Sons of Anarchy Recap “Smoke Em If You Got Em”: Dead Man Walking

In the latest Sons of Anarchy recap, Juice tries one last play to escape his fate while Jax starts to form an army of allies as he goes after August Marks one final time…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Jean Racine once said ‘there are no secrets that time does not reveal’ and despite Gemma’s greatest efforts to keep her skeleton in the closet, the bow she tied up after jamming a carving fork in the back of her daughter-in-law’s head last season is starting to come unfurled. She found an ally in Juice after he offed the local sheriff and kept her from being found next to Tara’s still bloody body, but as he starts drifting further and further away from reality, Gemma has another fire to put out.

The problem is Gemma isn’t very good at extinguishing blazes. She’s much better at starting infernos. Like the one she ignited this season between SAMCRO and the Chinese Triad while concocting her lie that they were the ones responsible for Tara’s death. It was the truth Jax needed according to Gemma, but what she didn’t know was that her son was off the chain with both his best friend and the love of his life in the ground. He may not be suicidal necessarily, but the only thing tethering him to the world right now are two little boys he barely sees and the palpable sting of revenge that boils underneath his skin.

Gemma’s lies and cover ups led her to a deserted highway where she was attempting to kill Juice last week to ensure he never completely came undone and ratted out her secret to the people she loves most in the world. When Juice caught her deception, he forced Gemma to her knees and it looked as if he was contemplating pulling the trigger. Whether he thought that exit would be too easy or he just doesn’t have the willpower to take her life, Juice doesn’t finish the job and instead sends Gemma on her merry way in this week’s episode “Smoke Em If You Got Em” where she walks 12 miles in spiked boots before finding a roadside truck stop where she smokes up with a Glee actress before calling Unser to come pick her up. While actress Lea Michelle did a serviceable enough job as the lowly waitress doomed to become Gemma’s temporary sounding board, the scene itself felt like a waste and a way to burn time. Maybe this was Gemma seeing herself at 20 — the girl was married, divorced, had a kid and now working a job to support her son John, who she loves more than anything in the world. The scene opened with Gemma greeting her ghosts again aka having a full on conversation with Tara, this time discussing the moment when she knew she lost Jax to another woman.

The waitress was definitely real because later in the episode when Unser and Wendy show to pick Gemma up from the diner, she offers them coffee as well, but maybe the conversations were just an extension of the current psychosis she’s suffering? Is it possible Gemma imagined the whole thing while seeing a mirror image of herself to see she’s doing things right so she can protect her boy?

Once Wayne shows, business picks up in a hurry because he sees through Gemma’s bullshit about Juice finally losing it and dropping her by the side of the road. He knows Juice was struggling, but why would he cut off the only lifeline of support he has left? Why would he sever ties with the only human connection he’s really had in the last month? Unser knows Gemma is lying and to call her bluff, he tells her that it’s time to come clean to the cops about who murdered Tara.

Unser: “You tell Jarry or I do — either way she’s going to get your statement.”
Gemma: “What the hell are you doing, Wayne?”
Unser: “The right thing — for a change”

The spool is coming unraveled and Gemma’s hike was not even close to the most hazardous thing she’s about to encounter today.

Thanks for the Sex

Following a cleanup effort at Diosa where Jax tells Nero that they just need to rebuild and reopen to get things moving again business wise, he gets a call that both Jarry and Tyler need to meet.

Chibs heads off to meet Jarry to exchange a little bit of information about the arrests made the day before. Jarry won’t pin anything on the Sons after the Chinese were caught with two kilo’s of heroin and a load of weapons. The tension is in the air whenever these two talk but it’s not clear if that’s the uneasy trust that’s currently holding this union of outlaw and law enforcement together or if Chibs and Jarry are just fighting the urge to rip each other’s clothes off in a heated exchange right in the middle of the parking lot.

Work comes first, however, and Jarry has some bad news for Chibs and the boys. The district attorney, under pressure from a local Oakland councilman (in August Marks’ pocket no doubt) is trying to get Henry Lin to flip and turn state’s evidence. It would seem they are trying to get the Sons put away for some crime or another, but worse than waiting is not knowing what’s actually going on inside. Chibs gets ready to peel out, but not before another flirtacious exchange with his favorite woman in uniform.

Chibs: “Thanks for yesterday”
Jarry: “For the sex or the heads up?”
Chibs: “For the heads up. You should be thanking me for the sex”

Meanwhile, Tyler from the One-Niners meets with Jax to share with him the latest from the darker side of the tracks. August Marks knows that SAMCRO set up Henry Lin and had him popped for heroin charges. It’s enough for Marks to finally sever his ties with the club, but he doesn’t just tear up contracts and play dirty pool. No, he’s going to eliminate the problem by using the East Dub crew to wipe out the Grim Bastards before turning the One-Niners loose on the Sons. Of course, Marks doesn’t know that the One-Niners are already on the side of SAMCRO, but his mind is made.

