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Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer
When Unser was holding the gun in this episode and realized that there was no way out of this for any of them, I kind of wanted him to blow his own brains out.

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JazzFlight
Apr 29, 2006

Oooooooooooh!

Snak posted:

When Unser was holding the gun in this episode and realized that there was no way out of this for any of them, I kind of wanted him to blow his own brains out.
That might have worked better since we wouldn't have had the weird "non-reaction" that the actors gave right after Jax shot him.

Where was the emotion this episode? Gemma's death would have worked so much better if she and Jax were as wound up as he was when Juice told him about Tara.

burnishedfume
Mar 8, 2011

You really are a louse...

Snak posted:

Yeah, I thought when Nero and Jax were both crying about poo poo that Jax was actually making a character breakthrough, but apparently Sutter saw that as "Jax is torn between emotional weakness and doling out justice"

I thought Jax was literally going to be like "ever since Clay I've been trying to solve problems with bullets, but now the bodies are piled so high I don't think anyone can ever get to the bottom of it. All we can do now is stop adding to the pile, try to stay whole. It's time to get SAM CRO outta guns"

Having the episode end with a couple of mass shootings also really undersold any sort of growth or development from the gang/Jax. I get that not every show needs a redemption arc and Jax of all people really doesn't deserve one, but it doesn't feel like the show realizes Jax is a horrible person who didn't learn a thing from how badly he hosed over his entire family, the city he brought a gang war to, the club itself, etc. It's like you said where it just feels like the tension isn't "realizing how bad he hosed over everyone he cares about and more VS not giving a poo poo, letting the bodies pile up to get his revenge in before he goes" but instead "Be a weak emotional person VS be a manly man and do what has to be done".

81sidewinder
Sep 8, 2014

Buying stocks on the day of the crash

hatelull posted:

From what I get, Jax was still bitter from the whole "you betrayed me thing" that went down last season. Also, if you look at it from a strict moral compass "you reap what you sow" dude shot a sheriff in the back and then killed a random innocent civilian. Also, let's not forget the other random SoA dude he shot over the heroin in the CIA season, (and then tried to hang himself because of it). The dude has been going down this road since he stopped being idiot pot smoking hacker biker and got labeled as "the one who doesn't belong." Even if he lived, he was still stuck in prison getting raped by Marilyn Manson (or the Chinese).

He might have gotten a pass on all of that poo poo after Lin, we really don't know. Jax wanted juice dead after Juice admitted to helping Gemma. I think this was pretty clear after Juice and Jax's scene in the prison.

GaussianCopula
Jun 5, 2011
Jews fleeing the Holocaust are not in any way comparable to North Africans, who don't flee genocide but want to enjoy the social welfare systems of Northern Europe.
Why do all these criminals feel like Jax is their Messiah and whatever the great Jax Teller tells them about their trade has to be the one truth? And why are all the other (lesser) members of SAMCRO present when Jax negotiates with the heads of the other gangs?

And than the completly stupid quests:

Main objective: make deal between Irish and Mayans happen.

Quest 1: Kill Irish guy a for the IRA
Subquest 1: Ask around for help
Subquest 2: The blacks will help you if you do them a favor - Kill the chinese.

It's like whenever SAMCRO needs something, the person they need it from will certainly have a little task (generally: kill someone) for them to fullfil.

Grizzled Patriarch
Mar 27, 2014

These dentures won't stop me from tearing out jugulars in Thunderdome.



So did Jax limp again at any other point in this episode or did his leg fall sleep while setting up a shot and they just decided to roll with it? I assume there is some reason for bringing it up, but I don't remember that being an issue before that very moment and after seeing that bookshelf gif I would not be surprised at all if they just said "gently caress it" and didn't do another take.

Unser's death was such a let-down, especially since he actually had the potential to be a pretty tragic figure if they didn't just rewire his character every time it was convenient to the plot. Confronting what Gemma has done after like 30 years of carrying the torch printer for her, realizing that he wasted his entire adult life for a family that doesn't really give a poo poo about him, and now he truly has nothing left. There's some powerful scenes to be mined from that. Instead we got...this.

And while they wrung all of the tension out of Gemma's death scene, I'm just glad they finally got rid of her, because I just knew she was going to make it all the way through. Hated that they tried to squeeze in a mini redemption arc, but eh, better than nothing I guess.

81sidewinder
Sep 8, 2014

Buying stocks on the day of the crash

GaussianCopula posted:

Why do all these criminals feel like Jax is their Messiah and whatever the great Jax Teller tells them about their trade has to be the one truth? And why are all the other (lesser) members of SAMCRO present when Jax negotiates with the heads of the other gangs?

The show keeps telling us that Everyone Loves Jax, but never really shows us why.

GaussianCopula posted:

And than the completly stupid quests:

Main objective: make deal between Irish and Mayans happen.

Quest 1: Kill Irish guy a for the IRA
Subquest 1: Ask around for help
Subquest 2: The blacks will help you if you do them a favor - Kill the chinese.

