November 20, 2024 • 30 mins
Season 2 Episode 2: Small Tears
This is the fallout episode. The fallout from what happened to Gemma. The fallout from Jax's decision to cover up Opie's tracks with the Mayans. Compounding fallout from Donna's death.
The small tears within and around SAMCRO are growing, and yet one character shines through: Tara.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Season 2, episode 2 of Sons of Anarchy is called Small Tears,
which is an obvious ode to Gemma's situation and the result
of her trauma that she experienced at the end of the
previous episode. But it's also a metaphor for how
small cracks and tears are forming in certain relationships
(00:21):
on the show. From those tears, 1 character
really shines through. Welcome to Belated Binge, the
podcast that exists so that you can relive your favorite show,
Sons of Anarchy. My name's Zach and if you enjoy
what I'm doing here, please subscribe to the YouTube channel
or whatever podcast player you are using right now.
This is the Fallout episode. Fallout from what happened to
(00:42):
Gemma. Fallout from Jax's decision and
how he decided to cover up Opie's tracks with that random
Mayan that they told her is responsible for Donna.
A lot of fallout this episode begins in the immediate
aftermath of what happened to Gemma at the end of the previous
episode. As a reminder, while the boys
were having a fun little party for a a welcome home for Bobby
(01:05):
since Stahl had to release him from jail, Gemma was abducted
and raped by the white nationalist group that just
introduced themselves to, you know, they're basically just a
big old problem for the club. And they were brought to town by
Deputy Hale's brother, who is a real estate developer and wants
(01:27):
Sam Crow out of the way so that he can bring housing
developments and more money and progress to Charming, charming
guy. See what I did there?
And I just, I really enjoy the details of how the episode
begins. I really like that they added
the touch of Katie Sagal singingon the intro song.
(01:49):
I love the way that they use thelike family pictures in that
slow scroll through, you know, like the the camera just kind of
like slowly goes by all those family photos.
And it's a really good way to like humanize Gemma, the
character and then obviously drop a stark contrast and like
(02:14):
pull the emotional rug out from under the audience.
It's it's absolutely brilliant from a film work perspective.
And it's also really eerie whileyou're going through it because
I think if you're watching the show during that time that the
camera slowly going through the pictures, if you're not just
(02:35):
completely brand new to the show, Obviously if you were, it
would be weird that you started on episode 2, but you know,
alas, do you? But in my mind, the majority of
people watching this episode areprobably in two states of mind
or like frames of reference in these moments is you might have
forgotten how the previous episode actually ended.
(02:57):
And so it's kind of like a a calming way to get into an
episode. You might even kind of wonder
why it's such a slow start and then bam, slap in the face dose
of, you know, Sons of Anarchy, chaos, reality.
And wow, you're back in it and you're reminded very, very
(03:17):
quickly. You know, you also might fall
into another group where you might remember what happened to
Gemma and as the cameras going through those pictures that
like, internal tension and like,anxiety is just like building
for you as you anticipate what'sabout to happen next.
(03:40):
And I just, I think it's a really, really small thing for
the start of this episode, but areally powerful 1.
So I really like that what happens next is multifaceted.
And we learned a lot of things in this episode as a result of
Gemma's assault, like how she wants and decides to handle it.
(04:03):
You know one Unser is 100% ride or die for Gemma.
Season 1 made it seem like Unseris like really more a supporter
of Clay in the club. But in this moment we see that
Gemma Trump's all other allegiances for him.
We also learned that Tara is incredibly trustworthy and that
(04:26):
she can handle herself within this chaotic world of Sam Crow
better than she even thinks thatshe can.
If she can handle what's happening to Gemma and hold
herself together while being a support line for her while
keeping the secret to herself and also everything else that
(04:49):
takes place during this episode,she can handle some outlaw
hooliganism for sure. And we also learned that Gemma
is incredibly strong willed, which I guess is more of a
reinforcement than a new learning.
It's not breaking news however. This is by far the thickest
topic and subject matter that wehave seen her deal with and
(05:10):
she's dealing with it. It happened to her, and despite
the threat of a repeat episode of what happened to her, she's
not going to concede to her attackers demands.
Let's start with Unser. He's the one that discovers
Gemma in the warehouse and he apparently got called as from an
(05:31):
anonymous tip and he recognized her car from the description on
the call. And he sticks by her side
through this whole experience. And he's the one that comes up
with the cover for the, you know, bruises on her face by
staging the car accident. And the thing that I want to
(05:53):
stick with, and the thing that sticks with me is the detail of
Wayne. And if that doesn't make sense,
I'm going to remind you. What Gemma calls on Sir, when
she hears him is Wayne. In the moment that he shows up
(06:14):
to rescue her, she refers to himby his first name.
Everyone calls him Unser, the club Hail everyone but Gemma,
She calls him Wayne. And it speaks to this connection
between these two that we haven't really explored yet, but
(06:34):
we obviously will. And it'll become a very like
foundational layer to the show as it moves on in the story arc,
as it continues to build. You know, and in this episode,
he's not a cop. He's not a friend to the MC.
He's just here for Gemma. Now for Tara.
