Sons Of Anarchy Review: “Some Strange Eruption” (Season 7, Episode 5)

Let’s take a a moment to talk about what it means that Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) has not only taken a liking to the new Sheriff, but has taken a “liking” to the new Sheriff. Even though she’s a female, SAMCRO doesn’t discriminate, and refers to her by her last name, Jarry. At the close of last week’s episode, Chibs offered to give Althea (Annabeth Gish) a ride home after the explosion she witnessed at the ice cream parlor, and then he rode her home (pun intended). That by itself doesn’t immediately scream ‘problem,’ but their encounter outside of he crime scene later on does.

It’s not out of the ordinary to see a female character on Sons of Anarchy worried about her man’s safety, it’s actually pretty commonplace. But when that female is a law enforcement agent, it makes things overtly complicated. The MC has enough things to worry about at this moment without jumping into bed, literally, with the person in charge of shutting you down – despite her personal feelings on the matter. This interloping between the outlaw and the law has ‘tragic ending’ written all over it. As do so many other recent events.

It is astonishing that none of the club members have openly speculated about the potential of one of their own being the rat. There’s been no sign of Jury (Michael Shamus Wiles) since his emotional phone call with Bobby (Mark Boone Junior) that left viewers to ponder the meaning of his reaction to the death of a supposed “nobody.” The club might not have picked up on there being a connection between him and the deceased, but the fact that Bobby was so easily fooled when no one watching that was, is just plain wrong.

Although most of the major players were on the same page for once, going after Lin, the things happening in the background carried quite a bit of weight on tonight’s episode. First off, we have little Abel, who is clearly showing signs of needing some serious attention. He took what Jax said to a different level when he picked up a hammer in an attempt to protect his brother from whomever might wish him harm. On one hand it’s kind of adorable that this five-year old wants to keep his baby brother safe, but the underlying issue with that is that the violence around him is starting to take its toll on how he approaches situations. Maybe this is something that Courtney Love’s character can help with when he finally makes it back to school.

The elephant in the room, however, is how unstable Juice (Theo Rossi) has become – which lead us to a brilliant standoff between him and Gemma (Katey Sagal) at the end of the episode. There was always this off chance that Gemma would off Juice and eliminate any proof that she was responsible for Tara’s death, but ultimately, that would mean she really doesn’t have a heart. It looked like she was actually going to go through with her plan a – get Juice safely out of town and hidden, until she got to the crossroads and made a conscious choice to change gears. Juice might not be great alone, but at least he would have been alive if she had followed through. Unfortunately, since her and Nero (Jimmy Smits) are so good at keeping their secrets, she makes a mistake that might cost her her own life.

Sutter delivered another incredible episode of Sons of Anarchy tonight. With no time to waste, him and his team are pulling out all the stops to give viewers the final season that they deserve. “Some Strange Eruptions” left off with a cliffhanger that came without much warning and hopefully will resolve itself just as fast. It’s Juice vs. Gemma now, and the stakes have never been higher.