The Lock Box: Sons Of Anarchy Review - Episode Poenitentia (Spoilers)

Sons of Anarchy EP Poenitentia

There was a little more happening in this episode in comparison to episode Six One Six; lots of stuff to get to and break down, so let's jump right in it.

Three episodes into season 6 and Clay already looked like he was going to meet the pointy end of Mr. Shiv. Alas, he was able to fend off the Reaper for another week.

All is not what it would appear to be; however, as it seems Jax is keeping Clay alive for a very specific reason: to help him keep the current relationship with the Irish Kings intact long enough for Jax to find a way to get the club out without any more of their blood being spilled.

Still with me? Okay, just checking.

Anyone else notice how strangely Tara has been acting since she was released from jail? It seems that there are either one or two things happening here: either she's actually losing it, psychologically, as the stress of being potentially found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder is pushing her to her breaking point. Or, she's just done with it all and over all of it; Jax, the old-lady lifestyle, the crime, the blood on her hands, being held hostage, having her kids injured or kidnapped-- it's enough to drive any woman, no matter how strong, to the point of wanting to say, "Screw it, I'm done!"

If it was the latter, I would completely understand, no matter how dreamy your outlaw-husband is, because everyone has their limits, and maybe she's well passed hers. Also, am I the only one that thinks the baby she's preggers with is potentially Otto's? It's probably not, but how many of you can say, with certainty, that it's Jax's?

Bobby still looks to be in the midst of starting up his Nomad crew, but he does seem to be running into a couple of obstacles, here and there; especially with him not properly informing Jax of his departure from the Redwood Originals.

As far as Clay is concerned, it appears he's the new Otto of the club. Yes, Jax did set him up for specific reasons as stated above, but killing the prison shot-caller is something Pope's successor obviously wanted to be done. It's entirely within the realm of possibility that the black inmates just could not get to him, so how would they be able to get to with all of the protection he has from his white brothers? A Trojan horse, of course.

And with that action, Clay not only added to his sentence, but also added to his own security issue within the prison. The one question that's been on my mind is: does he now have to watch his back from an attack from black inmates as well as white inmates, now, or just the white inmates?

Regardless, he's on his own with no protection other than a shiv of his own provided by an prison guard. Maybe he'll save us all of the hassle and just off himself, I wouldn't mind that. But with his potential departure from the series, there would be a big gap that would need to be filled.

Tig looks like he's on borrow time, now, with Pope's crew showing up at the warehouse. Will he actually die this time, or will some miracle save him?

With Tig's death looming, I can't help but notice the symbolism in his death. If he does, in fact die, that would close the book on Clay's reign of SAMCRO. Tig is really the last connection to Clay's presidency, aside from Jax. But this is Jax's club, now, and with a new president comes a new direction. At least, that's what Teller keeps telling himself.

Toric is showing how dangerous he can be, accidentally killing his escort but showing little emotion and setting up Nero as the murderer. This only looks to add to the tension between Nero and Jax, as Nero is going to be blasted all over town as a murderer and his ties exposed, publicly to SAMCRO.

Okay, I know this is a point I've made before, but Robocop is still as bad-ass as ever. Slicing the bad-guys throats and just being awesome, he's still plays a scary ex-cop.

In one of the more awkward moments in this season, Jax walks in on Robo-Weller, being ridden like the stallion he still is by Jax's Sancha. That entire scene was as awkward as walking in on your uncle having sex with your whore-business partner that you've slept with while your wife was incarcerated for murderer charges-- yeah, it was that awkward.

What did you guys and gals think? How is this season shaping up in your eyes? For me, each episode is doing a great job of building the tension for the ensuing episode. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

The Lock Box: Sons Of Anarchy Review - Episode Six One Six (Spoilers)

Sons Of Anarchy EP Six One Six Jax(Hunnam), Nero(Smitts) and Chibbs(Flanagan)

The fallout begins in the aftermath of the school shootings. The club is, in my opinion, disarray, and Jax seems to be filling Clay's shoes a little bit more every week with each decision he makes.

Last week’s season premier was one that's still being talked about, with good reason. Kurt Sutter, who created the series, recently got into it with watchdog group, Parent Television Council, after they called the first episode "an outrage." As for the show, we're learning more and more, little by little, about the issues that will be coming to light as the season progresses.

With the image of the young boy walking into an elementary school and opening fire on a classroom fresh in our minds, we see Arcadio(Navarro) apologize over and over to Nero(Smitts). He informs him that the shooter was "his old ladies kid," Mathew, and the weapon that was used was his KG-9 SAMCRO had sold them in the previous season.

