Sons of Anarchy 2.11 Service Recap

Uh…  Greetings new readers!  After the Twitter Incident Of Which We Will Not Speak, I have some newfound performance anxiety so I’m going to imagine that you all are in your underwear like my mom told me to do at my 4^th grade tap recital.  I still fucked up my shuffle-ball-change, bringing a hasty and merciful end to my career as a tap dancer.  So, for all of our sakes, let’s hope this recap at least goes better than that.

So previously on As the Harley Rumbles, Gemma revealed her big secret, Opie took off his stinky hat and got some, Chibs was released from the hospital and reunited with those friendly IRA guys, and Jax didn’t go Nomad.  Service opens up right where we left off with Jax sewing his patches back on (Has anyone ever tried to sew leather?  I have and it is quite difficult).  In my mind, Service was all about our favorite characters hugging it out.  Outlaw bikers = HUGS NOT THUGS.   That may be a bit over the top but not by much.  We saw SAMCRO and associates in service to each other (yes, I know that sounds dirty) and the result was bringing the MC together again. 

At Church, the boys in SAMCRO resist the urge to cut the still beating hearts out of Principal Zobelle and crew in favor of being a bit smarter about serving up revenge.  In this whole exchange we get a glimmer of how the MC should work when Clay and Jax are on the same page and SAMCRO is in once piece.  And it is brilliant.  Under those best-case scenario circumstances, you can totally see why all these guy would pledge themselves to the club.  The tragedy of Sons of Anarchy is that we are given these glimpses of how well the MC can work together but we all know that this harmony isn’t going to last for long.

 While the MC is strong and unified, Gemma is now completely unraveled after revealing that she was raped.  I don’t blame her.  I’d probably be smoking a joint in yesterday’s clothes and having almost-sex with Tig too.  WAIT.  WHAT.  Oh right, because when you put two wounded, unhinged people together that kind of makes sense in a sick/hurt/lonely way.  They stop things before it gets any more cringe-worthy but it causes Gemma and Tig to do some pretty fascinating things to deal with their hurt.  Gemma shares a smoke in a churchyard with a reformed junkie priest contemplating going to a woe-is-me-circle-jerk. 

In a somewhat less reflective but more penitent way, Tig decides it’s time.  Time to tell Opie.  Thank, God because he shot Donna like 12 episodes ago.  When Opie listens to Tig asking questions about the night Donna was killed, we see a wave of realization cross his face and it ain’t a warm happy look.  Tig lets Opie beat the shit out of him who are you and what have you done with my favorite sociopath? And I can’t help thinking that those rings have got to hurt.  Tig puts it all on ATF Bitch and once the fight is broke up, off Opie goes to kill her ass or just scare her.  Meanwhile, all the members of the MC look at Clay with deserved disgust.   

   So Opie and Agent Bitchface.  Is it any surprise that Opie showed her more mercy than she deserved?  Time and time again, we have seen her manipulate people, using the vulnerabilities of their families as leverage.  All of this while using her ATF windbreaker to insulate her from the consequences.  Josef Mengela could have taught this woman something about ethics and she’d be a better human being.  If she were in a gang, she would have been dead, dead, dead a long time ago.  (Btw, this scene was so well performed by Ryan Hurst and Ally Walker.)

Meanwhile, once Opie gets cleaned up, he and Jax hug it out after realizing that they are responsible for Clay’s skewed approach to running the club —and they will be his undoing paging season 3.  Jax gives Opie Dead Daddy Teller’s Burnt Book of Biker Wisdom. And Opie reads it.  Without the hat of dirty scalp stank.  

Somewhere in all of this mix, Tara has diarrhea of the mouth and blurts out:  IGOTSUSPENED—IMSOONOTINTOYOUSCREWINGOTHERGIRLSONTHESIDE—WHEREISTHISGOING—IWANTTOGETMARRIED—ANDIWANTBABIES—BAAAABBIIIEEESSS!   And then Jax and Tara hug it out.  I really have to hand it to the writers on this.  They nailed us ladies.  Or at least some of us.  We get emotionally overwhelmed and it all comes out in one long, gasping, poorly-timed, uncomfortable declaration. 

Oh, and Tara fixes Tig's face while Tig slimily charms her about the scuffle with a brother.  (Welcome back, you creepy fuck.   I’ve missed you.)  While Tig is cleaning himself up, Half-Sack drops trou before Tara can protest, revealing his horrifically infected testicles (mark my words, if SOA was HBO we would have seen it).  Holy Mary, Mother of Ball.  I guess it was all that bacteria in the Healing Mud Bath that made it coarm.  Something tells me that Sack will be Half-Sack yet again. Let’s just hope he doesn’t become No-Sack. 

We wrap up with Chibs doing the right thing and coming clean about his deal-gone-wrong with ATF Bitch.  I watched the scene with Gemma and Chibs like 5 times.  It was just that good.  Under Opie’s withering glare, Clay absolves Chibs and resolves that SAMCRO will protect him and his family.  Opie is going to stick around because even though the club killed his wife but really wanted to kill him wtf is this not even going to be addressed he is going to make sure they make it right starting with Chibs and Piney.

 

Remainders

• Um.  Where are Chucky and Darby?  I mean, I think that Zobelle and crew know why they haven’t seen Darby but none of the Sons have asked about Chucky.
• Amazed and shocked that Clay recognizes that he can't deliver retaliation without Jax.
  
• I’m not quite ready yet to declare Piney out of the suicide woods.  I wonder if that whole shoot-em-up was really more of an attempt at a suicide by cop biker.  
• I didn’t even get to Unser turning Hale into Acting Chief or Principal Zobelle’s master plan.

Note on the Tig photo above.  I got it from ONTD but I can't figure out how to give the right person credit for it.  If someone knows, or could put me in touch with the ONTD/SAMCRO people I would very much like to provide attribution.