The news gives Jax enough to go on to team up with the Grim Bastards to take down the East Dub crew with a little help from Tyler to track down their new leader Dulane (the same guy who ran over three Grim Bastards at the start of this season) and a plot to finally eliminate Marks once and for all.

Before rolling out, Jax hints at the possibility that the Grim Bastards could get patched over and become a new charter for the Sons of Anarchy. There’s never been a black face in the ranks of the Sons, but this is the 21st century and it appears Jax is ready to progress race relations into the motorcycle club world.

Nero’s day never really gets any better, however, because while he’s cleaning up Diosa, the Mayans show up and Alvarez wants answers about the trap set for Lin a day earlier. Nero’s explanation about Lin killing Jax’s wife and threatening to kill his son don’t fall completely on deaf ears, but Alvarez also knows that Nero kept this from him and that’s just lying by omission. Alvarez decrees that Nero gets held at the Mayan compound until he decides how he’ll deal with this betrayal.

Fight Club

The next stop for SAMCRO today is to smooth things over with the Aryan Brotherhood after they promised them two kilo’s of heroin only to find out they were tailed by the cops to the drop off location. When the Aryan’s gunned down the cops, things got even more complicated. It only got worse when Jax had to use the heroin he promised them to bait Lin into a trap before he got busted with it and sent to jail.

Jax offers Leland some guns as compensation for the heroin, but you see this redneck racist only has time for drugs. The situation only gets more dire when the Aryan’s spot the Grim Bastards hanging out a mile away and it looks like this might have been an ambush. Jax promises this was nothing more than a friendly meeting, but to commemorate the occasion, the two groups get into a brawl to hammer out some hard feelings.

Smell a Rat

This entire final season of Sons of Anarchy for Juice has felt like the carnival ride that clicks up a steep incline slower and slower until it reaches the top only to plummet you back down again at warp speed as you begin to believe this metal contraption won’t be able to stop until you’re a pile of blood and bones. Juice barely ever goes up, but when he comes down it’s in a hurry and as each day passes that emergency brake that stops him from going splat is working less and less.

The conclusion of his situation with Gemma is never shown on screen, but it seems as though Juice sent her walking while he took her SUV and made his way back into Northern California. He robs a convenience store for cash and blow pops and then somehow ends up at the liquor store where the Mayans MC holds court. When he arrives, Juice offers Alvarez some cash and the truck hoping he’ll have enough for save passage to Mexico and a new ID. When Alvarez balks at the cash and car, so Juice then ups the ante by offering any and all secrets on SAMCRO in exchange for his safe passage to Mexico. I wish I could explain why Juice thought the Mayans were the only avenue he had left for escape? Given the political climate, maybe he thought the devil you know is better than the one you don’t?

Either way, the Mayans use this morsel as enticement to draw the Sons into a meeting. Juice is horrified when he sees Jax and the rest of the club arrive because he knows his days are now numbered down to hours and maybe minutes depending on how this whole thing unravels. Alvarez has a deal for Jax and he (as always) has a counter offer. Alvarez wants the gun trade that Jax gave up to August Marks. Jax agrees to dance for the Irish Kings so long as he hands off his heroin trade in Stockton to make things right with the Aryan Brotherhood. It won’t cost the Mayans a thing because they will get to split the leftover heroin trade abandoned by Lin’s crew with the One-Niners. Jax also needs the Mayans on his side to help take down August Marks. If everything goes to plan, the Aryan Brotherhood gets their payback, the Mayans get the gun trade and a lucrative new heroin deal and SAMCRO gets rid of a very dangerous threat while reclaiming the wayward son who ran off to tell secrets.

The first cog in the machine has to hit the tumbler before the Mayans will turn over Juice, but Jax makes one last request — get the cut off him now.

Before it’s done, Juice gets tossed into the Mayan closet where he’s caged in with none other than Nero, who has been cooling his heels in there all day long. Juice apologizes for killing Darvany and then explains that’s the reason why the club wants him dead. He tried to live a little bit longer, but in reality he always knew he was going to have to pay.

Juice: “This is death row, brother. Club rule it has to happen. I deserve it”
Nero: “So why you running?”
Juice: “Because, I’m a coward.”

Theo Rossi has been killing it these last few seasons playing Juice as a tortured soul who finally realizes that his last loophole has closed — it’s almost as if the life sinks from his eyes and he accepts his fate. Ron Perlman carried that same look last season as Clay, albeit briefly when he watched Galan get gunned down in what was supposed to be his big getaway. He knew he wasn’t walking out of that hanger alive. Juice probably felt the same way as he felt that heavy door close behind him and as the lock clasped shut, so did the only escape he had left before the reaper came calling.

Payback Is Coming

Jax visits Tully in prison to lock down the new deal with the Aryan Brotherhood. The white supremacist can deal with brown if it means he’s getting green, but his No. 2 on the outside Leland doesn’t trust SAMCRO and he needs to find a way to make that right. Jax also requests a favor from Tully — he wants access to Henry Lin once he gets inside. He promises no bloody mess, just a sit down. Maybe he wants to stare into the eyes of the man he believes took his children’s mother away?

