Sons of Anarchy, 2x04, “Eureka”

Episode Title: Eureka
Writers: Kurt Sutter and Brett Conrad

Director: Guy Ferland

Originally Aired: 09/29/2009
Grade: A-

This was pretty much an entire episode of Clay acting like a selfish, infantile asshole. He’s always a selfish, infantile asshole, but it was even more front-and-center than usual here.

Tig is far from my favorite character, misogynist that he is, but he should have been more important to Clay than delivering guns. In fact, I even got the impression that Clay might have been hoping to get rid of Tig because that would lessen the chance of the club (and Opie) finding out the truth about Donna’s death. Even if that’s not what Clay was thinking, putting the gun run over the rescue of the Sgt. at Arms is bullshit and sets a terrible example. Clay can hide behind “the best interest of the club” all the wants, but postponing Tig’s rescue in favor of the job shows the other guys that when shit hits the fan, Clay may not have their backs after all (which makes Opie’s comment that Clay “just needs to know we’ve got his back” even more laughable).

The others seemed to notice Clay’s poor leadership, as well, and it certainly weakened his hold, considering that five of the eight members who were present chose to run off and rescue Tig against Clay’s wishes.

As for Clay threatening to kill Jax for questioning his monumental fuck up, there’s no coming back from that as far as I’m concerned. Either it was a desperate, empty threat, or the guy’s truly monstrous. You’re married to Jax’s mother, you dumb fuck, and she’s obviously going through enough shit already without you trying to murder her son.

I also think Jax was pretty spot-on when he said, “The things I call out are about the club.” Of course there’s a personal element for Jax, but it’s Clay who generally reacts to things out of fear, anger, jealousy, embarrassment, etc.—everything but the well-being of the club.

Opie’s answer to Clay asking if he’s okay—“I guess. The road helps.”—was certainly more honest than any response he’s given Jax. I don’t like that he’s more open with Clay than with Jax, but there it is. And considering what an asshole Opie’s being to Jax, I actually have a lot of respect for Jax’s ability to keep his temper and self-righteousness under control enough to avoid losing his temper at Opie and bellowing the truth at him.

The early lovey-dovey scene between Jax and Tara was quite sweet (probably too sweet for some male viewers!), but it seems a bit early for Tara to realize that she’s Jax’s “old lady.” They’ve only been officially back together for a few weeks at most! Not that I think Jax would mind if Tara wants to move that fast, but I got the impression that Tara is pushing the relationship forward too quickly. (Also, I think that scene was the first time we’ve actually seen Jax with Abel this season. I know they can’t have Jax snuggling with his son in every episode, but I’d like to see a little bit more of Jax being a parent…)

Finally, I loved the backstory from Unser because it provided insight into why he cares about Gemma, and it also revealed that she brought SoA to Charming. His information also shed some light on Gemma’s feelings toward Tara—they both left town for ten years and came back. There was also a really lovely and easy-to-miss moment where Unser actually points out that the two women are a lot alike, except that Gemma came back with a baby and Tara didn’t. On the first viewing, I noticed Tara’s pained look at Unser’s comment but wasn’t sure what it was about. On second viewing, I remembered that Tara aborted Cohn’s child in Chicago (and of course, I'm sure she has some rather complicated feeling about Jax having a child with another woman). That sort of subtle reminder of a character’s history is damn good writing.

Other Stuff

-Bobby kicked so much ass, playing referee and telling everyone to chill for a while.

-I wonder if Jax will ever reveal any of the Opie/Clay/Donna intrigue to Tara. If he does, will her first impulse be to run straight to Gemma?

-I find it interesting that Piney doesn’t seem to hold Donna’s death against Tig, perhaps believing that Tig is just Clay’s weapon. That’s generally the truth of it, but in this particular scenario, it was Tig who pushed Clay into believing that Opie betrayed the club.

-I felt bad for the owners of the motel that the guys barreled into. In this economic climate, they may have put the place out of business because the owners can’t afford the cost of repairs. Good thing this is all fictional, eh?