Ok, we’re gonna jump right into it today. So you know the drill. Watch before you read.
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Sons of Anarchy "Una Venta"
Another morning in Paradise, the episode opens with Jax writing intently in his journal (what? no butterflies or unicorns with a flimsy lock to keep it shut?). Tara ribs, “My badass biker is journaling?” And just like that, Jax is ready to take off on another SAMCRO adventure. Tara asks if he’s really headed for a bike show and he cryptically asks “you really wanna know?” but in his head he’s thinking: if you mean bike show, as in driving out to Arizona to meet up with our meth dealing, murdering, blowing shit up chapter, SAMTAZ, then yes I am!
Over to Gemma, who is in the greenhouse (did we know she had a greenhouse prior to this?) staring down a wilted lily. In the garage the boys are packing up lots of guns into a truck while the song “Para Los Tiempos Están Cambiando” (Spanish version of “The Times They are a-Changin”) plays in the background.
Gemma shoots up Clay’s arthritic hands with cortisone. The gun-filled truck takes off and the guys head out on “SAMCRO’s Excellent Adventure” into the world of guns ‘n coke. Chuckie is waving his weird puppet hands happily, like a kid seeing his parents off on a brief vacation. Piney scowls at him, and we know he’s thinking, “what an effing idiot.”
Lots of driving. Lots of riding. More cortisone shots for Clay. At a truck stop in Arizona they meet up with SAMTAZ, the Arizona chapter of the Sons. Clays hands shake as he peels them off of his handlebars, more reinforcement that his time as a leader is short.
We meet SAMTAZ’s prez, Armando and it’s VP, Huff. Bobby extends condolences to them about dearly departed brother, Little Paul. Clay’s all business and wants to talk about the plans for meeting up with Romeo at the bike show the next day, in which Armando assures that they’re there to protect and serve.
Suddenly attention is diverted to a scuffle off in the distance. Some SAMTAZ members are beating up some derelict looking fellows who have some sort of debt to the AZ boys. Tig somehow gets involved and when all is said and done it’s revealed that SAMTAZ is dealing meth. A major no-no in SAMCRO’s eyes (ahem…hypocritical, much?). Jax is pissed about this since they’ve just hauled a load of guns into the fray and is even more concerned about law enforcement getting involved. Armando’s response is, “Coke, crank, you mule, we sell. It’s the same shit.” Clay doesn’t see it the same way, wants it shut down and hears “Sorry, esse. Not your club, not your call” in return. D’oh.
The next day in SAMTAZ’s church and Clay is still arguing his point. “I ain’t telling you how to run your club, but the charter has precedence.” It seems rather ridiculous to be arguing about dealing when SAMCRO just snuggled up to a cocaine cartel. “We don’t deal! That’s always been the message.” Bobby is visibly irritated but Jax is wearing his thinking cap today, noting that SAMCRO only just voted on the partnership with the cartel and if the derelicts they rolled at the truck stop have back debt, then…something’s not adding up.
The SAMTAZ boys start squirming in their seats and nervously shoot each other looks. Armando mans up and admits that they voted it in 4 months ago. “This town is drying up, Clay. I’m just trying to keep this charter alive, man.” Jax isn’t happy. “We would have never brought you into this if we knew you were cooking.” Huff is in defense mode now, arguing their position and even when Clay points out they’re getting paid a hefty protection fee, he thinks it isn’t enough in the vast amounts of cash SAMCRO will be rolling in.
Tig pipes up that they have to go meet Romeo, must not keep him waiting. On the way out Jax walks by the photo of dearly departed Little Paul and next to it one that is turned upside down, former member Reggie who after 18 years turned in his patch. Little Paul was his sponsor. Jax asks the sergeant at arms if it (the vote to deal meth) was a close vote. ”It was, but everyone’s behind it now.” Hmm…Jax knows something’s not quite right.
Back to downtown Charming, Gemma head’s to a store and catches the eye of Lincoln Potter, who decides to follow her for a bit. She heads into a garden store that is run by non other than Mrs. Sheriff Roosevelt, Rita for short. Gemma is looking for Mariposa Lily bulbs but they’re not in stock. However Rita offers to help if Gemma brings in her under-performing plants.
