination.
And it brought a bunch of joy tomy life because I'm just a nerd
with a podcast that not many people listen to.
And he made my day anyways. So I unrelated love Opie as a
(36:19):
character, hate what's happeningright now because he is he's
being a Dick. So I was like, let me see if I
can flip it and see things from Opie's perspective.
And this is what I this is all Ican really come up with.
So his wife has been murdered. He thinks that it was the a
(36:40):
member of the Mayans and it was just like a Patsy that Clay
tells him did it because obviously he can't say, well,
yeah, you know me and Tig. But once he gets the guy, Jax
won't let him torture A confession out of him.
(37:00):
Jax also covered up Opie like carving the anarchy a into the
guy's stomach, chest, stomach, wherever it was into his flesh.
Jax covered that up so that the Mayans wouldn't see the the tag
the way that Opie wanted it. He sees Jackson Clay completely
(37:23):
at each other's throats since he's been back from, you know,
abandoning his children after the funeral.
I'm never going to let that one go.
But he is lost, right? He's lost without his wife,
without Donna. Opie clearly doesn't know what
to do. He doesn't know kind of who he
is. Maybe he doesn't.
(37:45):
I mean, maybe he feels like he knows who he is or the the
version of who he is that he's trying to to escape into.
But he's he's clearly lost. And instead of focusing all of
his energy on his kids, he's decided to focus all of his
energy on the club. And Clay is in charge of said
club. And if Jackson Clay keep on
(38:06):
fighting, it's going to fracturethe club.
He can't have his club broken. It's all he has other than his
kids, of course. Again, I'm never going to let
this go. So in a state of like trying to
(38:27):
make the world make sense, he seems to want to simply fall in
line in club pecking order and just follow that wherever it
leads. And doesn't matter if he has to
flirt with death and nearly blowing himself up in the meth
lab walking out into live gunfire, he's not thinking
(38:49):
straight. And all he's thinking about is
get in deeper with Club Sam Crowis the answer.
Sam Crow is what's going to Get Me Out of this fuckery that my
life has become, and it's going to point me in the direction
that I need to be. And Jax is the only person who
(39:14):
is in the club and is trying to make sure that his family is OK,
that his kids are OK, that he isactually OK.
And he doesn't want that becausehe knows that they aren't.
And he's clearly not trying to face the truth himself.
(39:35):
So he lashes out and part of lashing out is trying to flip it
and hurt Jax, try to hit back, try to say like the thing that's
going to dig in the most againstJax to protect himself from
(39:56):
what's digging at him when Jax comes to check on him.
What do they say about glass houses?
It's absolutely frustrating as hell to watch because we love
Opie and we hate to see him in this state and we hate to see
him being a total Jackass, but that's how you try to
(40:18):
rationalize it. I think before we go, we're
going to give out some new patches and fire off some
bullets. Make sure you're following
social media at Bladed Binge forthis episode.
I've only got a couple of new patches to give out.
One of them is going to go to Hail for working with Jax,
trying to help the club. Not just working with him, but
(40:41):
legitimately trying to keep the rest of the club from following
Clay to prison. It just, you know, doesn't work.
But it's not because of his efforts.
He was great. I'm also going to give out a new
patch for Gemma for her shootinglesson and trying to help Tara
(41:03):
feel better about the situation that they're in and kind of
reassure her that things aren't always this crazy.
Even though we know how this show goes if we've seen it
before. We're going to also aim some
bullets at Clay. He's an idiot.
This entire episode season really, at least to this point,
(41:25):
it's been bananas how frustrating Clay has been.
And so we're going to right at him.
I got one for Weston as well forindoctrinating his children and
raising such just an awful, awful little piece of shit.
I've got one for Zoe Bell, obviously, for the whole master
(41:48):
plan that's going just the way that he wanted it to, and for
Opie for being such a Dick to Jax this whole episode and
cuddling up to Clay, the guy whose fault it is that your life
is in a wreck. And I know he doesn't know that.
And yes, Jax has kept that information from him.
And I don't agree with that decision that Jax has made
(42:09):
either. But yeah, anyways, I I said I
would try to see things from Opie's perspective.
I didn't say I didn't still fucking hate it.
OK, before we go, let's rewrite this episode of Sons of Anarchy,
one small change at a time. For this one, we're going to
(42:31):
say, what if Jackson Clay actually did work together in
this episode? Is there anything they could
have actually done differently that would have not played right
into Zo Bell's plan? Or was this an inevitable track?
No matter how well they thought it out, how well they planned
(42:52):
it, no matter how united they may have been, would they have
ended up in the same outcome? Or if they had put their heads
together and not been such just idiots together, would they have
ended up at a different fate? You can comment on your thoughts
(43:15):
on that question if you are watching this on YouTube or
Spotify allows comments as well.There's also an exclusive
Facebook group for listeners of this podcast with a link in the
show notes for this episode. I'm also open to starting a
Discord if you would like to letme know.
If you would be interested in participating in said Discord, I
(43:37):
am happy to fire that up in lieuof a Facebook group because it
is 2025 at the point of recording this almost the very
end of it, and I don't know if you're still using Facebook,
maybe Discord is your preference.
So you just let me know the bestresponses might even find their
way into a future episode of this podcast.
(43:58):
If you did enjoy it though, giveme a follow or subscribe on
whatever app that you're using. Thank you so much for being
here. And remember, life is short by
the motorcycle. And when you do wear a helmet,
dress for the slide, not the ride.
And make sure you take Belated Binge along for that ride.
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