‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 6, episode 11 preview: The sad story of Eli Roosevelt

In “Sons of Anarchy,” there are few characters who you can claim are fully good, just as there are few characters that you can assume to be fully evil. Otto is probably the closest thing to the latter in our mind. So while Rockmond Dunbar’s Eli Roosevelt may not always be a saint, there may not be a man or woman in Charming that we feel more sorry for much of the time.

Roosevelt is a man who seemingly came to Charming from Oakland with great intentions, and it already feels like the sort of place that he needs to escape. Last season marked the death of his wife and unborn child, and he was thrown into a middle of an epic war that was waged between Damon Pope and his side and SAMCRO. This time around, he is witnessing something similar go down within the town courtesy of Patterson, Jax, the Irish, and the Chinese. He may not be fully aware of every moving part. He’s tasked with trying to keep the town safe, and there is no job out there right now more difficult than that.

The photo above comes from Tuesday night’s “Aon Rud Persanta,” where Eli has his work cut out for him more than ever. Jax and SAMCRO are looking to try to free Clay from his current prison, and that is sure to be a violent, heart-wrenching task at times. We know already what Jax is capable of, and we also know that Clay is in prison for a reason. While in theory getting the Irish situation taken care of by Clay seems to be a net positive for at least most parties involved, especially given the MC’s hope to get out of the gun trade, the police would have just released him if that was the solution that they were hoping for.

We worry about Roosevelt’s fate this year just in the same way that we did last year; he lives in an uncontrollable world, where authority figures fade faster than bright colors in laundry. Even if he does go before the end of the series, he will remain for us an example of perseverance through pain, and one of our favorite additions of the past few seasons along with Nero.

If you want to read more about the opposite side of the same conflict, just click here for the latest photos and analysis of the situation with Clay.

Photo: FX