"Final Ride" - Sons of Anarchy Final Season Discussion

[dalsh327]

Gemma told a pretty big lie to cover her ass.

[The Glow Inc.]

Decent episode. Nice balance of tension, violence and cheesiness ( dat CGI wheelchair scene... ).

[Crash Diet]

One of the things to remember is what their weaknesses are. Nero's son - anything happens to him, he'll lose it. Jax is already going to be fucked in the head looking for revenge, and Gemma's going to play him. Wendy's on Gemma's good side (for now), let's remember she is the mother of the boys and understands the SAMCRO life. She's a lot older than she was when she was the junkie whore, as Gemma lovingly calls her.

It's going to be interesting how Marilyn Manson and Courtney Love factor into this season. Manson's character is someone Jax meets in prison.

Manson is so creepy, even creepier than his heydays in the 90's....

also i still wanna fuck Gemma so bad

[sweetchild88]

Wow. Gemma. Gotta love to hate the character. Tells Juice she isn't a psychopath and then calmly justifies killing Tara. I felt terrible for the Asian guy that she put the blame on. Are we supposed to believe she kept quiet about seeing him for 9 or 10 days? No funeral scene for Tara? And what is up with that lousy marker at her grave?

What about Unser? Doesn't he remember telling Gemma that Tara was a rat and then she stole his truck and he found her later, upset and showered? I am really curious to see how far his loyalty goes.

Anybody believe that Wendy is clean after 9 days in rehab? Looks like we are in for a serious bloodbath and some of the deadliest gang wars yet.

I just don't know if Jax is going to kill Gemma or not. I hope so. I am worried about Abel and Thomas. Anarchy Afterword was pretty interesting. There seems to be a lot of mixed reactions to the premiere. I hope Sutter delivers for us. He said he wanted to go out on top.

[dalsh327]

http://www.thewrap.com/sons-of-anarchy-star-theo-rossi-talks-juices-fate-and-his-quite-nude-final-season/

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

I was disappointed they killed the Asian dude so quickly. He seemed like a pretty neat character. I also had a hard time believing anybody would believe Gemma kept that under wraps for ten days, but I don't think she did. I seem to recall Jax saying something like "We're all caught up" when he got in the car with her, though that could have been about anything, like the situation with the Bastards. I think Tara's grave marker might have just been one of those "placeholder" things. Although considering what this show is, we may not be seeing it again anytime soon, unless her grave becomes the new place Jax goes to talk to dead people. I doubt Jax will kill Gemma, but I don't see her living. Then again, I didn't see Juice living this long either, so yeah. I'm not the best guesser when it comes to this show, haha.

What did everyone think about the new cast intros? Kind of disappointed Jimmy Smits still doesn't have one. Must be some contractual thing. I liked Ratboy's because it reminded me of Half Sack's, simple and having to do with motorcycles, and Happy's was pretty neat. Good to see they haven't forgotten about his "happy" tattoos, although it sure as hell took them long enough to get back to it, didn't it?

All in all, I think the episode was better than I expected it. Not great, but not like season six's episodes. It was a pretty good episode, nowhere near the best but far from the worst. My only issue is I felt it dragged on a little bit too long, although again, not as bad as season six. Thankfully this season is supposed to be mostly normal sized episodes, so if they're anything like this one in quality, they should be pretty enjoyable. Season six's main issue was they had too much time, and I'm glad to see this season won't be the same.

Kind of angry at Sutter though. He said this was going to make "Red Wedding" look like "Bed Wetting." That made me think there was gonna be a massacre at that little party, but nope. Just the torture of a random mook. Speaking of, Jax was inaccurate when he said the guy was gonna feel what Tara felt. As far as I can recall, nobody rubbed salt in her tit. He was supposed to hit the guy with an iron instead, haha. Those are some pretty good forks, too. I figured most would break off in someone's skull, but not these. Damn fine craftsmanship.

Next week's promo looks neat. Can't say I'm surprised it looks like Juice will rat, again. Well, just twelve episodes and thirteen weeks to go folks. This oughta be good

Now, let's talk about the CGI wheelchair scene... Or not. The less said there, the better ._.