(06:58):
She's solidifying herself in theshow in a big way in this
episode. For someone who's been
questioning her own ability to be able to live within this
outlaw biker lifestyle and be with Jax, she's right at home in
the chaos. When Unser wants to take Gemma
to the hospital, she won't go. Instead, she calls Tara.
(07:24):
These two haven't been close like at all throughout season 1.
Quite the contrary. They're they had clear tension.
You know, from the jump on this show.
They they started literally episode 1 of, you know, the
pilot establishing that these two don't like each other.
And while you could say that in our last episode when Gemma gave
(07:48):
that advice of like total disclosure to Tara, that might
have been a little bit of a, a thawing of the ice.
It's certainly not enough to saythat they were like best
friends, right? But Gemma trusts her enough to
pull her away from Jax's side and trust her to come help in
(08:11):
her biggest moment of need and to do it discreetly, which Tara
does. And at the same time while doing
it, Tara is strong enough with Gemma to not let her steamroll
her into just like doing it Gemma's way, right?
Like Tara a lesser character. Then Tara wouldn't be able to
(08:34):
get Gemma to actually go to the hospital, let alone treat her at
the hospital without anyone knowing that they're there or
why they're there. Especially when the waiting room
fills up with a bunch of Sam Crow members.
Like Tara's able to navigate allof that incredibly well.
And I think what's most pertinent about that is that
(08:57):
it's ultimately her idea to use Abel as cover to get into the
hospital. She steps up with the nanny and
is able to communicate with the nanny kind of what's going on
without actually saying anything.
She just takes charge in the situation in her own way.
(09:18):
You know, not to mention, like at the end of the episode, she
jumps right into the action and like shows up Bobby.
Like, gunshot wounds are just second nature to her at this
point in time. She could ultimately thrive in
this life, in the chaos, in the anarchy that is the Sons of
(09:42):
Anarchy motorcycle club. And maybe if things had gone
just, I don't know, a tad, slightly bit different, you
know, she would have been able to.
And this is actually the topic of our breakout video on
YouTube, so if you want to checkthat one out and get into a
(10:02):
little bit more detail about howTara's right at home, I would
love it if you would but wait until after this one.
This episode is all about fallout as our side plot with
Clay and the club is dealing with the fallout from the Mayan
that OB killed and Jax's decision of how to stage the
body afterwards. See, Jax didn't tell anyone that
(10:26):
the way he covered up OB taggingthat body was with bullet holes,
and he surely didn't let them know where he dropped him and
that he dropped him displaying 9fingers, basically pointing all
(10:46):
nine of them at the one Niners gang, which was surely going to
have some fallout our our theme here.
And Clay learns this informationthrough Alvarez, the president
of the Mayans, who calls a very,very hungover Tig after Bobby's
party. And while I particularly enjoy
(11:11):
how he rolls 1/2 dressed woman off the bar and then confesses
his love to her, it has absolutely no impact on the
show. It just brings the immaturity
out of me and brings me joy. But what does matter is that
Clay picks a side. He tells Alvarez that he doesn't
(11:33):
have any guns to sell him, and then he tells Tig to call Leroy
because Leroy is going to need some guns.
And then he's not particularly happy with Jax for the decision
that was made. You know, he confronts him in
the hospital after he finds out about Gemma.
You know, we're quickly remindedthat these two are very much not
(11:55):
on good terms right now. And Clay won't even let Opie go
with Jax to talk to Otto. Instead, Clay sends up with Tig
and he tries to connect with Opie about Donna, and that is
extremely gross to watch at thispoint.
Tig has no redeemable qualities on this show, and no matter how
(12:18):
much more human Tig seems in that moment, it's crumbling
under the weight of the truth. And so is Opie's concern with
death. You know, which we see on full
display at the end of the episode when he steps in the
line of fire, when the Mayans come in and crash the gun deal
between Sam Crow and the Niners.And it's, it's concerning, you
(12:46):
know, I, I talked in the last episode a lot about Opie and his
absenteeism as a, as a father inthe previous episode and like
finding excuses to not be aroundhis kids.
And now all the sudden he's likeputting himself literally an
inch from taking a bullet and leaving those kids with no
(13:07):
parents at all. And so you can, it goes without
saying, but Opie's in a very, very dark place.
And then you know from there, that fallout, that's when Bobby
takes his bullet. And Clay ends the episode with a
heart to heart with Jax arguing about the fallout of that call
(13:31):
that he made the what he decidedto do with that mind's body.
And he gives him this speech about he doesn't care if Jax,
you know, is mad at him or whatever, you know, but don't
make it personal between the twoof them because the rest of the
(13:54):
club is going to pick up on thatand they're not going to respect
Jax and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I've always found this to beparticularly funny coming from
Clay because he is the reason that things get personal.
He is the king of personal, and he has no problem getting
(14:14):
incredibly dirty over personal. And he's going to get very, very
dirty as this show goes on. And it's all personal, like, all
the time. And I think in his mind, it's
business. But that's seemingly never the
case. It's always, it's always
(14:39):
personal with Clay, whether it'shim protecting himself or trying
to, you know, get retribution for something, you know.
But Jax does learn one thing here.
It is a choice that he made thatbackfired.
