Sons of Anarchy Season 7 Preview — The Ultimate Guide to the Final Ride

From stories to new characters to interviews with the entire cast and crew, this is the only Sons of Anarchy preview you’ll need before the final season kicks off on September 9

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

All bets are off and death is potentially looming around the corner for every character during the final season of Sons of Anarchy as the show kicks off the last 13 episodes starting with the season debut on September 9 at 10pm ET on FX. Creator Kurt Sutter has envisioned his outlaw biker drama running for seven years and the last of them has finally arrived, and the stakes are higher than ever as each minute ticks down until the final credits roll.

The final season — season 7 — will feature some powerful storylines, secrets being revealed, characters dying, family bonds made and broken, and when it’s all said and done the Sons of Anarchy will ride off into the sunset.

In our exclusive preview looking ahead at the final season we will look at the characters, new actors and actresses joining the show, interviews with the cast and crew, and what to look forward to when Sons of Anarchy kicks off on Tuesday night.

There’s no better place to start than at the top so let’s delve into the characters this season — where they’ve been, where they’re going and what to look forward to this final year.

JAX TELLER (Charlie Hunnam)

Where We Were:

Jax got the club out of guns and handed over the weapons trade to August Marks while cutting down their Chinese competitors in one of the final episodes last season. Just when it seemed like he had everything in order for the club, his personal life erupted as his wife Tara nearly made a deal to hand over evidence to the district attorney to save her life and escape with their boys. Instead, Jax offered to turn himself in and face gun charges, which would put him in jail for the next decade but Tara and their sons would be free and clear. In the end, however, Jax came home to a lifeless house when he found his wife Tara murdered on the floor of their kitchen. Unbeknownst to him, it was his mother Gemma who killed his wife in a fit of rage and anger.

Where We’re Headed:

Jax is a fountain of misplaced rage and confusion heading into the final season. He opens the year in jail, but it’s safe to say he will get out soon enough. Jax is grieving, but instead of allowing sadness to wash over him, he reacts with violent outbursts and a heart filled with revenge that needs satisfied. Will he point his anger at the right people or will the lies and sins of those around him cost Jax everything in the end?

GEMMA TELLER-MORROW (Katey Sagal)

Where We Were:

The end of last season saw Gemma murder her daughter-in-law Tara after believing she was turning rat and giving up the club to save her own ass from prosecution. This came after she was dumped by Nero when he realized that he could no longer trust the members of the club and had to get space away from Gemma as well.

Gemma was able to get away with the murder thanks to Juice killing Sheriff Eli Roosevelt and covering up her involvement, but how will the weight of Tara’s death affect her this season?

Where We’re Headed:

“It takes place two weeks later and what she does to kind of compartmentalize that is that she once again does what she believes is best for her family,” Sagal told Nerdcore Movement in July. “I don’t want to tell you exactly what happens and what she sets in motion, so how she deals with — she feels she’s coming from a higher purpose.

“By holding the lie and she feels like she does nobody any good by telling the truth.”

Gemma’s secrets and lies will not only start to unravel this season but it could lead to some serious fallout for Jax and the club.

NERO PADILLA (Jimmy Smits)

Where We Were:

Nero was teamed up with Jax on Diosa North and a new house in Stockton offering high priced escorts, but the bottom fell out when Juice revealed that he was forced to kill Darvany (the mother of the boy who shot his classmates) and make it look like it was an overdose. Nero confronted Jax last season with the lies he told and then ended up in a meeting at the end with Marcus Alvarez — the president of the Mayans — as well as Henry Lin, the leader of the Chinese Triad.

Where We’re Headed:

Nero seems to be siding with brown and yellow against black and white, but how will his ultra complicated relationships with Jax and Gemma sway him this season? Nero has been a balancing force in both their lives since coming on the show, but now that he’s been forced to show allegiances, where will his loyalty lie in the end?

JUICE ORTIZ (Theo Rossi)

Where We Were:

Juice had another rough season last year as he continued to struggle with the fallout from nearly killing himself and then turning on Clay before he was murdered. Juice ended up playing daredevil for much of the season, but ultimately it was guilt that was his downfall when he confessed to Nero that Jax ordered him to kill Darvany and lie about what happened. Jax finally revealed to Juice at the end of the season that he know (“You betrayed me!”) and then to cap it all off, Juice covers up Gemma’s murder of Tara.

