Sons Of Anarchy Review: “Toad’s Wild Ride” (Season 5, Episode 7)

First Clay hires men to kidnap Tara and they end up putting her career at risk and now her mother-in-law, who she was just starting to come around to, has unwittingly inflicted what looks to be extreme (and potentially fatal) bodily harm on one of the children she’d begun to trust her with again.

No matter how Gemma spins it to try and remove blame from herself, with this one incident she might’ve finally distanced herself permanently from her son, Tara, and one or both of her grandchildren (depending on whether or not Abel survives). If you’re Tara, how can you forgive her? Worse yet, if you’re Jax, who earlier told her “I don’t even know you,” one would think the love he claims to have for her will now be placed on shaky ground.

Which sets up further self-destructive behavior on the part of Gemma, a character who’s become a punchline of sorts. She did what? Slept with another strange man, you say? And it had negative consequences? Oh, Gemma. You can tell who’s wife she is because Sutter seems determined to keep her in a perpetually broken state so she’s constantly getting opportunities for meaty and flashy actressing.

Now onto this week’s other schemer, the one who never stops scheming, Clay. When he put that bullet in the head of one of the Nomads that came after Unser, I was unclear on his motivation. But, like earlier when he quickly and finally put to bed the question of what Clay’s aim really is, Sutter doesn’t leave the viewer pondering this particular question for long.

Whether killing them was the plan from the jump, it’s clear he saw an opportunity to work himself back into Unser’s good graces and took it. If this was him, then why would he put a bullet in one of their skulls? Unser’s still dubious of his denials of involvement, but Clay’s managed to at least cast some doubt on his suspicions.

That leaves him with his two biggest enemies, Jax and Unser, both unsure of whether or not it actually is him behind the attacks. Each of them still harbors their suspicions, no doubt, but he’s sure keeping them guessing.

Except he didn’t take into account that Juice, long now his loyal servant, would begin to suspect him of something as he does this week. With Clay’s openness to killing anyone and everyone for personal gain, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if he took Juice out in the same manner as Piney. If he learned of Juice’s black father, who knows how he might try and spin that with the club seeing the Blacks as potentially being behind the invasions? It would be a stretch, and I don’t know if the club would buy it, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying.

Speaking of Piney’s death at Clay’s hands, are we going to have to wait till the finale for the vote on that to finally take place? One would think the club would have more urgency when it comes to deciding on the fate of the man who murdered one of their own. Except this is Sons of Anarchy, lover of the status quo and of letting tension fester until it’s gotten old and rotten, so I take it that one would think wrong.