February 4, 2025 • 32 mins
Season 2 Episode 4: Eureka
This episode of Sons of Anarchy is called “Eureka” and it follows SAMCRO as they make their first gun run for the IRA under cover of a blood drive rally. Bobby's bike malfunctions, taking Tig out on the highway - who is then abducted by bounty hunters. Jax and Clay are at each others throats the whole episode about whether to help Tig or deliver the guns. All the while Gemma is back home dealing with intimidation tactics from Zobel.
In this episode we'll put a spotlight (headlight?) on Opie for the way his character is aligning with Clay against Jax (his best friend). We'll also play some other games and give out some superlatives as I bring this podcast back to the format that brought me joy in the beginning!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Pro tip, if you're going to go on a group ride, leave the death
trap at home. The Belated Binge podcast.
Hi and welcome to Belated Binge,the podcast that doesn't take
itself or the show too seriously.
My name is Zach. I'm your host, here to let you
relive your favorite series thatI nearly missed out on, like
(00:22):
Sons of Anarchy, which I didn't watch for the first time until
like four years after the seriesfinale, after I had already
bought my own motorcycle. Kind of thought, well, this show
looks interesting and guess what?
It was. But before we dig into this
episode, there will be spoilers and probably some language.
(00:44):
There will definitely be adult situations.
Wear earbuds as necessary. Shout out to the bonus Binge
Squad on patreonpatreon.com/belated
Binge. Now, you may have noticed in the
past few Sons of Anarchy episodes that I have done, I
structured them differently withthe podcast than I normally
(01:09):
would have, or that I started out to, or pretty much that I've
done any other show on this feed.
A little peek behind the curtain.
That was part of me trying to befocused on video first.
The YouTube audio or audience isalmost all new people every time
(01:30):
they watch a video. And on YouTube, if you want to
have any chance of somebody actually watching your video,
you got to be punchier. You got to be super quick to get
into your topic because people will drop off ridiculously fast
if you don't capture their attention like immediately the
(01:50):
exact moment and try to pay off whatever it is that made them
click in the 1st place. So I was, I was trying to
appease that platform, make all this video content and all that.
And I'm, I mentioned this in a previous episode, but I'm going
to say it now because you may only be here for the Sons of
(02:11):
Anarchy stuff that sucked. Granted, it didn't work.
My videos were getting a lot more views than I was getting
before, and way more than the audio listens that I normally
get. But here's the thing, I kind of
hated it. I felt like in an effort to
(02:31):
simply reach more people on YouTube, I removed pretty much
everything that made it fun for me to make this podcast in the
1st place. And then I replaced that fun
with video editing, which sucks to do.
It's not fun, and it was not a trade off that I was willing to
(02:52):
keep doing. So now I'm back to making this
thing the way that it made senseand made it fun for me in the
1st place. And I'm talking like all the way
back. If you've been here a while,
you're going to recognize some of the elements in this episode
from way back to the OG Harry Potter binge.
The way I set out to make this show from the beginning, that
(03:13):
has been and always will be a podcast, not a YouTube channel.
If you're watching on YouTube and you enjoy consuming your
podcasts with a video element, hi, it's great to see you.
If you're here for super punchy,no rambling, get straight to the
(03:39):
point, 10 minutes concise and a whole bunch of visual elements
with things flying in and a lot of jump cuts and B roll from the
show and all of this other stuff.
Sorry to disappoint. The first thing that we're going
to do and just a reminder. I don't think I mentioned this.
We are on season 2, episode 4 Eureka.
(04:03):
And one of the things I was doing from Season 1 that I miss
trying to do and, and bringing back for this is trying to
essentially turn this episode into a ROM com.
If you find something that doesn't make you miserable, just
enjoy it. That's the message that Tara
needed to hear as she adjusts tothe realization that she, a
(04:27):
medical professional, the doctor, has fallen in love with
the bad boy, the biker. How could this ever work?
She's truly not sure, but she's also not miserable, so perhaps
she should just enjoy herself. This episode opens with a
(04:48):
juxtaposition between the relationships of our core main
characters. And by the core main characters,
what I mean are we've got Gemma,we've got Jax, we've got Clay,
and we've got Tara. That's kind of our core four of
the main main characters on thisshow.
(05:10):
If you listen to Reaper reviews with Kim Coates and Theo Rossi,
they often referred to the show as having like 11 leads and it
being 11 main characters on thisshow.
But Jackson, Gemma and Clay werelike 123 on the call sheet.
Sure, all of those things makes sense, and I can understand why
(05:34):
that would be the technical way that you look at this.
But for a casual viewer of this show, Sons of Anarchy is about
Jax, it is about Gemma, and it is about Clay and Tara due to
their attachment to Jax and Gemma.
So this episode shows us our core main characters in kind of
(06:00):
polar opposite worlds at this moment within their
relationships, you've got Gemma and Clay that are still cold,
dealing with the fallout of their fight and that Gemma is
still not comfortable. You know, she helps him with his
cortisone shots for his hands, which I didn't know you could
just have cortisone at home. But sure, maybe that's a thing
(06:24):
that I just didn't know was a thing.
She does give him a kiss, which is a nice warm up, I guess you
could say. But definitely, definitely still
jumpy, even around her husband. And then on the other side,
we've got Jackson Tara. Very warm.
Tara comes to the realization that she's his old lady, and she
(06:45):
doesn't seem particularly upset about it.
Surprised maybe, but not upset. And side note, I don't think I
ever noticed the picture of the naked woman on the wall of their
bedroom. Ever.
Never. I've probably watched this show
4-5 times by now at least since I watched it for the first time
(07:09):
and never noticed that picture. The episode has two plot points
that we follow throughout. One of them is the club who are
going on a gun run for the Irish, which they've disguised
within a rally for a blood drive.
