The Televangelist: ‘Sons of Anarchy,’ Season 4, Ep. 13

Wherein Gemma leaves her Gertrude roots behind and becomes Lady MacBeth

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  • FX
  • My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.



“Tell me you love me.”

Was there anything more chilling last night than Tara’s stone-cold recitation of that line? Twice? “To Be (Act 1)” illustrated how, as Gemma said (with utter irony) that “secrets are killers.” No one knows that better than Gemma, who has always reminded me of that quote from Mean Girls, “her hair is so big because it’s full of secrets!” SAMCRO also seems to have worse communication issues than the cast of “Lost,” who routinely ran around on a very confusing island not asking questions or bothering to volunteer pertinent information. It shows how splintered SAMCRO has become that Jax doesn’t seem to trust anyone with any knowledge, nor does he accept any that’s given to him (and that which he does is not the whole truth). When Opie tells Jax the truth, Jax says “I will find out the truth!” When Gemma tells Jax the “truth” about JT (omitting her own part in it, of course), Jax accepts it whole-hog and goes on a vigilante mission which - note! - he prevented Opie from doing at the beginning of the episode. If it is a club issue (which, it is and was, both for what Opie suffered as well as Jax), then the club should have been informed. At the very least, don’t pin it on the Niners. It has taken four seasons to get SAMCRO on decent terms with the Niners and Mayans, and with one very questionable omission on Jax’s part, Tig is pushed into a homicidal frenzy against them. The look on Laroy’s face during the chase scene tells it all. This is not over, and whatever else happens with SAMCRO this season, they will have the Niners to contend with in the next.

But as for this season, there’s still so much to come. The meet with the Irish and cartel is still in motion. For those who haven’t cared as much about the Feds/jail/Gallindo/IRA this season, there’s suddenly a hint of an interesting twist (a la Season Three). When Romeo calls for intel regarding Otto, he is told there was no turncoating on his part. It would appear Romeo’s contact is an associate of Linc Potter. Once you start side-eyeing Romeo’s organization, your gaze will undoubtedly fall upon his right-hand man Luis Torres. Is Torres a Federal agent? If so, the deal between the cartel and the Irish just got a lot more interesting. It would take a pretty neat trick to somehow get Bobby and Juice off the hook, too, but it’s not out of the question. Sutter tweeted this week that the finale would be “a thick, intense quieter finish to a very, very noisy season. i promise, no cliffhangers” sic. I think it’s reasonable to assume that to start next season, SAMCRO will return to just an MC, without the gun and drug connections. And that, to me, may be the most interesting season of all.

Of course, all of this is based on whether there will be a SAMCRO, or anything like what we know of it today. The club is in complete chaos. Some members are incarcerated, some are going on killing sprees, others are getting killed, and Jax is at home highlighting notes while his de facto wife and his mother are engaged in a game of master manipulation. Tara and Tig really went off the rails last night, but whereas Tig did nothing but cause more trouble for the club, Tara has learned “what Gemma taught me” and allowed Jax to know the truth about Clay via Gemma before providing him with the means to end him. What’s more, she trumped Gemma’s ploy to keep Jax in Charming by holding over her the information of Gemma’s involvement (or at least knowledge) in JT’s death, and her affair with Clay.