Sons of Anarchy Recap “Suits of Woe”: How Could She Do This?

In the latest Sons of Anarchy recap, Jax finds out the awful truth about Tara’s murder and as the threads start to unravel, lives are torn apart….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

The threads are almost all unraveled now.

The latest episode of “Sons of Anarchy” titled “Suits of Woe” took us further down rabbit hole than the show has gone since the death of Tara Knowles at the conclusion of season six. Her husband, Jax, has been blindly seeking vengeance all year long because it’s easier to inflict pain on others than deal with the hurt that’s been decaying inside of him ever since he walked into the house they shared and found Tara’s lifeless body laying on the ground, covered in blood, cold to the touch.

He got the convenient answers he needed from the people he trusted most. His mother said the Chinese did it. She gave him a believable target and he aimed and fired. Again and again and again until there were just shreds of paper and blood left on the ground. But what Jax couldn’t see until his five-year old son uttered the words last week was the unbelievable. How could Gemma — the mother who has protected and nourished him since birth — be the one that took away the love of his life? Who took away the mother from his children? Whose death set off a chain of events that could only be categorized as catastrophic. How could she do this?

The latest episode was possibly the most powerful yet in the history of “Sons of Anarchy” and before I go recapping everything that happened, I’d just like to recognized Charlie Hunnam, Theo Rossi, Jimmy Smits and Katey Sagal for some of the most gut wrenchingly beautiful acting that’s ever been displayed on a television screen. The awards shows have often left “Sons of Anarchy” off the ballot for one reason or another. The scenes in tonight’s episode “Suits of Woe” don’t deserve to be nominated — they are just in a league all their own.

Falling to Pieces

Jax spends the night in Abel’s room trying to wrap his head around the revelation that his little boy just unloaded. He said Gemma killed Tara. It’s something so crazy, it might just be true. So Jax has to dig deeper to find out if there are holes in the case that was built around Tara’s murder investigation, which never really existed in the first place.

The initial piece of the puzzle comes from Wendy just seconds after he steps out of Abel’s bedroom. Following Jax telling Abel that Wendy was his first mother and allowing her to finally be a parent to her son, she couldn’t hold back any of the lies she was keeping from him any longer. Wendy confesses to helping Juice hide out after she discovered he was staying at her place when she returned from rehab. To make matters worse, it was Gemma who put Juice up there in the first place. Unser was also involved in helping Juice escape the club’s wrath This now connects Gemma and Juice in a way Jax never suspected. But why was she helping him? Who else could connect the dots? Before leaving, Jax gives Wendy a heartfelt goodbye while telling her to “take care of our boys”. It was the same phrase he uttered to Tara before he was about to surrender himself to the police in exchange for her freedom. Ominous indeed.

Jax’s first stop early that morning is to visit Unser in his tin can outside of the garage. After a very rude and loud wakeup call, Jax demands answers about why he was helping Juice, but more importantly why his mother was helping the wayward Son. Unser doesn’t have any real answers about Gemma’s motivations, but it clearly puts her close to Juice and gives Jax even more suspicions. The only way to have them answered is to question Juice himself in prison. Jax asks Unser to facilitate it through Sheriff Jarry, but in exchange the video tapes can run and whatever is said in the room could be used to close Tara’s murder investigation. Unser agrees, but issues one final warning — if Jax burns him on this one, his relationship with the Tellers and with the club are done. For good.

It takes Jax about four seconds to burn the bridge because he asks Chibs and Tig to work with Otis to reach out to Tully to set up the room for a meeting with Juice and there are to be no video tapes running at the time of his visit.

A Rat to Find a Rat

While Jax is searching for the truth in Tara’s murder, he’s forgotten about the wheels set in motion at the prison where Juice is charged with killing Henry Lin to prove his loyalty and gain entrance back into the club. When Juice first appears on screen, it’s back to last season where he killed Darveny and he’s washing his hands in the sink, muttering words to himself. At the time I compared Juice to Lady MacBeth with the equivalent of washing her hands over and over again while saying “out damned spot”. This time around, Juice was more Private Pyle from “Full Metal Jacket” as he spoke to himself, almost a pep talk of sorts.