And I believe it's one of the many building blocks that go
(15:00):
into building Jax as a characterand as a leader, you know, to
become the plotting decision maker that he ultimately ends up
being on this show, particularlyas he grows.
And I think this is a this is a huge moment for him, you know,
(15:21):
that's going to impact later seasons.
And it's not the only one. You know, he's going to learn a
lot from his experience working with Luann in this episode as
well, you know, which is I thinka good lead into that particular
plot point. So Otto needs help with Luann.
As a reminder, Otto Delaney is in jail because of things that
(15:43):
he did as a member of Sam Crow. And he is married to Luann.
The the lady that we met along the way, she's friends with
Gemma and she runs a porn studioand this is what sets up a side
plot between the club and the porn queen.
She's been having trouble with another producer that's been
(16:06):
trying to steal her girls and now that the feds have come and
shut her down, her studio was whatever they found.
I can't even remember what exactly it was that they found,
but the the cops shut it down. And Otto suggests that that only
happened because of what he did to Agent Stall at the end of
(16:28):
season 1, which he did to help Sam Crow.
So he's asking for help with Luann's situation.
The club can't just bail her outlike they don't have the
financial capability to do so, even though that's ultimately
what Luann wants. She just wants the money that
she lent them in their moment ofneed in Season 1.
(16:49):
And they but they don't have it,you know?
But what they can do and what Jax offers to do is to get the
competition to back off. And that's not going to go
nearly as easy as he thinks it is, no matter how much he
promises her that it will. Throughout this storyline were
introduced to Luann's girls, Lila and the other one.
(17:14):
What's the other one? They don't actually even say
their names in this episode, butthey become surprisingly
important. You wouldn't think that that was
going to happen when you're watching this episode for the
first time. But like, they're going to
become Staples. What is her name?
Does it matter? But of course, we meet Georgie,
(17:34):
Georgie Caruso, the competition with a friendly threat, not to
mention a nice gift from Bobby during that exchange, which is
just disgusting. Just disgusting.
You shouldn't. I mean, you know, the moment I'm
thinking I, I don't have to describe it to you, but like,
EW, right. Not, not particularly it, it's
(17:55):
gross, you know? Unfortunately, it takes about 5
seconds for this encounter to backfire when Lila shows up at
the hospital after taking a beating courtesy of Georgie, and
Jax reacts accordingly with America's pastime.
You know, baseball bats to all of Georgie's people.
(18:19):
And that's fun. That's fun to watch, but it does
it also like is kind of the the birth of a new project venture
that Jax is going to bring to the table.
Sam Crow partnering up with Luann to help her rebuild her
(18:40):
porn studio in the gun warehouse.
You know, the gun warehouse thatthey just built and aren't using
because the IRA demoted them to Gun Runners instead of gun
distributors and assemblers. So it's just sitting there
empty. Might as well use it for
(19:02):
something. And what better than porn?
And that goes the way that you would expect in a room full of
horny guys like, yeah, everybody's in.
Of course they want to invest inporn.
Of course they do. Except for Clay.
He doesn't. And it's unclear to me if this
is some kind of, like, characterthing.
Like he just, I don't know, he'stotally fine with with hookers
(19:27):
and murder, but he draws the line at pornography, I guess.
I don't know. But it also could just be that
this is something that Jax brought to the table and thinks
is a good idea and therefore he's just against it on
principle at this point. Because, you know, don't make it
personal, but it does lead to one of the funniest scenes in
(19:48):
the entire episode when Jax has Luann meet him at the warehouse
and she thinks that he's going to kill her.
So they play that up for tensionand it's it's pretty funny.
And the best part about this is the hidden gem where he calls it
Adriana in her. You know, he says.
You know, do you think I came brought you here to Adriana you,
(20:12):
which is an inside joke. It's a call back to The
Sopranos, which I have not seen,but my I hope to watch it.
And quite frankly, I kind of planned to cover it on this
podcast at some point in time. But my understanding through,
you know, cultural references and becoming familiar with Sons
(20:32):
of Anarchy and that tie is that that's how the Adriana character
dies on The Sopranos, is that she gets like lured into this.
And apparently I don't however that plays out.
But the reason that this is so cool is guess who plays Adriana
(20:53):
on Sopranos? It's Drea de Mateo who plays
Wendy on Sons of Anarchy. It's just a fun connecting
moment between these two like iconic TV shows that you know,
are in those conversations of like the greatest TV dramas of
all time, at least within this vertical, right?
(21:16):
Like some people aren't into these like anti hero type shows,
but it like if this is your world, these are these are
iconic. These are royalty.
Regardless, Luann agrees. And now Sam Crowe is in the porn
business. And then, of course, on the bad
guy side, we get a lot of Westonweaved in and out of this
(21:37):
episode, too. You know, it starts with him
tailing Clay on the meeting withLeroy.
He also follows him to the hospital and sees him playing
with Abel like nothing happened.And this actually has Weston a
little bit spooked, it seems, when he brings it back to his
boss. You know, it's almost like he's
(21:57):
a little bit panicked, like he did something disgusting for the
cause because his boss said thatthat's what they needed to do
and it was going to work. And now it didn't work.
