SAMCRO is falling a part at the seems. Blood is spilling, bullets are flying and there doesn’t look to be anyway out. As the greed that has filled the club for so long begins to rip it apart, from the inside, we are all left to think, could this be the end of SAMCRO?
As Juice hits the ground from the snapping tree branch, he struggles to untie the chain he placed around his neck at the end of last week’s episode. Just as he gets loose he hears bikes arrive and Chibs and Tig summon him back to the club house for a vote on the presidency of the club. Meanwhile, Tara gets a late night visit from Roosevelt, who found out about the death threat from her boss, who got the letter from Unser.
The next morning at the club house, it’s time to vote. Before entering the chapel, Opie confides in Jax that he believes Bobby is a better choice for the club, while Jax tells him that he believes Clay is putting them in a better position. At the vote, Clay and Tig both vote ‘no’ for new leadership, but once we get to Chibs (who is somewhat of a wild card), a truck smashes into the compound shooting up Teller-Morrow and throwing out a bag. Luckily for SAMCRO, one of the prospects shoots one of the gunmen, who falls out of the truck. However, the other gunner and driver get away.
As the club scrambles to try and fix this situation, they find that the bag that was dropped contains several heads, one of which being the Sons Of Anarchy Arizona Chapter’s President, who was dealing drugs with his club. Happy, Chibs and a once again disgruntled Juice take the intruder who the prospect shot, for an interrogation. Chuck, who is cooking chili for the Charming Gardens fundraiser, finds that one of the heads fell out of the bag and rolled under his car. He quickly takes it and hides it in his shopping bag.
Meanwhile, Piney informs Clay this is his “get out of drugs free card”, he can tell that cartel this wasn’t what he signed up for and get out.
Elsewhere, the police arrive at Teller-Morrow and take over the crime scene. In the kitchen, they allow Chuck to keep cooking the chili for the fundraiser, which unbeknownst to the police, now contains a head.
At the gun warehouse we see Happy has already tortured the intruder, who seems to be from a rival cartel. When Romeo’s number two arrives, he hits the beaten man with Sodium Pentathol, which gets him talking. He confesses that his cartel has a rat in the Mayan crew. Alvarez jumps quickly for blood, because of a suspicion of who the rat is. Quickly, Jax steps in and convinces him to feed him information that the guns are being stored in the warehouse, so that when the opposing cartel comes to take them, the Galindo cartel and The Sons will ambush them.
Back at the club house, the cops request two bowls of the chili and when Gemma arrives and see Chuck’s “special ingredient” she tells him to take the chili to Happy. Meanwhile, Gemma and Tara have a heart to heart, and it’s clear that Tara is now incredibly concerned about her safety and the safety of her children. Though Gemma tells her to stick it out, we can tell if she is convinced.
Clay meets Oswald and convinces him that if he and Clay buy the Gardens it would put Oswald in a great position to run for Mayor in 12 months time when Hail’s term is up and that Clay knows Oswald can save Charming. Meanwhile, Jax rides up to the cabin to check on Piney, which is followed by an incredible scene and one of the shows best.
Piney complains to Jax that he has lost faith in the club, but when Jax joined he saw hope again, the hope that JT had for saving the club. The eloquent speech given by Charlie Hunnam that follows is incredibly well acted. The passion and anger that Hunnam brings to the table as a broken Jax Teller sends shivers down your spine. As Jax leaves the cabin, Piney tells him to find out who his father really was before completely letting his memory go.
At the charity event for Charming Gardens, Clay makes a speech promoting Oswals as the next mayor of Charming and handing over two checks, from himself and Oswald for $75,000, to save Charming Gardens. At the warehouse, the Sons and the Galindo cartel set up and wait for the other cartel arrive to steal the guns. Two vans arrive, and then one leaves. They go outside to open the van, which no longer has a driver, to find the four bodies, which are from the four heads that where dropped at Teller-Morrow earlier. It becomes clear that the man that Alvarez suspected of being the rat, was not, and that this cartel was one step ahead.
As we pull to a close, we see that everyone in SAMCRO is falling apart. At Jax’ house, Tara tells him that she and the kids have to go. She lets him know that a hospital in Oregon are looking to hire her. Jax gives her his blessing, telling her to take the kids until everything calms down and then they can work out what to do next.
Juice goes back up into the woods to get the chain back, that he tried to kill himself with. However, as he’s untangling the chain, Chibs finds him and puts all the pieces together. A broken Chibs throws Juice to the ground calling him a coward, until they both break down.
The episode closes with a heart breaking confrontation. Clay arrives at Piney’s Cabin, and after Piney takes his guns, allows him inside. Clay asks Piney for more time to get out of the cartel deal, but Piney won’t budge, so Clay agrees to call Romeo and end SAMCRO’s relationship with the cartel. As Clay leaves, Piney closes the door and lowers his shotgun but Clay kicks the door in, dropping Piney to the floor.
Clay begins to trash the cabin with Piney on the floor, looking for the letters to no avail. Clay asks if Tara still has the letters, and though Piney plays dumb, Clay tells him that he knows where he got the letters from. Piney asks Clay to leave her out of it, but Clay tells him it’s too late for that and blows a whole right through Piney’s chest with his shotgun.
As Piney slides down the wall on top the floor we see the mass amount of blood splattered against the wall. Clay goes over to the photo of the First Nine on the cabin wall and in Piney’s blood writes “LS”, before the episode closes on the now broken Sons Of Anarchy reaper on the back of Piney’s patch.
With now only a few episodes to go, and the last two running 90 minutes each, we are all waiting with bated breath to see where our favourite motorcycle club will end up. As Jax tells Piney in the cabin, JT was right “this club has lost its way”, but will he be the one to save it, or will his family come first? Can Jax find a compromise between the two? Will Clay be caught for the deaths of Piney and JT? Will Tara survive Clay’s vendetta to have her killed?
Sadly we don’t have any of those answers, but I’m sure that in the next four weeks, we will. As Sons Of Anarchy, which wrapped filming of the four season just this week, finishes off, we know one thing for sure, it will never be the same again.