[sweetchild88]

@NullaLexInk

You are right, it is a placeholder at her grave. I just wasn't thinking.

And about the forks!

I am enjoying reading the SoA message board on IMDB right now.

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

@NullaLexInk

You are right, it is a placeholder at her grave. I just wasn't thinking.

And about the forks!

I am enjoying reading the SoA message board on IMDB right now.

Still kind of weird it's still there though. You'd think after so long they'd have a tombstone there by now. Can they not afford it or something? Hopefully it gets addressed in the coming episodes.

Hey, I'd kill for a fork like that... Not that I'd be using it for those purposes. But this day in age, you never know when you need a good fork. Sudden dinner party, revenge killing, you know. Also, I figured you might like this quote I said awhile back, around the time the season six finale aired: "Not even a minute in the house and Gemma has to remind her that she hasn't ironed the clothes or washed the dishes yet. She put quite a lot in poor Tara's head." I'm horrible.

Yeah, it's fun to see everybody's reactions to what happened. Some crazy people, sure, but what place doesn't have a ton of those? Haha. Although, I just noticed something about what Theo Rossi said in that interview dalsh linked earlier.

"If you go back to Day One, '08, and you told me that Opie, Tara, Clay, Half-Sack, Hale, Hale Jr., all these people were not gonna be there [now], everybody would go, ‘You're crazy. These are all main people on this show.’ So how can anybody really guess what's going to happen in the final season, when the cuffs are completely off Kurt? You know, when he's just like, writing this masterpiece that he's been wrapping up? I mean, you can't guess. With Juice, it's like … oh, man, he's been in hot water since Season Four, and now here were are, Season Seven. So it's really just one of those things that's pretty fantastic to watch and it's even more fantastic to play."

Notice anything? It's possible he misspoke, but it seems kind of an odd way to mess up, if that's the case.

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

Whoa, no musical montage to start us off? I'm so heart broken. The "I got Abel down to half a pack a day" joke was pretty hilarious.

[dalsh327]

Oh no, a "story driven episode".

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

Man, is there anyone Jax hasn't pissed off so far? At this rate I bet the series ends with all of the other Sons charters coming down and massacring SAMCRO.

[J Dog]

I like Jax as a dead man walking. Dude is hard. But at this rate, everybody is going to get it.

"We're running out of room."

"I know a thousand places to bury a body."

[The Glow Inc.]

As I said before, Jax is a worse leader and scumbag than Clay ever was and he just proved it again.

Hope Juice eventually tells him personally who killed Tara so he can realize how badly he fucked up.

[dalsh327]

Juice lives to see another day. Why does it seem like he's going to hook up with Gemma? Or Nero's going to hook up with Wendy?

I thought Gemma was going to poison Unser's tea.

It seemed like the club was "back in business".

Edited September 17, 2014 by dalsh327

[sweetchild88]

I definitely felt like there was some chemistry between Nero and Wendy.

Wondering just how much Unser knows or suspects. I noticed that when he questioned Juice about why he was hiding, the first thing he brought up was Tara.

Jax is setting up so much destruction...

I'm guessing it was a mistake for Jury to see the sawed off shotgun and connect the Sons to the murder of the two guys Jax set up.

And I may have missed something, but why did Juice return to Wendy's apartment?

[Bards]

I'm reading the Juice/Gemma and Wendy/Nero relationships as more parental. Gemma knows what it's like to have to bury secrets for survival (going back to JT) and Nero knows what it's like to try and rebuild a life after being a junkie.

[J Dog]

Yelawolf song from the end of last episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWuwOfIJJBo

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

As I said before, Jax is a worse leader and scumbag than Clay ever was and he just proved it again.

Hope Juice eventually tells him personally who killed Tara so he can realize how badly he fucked up.