As Opie says in the episode, thecops don't mess with them when
they're doing good for, you know, the community, charity,
(07:31):
kids, whatever. The other plot line that we
follow is Gemma, who got a special package in the mail from
her attackers who are wanting her to know it was them and they
want her to be intimidated. In both cases, shenanigans
ensue. We're going to start with
Gemma's plot because it's more of the B plot and it's a little
(07:54):
quicker to talk through because there's not a whole lot to it.
It's definitely there's a lot oftension in it.
There's a lot of weight to it, but it's not a lot of scenes and
there's not a lot of actual steps.
I guess you could say that we'retaking the first one.
(08:16):
Was Gemma receiving a weird package at the garage?
Not at her home, at the garage. And this seemed odd to me.
Did they send it there in hopes that she was going to freak out
when she saw it and have an audience?
And that was what was going to force her to tell somebody what
had happened to her? That's why they're doing this,
(08:37):
right? Like because she hasn't told
Clay about the attack, their tactic of raping his wife and
having her tell him the message that they already told him.
You know, stop selling guns to people of color.
It doesn't work if she keeps hermouth shut.
This is their way of addressing how Zobel put in.
(09:01):
I think it was the previous episode or maybe there's one
right before that. I'm getting a little bit off in
my chronology, but he said the quote that they underestimated
Misses Morrow trying to intimidate her and let her know
who they are in that they are inher town and they can do it
again is how they're wanting herto run to Clay and say this
(09:27):
happened to me, please help. But if they want Clay to know in
particular, why not send this totheir home?
It seems more likely that he would actually find out about
the package if it's there, then dropping it in the mail at TM
where there's like a bunch of people that can go through the
(09:49):
mail and things can get thrown away.
And I don't know, it seems like there's more up to chance.
I guess she could throw it away if it was, you know, at at home
and do that more directly. But then you also have the
element of we can get you at your home scare tactic if you do
(10:10):
it that way. And sure, you could say they
don't know where she lives, but this is a small town.
Everybody can find out where somebody they could literally
just follow one of them one timeand no, right.
So anyways, the clue that they did leave behind and the way
that they are trying to get to her is by leaving the mask that
(10:32):
they wore in a bag with the old businesses logo that Zobell took
over for the new cigar shop. So when she goes there to that
building to investigate, Zobel'sthere waiting just ready to be
his smug ass self. And they've clearly arranged for
this show of Weston coming and running into her on the
(10:55):
sidewalk. He bumps into her and like make
sure that he speaks and he does it very politely.
But he's he's making sure that she can see his ink and that she
can hear his voice and recognizethis is one of the men that
assaulted me and get scared. That's the whole point.
(11:15):
Then they have their weird like bro cuddle hug thing on that.
That was awkward. The shenanigans come when she
gets back in her car and there'sthis lady that's rudely honking
at her, wanting her to leave that parking spot because
apparently for a small town, there's not a lot of parking and
there's a whole lot of people, Iguess.
(11:36):
And Gemma responds the way that you do when you're confronted
with these types of, call them minor inconveniences and
squabbles with your neighbors. She points a gun at her.
Yeah. And then when Unser gets called,
she's like, Yep, I did point a gun at her but I didn't shoot
her so like, what's the big deal?
(11:59):
Makes me laugh every time. Eventually she follows W into
some Aryan meet up and she intends to shoot him when he
comes out of the shitter, but she hears him talking on the
phone with his son and she stops.
And this is something that I mentioned, I believe I did it in
a short form video for TikTok and whatnot from the previous
(12:19):
episode, where this show takes their villains or their bad
guys. And just when they push them to
the edge of just completely irreprints, the just irreparable
damage to them as a character interms of your ability to connect
(12:40):
with them, they then give you a splash of humanity.
Don't get me wrong, this guy's not redeemable at all, but he
has a layer of depth to him thatwasn't there before.
Because in this moment, you wantGemma to just blow his head off.
And then you think that's the last thing that his son is going
(13:01):
to hear from his dad, a form of encouragement after you called
him to tell him some kind of good news that sounded like from
like a soccer or a baseball practice or something.
And then gunshot and your dad isgone.
Then you feel bad and then you think, oh, this guy is raising
(13:24):
children. Those kids are fucked.
They're definitely going to be groomed.
It's terrifying, but it's also depth.
I didn't say depth was always happy.
I guess it's not always good coming out of the character, but
(13:48):
it is depth and layers to the character.
And Gemma doesn't kill him, she decompresses and has a short
scene with Unser who promises tonot let anything else bad
happened to her. Going to be her knight in
shining armor I suppose. Side note again, he mentioned to
Tara in this episode that he's known Jemma since she was 12.
(14:12):
And spoiler alert on this show he later confesses his love for
her and that's gross. An age gap isn't a big deal.
It becomes a big deal when you talk about how you knew them as
a small, small child and tried to stop her from running away
from home as a child. Talk about layers and depth.
(14:36):
There's a lot of issues that youcould potentially unpack there.
So the main plot of the episode is with the club who are on
their run, and they have a lot of shenanigans that ensue for
them. We get a little mention of Jimmy
O, which clearly means somethingto Chibs.
We're going to get more on that down the road in the show.
(14:56):
And Bobby, the fat boy on a fat boy, the fat boy that is
completely falling apart, just starts whatever.
The bike starts fucking up on the road, on the highway after
they pick up the guns and it runs Tig down and off the road
and he goes down and he goes rolling down a hill.
(15:17):
Somebody else went down too, butnobody cared about that because
it's not one of the main characters.
And when they take him to the hospital, the front desk girl
calls a bounty hunter who comes to pick him up.
