Hey everyone! Welcome to episode 69 (LoL) of Girl Of Mayhem. Today we are going to be talking about episode 2 from season 5 of Sons Of Anarchy, titled Authority Vested.
Let me give you guys a couple of disclaimers before we get started. First, I am in no way affiliated with the cast or crew of Sons of Anarchy, I am merely a fan doing a fan podcast. Second, I am not part of an MC, nor have I ever been so any info I get about that lifestyle is secondhand through another source such as the internet.
Ok, I have to start with some kind of sad news, Johnny Lewis, who played Halfsack in the first few seasons has passed away. You can find the article online at the New York Daily Times website, or through a search engine. I have the link posted on Facebook and Twitter, and on http://girlofmayhem.com. I want to thank James for emailing me right away to tell me, and providing the link we have on the GOM website.
Now let me give you guys some ways you can contact me with your feedback. As always, you can email me at girlofmayhem@gmail.com, call me at 559-762-2278 and leave a voicemail, or comment on the website http://girlofmayhem.com. You can also find us on Facebook at http://facebook.com/girlofmayhempodcast and tweet me at @girlofmayhem on Twitter.
Don't forget, I still want all of your feedback!
Today we are going to be talking the second episode from season 5, and I am also going to give you a character analysis of one of our newer characters, Nero (played by Jimmy Smits). I also wanted to ask all of you if you have the SOA app, and if you do, what do you think about it? Can you tell what's new when there's an update? I'm having a lot of trouble with the new app set-up and really want the old one back! If you have it, let me know what you think!
I want to thank Shep for his thoughts on the first episode, he emailed me and mentioned that now it makes sense why they introduced Tig's daughter last season, and thought it was heartbreaking what Pope did to her. I also want to thank James for emailing about Johnny Lewis, and John from Houston for leaving a voicemail. John mentioned that Sutter is having some OMG moments, thought the scene with Tig's daughter was one of the most painful he's ever seen. He also said that Gemma's sex scene with Nero was a "wow" moment and that he hopes they don't overwhelm this season (season 5) with too many plot lines. He likes the direction Tara's character is going, and is worried about Clay sneaking back in. John is going to try to attend "church" over at the Watchers of Anarchy (a fellow SOA podcast - you can find the link on the GOM site).
Now let's get down to business and talk about this episode, Authority Vested.
The description for this episode reads "Jax and SAMCRO are challenged as past sins resurface". The music in this episode includes Hayes Greenfield with Steel House Blues, Fitz & The Tantrums with We Don't Need No Love Songs, Attika 7 with All Or Nothing, and Jack Savoretti with Soldiers Eyes (which plays during the ending montage).
When we open, we are at Opie's. He is sleeping but wakes up when he hears a sound. After grabbing his gun and checking things out he discovers Sheriff Roosevelt at his door. Roosevelt is looking for Jax.
Then we are at Diosa International (Nero's escort service - by the way, I looked it up and diosa means "goddess"). Jax and Chibs are talking about how Tig is still MIA and they need to find him to fill him on what's going on with the warrants. Also during this scene Bobby asks Gemma how long she's knows Nero, trying to gather whether Nero is trustworthy. Gemma mentions she hasn't known him long but trusts him. Carla comes out to go on a job and tells Nero she wants SOA gone (apparently she doesn't do well with surprises). I liked that they called the sex rooms "therapy rooms". Jax questions Nero's motives during this scene and when Gemma tries to vouch for him, I noticed how forceful Jax is in silencing her. Apparently the President patch has given him some power. Jax, Bobby, and Chibs leave to go get Tig after they get a call, and Nero loans him a truck because their bikes will be too auspicious.
Next we are at Gemma's, where Unser is coming to after the beating. We see Clay alone at his own place, Unser calls him to get over there.
At the rail yard we see Tig sitting by the burned bodies. The guys pull up and Tig tells them that Pope did it. He mentions he wants/needs to find Fawn because Pope threatened to kill her too. The guys help him pull Dawn out of the hole with the other bodies.
Back at Gemma's Juice and Clay have arrived and are surprised Unser was there just to feed the bird. In a humorous moment, Unser mentions the bird is his closest friend. Clay thinks it's Pope who's behind the break-in. During this part it really hit me how down and out both Clay and Unser are. Once kings of Charming, time has taken it's toll on both of them, and in their own way they are paying for their past sins, at least that's what it seems to me. I also think it's odd that so far Unser's cancer has not been mentioned this season, and I wonder if we are going to get some kind of update on his status with that. A great quote by Unser during this part is "Charmed life, ain't it?".
At the rail yard the guys burn the other bodies (the cop and the cleaner), and we see Tig holding Dawn's burned body like a baby. Very sad.
The bulk of our episode starts off at Diosa. The guys are trying to reach out to Romeo, because he's the only one who can help them. Someone suggests Alvarez, but that's shot down. I'm wondering how much of the Mayans we'll end up seeing this season. As I'm sure most of you have noticed, there are ebbs and flows with how much we see of any given gang. One season will focus more on the Irish, another on the 9ers, another on the Mayans, etc.
Also during this part Jax gives Nero some money. How nice it must be to finally have cash flow instead of doing odd things to piece it together. I guess that's the one good thing that comes from being drug mules. Jax has an interesting comment during this part where he says "All this activity makes me think we're in the wrong business". Clearly he's talking about how busy the escort service is.
At Pope's office, August comes in and tells Pope about the cop and cleaner being dead at the rail yard.
Back at Diosa, the guys meet with their lawyer. Jax is trying to buy more time before they go to jail because they need protection on the inside (they know "black" is coming after them). While in the meeting, Clay calls about the break-in. In a private session between Jax, Tara, Bobby, and the lawyer they talk about RICO and Jax tells her how it's being held over their heads. They need to prove Otto's story is false in order to get Bobby off the hook permanently, and try to fight off RICO.
After the meeting Bobby tries to explain to Jax that the break-ins are not about payback from Pope/the 9ers. Jax has Bobby take Gemma home to deal with the break-in, and the guys have to go find Fawn. It is decreed by the lawyer that Jax, Chibs, and Tig have about 8 hours til they need to turn themselves in.
