‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 5: Reflecting on dark times

We’ll start things off here with a bit of a warning: if you do not want to spend your Cyber Monday tearing up over “Sons of Anarchy,” you probably want to stop reading this article now. Otherwise, keep going in order to get some more insight from one of season 5’s fallen in Ryan Hurst.

If you remember back to “Laying Pipe” (which has surely not left your mind for long ever since it aired earlier this year), then surely you remember what was an excruciatingly painful hour of television to watch. Opie was not just an integral part of Jax’s life and of SAMCRO; he was an important part of the show, as someone who we genuinely wanted to root for. His death was stunning and heart-wrenching, and life for Jax is never going to be the same because of it.

The only thing that is sadder than seeing the end of the character is hearing Ryan Hurst talk about it after the fact. As a part of the recent “Sons of Anarchy” cover story with Entertainment Weekly, the actor explains that he practically begged executive producer Kurt Sutter not to go through with the plan to kill Opie off:

“I couldn’t stop crying. I tried to talk him out of it … I went through Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ stages of grief. He wasn’t sure of the particulars yet, just that it was gonna be bloody and gonna be noble… I didn’t see the way that it served the story. But then again, it’s not necessarily my position to comment on that. It’s Kurt’s show that he created, and whether it’s the right decision or the wrong decision, remains to be seen.” 

The site also has a wonderful video in which you see just how much Hurst cared for the show and for his fellow actors, as each one of them helped him to shave off his famous beard following his final scene using everything from a razor to even a samurai sword. All the while, Hurst and Charlie Hunnam are holding back tears.

Do you think that killing off Opie was the right or wrong decision?