It's like whenever SAMCRO needs something, the person they need it from will certainly have a little task (generally: kill someone) for them to fullfil.

Someone ITT compared it to Grand Theft Auto, and I think that analogy is spot on.

Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer

GaussianCopula posted:

Why do all these criminals feel like Jax is their Messiah and whatever the great Jax Teller tells them about their trade has to be the one truth? And why are all the other (lesser) members of SAMCRO present when Jax negotiates with the heads of the other gangs?

And than the completly stupid quests:

Main objective: make deal between Irish and Mayans happen.

Quest 1: Kill Irish guy a for the IRA
Subquest 1: Ask around for help
Subquest 2: The blacks will help you if you do them a favor - Kill the chinese.

It's like whenever SAMCRO needs something, the person they need it from will certainly have a little task (generally: kill someone) for them to fullfil.

Also, I don't understand why any of the other gangs give a gently caress about SAMCRO. They are like "the Chinese are weak, but still have some street presence we need to clean up..." SAMCRO has FOUR GUYS. Alvarez should be like "Respect and all, be we are just waiting for SAMCRO to fold so we can expand and clean up the mess"

SAMCRO has only been half a dozen idiots all season, running around causing mass chaos and destabilizing the area, and all the other gangs "have their back" for some reason rather than just going "gently caress you assholes" and killing them. Like, in Sutter's brain, SAMCRO is this irreplacable pipeline of Irish guns, but when's the last time we saw them get a shipment or distribute anything. By all the violence going on, there seem to be plenty of guns here, and almost all the other gangs deal primarily in drugs or prostitution. They don't need SAMCRO for anything and SAMCRO is ruining everything. There is zero reason that anyone should want to be anywhere near SAMCRO while it's self-destructing. I would say "history", but everyone is murdering people that mean way more to them than members of some other gang.

It's literally white exceptionalism. All the other gangs are weak because they only have a few dozen members, but SAMCRO is a power player because they're the only local white gang. Oh except the AB. Why hasn't the AB just been like "hey SAMCRO, we're taking all your turf because you are a disgrace to organized crime and also race traitors"

Like, Juice gets Tully to kill him (rather than killing himself) because if Tully doesn't, it will weaken Tully's relationship with the MC. Think about that for a moment... what has the MC actually done for Tully? In theory it brokered some kind of deal for heroin distribution, but like, does that really exist? We never see it, and Jax renegotiates distribution literally every time he sits down at a table. Is that something that THE ARYAN BROTHERHOOD, one of the largest and most powerful prison gangs there is couldn't do without JAX TELLER?

hatelull
Oct 29, 2004

Grizzled Patriarch posted:

So did Jax limp again at any other point in this episode or did his leg fall sleep while setting up a shot and they just decided to roll with it? I assume there is some reason for bringing it up, but I don't remember that being an issue before that very moment and after seeing that bookshelf gif I would not be surprised at all if they just said "gently caress it" and didn't do another take.

I want to say he can been limping in a few shots while walking from his bike, and walking back from talking to Unser under the stairs. They never really addressed it, other than right when he woke up so I'm wondering if he injured it at some point in time during the filming of that episode and they just reshot that scene to make it work?

Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer

hatelull posted:

I want to say he can been limping in a few shots while walking from his bike, and walking back from talking to Unser under the stairs. They never really addressed it, other than right when he woke up so I'm wondering if he injured it at some point in time during the filming of that episode and they just reshot that scene to make it work?

I feel like it's some bullshit lady-macbeth/conscience-of-the-king bullshit OR it's the reason he will survive his attempt to sacrifice himself. Like he'll be driving straight into an oncoming semi, and then he'll lose control of his bike cause of his dumb leg and not die.

Fetus Tree
Feb 2, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 2 years!

hatelull posted:

I'm wondering if he injured it at some point in time during the filming of that episode and they just reshot that scene to make it work?

wouldnt matter if he did, last week tig got gut shot by a scatter gun

Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer

Fetus Tree posted:

wouldnt matter if he did, last week tig got gut shot by a scatter gun

oh yeah. I forgot about that.

hatelull
Oct 29, 2004

Fetus Tree posted:

wouldnt matter if he did, last week tig got gut shot by a scatter gun

Nah, not in the context of the script. The way he limps for most of the scenes, but it's only addressed at the very beginning and not spoke of again (and even then it's very much a "what's that?" "i don't know, I'm fine" conversation) makes wonder if Hunnam didn't injure himself at some point and they reshot the first scene to make it work.