At Gemma's, Roosevelt is there investigating the home invasion. I thought it was interesting to note that Unser says something about there being 4 of them, when I only saw 2 in the last episode, and at the end of this episode, we see who 3 of them are... Something to ponder.
Again at Diosa, Jax and Tara have a conversation. Jax tells Tara how well she's been dealing with all that's been going on (with the club). Tara starts to get upset when Fawn is found and Jax says he needs to leave to go with Tig to get her, and then stops herself. While Tara is becoming more and more like Gemma, becoming a stronger women, it personally bothers me when she stops herself from saying her true feelings to Jax.
During this part, Jax decides that they should get married. That day. I love Tara's quote when she says "Here? In a brothell? Wanted for murder..." I was kind of upset when Jax brought up that he'd killed a fed for her. The "fed" was trying to rape her, and I would think any man who loved a woman would have done the same. I didn't like the throwing it in her face vibe I got. But I did laugh when he said "Nothing says endless love like capital murder".
Over at Roosevelt's office, Unser stops by. He talks to Roosevelt about the break-ins. He mentions to Roosevelt that it "felt more white". Roosevelt looks offended (I found it highly amusing) and asks "and how does white feel?". Even funnier was when Unser said it was "sloppy" and that the beating was "obligatory". Unser mentions he'll be poking around, and will tell Roosevelt if he finds anything and asks that Roosevelt do the same. I liked their moment when Unser talked about wearing the badge for 30 years and his involvement with SOA.
Meanwhile, Jax and the guys arrive at the house in Oakland where Fawn is supposed to be. Tig starts to take the guys on the porch by force, but they don't have any tattoos and are clearly not 9ers. Then we hear Fawn screaming and they rush in. Turns out, she's having consensual rough sex with her boyfriend. I just want to note, between Gemma's sex scene, the escort service, and Fawn's sex scene, there is a LOT of sex going on this season!
We come back from the commercial and we are still in Oakland. Tig is talking to Fawn, and she realizes Dawn is dead. She starts screaming that she hates Tig, and hits him. They pull him off of her. Jax talks to Fawn's boyfriend, and gives him some money (not sure how much) to get her out of town. Chibs is instructed to stay behind and make sure Fawn gets out, and Jax is going to call Nero to come pick him up. I want to say that for the record, as suspicious as Jax was of Nero, he sure is taking advantage of the favors Nero can offer!
Next we see Bobby and Clay in the van, and Clay has Bobby bring him to Opie's. Bobby clearly does not think this is good idea, and during this part Bobby mentions how he doesn't think the club will vote Clay out for killing Piney (although they should! We all know why they won't but COME ON, GET CLAY OUT!). We then have a scene with Clay and Opie in Opie's backyard. Opie is CLEARLY not happy to see Clay, saying "What the hell is this, Clay?". Clay is not stupid enough to try and say he's sorry (and we all know he isn't anyway). He talks to Opie about how Opie needs to support Jax, and he tells Opie that it's "his time" at the table. He also tells Opie that the guys are turning themselves in.
Nero comes to pick up Jax in Oakland. Nero has a stop to make. On their way to the stop, Jax asks Nero about the escort business. This leads me to believe Jax either wants to start his own, wants a piece of Nero's, or is looking for a way to get out of the guns/drugs. Considering that SOA has been in the porn business before (are they still in any way?), this isn't that far fetched.
Also in this part we find out that Nero still has his "crew" (gang?), but doesn't run them anymore. Most of the people he ran with are dead or in jail. We learn that Nero had spent his 30's in Chino, and there he kicked his drug habit. They pull up to Saint Emilio's Home For Physically Challenged Youth.
Unser is at Teller-Morrow auto, when we see him he appears to be questioning Wade (the mechanic who also had his home broken in to). Gemma calls him in to the office, while they're having a conversation SOA's lawyer comes in with the marriage certificate for Jax & Tara. Gemma looks surprised, she of course didn't know. She says she will drop it off to them. (For a second I didn't think she would!)
Then we are back at the youth home where we see Nero with a disabled child, and he's giving him a gift. Jax goes to have a cigarette and we see that the 9ers are watching from and SUV. When both him and Nero are in the car they have a conversation about the problems their children face. Both men had women who used drugs during pregnancy. Nero's son has spina bifida (caused from the mother). As they're leaving Nero states "We got admirers". The 9ers are following them. Jax offers to get out, but instead Nero takes them on a car chase where he plays chicken with them, the 9ers lose and crash, and Nero manages to lose the tail. "Sorry, I don't get out that much" Nero tells Jax after exclaiming how fun it was.
The next thing we see is the filming of a porn scene. Ima and Lila are in it. As the director yells cut, we see Opie who is waiting for Lila. He needs to talk to her, asks her if she can watch his kids for a few weeks. He gives her 20grand to do it. She asks him if he ever loved her, and he basically replies "I don't know if I love anything", assumingly trying not to hurt her.
Gemma is at Diosa and she brings Jax the marriage license. When he looks the other way she goes to talk to Tara. Although Gemma is upset, she brings Tara the rings from her marriage to JT. Gemma has a very true line during this part when she says "There is no one else who understands what you are going through right now better than I do". I also noted that she called Jax her "only son", which struck me for some reason. Jax is clearly her only LIVING son, but I would think she would count Thomas as her son, even though he's deceased.
We move on to the marriage ceremony (where the Judge seems bored and is rushed). Jax allows Tara to take off his "SO" and "NS" rings in order to put on the wedding ring. Chibs speaks briefly, and after the vows are done Romeo calls.
Our next (and final) scene in the main part of the episode is the guys meeting with Romeo and Luis. Jax tells them about Pope setting them up. He requests they use their connections to protect the guys while they're in jail, he also requests they work on making the charges disappear. Jax has some great lines during this scene when he says "I am trying to survive, it ain't easy living on both sides of the fence, you know that".