And this becomes an issue because not only has Tig been
hurt, he's now also in custody of a bounty hunter.
Like 3 or 4 of them to actually be specific.
(15:42):
And Jackson and Clay have a disagreement on what they should
do about it. Clay is hell bent on delivering
the guns before they even worry about getting Tig.
Jax thinks that they need to getTig as quick as humanly possible
because they don't know where they're going to go and he
doesn't want the bounty hunters to get too far away that they're
(16:02):
not going to be able to get him back and he's just thrown in
jail. This becomes hostile every time
and it almost comes to blows when at one point in time and
Jax is just asking for Clay to call for a vote and Clay
refuses. This is actually a specific
(16:25):
pissing match that happens twiceduring the episode.
The first one results in Clay dropping his bike out of
frustration. I guess like the cortisone thing
was about his hands. That's a plot line that they
that they kind of keep remindingyou about early on in this show.
And then spoiler eventually it'sjust going to go away.
(16:48):
Like it. The hands aren't going to matter
anymore. It seems like the the hands were
like the original thought process that they were going to
use for the passing of the torchor the gavel in this case, from
Clay to Jax. But then the story got even more
and more nuanced and more and more call it confrontational or
(17:12):
whatever, like, however, we're not going to go into every
single thing that happens in their relationship and what
leads to that eventual passing of the torch.
But they they didn't need the hands anymore.
And so they just kind of stoppedtalking about how his hands
hurt. But right now his hands hurt and
he drops his bike and those bikes are heavy.
You may don't see this guy trying to pick it up with his
(17:36):
broken hands and just think of him being an old man that just
can't pick up this bike. Those things are not light.
I'm pretty sure the model that he is riding is like 900 lbs.
You don't want to drop them, buthe drops his bike and then he
(17:56):
can't pick it up and he just goes and sits down frustrated
and Opie goes over and gives hima heart to heart, which we'll
talk a little bit about that whole thing a little bit later
in this episode. The second time that it happens,
it results in Piney just taking off with the flatbed Jacks
Chibs, half sack and happy all jump on the back and go get
(18:19):
tick. And it's one of the funniest
parts of the entire episode. And it well, one of the funniest
parts of the episode. That doesn't have to do with
half sacks announcement that he intends to get a a fake ball to,
you know, balance him out a little bit.
And this is the humorous part ofthe episode that has action with
(18:42):
it. It is the four of them on the
back of the flatbed with Piney driving.
And they get to the motel room that they know that Tig is in.
And they're like, OK, now what do we do?
And Chibs looks at Jax and says,like, all right, what's the
plan? And Jax is like, we'll ask the
old man, ask Piney, who turns out has a plan.
(19:05):
He tells him to hang on. And then he whips the truck
around and proceeds to back his way right through the wall.
And Jax has the line of, well, it's a simple plan and it works.
It works very well. Ultimately, they get Tig back,
(19:27):
there's still some friction happening.
And the episode closes at the party for the blood drive, where
Jax asks Clay how he's supposed to get over what Clay did to
Opie and Donna, and Clay suggests he's going to have to
figure it out for himself, but also do it fast, because if he
brings Donna up again, he'd killhim.
(19:49):
Which is kind of messed up because I think in this moment
you don't take that as an idol threat.
I think you really do believe that Clay would kill his own
stepson if it meant keeping his secret and keeping his place at
the head of the table of this club.
(20:14):
It's kind of gross. So that's the gist of the
episode. While there's a lot happening,
as there always is on this show.There's one character that I
want to spend a little bit of time on and kind of unpack a
little bit. But before I do, I'd like to ask
you to please leave a five star review in the podcast app that
you are using right now. And if it allows for a comment
(20:35):
with your review, I would love it if you'd say something kind.
Not only would it make me feel nice and warm and fuzzy and all
that, but it would also help theevil algorithm let other people
possibly new to this show have achance to listen to it.
And hey, maybe they'll like it like you do.
(20:56):
And obviously, if you're on YouTube, you can use the comment
section in the like button to achieve the same result, same
request. Thank you.
So let's dig in a little bit more on Opie.
And I'm just going to say it. I don't think that he makes any
sense in this episode. They've set up Opie this season
to be dealing with the death of his wife.
(21:18):
Obviously, this is a really big deal for Opie.
It's very emotional and there's going to be things that happen
with that character as a result of something like that, that you
throw him for a loop. And that I expect to see the way
(21:38):
that he's distancing himself from his children.
And while I've said before that I don't like it, it's a choice
that bothers me about this character.
It's a choice that makes sense for the character within the
context of the character. He wasn't around for five years
when he was in jail. He wasn't super close to his
(22:00):
kids. And without his wife, I'm sure
inside his mind he feels like he's not going to be a good dad.
And at the same time he looks athis kids and sees his wife who's
gone. Again, I disagree with how he
handle it handles it. But I completely I feel like it
(22:22):
aligns for who this character is.
The thing that doesn't align forwho this character is, is how
he's dealing with Jax, his best friend who to this point has
only been supportive of him and expressed concern over his
well-being and his family. Opie has taken this angle where
(22:43):
he thinks that Jax is trying to take over the club from Clay and
he says in this episode he needsto get over his dead daddy shit.
And he takes it a step further and he even aligns himself with
Clay giving him the talk at the gas station which does actually
have a fantastic line in it whenClay says some days he can't
even get his Dick out of his pants and OB suggest that that's
(23:06):
what prospects are for comedic gold.
Fantastic line. That's the shit that I wish
stayed in the show throughout the entire seven season.
They get fewer and further between as we go and somewhat
forced at times to where they'renot actually as funny as they
could be. This episode is a good one for
(23:27):
some of the camaraderie type humor on the show.