At this point, I despise Jax just as much as ,most people hate Gemma. I guess you could excuse him torturing that one dude since he was "in pain," but killing associates of one of his brothers, regardless of whether or not he knew the closeness of their connection, is just low. He's a serial killer at this point, and I dare say he's just as bad as Gemma, except at least she's remorseful for what she did, as that scene with the photos showed us. Jax is just a ruthless monster using his wife's death as an excuse to take out a rival gang.

I'm hoping my theory is right next week, but it doesn't look like it will be, at least not that soon.

I definitely felt like there was some chemistry between Nero and Wendy.

Wondering just how much Unser knows or suspects. I noticed that when he questioned Juice about why he was hiding, the first thing he brought up was Tara.

Jax is setting up so much destruction...

I'm guessing it was a mistake for Jury to see the sawed off shotgun and connect the Sons to the murder of the two guys Jax set up.

And I may have missed something, but why did Juice return to Wendy's apartment?

Unser definitely knows more than he's letting on. At least I think it seems that way. I think Jax's speech on how he was going to torture and kill Henry is foreshadowing of his own fate, but I feel like this will happen at the hands of his own club. He's already angered one really close charter with the murder of those two guys.

I thought on my first viewing that Juice came back to the apartment because Gemma was setting him up. Initially it seemed like he called her number to see if it really worked, but it went to Chibs' phone instead, so he decided going to Nate's was a bad idea. Upon reviewing though, I think he intentionally called Chibs. Even if he was being set up, coming back to the apartment is a really dumb move, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did it. I think he actually came back because, as the trailers for next week's episode seem to show, he wants back into the fold.

So, apparently next episode or the episode after, there's going to be a change or death that sets up the end of the show. Any guesses as to what it is?

Also, random thought of the day:

"Mama

Just killed my wife

Put a fork inside her head

Over and over til she was dead"

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[J Dog]

Yelawolf is from my hometown. So cool when a local person makes it big. Cool song.

Yeah, he is straight. I like a lot of his stuff. That's how I am about Darius Rucker, I'm not even a big fan of his music but I always like to see him doing good and support him.

[J Dog]

Yall giving Jax hell! Must have forgot how big of a sob Clay was. He killed people, and not only did he kill fellow members, but close friends. Poor Piney. At least Jax didn't know their was a connection, Clay killed brothers in cold blood. And for what, to cover up his own dirt. Don't get me wrong, Jax has made some bad mistakes and it seems like he's going over the edge, but shit, Clay was a monster. Stone cold killer. Now Jax has seen his wife brutally murdered, probably realizing what he took for granted, I can't judge him now. He is a man on a mission.

Juice went back to Wendy's because he has just lost it. He is a dead man walking too. He's got too much inside of him. He can't take it, I think he is ready for whatever is going to happen.

[The Glow Inc.]

True but I still think Jax is a worse leader.

Clay was mainly motivated by money ( weapons and the drugs business ) and not being put on the spot.

Jax is now only motivated by hatred and vengeance ( being unemotional is leadership 101 ), he asked his fellow members to get ready to die for this even though it won't accomplish anything for the club.

While he is good at setting people against one another, he is also incredibly naive and creating a full-scale war based on what his manipulative mother told him without questionning it for one second. I'd say that at his point, not only does he not care about the club despite what he says ( which makes him the worst possible leader ), he doesn't care about himself. He is just a ticking time bomb making terrible decision after terrible decision.

At least Clay wasn't impulsive. He was a scumbag but not an emotional mess.

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

I get what you're saying, but I still think Jax is just as bad as Clay. You could argue Jax is even worse, because Clay had the interests of the club in mind, usually. Right now, Jax is making this brotherhood do things just for him, like TGI. said. The club gains nothing from taking on the Lin Triad, except for additional risk. And this is all based on something he didn't even investigate, because he's blinded by mommy's apron.

