Sons Of Anarchy Review: “Toil And Till” (Season 7, Episode 2)

I love that the MC removes their vests before engaging in any shady off-the-books activity. It’s kind of like when a Latin fraternity takes off their letters before they drink. Everyone still knows it’s them, but what the hell, it’s tradition. When the Sons derailed Lin’s plans, they didn’t even have the decency to wear ski masks to hide their identity. I suppose that since they planned to kill everyone at the drug-gun exchange it didn’t really matter, but at least there would have been the appearance that they cared about keeping this bit of information a secret.

And keeping with the theme of saving face, there’s something extremely affectionate about Gemma still referring to Wendy (Drea de Matteo) as “The Junkie” even now that she’s proven herself to be the sane one. Gemma has never been the soft and cuddly type, despite how often her maternal instincts get the best of her. She just radiates harshness. Point blank. Even when she was offering Juice a much needed lifeline in the form of a way out of town and a discreet place to hide, she did so with a brisk demeanor. Viewers have seen chinks in her armor over the last six seasons, but she still manages to maintain this facade of being untouchable – even if no one is buying what she’s selling any longer.

One of the most telling things about each episode of Sons of Anarchy is the beginning or ending montage. There isn’t usually a lot of dialogue in these scenes, but they either preview what’s coming or the current mental state of the characters. At the conclusion of “Toil and Till,” you’ll notice the desperate reaction that Jury (Michael Shamus Wiles) has when he finds the bodies of the ‘local muscle.’ Best guess is that he didn’t find them through his whore, like he told Jax.

There’s a lot of theories that might be floating around social media right now, but if I had to weigh-in, I’m going to assume the young man in his arms is a relative, maybe even his son. And without going too far down the rabbit hole with this assumption, this is going to put a wrench in Jax’s plans to use these guys as scapegoats. Either Jury is going to blow the lid off of SAMCRO orchestrating the hit to Lin himself, or use that shotgun to make this right. In hindsight, Jax may have wanted to make sure his hired help was less attached to the club before using them as pawns.

Let us know how you think this is going to effect Jax’s plans, and all your other thoughts on tonight’s episode of Sons of Anarchy in the comments section below!