It’s getting late, but I wanted to get some quick thoughts up on last night’s Sons of Anarchy before it got away from me. Those thoughts, after the jump.
Oswald said in best in his conversation with Clay: SAMCRO is wasting no time after being released from prison. And not only are they getting right back to business, they’re also getting in deeper and more dangerously than they ever have. Fearing the end of his days as club president, and wanting to bank a big payday before he goes, Clay has brokered a deal with the Mexican cartel to mule cocaine through Charming. Since it breaks one of the club’s biggest rules, he declines to tell them about it beforehand, but once you make a deal with the cartel, there’s essentially no going back. And when Danny Trejo’s cartel member saves Jax and Opie from the Russians, there’s absolutely no going back.
As we saw in season two, internal conflict for SAMCRO is where Sons really excels, and it looks like we’re in for a hell of a conflict here. And now the twist is that Jax, for as much as he disagrees with his decision, needs to be on Clay’s side so he can get out of the club without issue when the time comes. Of course, it will be easier said than done, but watching Jax and Clay work together while we know it’s tearing them apart will surely be fun to watch.
The club’s hit-the-ground-running approach post-prison has also attracted the increased attention of the local officials. Mayor Hale, who has always had it out for SAMCRO, is even more upset now that their violence has endangered his latest real estate development, and he sets Roosevelt on the case. It was clear last week that the new sheriff wouldn’t be friendly a la Unser, but this week it was made even more apparent that Roosevelt is not going to tolerate any messing around in Charming. Potter’s approach is probably even more interesting, though, even if there are fewer fire axes involved. Ray McKinnon plays him with such an off-putting certainty, and it’s nice to see a federal agent who recognizes what a scam the local government is, without devolving into the same federal/local headbutting trope we’ve seen a million times.
The internal conflict is bubbling up, there are plenty of interesting external pressures, and the season has only just begun. As long as the cartel doesn’t become the new IRA and force SAMCRO to become pawns in a bigger scheme outside of their control, things are looking good for the rest of season four.
Bits & Pieces:
- I hope they don’t string along the John Teller secret much longer. I like the idea that Tara knows before Jax (and that Gemma and Clay know she knows, with varying degrees of apprehension about that), but since it seems fairly clear at this point that the secret is that JT’s death was caused by his wife and her new lover, it probably shouldn’t be something they keep drawing out.
- Unser spent the episode hanging around the shop and the clubhouse. I guess he could be a regular along the same lines as Juice or Chibs, only used in small doses when necessary, but I hope Dayton Callie gets more to do than that.
That’s all for this week. Share your own thoughts on “Booster” in the comments section below!
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