Jax doesn't seem to care for the club at this point, just his own personal goals. True, he is in a bad place due to Tara's death, but that doesn't excuse him using his brothers. And honestly, while he hasn't killed a brother like Clay has, I wouldn't put it past him. Let's not forget that he went against a club decision to spare Clay. Sure, he didn't kill him, just sent him to prison. Sure, only Bobby voted against it, but we all know Juice would've too. And yeah, they later voted to kill him anyways, but still, he went against it to get his own way. And we really shouldn't forget that he sold out Tig, a brother, twice, the first time to frame someone the club had chose to spare, without knowing if Tig would get out alive or not, and the second time pretty much "just cause some guy asked me to." Again, without club approval.

The worst part about all of this is that by doing it, he's becoming Clay, the very man he hated, just without the good features and only the negative ones. I'm not saying Clay was an angel by any means. He wasn't. But he was an effective leader, despite the bad qualities, and Jax should be even better, because he has seen the results of the bad things Clay did, but he's just idiotically repeating the cycle instead of breaking it. Truth is, Jax is only at the head of the table due to nepotism, who his dad was, not because of his leadership abilities. It really should be Bobby or Chibs in charge, and hopefully by the end, it will be.

And it's at this point I cut myself off, because I'm talking about this stuff way too seriously now ._. The discussion is very nice, though. On a side note though, touching on what I said a little bit ago, how come there wasn't a vote for Jax to be president? From some of the things I've read, it seems like there should have been a vote regardless of Jax's status as VP. But maybe SAMCRO operates by different rules, who knows. Yet again, I'm taking this stuff way too seriously, haha.

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

@Nulla:

I've found myself taking it too seriously too.

About a week ago, you asked if anyone caught what Juice might have let on in that interview...I didn't catch it, but I meant to come back and ask you.

I'm just unable to make predictions on this show. I think we might be surprised.

I think there may not have been a vote for Jax to be president since his father started the club as one of the first nine and with Clay being his stepfather and Jax being VP already, that might be the reason. (Terrible run on sentence, sorry).

Clay was definitely not an angel. He put a hit out on Opie, causing Donna to die. (Some of the blame goes to Stahl, of course). And remember the home invasions he set up? Roosevelt's wife was killed.

Speaking of votes, why hasn't there been one for any of these decisions Jax has made lately? And now that you mention it, even though you may have changed your mind, Gemma setting Juice up sounds about right.

Please nobody kick me out of the thread, but I like Jax and I want him to escape Charming with his sons. I wouldn't mind him staying if the club truly went legitimate but I guess we all know that isn't going to happen. I think Sutter wants him to appear destroyed with grief and unable to see clearly and the arc he is on will destroy the club. I guess anyway, who knows? Here I go again, taking it way too seriously...

In the interview, Rossi said "Hale" and "Hale Jr.," even though only one Hale family member has died. He might have just misspoke, but if he did, it's an odd way to do so. This is a pretty hard show to guess for, but I still find it fun. I've even been right a few times. Before season six even started, I said Tara was going to die, and she did. I also guessed Unser and Juice would bite it, though, and that didn't come true. The point is, I was right, once!

That would make sense. I actually figured there was a vote, but after that scene. They just kind of let him sit there cause they all figured "Eh, who are we kidding, we're not going to vote anyone else in here." The run on sentence is forgiven, by the way. As you've probably seen with me, I do it too often to judge, haha. And yeah, Clay just wasn't a good man. Jax should know better than to become that though, and it's kind of sad to see him make the transformation into him. What you say about votes though, that's another reason I'm disliking Jax right now. He seems like he's just become some kind of user, rather than a brother. Unless of course all of these votes are happening off screen, but in that case they should at least be mentioned. I'll have to rewatch the scene where Gemma gives him the phone, to see if he's told her number is in it or not. If she did, she's setting him up, if not, I'm wrong again, haha.

...Get out! Get the hell out, now! Nah, don't go I'd actually be okay with that ending, too. As we saw when Jax was VP, he's capable of being an alright dude for the most part. It's just he shouldn't be at the head of the table, or even in the club at this point. That power is going to his head, just in a different way than it did with Clay. He had good intentions, yes, but he's put them on the back burner so he can use the loyalty of his brothers to achieve what he wants, and he's putting them all at risk for it. If Jax really wanted revenge, it should have been enough to kill the man who supposedly did Tara in, for many reasons. For starters, even if the man really had done it, Jax doesn't know he did it on Henry's orders. This dude could have been somebody really close to Bohai or one of the men killed at that shootout. Let's not pretend the gang members of Charming are above reckless and impulsive decisions. Case in point.

