If you’re Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, it’s not too early to start thinking about season five. Or, fortunately for us, to start blogging about it.
Having already said that Opie and Wendy will return to the series this fall, Sutter wrote this week that the upcoming season will focus heavily on Jax and his “journey” as President of SAMCRO. The man must decide what he wants his legacy to be.
“This season will be a pivotal one in the arc of the series,” Sutter wrote on his blog. “Not that all the seasons haven’t been essential in shaping the mythology, but this season will begin to lay track for how the series ends. In a feature film, season 5 would be the end of act two. Where the hero has been faced with the primary conflict and obstacles and is forced to make a decision that either ends well or not-so-well.”
Sutter – who also plays Otto on SOA, of course – adds that the season ahead will slow down the action a bit, referring to it as “deliberate.” He writes:
“I’m not sure how to expand upon that other to say that the decisions our hero makes will be less impulsive and more permanent. The stakes will be ratcheted up while the pace will be slowed down. Not that we won’t have all the pulpy goodness we have every season (we will still blow shit up), it’ll just have a different rhythm.”
And we’ll no doubt eat up every second of it.
During this holiday season, we’d like to send a special thank you to everyone who participated in our special Sons of Anarchy Boot Campaign giveaway.
A total of 6,116 readers submitted an application, with one name being drawn at random to win items that included a season three DVD and a pair of autographed boots. And the lucky winner is…
Michelle Cannon!
Thank you so very much to all who took part in this charity-based contest. We look forward to running more giveaways in the future that reward loyal readers and also help an important cause.
Attention, Sons of Anarchy fans: How would you feel about helping out a great cause AND winning free, show-related items that include the Season 3 DVD and autographs from cast members Kim Coates and Theo Rossi?
TV Fanatic is teaming with FX and The Boot Campaign to bring attention to the latter, an organization that uses the proceeds generated by selling military boots to help those serving in the armed forces.
One simple purchase of a pair of these boots will result in a donation made to charities that assist our veterans. For now, we’re simply asking you to sign up for The Boot Campaign’s Mailing List.
Read the details, complete the form below and you’ll be entered to win the items listed. One winner will be selected, but hundreds of veterans can be helped!
The Sons of Anarchy cast is peeved.
These actors have seen how much other networks pay their stars – those kids on Glee? Raking it in! Ed O’Neill? Making millions per Modern Family episode, and Katey Sagal made that guy! – and they want FX executives to step it up… or else they really will pay for their mistakes, SAMCRO style.
Watch the following, hilarious parody now and remember: SOA and everyone behind this intense smash wishes you a very happy holiday season!
Welcome to the latest edition of the Sons of Anarchy Round Table.
Coming off a terrific season finale, panelists Matt Richenthal, Dan Forcella, Arlene Gonzalez and Christine Orlando have gathered to discuss Jax’s reluctant rise to power, Clay’s survival and a lot more from “To Be, Act 2.” Join in on the discussion now…
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What was your favorite scene from the episode?
Matt: Jax confronting Clay in the hospital room. An obvious one, but an obvious one for a reason. Charlie Hunnam sold every emotion resonating through his character’s body with a few facial expressions alone. He scarcely even needed the knife or the spit, but, hey, those didn’t hurt, either.
Dan: Not for Jax and Tara’s sake, but for Sons of Anarchy‘s sake, I couldn’t have been happier than when Jax immediately told Tara about Romeo and the CIA. This series has struggled with its characters not telling each other vital information for the sole purpose of dragging a plotline out longer. I was glad to see that not happen again. It gives me hope that fiascos such as keeping these letters a secret for an entire season are now in the past.
Arlene: Oh man. Just one?!? Okay, I’d have to say the final parting scene. Jax at the head of the table with Tara’s arm wrapped around him? Stunning. The way it should have been back in the day and the way it had to be now. It seemed almost regal in nature and the way Kurt Sutter was able to demonstrate that was incredibly artful. It pained me to say goodbye.
Christine: I was thrilled when Jax told Tara the truth about the CIA because I don’t see how he pulls this off without her knowing. Then he offered to let her go. My favorite moment was when she went to him at the head of the table giving us a great set up for season 5.
Are you happy Clay survived?
Matt: Yes, as long as he truly remains marginalized. Clay filling a role such as Piney’s has potential. There’s also the apt comparison Sutter made in an interview between SOA and The Shield, as Vic and Shane remained in each other’s lives even after the latter committed the most heinous act possible. There are plenty of directions a series can go when former friends are now complete enemies and, well, compare anything to The Shield and I’m pretty much sold.