And he's like, in his feelings about it.
And, you know, we don't think about his character as really
having feelings very much or really even as a human being.
(22:19):
And rightfully so. Anyone who is as racist as he is
and is capable of doing the disgusting things that he does
doesn't deserve our empathy, youknow?
Or to have a pulse for that matter.
But one thing that this show does particularly well,
especially with characters like this, is giving its villains
(22:40):
some depth in this. Like seemingly 1 dimensional bad
guy is no different. It starts with his second
guessing of the plan and we'll see more instances of like
humanizing him throughout the season, particularly when his
children are introduced to the show.
(23:00):
But that only goes so far, right?
Like, this guy is garbage, but he's not a caricature either.
And I think that's important. And his boss certainly is not a
caricature. You know, we see who he has
(23:25):
struck up a relationship with onthis show.
You know, with the Mayans. You know, he ends up being the
one who tips them off about thatgun deal that was going down
between Sam Crow and the Niners.And so we see them.
That's that first, that first realization that those two have
gotten into bed together. And of course, he's not telling
(23:46):
Weston about this relationship because he's 100% against any
friendliness to any other race. But that is not the case for the
big boss, right? He's willing to pretty much
break his own rules and the rules of law and any codes of
(24:11):
any kind. Like, this is a lawless man who
seems to feel like he is so righteous and so right and so
untouchable, almost as if, like he can, there will be no
consequences to any action that he takes on the, you know,
(24:33):
business legal side, on the, youknow, white nationalist side, on
the completely gross side. He doesn't think that anything's
ever going to be able to touch him.
And it turns out later in the season, we realize why that's
(24:54):
the case. And it just when that moment
happens, and I'm not going to talk about it too much here
because I want to be able to talk about it, then it's like an
absolute knife just being twisted because you realize how
he got that confidence and that feeling of just being
(25:17):
untouchable. And it's just infuriating.
Let's wrap it up with Gemma and the way that she handles her
situation and what it tells us about her character in
particular. You know, because it's quite
illuminating, I think, in the way that she's strong but also
fragile. It's a delicate balance and one
(25:38):
that Katie Sagal, I think, playspretty well.
The shrink that it takes, whether you agree with the
decision that she's making or not, to not tell Clay and Jax
what happened to her because that's exactly what the bad guys
want. They want her to deliver that
message. That's why they did it.
And she's like, Nope, not going to do it.
(26:01):
They're not going to win. They're not going to get the
thing that they wanted out of doing this to me.
They I'm not going to give them that.
But she's also fragile, and she doesn't want anybody to know
what happened because she's a victim in all of this and she's
emotional about it. She won't even let Clay kiss her
(26:22):
when she sees him. She cringes at the touch of her
own husband. It's the emotional toll in the
weight of what she went through.And just, you know, having to,
to try to, like, pretend to be normal.
Following that, particularly right in the aftermath, is just,
it's wild. And this might be the first time
(26:44):
on this show we actually see hercry.
I didn't go back and scour the tape from Season 1, but I don't
remember a moment. And she's also opening herself
up a little bit. I think, you know, with the
nanny, first they have that Chapel moment and then in the
kitchen when she's about to likeshe's about to get emotional
(27:08):
with her before Tara interrupts to say that she has to go deal
with, you know, Bobby's bullet hole.
I think, I think it's, again, I think it's doing a lot while
actually doing a little. I think it's a difficult balance
for shows to do to not overdo it, but also like really get
that across in in small, subtle ways.
(27:29):
And I think that this episode does it really well,
particularly highlighted in the final, like fade to black scene
where she has that moment where she's like walking through the
hallway of the clubhouse headingtowards John's bike, which kind
of looks a little bit like that behind me.
(27:51):
You can see so much play out on her face.
And then you also get that up onthe roof of the clubhouse, which
is kind of like Jax's spot. And you know, she's being
comforted by her son and he has no idea why she needs the
comfort in the 1st place. It's kind of beautiful for being
(28:17):
so awful. As I mentioned before, this
episode is all about fallout. Fallout for Gemma, fallout from
Donna, fallout for Jax, for Clay.
It's a fairly quiet episode in terms of tone.
You know, they squeeze in some action at the end because this
is Sons of Anarchy and you've got to have some bullets.
But for the most part, it's a lot of heavy drama and trauma,
(28:43):
and it's honestly a tough one toget through because it's so
Gemma heavy. Not that that isn't quality or
that Katie Sagal doesn't absolutely kill it as Genma, but
because the subject matter is just so incredibly
uncomfortable. I make a lot of content.
(29:03):
Some I do better than others, and I have no idea how to make
good content about this, so for the most part, I'm not going to
try. I am, however, going to try to
keep making good content about my favorite show, Sons of
Anarchy, and I'm completely stoked that you are here along
with me. If you can, go ahead and let me
(29:24):
know what you think of Tara in this episode.
For me, she's the MVP, but what do you think?
You can comment below if you're on YouTube or join the free
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There is also a Patreon for the show, patreon.com/belated Binge.
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(29:45):
Like the fan fiction of a sequelseries that I was writing back
in 2020 before podcasting took over my life.
And remember, life is short by the motorcycle.
