Sons of Anarchy episode 4.08 "Family Recipe"

When we left off in the last episode, Juice wrapped a chain around his neck and jumped off the tree he was in. As the screen went black we all were sure we heard a crack. The beginning of this episode it turns out that crack we heard was the branch giving way as Juice falls to the ground. He pulls the chain from his neck and as he gets to his feet he hears bikes approaching. He goes to meet Tig and Chibs, lies about having taken a leak in the woods (he’s been doing that so often one would think they’d start making comments about his small bladder). Chibs notices that Juice is covered in mulch and has chain marks around his neck. Juice throws out some excuse about security chain, which prompts a joke from Tig. Chibs looks a bit concerned. They tell Juice that he’s needed for vote, change in leadership.

Jax and Tara’s house: there’s an early morning knock on the door. Rat is woken up and stops in front of the door. She checks the peephole and sends Rat to the back room. Tara opens the door and Roosevelt is standing there. He explains that Margaret called the sheriff’s office and turned over a copy of the note. He holds it up, “She’s convinced you did receive a death threat.” Tara goes on to say that she didn’t take the threat seriously, despite there being a prospect there to watch over the house. And he’s totally got her number. She tries to dismiss him, but he shows her that he’s not going quietly by posting someone outside her house and at the hospital.

Family Recipe: Clay and Piney

Jax and Opie are sitting outside Teller-Morrow when Piney rolls on in. Jax remarks that there was no way Piney was going to proxy this vote. Opie asks what happens if Bobby wins the vote. Jax explains that immediately nothing major will happen. Clay opens the door from the office and Gemma follows behind him, the King & Queen. Jax explains to Opie why he’s siding with Clay and it’s a total BS reason. Clay announces it’s time to vote “this shit.”

Opie approaches Piney and it’s a tough-tender moment between them. In front of his father Opie is instantly a lost little boy looking to his father. Piney strokes the bruises on Opie’s face (that he put there). “I’m sorry, son.” Opie replies, “I love you, Pop. I’m with you on this.” Hugs. Someone must be cutting onions behind Piney.

In church, the vote is starting. Clay and Tig: Nay. Chibs is next but before he opens his mouth the room is awash in bullets. A truck busts through the front gates, still spraying bullets. A duffel bag comes flying out of the truck, as does one of it’s passengers before it takes off. Oops. As they try to figure out what the hell just happened, Clay is already barking orders: take the LS left behind to “the rez” and call the coke barn to be on alert. Meanwhile Chucky has wandered over to the duffel bag. ”Clay! This is bad! Like, bad bad!” They come over to see what Chucky is seeing. Inside the bag are four severed heads, one of them SAMTAZ’s missing prez, Armando.

Clay dispatch’s Happy to interrogate the Lobo Sonara guy left behind. Chibs and Juice go with him. Piney tells Clay: “That bag of heads is your get-out-of-drugs-free card… you tell the cartel we didn’t sign up for this blood feud and you want out.” Piney still pokes at the lion in the cage with a large stick, tells Clay that if they’re not out of the drug biz tomorrow he’s handing the letters over to the club. Yeah, those letters that he doesn’t have.

Jax has some news for them. The coke barn is safe, Alvarez’s tortilla truck was jacked and 3 of his men are missing. Tig states that the cartel is military sharp. Then the police roll in. Piney decides he’s going to head up to the cabin, despite Opie all but begging him to stay.

Chuckie retrieves a bag of groceries from an SUV outside, he’s cooking for the fundraiser for Charming Gardens that’s happening tonight, and spots a head that rolled under the vehicle. He looks around and there’s cops everywhere, so he tosses the head in his grocery bag, naturally.

Inside the office Clay is trying to calm Gemma down, that he’s got things under control. But she’s totally wigged out about the bag of heads. Jax says they should cancel the fundraiser. Gemma disagrees and Clay says it’ll be good PR. Gemma wants some protection from here on out and asks for Phil, but Clay says that Tig is the man for the job.