Dan: No! It’s a cop out. Yeah, they came up for a reason for why he needs to stick around SAMCRO, but that doesn’t mean it was necessary to do so. As always, if characters aren’t at risk of consequences – especially ones that completely wear out their welcome in the given community like Clay did in season four – it makes the series much less interesting to watch. Taking away his presidency, and sidelining him for the time being is nice, but the bold and frankly more believable move would have been for Clay to die… like a lot.
Arlene: I actually felt bad for Clay there at the end. He may still have been unrepentant even while Jax was cutting into his jugular (!) but the scene when Gemma peered in on him and he looked like a broken down old lion in that hospital bed tugged at my heart. Ron Perlman is nothing short of Emmy worthy. So am I glad Clay survived? Absolutely! Something wicked this way comes in Season 5.
Christine: Surprisingly, yes. As much as he deserved to die, I think a castrated Clay could be even more interesting and dangerous. I hope he gets his due eventually but I’m looking forward to seeing this play out a bit longer.
Will we ever see Opie again?
Matt: Okay, Sutter already revealed the actual answer to this question. But I’m looking forward to how, exactly, the great Ryan Hurst is woven back into the story.
Dan: Yes. Unlike Clay, Opie’s arc cannot end like this.
Arlene: Of course. He just needs to take time to absorb all that’s happened. Dude’s a thinker. He’s hurt. But ultimately his love for the club and Jax will win out. Nothing like the future to erase the past.
Christine: I hope so. I’d miss the big guy if he just disappeared. I think he’ll take some time to regroup then hopefully come back and take his place next to Jax. What I can’t imagine is how he deals with Clay from here on out. I think Opie deserves to kill Clay more than anyone.
Romeo working with the CIA: Cool twist or lame twist?
Matt: I can see both sides. It removed all the tension from the finale as soon as it was revealed – it instantly meant Jax stayed, Clay lived, and no RICO operation would touch SAMCRO – but I appreciated that the surprise took place so early on. It allowed us to just spend the rest of the episode watching these great characters react to it.
Dan: It was a cool twist for sure. I didn’t see it coming. The fact that it was almost like pressing the reset button on all the problems SAMCRO had going for them doesn’t mean that it wasn’t both cool and reasonable. Nothing about what happened over the course of the season made me think that Romeo and his crew couldn’t have working with the CIA, and in fact, it makes the botched Tara abduction make a whole lot more sense now.
Arlene: Total cool twist. My jaw dropped. Didn’t even think about that possibility. That’s how scary Danny Trejo’s face is. LOL! Love him.
Christine: Cool twist but they gave us a huge hint at it last week when Romeo told Jax that Otto hadn’t flipped on the club. That Romeo was deep undercover was the only reason I could come up with for him saying that.
Give this season a grade.
Matt: A-. I knock it down a bit only because I was never sold on the Juice/racism storyline.
Dan: It’s easier for me to do using comparisons. Season 2 was an A, which means Season 1 was a A-. The travesty that was the third season was a B-, so I’ll give Season 4 a solid B+.
Arlene: A-. And that’s only because I don’t want to seem like a Sutter kiss-ass. The man is brilliant and I love the way his brain works.
Christine: For me, this season was right up there with season two. Grade A.
It would have been too easy.
That was Kurt Sutter’s response yesterday during a conference call with reporters, when asked why he chose to keep Clay alive on the season four finale of Sons of Anarchy.
“We get to play that out now with Jax and Clay, and I think that’s great turf for potent storytelling,” the creator said. “I want to see what that looks like for a season or two.”
Aside from extreme tension between past and current SAMCRO Presidents, what can viewers expect from the intense series on season five? Sutter offered the following teases:
Will Opie return? “I think it’s all just sort of catching up with Opie and he’s not a guy who processes things quickly. It will take a minute for him to get back to that table, if he does get back and that’s something we get to play off next season.”
What about Wendy? “I like the character very much… I just think she will be, in a very general way, very interesting to throw into the mix with Gemma and Tara next season.”
Is Tara the new Gemma? Not totally: “It’ll be an interesting season between the two of them… [Gemma] has ultimately created a little bit of a Frankenstein… I don’t think Gemma will be usurped… Tara is not Gemma. She’s not there yet. Next season, not that I’m going to take a step back, and bring her back the wavering Tara that she’s been to a certain extent, but I think she will have her struggles in that role.”
