Sons of Anarchy Season 7 Debut ‘Black Widower’ Recap: The Desire for Revenge

Jax starts down a dangerous path as he exacts revenge on the person he believes responsible for Tara’s death as Gemma’s web of lies continue to spin SAMCRO into more and more trouble….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

The pressure to deliver during a final season of any serialized drama on television is higher than ever and the snowball that turned into an avalanche started, in my opinion, with ‘The Sopranos’ back in 2007. The sprawling gangster epic focused on Tony Soprano and his lifetime of crime and misdeeds all lead to a New Jersey diner, some Journey on the stereo and an ultra confusing end where the screen fades to black and there’s no resolution for our hero (or anti-hero as the case may be). People are still scrutinizing about Tony Soprano’s fate to this day — creator David Chase continues to fight the battle in almost every interview he conducts — and the unrelenting desire to know what really happened will probably permeate pop culture for the next 50 years.

The same kind of scrutiny happened with ‘Breaking Bad’ a year ago as Walter White’s meth-filled empire crumbled at his feet and his fate was finally revealed in one last episode to close the door on this titular television character.

So as the seventh and final season of ‘Sons of Anarchy’ begins, there’s no doubt Kurt Sutter has already put himself through the ringer a dozen times thinking about how he’s going to bring to an end the most popular show in FX history and one of the most criminally underrated series of all time when it comes to award shows and recognition by the snooty gold stature committees. Sutter has stated on several occasions that he’s treating the seventh year of ‘Sons of Anarchy’ like any other, but following his career and trajectory through social media and interviews for the past few years, I find it hard to believe he’s not at least somewhat tormented with getting this ending right. He pulled off sheer brilliance when he capped off Vin Mackey’s run on ‘The Shield’ and that was a cop who did very bad things to get the job done. How will he write off Jax Teller — a complex character torn between the love of his family and the loyalty towards his motorcycle club with a moral compass that’s guided by magnets in his pockets and not true north.

We begin with Jax dealing with the fallout from the loss of his wife Tara Knowles, who unbeknownst to him was killed by his mother Gemma in a fit of rage after believing that she was betraying her husband and his club by turning state’s evidence. Meanwhile, the club is trying to rebuild burnt bridges and focusing their anger on the real adversaries still left out there in the world. If there’s one central theme that’s been running through the motorcycle club for six seasons it’s the fact that they make enemies much quicker than they can make friends, but with a looming threat colored brown and yellow just two towns away, it’s time to mend some fences and find allies for the brewing war.

The season debut titled ‘Black Widower’ kicks off with that exact ideology with Jax pummeling a snitch in county jail, who was ready to testify against the white led Aryan Brotherhood. Now for the biggest part of this show, the Sons of Anarchy (while mostly white) have bumped up against the neo-Nazi gang more than any other group during the series. Whether it was Darby and his Nords (although the new AB leader Ron Tully calls them a joke) or Zobelle with his heroin pumping cigar store, the Sons have bumped up against the Aryans on more occasions than they’d probably like over the last few years. Even in season 6 when Clay is forced to beat down an Aryan in prison to earn protection, the blowback comes against the Sons after Unser is carved up with a swastika in a brutal show of retaliation. The Sons gain revenge by blowing up the entire ranch housing the Nazi group responsible, but Jax lies his way through that confrontation when speaking to Tully by saying he heard it was just an internal beef.

While his appearance was brief, Marilyn Manson certainly pulls off the part of an Aryan shot caller with a certain kind of creepy grace. His deep, bellowing voice may send shivers down the spine of the Republican right, but on television it gives him the kind of gravity to go toe to toe with a formidable foe in Jax Teller. Manson isn’t done yet either — as his character Ron Tully reminded Jax that he may need a few favors on the outside to really squash the longtime feud between the Aryan Brotherhood and the Sons — he’s coming back for at least a few more episodes this season.

Jax meets with D.A. Tyne Patterson, who is there to release him back into the wild, but not before sharing a few thoughts about the desire for revenge. It seems years earlier, Patterson’s own son and nephew were cut down as victims of gang violence and her first instinct was to exact vengeance against those responsible. Because she lives inside the law, there was no recourse, but that’s not the case for Jax Teller and the Sons of Anarchy. She knows blood is going to be spilled over Tara’s death, but she’s trying to reach the man she spoke to 10 days ago who was ready to face a decade in prison to help save his wife and children. So much has changed since then, however, and Jax is single minded of purpose — he wants to get those people responsible for killing Tara. Little does he know the person with blood on her hands will be the one giving him a ride home from jail.

Gemma is there to greet her son with a kiss and a ride home from jail while he sits there and expresses how much he needs his mother right now with the world falling apart around him. Gemma has been caring for the boys since Tara’s death, although it takes a village because she has ever crow-eater within a 50 mile radius acting as babysitter while she’s out tending to other priorities. Little does she know, help is on the way because Wendy has checked out of rehab after only nine days inside.

