Sons Of Anarchy Review – Stolen Huffy (Season 5, Episode 4)

October 3, 2012 Travis Smith 4 Comments

SoA 504 0362 FULL Sons Of Anarchy Review Stolen Huffy (Season 5, Episode 4)

Thus far this season, my main complaint has been that Sons of Anarchy felt as if it was at a standstill, with a number of its storylines turning cyclically and never reaching (or so much as nearing) a resolution. More than a couple times I found myself wondering out loud where this or that would go and if it would happen anytime soon. It’s apparent Sutter likes the slow burn, letting his characters stay as long over the heat as the meat my dad grills. But, by the time he’s taken them out of the fire they’re virtually unrecognizable; blackened char more akin to hockey pucks that my dad has the gall to call hamburgers.

The reason behind this is pretty apparent if one stops to think about it. Sutter compared Sons of Anarchy to a soap opera, and never-ending tension is one of the things it deals in. No sooner is one thread resolved than another couple are spooled out. That seems to be his approach here, weaving enough story threads together to make a tapestry and playing each of those strings, as if they were a violin. Eventually they snap and must be replaced with new ones.

To some, that makes for compelling television, ensuring there’s never a dull moment. To others, myself included, it results in a perceived lack of payoff. For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction, except Sutter takes his time letting things balance out and as a result subjects his viewers to a waiting game that often lasts longer than it should.

Take things between Jax and Clay, for instance. Things seemed to be coming to a head last season, ready to go out on a high note, but Sutter instead decided to keep on playing that particular chord despite the fact that the fat lady had already sung and it was just him up there. Encore, the viewer could almost hear him say, a request I (as well as many other viewers) never would have made myself.

Because of that infuriating tendency of his, it’s a revelation to see him shift out of neutral and get those moving parts of his actually moving, as he does in this episode. Sutter was quoted in an earlier article as saying Opie’s death would have a great effect on the remaining episodes of this season and “Stolen Huffy” put those claims into practice.

Before I delve into the specifics of how that was done I must first comment on Opie’s sendoff. Now, I’ve called Sutter out in the past for his on-the-nose storytelling, the match-cut between Jax and Tara and John and Gemma being a perfect example, so one might expect more of the same from me this week.

By setting Opie’s coffin where he did, atop the table that Opie had refused to sit at at Jax’s side just a couple episodes prior, it’s clear the message Sutter is trying to send. Opie was a martyr for the club and it was the club that brought him down. Prior to his death, the club was a group divided, but his body literally fills in the gaps between them, touching every last club member. Nothing made this more apparent than the turnout for his wake, enough to fill the entire clubhouse.

Honestly, anything else would have felt wrong. Opie was beloved not just by the fans but his fellow characters as well. He was, as I’ve said before, the moral center of the show, the last remaining character to go through life uncorrupted, relatively speaking. Whereas the deaths of other characters felt almost justifiable, his was an unforgivable mistake, a wrong that must be righted. Jax realizes this, and so too does everyone else surrounding him.

It’s why the club tries to call for the heads of his murderers. With them having to kowtow to Pope, the orchestrator of it all, they feel as if there’s little recourse left. Retribution must be taken, and if not on Pope, Opie’s real murderer, then the ones that actually swung the pipes.

Knowing his club needs to be reigned in for their own good though, now more than ever, Jax is quick to shoot that particular proposition down. But that won’t stop him from enacting vengeance in his own way, which is to bring down the guard who threw Opie into that room to die. No headway was made on that this week, but it had to be in the back of Jax’s mind as he sat at that table attempting to regain order.

An attempt with a reach extending past that table and the clubhouse, as his discussion with Nero proves. Like I, and many others, thought, Jax sees Nero’s business as a safe(r) alternative to drugs and guns. Forget the fact that his place of business just got busted, and his employees thrown in jail, and not because of Gemma as was originally thought. At least all of them made it out alive and not at all the worse for wear.

Continue reading on the next page…

Bob Kelly

Apprently Mr. Smith is a true American. He thinks a story should be told like a McDonalds hamburger is cooked. Some good things take time to develop. Which means you have to pay attention and remember whats going on.
- Travis Smith
  
