But if you remain a steadfast opponent of his choice to off Opie, Sutter has a few more words for you that he hopes will sway you towards his way of thinking.
What I would say to them is that yes, it’s incredibly sad, but the death of Opie will color the rest of the episodes for the rest of the series. It’s not a death that will happen in vain.
Jax will be greatly influenced by the death of Opie, and perhaps that loss, that emptiness, will color him throughout the rest of the season.
On shows such as this, with stakes so high, death is an expected byproduct and is one of the few things that will break through even the thick veneers that men like the Sons of Anarchy have over their hearts protecting them.
Furthermore, many people, myself included, have been clamoring for Sutter to stop playing it safe and shake things up, and he’s done that in grand fashion. Outside of Clay, Tara, or Gemma, there’s not a single character whose death would have a more long-lasting and and long-reaching impact. It won’t just affect Jax. He’s obviously taking it the hardest, having become hardened and almost apathetic as a result, but Sutter’s words lead me to believe there won’t be a character on this show that won’t affected by it in at least some tangential fashion.
Personally, I anxiously await when Jax learns that Opie wouldn’t have even been there were it not for Clay. It already takes everything Jax has to restrain himself from finishing the job Opie started when he shot Clay. Could this be his tipping point, the one that makes him stop playing the diplomat and give in to his emotions? How much longer can he sit back and watch people die as a direct result of Clay’s actions? If not for Clay, they wouldn’t even have gotten into drug-running in the first place, meaning that Opie being beaten to death, Tig’s daughter being burned alive, etc. all traces directly back to him.
Which begs the following question. How much blood can get on Clay’s hands before he drowns in it?