JazzFlight
Apr 29, 2006

Oooooooooooh!

hatelull posted:

Nah, not in the context of the script. The way he limps for most of the scenes, but it's only addressed at the very beginning and not spoke of again (and even then it's very much a "what's that?" "i don't know, I'm fine" conversation) makes wonder if Hunnam didn't injure himself at some point and they reshot the first scene to make it work.
Hahaha, if mentioning his leg injury in the show leads to nothing and it's just a red herring, then the show has even worse writing than I thought. That's like Writing 101! You don't mention a character's condition or show a weapon or something without something coming of it. Maybe Kurt Sutter's just a fan of Mitchell and Webb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vNJ5Krj7SQ

TheAwfulWaffle
Jun 30, 2013

81sidewinder posted:

Someone ITT compared it to Grand Theft Auto, and I think that analogy is spot on.


Fetus Tree posted:

wouldnt matter if he did, last week tig got gut shot by a scatter gun

Tig went to the Hospital and lost all his money and guns. On his way back to the clubhouse he ducked down an alley and found an AK floating in circles behind a dumpster.

Baconroll
Feb 6, 2009
We could be getting the old "he knows he's dying of leukaemia (the leg pain), so the mayhem vote is the better way out". Its Sutter theres got to be something.

For the last 7 seasons I've been expecting one of the probies to be an ATF deep cover agent so I may well be wrong.

Fetus Tree
Feb 2, 2003
Probation
Can't post for 2 years!
rat is part of the NSA

burnishedfume
Mar 8, 2011

You really are a louse...

Fetus Tree posted:

rat is part the director of the NSA

Vaall
Sep 17, 2014

Snak posted:

It's literally white exceptionalism. All the other gangs are weak because they only have a few dozen members, but SAMCRO is a power player because they're the only local white gang. Oh except the AB. Why hasn't the AB just been like "hey SAMCRO, we're taking all your turf because you are a disgrace to organized crime and also race traitors"

What? SAMCRO has been getting their asses kicked during this entire show by other gangs. "White exceptionalism" lmao

Snak posted:

Like, Juice gets Tully to kill him (rather than killing himself) because if Tully doesn't, it will weaken Tully's relationship with the MC. Think about that for a moment... what has the MC actually done for Tully? In theory it brokered some kind of deal for heroin distribution, but like, does that really exist? We never see it, and Jax renegotiates distribution literally every time he sits down at a table. Is that something that THE ARYAN BROTHERHOOD, one of the largest and most powerful prison gangs there is couldn't do without JAX TELLER?

Juice was hosed in the head.

Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer

Vaall posted:

What? SAMCRO has been getting their asses kicked during this entire show by other gangs. "White exceptionalism" lmao

yes and despite that they are immune to failure. Everyone is lining up to help them even though anyone who knows anything about the poo poo that they get into should be staying far, far away from them.

Vaall
Sep 17, 2014

Snak posted:

yes and despite that they are immune to failure. Everyone is lining up to help them even though anyone who knows anything about the poo poo that they get into should be staying far, far away from them.

Due to white exceptionalism, is Tully going to kill Henry Lin's second in command or August Marks next week?

haljordan
Oct 22, 2004

the corpse of god is love.






JazzFlight posted:

That might have worked better since we wouldn't have had the weird "non-reaction" that the actors gave right after Jax shot him.

Where was the emotion this episode? Gemma's death would have worked so much better if she and Jax were as wound up as he was when Juice told him about Tara.

Well it's not like Gemma gave a poo poo, she used Unser for practically the entire series and once she realized Jax was gonna kill her no matter what, why cry over spilled cancer? And you're correct on Unser: he was an enormous piece of poo poo who's life work basically amounted to making it easier for a gang of psychotic bikers to break every law imaginable. Him killing himself in shame (in like, Season 2) would've been a way better end to his character.



Also new theory: Chucky manages to somehow operate a gun and kills Jax for killing Gemma.

haljordan fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Dec 3, 2014

Truther Vandross
Jun 17, 2008

The most Sutter thing ever would be building up the entire finale to Mayhem and then Barosky popping up like "Oh hey I didn't tell anyone poo poo, that was Jury."


What I see happening is Jax dying and the final shot of the series being a fast forward to Abel getting patched in.

haljordan
Oct 22, 2004

the corpse of god is love.






Also what the gently caress is Mayhem? Do they need to hold a vote for every time they murder someone? Because the Sons would be voting 24/7.

Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer

haljordan posted:

Well it's not like Gemma gave a poo poo, she used Unser for practically the entire series and once she realized Jax was gonna kill her no matter what, why cry over spilled cancer? And you're correct on Unser: he was an enormous piece of poo poo who's life work basically amounted to making it easier for a gang of psychotic bikers to break every law imaginable. Him killing himself in shame (in like, Season 2) would've been a way better end to his character.



Also new theory: Chucky manages to somehow operate a gun and kills Jax for killing Gemma.

Actually Jax is going to put his helmet and leathers on Chucky and let Chucky sacrifice himself for SAMCRO in Jax's place riding JT's bike into traffic. Then Jax will live happily ever after on the Nero's farm with Wendy. because Nero is happy to be a doormat, and all Chucky ever wanted was to be a real member of SAMCRObang Gemma.

edit:

haljordan posted:

Also what the gently caress is Mayhem? Do they need to hold a vote for every time they murder someone? Because the Sons would be voting 24/7.
it's only for murdering membersbrothers.

haljordan
Oct 22, 2004

the corpse of god is love.