An alright ending for me, other than Jax dying, would be him losing the gavel, and then being kicked out and getting out of Charming, without Gemma. That would actually be the perfect ending, because he's finally able to get out of town and prevent the boys from growing into club members, like he's always wanted, just under the worst possible conditions. If Gemma's still alive, their situations would be pretty similar. Jax has nobody to turn to and won't turn to Gemma, blaming her for all the stuff that happened and hating her for killing Tara, and Gemma won't see her boys, because of something she did, thinking she was protecting them. I'm going to spoiler tag this next bit in case some aren't privy to the information.

Apparently at some point this season, Chibs and Bobby are going to start working behind Jax's back. I think that they'll end up killing him, or more likely kicking him out, to appease the other charters and maybe the Lin Triad as well. Seems like their first step will be to get the other charter members to turn against Jax. Maybe they'll do this because one of their own gets killed because of Jax, and they later find out that this revenge quest has been misplaced? Who knows. We will see.

And don't worry, I know I made a big deal out of it on myself, but I suppose if there's any place to take this show too seriously, it's in this topic. I'm sure everyone here has done that at some point

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

For fun:

I am worried about that spoiler you shared. I didn't know that and kind of hate to hear it. I can see how it could come to that though with the way things are going. I hope it is for the second reason you stated and not the first. (And I just said the meme was fun and lighthearted right? )

I like that ending scenario you came up with. I meant to say in my other post that I feel that Gemma must see justice of some kind!

On a side note, I just watched The Wolf of Wall Street (always late to the party) and saw none other than Henry Lin's character playing a role! Nice.

EDIT: Good catch on the interview quote.

Nah, I haven't needed therapy since Dexter's ending... Although sometimes I still wake up, crying and asking myself why I stuck with that garbage parade for so long.

Now that you've got me thinking about it, I honestly hope he doesn't die either. The ending I said earlier would be perfect, since it is what he's longed for for so long, just not under those circumstances. And because he's lost so much in his life, he'd actually be worse off because of it. Perfect bitter sweet ending, right there. But yeah, Gemma needs to face justice of some kind, but I honestly don't want Jax to kill her. It wouldn't make sense for him to actually murder her, we've seen many times he's incapable of directly hurting her.

Best ending I have in mind so far is Jax getting kicked out, with Chibs or Bobby taking the gavel and leading the club in a better direction, maybe even being implied to go the way JT wanted it to go. Cause there, the club Jax loves so much is in a much better state of affairs, but he can't enjoy it because the reason it's better off is because he's not in it anymore. And then he tells Gemma, who wouldn't be with Nero at this point either due to his death or some kind of falling out between the two, and would be cut off from the club just like Jax, that she will never see him or his kids again, since not only is he mad at her for killing the woman he loved, he also blames her for the club excommunicating him since she started him on the wild goose chase looking for Tara's supposed killer. Of course she wouldn't believe it, but then we'd see her going to Jax's place to find it cleaned out for the most part, maybe some photos hanging up, but that's it, everything important is gone. At this point, she'd realize they're really gone, and that she has nothing, and then that heart condition of hers would kick in, and she'd die in Jax's empty house, all alone, maybe looking at a picture of Abel and Thomas, or Jax and his brother. The last shot from this would have to be Jax driving out of Charming, in a "cage," with his kids and some stuff in the back, maybe seeing how already things are so much better without him at the head of the table, probably at night as a nice opposite of that "riding off into the sunset" cliche.

That's the perfect ending in my head. Well, for now. It'll be different next week, I assure you, haha. One thing I know won't change though: The finale should not end with a "fade to reaper" shot like always. It should just be a traditional fade/cut to black instead, especially if an ending like I described happens. I might need to check out that other show, or more of that actor's works in general. He seems really good at what he does. How was he on that? And about the interview thing, I'm sure that Theo/Juice couldn't have misspoke now. It would have just been too odd a way to mess up. The mayor's probably going to bite it sometime within the next few episodes.