Word of Tara’s murder reached her while at the detox clinic, and she couldn’t bear the thought of the boys only being care for by Gemma. Even if she could handle that load, it’s probably not a good idea for her to do it. Considering Gemma’s multiple ‘mother of the year’ awards, it’s tough to understand why Wendy has reservations (dripping sarcasm in case you didn’t pick up on that one).

Gemma’s other activities outside of the house have included giving Juice a place to lay low while he’s hiding out from the club. While it’s never directly spoken, it’s clear that Jax told the rest of the club about the secret that Juice let loose last season when he had too many oxycontin and shared Darvany’s murder with Nero. The fallout involves Juice on the run while staying at Wendy’s as Gemma tries to get enough cash together to help him escape without meeting Mr. Mayhem first.

Juice was certainly rattled for most of last season going from unwilling murderer to daredevil psychopath. Now he’s staying at Wendy’s place and showcasing some serious OCD tendencies with the everything in its place and a place for everything. When Wendy shows up fresh out of rehab, she nearly destroys his fortress of solitude, but instead allows him to stay there because she’s fed up with all the death and destruction that looms around the Sons and kicking him out would undoubtedly get him killed.

Wendy heads off to find Jax but ends up running into Gemma. She reveals that she knows about Juice’s secret hiding place and that Gemma put him there, but Wendy’s not interested in knowing the how’s and why’s — she just wants to help with Abel and Thomas following Tara’s death. When Jax sees them chatting, he interjects, but he has nothing left in his emotional gas tank to deal with Wendy at this point. He even okays her participation to help take care of the boys so long as she works with Gemma on everything. Jax only wants one thing right now, and it’s not being a father. As a matter of fact as the episode tears through all 90 minutes, Jax never even comes close to seeing Abel or Thomas. It’s almost as if he can’t face his sons because deep down maybe he feels responsible for her death?

Inside the clubhouse, Jax runs into Nero, who is there to hopefully build a bridge for the Sons to meet with the Mayans and the Chinese to prevent what will otherwise turn into a bloody street war with a ton of dead bodies littering the roads from Charming to Oakland. Jax is quick to agree to the meeting and Nero is as giddy as a kid on Christmas, but he shouldn’t get too excited just yet…

Jax meets with the club to catch up on business. The new porn studio has launched — Redwoody Productions is under the watchful eye of Lyla, who has taken over as director and producer. Bobby reveals that they took care of a problem for Cacuzza, the Italian mob around town, and with Jax making end roads with the Aryan Brotherhood, the leaking ship plugged up at least a few holes. Jax lays out one of his famous speeches about his desire to draw the club away from the outlaw life, but in doing so he cost lives, partnerships and friendships and that was a mistake. One fence mended during the debut, however, was working with the Grim Bastards to find a gangster in Oakland who ran a member and two prospects off the road a few days earlier.

The Sons help to ‘drag’ the info out of the gang leader, who then points them to the owner of the car and the location where he can be found. Once they arrive, shots are fired and a few dead bodies are produced, but the scene inside could only be described as disturbing. Two associate pastors from a local church along with the head pastor are engaging in some illicit activities and get caught in the crossfire of the shootout. The club has some bodies to bury and the Grim Bastards are no closer to finding the man responsible for killing their members. T.O. — the leader of the Bastards — tells Jax that his club is almost ready to fold after watching his table shrink each and every month. Jax vows not to let them die and rightly so because the Grim Bastards are one of the last groups in the area still in the Sons debt.

Gemma goes to see Juice to make sure he’s not going to tell anyone else about where he’s staying while promising to get him the cash he needs to get out of Charming. In the midst of their conversation, Juice asks a very important question — how can Gemma just smile in Jax’s face knowing deep down what she did? Gemma’s answer is not only convoluted but beyond selfish. She says she’s the only thread holding the family together and everything she’s doing is about protecting Jax and the boys. Gemma also thanks Juice for giving her ‘the truth’ that will help convince Jax who actually killed Tara so she gets away without any chance of being implicated. While this ‘truth’ frees Gemma of wrongdoing, she’s quietly leading her son down the green mile as she ignites a gang war of epic proportions.

Jax meets with the Mayans and the Chinese and admits that the gun trade handoff to Marks wasn’t handled in the best possible way. He offers to get the Chinese back in business with the Irish while also helping the Mayans secure a relationship with their old pal Charlie Barasky down at the docks as they start transporting goods by ship instead of motorcycle. Jax also extends an invitation to a homecoming party the club is putting on for them at Redwoody’s new studio. Nero promises that his Diosa girls will be seriving ‘snacks’ and this is where we get the line of the week:

Alvarez: “You mean that shitty porn warehouse down by the docks?”
Jax: “Well when you say it like that, it sort of loses its magic.”

The party is on, but when Jax turns the corner he’s got other motives in mind and sinister would be an understatement.