Of course, then he basically draws the line of allegiance and
pledges his to Clay, all the while being confrontational with
Jax the whole time and it just doesn't feel right for the
character. These two have been boys for
(23:50):
their entire lives. We've already seen Jax stick his
neck out to cover for Opie with Clay to help his best friend.
As I mentioned, Jax has been nothing but supportive of his
friend with what he's been goingthrough, and Opie has gone the
other way, getting offended at Jax's support and pushing back.
(24:11):
And the part that makes the least sense to me is that OB
jumps to the conclusion that whatever is happening between
Jax and Clay, it must be Jax's fault and it's Jax being selfish
about something. If the roles were reversed, all
the evidence that we have suggests that Jax would do the
(24:33):
opposite. He would double down on his
support for his best friend, whether it was the right thing
or not. He'd do it out of loyalty to
him. And Opie is often portrayed on
this show as the ultimate example of loyalty.
But he's being loyal to Clay, not Jax.
(24:55):
It just feels off to me. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong,
and I'm sure that you could say to me that Jack's not telling
Opie about Donna right now is disloyal, and I've made my
feelings known on that as well. I disagree with Jax's decision
to do that, but the reason he claims that he's doing it is
(25:17):
that it's the best thing for Opie, not for him.
And of course Opie doesn't know that.
That's what Jax and Claire actually fighting about.
And when you add that level of nuance to it, it makes it even
worse. Opie is walling himself off
against his best friend and cozying up to the man who tried
(25:38):
to have him killed and got his wife murdered by mistake.
Kind of sucks. The next thing I want to do is
do some highlights and call themlow lights for certain
characters from this episode. And here's how it's going to go.
For the characters we want to highlight in a positive way,
(25:59):
we're going to give out some newpatches.
For the characters that we want to call out for sucking, we're
going to. We're just going to do it.
We're going to give him a big old fuck you.
Simple enough. All right, let's do it.
So for the patches on this episode where we are honoring
characters in true biker fashion, if you will, I'm going
(26:22):
to go with Unser. While his love motivations get
really weird in this episode, heis super supportive of Gemma.
He's funny in his scenes with her about the gun, and he even
goes and confronts Zobel directly in his way of showing,
you know, support and trying to protect this woman that he cares
(26:45):
about deeply. Good on Unser, even if I don't
know, maybe his tactics aren't always the most thought out or
work out the best. He's he.
It's coming from the right place.
The next patch award I'm going to give out is to Tig.
The way he eggs on the bounty hunters and gets them to beat
(27:08):
him up, it's just hilarious. It's again, levity in a show
that has a lot of seriousness and tension in it.
And that that whole scene is just pure comedy, and I quite
like it. Speaking of comedy, the next or
(27:28):
the final patch that I want to give out for this episode is
Half Sack. Everyone wants to give him shit
about wanting a fake ball to balance out his junk, and I
appreciate him for the levity and the humor, as well as
keeping track of Tig so that they could actually go get him.
If he doesn't stay on him or gets caught while following
(27:50):
them, Tig's off to prison while our boys are back at the gas
station arguing about whether they should help him or not.
Half sack is kind of low key thehero and he's on the truck to go
get him, which when you think about it, defies the president
(28:10):
of the club's directive as a prospect.
He's literally putting himself out there to have his junk
removed doing this, but he thinks it's the right thing to
do to save a brother. Good on you half sack.
(28:31):
All right, so maybe we call these FTCS for fuck this
character. It's pretty self-explanatory.
As I said earlier, we're going to do this for the bounty
hunters to start with, not just because they picked up Tig.
Like that's their job. Tig as an outstanding warrant in
another state and their job is to pick up people like him.
The thing that they do in praying on hospitals and
(28:54):
snatching people up when they'rewounded.
Come on. That's a gross tactic.
The next two or so, Belle in Weston obviously trying to
intimidate Gemma. I just, I wish those characters
would just die. The next FTC to call that that
we're going to do is Clay. He's always lecturing Jax about
(29:16):
making things personal, and including at the end of this
episode, he does the same thing about your need to undermine my
every move. Where does it go tomorrow?
Next week? But he's the one that's actually
being a Dick because he's makingshit personal.
(29:40):
He's pissed about Gemma, he's pissed about Jax, and he's
fighting everyone. Jax is advocating for helping
club members and for following the club's established protocol
of democracy by calling a vote to settle their disagreement.
Clay is shouting and opting for physical altercation because
(30:00):
he's pissy. But by all means, this is about
Jax making things personal with Clay, right?
The the final FTC we're going todo is Bobby, you can't go on a
group ride with a bike that's falling apart, smoking and, you
know, is putting other riders atrisk.
(30:22):
Those large group rides are actually incredibly dangerous.
If one person makes a small mistake on the road, it risks
the lives of the entire group. So the bigger the group, the
worse it can possibly get. And he is obviously a very
seasoned rider and he knows better.
(30:44):
His Springer that he normally rides may not be the most
comfortable on these trips, but if you're soft tail with the big
cushy seat is a death trap for everyone else.
You put your ass on the bobber and deal with it being sore.
And if you don't like that, go buy another seat.
Just saying. Before we go, let us rewrite
(31:07):
Sons of Anarchy one small changeto the episode at a time.
For this episode, this question honestly could change
everything. What if Bobby didn't do what I
just said he shouldn't do? What if he didn't ride his old
piece of shit fat boy? How do you think this episode
plays out differently without that particular issue at hand?
(31:28):
If you're watching on YouTube, comment down below your answer
to that question. If you are listening on a
podcast player, let me know On social media at Belated Binge,
there is an exclusive Facebook group for listeners of this
podcast. There's a link in the show notes
for that if you would like to let me know there.
