Sons of Anarchy: Faith and Despondency Review

Much like the Sons of Anarchy, I spent all of last week dwelling on Bobby’s death. I know that I had initially attributed his execution to August Marks’ ruthless character.

But the more I think about it, the more doubts I have. Why would Marks kill Bobby? He was there when Jax stopped at nothing to get revenge on Pope for Opie (and Tig’s daughter). He knew the whole hot mess with Lin’s gang was a result of Jax’s insatiable desire for vengeance. So why kill Bobby? Why not leave Bobby maimed? 

Maybe he thought that killing Bobby would push Jax over the edge? Maybe he figured he should take out a senior member of the club while he had the chance? Or maybe I am overthinking this and my first theory, that Bobby only died so Sutter could torment Jax, was correct.

At any rate, while I was deeply amused by this episode’s opening sex montage, I was less moved by the pro forma character development. 

You have Rat, who is learning to balance his old lady, his club, and his need to blow off steam with hookers. Barely three dimensional, he does little to break the mold and basically acts as a low level place holder for Kip or circa Season 1 Juice – witty banter with Tig aside. Speaking of Tig, even the glorious acting skills of Kim Coates cannot breathe life into his chemistry-less relationship with Venus. And it has nothing to do with Venus being transgender; it just feels forced. Remember that scene where Tig confessed to Opie that he killed his wife? All that passion, love, grief, guilt was right up front, crackling between the actors. Where did that energy go? It got sucked out the window in Sutter’s rush to the finish line. 

And don’t even get me started about Chibs and the lady Sheriff; who continues to have the emotional maturity of a 13 year old girl. At least this episode’s validation seeking whine fest and ensuing grudge fuck was conducted in the privacy of her home, without witnesses.

Then you have Juice, who, for some inexplicable reason has become Marilyn Manson’s prison wife, even though he has a readily available shiv and is supposed to be working with Manson on killing Lin. Why would he just calmly put up with the rape (and the post-rape snuggling and poetry reading)? He already tried to kill himself, twice. I find it difficult to believe that he would resign himself to this ongoing abuse.

And finally you have Jax, who is seeking solace in the arms of a hooker who vaguely resembles Tara. Remember back in season one, when Jax basically told Tara that all he did was grudge fuck one girl after the other because he could not get over her? Explain to me why he is tenderly making love to this prostitute, before crying and rubbing noses with her? I could see if he was pretending she was Tara. But there is a little too much face gazing and soul searching eye contact for that to be the case. Once again, this dog does not hunt. Especially when Jax has been ramping up the dickishness. I would believe him having frantic, needy sex with this chick. But snugglebunnies? Just, no. 

At any rate, this episode was not about Jax, or Tig, or Venus, or Rat, or Juice’s sore ass. It was about Abel, who is doing his best “Children of the Corn” impersonation. Flat, crazy, dead eyed, am I the only one waiting for him to do something terrible to Thomas? Fortunately, he seems intent on punishing Gemma – scratching up his arm and getting child services called on her (I swear; kids today have DYFS programed into their smart phones). Too bad that obvious lie (Gemma would never abuse her boys) clouds the inconvenient truth when Abel asks Jax why Granny killed his mommy. Jax is never going to take that suggestion seriously. Well, at least not for two or three more episodes.

I will admit that Wendy was the winner this episode (although Jax’s man tears were delicious). Drea de Matteo emoted like a motherfucking champ when Jax told Abel that she was his first mommy. Pay attention lady Sheriff, you could learn something. 

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