‘Sons of Anarchy’ Season 6 Episode 9 ‘John 8:32’ Recap: Lullaby for a Soldier

Secrets always have a way of being revealed and this week’s episode of Sons of Anarchy was shot up with sodium pentathol as some painful truths came to the surface for Tara and Gemma while the history behind a mysterious character is finally revealed…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Kurt Sutter has said on a few occasions that he likes to put a little more thought into the title of the episodes for Sons of Anarchy than a typical showrunner might do. Generally speaking they will relate back to the episode on some way, cryptic or otherwise, and by the end there’s usually a trail of breadcrumbs to lead you to the meaning behind the title. This week’s episode — ‘John 8:32’ — didn’t require a ton of research or deciphering when looking to the meaning in its relation to Sons of Anarchy.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”

Now the first blunt reference to that bible passage came during Clay’s visit to the prison church where he heard a chaplain quote the verse in his sermon about Christ and his redeeming powers, even in a place as dark and dank as prison. Of course Clay’s not really there to receive the holy spirit — he’s quietly watching the red-headed inmate a couple of rows away who is nodding at him as guards pass in and out through the room. Finally when the correct signal is made, Clay goes into action calling the sermon into question. Clay’s unrelenting when asking about some Jew dying on a cross somehow cleaning away the sins of all mankind, even the vile and pernicious alike. He then reveals his higher power — pussy! Clay then goes on a minute long rant about ‘pussy the healer and pussy the redeemer!’. Pussy hasn’t had this much airtime in open conversation since Cheech Marin’s speech in From Dusk Till Dawn.

Needless to say this was all part of a plot to get the guards to make him stand down and that’s when Clay goes all Hannibal Lecter and takes a piece of nose with one chomp before being thrown into the infirmary for psychiatric evaluation. This was all part of the plan so Clay could meet with a certain doctor who would allow him 40 minutes of quiet time to conduct his business with the Irish and the gun deals via a cell phone. The doctor, ever the entrepreneur, then takes a payoff from the guards Clay assaulted to allow them 40 minutes of alone time with him as payback.

Clay’s gun running future may be short lived because of some other revelations and truth telling that happened during this 90-minute episode. First off, Jax decides to let Tara in on his ultimate plan to rid the club of the Irish and gun running by pawning off the trade onto Clay, who will soon be busted out of prison by the IRA en route to being transferred to another facility. Tara’s heard enough and her disconnection to this world is almost complete, but she has just quietly picked up a very big bargaining chip if she chooses to use it. Jax may regret letting go of that information so easily a little bit later…

Thanks to District Attorney Patterson, the sheriff’s department now has extra teams at their disposal for one use, and one use only — to trail Jax Teller and the Sons of Anarchy as long as it takes until they lead them to the proof needed to connect them to the gun running that resulted in an 11 year old boy shooting up his school. Jax finds out about his new shadow from Sheriff Roosevelt, and shortly thereafter he meets with his good friend Charlie Barasky and the ‘milf madame’ Collette to let them in on Patterson’s latest moves — she’s shut down his bakery with a health code violation while also denying Collette’s application for the escort service. For the time being, Barasky and Collette have to cut ties with Handsome Jack and the biker brigade for the sake of their own businesses. This continued pressure prompts Jax to make a tough decision to pay a visit to the big, bad wolf herself.

Jax then comes face to face with the woman who could eventually bring about the downfall of SAMCRO when he heads to the DA’s office to meet with Patterson. Jax reveals the plans he has for the club, moving out of illegal activities and carrying on the legacy of his father who wanted to do the same before his life ended. The way Jax gets to this life of luxury far away from bullets and blood is to cut all ties with the Irish gun running. The way he gets there whole is to hand over a bigger target to the district attorney to take her eyes off the club and onto more enticing prey. That prey is the real IRA and their contact in America Galen O’Shay.

Now if you’ve heard this plot before, it should sound familiar because this is the same plan Jax unfolded with Agent Stahl of the DEA when he needed to head to Ireland to find his son, while trying to get his club reduced time in the gun charges they received after storming Ethan Zobelle’s church. Jax handed over Jimmy O’s number two in charge and eventually handed over Jimmy himself, although the true plan was to murder him and Stahl as it was all revealed in the season three finale. Now I’m not one to question the methods behind the madness of Kurt Sutter. The man has kept me on my toes and the edge of my seat watching Sons of Anarchy for the past five and a half seasons, never really knowing what comes next. This particular deal offered up by Jax does seem like a retread, and I’d assume despite the fact that Stahl’s agreement with the former vice president was ripped to shreds, some of the other agents she worked with would have documented something about this entire ordeal, enough that DA Patterson could look it up and know what she’s stepping into.