Snak posted:

Actually Jax is going to put his helmet and leathers on Chucky and let Chucky sacrifice himself for SAMCRO in Jax's place riding JT's bike into traffic. Then Jax will live happily ever after on the Nero's farm with Wendy. because Nero is happy to be a doormat, and all Chucky ever wanted was to be a real member of SAMCRObang Gemma.

"Yeah we found all of Jax's body parts except the hands oh well case closed."

FuriousxGeorge
Aug 8, 2007

We've been the best team all year.

They're just finding out.

sportsgenius86 posted:

The most Sutter thing ever would be building up the entire finale to Mayhem and then Barosky popping up like "Oh hey I didn't tell anyone poo poo, that was Jury."


What I see happening is Jax dying and the final shot of the series being a fast forward to Abel getting patched in.

That seems pretty unrealistic. I mean, Lin admitted who it was under threat of torture. Nobody lies while being tortured.

Like they did to the Blackwater guy. I guess it worked because it was the only time in history anybody tried it.

FuriousxGeorge fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Dec 4, 2014

mewse
May 2, 2006

Unser never told Gemma that chucky loved her :smith:

Ghostpilot
Jun 22, 2007

"As a rule, I never touch anything more sophisticated and delicate than myself."
Last week I got to experience what it would be like for this show to be over, done with, and out of my life forever. :feelsgood: I also realize that I really and truly give less of a poo poo about this show than I ever have before. I don't care what happens to the club, I don't care if Gemma, the most hate-able character on TV, gets what she deserves; I don't even care if Charming is blasted off the map by an alien invasion during the Rapture. In a nutshell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_nPp64OrBc

That said, let's get rollin'.

We open at Alvarez's garage:

Seems that all those years of browalking has finally caught up to Jax.


Meanwhile, in the kitchen at Jax's house, Wendy and Brooke notice that Gemma isn't around. I thought it'd seemed brighter and more serene somehow. Anyway, Brooke comments that it feels weird to be in the room where Tara died. Wendy points out that she OD'ed there back when she was pregnant with Abel.


Right there. Remember it like it was yesterday. (Wait, was it yesterday? I'm so fuckin' fried, man.)


Over in a darker patch of the world, Gemma's passed out in her car. A familiar trucker wakes her up:


Gemma hocking up a cloud of flesh-eating flies. (Sidenote: notice how dark it is? I wasn't kidding about Gemma's cloud of gloom.)

She moves her car and goes back to sleep. :shrug:


Back at Alvarez' garage, Nero, the Mayan's, SAMCRO and the Niners are discussing territories and gunrunning. Nobody cares.


Continuing the theme of last episode, Nero asks Jax if he's heard from Gemma. He then says that he's going to go to Norco for a few days. Y'know, to the farm. The farm he bought.


That does sound ominous, now that I think about it.

Defying all logic, Jax asks if he wouldn't making taking Wendy and the kids to the farm. There's an APB out for him, a cop is arguably dead following a high speed chase with Jax, CPS is breathing down his neck, his murderous mother is on the run and has no place to go aside from Nero's farm. Nero, the person she's closest to in all the world.


What do you say, buddy? :ocelot:


Sure. My uncle's got horses and cows and goddamned goats and poo poo. :hf:

So with that set up, we're off to the prison!



Business as usual.


Over at some Irish bar (you can tell from all the green).

See?

They discuss more gunrunning poo poo. Nobody cares.


At the truck stop, America's Friendliest Trucker (no relation to America's Friendliest Waitress) chats up Gemma. Turns out they also have open heart surgeries in common (Gemma, Nero and now Milo. Didn't Clay have one, too? Gemma has a thing for scraggly guys with four-letter names and heart conditions). Anyway, AMT offers a ride to a woman he's just met who's just alluded to stealing a car.

Gemma: "Now you see Milo: two broken hearts on the road to tomatoes? That country song writes itself."
Milo: "Well, as long as that country song is not about some crazy cougar hijacking a truck at gunpoint, I'll give you that ride."


Somebody's seen the script.

Really though, I'd forgotten how much I've missed Michael Chiklis. He's drat good.


Unser arrives in some mysterious alley, having been sent there by Chucky to meet Jax. Unser thinks its an ambush, but Jax just wants to talk - opening the conversation with his favorite line:


"I know you feel betrayed..."

I think that's about the third time Jax has said these exact words to someone this season. Somebody he's betrayed. Because he's totally betrayed them. It's what he does.
Anyway, Unser insists that it's not about betrayal. It's about the promise he made to Tara to protect her and the kids from all of this poo poo. I refer you back to the season 6 finale to see how hilarious this assertion is.

