(Um, spoilers. Duh.)
It’s kind of weird to be starting an SOA commentary on the episode following such a massive, show-altering event. Yes. I’m talking about the tragic, violent death of Opie Winston. RIP.
Now at episode four, we find that SAMCRO is grieving, Gemma is clueless about Opie’s fate, Tara is becoming increasingly bitter, and a prostitute on the run for being falsely accused of calling the cops on Nero’s escort operation.
At first watch, the episode was serviceable. The ending montage of Opie’s funeral, especially with that song overlayed, was powerful and heartbreaking.
Looking back, though, the episode feels a little….off. All of the components were…fine. The prostitute-on-the-run storyline was ho-hum. Gemma’s line of, “What’s happening to us?” felt real and true for her character—she’s spinning out of control, and now the violence her generation perpetuated is taking a devastating toll on her son’s. I think Gemma thought that by now either SAMCRO would be kings of Charming, or at least have some sort of stability. Now they’re thick in the quicksand of machinations they might not be able to control. The song, Lonely Boy by Greg Holden, played over a haunting memorial for Opie.
But putting those elements together—adding in a dispute between Tara and Wendy, as well as Tara, Gemma and Carla—came off as clunky. As a fan, I would have liked a whole episode to process Opie’s death and see the effect on the club and Jax.
Oh, Tara…
This season I’m most concerned about Tara. I don’t want Tara to become a little Gemma-Frankenstein. She’s smarter than that, and she’s not Gemma. Tara is sad, bitter, angry and giving in to hysterics (like dealing with Wendy) that are similar to how worked up Gemma would get in previous seasons. In this season’s opening monologue, as Jax talks about what doesn’t kill us makes us angry but what holds us together is family and work, we see Tara sitting in a tub, smoking a joint, with a gun. At the end of the episode we see Tara, once again smoking a joint, turning off the baby monitor as Thomas starts to cry. We see her dissatisfaction with work. When Jax is contemplating anger, it’s obvious that we should look to Tara. I can understand why she latches on to the only model she has of a woman in the club life. Probably the most powerful woman ever in motorcycle club life. But I hope that she can find a way to transcend Gemma, and pray-to-the-Lord she doesn’t have an affair and tamper with Jax’s motorcycle. (Hah. Just kidding…right?!)
Conclusion
So far, this season is going well. Stolen Huffy (did Jax and Opie steal a Huffy bike as kids?) felt like treading water, where I wish it had pushed the emotional arc of the season forward. Opie’s loss, as a character and the loss of Ryan Hurst, is immense. However, you can’t fully judge an episode’s content without tying it to the subsequent ones, and you can’t judge a season without it one, being over, and two, in relation to the series arc as a whole. There are most likely reverberations we just haven’t seen yet.
Also, I want to note (as I’m sure I will throughout the season) that the cast is phenomenal. A special note to Ryan Hurst, who made Opie the character I always looked to as the canary in the coalmine, so to speak. He played Opie with an amazing half-concealed brokenness. Charlie Hunnam and Maggie Siff…I mean. The way Hunnam imbues Jax with barely-contained rage, it’s a breathtaking portrayal of a man on edge, a man desperately trying to be good, to be honorable, to do right. Siff’s fragile-but-steely Tara, always on the brink, always bringing herself back—sometimes barely—and maybe not even able to anymore—always commands my attention.
Under the Old Oak Tree 