  Breaking Bad is my favorite currently running show, a show known for taking its time, so I’m all for a slow burn if done effectively. But when it doesn’t seem natural, when the show seems to be spinning its wheels, trotting out the more or less the same rehashed arguments time and time again, as Sutter has done with Tara’s interactions with both Gemma and Wendy, that’s when I take issue. There should be a never-ending push towards an end-game, but with Sons of Anarchy it seems the characters sometimes just bicker back and forth accomplishing nothing much. Tara and Wendy’s interactions are the best example of this as all each of them did was stick to the same arguments and give no ground one way or the other. It was like two boulders of equal size bashing together, and the only way it could stop is for one of them to finally break under the pressure of the repeated impacts. If that were to be played out in a slightly more short-term manner, or if it wasn’t as much of a focus as it’s been made to be, that could be compelling and leave the viewer wondering who it will be that finally gives. In this case, though, it was me, the viewer, whose will was the first to give way because I’d grown tired of seeing them get nowhere fast, for so long, and on such a regular basis. Even when Tara concedes ground to Wendy, trying to convince Jax to tell Abel about her, it’s apparently short-lived as she’s right back to acting as if Wendy is still nothing more than Queen Bitch when Gemma brings up that she’d come by the clubhouse. I’ve been patient, but my patience only goes so far, and if the two of them are back to business-as-usual next week, my patience, and my interest in their storyline, is done. I think that’s fair enough.
  
  I also think it’s fair to say that the continuation of the storyline between Jax and Clay felt at least a tad contrived. I understand his reluctance to get rid of Clay, as his character is one of the show’s strongest, his conflicts with Jax the backbone of the show, and Ron Perlman is brilliant in the role. However, as I’ve said before, if you do not plan to go through with a death, don’t build up to it as if it’s inevitable and then wimp out at the last moment, let alone with a deus ex machina the likes of this whole CIA situation. Prior to last season, I had no problem at all with him delaying what fans knew would come eventually, which is Jax finding out what kind of man Clay really is and going after him. “Some good things take time to develop,” as you put it. But then he ramped things up, accelerating the process, only to bring it right back to a standstill in a rather disappointing fashion, by using a plot contrivance to make Clay’s continued existence a necessity. Now all that tension that was rising between the two of them seems to have, in large part, evaporated. Jax doesn’t like the current situation, and is actively looking for a way out of it, but Clay barely factors in. Early on in the premier, Jax’s underlying hatred for the man was palpable in his conversations with Clay. Now, however, it’s taken a backseat to everything else Sutter has in play when it should be the focus, no matter how much is going on. We get constant confrontations between Tara, Gemma, and Wendy, but next to none between Jax and Clay. Despite my noted displeasure with how last season ended, I looked forward to seeing how things would play out with Jax and Opie being forced to not just not kill Clay, but to keep him alive. Except now Opie’s dead, Jax’s attention is on avenging his death (and using it to make things better), and Clay is (apparently) busy planning home invasions, playing head games with Gemma, and waiting for a vote concerning his murdering Piney that looks to have been put off indefinitely at this point.
  
  Believe it or not, I watch this show for the characters. If there wasn’t a single shootout or the like the whole season, or if there was no big bad, I would be more than happy so long as the relationships they have with one another were handled well enough. Yet, as the season wears on, there seems to be less and less of these characters, the ones we’ve grown to know and (to some extent) love having real interactions. When we do get it, it oftentimes comes in the form of what I talked about, all too familiar arguments that go pretty much nowhere, for all intents and purposes. Occasionally, there is a moment when that’s not the case, where you get a strong and compelling interaction between characters, such as Jax’s last real conversation with Opie, but I wish there were more of them. Again, isn’t that not fair?
  
  Sons of Anarchy is at its best when it’s allowed to be what it is, or at least was, at its core: a character drama. Everything else is, or should be, for show. When the plot ramps up, taking the characters out of their element, out of Charming, out of their personal dramas, it loses more than a little of its luster, at least in my opinion. Hopefully that made sense and you can see where it is I’m coming from.
- Travis Smith
  
  P.S. I also feel I should mention that my interest in this whole storyline involving Wendy trying to insert herself back into Abel’s life was limited to begin with. I just don’t like her as a character because all she’s been so far is that woman who shows up frequently to the immense displeasure of Tara, Gemma, and Jax. Though she says she’s reformed herself, and at one point argues that the courts would find her a more fit mother of Abel than Tara, we’ve seen little to reaffirm that notion thus far. Plus, what makes her arguments with Tara especially infuriating is that she keeps threatening to take her to court, just lording it over her the whole time as if Tara should somehow be afraid, and yet she never actually does anything. Clearly, they’re empty threats, and if that’s the route they want to go then I’m okay with that. But have someone call her out on her complete inaction, at least. Tara seemed to do this to a certain extent in this week’s episode, daring her to go through with it, but she should have realized there was nothing to what Wendy was saying long ago and said so to her face.
- Travis Jarrod Smith
  