“I do this and everybody’s okay with me and everybody forgives. This gets done. I put something together here, get through the time, I’ve just got to finish it. This gets done. This gets done”
~ Juice

Tully has everything set up with the guards so Juice can kill Lin and escape without a trace. When he arrives in the boiler room, presumable in the basement, Juice finds Lin chained by both arms as he’s dangling from a pipe overhead. The guard gives Juice a phone that he can use to record Lin’s confession so he can hopefully uncover the rat who outed SAMCRO to the Chinese. Juice convinces Lin that if he gives up his source and promises not to use the club as leverage to get a reduced sentence, then he goes free as well.

“It was Charlie Barosky. He came to us and said he knew who took the guns and where they were. Prick held out for a shit load of cash. Cops — the biggest criminals of all”
~ Henry Lin

The answer so obvious it could have smacked me in the face and I didn’t even realize he was the one. Back several weeks ago when the Diosa murders first happened, Jax and the club used Barosky to track down the security guard responsible for keeping an eye on their gun warehouse the night West was killed and the weapons were stolen. When his excuses didn’t work and he looked like he was about to break, Barosky shot him dead. There was no doubt Barosky was hiding something, but in this case it almost appeared to be too big for this one time cop who now runs a 10-block radius of ports and whore houses in Stockton. But sure enough he’s the rat and I owe Tig a great big apology. Jax owes Jury an apology but it’s a little too late for that now. I only wish I had listened to my own advice back when I recapped the episode where Barosky shot the night watchman dead.

With the confession in hand, Juice has one more job to finish. He jabs his shiv into Lin’s neck and as the blood spurts out the former leader of the Chinese Triad tries to call him a piece of shit, but he chokes on his own fluids before he can finish the sentence. Juice finishes it for him.

“I’m a rat. What makes you think I wouldn’t be a liar, too?”
~ Juice

It Won’t Hurt a Bit

Jax arrives at the prison and has a brief meeting with Tully before Juice arrives. Before he leaves, Tully gives Juice one more fluttering goodbye because they probably have after hours business in the cell that night. When Juice sits down, there’s a wash of relief in his eyes. He did what he was supposed to do. He killed Lin. He got the confession. He found out the rat, who was responsible for the deaths of 16 women at Diosa including Barosky’s beloved Collette. Everybody forgives, right?

Jax has other questions for Juice that have nothing to do with Henry Lin or his confession. Instead Jax tells Juice the story of a tortured and tormented little boy living at home who is now cutting himself and blaming it on his grandmother to get away from her. This poor boy has lost his mother and now has an awful truth floating around his head that grandma was the one who put her in the ground. Before Jax sends his son to therapy, where a million doctors will twist up his little mind in a million other directions, he needs to know if this was the truth or the delusions of a really sick five year old.

It was so close. Juice thought he was back. He thought this was the end of the road. He was right about that in a sense, but not how he figured it was all going to go down. With tears rolling down his cheeks, Juice finally relents and lets Jax in on the truth. The awful truth. All of it.

“We heard a crash and Eli ran in the house. I followed. Tara was dead. The place was trashed. She must’ve gotten into a brawl with Gemma. Your mom was on the floor, freaked out, covered in blood. Eli was about to call it in. I killed him.”
~ Juice

Jax then remarks that following that horrific scene, Gemma needed Juice as much as she needed him to escape. They’ve been working together ever since. Due to the brutal nature of Tara’s murder, Juice believed a gangland hit made the most sense so he concocted the story about the Chinese, fed Gemma the right information and put this entire sequence of events into motion. Everything that’s happened in the last 10 episodes is a direct result of that single lie. It’s a lie that got 16 innocent women killed. It’s a lie that forced battle lines to be drawn and war ignited. It’s a lie that put Bobby Munson in the ground.

“Bobby’s dead. August. Retaliation for us going after Lin. They cut out his eye. They cut off his fingers and then they shot him in the head right in front of me. Don’t say you’re sorry. Don’t say anything. Thank you for telling me the truth. I’ll make sure it’s quick.”
~ Jax

Jax says his final goodbye to Juice by signing his death warrant and really, he knew it was coming the moment he opened his mouth to tell the truth. Juice hasn’t been the same since Eli Roosevelt started turning the screws on him a few seasons ago when he found out the SAMCRO member had a black father. When Juice pulled the trigger and killed Miles, his life was one big downward spiral that just took a while to get to the end. He tried to end this months ago, but a tree branch wouldn’t support the weight of it all and there were still more roads to cross. Things only got more complicated when he turned on Clay and basically ended his life. He killed an innocent mother, mowed down a cop and through it all the guilt and anguish continued to fester and swell until it boiled over. Now Juice is truly unburdened with nowhere left to go but down. Forever.