Again, was SOA creator Kurt Sutter and Co. trying to cash in on the recent events that have happened in our own schools, or was it tackling deeper issues with social decay and the lousy parenting that accompanies it? I'm going to go with the latter on this one.

It seems Nero and Jax(Hunnam) are going to come to an impasse at some point this season, and by all accounts should be one hell of an episode. Nero breaks the news to Jax about the shootings and they quickly divulge a plan to get Arcadio's junkie, wife(Samaire Armstrong), out of the city. The fear of a "junkie rat" spilling her guts to the police consumes Jax later in the episode, as he has Juice(Rossi) give her her fix and ultimately fixes their problem as they make it look as if she's OD'd.

What isn't fixed, is the relationship between Tara(Siff) and Jax. It looks like she's asked Lowen(Weigert) to start the divorce process and has given her, from what it looks like to me, everything "she can remember" concerning the club and their activities, as if she's trying to distance herself from them. I guess she's had a change of heart.

The sex scene between Tara and Jax was...nonexistent. There doesn't seem to be anything there, as they were each distant from one another, while being together; going through the motions but their heads just weren't in it.

Retired US Marshal Lee Toric(Logue) is back in action as he convinces San Joaquin County DA, Tyne Patterson(CCH Pounder) to help him with his personal vendetta against SAMCRO. They don't seem to be too concerned with the child-size coffins that will be lowered into the ground, rather to crush the club and add a positive mark to the ol' resume.

With Toric's substance issue, we'll see just how far he's able to go before the club figures out his Achilles heel, or if DA Patterson will find out, first.

As for Clay(Pearlman), he's willing to play ball with Toric and give up everything he has on the club, he just has a couple of demands first; to see Gemma(Segal) and Jax before he signs anything. Once Clay meets with Gemma, he's basically spilling his guts about "always loving her" and whatever goes down, none of it lands on you." It's clear to see she still feelings for him, with her bumbling and mumbling to herself in the woman's bathroom-- crybaby.

Through all of it, we have Bobby(Boone) still trying to build his new Nomad crew riding through place after place, completely in the dark of what's going down in Charming. There's a plus for him; he picked up newcomer to the show, or at least for a couple of episodes, Shameless star Steve Howey, who will be playing new Nomad, Hopper.

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below.

The Lock Box: Sons Of Anarchy Review - Straw (Spoilers)

Sons of Anarchy Photo by Melissa666/fanpop

Wow. Where do I start? What a season this is going to be. There's been so much that has happened in between the time that's passed from last season to this season, I guess we'll just start from the beginning. The theme is Tension:

First, we see Chibs(Tommy Flanagan) as the new Vice President. He was actually my first pick after Opie(Ryan Hurst)'s death, but i understood why Kurt Sutter decided to go with Bobby(Mark Boone Junior) last season. With the tension that was going to build within the club with Jax(Charlie Hunnam) as new President and an endgame of his own, it's clear they made the right decision for last season, as well as this season. We'll get into Chibs' and Jax's possible tension a little bit later.

A peek into Otto's life shows us his everyday torment. Being raped has become an everyday part of his life. I wonder if he'll end up taking his own life, as death would be a sweet release from his dismal life. His life is a perfect shadow of the clubs'; as the club slowly suffers, Otto(Kurt Sutter) does, as well.

Fan favorite, Happy(David LaBrava), is the clubs newly appointed Sergeant at Arms. I don't think anyone has any complaints for that decision.

Who here watches hardcore S&M porn? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Apparently, Lyla(Winter Ave Zoli) is working the hardcore scene, now. No more good, old fashioned, girl-on-girl action with that bullet wound near the money shot on her body. Her character is lovable, but we'll see in the future just strong it is. How will she handle raising three kids? Is her character going down a dark path? If so, will she return to her bubbly, happy self? In any regards, I'm with her, we need Ope.

As a result, Jax and Nero(Jimmy Smits), with some back up from each end, head over to the docks to confront the men behind Lyla's brutality. What they find is a blessing in disguise. A short scuffle and a few shots fired later, police bust in and it looks like it's going to be a bad day for Teller and inc. It turns out, the cops were sent by ex-cop Barosky, played by Robocop himself, Peter Weller, who runs the entire Stockton Ports. It looks like Barosky and Jax are going to be doing a lot of business together in the future, which we'll get into later, so we'll see how that turns out. My guess is, at some point down the line, Barosky and Teller are going to clash, with one possibly taking a dirt nap. A possible subplot might include Nero resisting, at some point, growing his business into Stockton. The look he gave Jax and tone of voice suggests possible tension between the two in the future. Only time will tell.

