At my best, the bother and doubt creep in while I'm in the car or standing in line to order lunch. Hmmmm. How did that work because there didn't seem to be a hint of it during the season. Hmmm. Must go home and rewatch tonight. At my worst, I feel like this:
My concerns in a hail of bullets:
- How could a man and a MC (Jax and SAMCRO, duh) that had been routinely outmaneuvered and had their asses handed to them the IRA, SAMBEL, Jacob Hale, and an idiot like Salazar been capable enough to outsmart a sociopath like Stahl?
- When! When did Jax bring SAMCRO into the crooked deal he struck with Stahl? It matters whether it was SAMCRO's idea and they were in on it from the start or Jax brought them in later in the game. It matters. My theory is that SAMCRO was in on it from the beginning because there is no way Jax could have captured Luke and his driver all by his lonesome.
- How were there not any real clues to let the audience know what was going on? I can only think of two possible explanations: (1) There weren't and clues; or (2) If there were clues, they were so slight that you'd have to know they were present to know what they meant.
- Think of what it means if there weren't any clues. Isn't the audience (yeah, us) at least more trustworthy than Stahl to have some indication of what's coming down the pike? Or are we forever outsiders peering in on SAMCRO's world? That would make the audience not unlike Tara and Gemma but even they got some explanation.
Yep, I'm bothered by the logistics of this. I think the majority of the theories I've heard put the club being in the know from the beginning. But I keep coming back to those scenes (or maybe it was just one) in Ireland where Chibs pushes for Jimmy O's blood. Would he bring that up if he knew the master plan? I lean towards no. I'll have to watch again.
ReplyDeleteI think the only beneficial thing that happened as a result is that we felt the same feeling as Tara and Gemma at TM. "Holy shit, Jax is going to die." Aside from those few minutes I didn't find anything else that satisfactory about it. The audience will love Stahl and Jimmy getting killed regardless of whether or not we know it's planned all along. We WANT to see these people killed.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like that Kurt says that SOA has intelligent fans that pick up on little nuances in the show, and then we get the wool pulled over our eyes for, essentially, a whole season.
Here's to hoping we get redeemed and answers in season 4.
You make some very valid points here. Intellectually, I had a lot of problems with season three. (That Salazar lived after the bathroom scene in Widening Gyre STILL pisses me off).
ReplyDeleteI was so satisfied with NS though because to me, it served as the perfect bookend to Na Trioblidi. After the s2 finale, I sat on the floor in front of my television with my mouth hanging wide open like "WTF just happened? How will they get out of this MESS? HOW COULD KURT SUTTER DO THIS TO ME?!?" In those final moments of NS, I felt like after a year and twelve episodes, I could finally BREATHE.
I think the complaints about the finale are more indicative of the season than the actual episode. Because the set-up could have replaced some of the more pointless (cough-Salazar-cough) plot devices used throughout the season.
Props for the Malcolm X clip, by the way. Anytime there's a good reason to say "Hoodwinked, bamboozled, run amok..." is a good time.
I too agree that the club HAD to know before hand...maybe it was an evolving plan? Maybe the original plan was simple to get Stahl to get them permission to Ireland, and everything else just happened as it happened?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, it makes my head hurt. I need one of Chibs' juice-boxes of Jameson.
other things that are a bit bothersome- luanne was never heard of again! i know shes old news but its like the entire porn issue/luanne murder never happened- even otto didnt bring it up. are we to just assume she was a casualty of zobelle? also... kozik and tigs fued is over a dog- hilarious finale to that whole subplot, But does that mean kozik is as screwed up as tig? curious!
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