This might go down as the single greatest and most defining scene in “Sons of Anarchy” history. The pain and torment in Juice’s eyes. The suffering felt in Jax’s heart. All conveyed with pitch perfect one and eloquent execution from both Theo Rossi and Charlie Hunnam. A master class that should be recognized.

Hunting Party

Now that Jax knows for a fact that his own mother killed his wife, he’s on a warpath, but not the kind that ended with a slew of dead Chinese soldiers or the slaughter at the farm last week where he dug a guy’s eye out of the socket before killing him dead. No, Jax just needs to find Gemma without giving any reason why.

Gemma is already spooked but her suspicions that the jig is up gets confirmed when Unser comes to the garage and tells her about Wendy’s confession to Jax. He now knows that she was helping Juice all that time and there’s no good reason as to why that happened. Gemma isn’t upset at Wendy over the entire ordeal. In fact she’s happy that Jax finally told Abel about her being his real mommy. Gemma’s paranoia about Jax’s search for her reaches a crescendo when Juice calls her from prison. He told Jax everything. What he’ll do with that, Juice has no idea but it was time for the truth to be told. Gemma holds her grandson Thomas one final time before packing a bag and getting ready to hit the road.

Thanks to a distraction from Chucky (who she slugs with a punch upon his suggestion) when other members of the Sons show up looking for her, Gemma slips away from the house and heads to her next destination. She visits the church where her father used to give his sermons and then she reaches out to Nero — the last lifeline she has in this world.

He’s locking down a deal to officially sell Diosa to the Mayans for $150,000 in cash. Lyla is there to sign off on the contracts and apparently in her down time away from raising Opie’s kids and filming porn movies, she’s become a notary public. Isn’t it crazy that the woman who started out on this show as essentially a prostitute is now the most balanced and well adjusted person left out of everybody?

When Gemma calls, she tells Nero he’ll have to meet her at an address because she can’t make it into Diosa right now. He arrives at a small house nearby where she tells him that this is the place where she was born. Her father was a pastor, who loved to preach to the second family he had called a congregation. Her mother, unfortunately, wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about a big family so after Gemma’s little brother died, that was the end of her baby making days. Her mother’s resolute stance on children only made Gemma want them that much more. She wanted a dozen sons, but ended up in the same situation as her mother except it wasn’t self chosen. Her son Thomas died and thanks to a heart condition, she was no longer able to have children.

So Gemma put all of her attention on Jax and raised him the best way she knew how. She was a terrible student and a bad wife, but she was a great mother. Gemma’s long, involved speech has Nero wondering what exactly she’s leading to although he has to know in his mind this is all reaching the point where she says goodbye. For whatever reason, Gemma is going to end this thing with Nero — and then Jax calls.

She begs Nero not to answer and instead let her drive off before he finally heeds Jax’s call. Nero doesn’t listen and picks up the line while telling Jax that he doesn’t know where Gemma has slipped away to without a trace. Jax demands that Nero call him the second he locates Gemma, but his former business partner is going to need a little more information than that. Nero says to give Jax the location where Gemma is going or coming from, he has to tell her why he’s so desperate to find her.

Instead of hearing Jax recap the awful truth about Tara’s murder, the entire story is told from one side of the phone conversation. The side with Nero where he’s just listening, but the terrible revelations torque his face into a million different directions all leading towards sorrow. Much like the scene between Jax and Juice earlier, Jimmy Smits pulls out all the stops playing every level of emotion without ever saying a word as the truth about Tara’s murder finally comes out.

When he finishes the call, Nero just asks Gemma if it’s true. She confesses and he tells her to go. The love these two shared is officially over and Nero is broken in more ways than one.

