For all my skepticism earlier on, I realized halfway through tonight’s episode that I’m enjoying this season of Sons Of Anarchy more than any season since the second. (And possibly the first, although it’s been a while.) There’s a fleetness to the show’s storytelling now which, while often circular and occasionally repetitive, keeps the pace moving, and makes sure each hour goes down easy. Yeah, not every subplot is handled well. I’m still not sure about all the craziness with Carla, and Opie’s death remains a cheap shot—the sort of desperate move writers will make when they have no other plans for a character, and need a push to jump start the narrative. But I dug how Nero and Gemma bonded over Carla’s death, and Jax’s slow turn to the dark side in his increasingly desperate attempts to avenge his fallen friend have been pretty terrific. Solid followthrough can’t entirely make up for so-so plotting, but it can, as they say, turn a seeming mistake into an opportunity, and that’s been happening a lot this fall. Juice’s brief turn as the world’s worst snitch, which appeared to be buried and forgotten at the end of last year, has come back with a vengeance. And Clay’s survival, which at the time came off as a failure to commit, has worked out largely for the best. I thought I’d be sick of him by now, but Ron Perlman remains terrific, and his turn as a cagey, over-the-hill Machiavelli has been a lot of fun to watch.
Plus, the season’s main arc hasn’t built up in a way that requires a perfect landing. It’s clear that Jax and Clay are building to some kind of showdown, much like always, and it’s also clear that Jax is at a moral crossroads. His increasing coldness toward his crew, his willingness to make decisions driven by rage, his apparent belief that the only way to be the true president the club needs is to sell his soul by pieces—all of this is, presumably, going somewhere. But the pressure that defined so much of season four, before it ultimately fizzled in a disappointing finale, is no longer present. On the one hand, that means there’s no huge, building tension to drive us through the final few episodes, no impending doom looming up over the horizon. But on the other hand, it also means there’s no reason to get worried about where all this is headed. It’s easier to enjoy each story moment by moment, like watching Juice’s world unravel yet again, or the expression on Gemma’s face as she invites Clay back into her bed. These are powerful scenes, and they build on history, letting the actors do as much work as the dialogue. I would argue that they don’t really generate suspense, per se, but that’s part of their strength. There’s no cause to worry about what happens next; these particular wrecks are slow-moving and ongoing.
Juice, for example. He’s fucked six ways to Sunday, isn’t he. Jax follows him home, but in a desperate attempt to make up for his sins, Eli sends some cops to Juice’s place to arrest him. Back at the station, Eli tells Juice what happened, and Juice, deciding there’s nothing he can do, goes to Jax to confess his sins. (Which is perfectly in character. After all, if he wasn’t so desperate to stay with the club, he never would’ve gotten into this mess in the first place.) Jax decides to use him, and then Clay tries to win him back, and there is absolutely no way out of this situation that doesn’t involve him betraying someone’s trust. That’s not to mention the fact that Jax already talked over his fate with Chibs and Bobby, and hasn’t told either about the current arrangement. Jax is making hard choices all over these days. He tracked down the man who killed Opie in prison, and in spite of giving his words to the Grim Bastards (another club, friend to the Sons; the killer, Randall Hightower, arranged for protection) that he wouldn’t shoot the guy, had Chibs put one in the back of the ex-convict’s head. Even Bobby’s noticing how much Jax has changed, and how much his actions seem driven by a barely restrained fury, and an inner conviction that leadership is treating everyone outside his family as a tool he can use when it suits him. Which means odds are once again low for Juice’s survival.