The Unfiltered Ramblings of a DVR Addict

It’s amazing just how much has changed in Charming and how much hasn’t changed in Charming in just 4 episodes.  Gemma went through something horrible and the only people she can talk to are a cop who’s dying of cancer and a doctor who she doesn’t like very much.  Opie is dealing with the loss of his wife and trying to fit back in with SAMCRO.  Jax is dealing with the struggle of knowing what Clay did and trying to make the club more legitimate business-wise.  Unser is dealing with his cancer, and what appears to be a genuine affection if not more for Gemma.  Tara is struggling with her feelings for Jax and at the same time realizing that she doesn’t know if she wants any part of his world.  Clay is slowly losing control of his body and the club.  And to top it all off we have a group of white supremacists who have moved into town that are looking to take control of Charming away from SAMCRO.

The club is looking for a way to transport the guns for the Irish, so they are holding a charity run.  Bobby “Elvis” shows up with an older Fat Boy that the other club members hassle him over.  They claim that there is no way that it makes it on the run in the condition it is in.  As the guys head off they make a quick pit stop to pick up the guns from the Irish.  They each carry multiple guns hidden inside a bedroll.  After they are on their way, Bobby’s Fat Boy backfires and he ends up running Tig off the road.  He has to be taken to the local hospital.  At the hospital a receptionist calls some bounty hunters reporting someone suspicious.  They end up grabbing him outside the emergency room as the club is about to take him back to Charming.  It turns out that Tig has an outstanding warrant in Idaho for “assault and indecent exposure inside a livestock transport.”  Jax send Half-Sac to follow the bounty hunters to see where they are taking Tig.

Clay and Jax are divided on what to do.  Clay thinks getting the guns moved is the most important thing, while Jax argues that if they don’t get Tig now it may be their last chance.  Jax asks Clay to call for a vote and instead Clay shoves Jax and a shoving match ensues in front of the club.  Clay tells them to do what they want and tries to leave.  As he does, he drops his bike and can’t pick it up due to his ever worsening arthritis.  He ends up walking off and is followed by Opie.  Opie tells him that he doesn’t know what’s going on between Jax and Clay, but no matter what he has Clay’s back.

Around that time Piney shows up, he didn’t go on the run, with the flat bed to pick up Tig’s bike.  A group, including Jax, Half-Sac, Happy, and Chibs jump in the back and prepare to go bust Tig out.  They head to the motel where the bounty hunters are holding Tig and back the truck up right through the wall.  They grab Tig and head out.

Tig heads back to Charming with Piney and the rest of the club head off to finish the run with the rest of the charters.  When they finally reach their destination the guys are all sitting around drinking and messing around with the girls that are there.  Jax heads off to be alone, still upset about the confrontation with Clay.  As he leaves the guys all comment that this business with Clay and Jax has to be settled soon.  Opie comments that Jax just needs to work out his “daddy” issues.

Jax sits alone on his bike with a smoke and a bottle when Clay walks up.  I thought this would be the moment when they make amends and things start to go the right way.  I was obviously wrong.  Clay tells Jax that if he brings up the Donna murder again, then Clay will kill Jax himself.

Of course not all the episode took place on the run.  After the club leaves, Gemma receives a package that has one of the masks of her rapists in it.  She recognizes the bag that it came in and heads down to the store to investigate.  Of course the store is no longer there, but has been replaced with Ethan Zobelle’s smoke shop.  She heads inside to check it out, but leave without any confrontation.  She see AJ Weston on the street and recognizes him as the one leading the gang that raped her by his Aryan Nation tatoo.

She sits in her car for a long time watching Weston and Zobelle talk outside the smoke shop, eventually pulling her gun on some woman who wanted her parking spot.  Unser shows up and tells her that the woman called the police about Gemma and he takes her gun away.  He is generally concerned for her, telling her “I ain’t gonna let nothing else bad happen to you”.  It might be a promise he can’t keep, but I really do believe he means it.   She tells him that she won’t do anything stupid and he leaves.  Obviously she does the opposite.  She pulls out another semi-automatic from her purse and follows Weston when he leaves.

She follows him to a work site where she sees him talking to other Aryans.  When he goes into a  port-o-john she grabs the gun and intends to shoot him.  She waits for a while and then changes her mind when she hears him talking on the phone to his kids.

At the hospital in Charming an administrator tells Tara that Chief Unser is here to see her, and comments that she has a lot of visitors from both sides of the law.  Tara find Unser in the chapel and the two talk for a minute about Gemma.  She comments on the fact that he cares a lot about her.  He tells her that they have been friends for more than 40 years and how Gemma left town and came back with a motorcycle gang.  She also asks Unser what he thinks about she and Jax.  His advice to her is, “Come across something that don’t make you miserable… enjoy it.”

Obviously Jax and Clay are on a direct collision course that I’m sure won’t reach maximum velocity until the end of the season.  I think their one opportunity to come to some sort of understanding could have occurred when they were sitting alone at the end of the episode, and that didn’t go so well.  The fact that Opie has clearly sided with Clay is bothersome as well.  Jax is one of the three that knows the truth about Donna, and Jax is keeping that secret to protect both Opie and the club.  I worry that as long as Jax and Opie are on the outs, Jax is all alone with only Piney as an ally, and Piney doesn’t have much pull.  Things are going to get a lot harder for Jax before they get any easier.

A few of my favorite moments from the episode:

• Half-Sac telling the club about his new prosthetic testicle, or “crystal ball” as Chibs refers to it.
• Tara telling Jax about her realization, “I’m your old lady.”
• The fact that Tig has an outstanding warrant for assault and indecent exposure inside a livestock transport.  No big surprise there considering that he like corpses too.
• I was surprised that Jax went so far to get Tig after the problems that the two have had in the past.
• I like any time that Happy is in an episode.  He seems like such a likeable guy for a cold blooded killer.