Before Gemma finally leaves Charming for good she stops by Abel’s school for one last visit with the person she loves most in the world. Earlier in the episode before everything came out, Gemma held another “talk” with Tara where she confessed that she’s not sure why Abel was telling these lies. Especially when he’s the person who means the most to her in the entire world. Gemma arrives at the school and calls Abel over to the fence where she hands him a ring — it says Sons and it belonged to his grandfather, John Teller. She gives it to Abel while telling the little boy that this is the same ring she gave to Jax when he was patched into the club and it should be on his finger when he joins SAMCRO at some point in the future.

As if she already knows this cycle is going to repeat itself eventually.

Finally, Abel’s teacher tells Gemma to beat it before she calls social services and for once the normally outspoken and brash grandmother tones it down. She tells the teacher that she’s happy Abel has someone so devoted to look out for him no matter what. She turns and leaves and when she’s well out of hearing distance, Abel finally mutters the words ‘bye Grandma’. For a split second you almost feel bad for Gemma. For a split second and then it passes.

Her escape route is heading north towards the house where she once intended to stash Juice this season. She wants to go home to see her father one last time and stay at his place until her sentence is levied.

Lies, Lies and Videotape

Jarry shows up at the garage to inform Unser that Lin is dead and Jax’s meeting with Juice ended without a single frame of video being shot. Unser knows he’s been double crossed and he’s not happy about it. When Jax, Chibs and Tig show up a moment later, he’s gunning for some answers. The only problem is he’s finally pissed off Unser one too many times.

Jax gets word that Gemma is running so he asks Unser to call her and schedule a meet. He then reminds him in no uncertain terms that the moment he stepped into that prison and the videotape he promised that would convict Tara’s killer never got recorded in the first place, his days of serving SAMCRO were officially over. He has no idea the kind of torment that’s living inside of Jax right now so when he unleashes a tirade towards the SAMCRO president, laced with accusations about how he clearly doesn’t care about Tara’s murder because if he did he wouldn’t be spending all his time learning how to be a better thug while avoiding his responsibilities as a father. Jax is boiling over but Unser isn’t done yet. He screams at Jax and asks if he’s the next victim on the rising body count. Should he just go hang out in his trailer and wait for somebody to show up and jam a carving fork into the back of his head?

Jax erupts and punches Unser. Chibs and Tig tell Jax to get the hell out of Dodge. Sheriff Jarry steps in and checks on Wayne, who is bleeding from the mouth. He’s done protecting SAMCRO and he’s definitely done placating Jax and his violent tendencies. He orders Jarry to put out an APB on Jax and let him cool down in a cell so he can’t hurt anybody else while he figures out what exactly is going on right now.

It’s All Done

Jarry and Unser head off to the prison to see Juice one more time to hopefully find out what it was Jax was there for earlier in the day. When he arrives, it’s clear Juice has already resigned to die. He’s just waiting for it to happen. Unser and Jarry try to bargain with Juice, offering him protection and potentially an exit from jail. It’s too late for all of that. How do you bargain with a dead man after all?

Juice can only tell them one thing they probably already suspected — Gemma is the key to this entire investigation. From the beginning she knew more than she was letting on and if they want answers, she’s the one holding them.

“Gemma knows the truth. About everything. Gemma knows every truth behind every lie inside every secret. She’s the gatekeeper.”
~ Juice

They try, beg, borrow and steal to get Juice to give up the information, but he’s not budging. He already betrayed his club, his president and Tara for that matter. He was done with that business. Whatever happens now is just a matter of fate.

“I’m all done. It’s too late, for all of us.”
~ Juice

Later that night while he’s in his cell, Juice receives a visit from the same guard who had been hand delivering him to Tully for the past few days. This time he’s got a different message. It’s time for Juice to take a ride on the Orient Express — in other words the guards are working for the Chinese and they are requesting his audience and he has to go to the infirmary for the meeting. That means the guards have to beat the living hell out of Juice with batons to send him there. This won’t end well for anybody.

It’s definitely going to end bad for Juice no matter what.

A Secret Place

Jax and the guys go to visit Charlie Barosky to get some answers and likely some much needed payback, but he’s not as the shop when the arrive. Some local sheriffs are there and once they run Jax’s plates, they know he’s inside and if they catch him, he’s going to jail. Jax isn’t about to spend any time right now behind bars so he makes a run for it, steals a Dodge Charger and gets in a classic cop chase scene set to some really funky Latin jazz fusion music.