If there was one heavy-handed scene in this debut I didn’t really enjoy it was the investigation into Wendy’s apartment by Unser when he discovered a SAMCRO backpack sitting in her closet. Somebody connected to the club was eventually going to find Juice, but Wendy picking up a bag full of perishable items only to leave them on the counter while Unser scratched his head in confusion of what she was doing was like smacking the viewer in the face with hammer so we’d know he was eventually going to go back to see what was really going on. Juice taking Unser hostage is an interesting twist, but how we got there was ridiculously overstated and not the kind of deceptive plot lines I’ve gotten used to with Sutter at the helm for six plus seasons.

Before the gathering of the gangs begins, Nero visits Gemma and gets back together with his favorite old lady. That breakup didn’t last long! Once the party starts, the story Gemma told to absolve her of Tara’s murder is unraveled and things are about to get very, very ugly.

Gemma has concocted a story about going to Jax’s house the day of the murder, but as she pulled up she saw a Chinese man run from the backdoor, chucking a jacket in a Mercedes and making it out of there in great haste. Gemma ran to go find the club, but obviously they found out later Tara was dead. She’s pointing the finger at the Chinese and giving credit where credit is due, Juice was right about this kind of lie. The Chinese were obviously burned in their last deal with the Sons and in the process Lin’s uncle and all of his men were shot and killed. The blood for blood plot works and Jax buys it hook, line and sinker.

So Jax’s new mission is to dismantle Lin’s organization piece by piece all in secret, but it starts with the man actually responsible for Tara’s death. Gemma fingers a random Lin soldier, who she interrogates before making him the patsy. To her credit, she does find a guy who believes he should already be dead and has no wife and kids to mourn him after his death. A few minutes later this unsuspecting Lin soldier is tied to a chair in the middle of Jax’s kitchen, waiting for death to arrive.

Gemma sits with the Chinese prisoner before Jax arrives, but they are not alone. Gemma stands over the sink where she stabbed Tara to death a week and a half ago and she’s holding a full conversation with her dearly departed daughter-in-law. It appears Gemma’s mask of sanity is slipping and I’m starting to wonder if she might find herself sleepwalking at some point this season ala ‘MacBeth’, another Shakespearean classic (the show is based on Hamlet, but seems like this scenario is more likely).

At the house, Jax gets his tools of the trade ready to go and he explains that he knows the soldier was just acting on orders from Lin, but he’s got to pay for what he did. He’s going to make him feel the same kind of suffering Tara felt before her death. The poor Chinese solider cries with his muffled voice begging for mercy, but mercy doesn’t live here anymore. Jax tortures the man with pliers, screwdrivers, knives and even rubs salt in the wounds. He finally ends it all with a carving fork just like the weapon that killed Tara and as he drives the implement down into the victim’s head, there’s a certain kind of grim satisfaction that washes across his face.

As Jax will soon find out, however, there’s no amount of revenge that will fill the hole in his heart left by Tara’s passing. His thirst to take out Lin’s organization will eventually come back on him because his rage is palpable and eventually it’s going to boil over onto the streets of Charming. As for Gemma, she’s no closer to being caught as the actual culprit behind Tara’s death but Juice is a liability just twisting in the wind. She’s desperate to get him out of town before the next cog in his psyche snaps like a chain wrapped around a tree the last time things got a little too real for Juice. Gemma can pretend all day that her motives are all about the family, but with her lies mounting, it’s the people she loves the most that will pay in the end.

Ultimately, Gemma’s payback might be a mind tethered to madness and a funeral for her son with Nero buried next to him, while she’s left in a room all alone, haunted by the shadows of the people she claimed to love that all eventually died by her hand in one way or the other.

Notes of Anarchy:

A new sheriff is coming to town named Althea Jarry and Patterson wants Unser to work with her in a consulting position. He was able to keep Charming safe and secure for decades while working with the Sons. Since he’s stopped being chief of police, it’s been a never ending string of blood and bodies scattered around town. Patterson recognizes he’ll be better used as an asset than an enemy.

Did anyone else notice Jax chain smoking throughout the episode? There’s something to it and my belief is unlike ‘The Leftovers’ where characters smoke because they know they’re already essentially dead, the SAMCRO president does it to know he’s alive. A fire being lit is like a constant vigil — think of the burning fire in a camp surrounded by cold — and Jax’s need to have a cigarette in hand at all times this episode seems like a harsh reminder that his soul feels withered and dead, but his heart is still beating and with each deep drag he takes, he knows he’s breathing for at least a little while longer.

The two most prominent, featured songs in this episode came at the beginning and end. First up was a cover of the song ‘Never My Love’ done by Audra Mae and The Forest Rangers. The second was the cover of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ during the end scenes montage as show favorite The White Buffalo returns alongside The Forrest Rangers, Billy Valentine and Franky Perez. Both songs are tremendous and powerful and I highly recommend downloading them right now!

Come back next week for episode 2 of the final season of ‘Sons of Anarchy’ titled ‘Toil and Till’ as the club calls on another charter to help them execute a messy plan as they continue to rip at the seems of the Chinese contingent led by Henry Lin.