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

For fun:

I am worried about that spoiler you shared. I didn't know that and kind of hate to hear it. I can see how it could come to that though with the way things are going. I hope it is for the second reason you stated and not the first. (And I just said the meme was fun and lighthearted right? )

I like that ending scenario you came up with. I meant to say in my other post that I feel that Gemma must see justice of some kind!

On a side note, I just watched The Wolf of Wall Street (always late to the party) and saw none other than Henry Lin's character playing a role! Nice.

EDIT: Good catch on the interview quote.

Nah, I haven't needed therapy since Dexter's ending... Although sometimes I still wake up, crying and asking myself why I stuck with that garbage parade for so long.

Now that you've got me thinking about it, I honestly hope he doesn't die either. The ending I said earlier would be perfect, since it is what he's longed for for so long, just not under those circumstances. And because he's lost so much in his life, he'd actually be worse off because of it. Perfect bitter sweet ending, right there. But yeah, Gemma needs to face justice of some kind, but I honestly don't want Jax to kill her. It wouldn't make sense for him to actually murder her, we've seen many times he's incapable of directly hurting her.

Best ending I have in mind so far is Jax getting kicked out, with Chibs or Bobby taking the gavel and leading the club in a better direction, maybe even being implied to go the way JT wanted it to go. Cause there, the club Jax loves so much is in a much better state of affairs, but he can't enjoy it because the reason it's better off is because he's not in it anymore. And then he tells Gemma, who wouldn't be with Nero at this point either due to his death or some kind of falling out between the two, and would be cut off from the club just like Jax, that she will never see him or his kids again, since not only is he mad at her for killing the woman he loved, he also blames her for the club excommunicating him since she started him on the wild goose chase looking for Tara's supposed killer. Of course she wouldn't believe it, but then we'd see her going to Jax's place to find it cleaned out for the most part, maybe some photos hanging up, but that's it, everything important is gone. At this point, she'd realize they're really gone, and that she has nothing, and then that heart condition of hers would kick in, and she'd die in Jax's empty house, all alone, maybe looking at a picture of Abel and Thomas, or Jax and his brother. The last shot from this would have to be Jax driving out of Charming, in a "cage," with his kids and some stuff in the back, maybe seeing how already things are so much better without him at the head of the table, probably at night as a nice opposite of that "riding off into the sunset" cliche.

That's the perfect ending in my head. Well, for now. It'll be different next week, I assure you, haha. One thing I know won't change though: The finale should not end with a "fade to reaper" shot like always. It should just be a traditional fade/cut to black instead, especially if an ending like I described happens. I might need to check out that other show, or more of that actor's works in general. He seems really good at what he does. How was he on that? And about the interview thing, I'm sure that Theo/Juice couldn't have misspoke now. It would have just been too odd a way to mess up. The mayor's probably going to bite it sometime within the next few episodes.

I like that ending you came up with there. Gemma being left all alone is probably the worst punishment for her. Her heart condition might very well kick in.

Kenneth Choi, the actor who plays Henry Lin, was very good in The Wolf of Wall Street. It was a comedic role; he pulled it off well.

Yeah, I can see the mayor biting it the episodes to come. I'm curious to see what becomes of...oh well, everything!

Yeah, I honestly think Gemma needs to die, but she needs to get a proper punishment first. Her worst fear is not having the boys around, so that has to happen. She can die however, but I think it would be neat for her heart condition to be touched upon again. It seems like its been forgotten for awhile now.

His name is Kenneth Choi? That sounds really familiar. I feel like I've seen him in something else, or the name elsewhere at least, but it could have just been me reading the cast credits on SOA, I dunno. I'm really curious to see how the mayor dies though, cause he's one of those characters that has been pretty uninvolved in the action for most of the series... Well, except for season three. But honestly, who the hell even remembers that?