Regardless, the Irish shamrock at the end of the criminal rainbow is too much for Patterson to resist so she gives Jax 10 days to produce Galen and the guns or she will rain hell down on him and the club like he’s never seen before. Jax also requests that Patterson look over Tara’s case again because that was all about Toric grinding an axe and not about getting justice.

The real meat and potatoes of this episode was the further unraveling and eventual crumbling of Tara’s plan to get away from Jax, the club, Charming, Gemma, the violence, and everything she’s been sucked down into over the past few years. Her way of getting out was becoming the very thing she was trying to escape, but just like Gemma’s best laid plans, ghosts and secrets both have a way of finding their way to the surface. Tara’s model for this conniving scheme is still smart enough to know when she’s being played, and Gemma is well aware that her daughter-in-law’s first mistake was plotting with weak counterparts who could easily be broken.

Wendy was already crushed under the weight of the guilt and it took Gemma about three seconds of interrogating Margaret to find out she was in on the entire deal as well. Now it was up to Gemma to find out a way to get Jax to look a little deeper into this situation, but it wasn’t going to be easy. The result ends up being Nero trying his best to play peacemaker after the club finds out he tried to take the rap on the entire gun running charge with the district attorney. Nero uses that moment of levity to do his best to talk some sense into Jax when it comes to the rift between him, his mother and his wife. As expected, Jax shuts him down quickly wanting to hear no more of Gemma’s lies.

Nero then turns to Tara for a little heart to heart. He pleads with her to feel compassion for the situation, knowing full well the end result will be Gemma lashing out with a scheme of her own that’s bound to get a lot more people hurt or killed. Tara tries to warn him away from Gemma due to her own past proclivity for husbands ending up in awfully poor conditions. One is dead, the other is in jail and Nero could easily be headed that way as well if he’s not careful.

“That’s the life,” Nero says with calm and ease.

“No, it’s the wife!” Tara shouts back. “She killed John Teller. I suggest you get out now before you end up dead, too.”

And like that the secrets are exploding like land mines detonated all over town except these won’t result in pieces of Kozik falling all over the site of where Charming Heights is being built.

Once Jax catches wind of Nero’s confrontation of Tara, he uncorks a punch and a warning to his business partner to stay away from his wife. The two end up in a bloody battle after Jax says that Nero accused Tara of being a liar and a manipulative bitch.

“If she told you that then I guess she is,” Nero fires back.

Finally Gemma arrives and breaks the two of them up from their fist laden therapy session. It’s then that yet another revelation is made when Jax accuses Gemma of her own agenda without regard about him or the club. Nero finally lets loose the information that Gemma was forced to have sex with Clay in prison while the guards watched in disgusting glee. Gemma uses this moment of clarity to implore Jax to look a little deeper at Tara’s story. She wants out — she wants out of Charming, out of their marriage, and out of the life with Jax and this is the way she gets her exit strategy started.

A few minutes later, Ally Lowen (Jax and Tara’s attorney) shows up at Unser’s trailer where he invites her inside to share some crucial information about Tara and the kids. He quickly locks the door behind her and from the shadows appears Jax with a gun in hand looking for answers. Shaken and crying from the sheer threat of being killed over this information, Lowen sings like a canary. She tells Jax everything that Tara has been plotting. He lets her leave and on her way out she quickly calls Tara and informs her that Jax now knows everything. Lowen being allowed to leave alive in one piece was an agreement he made with Unser, which we can only assumes reflects on Tara as well — no one gets hurt.

Meanwhile back at Diosa, Nero wants a little more information from Gemma after his earlier conversation with Tara. He wants to know if she was complicit in John Teller’s death like Tara claimed. Gemma proceeds to explain John’s apathy and desire to get the club out of guns, and while his mission carried him away to Ireland he quickly fell in love with another woman. During these long trips is when their son Thomas died, and she found herself in the arms of another man as well. It was then that John started to write his manuscript (that will come to life now for real) and Clay, Keith McGee and most importantly Gemma knew that if SAMCRO tumbled it would be from John’s weakened hand. So they plotted to have him killed. Gemma may not have sabotaged the bike he was riding that fateful day when he rolled over by a semi, but she gave the nod of approval that he had to go. Nero now knows Gemma’s darkest secret. He’s wanted out of the life with the Sons for the past few weeks and if an almost murder conviction didn’t wake him up, maybe this latest information from his lady love will serve as shock treatment that it’s time to go.