After Jax and the guys leave Romeo and Luis have a private conversation and Luis asks what happens if they can't get the guys protection in jail. Romeo says "Let black kill him, go to plan B" to which Luis replies "We don't have a plan B" and Romeo says "We will".
Our ending starts at the clubhouse with the guys waiting to be picked up by the Sheriff.
Jax says goodbye to Bobby, and then we hear the cops arrive. Jax says goodbye to Tara, and then to Gemma. We see Gemma consoling Tig, saying that she'll make sure Fawn is okay. When everybody goes out to meet the cops, that's when we see Opie arrive (and our ending montage begins).
Opie punches Roosevelt, therefore getting arrested. When asked what he's doing Gemma replies "he's staying close". Meaning he's listening to what Clay told him and staying close to Jax and the club. It's ironic that Gemma knows the exact wording, but she's been around the life for so long that it's not surprising.
Then we see the nomads who were patched over (GoGo, Greg the Peg, and Frankie Diamonds) dumping Clay's safe. And we see Frankie examining the documents that were inside the safe (marriage certificates, etc).
We then see the guys (Jax, Opie, Chibs, & Tig) inside the "bus" going to jail. Jax asks Opie "Is this you becoming me", to which Opie replies "How'd I do", and Jax says "Not bad".
We see Tara, Gemma, Bobby, etc at the clubhouse watching them leave.
Our next scene is Gemma at Nero's place, asking him "Is this okay?" (meaning is it ok that she's coming to him for comfort).
We see Clay, alone again, with his oxygen tank and drink, once again, a la Piney.
We see Pope in his office looking at Jax's arrest record.
Finally, our last shot is of the guys on the "bus". During this ending montage, Soldiers Eyes by Jack Savoretti is playing (a VERY good song choice!).
And that's it for episode 2 from season 5 of SOA. Please don't forget to write or call in with your thoughts on this episode!
The next thing we're going to talk about is a character analysis of Nero, played by Jimmy Smits.
I'm going to start with Jimmy Smits' bio and then move onto details about and thoughts on the character.
Jimmy (which that's his real first name, not James, actually Jimmy) was born in Brooklyn, NY on 7-9-1955. He is 6 feet 3 inches tall. He was married to a woman named Barbara from 1980 to 1987, and has 2 kids, a boy and a girl. He has been with Wanda De Jesus since 1986, so over 26 years (and yes, partly during the time he was still married to Barbara, but I'm assuming that maybe they were separated). Jimmy has a Bachelors degree from Brooklyn College in theater, and has a Masters degree from Cornell (impressive!). A fun fact is that he was named the "King of Brooklyn" in 1991 at a festival.
As far as TV, Jimmy has appeared on popular shows such as Dexter, The West Wing, LA Law, and NYPD Blue. He has also been in movies, such as Star Wars Episode II and Star Wars Episode III.
Now onto our character.
We've been given a fairly good background on Neron "Nero" Padilla, although I'm sure we still have a lot to learn. We know that he is part of a gang (not sure which one but there is speculation that it's called Majestic). He used to run it but no longer does. Most of the people he used to hang around with are dead or locked up. He spent his 30's locked up himself, in Chino. He had a drug habit but kicked it while he was in Chino. He does not appear to be married, but we know he has a son. His son has Spina Bifida and lives in a group home for the physically challenged. He now owns Diosa International, an escort service. He takes 25% of the cut from the girls of their in-house customers, and 30-40% when they have outside calls. And that's our general background.
Here are my thoughts:
Nero definitely seems kind of sweet and goodhearted. He's offered up assistance to Gemma, Jax, and the club, without really asking for anything. And his sons story can really pull at heart strings. But my prediction is this character is going to turn. Something is going to happen to change the way we view him. I don't think Sutter just brings in characters who are "nice guys". I have no idea what will change, or what will cause the change, but I see it coming. And I'm thinking it will be this season. I would love to hear what the rest of you think of Nero, and also what kind of job you think Jimmy Smits is doing playing the character.
Well, that's it for now. Hope everyone is doing well, and I hope to hear from you before the next episode!
Friday, September 28, 2012
RIP Halfsack
Unfortunately one of our beloved characters from the first few seasons of SOA has passed away in real life. Please visit link below, courtesy of our listener James.
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/suspect-killing-los-angeles-woman-actor-124414168.html
It is always unfortunate when someone passes tragically, regardless of the circumstances.
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/suspect-killing-los-angeles-woman-actor-124414168.html
It is always unfortunate when someone passes tragically, regardless of the circumstances.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
GOM 068 SOA S5E1 Sovereign
Hey everybody, welcome to episode 68 of Girl Of Mayhem, a Sons Of Anarchy fan podcast. Let me give you a couple of disclaimers before we get started. First, I am in no way affiliated with FX or the cast and crew of Sons Of Anarchy, I am merely a fan doing a fan podcast. Second, I am not part of a motorcycle club, nor have I ever been, so any information I get on the MC lifestyle is purely secondhand through another source such as a person or the internet.
I want to apologize to everyone for not getting podcasts out between February and the present. Life has had quite a few ups and downs for me in the past 7 or so months, and while I plan on doing my best to get this podcast up and running again, I cannot promise consistency at the moment. I certainly hope everyone will still support Girl Of Mayhem, and I will do my best to give you my thoughts on SOA in a timely manner, whether it's on the website, or in a podcast.
My review of this episode will be a little bit briefer than I would normally do, especially for a season opener. I was only able to watch the show once, so I may have missed a few things that I would normally catch in my rewatch. Please bear with me, the other episodes to follow should be more detailed.
As always I want to give you guys some ways to contact me with your feedback. First, you can email me at girlofmayhem@gmail.com. Next, you can leave a voicemail at 559-762-2278. You can also Tweet me @girlofmayhem, and you can leave feedback on this podcasts Facebook page, which you can find at facebook.com/girlofmayhempodcast. You are more than welcome to contact me with your feedback at anytime, even if the podcast episodes haven't been recorded yet. I would love to hear from you all, as I missed you in the off season. I would like to send a shout out to John from Houston, Shep, Matthew, Meg, James, and Ashley, who all contacted me in the off season, even when podcasts weren't being recorded.
