‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 7, episode 1 (premiere) review: Tara’s ghost; Wendy’s big move
“Sons of Anarchy” tonight was about Jax’s return to the real world, but a world that he never wanted to imagine. Tara was gone, he was full of rage, and the politics around him were more intense than they have ever been.
His release from prison stemmed from Patterson’s inability to pin a murder on him, but he still tries to expand his contacts inside courtesy of Marilyn Manson, who was perfectly and surprising cast in his part.
It’s interesting in a way how Tara was largely the main character in “Black Widower,” and did so despite being dead. Almost everything stemmed back in some way to her death, from Gemma seeking reassurance to handle her guilt to Juice’s scattershot emotions to even Alvarez trying to be the master of condolences.
Whlle Tara’s ghost loomed large, the other element of this that was a surprise is that Unser, who has been seemingly knocking on death’s door forever, could be left standing at the very end. He also was front and center for what was arguably the episode’s biggest move, which revolved all around Wendy and Juice’s bag. Did she know what she was doing, and does it really matter if it had the same impact? What is almost as equally intriguing is what Unser will do if and when he learns that Gemma killed Tara. Will he do the right thing? This guy is not the same man we met so many years ago.
Before anything, though, he has to figure out a way to convince Juice to put down the gun. This was cliffhanger A, with cliffhanger B being Jax thinking the Chinese were the responsible parties for what happened to Tara. Who thinks this is going to end well?
Despite being an hour and a half and full of violence and at one point a gang killing, the smaller moments were what did it for us this week, from the condolence tour to Gemma’s insistence to Juice that they were doing the right thing in lying. The truth, in this case, could lead them down the road to murder … but somehow, lying may still be worse. Grade: A-.
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Photo: FX