Hi! Obviously it has been *mumble mumble* months since I posted anything, but it’s never too late to revive this poor blog, right? Especially when I have very important things to talk about. Things like Sons of Anarchy. Forget about boring updates on why I haven’t posted lo these many (many) months, I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT SONS OF ANARCHY! I have a lot of thoughts and feeeeeelings!!

Spoilers for Red Rose ahoy – consider yourself warned. And if you’re not caught up you’ll be hella confused anyway because I’m just plunging right in. Here we go…

I think I’m struggling more with Unser’s death than anyone else. I mean, all these people are getting slaughtered and he just was the one person that still had some semblance of a moral code in all this. Well, relatively speaking I guess. Anyway, Jax just SHOT him and they made no further reference to him at all, as if he was never even there to begin with. Gemma had it coming (more on that in a minute) but Unser was a plot twist I didn’t see coming. But he obviously knew that Gemma was about to die and Jax made it pretty clear that he wasnt’ messing around and would kill Unser if he stayed. Unser’s motivation has always been his love for Gemma so I guess he figured there was no point to his life anymore with her death. Plus, he’s been dying of stage 4 cancer for 7 seasons anyway, so.

Then there’s Nero. The scene where he and Jax talk about Wendy and the boys going with him to the farm was great. It was very well done – Jax clearly making plans for his fatherless boys because he knows it is almost over for him. Nero has been a phenomenal father figure for poor Jax, who has only ever had Gemma as a consistent parental role model. Anyway, in the end Nero was trying to protect Jax, not Gemma, and now I’m worried about how he’s going to react because what he told Jax is absolutely right: there’s no coming back from killing one’s own mother. But he already knows, I’m sure he does. He’s not stupid, and he’s been in the life for too long to think it could end up any other way. Nero knew exactly what would happen while he was giving Jax that phenomenal speech in the end of Suits of Woe.

Let’s get back to Gemma’s death, while we’re on the subject. Gemma got off easy. Because cutting her off from her grandsons (and what’s left of the club she knew) would be a fate far worse than death. Jax let her off the hook, basically, and she knew it. And Gemma’s final little speech to Jax about did me in. It definitely did him – I can’t believe he was able to pull the trigger. But she manipulated him right up until the final second, giving him that whole bit about “This is who we are.” The entire scene was very well done, even though I felt like I was being beat about the head with Shakespearean symbolism.

Moving on!

I have several burning questions that better be answered in the finale:

1. What is going on with Jax physically? At the very beginning of the episode they definitely made a big deal of the fact that his leg gave out when he stood up from the cot. He also appeared to be limping on that leg on and off throughout the episode (although it is hard to tell with him sometimes on account of The Swagger). Has he been poisoned? Is his heart condition going to catch up with him before Mayhem can? Something else entirely? WHAT IS HAPPENING? This is a big one for me. It just has to be something. It has to be. Maybe it’s going to lead to him losing control and going out in a motorcycle crash, dying the same way his old man did. But that doesn’t make a lot of sense, because on a motorcycle you brake with your hands, not your feet (I think). Anyway, my #1 thought is that it has to do with his heart somehow. Wouldn’t it just be like the show to give us all this buildup, thinking Jax is going to go out in a blaze of outlaw glory but in the end, he just dies of a heart attack?

2. What is Nero up to? Again, a big deal was made of him going into the garage at Jax’s house “looking for tools” and generally being all squirrely and then nothing seemed to come of it. Is he plotting to protect Jax somehow? Is he going to avenge what Gemma’s inevitable death? What is he DOING? Or is it a red herring?

3. What did Chucky do? Tig got off the phone when they were meeting with the Irish and said “That was T-M. Chucky did it”. But we never saw anything come of that either unless I totally missed something. Plus Chucky’s been getting a bit more screen time in the last few episodes so surely that’s another plot point to be wrapped up.

4. What is the deal with the homeless lady? She showed up at the vending machine before the scene with Milo the trucker (nice cameo by Michael Chiklis, btw) and Gemma. It’s the same lady that we see throughout the series…and now we know she is/was Rat’s girlfriend’s mom. I’d like a little explanation here. Is she a ghost? Just a sad-sack lady who left her former life behind for some reason? Why does she always show up before some major death?

5. What is the “unwritten bylaw” Jax refers to in the scene with the other SOA presidents? They specifically cut out to the boys waiting in Red Woody during that part so I know we’ll get back to it next week but I really have no idea what that could be. Jax clearly is planning for his own death at this point (or is that just what Sutter wants us to believe?) so I am assuming he knows the vote will be for Mayhem. Although I am a little unclear on who exactly gets to make this vote (see: much mumbling, talking in some sort of biker lingo), I do think it is SAMCRO. Jax did say he’d make sure they vote the right way.

Surely all of this will get resolved or I am going to be very disappointed. I expect it will be – Sutter doesn’t appear to do ANYTHING randomly or half-assed. Come on, writers. Don’t let me down.

I still can’t believe that Gemma is dead. Just like that. Omg. And also, possibly I am too emotionally invested in this show. Also also, poor Juice. I’m glad he at least got to finish his pie but you know prison pie can’t possibly be that good. What a way to go. Sigh.

The end.