Jax needs Unser to drop the APB on him so he can go after Tara's killer. We've previously established and reestablished in this very conversation, that all SAMCRO does is lie to Unser. Jax drops the bomb: Gemma killed Tara.

:sigh: "Holy Christ" count: 1 (that's a new one. Keeping me on my toes, there.)

Of course Unser would know this: he all but orchestrated it. I'm holding out hope that this was all part of Unser's Machiavellian scheme to bring down all the gangs in Charming and the surrounding areas and as revenge against Gemma for all the decades of unrequited love. I wan to believe this, but I know better - Unser buys it and calls off the APB.


Back at Jax's:

"Roadtrip, buddy!" :v: :j:


At the warehouse, Jax meets with the other SoA leaders to plead his case. Sprinkling a bit of truth upon his sundae of lies.

:sigh: "poo poo" count: 1.
:sigh: "Christ" count: 2.

Unless I'm mistaken, they're leaving the Mayhem vote to Jax's club. With Jax insisting that ensure the club votes the right way. :psyduck:

:sigh: "poo poo" count: 2.

Jax then has the gall to ask them to change an old by-law of the club (presumably the racial one that's never been enforced). Anyway, meeting ends and as the MC try to find out the results, Jax insists on telling them later. Because he gets off on their anticipation.


Finding ourselves at the resting home, Gemma's dropped off by the trucker and she goes in to visit her Dad but gets caught in red tape at the front desk.


At an undisclosed location, SAMCRO meet with the Irish over more. gunrunning. poo poo. Turns out that Conor has been playing both sides and they want the Sons to kill Conor.

:sigh: "Jeeeesus Christ" count: 3.

Jax sets up a sting with Tyler and the Niners to get Conor. Afterwards, he gets a call from Wendy. Turns out the nursing home in Oregon called the house about Gemma being there. Jax now knows where Gemma is. After the call, Wendy tells Nero as well, who takes off in a panic.


Peeling into Teller-Marrow, Nero and Unser meet and compare notes.

:sigh: "poo poo" count 3.
:sigh: "poo poo: count 4.

Nero begs Wayne to go up there and arrest Gemma - do whatever he can to keep her from Jax. Unser acquiesces, telling Chucky to watch the shop. Chucky asks Unser to tell Gemma that he loves her.


The Sons meet with Tyler to discuss :bang: gunrunning poo poo. Jax announces that he's heading up north. Chibs offers to go with him, but Jax insists that he stay behind - that this is a family problem.


At the resting home, Gemma's allowed to see her father. His mind riddled with Alzheimer's, he's unable to recognize her. What follows is an unintentionally funny scene in which Gemma is pouring her heart out to a befuddled old man who has no idea who she is, why she's there or why she's telling him all of this.

It should be a poignant scene, but I don't care for two reasons. The first is that Gemma's father has been a non-entity before and since season 3, and even then he wasn't around much. Secondly, it's yet another Gemma confession scene to people (or things) who don't matter: like the time she confessed killing JT to Nero, or the time she talked to herself, her birds, Thomas, and now her Dad and therefore will have zero repercussions on anything whatsoever. Basically, it's an attempt at a redemption scene for a character that has spent 7 seasons being irredeemable. At the end, her father manages to recollect a vague memory from Gemma's childhood: a time when she played in the garden.


At the prison cafeteria, Juice approaches Tulley (Marilyn Manson) and tells him that the Chinese has ordered him to kill Tulley. Juice decides that he'd rather have Tulley kill him instead in order to help SAMCRO and slips him a scalpel.


"Just let me finish my pie."


Separately, Unser and Jax race towards Oregon as Gemma arrives at her family home via taxi.


Returning to the prison, Juice has his final bite of pie and gives the signal.


Manson was never any good with those Capri Sun juice pouches.

And with that, Juice's storyline and rape-fiesta finally ends. Who'd have ever imagined that he'd live as long as he has? I didn't think he'd make it out of season 4.



At Gemma's old family home, Unser arrives first to find Gemma going through old family photos. He tries to convince her to let him take her into custody, but she's resigned to her fate. Finally Unser decides to call the local police, but stops when Jax arrives. Jax tries to convince Wayne to leave. Wayne tries to convince Jax to do the same, ending up pulling guns on each other. Jax gives Wayne one last chance to leave, Unser says that Gemma is all he has left. Then...


And he never got the chance to deliver Chucky's message.

Unser falls out of frame and, quite fittingly for how he's treated throughout the series, is immediately forgotten about as Gemma shows Jax a picture of his grandfather, saying that he has his eyes. They reminisce for a moment until Gemma mentions Tara, which brings a harsh glare in Jax's eyes. Knowing that it's the end, she asks to go to the garden. As she steps into the backyard; Jax follows.

She professes her love for Jax as she admires the flowers. He can't bring himself to shoot her, but she insists that this is something that needs to be done. As she looks at the flowers, Jax raises his gun and...