But when you do, wear a helmet, one of those dress for the
slide, not the ride. And remember to take Belated
Binge with you on that ride.
Season 2, episode 2 of Sons of Anarchy is called Small Tears,
which is an obvious ode to Gemma's situation and the result
of her trauma that she experienced at the end of the
previous episode. But it's also a metaphor for how
small cracks and tears are forming in certain relationships
(00:21):
on the show. From those tears, 1 character
really shines through. Welcome to Belated Binge, the
podcast that exists so that you can relive your favorite show,
Sons of Anarchy. My name's Zach and if you enjoy
what I'm doing here, please subscribe to the YouTube channel
or whatever podcast player you are using right now.
This is the Fallout episode. Fallout from what happened to
(00:42):
Gemma. Fallout from Jax's decision and
how he decided to cover up Opie's tracks with that random
Mayan that they told her is responsible for Donna.
A lot of fallout this episode begins in the immediate
aftermath of what happened to Gemma at the end of the previous
episode. As a reminder, while the boys
were having a fun little party for a a welcome home for Bobby
(01:05):
since Stahl had to release him from jail, Gemma was abducted
and raped by the white nationalist group that just
introduced themselves to, you know, they're basically just a
big old problem for the club. And they were brought to town by
Deputy Hale's brother, who is a real estate developer and wants
(01:27):
Sam Crow out of the way so that he can bring housing
developments and more money and progress to Charming, charming
guy. See what I did there?
And I just, I really enjoy the details of how the episode
begins. I really like that they added
the touch of Katie Sagal singingon the intro song.
(01:49):
I love the way that they use thelike family pictures in that
slow scroll through, you know, like the the camera just kind of
like slowly goes by all those family photos.
And it's a really good way to like humanize Gemma, the
character and then obviously drop a stark contrast and like
(02:14):
pull the emotional rug out from under the audience.
It's it's absolutely brilliant from a film work perspective.
And it's also really eerie whileyou're going through it because
I think if you're watching the show during that time that the
camera slowly going through the pictures, if you're not just
(02:35):
completely brand new to the show, Obviously if you were, it
would be weird that you started on episode 2, but you know,
alas, do you? But in my mind, the majority of
people watching this episode areprobably in two states of mind
or like frames of reference in these moments is you might have
forgotten how the previous episode actually ended.
(02:57):
And so it's kind of like a a calming way to get into an
episode. You might even kind of wonder
why it's such a slow start and then bam, slap in the face dose
of, you know, Sons of Anarchy, chaos, reality.
And wow, you're back in it and you're reminded very, very
(03:17):
quickly. You know, you also might fall
into another group where you might remember what happened to
Gemma and as the cameras going through those pictures that
like, internal tension and like,anxiety is just like building
for you as you anticipate what'sabout to happen next.
(03:40):
And I just, I think it's a really, really small thing for
the start of this episode, but areally powerful 1.
So I really like that what happens next is multifaceted.
And we learned a lot of things in this episode as a result of
Gemma's assault, like how she wants and decides to handle it.
(04:03):
You know one Unser is 100% ride or die for Gemma.
Season 1 made it seem like Unseris like really more a supporter
of Clay in the club. But in this moment we see that
Gemma Trump's all other allegiances for him.
We also learned that Tara is incredibly trustworthy and that
(04:26):
she can handle herself within this chaotic world of Sam Crow
better than she even thinks thatshe can.
If she can handle what's happening to Gemma and hold
herself together while being a support line for her while
keeping the secret to herself and also everything else that
(04:49):
takes place during this episode,she can handle some outlaw
hooliganism for sure. And we also learned that Gemma
is incredibly strong willed, which I guess is more of a
reinforcement than a new learning.
It's not breaking news however. This is by far the thickest
topic and subject matter that wehave seen her deal with and
(05:10):
she's dealing with it. It happened to her, and despite
the threat of a repeat episode of what happened to her, she's
not going to concede to her attackers demands.
Let's start with Unser. He's the one that discovers
Gemma in the warehouse and he apparently got called as from an
(05:31):
anonymous tip and he recognized her car from the description on
the call. And he sticks by her side
through this whole experience. And he's the one that comes up
with the cover for the, you know, bruises on her face by
staging the car accident. And the thing that I want to
(05:53):
stick with, and the thing that sticks with me is the detail of
Wayne. And if that doesn't make sense,
I'm going to remind you. What Gemma calls on Sir, when
she hears him is Wayne. In the moment that he shows up
(06:14):
to rescue her, she refers to himby his first name.
Everyone calls him Unser, the club Hail everyone but Gemma,
She calls him Wayne. And it speaks to this connection
between these two that we haven't really explored yet, but
(06:34):
we obviously will. And it'll become a very like
foundational layer to the show as it moves on in the story arc,
as it continues to build. You know, and in this episode,
he's not a cop. He's not a friend to the MC.
He's just here for Gemma. Now for Tara.
(06:58):
She's solidifying herself in theshow in a big way in this
episode. For someone who's been
questioning her own ability to be able to live within this
outlaw biker lifestyle and be with Jax, she's right at home in
the chaos. When Unser wants to take Gemma
to the hospital, she won't go. Instead, she calls Tara.