(31:48):
The best responses might even find their way into a future
episode of this podcast. And if you enjoyed this episode
re binging Sons of Anarchy, go ahead and give me a follow or a
subscribe on whatever app you are using right now.
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
(32:08):
ride, and make sure that you're taking belated binge along for
that ride.
Pro tip, if you're going to go on a group ride, leave the death
trap at home. The Belated Binge podcast.
Hi and welcome to Belated Binge,the podcast that doesn't take
itself or the show too seriously.
My name is Zach. I'm your host, here to let you
relive your favorite series thatI nearly missed out on, like
(00:22):
Sons of Anarchy, which I didn't watch for the first time until
like four years after the seriesfinale, after I had already
bought my own motorcycle. Kind of thought, well, this show
looks interesting and guess what?
It was. But before we dig into this
episode, there will be spoilers and probably some language.
(00:44):
There will definitely be adult situations.
Wear earbuds as necessary. Shout out to the bonus Binge
Squad on patreonpatreon.com/belated
Binge. Now, you may have noticed in the
past few Sons of Anarchy episodes that I have done, I
structured them differently withthe podcast than I normally
(01:09):
would have, or that I started out to, or pretty much that I've
done any other show on this feed.
A little peek behind the curtain.
That was part of me trying to befocused on video first.
The YouTube audio or audience isalmost all new people every time
(01:30):
they watch a video. And on YouTube, if you want to
have any chance of somebody actually watching your video,
you got to be punchier. You got to be super quick to get
into your topic because people will drop off ridiculously fast
if you don't capture their attention like immediately the
(01:50):
exact moment and try to pay off whatever it is that made them
click in the 1st place. So I was, I was trying to
appease that platform, make all this video content and all that.
And I'm, I mentioned this in a previous episode, but I'm going
to say it now because you may only be here for the Sons of
(02:11):
Anarchy stuff that sucked. Granted, it didn't work.
My videos were getting a lot more views than I was getting
before, and way more than the audio listens that I normally
get. But here's the thing, I kind of
hated it. I felt like in an effort to
(02:31):
simply reach more people on YouTube, I removed pretty much
everything that made it fun for me to make this podcast in the
1st place. And then I replaced that fun
with video editing, which sucks to do.
It's not fun, and it was not a trade off that I was willing to
(02:52):
keep doing. So now I'm back to making this
thing the way that it made senseand made it fun for me in the
1st place. And I'm talking like all the way
back. If you've been here a while,
you're going to recognize some of the elements in this episode
from way back to the OG Harry Potter binge.
The way I set out to make this show from the beginning, that
(03:13):
has been and always will be a podcast, not a YouTube channel.
If you're watching on YouTube and you enjoy consuming your
podcasts with a video element, hi, it's great to see you.
If you're here for super punchy,no rambling, get straight to the
(03:39):
point, 10 minutes concise and a whole bunch of visual elements
with things flying in and a lot of jump cuts and B roll from the
show and all of this other stuff.
Sorry to disappoint. The first thing that we're going
to do and just a reminder. I don't think I mentioned this.
We are on season 2, episode 4 Eureka.
(04:03):
And one of the things I was doing from Season 1 that I miss
trying to do and, and bringing back for this is trying to
essentially turn this episode into a ROM com.
If you find something that doesn't make you miserable, just
enjoy it. That's the message that Tara
needed to hear as she adjusts tothe realization that she, a
(04:27):
medical professional, the doctor, has fallen in love with
the bad boy, the biker. How could this ever work?
She's truly not sure, but she's also not miserable, so perhaps
she should just enjoy herself. This episode opens with a
(04:48):
juxtaposition between the relationships of our core main
characters. And by the core main characters,
what I mean are we've got Gemma,we've got Jax, we've got Clay,
and we've got Tara. That's kind of our core four of
the main main characters on thisshow.
(05:10):
If you listen to Reaper reviews with Kim Coates and Theo Rossi,
they often referred to the show as having like 11 leads and it
being 11 main characters on thisshow.
But Jackson, Gemma and Clay werelike 123 on the call sheet.
Sure, all of those things makes sense, and I can understand why
(05:34):
that would be the technical way that you look at this.
But for a casual viewer of this show, Sons of Anarchy is about
Jax, it is about Gemma, and it is about Clay and Tara due to
their attachment to Jax and Gemma.
So this episode shows us our core main characters in kind of
(06:00):
polar opposite worlds at this moment within their
relationships, you've got Gemma and Clay that are still cold,
dealing with the fallout of their fight and that Gemma is
still not comfortable. You know, she helps him with his
cortisone shots for his hands, which I didn't know you could
just have cortisone at home. But sure, maybe that's a thing
(06:24):
that I just didn't know was a thing.
She does give him a kiss, which is a nice warm up, I guess you
could say. But definitely, definitely still
jumpy, even around her husband. And then on the other side,
we've got Jackson Tara. Very warm.
Tara comes to the realization that she's his old lady, and she
(06:45):
doesn't seem particularly upset about it.
Surprised maybe, but not upset. And side note, I don't think I
ever noticed the picture of the naked woman on the wall of their
bedroom. Ever.
Never. I've probably watched this show
4-5 times by now at least since I watched it for the first time
(07:09):
and never noticed that picture. The episode has two plot points
that we follow throughout. One of them is the club who are
going on a gun run for the Irish, which they've disguised
within a rally for a blood drive.
As Opie says in the episode, thecops don't mess with them when
they're doing good for, you know, the community, charity,
(07:31):
kids, whatever. The other plot line that we
follow is Gemma, who got a special package in the mail from
her attackers who are wanting her to know it was them and they
want her to be intimidated. In both cases, shenanigans
ensue. We're going to start with
Gemma's plot because it's more of the B plot and it's a little
(07:54):
quicker to talk through because there's not a whole lot to it.