(A little note of interest here: the Mariposa Lily is a native American wildflower found in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. It is representative of archetypal feminine qualities. It’s delicate yet it lives in an intense, harsh environment, rooting itself in rocky soil. It’s referred to as The Madonna of the Rocks, the heavenly mother in the harshest of earthly challenges. Helps those who may be bereft of warmth and nurturing, children who have been abandoned, orphaned, adopted or traumatized in their early childhood experience. It also benefits adults, especially women who need to heal childhood wounds, like deficiencies in mothering, fulfilling one’s destiny as a mother, teacher, healer or caregiver. Sound like someone we know?)
There’s a plucky Chucky exchange to lighten the mood, a comedic device for Gemma to say that she bought his weird puppet hands on eBay. The conversation is steered toward concern for raising funds for Charming Gardens, which is in jeopardy of being swallowed up by the Charming Heights development. There’s a bit of tension between the ladies as the hard truth of how far apart their stations in life are, although sharing a common goal in saving the Gardens. Gemma sort of throws down a gaunlet of sorts, but Rita doesn’t bite. “I honestly don’t care what kind of donor you are. If you want to help, the door is open. But if you’re just here to rattle my cage, I don’t have the time, love.”
As Gemma leaves the store, Potter says “Shame about the gardens. I seriously hope the clock ticks out on Charming Heights.” She’s immediately intrigued as he explains the whole eminent domain thing to her before he saunters away.
Back in Arizona the guys are anxiously waiting on Romeo’s arrival. Jax is still troubled about SAMTAZ’s vote, which happened right after Little Paul’s untimely passing and Reggie turning in his patch. “Little Paul would have never signed off on crank.” he adds. They all kind of realize that someone in SAMTAZ cleared the blockage so that the vote would go through and decide to track down Reggie, but not before another argument between Bobby and Clay. “Armando’s right. Muling and dealing are the same goddamn thing.” Bobby says. But before it can go any further, here come the Mexicans, minus Romeo, as the boys have acquired a police tail that they need to shake loose.
Did someone order a big explosion?
Cue action scene: raucous music, lots of motorcycles rolling and an impressively large explosion. Law enforcement has been squelched and Lincoln Potter is perplexed by this action.
In a quiet, unassuming pet shop, the boys find Reggie–who has lots of blacked out ink on his arms and back (better than a blow torch, eh?). Reggie doesn’t want to talk about why he patched out but he is gently persuaded with a little bit of violence. Reggie reveals that Huff found out he’d been tapping Little Paul old lady but kept it a secret to preserve Little Paul’s marriage. Reggie and Little Paul had found out about a “cookhouse” and found out that Huff and Benny (the sergeant at arms) had set it up. Then Huff and Benny called to tell everyone that Little Paul had been gunned down by Mexican bangers. Reggie threatened to expose Huff, but Huff turned the tables to out the affair Reggie had with Ellen. “I’d be drummed out and Ellen would be shunned. No compensation, nobody to look out after her. I didn’t want it to ruin her life too. I walked away.”
Reggie learns that the club voted in the crank anyway, and doesn’t want to get involved again, but Clay pretty much tells him he doesn’t have a choice in telling the truth and that Ellen will be taken care of.
And because it’s the bad penny of the season, our focus is brought back to Tara’s possession of JT’s letters. Piney is waiting in her office and he wants to read them. “The club is heading into troubled waters. And maybe there’s something in those letters that can keep the boat from rocking too much.” But essentially Piney wants to know the truth of what happened all those years ago. Cue Gemma’s arrival, stage left. Tara’s agitated and pulls Gemma aside to find out what she wants. Gemma wants Tara on the committee for Charming Gardens because her status as a doctor will be attractive to other potential donors. Before they can squabble about it any more, Piney has collapsed in the office.
Romeo has finally made an appearance and they all work out a detailed plan to transfer the guns. Clay mentions that the Irish Kinds will want a face to face before they place a large order in which Romeo assures he’s always available. As they part ways, Romeo’s right hand guy, Luis, asks if he trusts SAMCRO. “As much as we need to,” Romeo replies.
And thanks to Potter’s war room we get background intel on Luis: he was Special Forces, airmobile group, worked in intelligence and has a masters’ degree in logistics. Potter’s excited while looking at photos tying Luis to SAMCRO because it brings RICO back into the picture. Then Potter traipses off “to the place where bikers go to die.”