Oh poo poo, sorry: wrong folder.


And just like that, the Dark Queen of Charming is dead.

I would've loved so much for the Sun to spring into the sky, accompanied by the arrival of forest animals and a rousing chorus.

Anyway, I'd be remiss not mention that for the past few seasons Sutter has had a way of having a scene that closely resembled a scene from the latest season of a show that would've aired around the time he was writing the next season of SoA. In seasons 5 and 6 there had scenes that closely resembled scenes featuring Walton Goggins (Venus Van Damme on SoA) in Justified. Last season on the Walking Dead, we had the "look at the flowers" scene above that became a meme for awhile.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoArTZNA5F8
I realize now how wrong I was and that Sutter is a genius.

Finally, we close out to a montage of SAMCRO and One-Niner hit squads gunning down countless Chinese. Certainly pushing that earlier murder tally into the triple digits. Juice is served up in the morgue and Jax returns home to Wendy.


The kicks were never the same again.

And we close out to Jax and Wendy banging interspersed with slow camera pans over the corpses of Unser and Gemma. Banging. Murder. Thrusting. Murder. rear end Shot. Murder. Left to rot where they fell in an abandoned house (with Gemma out in the open) forever as Jax climaxes inside of Wendy.

I'd figured I would be disappointed when Gemma finally met her end, but I hadn't expected to be as let down as this. Nor for it to happen in the penultimate episode. The question that remains is this: what there is left for us to care about? No way anyone cares about the gunrunning poo poo. Everything aside from the Tara murder has been treated as filler. So, what's left to be invested in, really?

Ghostpilot fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Dec 4, 2014

haljordan
Oct 22, 2004

the corpse of god is love.






Goddammit just give us the "Wendy and Nero Road Trippin' in a Sweet rear end Car" show, FX! YOU loving OWE US.

Vaall
Sep 17, 2014

Ghostpilot posted:

Last week I got to experience what it would be like for this show to be over, done with, and out of my life forever. :feelsgood: I also realize that I really and truly give less of a poo poo about this show than I ever have before. I don't care what happens to the club, I don't care if Gemma, the most hate-able character on TV, gets what she deserves; I don't even care if Charming is blasted off the map by an alien invasion during the Rapture. In a nutshell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_nPp64OrBc

That said, let's get rollin'.

We open at Alvarez's garage:

Seems that all those years of browalking has finally caught up to Jax.


Meanwhile, in the kitchen at Jax's house, Wendy and Brooke notice that Gemma isn't around. I thought it'd seemed brighter and more serene somehow. Anyway, Brooke comments that it feels weird to be in the room where Tara died. Wendy points out that she OD'ed there back when she was pregnant with Abel.


Right there. Remember it like it was yesterday. (Wait, was it yesterday? I'm so fuckin' fried, man.)


Over in a darker patch of the world, Gemma's passed out in her car. A familiar trucker wakes her up:


Gemma hocking up a cloud of flesh-eating flies. (Sidenote: notice how dark it is? I wasn't kidding about Gemma's cloud of gloom.)

She moves her car and goes back to sleep. :shrug:


Back at Alvarez' garage, Nero, the Mayan's, SAMCRO and the Niners are discussing territories and gunrunning. Nobody cares.


Continuing the theme of last episode, Nero asks Jax if he's heard from Gemma. He then says that he's going to go to Norco for a few days. Y'know, to the farm. The farm he bought.


That does sound ominous, now that I think about it.

Defying all logic, Jax asks if he wouldn't making taking Wendy and the kids to the farm. There's an APB out for him, a cop is arguably dead following a high speed chase with Jax, CPS is breathing down his neck, his murderous mother is on the run and has no place to go aside from Nero's farm. Nero, the person she's closest to in all the world.


What do you say, buddy? :ocelot:


Sure. My uncle's got horses and cows and goddamned goats and poo poo. :hf:

So with that set up, we're off to the prison!



Business as usual.


Over at some Irish bar (you can tell from all the green).

See?

They discuss more gunrunning poo poo. Nobody cares.


At the truck stop, America's Friendliest Trucker (no relation to America's Friendliest Waitress) chats up Gemma. Turns out they also have open heart surgeries in common (Gemma, Nero and now Milo. Didn't Clay have one, too? Gemma has a thing for scraggly guys with four-letter names and heart conditions). Anyway, AMT offers a ride to a woman he's just met who's just alluded to stealing a car.

Gemma: "Now you see Milo: two broken hearts on the road to tomatoes? That country song writes itself."
Milo: "Well, as long as that country song is not about some crazy cougar hijacking a truck at gunpoint, I'll give you that ride."


Somebody's seen the script.

Really though, I'd forgotten how much I've missed Michael Chiklis. He's drat good.


Unser arrives in some mysterious alley, having been sent there by Chucky to meet Jax. Unser thinks its an ambush, but Jax just wants to talk - opening the conversation with his favorite line:


"I know you feel betrayed..."