  Breaking Bad is my favorite currently running show, a show known for taking its time, so I’m all for a slow burn if done effectively. But when it doesn’t seem natural, when the show seems to be spinning its wheels, trotting out the more or less the same rehashed arguments time and time again, as Sutter has done with Tara’s interactions with both Gemma and Wendy, that’s when I take issue. There should be a never-ending push towards an end-game, but with Sons of Anarchy it seems the characters sometimes just bicker back and forth accomplishing nothing much. Tara and Wendy’s interactions are the best example of this as all each of them did was stick to the same arguments and give no ground one way or the other. It was like two boulders of equal size bashing together, and the only way it could stop is for one of them to finally break under the pressure of the repeated impacts. If that were to be played out in a slightly more short-term manner, or if it wasn’t as much of a focus as it’s been made to be, that could be compelling and leave the viewer wondering who it will be that finally gives. In this case, though, it was me, the viewer, whose will was the first to give way because I’d grown tired of seeing them get nowhere fast, for so long, and on such a regular basis. Even when Tara concedes ground to Wendy, trying to convince Jax to tell Abel about her, it’s apparently short-lived as she’s right back to acting as if Wendy is still nothing more than Queen Bitch when Gemma brings up that she’d come by the clubhouse. I’ve been patient, but my patience only goes so far, and if the two of them are back to business-as-usual next week, my patience, and my interest in their storyline, is done. I think that’s fair enough.
  
  I also think it’s fair to say that the continuation of the storyline between Jax and Clay felt at least a tad contrived. I understand his reluctance to get rid of Clay, as his character is one of the show’s strongest, his conflicts with Jax the backbone of the show, and Ron Perlman is brilliant in the role. However, as I’ve said before, if you do not plan to go through with a death, don’t build up to it as if it’s inevitable and then wimp out at the last moment, let alone with a deus ex machina the likes of this whole CIA situation. Prior to last season, I had no problem at all with him delaying what fans knew would come eventually, which is Jax finding out what kind of man Clay really is and going after him. “Some good things take time to develop,” as you put it. But then he ramped things up, accelerating the process, only to bring it right back to a standstill in a rather disappointing fashion, by using a plot contrivance to make Clay’s continued existence a necessity. Now all that tension that was rising between the two of them seems to have, in large part, evaporated. Jax doesn’t like the current situation, and is actively looking for a way out of it, but Clay barely factors in. Early on in the premier, Jax’s underlying hatred for the man was palpable in his conversations with Clay. Now, however, it’s taken a backseat to everything else Sutter has in play when it should be the focus, no matter how much is going on. We get constant confrontations between Tara, Gemma, and Wendy, but next to none between Jax and Clay. Despite my noted displeasure with how last season ended, I looked forward to seeing how things would play out with Jax and Opie being forced to not just not kill Clay, but to keep him alive. Except now Opie’s dead, Jax’s attention is on avenging his death (and using it to make things better), and Clay is (apparently) busy planning home invasions, playing head games with Gemma, and waiting for a vote concerning his murdering Piney that looks to have been put off indefinitely at this point.
  
  Believe it or not, I watch this show for the characters. If there wasn’t a single shootout or the like the whole season, or if there was no big bad, I would be more than happy so long as the relationships they have with one another were handled well enough. Yet, as the season wears on, there seems to be less and less of these characters, the ones we’ve grown to know and (to some extent) love having real interactions. When we do get it, it oftentimes comes in the form of what I talked about, all too familiar arguments that go pretty much nowhere, for all intents and purposes. Occasionally, there is a moment when that’s not the case, where you get a strong and compelling interaction between characters, such as Jax’s last real conversation with Opie, but I wish there were more of them. Again, isn’t that not fair?
  
  Sons of Anarchy is at its best when it’s allowed to be what it is, or at least was, at its core: a character drama. Everything else is, or should be, for show. When the plot ramps up, taking the characters out of their element, out of Charming, out of their personal dramas, it loses more than a little of its luster, at least in my opinion. Hopefully that made sense and you can see where it is I’m coming from.
  
  P.S. I also feel I should mention that my interest in this whole storyline involving Wendy trying to insert herself back into Abel’s life was limited to begin with. I just don’t like her as a character because all she’s been so far is that woman who shows up frequently to the immense displeasure of Tara, Gemma, and Jax. Though she says she’s reformed herself, and at one point argues that the court would find her a more fit mother of Abel than Tara, we’ve seen little to reaffirm that notion thus far.
  
  Plus, what makes her arguments with Tara especially infuriating is that she keeps threatening to take her to court, just lording it over her the whole time as if Tara should be somehow afraid, and yet she never actually does anything. Clearly, they’re empty threats, and if that’s the route they want to go then I’m okay with that. But have someone call her out on her complete inaction, at least. Tara seemed to do this to a certain extent in this week’s episode, daring her to go through with it, but she should have realized there was nothing to what Wendy was saying long ago and said so to her face directly.