Sons of Anarchy 2.09 Fa Guan, Recap

Please stay tuned while kayteadee finishes singing along and clapping her hands to the song at the end of Fa Guan, “Since I Lay My Burden Down”

Glory glory, hallelujah


Since I lay my burden down
…

All my sickness will be over


When I lay my burden down…


All my troubles will be over


When I lay my burden down...
.

Lord, I'm feeling so much better


Since I lay my burden down…


And now we join your recap of Sons of Anarchy, already in progress…. previously on As The Harley Rumbles, Luanne was killed, SAMCRO was unraveling, and Chibs was recuperating in the hospital with the “help” from his estranged wife.  So, this episode was all about laying down the burdens that some of the characters have been carrying around this season:  Opie and the loss of Donna, Jax’s isolation from the club and guilt over Luanne’s death, and Gemma’s rape.  Some burdens are still brewing though, and I’m talking to you, Tig.

            So, under the auspices of putting some not-so-gentle pressure on the judge overseeing the INS case against a Hamas gunrunner, Opie, Jax, Bobby Elvis, and Tig pay a visit to the presiding judge as a favor to Lin’s crew (and now we all know that fa guan means judge in Chinese).  When the boys in SAMCRO discover that their emotional leverage has gone down the tubes along with the judge’s son’s drug problem they are confronted with a bigger task than they realized.  Opie, who is on point, presses ahead using the junkie son as leverage and it is Opie’s undoing—in a completely good way.  Opie has a full on release/breakdown after coming to the realization that not everyone can/will protect their family from the evils that exist in the world.  And that whole exchange is all about Opie—it isn’t about the judge.  It is simultaneously liberating and heartbreaking. And just like great sex, Opie needs a cigarette afterwards.  And we see the burden of Donna’s death and his anger lifted off of his shoulders at the end when he lays one on Lyla while his daughter nearly does a faceplant on the breakfast table.  BTW, can I just say that Lyla is really growing on me?  She doesn’t want to be taken care of, likes Opie and his kids, puts up with that bitchace snob doctor, and seems very sweet you know inspite of being a Prius-driving porn queen with a coke habit but hey, nobody’s perfect.

             While trying to find another avenue to sway the judge, Jax turns to an incredibly distraught Tig (more on Tig in a bit) and dispatches Bobby Elvis to find some leverage to use against the judge.  I can’t decide whether Jax’s burden is the MC, Clay, guilt over Luanne’s death, emoangst over Donna’s death, or the burden of being the anointed son to bring change to SAMCRO.  Maybe it is all of them.  Only Kurt Sutter sitting on top of Mount Outlaw knows for sure.  Here’s the thing though, for all of Hamlet’s Jax’s talk about seeing the big picture, he is so blind with rage that he can’t see the Ima/Darby set up or the fire at Caracara is caused by anyone other than Clay.  This boy is too far into the forrest to see the trees.  For all of Jax’s earnestness about the big picture, he can’t see the one that Zobelle is using to stymy SAMCRO at every turn.  But man, does that boy have a fine, fine ass.  I knew it was going to be a good episode when I saw the nudity warning.   But ultimately Jax lays his complicated mix of burdens when he decides to go Nomad.  Yeah, we’ll see how well that works. 

            And last but certainly not least, Gemma lays the burden of her rape down at the end of the episode with the help of Unser, some good gospel revival music, and a curious homeless woman we have seen before.  Her name?  I shit you not:  It is “Homeless Woman.”  We saw her in the graveyard with Jax—apparently she had given him a blanket and he gave her a hoodie, touching; we saw her begging in Charming when Gemma may have misheard her say “Able will provide for us.”  And this time when she enigmatically while wearing Jax's hoodie said, “Everyone knows me,” to Gemma outside of the church.  Who/what is she?  My theory goes like this…  You know Hamlet is the overarching superstructure for Sons of Anarchy.  Well, my take on Hamlet—in addition to being a classic tragedy— is that it is a fantastic ghost story.  All of the characters are haunted, in one way or another, by King Hamlet’s ambiguous ghost.  Hell, the ghost scares the shit out of Horatio aka Opie, Bernardo, and Marceuls in the opening scene.  Anyways…before this becomes a 10^th grade English class.  I think that the homeless woman is a ghost.  And she is ambiguous.  And she will be ambiguous for the rest of the series.  I think it is a nod to Shaeskpeare. Just my opinion.  And ya’ll know what those are like, right?

            So let’s look at the burden still being carried.  AND I AM LOOKING AT YOU TIG.  My, my, my.  Tig is not handling killing Donna well.  At all.  Clay is cutting him out. Tig seems to want to protect Opie from the abyss. Our poor Tigger lost it when Opie had his meltdown.  Like the dude is weeping uncontrollably in his ski mask and can’t step up.  He is falling apart.   Not exactly the creepy sociopath who fucks livestock and corpses any more, is he?  How does Tig lay his burden down?  I have no earthly clue.  But it will be interesting television that is for sure. 

Remainders

• Chibs who I can’t understand a word that comes out of his mouth and all of my inlaws are Irish (even though Chibs is Scotish) and I deal with thick accents on a regular basis, the estranged wife and the ominous Jimmy O.  I smell the IRA coming and it doesn’t smell like Boby Elvis’ bannana bread baking
• When in the hell is Bobby Elvis going to connect the dots and put the dead wife stuff together?  Come on, man.
• Clay wants to do gun deals with Hamas?  ATF will be the least of his law enforcement problems.
• Will Darby and Chucky survive the fire at Caracara?  Only time will tell...  

And let’s roll out on Furry Lewis playing “Lay my Burden Down.” Why?  Well, because I’m partial to the old school blues and it is a damn good song.