(S02E10) I'm filling in for Danny, who experienced a DVR malfunction, so be gentle with me, as I've been a bit here and there with Sons of Anarchy this season. Last winter, I raced through season one for Jane After Dark, and fell in love with the gritty characters and edgy storyline. But to tell you the truth, I had trouble watching it after Gemma's rape this season. It was really disturbing, and I wasn't sure I wanted all of that in my head all the time.

But the fact is that Sons of Anarchy is a great show and -- like many other FX shows -- unlike most of what you see on TV these days. So I'm happy to have this chance to get caught up a little bit with season two.

I won't even try to sort out all of the alliances within SAMCRO, the Irish, the Aryans, the IRA, the feds, whomever else might be involved -- you guys can talk about that in the comments. But it's clear that the fallout between Clay and Jax has been a long time coming. It's hard to imagine Jax ex-communicating to join the NOMAD charter, but that's the way it seemed to be going down in the first part of this episode.

Is Jax following in his father's footsteps, feeling lost in his own club? However it plays out, it's clear that no one was fooling around when Jax took off his SAMCRO jacket at the table, while the rest of the club looked on in sort of stunned silence. Whether or not that's the "psychic shift" Bobby mentioned the club needing, it was an emotional scene, in a quiet, here's-what-I-need-to-do way. But by episode's end, we all know what that psychic shift turned out to be.

So many great scenes in this episode:

The first scene with Jax and Gemma where she tells him that joining NOMAD is a bad idea. "I don't think your father's death was an accident," she told him. "I think he hated his life, and he let the road take it. I don't want that same fate for you, Jax. The things I do, I do to keep you safe ... NOMAD is a bad idea." The relationship between Jax and Gemma seems to be the one constant on this show. It's clear she'll do anything to protect her son.

The conversation between Jax and Clay, where Jax asks him point-blank if he wants him gone, and Clay says yes. It was heartfelt and sincere, in a weird way.

The scene where Gemma asks Deputy Hale Chief Unser (thanks to TV Squad reader Christina for the catch) to protect the club, then kisses him on the cheek. She knew what she had to do at that point.

And, of course ...

The scene where Gemma tells Clay and Jax about the rape. As Danny pointed out to me, the rape was committed by the Aryans to enrage and disrupt the club. Instead, it's done the complete opposite. It's united them, as was evidenced when Jax went over to offer comfort to his mom and put his hand on Clay's shoulder, then picked up his badges and gun on his way out the door. He was back in the club. Danny mentioned that during an interview with Katey Sagal, she said the show is really all about family. There's no clearer evidence of that than this scene. Really well done.

Some other quotes:

"If I don't get away from Clay now, one of us is going to end up dead." - Jax
"And we both know who that should be, don't we?" - Piney

"You wanna trust your father's legacy to those two clowns?" - Piney, on letting Tig and Bobby take over the club from Clay if Jax defects to NOMAD

"And I always thought that you were too damn pretty to be a killer." - Agent Stahl
"Wish I could say the same." - Jax

"NOMAD is MC purgatory. No family, no roots ... look, you don't want Jax in a charter scattered across four states, on the road alone. The list of enemies we have? You want that phone call telling you where to pick up the body?" - Gemma to Tara

Ok, talk amongst yourselves. How did you feel about this episode? Do you think Gemma was waiting for the right opportunity to tell Clay and Jax about the rape, waiting for the right moment when the info would do the most good to bring them back together? Do you think all is well between Jax and Clay now, or will there be more fallout yet to come? Looking forward to your thoughts.

[Watch clips and episodes of Sons of Anarchy on SlashControl.]