Retired US Marshal, Lee Toric, played by Donal Logue, finally meets together with Tara(Maggie Siff). As he explains the seriousness of her arrest and pending charges, she politely informs him that she's no rat. He looked impressed. Her character is set up to go through, quite possible, the darkest road she's ever come across.

Juice is back in town, and Chibs is not happy about it. When he brings it up with Jax, he advises Jax that it should be a club decision. However, from Jax's deal with Juice from last season, Chibs is on the outside looking in, and would rather have it be a club decision. Jax doesn't want it going to the club, as he feels it would further hurt the club. We won't know if his statement is genuine, or if he's just trying to protect his own ass. Jax might be taking a stroll down Clay Road. That scenario sets up tension between the new VP and President, yet again.

We finally have some action from Tig(Kim Coates)! Iranian (Persian?) producer extraordinaire is Tig's latest victim of blind rage after he mentions Tig watching his daughter in one of his hardcore movies. Although, i can't say I blame him. After seeing his daughter burned alive by the now dead Damon Pope(Harold Perrineau), I expect Tig to go crazy, at one point or another, and bite the head off of a bat, or something.

Ex-whore and new business woman Colette, played by the believable Kim Dickens, is the new business partner to Nero and Jax, as mentioned above. Her...employees...want to go legit, and she feels that a new partnership with the likes of Nero and Jax has an extremely high profitability margin. She might have different motivations to get in bed with Jax and Nero. See what I did there?

When is Gemma(Katey Segal) not going to threaten someone? It seems every episode she has to rustle up some feathers and, in this one, she had her eyes set on club lawyer, Ally Lowen, played by Robin Weigert. She didn't take too kindly to Lowen informing Jax about Gemma's threat against Tara. Of course she denied it all. Why wouldn't she? She's completely credible, right?

So, now it's Clay's turn to turn rat. Signaling to the guard, before they place him with general population, he's playing ball with the retired US Marshal. I guess Clay(Ron Pearlman) doesn't like black meat.

Colette still hitting on Jax? Okay, just checking.

Chibs finally meets up with Juice back at TM. We had a preview of Chibs beating the hell out of Juice(Theo Rossi), and that's exaclty what we got. No fight put up by Juice, and with good reason. As Chibs says to Juice, "I need to get right with it."

Did you know retired US Marshal Toric is a heroin user? Neither did I. Let's see if the club could find out about his struggles with the drug and exploit it somehow.

So, the little boy that we've seen in specific scene transitions arrives at, what appears to be, his school. Nothing to feel too suspicious over; but when he rolls up his sleeves, we see he's a cutter. What follows might be one of the most controversial scenes in recent memory on TV. I, personally, thought he was going to kill himself. Although I couldn't figure why he would do it, or what kind of ramifications it would have on the season.

Then, he pulls it out one of the very SMG's Jax and his crew sold to Nero's boys last season, when they explained they were losing ground to a rival gang and needed some extra fire power. I couldn't believe my eyes. "No. Are they really going this route?" I thought to myself. Sure enough, they do the unthinkable. Some people might not agree with Sutter's scene, especially in light of what's been happening at schools across the country. But, in the grand scheme of things, it's going to play an extremely vital role in the upcoming season. I agree with him, as long as it's not for shock value, which it doesn't look like it is.

The closing montage was interesting. We get glimpses of Tara rolling up her sleeves, in lock up, and beating the corn rows off an inmate that took her blanky; I guess she's really about that life, now. After that, Jax is back to his old ways, having sex with whores, or, in this case, ex-whores. Ladies, drink it up, his bare ass and all. Chibs is back to taking care of Juice. We'll have to wait to see if he's got all of his issues out with Juice. At this point, it's a coin flip; HEADS! And Fat Elvis is circling possible landing spots for his transfer back to being a Nomad. He has one in mind; all he would need is two more. Is this the end of Bobby's run in Charming?

What did I think, you ask? Well, I thought it was an amazing opening to the season. The teaser was clocked in at 17 minutes long, by far the longest in show history. Kurt Sutter is swinging for the fences once again, and it looks like it's going to be a grand slam, if the show can keep up this kind of pace for the entire season.

I can't wait for next Tuesday. I'm going to wear my cut, which my cousin and I wore for last year’s Halloween, and I'm going to sit my ass in front of the TV and watch, enjoy, and absorb Sutter's genius. Yes, I truly feel that way. What other man will write his role as someone that gets rapped? A genius, that's who!

UPDATE: Deadline reports SOA had a record-breaking 5.8 million viewers Tuesday night.