(07:24):
These two haven't been close like at all throughout season 1.
Quite the contrary. They're they had clear tension.
You know, from the jump on this show.
They they started literally episode 1 of, you know, the
pilot establishing that these two don't like each other.
And while you could say that in our last episode when Gemma gave
(07:48):
that advice of like total disclosure to Tara, that might
have been a little bit of a, a thawing of the ice.
It's certainly not enough to saythat they were like best
friends, right? But Gemma trusts her enough to
pull her away from Jax's side and trust her to come help in
(08:11):
her biggest moment of need and to do it discreetly, which Tara
does. And at the same time while doing
it, Tara is strong enough with Gemma to not let her steamroll
her into just like doing it Gemma's way, right?
Like Tara a lesser character. Then Tara wouldn't be able to
(08:34):
get Gemma to actually go to the hospital, let alone treat her at
the hospital without anyone knowing that they're there or
why they're there. Especially when the waiting room
fills up with a bunch of Sam Crow members.
Like Tara's able to navigate allof that incredibly well.
And I think what's most pertinent about that is that
(08:57):
it's ultimately her idea to use Abel as cover to get into the
hospital. She steps up with the nanny and
is able to communicate with the nanny kind of what's going on
without actually saying anything.
She just takes charge in the situation in her own way.
(09:18):
You know, not to mention, like at the end of the episode, she
jumps right into the action and like shows up Bobby.
Like, gunshot wounds are just second nature to her at this
point in time. She could ultimately thrive in
this life, in the chaos, in the anarchy that is the Sons of
(09:42):
Anarchy motorcycle club. And maybe if things had gone
just, I don't know, a tad, slightly bit different, you
know, she would have been able to.
And this is actually the topic of our breakout video on
YouTube, so if you want to checkthat one out and get into a
(10:02):
little bit more detail about howTara's right at home, I would
love it if you would but wait until after this one.
This episode is all about fallout as our side plot with
Clay and the club is dealing with the fallout from the Mayan
that OB killed and Jax's decision of how to stage the
body afterwards. See, Jax didn't tell anyone that
(10:26):
the way he covered up OB taggingthat body was with bullet holes,
and he surely didn't let them know where he dropped him and
that he dropped him displaying 9fingers, basically pointing all
(10:46):
nine of them at the one Niners gang, which was surely going to
have some fallout our our theme here.
And Clay learns this informationthrough Alvarez, the president
of the Mayans, who calls a very,very hungover Tig after Bobby's
party. And while I particularly enjoy
(11:11):
how he rolls 1/2 dressed woman off the bar and then confesses
his love to her, it has absolutely no impact on the
show. It just brings the immaturity
out of me and brings me joy. But what does matter is that
Clay picks a side. He tells Alvarez that he doesn't
(11:33):
have any guns to sell him, and then he tells Tig to call Leroy
because Leroy is going to need some guns.
And then he's not particularly happy with Jax for the decision
that was made. You know, he confronts him in
the hospital after he finds out about Gemma.
You know, we're quickly remindedthat these two are very much not
(11:55):
on good terms right now. And Clay won't even let Opie go
with Jax to talk to Otto. Instead, Clay sends up with Tig
and he tries to connect with Opie about Donna, and that is
extremely gross to watch at thispoint.
Tig has no redeemable qualities on this show, and no matter how
(12:18):
much more human Tig seems in that moment, it's crumbling
under the weight of the truth. And so is Opie's concern with
death. You know, which we see on full
display at the end of the episode when he steps in the
line of fire, when the Mayans come in and crash the gun deal
between Sam Crow and the Niners.And it's, it's concerning, you
(12:46):
know, I, I talked in the last episode a lot about Opie and his
absenteeism as a, as a father inthe previous episode and like
finding excuses to not be aroundhis kids.
And now all the sudden he's likeputting himself literally an
inch from taking a bullet and leaving those kids with no
(13:07):
parents at all. And so you can, it goes without
saying, but Opie's in a very, very dark place.
And then you know from there, that fallout, that's when Bobby
takes his bullet. And Clay ends the episode with a
heart to heart with Jax arguing about the fallout of that call
(13:31):
that he made the what he decidedto do with that mind's body.
And he gives him this speech about he doesn't care if Jax,
you know, is mad at him or whatever, you know, but don't
make it personal between the twoof them because the rest of the
(13:54):
club is going to pick up on thatand they're not going to respect
Jax and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I've always found this to beparticularly funny coming from
Clay because he is the reason that things get personal.
He is the king of personal, and he has no problem getting
(14:14):
incredibly dirty over personal. And he's going to get very, very
dirty as this show goes on. And it's all personal, like, all
the time. And I think in his mind, it's
business. But that's seemingly never the
case. It's always, it's always
(14:39):
personal with Clay, whether it'shim protecting himself or trying
to, you know, get retribution for something, you know.
But Jax does learn one thing here.
It is a choice that he made thatbackfired.
And I believe it's one of the many building blocks that go
(15:00):
into building Jax as a characterand as a leader, you know, to
become the plotting decision maker that he ultimately ends up
being on this show, particularlyas he grows.