Outside, Roosevelt asks Jax why the place has been turned into Swiss cheese by automatic fire. Jax and Clay act dumb and Gemma pipes up that it was a rival shop (apparently a nod to Shield viewers, one of which I was not so I didn’t get it). The sheriff says that the place is a crime scene and they have to do a full investigation. Jax dismisses him with a “knock yourself out” and as he tries to walk away Roosevelt says he hopes it has nothing to do with the confirmed threat against Tara. Jax hits a sore spot by asking Roosevelt if he has a family (we know he and his wife want one but haven’t been able to) and Jax rubs it in a little more when he notices the sheriff’s quiet rage. “You really should. It’s good to have a reason not to die.”

Chucky, as always, is providing some comic relief with the hijinks of what to do with the severed head with the compound crawling with cops. I already know where this is going.

At the rez, Happy reports that despite his best efforts the LS soldier is not talking. Galindo is there as well and Clay sort of lays into Luis about then not having their shit together. Since the guy isn’t talking, Luis busts out a case full of things that makes Happy covet, among them some truth serum that he injects into their hostage. The result of that truth serum is that there’s a rat in Alvarez’s crew. Jax utters a familiar phrase to Alvarez: “It don’t matter, Mayan or Sons, that bitch is dead.”

They figure out the mole is a dude in Alvarez’s crew named, Pedro, who was at the SAMCRO clubhouse while Alvarez was injured and knew where Lobo Sonora should hit them. Rather than immediately setting out to decapitate him, they use him to feed some mis-information about the guns to the rival cartel. The only problem is that Galindo has no armed back up available to take then out, so the Sons are stuck with the dirty work. And they’re not exactly thrilled about it.

Back at the clubhouse, Chucky’s chili a la severed head must be smelling pretty good because a couple of the cops are looking to score a free lunch.

Outside Gemma and Tara are commiserating. Tara is none too pleased. She’s been pulled from the rotation at the hospital because of the threat and she’s stuck at the compound with her kids and a bunch of dirty bikers because she’s trying to do things Jax’s way. She questions her judgment and is looking for advice from a woman who has done nothing but exercised bad judgment most of her life. Gemma’s answer, “We pull through and we stick it out. That’s what family does.” And then distracts Tara by suggesting they check on that chili.

Twisted sitcom material: Gemma stirs the pot of chili and a face rises to the top. Chuckie runs over, “Hey! Gemma! Hey! It’s not ready!” She holds it together since there’s cops not too far away. “Did you follow the recipe?” “I had to add a few things of my own.” Gemma smiles nervously, “I can see that.” Tara asks, “Is it spicy?” and as she grabs the lid, Gemma slams it down. “Very. It actually made my eyes burn.” Chuckie says, “I probably got in over my head.” (ba dum dum!) Gemma pushes Tara out of the kitchen. “Yeah, you know, it’s an old family recipe. It’s a delicate process. I probably should have made it myself. Why don’t you take it up to the reservation? I think Happy likes it that hot.” “I accept that,” Chuckie replies.

The garden fundraiser is in full swing. Clay and Oswald are kicking back together when Clay suggests that the two of them donate the $75,000 needed to save Charming gardens. Clay explains that Charming will need a hero when Hale’s vision falls apart. (Oh yeah, I sort of forgot about the Charming Heights story line.) Oswald is skeptical but Clay assures him that public opinion will go against Hale, he loses the on-ramp and then all the land reverts back to Oswald. By then Hale will be done as the Mayor. Everybody wins.

Jax rolls up to Piney’s cabin. The conversation steers toward Piney waxing poetic about John Teller and the vision for the club. It gets under Jax’s skin because he doesn’t want to hear about JT. He concedes that the club has lost its way, but believing one man can change everything is ridiculous. One would think that Piney would take this opportunity to fill Jax in on the existence of the letters. Perhaps it slipped his mind after imbibing all that tequila. Jax says he’s trying to figure out what he has to do today to stay alive to tomorrow, and he’s doing it for his family. Piney tries again to stress what a good man JT was and that Jax should know that for himself. Jax leaves in a quiet huff.