It's definitely there's a lot oftension in it.
There's a lot of weight to it, but it's not a lot of scenes and
there's not a lot of actual steps.
I guess you could say that we'retaking the first one.
(08:16):
Was Gemma receiving a weird package at the garage?
Not at her home, at the garage. And this seemed odd to me.
Did they send it there in hopes that she was going to freak out
when she saw it and have an audience?
And that was what was going to force her to tell somebody what
had happened to her? That's why they're doing this,
(08:37):
right? Like because she hasn't told
Clay about the attack, their tactic of raping his wife and
having her tell him the message that they already told him.
You know, stop selling guns to people of color.
It doesn't work if she keeps hermouth shut.
This is their way of addressing how Zobel put in.
(09:01):
I think it was the previous episode or maybe there's one
right before that. I'm getting a little bit off in
my chronology, but he said the quote that they underestimated
Misses Morrow trying to intimidate her and let her know
who they are in that they are inher town and they can do it
again is how they're wanting herto run to Clay and say this
(09:27):
happened to me, please help. But if they want Clay to know in
particular, why not send this totheir home?
It seems more likely that he would actually find out about
the package if it's there, then dropping it in the mail at TM
where there's like a bunch of people that can go through the
(09:49):
mail and things can get thrown away.
And I don't know, it seems like there's more up to chance.
I guess she could throw it away if it was, you know, at at home
and do that more directly. But then you also have the
element of we can get you at your home scare tactic if you do
(10:10):
it that way. And sure, you could say they
don't know where she lives, but this is a small town.
Everybody can find out where somebody they could literally
just follow one of them one timeand no, right.
So anyways, the clue that they did leave behind and the way
that they are trying to get to her is by leaving the mask that
(10:32):
they wore in a bag with the old businesses logo that Zobell took
over for the new cigar shop. So when she goes there to that
building to investigate, Zobel'sthere waiting just ready to be
his smug ass self. And they've clearly arranged for
this show of Weston coming and running into her on the
(10:55):
sidewalk. He bumps into her and like make
sure that he speaks and he does it very politely.
But he's he's making sure that she can see his ink and that she
can hear his voice and recognizethis is one of the men that
assaulted me and get scared. That's the whole point.
(11:15):
Then they have their weird like bro cuddle hug thing on that.
That was awkward. The shenanigans come when she
gets back in her car and there'sthis lady that's rudely honking
at her, wanting her to leave that parking spot because
apparently for a small town, there's not a lot of parking and
there's a whole lot of people, Iguess.
(11:36):
And Gemma responds the way that you do when you're confronted
with these types of, call them minor inconveniences and
squabbles with your neighbors. She points a gun at her.
Yeah. And then when Unser gets called,
she's like, Yep, I did point a gun at her but I didn't shoot
her so like, what's the big deal?
(11:59):
Makes me laugh every time. Eventually she follows W into
some Aryan meet up and she intends to shoot him when he
comes out of the shitter, but she hears him talking on the
phone with his son and she stops.
And this is something that I mentioned, I believe I did it in
a short form video for TikTok and whatnot from the previous
(12:19):
episode, where this show takes their villains or their bad
guys. And just when they push them to
the edge of just completely irreprints, the just irreparable
damage to them as a character interms of your ability to connect
(12:40):
with them, they then give you a splash of humanity.
Don't get me wrong, this guy's not redeemable at all, but he
has a layer of depth to him thatwasn't there before.
Because in this moment, you wantGemma to just blow his head off.
And then you think that's the last thing that his son is going
(13:01):
to hear from his dad, a form of encouragement after you called
him to tell him some kind of good news that sounded like from
like a soccer or a baseball practice or something.
And then gunshot and your dad isgone.
Then you feel bad and then you think, oh, this guy is raising
(13:24):
children. Those kids are fucked.
They're definitely going to be groomed.
It's terrifying, but it's also depth.
I didn't say depth was always happy.
I guess it's not always good coming out of the character, but
(13:48):
it is depth and layers to the character.
And Gemma doesn't kill him, she decompresses and has a short
scene with Unser who promises tonot let anything else bad
happened to her. Going to be her knight in
shining armor I suppose. Side note again, he mentioned to
Tara in this episode that he's known Jemma since she was 12.
(14:12):
And spoiler alert on this show he later confesses his love for
her and that's gross. An age gap isn't a big deal.
It becomes a big deal when you talk about how you knew them as
a small, small child and tried to stop her from running away
from home as a child. Talk about layers and depth.
(14:36):
There's a lot of issues that youcould potentially unpack there.
So the main plot of the episode is with the club who are on
their run, and they have a lot of shenanigans that ensue for
them. We get a little mention of Jimmy
O, which clearly means somethingto Chibs.
We're going to get more on that down the road in the show.
(14:56):
And Bobby, the fat boy on a fat boy, the fat boy that is
completely falling apart, just starts whatever.
The bike starts fucking up on the road, on the highway after
they pick up the guns and it runs Tig down and off the road
and he goes down and he goes rolling down a hill.
(15:17):
Somebody else went down too, butnobody cared about that because
it's not one of the main characters.
And when they take him to the hospital, the front desk girl
calls a bounty hunter who comes to pick him up.
And this becomes an issue because not only has Tig been
hurt, he's now also in custody of a bounty hunter.
Like 3 or 4 of them to actually be specific.
(15:42):
And Jackson and Clay have a disagreement on what they should
do about it. Clay is hell bent on delivering
the guns before they even worry about getting Tig.
