Sons of Anarchy season 6 episode 12 review: You Are My Sunshine

This review contains spoilers.

6.12 You Are My Sunshine

“She knows she got played but she got what she needed,” a great quote from Jax to remind us that the battle of wits he is engaged in with Tyne Patterson is continuing at a break neck pace and it is hard to see either of them losing. Although Tyne is becoming more desperate as her plans seem to keep getting foiled by unexpected events. So once again Jax has seemingly put all of his affairs in order and has somehow against almost impossible odds convinced the Irish to work with August Marx. He delivered a serious blow to the Chinese’s chances at becoming the number one gun distributor in the Northern California and even seems to be reconciling with Tara. Of course as is always the case with Sons of Anarchy when one set of problems gets solved a slew of others appear in their place.

Tara has run off with Abel and Thomas. Gemma is convinced that Tara has made a deal with Tyne Patterson to get out of Charming and Jax has a violent breakdown at this realization. To further complicate this Tara’s intentions are exceptionally unclear as she not only runs away with the boys but she also seems to have nixed the deal that she made with the DA.

Earlier in the episode Tyne Patterson made an excellent point about how if Tara goes on the run that SAMCRO will hunt her down and kill her. However, was I the only one who thought that Tara might kill herself and the boys? We have no idea where she is or why she has seemingly backed out of her deal with Mrs. Patterson. She is lost, confused, scared and out of options. Perhaps her Ophelia like descent into madness is going to come with an even higher price as she may take her children with her.

Remember this season started off with a young boy (who looked a lot like Jax and for that matter also could easily have represented a future version of Abel or even Thomas) going on a shooting spree and getting killed in the hailstorm that he initiated? This boy’s violent actions lead to his violent death as well as the death of innocent adults and children. So one can rightfully assume that Jax’s kids were always doomed. Perhaps Kurt Sutter and his team were trying to convey this message to us early on this season by having the shooter bear such striking resemblance to the Teller family. I do not want anything to happen to those boys and that clearly seems to be Jax’s biggest fear as well. So could Jax endure anything worse then Tara killing his kids? Would that also force him to confront the issue that this season has also raised all along about our personal responsibility to the world around us?

Jax lives by the sword and will most likely die by it however, he never seemed to understand that his sins affect everyone round him as well. Additionally, if you remember that Opie’s death almost broke Jax and that it had him embark upon a bloodthirsty quest for vengeance then most likely the death of his kids would have him seeking out Mr. Mayhem and most likely look to enact his thirst for vengeance eon himself. The future prospects for Jax and the club are the darkest and most tragic that they have ever been on the show and that is really saying something considering how much has happened over the past six seasons.

Now since this is Sons of Anarchy, the situation for Jax becomes even more complicated because Nero, thanks to Juice’s guilt ridden confession, knows that Jax ordered the murder of the mother of the school shooter. This is not something that Nero can easily live with as he wound up shooting member of his own family over this incident.

Furthermore, when Nero was confronted earlier in the episode by his loyal gang member in arms the point that is raised that ever since they became affiliated with SAMCRO that the club has caused nothing but problems for everyone. He is more right then he knows as everything that the club has touched over these past six seasons has been brutalized and destroyed in the most horrific ways possible. There is no hope with SAMCRO, they are poison to the world around them and this to me is one of the strongest tragic elements of the show because even when the club tries to do something good it blows up in their face. Sometimes literally – remember what the Irish did to the clubhouse?

Jax should also face some sort of retribution from the Chinese as they will not take kindly to the assassination of their leader as well as the mass murder of several of their other members. We finally had the return of one of SAMCRO’s biggest adversaries, Marcus Alavarez, who is looking to rise up in power and ally with Nero and the Chinese. If nothing else comes from this it will no doubt bring more trouble upon SAMCRO.

In yet another reference to the Godfather saga the club in trying to go “legitimate” finds themselves being drawn further and further into the criminal world. You could rightfully argue as Alvarez did that when SAMCRO distributed guns across Northern California that the gangs had some sort of boundaries and that SAMCRO actually made their transactions amongst each other safer, where as now it is just pure chaos. Clay knew that getting SAMCRO out of guns would kill the club and he even killed JT over it, but you know something Clay was right all along. So Jax is chasing an ideological dream set forth by his father that was never possible in the first place. He may as well be the ghost of Hamlet’s father because the needles path of destruction that both of these tragic figures are following is the same.

As these newfound problems continue to manifest themselves I cannot help but also wonder just how “fine” the Irish are with the way that things have gone down. Ever since Jax went to Ireland to find Abel, who was previously kidnapped, he has been a constant source of trouble for the Irish. As great as the show is and as fantastic as they are at finding believable solutions for the situations that the club finds themselves in it is hard for me to believe that the Irish are going to let Jax slide for everything. Is it wishful thinking to think that Tara has made a deal of her own with the Irish Kings so that her and her boys can start a new life in Ireland? If that does not happen then I think the idea is at least good enough for Kurt Sutter to give me a shot to be in the writers room for season 7.

There was a great visual this week when Jax brings Connor to meet August Marx and a storm is literally coming on. This metaphor makes it even more clear that all hell is breaking loose and essentially war has begun on every front imaginable. The only thing that seems to be certain is that no one will walk away from this clean or emerge victorious.

What next week will bring is going to undoubtedly be powerful and emotionally gut wrenching. I would also advise any fan of the show to watch this season again rom start to finish when it is over to see how despite them keeping us guessing that the endgame was always in front of us and we just had to connect the dots and that is something that makes Sons of Anarchy the best show on television. “I love you Doc.” No Bobby we love you!

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