The next thing I want to briefly talk about is the SOA app for iPhone and iPad.
Wow. It is definitely different than the last couple of season. It has some interesting features, but is a lot less user friendly than previously. I also have not seen as much behind the scenes info for this season. I am going out on a limb to say that I am not impressed with the updates, and I feel like the app is more based towards selling "SOA gear" than giving inside info. Frankly, I am disappointed in the commercialism. I hope this is not a reflection of what is to come in the actual show this season.
Another thing that has changed is the official FX website for Sons Of Anarchy. The site can be found at SOA on FX
The one good thing about not being able to podcast in the off-season is that I missed a LOT of spoilers and SOA info. Why is this good you might ask? Because I actually felt pretty pure going in to the beginning of this season. I had limited information on who the new characters were, I had no spoilers for story lines, and therefore was excited to see what was going to happen without any prejudice of what's to come.
That being said, now that the season has started I've done my background info on the new characters, and am excited to talk about them. The first character we're going to delve in to is Nero, played by Jimmy Smits, and that will be our character analysis at the end of episode 069 (next ep) of GOM.
The music that appeared in this episode is as follows:
Franky Perez & The Forest Rangers - Higher Ground, The Vim Dicta - Your Man, Jefferey Foucault - Horse Latitude, and Noah Gunderson & The Forest Rangers - He Got Away.
I will not be able to notate where exactly the music in this episode was, but I will try to do that in future posts/podcasts.
The description for this episode is brief and reads "Jax presides over SAMCRO as a series of events begins to unravel Charming".
Let's recap quickly where we left off at the end of season 4, so that we know what kind of issues and story lines we'll be dealing with going in to season 5.
First, Piney is dead. At the hands of the evil Clay Morrow, who was in turn shot by Opie and is now in rough shape. Also when we left off at the end of season 4, Jax became President (Clay being "relieved" of his duty) and wanted Opie to be VP, but Opie was MIA. We found out at the end of season 4 that Romeo and his right hand man Luis, are operating the Galindo cartel, but are CIA, and now Jax and the Sons must cooperate in order to avoid the impending RICO investigation against them. Another story line we are dealing with is the death of Veronica Pope, who was Laroy's (head of the 9ers) girlfriend, and apparently daughter of the powerful Damon Pope, who we will meet in season 5. We also have the Irish (IRA), who are not happy, and will only deal with Clay, which means Jax somehow has to work with Clay in order to work with the IRA in order to keep the CIA happy and RICO off the Sons back. Bobby has been ratted out to the feds by Otto and is in prison, because Bobby was hooking up with Otto's old lady (the deceased Luann) which is causing more RICO heat on the Sons. Okay, everybody on the same page?
We open with motorcycles. Why not? This show is about a motorcycle club after all. And instead of JT narrating, which we've heard since season 1, our new President, Jax, is talking about the freedom riding can bring, and also the trials and tribulations about how hard it is to be a leader. We also see that he is still writing in his journal, something I hope will happen up until the very end of the series.
The motorcycles (SOA) become involved in what can only be described as an attempted hijacking. The 9ers are pissed (probably rightfully so), and manage to flip the truck that our pal Filthy Phil is driving. The truck catches fire, and after an uneventful shootout (meaning no one of any importance was hurt or killed), SOA has to get the coke out of the truck and they stash it in the woods.
Also during this montage we see the lovely Gemma having sex with a man who is NOT Clay Morrow. Clearly Gemma and Clay have not worked things off in our brief time away. From what I gather, it's been less than a month between the end of season 4 and the beginning of season 5, so not a large gap in time.
Adding to the news that Gemma and Clay are still at odds (to put it mildly), Clay is moving out. Frankly I didn't know who would end up leaving their house, I almost pictured Gemma moving in with Jax and Tara. Wouldn't that have been fun for everyone?
One of my favorite quotes from the opener is when Jax says "Field of vision funnels into immediate, and suddenly you are not on the road, you're in it, a part of it". We've already had a shootout, a sex scene, and are sure Clay is still alive. So let's get to the bulk of our episode.
The first thing we have is a conversation between Jax and Tara at their home. Apparently there is a memorial for Piney that day, but Tara can't go because she has to be at the hospital to train the doctor that is taking her spot. We also find out during this part that Tara is planning on putting the boys in the hospital daycare. This can clearly be for several reasons. One, so she can be close to them all the time. Two, she then doesn't have to rely on Gemma or having people in her home. Three, the hospital is safer than some standalone building. Take your pick.
The next scene we have is Gemma waking up in a strange place. Turns out, this room belongs to Nero, who we meet for the first time (and who apparently Gemma doesn't remember meeting). Nero is played by Jimmy Smits, and after Gemma pulls a gun on him we learn that he is a "companionator". I liked the quote "I'm a companionator. I bring folks together." They also have some other good exchanges about being pimps and and crackers, with a racial ephitat thrown in for good measure. We now know that Neron "Nero" Padilla runs and escort service. We also meet what I can only assume to be the manager of the business, or as commonly known in brothels, the house manager, Carla, who is played by Wanda De Jesus. Ironically, in real life Jimmy Smits and Wanda have been dating for a long time.
During this part I noted that Nero comes across as kind, offering Gemma assistance, a ride, coffee, etc. Right off the bat I want to like him, but can't help but wonder if his character is going to take a nasty turn somewhere down the line. It certainly wouldn't surprise me. Also I noted that apparently when Gemma is drunk and stoned she likes to have group sex, with not only men, but women as well. Interesting but probably not important twist.
The next scene is at Piney's memorial. During this we note few major points. One being that Clay didn't attend. This makes sense to us, the viewer, but what do the other guys think? Clearly Clay should not be there since he murdered Piney, but most of SOA is clueless about that. Do they just assume he's not feeling well enough to attend? I guess that's a possibility.