Jax thinks that they need to getTig as quick as humanly possible
because they don't know where they're going to go and he
doesn't want the bounty hunters to get too far away that they're
(16:02):
not going to be able to get him back and he's just thrown in
jail. This becomes hostile every time
and it almost comes to blows when at one point in time and
Jax is just asking for Clay to call for a vote and Clay
refuses. This is actually a specific
(16:25):
pissing match that happens twiceduring the episode.
The first one results in Clay dropping his bike out of
frustration. I guess like the cortisone thing
was about his hands. That's a plot line that they
that they kind of keep remindingyou about early on in this show.
And then spoiler eventually it'sjust going to go away.
(16:48):
Like it. The hands aren't going to matter
anymore. It seems like the the hands were
like the original thought process that they were going to
use for the passing of the torchor the gavel in this case, from
Clay to Jax. But then the story got even more
and more nuanced and more and more call it confrontational or
(17:12):
whatever, like, however, we're not going to go into every
single thing that happens in their relationship and what
leads to that eventual passing of the torch.
But they they didn't need the hands anymore.
And so they just kind of stoppedtalking about how his hands
hurt. But right now his hands hurt and
he drops his bike and those bikes are heavy.
You may don't see this guy trying to pick it up with his
(17:36):
broken hands and just think of him being an old man that just
can't pick up this bike. Those things are not light.
I'm pretty sure the model that he is riding is like 900 lbs.
You don't want to drop them, buthe drops his bike and then he
(17:56):
can't pick it up and he just goes and sits down frustrated
and Opie goes over and gives hima heart to heart, which we'll
talk a little bit about that whole thing a little bit later
in this episode. The second time that it happens,
it results in Piney just taking off with the flatbed Jacks
Chibs, half sack and happy all jump on the back and go get
(18:19):
tick. And it's one of the funniest
parts of the entire episode. And it well, one of the funniest
parts of the episode. That doesn't have to do with
half sacks announcement that he intends to get a a fake ball to,
you know, balance him out a little bit.
And this is the humorous part ofthe episode that has action with
(18:42):
it. It is the four of them on the
back of the flatbed with Piney driving.
And they get to the motel room that they know that Tig is in.
And they're like, OK, now what do we do?
And Chibs looks at Jax and says,like, all right, what's the
plan? And Jax is like, we'll ask the
old man, ask Piney, who turns out has a plan.
(19:05):
He tells him to hang on. And then he whips the truck
around and proceeds to back his way right through the wall.
And Jax has the line of, well, it's a simple plan and it works.
It works very well. Ultimately, they get Tig back,
(19:27):
there's still some friction happening.
And the episode closes at the party for the blood drive, where
Jax asks Clay how he's supposed to get over what Clay did to
Opie and Donna, and Clay suggests he's going to have to
figure it out for himself, but also do it fast, because if he
brings Donna up again, he'd killhim.
(19:49):
Which is kind of messed up because I think in this moment
you don't take that as an idol threat.
I think you really do believe that Clay would kill his own
stepson if it meant keeping his secret and keeping his place at
the head of the table of this club.
(20:14):
It's kind of gross. So that's the gist of the
episode. While there's a lot happening,
as there always is on this show.There's one character that I
want to spend a little bit of time on and kind of unpack a
little bit. But before I do, I'd like to ask
you to please leave a five star review in the podcast app that
you are using right now. And if it allows for a comment
(20:35):
with your review, I would love it if you'd say something kind.
Not only would it make me feel nice and warm and fuzzy and all
that, but it would also help theevil algorithm let other people
possibly new to this show have achance to listen to it.
And hey, maybe they'll like it like you do.
(20:56):
And obviously, if you're on YouTube, you can use the comment
section in the like button to achieve the same result, same
request. Thank you.
So let's dig in a little bit more on Opie.
And I'm just going to say it. I don't think that he makes any
sense in this episode. They've set up Opie this season
to be dealing with the death of his wife.
(21:18):
Obviously, this is a really big deal for Opie.
It's very emotional and there's going to be things that happen
with that character as a result of something like that, that you
throw him for a loop. And that I expect to see the way
(21:38):
that he's distancing himself from his children.
And while I've said before that I don't like it, it's a choice
that bothers me about this character.
It's a choice that makes sense for the character within the
context of the character. He wasn't around for five years
when he was in jail. He wasn't super close to his
(22:00):
kids. And without his wife, I'm sure
inside his mind he feels like he's not going to be a good dad.
And at the same time he looks athis kids and sees his wife who's
gone. Again, I disagree with how he
handle it handles it. But I completely I feel like it
(22:22):
aligns for who this character is.
The thing that doesn't align forwho this character is, is how
he's dealing with Jax, his best friend who to this point has
only been supportive of him and expressed concern over his
well-being and his family. Opie has taken this angle where
(22:43):
he thinks that Jax is trying to take over the club from Clay and
he says in this episode he needsto get over his dead daddy shit.
And he takes it a step further and he even aligns himself with
Clay giving him the talk at the gas station which does actually
have a fantastic line in it whenClay says some days he can't
even get his Dick out of his pants and OB suggest that that's
(23:06):
what prospects are for comedic gold.
Fantastic line. That's the shit that I wish
stayed in the show throughout the entire seven season.
They get fewer and further between as we go and somewhat
forced at times to where they'renot actually as funny as they
could be. This episode is a good one for
(23:27):
some of the camaraderie type humor on the show.
Of course, then he basically draws the line of allegiance and
pledges his to Clay, all the while being confrontational with
Jax the whole time and it just doesn't feel right for the
character. These two have been boys for
(23:50):
their entire lives. We've already seen Jax stick his
neck out to cover for Opie with Clay to help his best friend.