And I think this is a this is a huge moment for him, you know,
(15:21):
that's going to impact later seasons.
And it's not the only one. You know, he's going to learn a
lot from his experience working with Luann in this episode as
well, you know, which is I thinka good lead into that particular
plot point. So Otto needs help with Luann.
As a reminder, Otto Delaney is in jail because of things that
(15:43):
he did as a member of Sam Crow. And he is married to Luann.
The the lady that we met along the way, she's friends with
Gemma and she runs a porn studioand this is what sets up a side
plot between the club and the porn queen.
She's been having trouble with another producer that's been
(16:06):
trying to steal her girls and now that the feds have come and
shut her down, her studio was whatever they found.
I can't even remember what exactly it was that they found,
but the the cops shut it down. And Otto suggests that that only
happened because of what he did to Agent Stall at the end of
(16:28):
season 1, which he did to help Sam Crow.
So he's asking for help with Luann's situation.
The club can't just bail her outlike they don't have the
financial capability to do so, even though that's ultimately
what Luann wants. She just wants the money that
she lent them in their moment ofneed in Season 1.
(16:49):
And they but they don't have it,you know?
But what they can do and what Jax offers to do is to get the
competition to back off. And that's not going to go
nearly as easy as he thinks it is, no matter how much he
promises her that it will. Throughout this storyline were
introduced to Luann's girls, Lila and the other one.
(17:14):
What's the other one? They don't actually even say
their names in this episode, butthey become surprisingly
important. You wouldn't think that that was
going to happen when you're watching this episode for the
first time. But like, they're going to
become Staples. What is her name?
Does it matter? But of course, we meet Georgie,
(17:34):
Georgie Caruso, the competition with a friendly threat, not to
mention a nice gift from Bobby during that exchange, which is
just disgusting. Just disgusting.
You shouldn't. I mean, you know, the moment I'm
thinking I, I don't have to describe it to you, but like,
EW, right. Not, not particularly it, it's
(17:55):
gross, you know? Unfortunately, it takes about 5
seconds for this encounter to backfire when Lila shows up at
the hospital after taking a beating courtesy of Georgie, and
Jax reacts accordingly with America's pastime.
You know, baseball bats to all of Georgie's people.
(18:19):
And that's fun. That's fun to watch, but it does
it also like is kind of the the birth of a new project venture
that Jax is going to bring to the table.
Sam Crow partnering up with Luann to help her rebuild her
(18:40):
porn studio in the gun warehouse.
You know, the gun warehouse thatthey just built and aren't using
because the IRA demoted them to Gun Runners instead of gun
distributors and assemblers. So it's just sitting there
empty. Might as well use it for
(19:02):
something. And what better than porn?
And that goes the way that you would expect in a room full of
horny guys like, yeah, everybody's in.
Of course they want to invest inporn.
Of course they do. Except for Clay.
He doesn't. And it's unclear to me if this
is some kind of, like, characterthing.
Like he just, I don't know, he'stotally fine with with hookers
(19:27):
and murder, but he draws the line at pornography, I guess.
I don't know. But it also could just be that
this is something that Jax brought to the table and thinks
is a good idea and therefore he's just against it on
principle at this point. Because, you know, don't make it
personal, but it does lead to one of the funniest scenes in
(19:48):
the entire episode when Jax has Luann meet him at the warehouse
and she thinks that he's going to kill her.
So they play that up for tensionand it's it's pretty funny.
And the best part about this is the hidden gem where he calls it
Adriana in her. You know, he says.
You know, do you think I came brought you here to Adriana you,
(20:12):
which is an inside joke. It's a call back to The
Sopranos, which I have not seen,but my I hope to watch it.
And quite frankly, I kind of planned to cover it on this
podcast at some point in time. But my understanding through,
you know, cultural references and becoming familiar with Sons
(20:32):
of Anarchy and that tie is that that's how the Adriana character
dies on The Sopranos, is that she gets like lured into this.
And apparently I don't however that plays out.
But the reason that this is so cool is guess who plays Adriana
(20:53):
on Sopranos? It's Drea de Mateo who plays
Wendy on Sons of Anarchy. It's just a fun connecting
moment between these two like iconic TV shows that you know,
are in those conversations of like the greatest TV dramas of
all time, at least within this vertical, right?
(21:16):
Like some people aren't into these like anti hero type shows,
but it like if this is your world, these are these are
iconic. These are royalty.
Regardless, Luann agrees. And now Sam Crowe is in the porn
business. And then, of course, on the bad
guy side, we get a lot of Westonweaved in and out of this
(21:37):
episode, too. You know, it starts with him
tailing Clay on the meeting withLeroy.
He also follows him to the hospital and sees him playing
with Abel like nothing happened.And this actually has Weston a
little bit spooked, it seems, when he brings it back to his
boss. You know, it's almost like he's
(21:57):
a little bit panicked, like he did something disgusting for the
cause because his boss said thatthat's what they needed to do
and it was going to work. And now it didn't work.
And he's like, in his feelings about it.
And, you know, we don't think about his character as really
having feelings very much or really even as a human being.
(22:19):
And rightfully so. Anyone who is as racist as he is
and is capable of doing the disgusting things that he does
doesn't deserve our empathy, youknow?