Jax and Opie have a chat. Clearly Opie is NOT going to be Jax's VP. Also, we find out that Opie is afraid of turning in to Jax. I can't really blame him. Jax's kid has been kidnapped, his fiance had an attempted kidnap, his stepfather is a murderer, etc. While I'm sure these aren't Opie's actual reasons, they'd be good enough for me! The quote from this part that I liked was: Jax "I'm not going to turn in to Clay" and Opie replies "I'm afraid I'm going to turn in to you".
Opie basically informs Jax he wants nothing to do with SAMCRO, he can't be associated with a club that's perpetuating a lie about how his father was killed. So we know Opie is still pissed. Who can blame him? First his wife, then his father. What's next?
Jax then meets with Romeo and Luis. The cartel/CIA is still in full effect, and Jax wants their help getting to Damon Pope. Jax has always been full of the ideal that things can be talked out. While Jax is meeting with them, Bobby arrives, fresh out of prison. Romeo gives Jax the okay to fill Bobby in on why he's really out of prison, because clearly it's going to be too difficult for Bobby to hide how he got out if he doesn't know why. The rest of SOA is still to be in the dark about who Galindo really is.
Meanwhile Sheriff Roosevelt is at the clubhouse to visit our boys Phil, Chibs, Happy, Juice, and Tig about the death of Veronica Pope. While he's questioning them, Jax and Bobby arrive. Everyone is distracted and Roosevelt takes this opportunity to talk to Juice in private. Asking for a good faith measure, Roosevelt asks Juice to tell him if hears any information about the 9ers.
Now we meet Damon Pope, played by Harold Perrineau. Father of Veronica Pope, the girlfriend of Laroy, the girl who was killed last season when Tig ran the car in to Laroy and Veronica's table when he was trying to exact retaliation on the 9ers for what he THOUGHT they'd done to Clay.
Damon is having a meeting in the rail yard with the 9ers about the ambush on SOA. Pope is upset because the 9ers were not supposed to do something like that, they were supposed to lay low. We find out that Laroy was the one who ordered the ambush, and August, Pope's right-hand man, shows the 9ers Laroy's dismembered body. Apparently now Darnell is in charge of the 9ers.
Our next scene is at the clubhouse where they are having a club meeting. The first order of business is patch-ins. We find out that Phil is now a full member (interesting to note that Ratboy is still a prospect), and they are voting on some Nomads. Here we meet Greg the Peg (named so because of his prosthetic leg), GoGo, and finally Frankie Diamonds. Frankie Diamonds ironically is Chuck Zito. Remember Chuck Zito? He's the former Hell's Angel who sued Kurt Sutter saying SOA was his idea... And now he has a part on SOA. Oh the irony. Nevertheless all three are voted in as SAMCRO members.
During this meeting Clay takes the opportunity to tell the club that he's the one who shot Piney. Hello? What? Does anyone else think it's weird that he just busts out with it? I mean, granted, he does embellish the story and certainly doesn't tell the whole truth. And oh boy, Tig's face when he finds out it was Opie who shot Clay and not the 9ers. Tig is realizing more and more that Clay is not a hero, and is responsible for the deaths of multiple innocent people. At least the club knows it WAS Clay who killed Piney, although it sure doesn't bring Piney back.
Moving on, we have our meeting with the 9ers and SOA. Before the guys arrive, August has the 9ers disarm, all except for Darnell, who he wants to kill Jax. Jax, Bobby, Tig, and Happy arrive at the meeting and August tells Jax to fix the problem with Darnell. Then Darnell attempts to shoot and kill Jax, but oops, the gun is empty. So of course Jax jumps Darnell, and before Jax can kill him with his bare hands, they get Darnell away from Jax and August kills Darnell. Then August tells Jax that Pope will contact him. I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit stunned that August would just shoot the guy, but apparently Pope does not mess around.
The next thing we see is Clay at home (his new home, no more living with Gemma). Tig comes in to talk to him, upset that now he's killed 2 innocent girls in the wake of Clay, all because he was lied to about circumstances. Then Tig receives a call to pick up his daughter Dawn, who was "busted for DUI" (a set-up, as we're about to find out). Clay wants to know if things are okay between him and Tig, and for the first time Tig just flat out says he doesn't know, then exits.
Our next scene is at the Sheriff station in Charming. Apparently two witnesses have informed Roosevelt that they witnessed Jax and Chibs after Veronica's murder. Then the deputy comes in to Roosevelt's office and informs the Sheriff that 2 more witnesses have placed Tig as the one who killed Veronica. Dun, dun, dun, Sheriff Roosevelt begins to realize what actually happened here.
Back at the rail yard, Tig arrives to pick up Dawn and instead is put in handcuffs by Oakland PD. Pope shows up, and August opens the grates over a hole to reveal the dead bodies of Laroy and Darnell. Also inside is Tig's tied-up daughter Dawn. Lord help us. Unfortunately dear Dawn is passed out but alive, and Tig is restrained with no way to help her. Next thing you know, out comes the gasoline and suddenly Dawn is being burned alive next to the dead bodies. Tig's cries were absolutely heartbreaking. While he was not much of a father, it's evident from last season that Tig does love his daughters, and this is absolutely excruciating.
Back at Jax's house, Gemma is there and answers the phone. Unser is calling for Jax, and when Jax gets on the line we find out that there are warrants out for Jax, Chibs, and Tig's arrests. Jax takes this as Pope's way of reaching out, and now they need to hide out until they can figure out a plan. Gemma steps in and offers up her help, by way of her new man friend, Nero.
Again at the rail yard, a "cleaner" comes to dispose of the bodies, and while the cleaner and cop are distracted, Tig gets loose. He manages to strangle the cop and then shoots the cleaner. Poor Tig, losing your child that way is unbelievable.
And thus we come to the ending montage of our season premiere. You all know how much I love a good montage!