Where We’re Headed:

“Obviously, Juice has been battling with demons since season 4 being on the opposite ends of those strings, being pulled all the time. Juice is in a world, if you really think about it, he shouldn’t have been in at all. He should have been a comic book kid, not in a motorcycle club because he’s not cut out for it. He makes himself cut out for it doing all these violence acts,” Rossi said.

“This relationship with Gemma with this secret — the biggest secret I think ever in Charming, our hero’s wife and how that affects going into this final season, what Kurt is doing is mesmerizing. Gemma and Juice have got some explaining to do.”

BOBBY MUNSON (Mark Boone Junior)

Where We Were:

Last season it seemed as if Bobby was striking out on his own to start a NOMAD chapter of Sons of Anarchy, but instead he was recruiting new members to help rebuild the mother charter in Charming. He remained a loyal friend to Jax, but ended up taking a bullet towards the end of the season and nearly dying. In the end, Bobby almost became club president when Jax was surrendering himself to authorities to face charges that would put him in jail.

Where We’re Headed:

Obviously with Tara gone and Jax no longer giving himself up to the district attorney, Bobby is back in his role as trusted confidant and moral compass for the club. But with Jax going off the rails on a mission of revenge, can Bobby keep him on the straight and narrow, focused on their new porn business and Diosa or will the club get drawn back into a bloody war over guns with all the factions in Northern California?

FILIP ‘CHIBS’ TELFORD (Tommy Flanagan)

It appears that Chibs will be finding some romance in this final season. While his ex-wife Fiona and daughter appeared earlier in the series, it seems this year Chibs is going to get involved with a new lady.

“There’s a little romance in there,” Flanagan told Nerdcore Movement. “It’s blossoming.”

TIG TRAGER (Kim Coates)

There my be some romance for Tig this season as well because Venus Van Dam (Walton Goggins) will be back for at least a couple of episodes this season and while no one is talking yet on the relationship he may or may not have with the former transsexual escort, it appears love is in the air.

“This season she talks a little bit more about how she made the transition from where she was to where she is now. Some bikers love Venus Van Dam more than other bikers, but she kind of becomes a sexy lynchpin of a couple stories this season,” executive producer Paris Barclay teased in July.

There’s no doubt, Tig is a biker who enjoys Venus Van Dam, but is she the perfect woman to make him settle down?

WAYNE UNSER (Dayton Callie)

Wayne tried to help Tara escape last season, but when things escalated he eventually turned on her. He’s in love with Gemma, but realizing more and more than the club’s ultimate end will always be with a spray of bullets, blood and dead bodies. How much longer will Unser stand by and watch while his town of Charming gets torn apart?

GEORGE ‘RATBOY’ SKOGSTROM (Niko Nicotera)

Can the latest prospect to full patch member survive longer than his predecessors? The actor portraying him certainly thinks so.

“I always feel like Rat Boy gets through by the skin of his teeth. He’s always just managed to get by. Hopefully that keeps going,” Nicotera said.

THE BREWING WAR

In the final hours of season 6 it was clear that a war was bubbling under the surface in Charming, Stockton and Oakland as the Mayans extended their reach with a new charter while teaming up with Nero and his crew. The Chinese were gunned down by the Sons and the One-Niners in a power play over the Irish gun trade. Now it seems that the Mayans and the Chinese are teaming up against the Sons and August Marks and his crew.

It was teased in previous seasons that the Sons went to war with the Mayans in the early 1990’s and the uneasy relationship continued to fester over the years. Now with the Sons handing over the gun business exclusively to August Marks, things are about to get nasty again. Don’t forget, the Mayans gunned down a group of One-Niners during a buy at the close of last season so it appears it’s just a matter of time before the streets in Northern California are running crimson red.

“The fun thing for me this year, we have some new guest stars, but for the most part it’s worlds and people and organizations that we’ve already invested in and I get to bring back great actors like Emilio (Rivera). It really mirrors for me the relationships MC’s have,” show creator Kurt Sutter said. “I mean from year to year, I don’t know who’s beefing with who because it always changes based on street circumstances, so I love to be able to stay real to the world.”So that’s definitely the external pressure that’s going on, as well as our hero coming out with a few personal things going on. That will definitely be the pressure cooker this season.