As I mentioned, Jax has been nothing but supportive of his
friend with what he's been goingthrough, and Opie has gone the
other way, getting offended at Jax's support and pushing back.
(24:11):
And the part that makes the least sense to me is that OB
jumps to the conclusion that whatever is happening between
Jax and Clay, it must be Jax's fault and it's Jax being selfish
about something. If the roles were reversed, all
the evidence that we have suggests that Jax would do the
(24:33):
opposite. He would double down on his
support for his best friend, whether it was the right thing
or not. He'd do it out of loyalty to
him. And Opie is often portrayed on
this show as the ultimate example of loyalty.
But he's being loyal to Clay, not Jax.
(24:55):
It just feels off to me. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong,
and I'm sure that you could say to me that Jack's not telling
Opie about Donna right now is disloyal, and I've made my
feelings known on that as well. I disagree with Jax's decision
to do that, but the reason he claims that he's doing it is
(25:17):
that it's the best thing for Opie, not for him.
And of course Opie doesn't know that.
That's what Jax and Claire actually fighting about.
And when you add that level of nuance to it, it makes it even
worse. Opie is walling himself off
against his best friend and cozying up to the man who tried
(25:38):
to have him killed and got his wife murdered by mistake.
Kind of sucks. The next thing I want to do is
do some highlights and call themlow lights for certain
characters from this episode. And here's how it's going to go.
For the characters we want to highlight in a positive way,
(25:59):
we're going to give out some newpatches.
For the characters that we want to call out for sucking, we're
going to. We're just going to do it.
We're going to give him a big old fuck you.
Simple enough. All right, let's do it.
So for the patches on this episode where we are honoring
characters in true biker fashion, if you will, I'm going
(26:22):
to go with Unser. While his love motivations get
really weird in this episode, heis super supportive of Gemma.
He's funny in his scenes with her about the gun, and he even
goes and confronts Zobel directly in his way of showing,
you know, support and trying to protect this woman that he cares
(26:45):
about deeply. Good on Unser, even if I don't
know, maybe his tactics aren't always the most thought out or
work out the best. He's he.
It's coming from the right place.
The next patch award I'm going to give out is to Tig.
The way he eggs on the bounty hunters and gets them to beat
(27:08):
him up, it's just hilarious. It's again, levity in a show
that has a lot of seriousness and tension in it.
And that that whole scene is just pure comedy, and I quite
like it. Speaking of comedy, the next or
(27:28):
the final patch that I want to give out for this episode is
Half Sack. Everyone wants to give him shit
about wanting a fake ball to balance out his junk, and I
appreciate him for the levity and the humor, as well as
keeping track of Tig so that they could actually go get him.
If he doesn't stay on him or gets caught while following
(27:50):
them, Tig's off to prison while our boys are back at the gas
station arguing about whether they should help him or not.
Half sack is kind of low key thehero and he's on the truck to go
get him, which when you think about it, defies the president
(28:10):
of the club's directive as a prospect.
He's literally putting himself out there to have his junk
removed doing this, but he thinks it's the right thing to
do to save a brother. Good on you half sack.
(28:31):
All right, so maybe we call these FTCS for fuck this
character. It's pretty self-explanatory.
As I said earlier, we're going to do this for the bounty
hunters to start with, not just because they picked up Tig.
Like that's their job. Tig as an outstanding warrant in
another state and their job is to pick up people like him.
The thing that they do in praying on hospitals and
(28:54):
snatching people up when they'rewounded.
Come on. That's a gross tactic.
The next two or so, Belle in Weston obviously trying to
intimidate Gemma. I just, I wish those characters
would just die. The next FTC to call that that
we're going to do is Clay. He's always lecturing Jax about
(29:16):
making things personal, and including at the end of this
episode, he does the same thing about your need to undermine my
every move. Where does it go tomorrow?
Next week? But he's the one that's actually
being a Dick because he's makingshit personal.
(29:40):
He's pissed about Gemma, he's pissed about Jax, and he's
fighting everyone. Jax is advocating for helping
club members and for following the club's established protocol
of democracy by calling a vote to settle their disagreement.
Clay is shouting and opting for physical altercation because
(30:00):
he's pissy. But by all means, this is about
Jax making things personal with Clay, right?
The the final FTC we're going todo is Bobby, you can't go on a
group ride with a bike that's falling apart, smoking and, you
know, is putting other riders atrisk.
(30:22):
Those large group rides are actually incredibly dangerous.
If one person makes a small mistake on the road, it risks
the lives of the entire group. So the bigger the group, the
worse it can possibly get. And he is obviously a very
seasoned rider and he knows better.
(30:44):
His Springer that he normally rides may not be the most
comfortable on these trips, but if you're soft tail with the big
cushy seat is a death trap for everyone else.
You put your ass on the bobber and deal with it being sore.
And if you don't like that, go buy another seat.
Just saying. Before we go, let us rewrite
(31:07):
Sons of Anarchy one small changeto the episode at a time.
For this episode, this question honestly could change
everything. What if Bobby didn't do what I
just said he shouldn't do? What if he didn't ride his old
piece of shit fat boy? How do you think this episode
plays out differently without that particular issue at hand?
(31:28):
If you're watching on YouTube, comment down below your answer
to that question. If you are listening on a
podcast player, let me know On social media at Belated Binge,
there is an exclusive Facebook group for listeners of this
podcast. There's a link in the show notes
for that if you would like to let me know there.
(31:48):
The best responses might even find their way into a future
episode of this podcast. And if you enjoyed this episode
re binging Sons of Anarchy, go ahead and give me a follow or a
subscribe on whatever app you are using right now.
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
(32:08):
ride, and make sure that you're taking belated binge along for
that ride.
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