‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 6, episode 12 review: Talking Tara’s move, the Mayans, and Juice
“Sons of Anarchy” had a robust 90 minutes to tell a story in “You Are My Sunshine” on Tuesday night, and boy, did they ever deliver on it. This was one episode that you knew would be powerful, but even still, this possessed a few events that we did not see coming.
The first event is probably the most substantial, and that is Tara finally making the decision to flee; but like so many of the other decisions that she has made on the show over the years, it was an imperfect one. She is not in a prime position to move forward with her life. Instead, she can really just hope to move far enough away so that her “witness protective” lie lasts long enough to keep her from being hunted down by Jax and the other members of SAMCRO. She did what she needed to given the circumstances, but we hardly believe that she is going to go off and be happy. This was a tough choice for her to make, and it’s honestly one that we never thought we would see. The only choices would be death, prison, or finding a way to actually win. She got none of these.
The nice thing at least about this story is that the writers have allowed enough time for it to be told. Most of the carnage with the Irish and the Chinese seems to be over, and this Tara / Jax story touched at the heart of the characters. Even though she appears to be gone, we’ll believe it when we see it next week.
Meanwhile, we never thought we would see Juice trying to kill himself again, thought it did make some sense given the circumstances. He’s feeling completely lost and disheveled in the club, which has been falling apart on some level even when Clay was at the table. Also, did you ever expect the Mayans to come back in such a way? The trouble here is that while Nero has helped to orchestrate peace for now, that may not last too long with the new information that he has. Juice, continuing to be at the center of all things information, told him about Jax’s lie, and he may now be questioning his loyalties.
We’re perhaps more giddy (though that is probably not the right word) at the return of Marcus Alvarez, mostly because he is one of the more compelling villains in the show’s history. We’re personally hoping that he is teeing up a larger story in season 7, and this reprise is making that old decision to keep him alive look rather smart about now.
The sort of politics that Nero is going through are the beauty of the show to us more so than the violence, or even the high-octane motorcycles. You have here a semi-reformed gang-banger serving as a mediator of sorts between two groups, and also conflicted further thanks to his relationship with the mother of one of their head honchos. This development came about over time, and it makes the payoff of this moment — and really this episode — all the more poignant. “You Are My Sunshine” was a strong episode, but we still feel like the strongest moments of all will come next week. Grade: A-.
If you want to read some more “Sons of Anarchy” news, we suggest heading over to the link here. This is where we will have a full preview for the finale next week.
Photo: FX