The tractor trailer accident that killed John Teller also came back full circle with one other side story that happened on this week’s episode. In the earliest parts of the hour and a half episode, a young woman was sitting outside the ice cream parlor when Jax arrived for his morning coffee. She proceeds to assault one of the motorcycles with a wrench (it happened to be Tig’s in case you were curious) and then launches the tool through the front window of the shop. Jax gives chase but with a crowd of people standing around and a young girl screaming rape, he quickly lets go and she runs away.

We find out that her connection to the club was through her mother — Emily Putner — who was killed in an auto accident 18 years ago. The same auto accident caused by John Teller’s out of control motorcycle that was rolled over by tractor trailer, which then caused the pile up that took the woman’s life just after she gave birth to a little baby girl. This revenge plot was hatched after the girl was packing up all of her belongings with her father after they were booted from their house when it landed in foreclosure and found the old newspaper clippings about her mother’s death. Jax pays a visit to the father, who is now a supervisor at one of Elliott Oswald’s factories, when he notices the picture of Emily on her wedding day. She looks very familiar…like a character that we’ve seen pop up in every single season since the day Sons of Anarchy began. Sure enough, Emily Putner is the homeless woman that Jax and Gemma have run into several times throughout the series. She even has her own dedicated page on the Sons of Anarchy Wiki page so as strange as it sounds this was one of the bigger moments the show has ever dealt with considering in many past occasions Sutter never really acknowledged what role if any this homeless lady character played. Now at least on some level we know who she is (or was).

As a sort of payback to everything that’s happened, Jax asks Oswald to help the guy save his house from foreclosure and he will owe him one. Oswald says he’s running for mayor again since Jacob Hale is on his way out, and he might have to call in a few favors from his favorite motorcycle club.

The story in the latest episode closes with Jax dealing with the fallout of Tara’s betrayal, but he never goes home and at least as of now hasn’t confronted her about it. Tara stays at home, cold and numb from everything she’s faced over these past few weeks. She clutches her baby boy tight to her breast as she sings him a lullaby. Her first impulse when receiving the call from Lowen may have been to run. Her next instinct may have been to call the cops. What she ultimately does may be the scariest thing of all. She sits quietly in the nursery, her son in her arms, her angelic voice whispering soft notes into his ear all the while clasping a revolver at her side as the screen fades away and we are left with only the reaper staring back at us. Some are speculating that Tara is holding the gun as protection from her husband if he comes home in a rage knowing the things she’s done, but I have a difference theory all together. If this truly is Shakespearean, then Tara’s gun may be her version of Ophelia’s noose.

(On a side note) Actress Maggie Siff has been so unbelievably good this season, and the depths that she can carry this character is so much more than what she was during season one.  She’s shown an emotional and acting range that only actresses like Edie Falco have enjoyed over the years.  The Emmys already missed the boat last season when Kim Coates richly deserved at least a nomination for his portrayal of a broken, beaten and then psychotic Tig Trager.  If Maggie Siff doesn’t at least receive a nomination this year, the Emmy awards should just stop giving out awards for ‘best actress’)

Notes of Anarchy:

— The song that Tara sings at the end of the episode is called ‘Lullaby for a Soldier’ which Maggie Siff actually sang and you can pick up on iTunes right now.

— There have been quite a few scenes this season between Tara and her lawyer Lowen — to see even more check out the indie release ‘Concussion’ where actresses Robin Weigert and Maggie Siff share even more screen time together

— The director of this episode was Guy Ferland, who has directed 10 episodes of Sons of Anarchy including the season 2 premiere ‘Albification’, which included the horrific rape scene of Gemma courtesy of the Neo-Nazi group led by Ethan Zobelle.

—The guard who had his nose bit off by Clay was played by actor Brandon Molale, who may best be known for his turn as Kevin Ward the New York Jets quarterback in the Adam Sandler film ‘Mr. Deeds’.

Come back next week when Sons of Anarchy returns for episode 10 of season six titled ‘Huang Wu’. Only four more episodes to go this season and it looks like the Irish are coming back to town when we return to Charming in seven days time. Also, don’t forget ot check out our dedicated Sons of Anarchy podcast ‘Charming’s Most Wanted’, which debuts on Friday breaking down this latest episode and looking ahead to next week.