['Sons of Anarchy' - 'Dorylus']

This week is crazy-insane crunch time for the fall season, so this might be one of my shorter 'Sons of Anarchy' reviews.

Clearly, the most compelling part of the episode was the vote at the end. But there were some interesting moments amid the political wheeling and dealing that went on before the big gathering around the 'SOA' table.

Well, here's a fine mess: Clay has promised Bobby that when he exits the president's office, he'll give the leadership of the club to Bobby. But we already know that Jax has made Clay promise to support Opie for president when Jax leaves. We know Jax and Clay's assumption is that they'll leave around the same time -- but there can't be two presidents. Many questions are raised by this particular bit of double-dealing, not least of which is, what happens if Jax finds out about this promise to Bobby?

More questions: Is Clay making an empty promise to Bobby, one he has no interest in fulfilling? If so, damn, that's cold. Bobby's one of his best friends from way back (and Bobby would probably do a solid job of leading the club, if it ever came to that). Or does Clay truly support Bobby over Opie as the next president? That may well be true; Clay seems like the kind of guy who'd support a member of his own generation over Opie, who he may well still regard, in some ways, as a kid.



Any way you look at it, Clay has betrayed several people here -- Bobby, Jax, Opie, or some combination thereof. And to drive home the point that the head of the club has got his mind on his money and his money on his mind, he flat-out lied to the man who's coordinating ammo production for the club -- and then he killed the unfortunate Russian who happened to hear the truth about the club's markup on bullets.

Naturally, because this is 'Sons of Anarchy,' the Russian is buried up to his shoulders and being consumed by killer ants. Not a pretty way to go, and Clay put him out of his misery early.

Clay is being incredibly ruthless this season -- of all the thing he did this week, getting rough with Gemma may have been the most shocking moment. It doesn't seem out of character with their relationship, but Clay putting Gemma in her place -- or attempting to -- seems like a very bad idea, one that could have disastrous repercussions down the road. As I've said before, the challenge of the season will whether 'SOA' can do what 'Breaking Bad' does -- make the tension and the character studies so compelling that you have to watch, no matter how terribly the people on the screen behave.

Having Jax and Clay acting as both as allies and as separate political operators and dealmakers, having Piney and Opie and others try to rein them in, having Gemma try to have Clay's back and fend off Tara's inquiries while Clay is pushing Gemma around and potentially pushing her away -- those are the kind of loaded interpersonal dynamics that 'SOA' tends to do well.

That big-picture stuff is interesting, but, at the risk of getting more "Shut up, hater!" comments this week, I have to point out that, this week and last, I had problems with the contained, episodic story of the week. This week's adventure relied on Kozik being really, really dumb. I'll admit, we don't know Kozik all that well, so maybe he was always the kind of guy who would leave a truck loaded with valuable and illegal firearms unguarded. But that seems like a stretch. I'll be honest, I wasn't a fan of the fact that much of the mechanics of the weekly plot relied on Kozik's gullibility.

Even though Jax's line after the chase scene ("License and registration, please") was amusing, and even though Marianne Jean-Baptiste was terrific as a local fence in her scenes, I was also taken aback when the club members just happened to spot the car they were looking for. Kind of a coincidence, eh?

To turn to other matters briefly, it was interesting to see the sheriff (and Potter) find new and interesting ways to create pressure for the club. Juice may not rat out SAMCRO, but I'm betting Roosevelt and Potter have other tricks up their sleeves. And I was glad that Gemma finally confronted Tara about her suspicions about John Teller's death. If the plan is to air out that issue and finally put it to bed without dragging it out too much, I'm on board with that. Many of you have pointed out that it appears that Clay may not know as much as Gemma regarding how JT died; again, I'm cool with having this be a thread for the season as long as it isn't the only thing the women get to deal with.

The whole hour all led up to that vote, and clearly the whole Kozik story was about getting him to vote Jax's way. Aside from all that, however, I can't deny that that final scene around the table was effective. Now the club is committed to a very dangerous path, and the vote was anything but a pure expression of democracy, given the pressures brought to bear on various club members.

One question I had at the end of the episode -- why do you think Happy voted the way he did? I am a fan of the character but I don't feel I know him well. Leave your theories on why our favorite former Nomad voted the way he did -- and any other 'SOA' thoughts and reactions -- in the comments below. As always, thanks for stopping by.

'Sons of Anarchy' Season 4 airs Tuesdays, 10PM ET on FX.

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