During the montage (not necessarily in this order) we see Clay try to start his bike and instead they both topple over, we see Tara smoking pot and turning off the baby monitor thus ignoring the cries of Thomas, Clay drinking alone -this reminds me of how we used to see Piney at the end of these episodes: alone, drinking, with an oxygen tank, I'm fairly confident this was on purpose-, Opie at the clubhouse putting a "For Sale" sign on his bike and walking away, Tig crying by the body of his dead daughter, Damon Pope buying ice cream for the kids -is this to show his softer side?-, Unser feeding Gemma's bird and saying that he misses her, the guys and Gemma at Nero's, and finally, 2 guys breaking in to Gemma's house, and beating Unser. One of the guys has a bum leg. Could it be Greg the Peg and his sidekick Frankie Diamonds? Are they responsible for this break-in, all the break-ins? And why?
Very interesting ending. Not a bad start to Season 5. Looks like we're going to have some jail time, people are dead, new rivals are formed, and old ones have been given new meaning. It should be a very interesting season, and I look forward to recapping these episodes! Don't forget to send me your feedback, and until next time, take care.
I want to apologize to everyone for not getting podcasts out between February and the present. Life has had quite a few ups and downs for me in the past 7 or so months, and while I plan on doing my best to get this podcast up and running again, I cannot promise consistency at the moment. I certainly hope everyone will still support Girl Of Mayhem, and I will do my best to give you my thoughts on SOA in a timely manner, whether it's on the website, or in a podcast.
My review of this episode will be a little bit briefer than I would normally do, especially for a season opener. I was only able to watch the show once, so I may have missed a few things that I would normally catch in my rewatch. Please bear with me, the other episodes to follow should be more detailed.
As always I want to give you guys some ways to contact me with your feedback. First, you can email me at girlofmayhem@gmail.com. Next, you can leave a voicemail at 559-762-2278. You can also Tweet me @girlofmayhem, and you can leave feedback on this podcasts Facebook page, which you can find at facebook.com/girlofmayhempodcast. You are more than welcome to contact me with your feedback at anytime, even if the podcast episodes haven't been recorded yet. I would love to hear from you all, as I missed you in the off season. I would like to send a shout out to John from Houston, Shep, Matthew, Meg, James, and Ashley, who all contacted me in the off season, even when podcasts weren't being recorded.
The next thing I want to briefly talk about is the SOA app for iPhone and iPad.
Wow. It is definitely different than the last couple of season. It has some interesting features, but is a lot less user friendly than previously. I also have not seen as much behind the scenes info for this season. I am going out on a limb to say that I am not impressed with the updates, and I feel like the app is more based towards selling "SOA gear" than giving inside info. Frankly, I am disappointed in the commercialism. I hope this is not a reflection of what is to come in the actual show this season.
Another thing that has changed is the official FX website for Sons Of Anarchy. The site can be found at SOA on FX
The one good thing about not being able to podcast in the off-season is that I missed a LOT of spoilers and SOA info. Why is this good you might ask? Because I actually felt pretty pure going in to the beginning of this season. I had limited information on who the new characters were, I had no spoilers for story lines, and therefore was excited to see what was going to happen without any prejudice of what's to come.
That being said, now that the season has started I've done my background info on the new characters, and am excited to talk about them. The first character we're going to delve in to is Nero, played by Jimmy Smits, and that will be our character analysis at the end of episode 069 (next ep) of GOM.
The music that appeared in this episode is as follows:
Franky Perez & The Forest Rangers - Higher Ground, The Vim Dicta - Your Man, Jefferey Foucault - Horse Latitude, and Noah Gunderson & The Forest Rangers - He Got Away.
I will not be able to notate where exactly the music in this episode was, but I will try to do that in future posts/podcasts.
The description for this episode is brief and reads "Jax presides over SAMCRO as a series of events begins to unravel Charming".
Let's recap quickly where we left off at the end of season 4, so that we know what kind of issues and story lines we'll be dealing with going in to season 5.
First, Piney is dead. At the hands of the evil Clay Morrow, who was in turn shot by Opie and is now in rough shape. Also when we left off at the end of season 4, Jax became President (Clay being "relieved" of his duty) and wanted Opie to be VP, but Opie was MIA. We found out at the end of season 4 that Romeo and his right hand man Luis, are operating the Galindo cartel, but are CIA, and now Jax and the Sons must cooperate in order to avoid the impending RICO investigation against them. Another story line we are dealing with is the death of Veronica Pope, who was Laroy's (head of the 9ers) girlfriend, and apparently daughter of the powerful Damon Pope, who we will meet in season 5. We also have the Irish (IRA), who are not happy, and will only deal with Clay, which means Jax somehow has to work with Clay in order to work with the IRA in order to keep the CIA happy and RICO off the Sons back. Bobby has been ratted out to the feds by Otto and is in prison, because Bobby was hooking up with Otto's old lady (the deceased Luann) which is causing more RICO heat on the Sons. Okay, everybody on the same page?
We open with motorcycles. Why not? This show is about a motorcycle club after all. And instead of JT narrating, which we've heard since season 1, our new President, Jax, is talking about the freedom riding can bring, and also the trials and tribulations about how hard it is to be a leader. We also see that he is still writing in his journal, something I hope will happen up until the very end of the series.
The motorcycles (SOA) become involved in what can only be described as an attempted hijacking. The 9ers are pissed (probably rightfully so), and manage to flip the truck that our pal Filthy Phil is driving. The truck catches fire, and after an uneventful shootout (meaning no one of any importance was hurt or killed), SOA has to get the coke out of the truck and they stash it in the woods.
Also during this montage we see the lovely Gemma having sex with a man who is NOT Clay Morrow. Clearly Gemma and Clay have not worked things off in our brief time away. From what I gather, it's been less than a month between the end of season 4 and the beginning of season 5, so not a large gap in time.
Adding to the news that Gemma and Clay are still at odds (to put it mildly), Clay is moving out. Frankly I didn't know who would end up leaving their house, I almost pictured Gemma moving in with Jax and Tara. Wouldn't that have been fun for everyone?
One of my favorite quotes from the opener is when Jax says "Field of vision funnels into immediate, and suddenly you are not on the road, you're in it, a part of it". We've already had a shootout, a sex scene, and are sure Clay is still alive. So let's get to the bulk of our episode.