I think that's about the third time Jax has said these exact words to someone this season. Somebody he's betrayed. Because he's totally betrayed them. It's what he does.
Anyway, Unser insists that it's not about betrayal. It's about the promise he made to Tara to protect her and the kids from all of this poo poo. I refer you back to the season 6 finale to see how hilarious this assertion is.

Jax needs Unser to drop the APB on him so he can go after Tara's killer. We've previously established and reestablished in this very conversation, that all SAMCRO does is lie to Unser. Jax drops the bomb: Gemma killed Tara.

:sigh: "Holy Christ" count: 1 (that's a new one. Keeping me on my toes, there.)

Of course Unser would know this: he all but orchestrated it. I'm holding out hope that this was all part of Unser's Machiavellian scheme to bring down all the gangs in Charming and the surrounding areas and as revenge against Gemma for all the decades of unrequited love. I wan to believe this, but I know better - Unser buys it and calls off the APB.


Back at Jax's:

"Roadtrip, buddy!" :v: :j:


At the warehouse, Jax meets with the other SoA leaders to plead his case. Sprinkling a bit of truth upon his sundae of lies.

:sigh: "poo poo" count: 1.
:sigh: "Christ" count: 2.

Unless I'm mistaken, they're leaving the Mayhem vote to Jax's club. With Jax insisting that ensure the club votes the right way. :psyduck:

:sigh: "poo poo" count: 2.

Jax then has the gall to ask them to change an old by-law of the club (presumably the racial one that's never been enforced). Anyway, meeting ends and as the MC try to find out the results, Jax insists on telling them later. Because he gets off on their anticipation.


Finding ourselves at the resting home, Gemma's dropped off by the trucker and she goes in to visit her Dad but gets caught in red tape at the front desk.


At an undisclosed location, SAMCRO meet with the Irish over more. gunrunning. poo poo. Turns out that Conor has been playing both sides and they want the Sons to kill Conor.

:sigh: "Jeeeesus Christ" count: 3.

Jax sets up a sting with Tyler and the Niners to get Conor. Afterwards, he gets a call from Wendy. Turns out the nursing home in Oregon called the house about Gemma being there. Jax now knows where Gemma is. After the call, Wendy tells Nero as well, who takes off in a panic.


Peeling into Teller-Marrow, Nero and Unser meet and compare notes.

:sigh: "poo poo" count 3.
:sigh: "poo poo: count 4.

Nero begs Wayne to go up there and arrest Gemma - do whatever he can to keep her from Jax. Unser acquiesces, telling Chucky to watch the shop. Chucky asks Unser to tell Gemma that he loves her.


The Sons meet with Tyler to discuss :bang: gunrunning poo poo. Jax announces that he's heading up north. Chibs offers to go with him, but Jax insists that he stay behind - that this is a family problem.


At the resting home, Gemma's allowed to see her father. His mind riddled with Alzheimer's, he's unable to recognize her. What follows is an unintentionally funny scene in which Gemma is pouring her heart out to a befuddled old man who has no idea who she is, why she's there or why she's telling him all of this.

It should be a poignant scene, but I don't care for two reasons. The first is that Gemma's father has been a non-entity before and since season 3, and even then he wasn't around much. Secondly, it's yet another Gemma confession scene to people (or things) who don't matter: like the time she confessed killing JT to Nero, or the time she talked to herself, her birds, Thomas, and now her Dad and therefore will have zero repercussions on anything whatsoever. Basically, it's an attempt at a redemption scene for a character that has spent 7 seasons being irredeemable. At the end, her father manages to recollect a vague memory from Gemma's childhood: a time when she played in the garden.


At the prison cafeteria, Juice approaches Tulley (Marilyn Manson) and tells him that the Chinese has ordered him to kill Tulley. Juice decides that he'd rather have Tulley kill him instead in order to help SAMCRO and slips him a scalpel.


"Just let me finish my pie."


Separately, Unser and Jax race towards Oregon as Gemma arrives at her family home via taxi.


Returning to the prison, Juice has his final bite of pie and gives the signal.


Manson was never any good with those Capri Sun juice pouches.

And with that, Juice's storyline and rape-fiesta finally ends. Who'd have ever imagined that he'd live as long as he has? I didn't think he'd make it out of season 4.



At Gemma's old family home, Unser arrives first to find Gemma going through old family photos. He tries to convince her to let him take her into custody, but she's resigned to her fate. Finally Unser decides to call the local police, but stops when Jax arrives. Jax tries to convince Wayne to leave. Wayne tries to convince Jax to do the same, ending up pulling guns on each other. Jax gives Wayne one last chance to leave, Unser says that Gemma is all he has left. Then...


And he never got the chance to deliver Chucky's message.

Unser falls out of frame and, quite fittingly for how he's treated throughout the series, is immediately forgotten about as Gemma shows Jax a picture of his grandfather, saying that he has his eyes. They reminisce for a moment until Gemma mentions Tara, which brings a harsh glare in Jax's eyes. Knowing that it's the end, she asks to go to the garden. As she steps into the backyard; Jax follows.