“So that’s definitely the external pressure that’s going on, as well as our hero coming out with a few personal things going on. That will definitely be the pressure cooker this season.”

NEW AND RETURNING FACES:

Now let’s take a look at some of the prominent guest stars for the upcoming season of Sons of Anarchy and what we know about their characters (if anything).

RON TULLY played by Marilyn Manson — an Aryan shot caller who meets Jax while both of them are locked up together. As Kurt Sutter describes it, Tully will play a major role in a couple of stories this season as he influences the Sons both in and out of prison.

“Manson’s character is really a lot like Otto, the role that Otto served,” Sutter revealed. “So much of what these guys do pivot on what happens inside because that’s where most of the shot callers are so I really needed to sort of stay real and find that character inside and that’s the character Manson plays. A lot of it adds to the pressure cooker of black and white outside and obviously impacts our hero and our club.”

GERTIE played by Lea Michele — a waitress who appears in one episode this season, interacting with Gemma.

STICKY played by Malcolm Jamal-Warner — right hand man to T.O., the president of the Grim Bastards and allies to the Sons of Anarchy

MS. HARRISON played by Courtney Love — a pre-school teacher who gets Abel for a student and has a run-in with his mother Wendy

OSCAR EL OSO RAMOS played by Ivo Nandi — the president of the Stockton chapter of the Mayans Motorcycle Club

MOSES played by Mathew St. Patrick — the head of a security team who takes care of business on the street.

SHERIFF ALTHEA JARRY played by Annabeth Gish — The new sheriff in town taking over for Eli Roosevelt, and a former head of the Stockton Gang Task Force.

OTHER GUEST STARS THIS SEASON INCLUDE —

Jenna Jameson (adult film star)

Brad Carter (best known as Charlie Lange on ‘True Detective’) as Leland Gruen (presumably an Aryan member outside of prison taking orders from Ron Tully),

Tony Curran (Defiance) appears in a single episode this season as ‘Gaines’.

Robert Patrick (member of a Sons charter who first appeared in season 6)

RETURNING PLAYERS:

WENDY CASE played by Drea De Matteo — Jax’s ex-wife and mother to Abel is on as a full time player this season after she gets out of rehab. She wants to play a part in her son’s life but how close will Jax allow her to get in the wake of Tara’s death?

D.A. TYNE PATTERSON played by CCH Pounder — the powerful San Joaquin district attorney appears in a few episodes this season, but her role was cut somewhat short by her new role in the upcoming NCIS: New Orleans on CBS

VENUS VAN DAM played by Walton Goggins — will appear in at least a couple of episodes this season.

LYLA WINSTON played by Winter Ave Zoli — Opie’s wife will take over as producer and director at Cara Cara, the porn company restarted this season by the Sons.

TYLER YOST played by Mo McRae — the new leader of the One-Niners

HENRY LIN played by Kenneth Choi — the leader of the Chinese Triad currently in competition with August Marks for the gun trade in Northern California

MARCUS ALVAREZ played by Emilio Rivera — the president of the Mayans Motorcycle Club and main antogonist this season

GOODBYE DEAR FRIEND

As tough as it’s going to be to reconcile with this fact, Sons of Anarchy will come to an end in 13 short weeks with the final episode airing on December 9. The stories this season will raise the bar like never before because this is the end game. As David LaBrava (Happy) put it when speaking to Nerdcore Movement in July, the final season is brutal and unrelenting from the first minute until the very last.

“Blood, death, genocide, revenge, I mean it, I’m not playing,” LaBrava said. “We’re killing so many people it’s like a bad disease.”

The toughest part will be saying goodbye for the last time and Kim Coates, who plays Tig, said it best when thinking about the way he’ll probably roll a few tears when the credits play and Sons of Anarchy has officially come to an end.

“You bet a big bottle of Crown Royal for me, Coca-Cola and I’m going to suck that whole thing back,” Coates said. “Because this has been the greatest ride for all of us.”