The first thing we have is a conversation between Jax and Tara at their home. Apparently there is a memorial for Piney that day, but Tara can't go because she has to be at the hospital to train the doctor that is taking her spot. We also find out during this part that Tara is planning on putting the boys in the hospital daycare. This can clearly be for several reasons. One, so she can be close to them all the time. Two, she then doesn't have to rely on Gemma or having people in her home. Three, the hospital is safer than some standalone building. Take your pick.
The next scene we have is Gemma waking up in a strange place. Turns out, this room belongs to Nero, who we meet for the first time (and who apparently Gemma doesn't remember meeting). Nero is played by Jimmy Smits, and after Gemma pulls a gun on him we learn that he is a "companionator". I liked the quote "I'm a companionator. I bring folks together." They also have some other good exchanges about being pimps and and crackers, with a racial ephitat thrown in for good measure. We now know that Neron "Nero" Padilla runs and escort service. We also meet what I can only assume to be the manager of the business, or as commonly known in brothels, the house manager, Carla, who is played by Wanda De Jesus. Ironically, in real life Jimmy Smits and Wanda have been dating for a long time.
During this part I noted that Nero comes across as kind, offering Gemma assistance, a ride, coffee, etc. Right off the bat I want to like him, but can't help but wonder if his character is going to take a nasty turn somewhere down the line. It certainly wouldn't surprise me. Also I noted that apparently when Gemma is drunk and stoned she likes to have group sex, with not only men, but women as well. Interesting but probably not important twist.
The next scene is at Piney's memorial. During this we note few major points. One being that Clay didn't attend. This makes sense to us, the viewer, but what do the other guys think? Clearly Clay should not be there since he murdered Piney, but most of SOA is clueless about that. Do they just assume he's not feeling well enough to attend? I guess that's a possibility.
Jax and Opie have a chat. Clearly Opie is NOT going to be Jax's VP. Also, we find out that Opie is afraid of turning in to Jax. I can't really blame him. Jax's kid has been kidnapped, his fiance had an attempted kidnap, his stepfather is a murderer, etc. While I'm sure these aren't Opie's actual reasons, they'd be good enough for me! The quote from this part that I liked was: Jax "I'm not going to turn in to Clay" and Opie replies "I'm afraid I'm going to turn in to you".
Opie basically informs Jax he wants nothing to do with SAMCRO, he can't be associated with a club that's perpetuating a lie about how his father was killed. So we know Opie is still pissed. Who can blame him? First his wife, then his father. What's next?
Jax then meets with Romeo and Luis. The cartel/CIA is still in full effect, and Jax wants their help getting to Damon Pope. Jax has always been full of the ideal that things can be talked out. While Jax is meeting with them, Bobby arrives, fresh out of prison. Romeo gives Jax the okay to fill Bobby in on why he's really out of prison, because clearly it's going to be too difficult for Bobby to hide how he got out if he doesn't know why. The rest of SOA is still to be in the dark about who Galindo really is.
Meanwhile Sheriff Roosevelt is at the clubhouse to visit our boys Phil, Chibs, Happy, Juice, and Tig about the death of Veronica Pope. While he's questioning them, Jax and Bobby arrive. Everyone is distracted and Roosevelt takes this opportunity to talk to Juice in private. Asking for a good faith measure, Roosevelt asks Juice to tell him if hears any information about the 9ers.
Now we meet Damon Pope, played by Harold Perrineau. Father of Veronica Pope, the girlfriend of Laroy, the girl who was killed last season when Tig ran the car in to Laroy and Veronica's table when he was trying to exact retaliation on the 9ers for what he THOUGHT they'd done to Clay.
Damon is having a meeting in the rail yard with the 9ers about the ambush on SOA. Pope is upset because the 9ers were not supposed to do something like that, they were supposed to lay low. We find out that Laroy was the one who ordered the ambush, and August, Pope's right-hand man, shows the 9ers Laroy's dismembered body. Apparently now Darnell is in charge of the 9ers.
Our next scene is at the clubhouse where they are having a club meeting. The first order of business is patch-ins. We find out that Phil is now a full member (interesting to note that Ratboy is still a prospect), and they are voting on some Nomads. Here we meet Greg the Peg (named so because of his prosthetic leg), GoGo, and finally Frankie Diamonds. Frankie Diamonds ironically is Chuck Zito. Remember Chuck Zito? He's the former Hell's Angel who sued Kurt Sutter saying SOA was his idea... And now he has a part on SOA. Oh the irony. Nevertheless all three are voted in as SAMCRO members.
During this meeting Clay takes the opportunity to tell the club that he's the one who shot Piney. Hello? What? Does anyone else think it's weird that he just busts out with it? I mean, granted, he does embellish the story and certainly doesn't tell the whole truth. And oh boy, Tig's face when he finds out it was Opie who shot Clay and not the 9ers. Tig is realizing more and more that Clay is not a hero, and is responsible for the deaths of multiple innocent people. At least the club knows it WAS Clay who killed Piney, although it sure doesn't bring Piney back.
Moving on, we have our meeting with the 9ers and SOA. Before the guys arrive, August has the 9ers disarm, all except for Darnell, who he wants to kill Jax. Jax, Bobby, Tig, and Happy arrive at the meeting and August tells Jax to fix the problem with Darnell. Then Darnell attempts to shoot and kill Jax, but oops, the gun is empty. So of course Jax jumps Darnell, and before Jax can kill him with his bare hands, they get Darnell away from Jax and August kills Darnell. Then August tells Jax that Pope will contact him. I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit stunned that August would just shoot the guy, but apparently Pope does not mess around.
The next thing we see is Clay at home (his new home, no more living with Gemma). Tig comes in to talk to him, upset that now he's killed 2 innocent girls in the wake of Clay, all because he was lied to about circumstances. Then Tig receives a call to pick up his daughter Dawn, who was "busted for DUI" (a set-up, as we're about to find out). Clay wants to know if things are okay between him and Tig, and for the first time Tig just flat out says he doesn't know, then exits.
