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.
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