What will the tone of season five be? “My sense for next season is that it will be a slower boil. This season, everyone was sort of out of breath at the end of every episode, and my sense is that next season that won’t be the case.”
Not a single shot was fired on the fourth season finale of Sons of Anarchy. No one died. There was no major cliffhanger or shock to conclude the hour, as the driving force behind the episode was revealed in the opening minutes, leaving viewers to simply watch as characters reacted to the impending shake-up of SAMCRO.
And I loved every second of it.
For weeks, we’ve been wondering just how Kurt Sutter and company would write themselves out of a corner that claimed Jax would leave Charming and made it clear that Clay could no longer remain in a powerful club position. How would the show keep Jax in town? How would it deal with a President who had gone too far over the edge to ever return with the gavel? Would it take the series-altering step of killing Clay? And, if not, would the outcome feel like a cop-out, given all that’s gone down?
These questions were answered almost instantly, via a simple reveal hinted at a week ago after Romeo reported that the coast for the cartel’s transaction with the Irish was clear, despite viewers knowing much better: he has been working with the CIA.
Surprising? Yes. Totally and completely shocking? Not really, but that’s what I appreciated so much about the development and the finale in general. It didn’t rely on any out-of-nowhere game-changer. Sutter respected his audience enough, and had enough confidence in his storytelling, that he could announce right away just why Jax was staying and why Clay had to live… and then spend the next 45 minutes focusing on various characters, their interactions and the impact of this new arrangement.
I won’t argue with those who think the Romeo reveal was a cheat, a desperate way for the show to keep Jax around. But we knew something had to happen, didn’t we? And by inserting the surprise so early, Sutter was admitting this as well. He wasn’t trying to pretend there was a real chance of Jax leaving; he was making it clear that the real story here is how Jax’s continued presence in Charming will affect the character and those around him.
It didn’t come out of nowhere, either. Now we know why SOA took that seemingly random visit to the baby-selling house a couple weeks ago, to make it clear that the Irish will only deal with Clay.
Charlie Hunnam simply dominated the hour, often without saying a word. He shed tears during his confession to Tara, his eyes burned with rage during his confrontation with Clay. He pleaded honestly with Opie and he asserted his new power at the end with one word to Tig when he tried to sit in his former seat at the table: No. Welcome to Jax Teller’s reign, where a reluctant, vengeance-filled President has now taken up residence in the spot his mother already dreamed he would… but without his mother by his side.
What a jarring closing shot of Tara standing proudly next to her man, Gemma silent on the sidelines. Jax started the season by labeling his mom as just an “Old Lady,” a seemingly misguided reference that – through numerous machinations and manipulations on various sides – has now come true. It’s hard to imagine her remaining in that reduced role for very long, but this finale was less about plotting for the future and more about the completion of a riveting journey, one that has resulted in lost lives, lost friendships and the forced transfer of power.
Again, that’s what I appreciated so much about it. SOA told a complete story in season four. Yes, the finale planted seeds for season five – Leroy’s dead girlfriend, the absence of Opie, the return of Clay, the continued connection to the cartel and the Irish – but too many shows use their closing episodes to tease what’s about to come. Sons of Anarchy used this one to tie together all that’s happened.
This was one chapter of an ongoing story and now it’s been closed. Kudos to the writing staff for not resorting to any desperate, last-second measures in order to make sure we tune in next fall.
Some might feel cheated that Clay survived. But I’ll only take issue with that decision if he’s back to calling shots and sharing shots with the club next season. Assuming he really is marginalized to dealing with the Irish, I’m satisfied with this conclusion. Might it mean the last we’ve seen of Opie, though?
I hope not because I adore Ryan Hurst in the role, but then I sort of hope so because it would be make sense for the character. There’s simply no believable way he can sit at any table with Clay again. I’ll miss the man and the actor, but his arc does feel complete right now, doesn’t it? I’d imagine Ope returns, that some sort of deal is arranged where Clay isn’t allowed in the clubhouse maybe. If this actually was the final time we see Hurst, his bandana and his intense scowl, though, allow me to say: job very well done, sir.