Our next scene is at the Sheriff station in Charming. Apparently two witnesses have informed Roosevelt that they witnessed Jax and Chibs after Veronica's murder. Then the deputy comes in to Roosevelt's office and informs the Sheriff that 2 more witnesses have placed Tig as the one who killed Veronica. Dun, dun, dun, Sheriff Roosevelt begins to realize what actually happened here.
Back at the rail yard, Tig arrives to pick up Dawn and instead is put in handcuffs by Oakland PD. Pope shows up, and August opens the grates over a hole to reveal the dead bodies of Laroy and Darnell. Also inside is Tig's tied-up daughter Dawn. Lord help us. Unfortunately dear Dawn is passed out but alive, and Tig is restrained with no way to help her. Next thing you know, out comes the gasoline and suddenly Dawn is being burned alive next to the dead bodies. Tig's cries were absolutely heartbreaking. While he was not much of a father, it's evident from last season that Tig does love his daughters, and this is absolutely excruciating.
Back at Jax's house, Gemma is there and answers the phone. Unser is calling for Jax, and when Jax gets on the line we find out that there are warrants out for Jax, Chibs, and Tig's arrests. Jax takes this as Pope's way of reaching out, and now they need to hide out until they can figure out a plan. Gemma steps in and offers up her help, by way of her new man friend, Nero.
Again at the rail yard, a "cleaner" comes to dispose of the bodies, and while the cleaner and cop are distracted, Tig gets loose. He manages to strangle the cop and then shoots the cleaner. Poor Tig, losing your child that way is unbelievable.
And thus we come to the ending montage of our season premiere. You all know how much I love a good montage!
During the montage (not necessarily in this order) we see Clay try to start his bike and instead they both topple over, we see Tara smoking pot and turning off the baby monitor thus ignoring the cries of Thomas, Clay drinking alone -this reminds me of how we used to see Piney at the end of these episodes: alone, drinking, with an oxygen tank, I'm fairly confident this was on purpose-, Opie at the clubhouse putting a "For Sale" sign on his bike and walking away, Tig crying by the body of his dead daughter, Damon Pope buying ice cream for the kids -is this to show his softer side?-, Unser feeding Gemma's bird and saying that he misses her, the guys and Gemma at Nero's, and finally, 2 guys breaking in to Gemma's house, and beating Unser. One of the guys has a bum leg. Could it be Greg the Peg and his sidekick Frankie Diamonds? Are they responsible for this break-in, all the break-ins? And why?
Very interesting ending. Not a bad start to Season 5. Looks like we're going to have some jail time, people are dead, new rivals are formed, and old ones have been given new meaning. It should be a very interesting season, and I look forward to recapping these episodes! Don't forget to send me your feedback, and until next time, take care.
Welcome Back to the Anarchy
Hey everyone!
I know many of you are disappointed there has not been a podcast for Girl Of Mayhem since the end of last season. Unfortunately, life gets in the way of our fun pursuits sometimes, and I have been unable to record, edit, and post shows.
Here is my plan for season five.
I am still not able to post shows at the moment so we're going to do things a little bit differently this season.
What I'm going to do, starting today, is blog what I would normally say on my podcasts. Basically, it will be a written transcript of what I would say out loud, just a little more condensed (I won't be able to be quite as detailed, but I will try to stay close). Today I will post my transcript of episode 068 for the podcast Girl Of Mayhem, which covers the Sons of Anarchy Season 5 premiere (episode 1), titled Sovereign. The transcripts will be labeled in the title of the post as follows:
GOM ep # SOA S # Ep # Ep Title
ex) for the Girl Of Mayhem episode covering the season 5 premiere of SOA the title will read
GOM 068 SOA S5E1 Sovereign
This is how you will know that these are the podcast transcripts as opposed to just a post from me with news or updates.
My goal is to record these transcripts, and then upload them iTunes in the near future. That way eventually you will have your podcasts again, but in the meantime I can still give you my thoughts, and you can contribute feedback.
Please, please, please, please still send me letters and voicemails! I can still read and respond to your emails, and save them for when I can actually record podcasts again. Same goes for voicemails. Once I am able to record again, I can play them on the podcast. So please do not hesitate to send in feedback like you normally would. I love hearing from you, and miss all my contributors.
I know this isn't what everyone expected, believe me, I didn't anticipate having such difficulties. But I still hope that you will continue to support Girl Of Mayhem as we get back on our feet.
I hope everyone is well, and hope to hear from all of you soon!
I know many of you are disappointed there has not been a podcast for Girl Of Mayhem since the end of last season. Unfortunately, life gets in the way of our fun pursuits sometimes, and I have been unable to record, edit, and post shows.
Here is my plan for season five.
I am still not able to post shows at the moment so we're going to do things a little bit differently this season.
What I'm going to do, starting today, is blog what I would normally say on my podcasts. Basically, it will be a written transcript of what I would say out loud, just a little more condensed (I won't be able to be quite as detailed, but I will try to stay close). Today I will post my transcript of episode 068 for the podcast Girl Of Mayhem, which covers the Sons of Anarchy Season 5 premiere (episode 1), titled Sovereign. The transcripts will be labeled in the title of the post as follows:
GOM ep # SOA S # Ep # Ep Title
ex) for the Girl Of Mayhem episode covering the season 5 premiere of SOA the title will read
GOM 068 SOA S5E1 Sovereign
This is how you will know that these are the podcast transcripts as opposed to just a post from me with news or updates.
My goal is to record these transcripts, and then upload them iTunes in the near future. That way eventually you will have your podcasts again, but in the meantime I can still give you my thoughts, and you can contribute feedback.
Please, please, please, please still send me letters and voicemails! I can still read and respond to your emails, and save them for when I can actually record podcasts again. Same goes for voicemails. Once I am able to record again, I can play them on the podcast. So please do not hesitate to send in feedback like you normally would. I love hearing from you, and miss all my contributors.
I know this isn't what everyone expected, believe me, I didn't anticipate having such difficulties. But I still hope that you will continue to support Girl Of Mayhem as we get back on our feet.
I hope everyone is well, and hope to hear from all of you soon!
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