Sons of Anarchy, “What a Piece of Work Is Man” (7.9) - TV Review

Sons of Anarchy, “What a Piece of Work Is Man”

November 4, 2014, 10:00 pm (EST), FX

Things just keep getting worse for SAMCRO. Jax’s circle of family gets smaller every day, other charters are considering actions against him for Jury and we say goodbye to another Redwood Original.

Jax attempts to play the role as daddy at the start of the episode, as if we’re supposed to believe he does anything for his children. We can at least be grateful that Thomas is young enough that he’ll never remember any of this when it’s all said and done. Abel, on the other hand, is truly the loser here in the Teller family. This kid has been screwed since he was born, and he constantly has this satanic look on his face. He could really play the role of “creepy child” in a horror film. What’s even worse is the fact that Jax is blind to the fact that perhaps Abel is frustrated about his environment. What else would you expect when you surround him with violence and sex all the time? His reaction to Wendy is something I see coming out of Gemma’s mouth.

Gemma’s fight with Jarry was unexpected and totally pointless. I get Gemma acting like Gemma, but why does Jarry have to stoop to her level? Gemma’s just looking for a reaction, as she always does. Not only does it seem unprofessional from Jarry’s role as sheriff, but it also doesn’t really serve a purpose either. Jarry seems smarter than that, but we’ll get back to her in a bit.

Indian Hills stops by unexpectedly to talk with Jax about what happened to Jury. Jax tries to feed them that Jury was a rat, but they don’t buy it even after Jax tells them about Jury’s son. Even I was for sure Jury was the rat. Now, it’s possible he was lying before Jax murdered him, but something seemed very off about the whole situation. If that’s true, then there’s still a potential rat within SAMCRO. Juice is ruled out for obvious reasons, but the other possibilities are endless. Regardless, the new president of Indian Hills informs Jax he’s having another charter do an independent investigation into what went down. SAMCRO’s resources are already spread thin enough. There’s no way they could handle an internal beef if it gets to that point (which I’m sure it will).

Jarry uncovers a bit of a twist with the guy Gemma IDed: he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly in Vegas the night of Tara’s death. Upon sharing this with Unser, he suggests pulling Juice in solitary so Lin lives, but they’ll keep it quiet from Gemma to see what happens. Juice and Gemma are both screwed. Jarry’s still working things through, but I think Unser knows more. Despite his years of loyalty to Gemma and the club, I don’t see him helping Gemma out, especially once he finds out she’s the one who murdered Tara.

The real shocker of the episode is the unfortunate death of Bobby Munson. After being left alone with Marks, Grant (the dead preacher’s son-in-law) and Bobby, Jax thinks the trade will go down smoothly. Bobby, having suffered a broken jaw at the hands of Moses, tries to tell Jax there’s a gun hidden in the back of his jeans. Jax, always prepared for worst case scenarios, is once again caught off-guard by Marks. After threatening Grant and his mother to what would happen if they cross him, Marks shoots Bobby in the head. He then proceeds to blame Jax for this before leaving.

Marks makes a very compelling case; Jax’s actions against Lin and the Triads led to this. His clouded judgment and misinformation caused him to go off course, endangering SAMCRO and causing the deaths of everyone at Diosa. While Jax ultimately ordered the hit and started down the bloody path by killing Dun, the blame falls upon Gemma once again. Because of her hasty reactions with murdering Tara and lying about it, she put her family in danger and inadvertently got Bobby killed. Gemma realizes this once Jax says Marks did this as retaliation for the club going after Lin. She was looking like she’s barely holding it together after discovering her birds ripped limb from limb, but now she appears to be a few steps away from a complete mental breakdown. How long can she keep up the charade?

Jarry forcing Chib’s hands to decide if he has feelings for her seemed way too far-fetched. While we’re still not sure if she’s really on the club’s dime or not, this seems wildly inappropriate, even for her. What purpose does it serve for her to sleep with Chibs in the parking lot in front of Quinn? Unless she’s using this as potential leverage later on, it was yet another bizarre, frustrating character move for her. Is it too much to ask for Sons to have had just one good, moral female lead? I know that goes against everything Sutter wants in this universe he’s created, but at the same time did they all have to be corrupt? Tara was about the closest thing we had, but even she had her demons.

The final scene of Marks being arrested did little to seem like rightful vengeance for Jax and SAMCRO. If anything, they’ve put an even bigger target on their backs. Does Jax really think Marks can’t operate while behind bars? Moses is not someone Jax wants to mess with, and from the look on his face we may see more members of SAMCRO losing body parts very soon.

The Roundup

• Rat standing up to Gemma early on was quite a departure from a few weeks back.
• Why are we bothering with Rat and Brooke’s storyline? We get it, they’re like Jax and Wendy. If Sutter set this up last season, we might have a reason to care. It just feels forced and rushed.
• Tig seems a lot more normal than Happy these days.
• Speaking of Happy, I almost felt worse for him than anyone else in SAMCRO when he breaks down crying over Bobby’s body.
• Abel seems to hear an awful lot of stuff he shouldn’t be. What’s your play here, Sutter?