Sons Of Anarchy: Playing With Monsters Review

Funny thing about revenge; if someone you love gets killed, you want payback. Some form of retribution. You want the person who inflicted that pain on you to suffer. But anyone you might kill in pursuit of vengeance is also someone’s friend or family. Generally speaking, everyone has someone. Murder does not happen in a vacuum. The effects spread out and touch other people. There are ripples. Consequences.

Violence begets violence and where does it end? For Sons of Anarchy’s Jury, it ended when (what I am guessing was) his son took a shotgun blast to the chest as Jax’s fall guy for the hit on Lin’s gun shipment.

Turns out that Jax is not the only one with a great poker face. When Bobby calls for more intel, Jury plays along. He knows the Sons are responsible for killing his boy, but it looks like he is going to bide his time on this. Makes me wonder if the series doesn’t end with Jury putting a bullet through the back of Jax’s head. That would be fitting.

Nah, I still think Gemma’s going to kill her boy. And then go completely insane. Judging by the imaginary conversations she keeps having with Tara, she doesn’t have too far to go. Per usual, Gemma is dealing with her own ration of shit this episode. First, she gets roughed up by a prostitute’s dad at Nero’s whorehouse. Able arrived just in time to see his granny get Rick James’d in the face. Meanwhile, Thomas is getting scarred for life as he sits in his playpen and watches his babysitter bang Ratboy (who is really coming into his own as Tig’s sidekick). The worst part is, if that was all her kids were going to be exposed to, I don’t think Tara would have been in such a rush to flee Charming.

No, granny beatings and sexy time are the least of Gemma’s problems. Unser is still nosing around Tara’s murder (helpfully turning the new Sheriff on to a possible connection with Lin). Juice cannot seem to sack up and get the fuck out of town; at least not until he has one last confrontation with Chibs.  Chibs, unmoved by Juice’s love for the club, stonily tells his bromance to eat a bullet. Harsh. When it comes to the aforementioned Sheriff, however, Tibbs is a little more congenial.

Yes, it looks like Sheriff Tight Jeans is interested in keeping Charming “profitable” for all parties. Plus she would like to bang Chibs into next week, but can you really blame her?

Chibs is taking his role as VP very seriously. He backs every play Jax makes, and he doesn’t flinch when he turns Juice away; knowing that he can’t give his friend even a sliver of hope (run Juice!). Yet when it comes to Sheriff Tight Jeans, he seems a little off his game. Adorably flustered. Remember, his first wife, Fiona, was pretty formidable (running with IRA leadership). I guess he gets shy around women who aren’t prostitutes? Either way, I get the feeling Sheriff Tight Jeans picked her mark, and will be playing him for a while.

Anywho. Not to be outdone by his mother, Jax is dealing with his usual high tide of drama. Even with the kerfluffle at Nero’s place, Redwoody Productions is up and running with Lyla in the director’s chair. Her first movie?

Skankenstein.

Despite this small round of success, the pier has degraded into mayhem. August is pissed about Lin’s missing merchandise, and suspects the Sons are double dealing. Jax decides to stir the pot and pays a visit with the Niners, who will back him in his play against August if Jax can help them squash an internal beef. Squashing the beef turns the Mayans against the Niners. And just to ice the cake a little, Jax sets up what looks like a Niners hit on one of Lin’s “massage parlors.”

But those weren’t Niners trashing the place, they were Sons, Grim Bastards, and Theo Huxtable. I shit you not, Malcolm-Jamal Warner smashes some stuff and speaks brusquely to a “massage technician.” I look forward to next week’s episode where we might hear him say, “Gosh darn it,” and try to have sex before marriage. Really, he is ADORABLY non-threatening and indelibly linked in my brain as Shirley’s (from Community) husband and Cosby’s kid.

And somewhere in the world, Bill Cosby is firing off an angry email about gratuitous violence shoring up damning stereotypes.

Good job, Sutter.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!