Writer: Kurt Sutter
Grade: A-
Wow. This premiere was fucking brutal. And apparently the ratings were actually damn good (yay!), so I’m curious how many of those people will be back next week, after such a hardcore opener.
It’s interesting that they don't seem to be going for "complex, nuanced villains" with the supremacists (and they are supremacists to me, no matter what they insist). Not that I think there's anything particularly redeemable about their world view, but having them rape Gemma in the premiere sends a pretty clear message that we're not supposed to empathize with these guys in any way, ever, and their public face is a total crock. And yay for Hale essentially telling them to go fuck themselves, even though it's probably going to bite him in the ass.
I was anticipating that something bad was going to happen to Gemma because the "I'd be lost without you"/"I'm right here" exchange between she and Clay was pretty obvious foreshadowing for something bad. However... I thought it was foreshadowing something for midseason, not foreshadowing that Gemma was going to be gang raped at the end of the episode. I still wasn't surprised, though. As soon as that woman flagged her down, I knew something horrible was coming.
Also, “that woman” is apparently Ethan Zobell’s daughter, which is even more disturbing than if she had been his wife, considering the “full disclosure” conversation between Gemma and Tara—I’d still be appalled if Zobell shared that scheme with his wife, much the same as I'm appalled by the shit Gemma knows about Clay, but it’s even more appalling to share that with your daughter and get her to play a part in it. It's possible she didn't know the full extent of what would happen to Gemma, but her involvement still makes my skin crawl.
The aforementioned scene where Gemma tells Tara she needs full disclosure from Jax was really lovely. I’ve always felt that there’s quite a bit of grudging respect, and maybe even some love, beneath Gemma’s antagonistic attitude toward Tara, and her advice reflected that. It was honest advice, and it was good advice. It was also a way to test Tara. Either Tara will be able to handle the unadulterated truth, which will prove that she can be a good "old lady" for Gemma's son, or the weight of that truth will turn Tara away from Jax. Either way, it's a win for Gemma, and the advice itself was sound. She could have just as easily given bad advice and tried to engineer the downfall of Jax and Tara, but she knows that a) Jax loves Tara, always has, so it’s better to try to let him keep something he loves, and b) Tara’s actually pretty smart, so if she can handle the naked truth (and yes, way to go show, turning naked Charlie Hunnam into symbolism! Thank you!), she’ll be a much better match for Jax than most of the floozies that end up hanging around these guys.
Overall, I like how they're setting up the character interactions around what happened with Opie and Donna. Jax and Piney know, Opie doesn't know, Clay and Tig know Jax and Piney know (and Tig feels like shit), Piney doesn't seem to know that Clay knows that Jax knows, Jax may not know that Clay told Tig that he and Piney know, Gemma knows but Jax doesn't know she knows, Bobby knows because Stahl told him but no one else knows he knows, and from the look of the previews, Opie is actually going to express his support for Clay over Jax. It may end up being a lot of "who knows that who knows what" to keep straight, but so far, I'm kind of liking the tension.
Opie will find out the truth about Donna’s death, and he will completely lose his shit. The things is, he’ll also find out that Jax knew the truth and kept if from him, and he’ll be just as unwilling to forgive that as he will be to forgive Clay and Tig.
As for Tig, there were an awful lot of "And now, here's what's going on with Tig" shots in this ep. I am sure some kind of Opie/Tig showdown is on the table, so they may be foreshadowing his death at Opie's hand, but it could be simpler than that. The bottom line is, Tig jumped the gun convincing Clay that Opie was a rat, he accidentally killed Opie's wife in an attempt to kill Opie, he found out Opie wasn't even guilty, and he almost murdered a 17 year old girl. I think he's a monster, but he's not an unfeeling monster, so of course he's going to feel extreme guilt, and of course he's going to be afraid that Jax will tell Opie. That may be all that's going on with multitude of reaction shots.
Miscellaneous Stuff
-I got the impression that this episode began only a few days, maybe a week or two at most, after the finale, yet Hunnam looks like he's just about doubled his S1 muscle. It's particularly jarring after finally seeing how scrawny he was in Undeclared! He looks like a different person entirely, and I’m talking face, too, not just muscles. The human body is an amazing thing.
-When did Jax get that “Abel” tattoo over his heart? I never noticed it last season.
Quotes
Gemma: “He’s still real fussy with the feedings.”
Tara: “Could be the lactose; we can try soy base.”
Gemma: “I don’t wanna turn him into a little vegan pussy.”
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