At SAMTAZ’s church Clay is laying out the back story to Armando, dragging in a meth cooker to reveal “About five months ago, Reggie and Little Paul found out Achey here was cooking for Huff and Benny. They told his crew it was a SAMTAZ drug operation.” Huff protests, they took a vote. “Yeah. After you killed Little Paul and blackmailed Reggie out of the club,” Jax says. Armando asks Clay if he knows what he’s doing and Clay shoots back, “I’m accusing the VP and the sergeant at arms of using the MC to their own ends, and then when they got caught, they killed a member and blackmailed another.” Ouch.
Chibs pulls poor Reggie in the room when Benny tries to discredit the witness. Clay says to Armando, “It’s your charter. Listen to the facts, make your decision. But if you find out that your club got into crank on a lie, you need to vote it again.” Ooh, those guys are in trooouuuuble…
Piney’s ok but in no better of a mood, although he apologizes to Tara. She asks him to tell her about John Teller. “He was a complicated guy. Angry, impulsive, just righteous as hell. Hated being wrong. Not much of an education. Book smart, though. He used to devour three, four at a time. He was loyal. Too loyal.” Sounds familiar to her. Then he says, “What I want to know? Why my best friend was afraid when he died.” Tara tells him about the letters, that JT wanted to get the club out of the gun biz. He knew it was risky but Clay and the others were invested. JT met with Kellan Ashby and some IRA members and wanted to end the relationship and stop selling guns but he was killed before that came to fruition. Piney gets it and also gets that the relationship with the cartel can only come to the same fate.
Gemma pops in, Tara exits and she lays it all on the table. “I know you’re bumping up against Clay. That bullshit you fed me the other day –” Piney says, “That wasn’t bullshit. That was the truth. You all just refuse to look at it.” She tells him to drop it or Clay will kill him. “That’s half the reason I’m doing it,” he answers.
SAMTAZ has excommunicated Huff & Benny, although they weren’t killed. Clay is surprised to hear that they voted to keep dealing crank. “Guys got a taste of the money, Clay. It was unanimous.” Armando has noted Clay’s concerns and offers up another place for future deliveries.
Gemma shows back up at Rita’s shop, offering up Tara as a donor and member of the Gold Circle Club and forks over $5k in cash. Then she hands over another bag filled with her dead bulbs.
SAMCRO solemnly transfers guns to the cartel, surrounded by heavily armed guards. The gravity of their situation is not lost on them.
Over to Lincoln Potter, who is standing outside of Big Otto’s prison cell-where this particular biker has gone to die. Looks like part 2 of Plan B is going into effect. He feeds Otto some false lead-in info only to drop a major bomb on him. “According to the autopsy report, traces of semen were found in your wife’s undergarments. The county was finally able to run an analysis, got a match in the system. A, uh, Robert Munson, known as Bobby Elvis. A member of your motorcycle club. Can you tell me anything about their relationship? And I ask, because in most cases, 87.9%, actually, the person having sex with the victim was the perpetrator.” He punctuates that info by placing photos of a bloodied, deceased Luanne onto Otto. “And it was … it was a gruesome assault. I understand you’ve been going through some emotional issues. It doesn’t seem right you’re locked up in this box. I’m going to look into that. I’ll come back a little later when you feel a bit more … settled.” When Potter leaves, Otto places his hands on the photos and there are tears.
Back to the boys nervously taking in their surroundings. Romeo says it’s just a precaution. Jax asks “Should we be taking that precaution?” Romeo answers, “Lobo Sonora doesn’t know about our deal. If they did, they would never risk reprisal up north.” Luis adds that if Lobo Sonora would strike it would be in Arizona and they’re prepared to handle it. Then he forks over $700k and the boys get a crate filled with 30 kilos of uncut Columbian cocaine. Romeo says he’ll be up in a few days to check on it and takes off.
Clay instructs them to load it up, catches Jax’s gaze and then they note Bobby’s look of disdain for it all. When he walks away they exchange another look that says Bobby is going to be a problem and something will have to be done.
Next week’s episode: Brick
A former foe of SAMCRO has been enlisted due to their plan to help as he tried to stop the development of Charming Heights of Mayor Hale. In the other side of the story, Sheriff Roosevelt continue to lean on Juice for additional information to solve his case.
Be sure to read all my extensive Sons of Anarchy coverage here.
Related posts:
Rippin-Kitten visits the set of “Sons of Anarchy” (prior to season 3 airing)
Sons of Anarchy: episode 4.01 “Out”
Sons of Anarchy: episode 4.02 “Booster”
Sons of Anarchy: episode 4.03 “Dorylus”