In his moment of need, Jax turns to the Mayans for help. Alvarez extends a helping hand and now that they are partners in a business, this only strengthens the ties between the two clubs. Alvarez gives Jax free reign over his warehouse to use to conduct his business while he figures out his next move. Before he leaves, Alvarez reminds his new best friend that August Marks is getting out of jail soon and that’s a problem that has to be dealt with. Jax plans on meeting with Connor Malone, who he hopes will hand off the gun trade to the Mayans, which further weakens August’s hold on the area. Jax will chop up the territories in the area divided between the Mayans and the One-Niners and by the time August can rebuild his crew, he’ll already be staring down the double barrel of a loaded shotgun.

Jax calls a meeting with all of the Sons around a makeshift table in the back of Alvarez’s warehouse where he finally unloads the truth on the people who have been riding alongside him this entire time as he’s gone on a mission of revenge. Jax confesses that the Chinese had nothing to do with Tara’s death and it was actually Gemma who murdered his wife. The fallout that resulted was all on Jax. Everything. Every last bit of it.

“I was wrong. That mistake is mine and mine alone. Everything that happened as a result of that mistake — every body that dropped, every relationship that was torched, West, Jury, Bobby, everything that jeopardized this club was my fault.”

“I’m sorry that the family I was given has created so much chaos in the family I’ve chosen. I hope you know I love you all very much.”
~ Jax

To make matters worse, the forum that was held by the other clubs didn’t go very well for Jax and SAMCRO. Jax is done lying to the members and the other charters. He’s going to meet with the presidents of the other major charters in the area and tell them the truth about Jury and everything else that’s unfolded in these past few weeks. Jax knows he killed a member in cold blood and that will likely result in a mayhem vote. It’s ironic that the way Jax dies may be by the hand of a Son.

Jax requests some peace and quiet so he can deal with his thoughts and the club will reconvene there in 24-hours. As everyone leaves, Nero enters to have a heart to heart with a friend he’s grown to love like a son. They converse and try to wrap their collective heads around the fact that Gemma was the one who killed Tara. She slaughtered and murdered the woman Jax loved most in this world. She covered it up and then unleashed a lie that resulted in dozens of deaths including a beloved member of SAMCRO. And maybe the worst part of all of this is the fact that Jax can’t help but still love his mother. In spite of everything, that can never go away.

Nero knows Jax needs a resolution, but could he actually put down his own mother? That’s the kind of stain that never washes clean. Jax can’t even really put into words the amount of hurt he’s feeling right now but as he breaks down and cries and Nero comforts him in his moment of pain, he’s finally feeling the hurt that’s been burning a hole through him ever since he found his love dead on the floor.

“That’s the part that hurts the most about all this, man. After everything she did, all the lies, the death and the wreckage, I still love her. She’s my mom. How could she do this to Tara? How could she do this?”
~ Jax

The real killer has finally been revealed and the truth leaves Jax with a searing pain where his heart used to be. It’s a hole that can never and probably will never be filled again.

— Notes of Anarchy

— The song Gemma is listening to on her way north in California (towards Eureka) is titled “Blessed Assurance”, which is based on Hebrews 10:22 — “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

— How adorable was Chucky when he told Gemma that she was his best friend and her response was “I accept that”. His heart was torn in two when he realized she left and is probably never coming back. I wonder how he’ll take things when he discovers what she did to Tara….

— Once again another episode with little to no music or soundtrack outside of the chase scene and Gemma listening to the gospel song in her car. A little bit of intel about what’s coming up — The White Buffalo revealed recently that he has recorded a song with The Forest Rangers and lyrics by Kurt Sutter himself that will play in the last couple of episodes.

— Gemma being revealed as Tara’s murderer was probably the most heart wrenching series of scenes this show has ever done, but I’m curious if it will she will ever be outed for playing a part in John Teller’s death as well?

— Lyla wins the best line of the night while injecting a slight taste of humor to an otherwise somber episoe — “I’d rather shoot pussy than have my pussy shot at”

Reminder next week there is no new episode of “Sons of Anarchy” as the show goes on a hiatus for the Thanksgiving holiday. “Sons of Anarchy” returns in two weeks with the final two episodes of the series. The next is titled “Red Rose” airing on December 2.