She professes her love for Jax as she admires the flowers. He can't bring himself to shoot her, but she insists that this is something that needs to be done. As she looks at the flowers, Jax raises his gun and...


Oh poo poo, sorry: wrong folder.


And just like that, the Dark Queen of Charming is dead.

I would've loved so much for the Sun to spring into the sky, accompanied by the arrival of forest animals and a rousing chorus.

Anyway, I'd be remiss not mention that for the past few seasons Sutter has had a way of having a scene that closely resembled a scene from the latest season of a show that would've aired around the time he was writing the next season of SoA. In seasons 5 and 6 there had scenes that closely resembled scenes featuring Walton Goggins (Venus Van Damme on SoA) in Justified. Last season on the Walking Dead, we had the "look at the flowers" scene above that became a meme for awhile.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoArTZNA5F8
I realize now how wrong I was and that Sutter is a genius.

Finally, we close out to a montage of SAMCRO and One-Niner hit squads gunning down countless Chinese. Certainly pushing that earlier murder tally into the triple digits. Juice is served up in the morgue and Jax returns home to Wendy.


The kicks were never the same again.

And we close out to Jax and Wendy banging interspersed with slow camera pans over the corpses of Unser and Gemma. Banging. Murder. Thrusting. Murder. rear end Shot. Murder. Left to rot where they fell in an abandoned house (with Gemma out in the open) forever as Jax climaxes inside of Wendy.

I'd figured I would be disappointed when Gemma finally met her end, but I hadn't expected to be as let down as this. Nor for it to happen in the penultimate episode. The question that remains is this: what there is left for us to care about? No way anyone cares about the gunrunning poo poo. Everything aside from the Tara murder has been treated as filler. So, what's left to be invested in, really?

autism.txt.

Shameful.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

Vaall posted:

autism.txt.

Shameful.

You are dead inside, Kurt.

Doobie Keebler
May 9, 2005

What an anticlimactic episode. How can everything going down be so boring? Unser was a surprise but he managed to make me not care at all. Gemma? Snooze. Juice? He's been self-destructing for 3 seasons. Hopefully they shake things up at the end: instead of Abel finding JT's manuscript with Jax's notes doodles in the margin, Wendy finds Gemma's manuscript about how to be a mother. Fade out to a picture of Gemma behind Jax. Bonus points if, after Jax suicides into a truck, Vic drops a Strike Team card on his chest.

Every episode I watch makes me want to watch the biker scenes from True Detective on loop for an hour. If only we got that show.

Agent Burt Macklin
Jul 3, 2003

Macklin, you son of a bitch
How are we not discussing Cordelia Chase as the nursing home employee who blew the lid off Gemma's whereabouts. Between Veronica Mars and Buffy, I've never seen Charisma Carpenter dressed so monochromatic.

That, Vic Mackey, and Homeless Ghost Mom were the highlights for me.

Side note: I saw someone else mention this...it's been a few MONTHS since all this started? These episodes made it seem like it's only a month or so. When Gemma said that I actually took my eyes off my phone and started paying closer attention to the show.

Alec Bald Snatch
Sep 12, 2012

by exmarx

hatelull posted:

I'm still holding out for my Saint Elmo theory, but at this point I guess it's safe to say that those other dudes are going to put him out of his misery in a noble gruesome fashion and he dies with arms outstretched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSJSzSa6Cy4

Schiavona
Oct 8, 2008

Kelly posted:

How are we not discussing Cordelia Chase as the nursing home employee who blew the lid off Gemma's whereabouts. Between Veronica Mars and Buffy, I've never seen Charisma Carpenter dressed so monochromatic.

Seriously, seeing Charisma Carpenter for the first time in a decade was the best part of the episode for me.

Hollismason
Jun 30, 2007
An alright dude.
I wonder how Sutter is going to work in a rape in the Season ender, I mean seriously how's he going to do that? He had a good thing going for a bit with Marilyn Manson being a white supremacist rapist. Now he's got no go to rape.

time is a wastin
Sep 11, 2011
Just watched last nights ep. That poo poo was INSANE. I love this loving show!

bentacos
Oct 9, 2012

Hollismason posted:

I wonder how Sutter is going to work in a rape in the Season ender, I mean seriously how's he going to do that? He had a good thing going for a bit with Marilyn Manson being a white supremacist rapist. Now he's got no go to rape.

T-1000 rapes Jax.

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Baronash
Feb 29, 2012

So what do you want to be called?

Ghostpilot posted:


Seems that all those years of browalking has finally caught up to Jax.


This was honestly the weirdest loving thing. I can understand that Hunnam probably injured himself doing some stunt, but you might as well just hope your audience doesn't notice if your clever rewrite consists of "What happen Jacky?" - "I don't know."

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