So previously on As the Harley Rumbles, SAMCRO was under attack by the Principal Zobelle and his menacing band of aging punk rock gods white supremacists. As the title alludes, Falx Cerebri was all about divisions, or if I want to get high cotton about my take on it, the cleavages amongst our pals in Charming and the alliances they make.
The tension between Clay and Jax continues to build throughout the episode. With Piney conveniently/inconveniently away on a 4-day bender, Chibs in serious condition with a subdural hematoma, and Opie bitchfacing Jax (again) to back down and get in line, Jax is largely on his own in the MC. Although, that isn’t an entirely fair statement – Jax also chooses to work on things from his end in what he perceives as his interest in protecting the club. The obvious alliance is Clay, Unser, and it appears most of the members of the MC are hell-bent on spilling Zobelle’s pristine blood, although not in Charming. So too is the alliance between Jax and Hale, although the extent to which Hale goes all in is astounding. When Hale began to threaten his arm with a piece of glass in Impeccable Smokes to get Polly to cooperate, I was applauding.
Basically, this whole set of alliances that are set up around the Jax and Clay story line make me feel like Kurt Sutter is beating me over the head with a copy of Hamlet are based on an untenable either-or proposition. Either the MC strikes, reacts, and goes for the jugular OR it sits back, looks at the chess board, and contemplates its navel lint. As we see how Zobelle’s manipulation of SAMCRO’s raid on the Aryan membership drive dinner of the faithful plays out, it's pretty clear that neither of these approaches are working well. Oh, and AJ Weston’s Henry Rollins’ kid scares the shit out of me.
Meanwhile, over in the girl’s bathroom, Gemma and Tara are working on an alliance of their own, courtesy of Smith & Wesson, some porn posters, and Ima’s sensible, 4-door, suburban mom Lexus. By far, this was the most lol-larious scene of the episode. These women enjoyed taking on some frustrations with firearms and it was a helluva lot of fun to watch. I’m about as straight of a white girl as you can get, but even I thought Gemma teaching Tara to shoot was hot – I can’t imagine what that scene did for the boys in the viewing audience. Anyways. Back to the story. Gemma, in spite of wanting to cut Hale and Unser’s big soft hearts out if they ever mention the verboten gang rape of yore, allies with our boys in brown: Unser consoles her feelings of guilt; Gemma helps Hale with an ID on Polly. There is also a gang-of-two alliance between Gemma and Jax that we see glimmers of after the explosion when Jax blows past Tara and is consoled by Gemma.
(And I’d totally write more about the Jax and Gemma gang-of-two if it didn’t take me so long to recap a single freaking episode. Also, another thing I'd love to write more about: Dead Daddy John Teller's Burnt Book of Biker Wisdom.)
And, is it just me or do Tara and Jax (Note to the wardrobe department: please, just trim those split ends and tidy up Jax’s beard. I’m so over the Jax looking like Jesus and/or Kurt Cobain ) seem to be very tenuously allied with each other or, for that matter, anyone in particular outside of Gemma and Hale?
WTF Moment: Oh. Hai. IRA guys. Are you now in business with Zobelle? Guess you guys really are in it all for the cause.
Second Runner Up: Happy’s enthusiasm for beheading Zobelle in broad daylight. Sheesh…this guy makes Tig look like a saint.
Action Moment: I know you are expecting me to say the raid but nope, nope, nope. It is the faux failing breaks meets Unser and Hale’s Big Gulp of radioactive diet-cola flavored piss coming. Love it.
Get Over Yourself Moment: This week’s award goes to Tara (hell, at least it wasn’t Opie AGAIN). Usually, I reserve this part for scenes where I just have to roll my eyes at characters that do something implausible or annoyingly lacking self-awareness. This week Tara was totally lacking self-awareness but in an incredibly satisfying character development/internal conflict sort of way.
Tara’s jealousy gets the better of her when Gemma is more supportive/comforting to Jax after the bombing. Tara’s green-eyed monster really shows through when she suggests that Gemma is to blame for the explosion. And then later at the Old Lady’s Gun Show, Tara who was so concerned with things being normal downright relishes in threatening Ima with her .38 and then shooting up the girl’s car. The tension in Tara, how much of the MC to let in, what is normal, and how she wrestles with it is so well written and even better played by Maggie Siff . None of these characters are perfect. All of them are flawed. And we are starting to see more of these flaws play out as Tara’s character develops.
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