And that same praise can be passed around to the entire cast and crew. This was one of the most intense seasons of any show I can recall, a thrilling ride that proved SOA can do a lot more than just blow stuff up. This is a drama about a family that started the season reunited… spent weeks tearing itself apart.. and concluded its 14-episode run as one unit again. One cohesive, profitable, safe unit? I doubt it. But that’s for us to worry about next year.
As the show itself accomplished so well on the finale, now isn’t the time to look forward. It’s the time to look back and evaluate all we’ve just witnessed. I’ll have more to say in our season-concluding Round Table, but now it’s your turn, TV Fanatics: What did you think?
Tara went all Gemma, Tig went rogue and Jax went… well, we’re still not sure where Jax will go on Sons of Anarchy.
The first part of the season four finale left our Round Table panelists – Dan Forcella, Christine Orlando and Arlene Gonzalez – anxious for next week’s conclusion. First, though, they take the following look back…
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What was your favorite scene from the episode?
Dan: Gemma’s plea to Jax, the manipulation of her son, that she hopes will lead to him killing Clay. It was so prominent that I couldn’t help but think it was a nod to the past. Just as she’s trying to manipulate Jax to kill the SAMCRO President now, she also manipulated Clay to kill then SAMCRO President John Teller back in the day. If true, it sets up Gemma to be the sympathetic big bad in seasons to come. Awesome.
Christine: Every scene Tara was in was more kick ass than the last. I loved when she pulled out the syringe and told Jax to kill Clay. She shocked both Jax and Gemma, then put Gemma on notice. It was perfect.
Arlene: Tig breaking down while visiting Clay in the hospital. I love Tig for a myriad of reasons and, while we’ve seen him cry in the past (that time he got high and weeped over a doll after Donna’s death), we’ve never seen the true depth of his love for Clay. That scene certainly slammed it home. Close second? Jax’ shower butt scene. Duh.
More likely to take place: Jax kills Clay and becomes SAMCRO President, Jax kills Clay and leaves town with Tara, or Jax does not kill Clay?
Dan: There is no way the second choice happens. Jax ain’t going anywhere. I’m going to predict – having faith in Kurt Sutter to be bold – that Jax kills Clay and becomes SAMCRO President. As much as I have loved Ron Perlman this season, Clay’s character has run its course. There is no place for him in this world after all that he has done over the last few episodes. None.
Christine: I’m betting something interrupts Jax killing Clay. I don’t know that that means Clay will live, though. Jax isn’t the only one that would like to see him dead. And as much as I’d like to see Jax, Tara and their boys ride off into the sunset I know that just isn’t going to happen.
Arlene: As much as I would hope Jax kills Clay and becomes SAMCRO president, I can’t see Sutter killing off Clay. Clay may be at an all-time “most hated” but SOA without Perlman just doesn’t jibe. And I certainly can’t see him coming back in flashback scenes or ghost form.
Tig going rogue: Stupid or admirable?
Dan: Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I don’t care what love he was showing for his friend, he was starting a war.
Christine: So stupid. Tig’s such a loose cannon. He took all of his misplaced guilt and rage and killed some innocent girl and started a war. Just senseless.
Arlene: Oh Tiggy… typical. Flying off the handle looking for revenge. Can I say stupidly admirable? I kept shaking my head while watching that car scene and felt bad for Leroy. Poor guy. He didn’t even do nuthin’.
Make one bold prediction about next week’s finale.
Dan: Tara is the one who kills Clay.
Christine: I’d love to see Dan’s prediction come true, but I’m still not sure Tara’s capable of killing so coldly, even killing Clay who deserves it. Honestly, I have no idea what Kurt Sutter has planned for us next week. He’s kept me guessing all season.
Arlene: Going out on a limb here but I predict that either the Irish or the Mexican cartel take down Clay. As far as either group is concerned, he’s responsible for way too many f-ck-ups and will need to be eliminated. To them, it’s just business not personal.
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Jax must overcome great obstacles as he attempts to finalize the gun deal between the Irish and the cartel.
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The first part of this season’s Sons of Anarchy left Jax with a choice to make: destiny or family? Does he follow Gemma’s order and take his place at the head of the SAMCRO table… or listen to Tara and take her and his boys away from Charming?
Both of these plans, of course, are based on one key action: the killing of Clay.
Will Jax go through with it next Tuesday night? What obstacles might get in the way of that goal? Expect one major surprise to take place early on in “To Be, Act 2,” a reveal that forces a few plans to change. That’s all I can say for now, but watch the official FX finale preview and prepare for a fantastic concluding ride:
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