Next up, Jax takes the Grim Bastards on a ride through the hood where they smoke out the East Dub crew, who were hired by Marks to take them out. A drive by shooting ends up in an ambush as the East Dub gangsters are cornered on all sides by white, black and brown since the Mayans decided to help out as well. Dulane indentifies himself, which allows T.O. to step up and compliment him on his nice Impala before putting a bullet straight through his brain. Jax then gives the go ahead and the rest of the gang is put down in brutal fashion.

Fast forward to the meeting with the Aryan’s and Leland is hostile as expected, but to prove these bikers are all about the white power, they open up a van to show a pile of dead black guys that they killed. Apparently this is the universal calling card for the Aryans that they are part of the solution, not the problem. Leland is satisfied and accepts the heroin so they can get their business up and running in Stockton.

As for the pile of dead bodies — SAMCRO drops them off in front of the newest construction project being put together by Pope Industries. Nothing says progress like a dozen slaughtered gangsters on your doorstep. Subtle poke at August Marks, I’d say.

This also brings up one issue I’ve had with Sons of Anarchy these last couple of weeks. August Marks, for all his threats and innuendo, hasn’t really done anything yet to prove his power. He says he was the deadliest one on the streets, but his predecessor Damon Pope burned a member’s daughter alive and then killed Jax’s best friend and this all happened in the first three episodes of the season where he first appeared. It’s not helping matters much right now that Marks (played by Billy Brown) is nowhere to be found. His name keeps popping up, but he never does. Maybe this is all being built towards his eventual return where he comes storming in like Tyrion Lannister into Blackwater Bay, but if there’s nothing so grand an entrance it’s going to begin to feel like he was always all bark and no bite.

Severed Ties

Gemma’s walls are closing in after returning home from the diner because Unser’s idea about telling the cops everything she saw with the Chinese the day of Tara’s murder gives Jax the weapon he needs to make sure the district attorney won’t make a deal with Lin in prison. If he’s up on charges for the senseless killing of an innocent doctor and mother of two, there’s no way he’ll get any kind of deal for early release or protection. Gemma begrudgingly goes and gives her statement, but on the way out she bounces poor Unser to the curb telling her ‘old friend’ to pack his shit and get his tin can home off her property.

Back at the garage, Nero finally arrives to tell Gemma about the rather interesting day he’s had, but what she’s soon more interested to hear is how he was locked up with Juice, who is about to be turned over to Jax once he closes his deal with the Mayans. He also knows that Juice was using Gemma’s SUV as a bargaining chip to try and get the Mayans to help him facilitate an escape. Add two and two together and Nero knows Gemma has been the one helping Juice this entire time. Gemma immediately begins to quake. Juice was a liability when he was a loose cannon barely holding it together while living in a motel out of harm’s way. He’s probably not going to do well with a gun pointed at his head, moments away from dying. Whatever illusions Gemma had about escaping the murder she committed a few weeks back is fading quickly. She crumbles into Nero’s arms while muttering “if he tells Jax what he knows…” It can’t be long before Nero figures out something is rotten in the state of Denmark, right?

Dead Man Walking

The closing scenes this week were as powerful as any ever filmed on Sons of Anarchy. First of all, Deputy Eglee (the one shot by the Aryans who lived) is awake and talking and the person she asks to see is Unser. She has to tell him about the shootout, but not only how she got shot, but who was there when it happened.

The second part saw Jax close his deal with the Mayans as the two MC’s shook hands and called it a truce. As the lock came off the door and Juice slowly walked out into the warehouse, he knew the grim smell of execution was in the air. His former brothers met him with cold icy stares and as Jax led him into the camera as the scene faded to black, Juice disappeared into the abyss in a wonderfully poetic end for what will surely be a gruesome exit soon enough. The strangest part about it all is Juice was a ball of nerves when he was away from his family, unable to cope with being alone or feeling ostracized from the only people he ever loved or loved him back. Once he was reunited, despite the fact that death was looming overhead like a storm cloud, Juice knew he was home again even if it was for the last time.

Notes of Anarchy:

— For those interested in the Gemma’s going crazy files this week, her conversation with Tara went like this: “The first time I realized he wasn’t going to be mine forever. Never said much about how he felt, but I could tell. It wasn’t just a teenage crush. He loved you so much, that never changed.”

— Bobby and Wendy shared a smoke and a conversation about the angry young man known as Jax Teller. As Bobby explains, Jax doesn’t have a barrier that blocks out all the awful shit that bounces off most of us. “He just lets everything in, swallows it whole and shit just boils in his gut.”

— Wendy also admits that she still loves Jax no matter how bad things ever got between them. Call me crazy, but the day he showed up with a hypodermic needle filled with heroin before plunging it into my arm to guarantee I’d fail a drug test, yeah I’d say love goes out the door, but maybe I’m wrong.

Make sure to come back for next week’s episode titled ‘Greensleeves’ where Juices’s fate is revealed. Is he going to tell Gemma’s secret before shuffling off this mortal coil? Tune in Tuesday night at 9pm ET on FX to find out.