“The Separation of Crows” is quite possibly Sons of Anarchy’s most sullen episode to date, and it spends a lot of its runtime staring down at the ground with eyes glossed over with the sting of compounded regrets. In opposition to how this final season’s episodes have laid things out, only a few key events occurred in tonight’s episode, though they all tie in together to force Jax’s hand as both a club president and a father. He’s lost every advantage he had, assuming he had any at all. At least his latest impulsive act has taken care of their rat problem. Or did it?
”I wanted you dead, Jackson.”
Those are the words spoken by Jury White after Jax accuses him of ratting to Lin that SAMCRO stole their heroin, as well giving them the location of stolen guns and the now-deceased West. But Jury then says he’s no rat and that he had nothing to do with it. Jax doesn’t really have a lot of trust for anyone in this episode, so he understandably brushes the denial off. Then Jury really catches his attention by bringing up Big Poppa John Teller.
You see, Jury and John were really close in the days before John died, and Jury happens to believe that Clay and Gemma’s role in John’s “accidental” death may be smaller than what was previously put out there. He thinks John may have killed himself over his disgust for the way SAMCRO had turned out in his control. This reads less as news than slander to Jax, who uses his fists to make his opinions count. Jury reaches for his weapon and Jax shoots him through the face, presumably straining future ties between the Redwood and Indian Hills charters. The way Jury’s second banana freaked out on Jax can easily be read as “foreboding.”
Chibs warns Jax of the impending backlash, but I have to imagine even Chibs is getting pretty nervous about following his leader’s movements at this point. Jax doesn’t bother to tell anyone that Jury denied the rat charge, and that means we may still have a super secret stool pigeon hiding in Charming’s shadows. How is he going to deal with that when he’s dealing with Bobby?
”Due Process.”
Watching Jax look bummed out just didn’t do it for me as far as quiet scenes went. Much better, however, were the tense interactions between the one-eyed Bobby and former Special Ops veteran Moses Cartwright. Though he’s a violent man, August Marks isn’t entirely a monster, and Bobby is given such amenities as water, coffee and cigarettes to make his quasi-jailtime more comfortable. Moses wants him to give up the construction site location where the bodies are buried, with the threat of another body part getting lopped off every 24 hours. Predictably, Bobby doesn’t give a shit, and it falls on Jax to figure out a way to find him.
Only Jax can’t simply kill someone to get the information, so he’s essentially useless in this task. He finally agrees to give up the location of the bodies but won’t deliver the mother and son that Gemma is watching at the cabin. But that’s not enough. I got a chill when Moses tells Bobby that Jax “made the mistake of thinking the terms were negotiable.” Bobby then gets his hand cut off; at least that was what it looked like. We see a finger being cut into, but Jax doesn’t open the package at the end of the episode, so we can’t be sure I guess. Jax can only do what he’s told at this point if he wants to keep Bobby whole, right?
”No Son is Safe.”
Not content to just send body parts as threats, Marks also has someone break into Gemma’s house when no one is there. A stuffed animal is stabbed into the wall, and the quote above is written on the wall in crayon. Jax knows that his inner circle’s lives are at stake here, but he’s not exactly great at thinking under duress. I thought the discovery of who broke in would be more of an issue here, but it wasn’t.
Thomas’ safety is countered by Abel’s bad behavior. The little son of a bitch hit a kid with a lunchbox and cut him open, and he’s backtalking to Gemma, asking if she knows what accidents are. (Strangle that impish gash, Gemma!) There wasn’t a lot of grandmotherly grace when she told Courtney Love that she would tell Abel to hit her next time, and I wonder how their mini-acquaintanceship is going to end. I hate that Abel’s path to destruction is ongoing. I hate that Abel…That’s it. Although I will be extremely enthused if he's somehow revealed to be the one who killed the birds and wrote the message.
And that’s about it for the episode, too. Juice makes a deal with Jarry for protection in prison in exchange for info on Tara’s killer. But it doesn’t look like he’ll rat Gemma out, though he does keep talking about a murder weapon. We saw him break the carving fork and stick it in the dumpster during last season’s finale. (Or did we?) However that goes, I hope he and Lin get into a major fistfight that leaves them both bloody and dead.
Will Sons of Anarchy kill any more birds in its next episode? Or how about the real rat? Or what about Rat? Ack!
Stuff That Fell Off the Back of the Bike
I sincerely thought that Jax was going to start singing “All Along the Watchtower” on top of that roof at the beginning. It made me uncomfortable.
“How could I not see this coming?” Especially with both of your eyes still intact, Jax.
“I love you, Philip.”
“I love you, too, Jackson.”
Cocoa Spheres for breakfast!
“Not like I got a lot of hobbies, other than waiting to die.” I hope Unser has a happy future back with his cop friends. Scrabble = word boning.
We’re supposed to feel sorry for Jax, a man who has killed countless numbers of people and ruined the lives of many, many more. Is watching him realize that Marks is smarter supposed to be cathartic? He’s sitting on top of a roof instead of taking care of that monotone sociopath he calls an oldest son.
Dale Dickey like a motherfucker.
Did they show blood on Jax’s white white sneakers for a reason? Will that come into play later?
We’ve seen blood, guts and a dude get drowned in piss and vinegar, but the grossest thing I’ve ever seen on Sons of Anarchy was Juice killing that bug. He has to eat with those hands.
Finale prediction of the week: Sheriff Jarry and her crew are stunned to find people all over charming are being kneecapped by a mystery marauder holding a lunchbox.
