The Televangelist: ‘Sons of Anarchy,’ Season 4, Ep. 10

One of the most game-changing episodes of the series so far.

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  • FX
  • “FML”



Show creator Kurt Sutter said, after calling all bloggers the c-word, that last night’s episode would be “a game changer for SOA.” There has been a lot of violence on the show this season, more, I will wager to say, than usual (Sutter has often linked “Sons” to “Hamlet,” which sometimes fits and sometimes doesn’t, although the level of violence may more accurately be tied to “Titus Andronicus,” frankly). As SAMCRO went to see LeRoy, I paused to consider the value of life in the MC world, or the lack thereof. Alvarez lost “his best soldier” to one of LeRoy’s gunmen, and took another’s life in return. The deaths are casual in the way of an action film - nameless, faceless “filler” victims are gunned down or thrown off cliffs or trapped in burning cars … but it’s not a big deal, because they are either unconnected to or in the way of our hero. But what if one of the Niners had gun downed Tig or Opie in that bar? Would Clay have calmly killed one of the Niners and moved on? Could it have been justified as the cost of being in the MC, and the cost of doing business?

I bring this up because the value of life (whose life means more than others) was a very central theme to “Hands.” And as for the violence, not only did we get some of the casual variety (as in LeRoy’s bar) but we also got some that struck, literally, very close to home. I can only imagine the buzzing of the blogsphere about the violence again Gemma, but I will argue that it was necessary for Gemma to make that break with Clay. The violence against Tara that also put Jax, Thomas and Abel in danger set Gemma off, but had it not been for Clay’s sloppy handling of the money and the setup (could he have been more obvious?) Gemma might still have been convinced that Lobos was to blame for the incident. Despite everything else, she had not been convinced, up to that point, that Clay was unable to be redeemed. It was an extreme measure, but it made clear the path that must be taken. “He will die at the hands of his son,” she said coolly and calmly to Unser.