‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 7, episode 3 preview: Looking at Gemma, meaning of ‘Playing with Monsters’
Tuesday night, “Sons of Anarchy” returns with what is one of their most-interesting titles that we’ve seen a while: “Playing with Monsters.” Usually, the show opts to go with names that are not so obvious, or are often written in another language.
So why this one here? This may be a case where you do not quite know fully until you see the story play out, but seeing that title, coupled with the image of Gemma (Katey Sagal) above, sends a chill down our spine. Is she the biggest monster of all? It is hard to really identify that when you live within a sea of creatures, but she has to rank high on the list. Like many psychopaths, she has an inward justification for what she does: Family. Protecting Abel. Self-preservation. While she had that conversation-of-sorts with Tara’s ghost during the premiere, we feel like the guilt over killing her manifests itself differently than it does for someone like Juice, who we are constantly terrified for and have been basically since season 5.
Does Gemma survive this season? That is something that we’ve wondered many times over. We feel like the writers have done a good job of circumventing that typical “Big Bad” complex that other shows have on cable, given that the Big Bads at this point are the main characters. You can make the argument with Gemma, for example, that killing her would be the right way to end her arc. This way, she would not be able to hurt anyone else. However, would her fate be worse if you were to kill Jax or Abel, and then leave her alone to suffer without so much of what she was supposedly fighting for? This sort of “fate worse than death” could actually work for this character, and we saw that as someone who hated how “Dexter” utilized this technique in their series finale.
Tell us: Do you think that Gemma is the biggest monster “Sons of Anarchy” has left, or are you leaning towards Jax thanks to the ever-increasing similarities between him and Clay? Share your thoughts with a comment, and head over here to watch a preview for the next installment. Also, be sure to sign up to get more news on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: FX