Or to have a pulse for that matter.
But one thing that this show does particularly well,
especially with characters like this, is giving its villains
(22:40):
some depth in this. Like seemingly 1 dimensional bad
guy is no different. It starts with his second
guessing of the plan and we'll see more instances of like
humanizing him throughout the season, particularly when his
children are introduced to the show.
(23:00):
But that only goes so far, right?
Like, this guy is garbage, but he's not a caricature either.
And I think that's important. And his boss certainly is not a
caricature. You know, we see who he has
(23:25):
struck up a relationship with onthis show.
You know, with the Mayans. You know, he ends up being the
one who tips them off about thatgun deal that was going down
between Sam Crow and the Niners.And so we see them.
That's that first, that first realization that those two have
gotten into bed together. And of course, he's not telling
(23:46):
Weston about this relationship because he's 100% against any
friendliness to any other race. But that is not the case for the
big boss, right? He's willing to pretty much
break his own rules and the rules of law and any codes of
(24:11):
any kind. Like, this is a lawless man who
seems to feel like he is so righteous and so right and so
untouchable, almost as if, like he can, there will be no
consequences to any action that he takes on the, you know,
(24:33):
business legal side, on the, youknow, white nationalist side, on
the completely gross side. He doesn't think that anything's
ever going to be able to touch him.
And it turns out later in the season, we realize why that's
(24:54):
the case. And it just when that moment
happens, and I'm not going to talk about it too much here
because I want to be able to talk about it, then it's like an
absolute knife just being twisted because you realize how
he got that confidence and that feeling of just being
(25:17):
untouchable. And it's just infuriating.
Let's wrap it up with Gemma and the way that she handles her
situation and what it tells us about her character in
particular. You know, because it's quite
illuminating, I think, in the way that she's strong but also
fragile. It's a delicate balance and one
(25:38):
that Katie Sagal, I think, playspretty well.
The shrink that it takes, whether you agree with the
decision that she's making or not, to not tell Clay and Jax
what happened to her because that's exactly what the bad guys
want. They want her to deliver that
message. That's why they did it.
And she's like, Nope, not going to do it.
(26:01):
They're not going to win. They're not going to get the
thing that they wanted out of doing this to me.
They I'm not going to give them that.
But she's also fragile, and she doesn't want anybody to know
what happened because she's a victim in all of this and she's
emotional about it. She won't even let Clay kiss her
(26:22):
when she sees him. She cringes at the touch of her
own husband. It's the emotional toll in the
weight of what she went through.And just, you know, having to,
to try to, like, pretend to be normal.
Following that, particularly right in the aftermath, is just,
it's wild. And this might be the first time
(26:44):
on this show we actually see hercry.
I didn't go back and scour the tape from Season 1, but I don't
remember a moment. And she's also opening herself
up a little bit. I think, you know, with the
nanny, first they have that Chapel moment and then in the
kitchen when she's about to likeshe's about to get emotional
(27:08):
with her before Tara interrupts to say that she has to go deal
with, you know, Bobby's bullet hole.
I think, I think it's, again, I think it's doing a lot while
actually doing a little. I think it's a difficult balance
for shows to do to not overdo it, but also like really get
that across in in small, subtle ways.
(27:29):
And I think that this episode does it really well,
particularly highlighted in the final, like fade to black scene
where she has that moment where she's like walking through the
hallway of the clubhouse headingtowards John's bike, which kind
of looks a little bit like that behind me.
(27:51):
You can see so much play out on her face.
And then you also get that up onthe roof of the clubhouse, which
is kind of like Jax's spot. And you know, she's being
comforted by her son and he has no idea why she needs the
comfort in the 1st place. It's kind of beautiful for being
(28:17):
so awful. As I mentioned before, this
episode is all about fallout. Fallout for Gemma, fallout from
Donna, fallout for Jax, for Clay.
It's a fairly quiet episode in terms of tone.
You know, they squeeze in some action at the end because this
is Sons of Anarchy and you've got to have some bullets.
But for the most part, it's a lot of heavy drama and trauma,
(28:43):
and it's honestly a tough one toget through because it's so
Gemma heavy. Not that that isn't quality or
that Katie Sagal doesn't absolutely kill it as Genma, but
because the subject matter is just so incredibly
uncomfortable. I make a lot of content.
(29:03):
Some I do better than others, and I have no idea how to make
good content about this, so for the most part, I'm not going to
try. I am, however, going to try to
keep making good content about my favorite show, Sons of
Anarchy, and I'm completely stoked that you are here along
with me. If you can, go ahead and let me
(29:24):
know what you think of Tara in this episode.
For me, she's the MVP, but what do you think?
You can comment below if you're on YouTube or join the free
Facebook group and let us know there.
There is also a Patreon for the show, patreon.com/belated Binge.
If you are so inclined to support the show and get some
bonus content, you can do so over there.
(29:45):
Like the fan fiction of a sequelseries that I was writing back
in 2020 before podcasting took over my life.
And remember, life is short by the motorcycle.
But when you do, wear a helmet, one of those dress for the
slide, not the ride. And remember to take Belated
Binge with you on that ride.
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