Roosevelt and his wife are chatting at the fundraiser. She’s bummed because of low cash flow. He encourages her for doing what she thought was right. She’s worried about causing tension with he and the mayor, but he confesses that he likes getting under Hale’s skin. Clay and Gemma approach, he’d like to say a few words and make a public donation, if Rita’s ok with that.

Meanwhile SAMCRO, Mayans and the minor showing of Galindo prepping for the Lobo Sonora confrontation. Pedro, the alleged mole, is tied and gagged.

Clay’s speech about his love for Charming is crafted to appeal to the crowd, despite the fact that he’s a “bad element.” His speech’s exclamation point is announcing the donation two $75k checks toward the garden. Rita is happy, some people in the crowd clap approvingly. Roosevelt is not exactly happy about it. Clay goes on to say that while one of those checks is from him, a crook, the other is from a man who believes in Charming and who should be mayor, Oswald.

At the rez, everyone is waiting for the Lobo contingent to show up. Juice is off by himself and Chibs shakes him out of zone to get him involved in the here and now. Two vehicles show up, one stays and the other takes off. The one that stays is the jacked tortilla truck and in the back are the bodies that match the heads that were rolling around the Teller-Morrow parking lot. So…that means Pedro is not the mole. But he is killed by Luis anyway.

At Jax and Tara’s, they are both sitting at the table. She pretty much tells him for the safety of the kids she has to go and get them out of there, despite his best efforts in protecting them. There’s another hospital interested in her and she wants to go. He tells her she should definitely go. She’s relieved to have his support, but is concerned about what Gemma would think.

Gemma’s at the clubhouse cleaning. Clay rings her on her cell asking where she is. She says she’s heading home and asks if he’s ok. He says he is and that he’s going to stay at the clubhouse, a lie since we see Gemma there and he’s nowhere in sight. “Want me to come by?” she asks. He lies again. “Nah. I’m in lockdown in the chapel. I need the quiet.” But she is standing right outside church and he isn’t in there. Tig is hanging out nearby, since he’s assigned to Gemma. She and Clay say their goodbyes. She says, “Take me home, Tiggy.” He jumps up and slings Gemma’s purse over his shoulder. It is amusing.

Juice is in the woods cleaning up from the previous night’s self-lynching. Chibs sneaks up on him and Juice tries to blow things off. But Chibs takes in the scene, then looks at Juice and he gets what went down. “Jay-sus! What the hell are you doing? You coward!” Juice is destroyed and Chibs tries to make sense of things. He grabs Juice and let’s him sob on his shoulder.

Clay, as it turns out, has gone up to visit Piney at the cabin. Piney must have been expecting this visit and makes Clay remove all of his weapons. Clay says he wants more time because things got tricky with Galindo. There’s heated exchange about Clay’s greed being the main motivator. Clay insists he’s trying to do the right thing and proceeds to tell Piney things that placate him. Clay heads for the door and as Piney goes to shut and lock it, Clay kicks it back in knocking Piney to the ground. Clay proceeds to trash the place looking for JT’s letters. Piney gets up, says the letters aren’t in the cabin. Clay realizes that Tara must have them. Piney tries to protect Tara, implying that she doesn’t know about them, but Clay says that Tara’s the one who gave them to Piney. Piney pleads with Clay to leave her out of it. “Too late,” Clay growls before he blasts Piney in the chest.

Clay makes sure that Piney is really dead, dips his fingers in blood. He heads over to a framed picture of the Original 9, then writes “LS” in Piney’s blood. As the episode ends, Clay walks off and the camera pans down to Piney’s back. His jean cut gets soaked with blood. The reaper on the back patch now has real blood on the scythe.

next week’s episode: Kiss

SAMCRO gets word that the Niners have made a new alliance that directly impacts their own agenda.

Be sure to read all my extensive Sons of Anarchy coverage here.

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Sons of Anarchy episode 4.08 “Family Recipe”

next week’s episode: Kiss