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'Sons of Anarchy' Season 4, Episode 7 Recap (VIDEO)
by Maureen Ryan, posted Oct 18th 2011 11:00PM
['Sons of Anarchy' - 'Fruit for the Crows']FX sends out episodes of 'Sons of Anarchy' in advance, which makes life easier for those of us who write about the show on a weekly basis.
This week, the network sent out a DVD containing 'Fruit for the Crows' and next week's episode as well, and it took a generous helping of self-control not to watch the Oct. 25 episode as soon as the credits rolled on this week's outing. Even though I was dying to see what happened next, I wrote this review without knowing. It's killing me a little bit.
It was a very eventful episode; well before that cliffhanger, many of the residents of Charming had to deal with all kinds of unpleasant truths. For the love of God, two different bikers were near tears this week. All hell broke loose at the Mayan compound and things only went downhill from there.
Of course, things were most dire for poor Juice. If there's one thing that's given me just a little pause this season, it's that there are so many internal tensions and beefs brewing, and Clay in particular has been so manipulative and brutal. These guys live in a brutal world, sure, but I want to root for at least some of them some of the time.So it was good to see that we saw a slightly different side of Clay in that meeting with Juice, just as it was a relief to see the club working together against a common foe. Some of the best episodes of 'SOA' showcase the club coming together to defend itself even as internal divisions threaten to tear it apart, and 'Fruit for the Crows' was a well-calibrated and enjoyably intense example of that kind of 'SOA' hour.
Another smart thing the show has done has been to take the club's most sympathetic member and put him in a very tight corner. I mean, I love Happy, but nobody would be all that worried about him if the authorities came after him (mainly because I think he would enjoy dismembering the authorities before breakfast). But Juice is the epitome of a standup guy, a good dude who, as Piney once said of Jax, "loves the right things." Already this season, Juice had to steal from the club, and of course, last week he killed a fellow member and set him up to die a traitor, acts that were eating him alive as the episode began. Sure, Juice has always gone along with the club's criminal enterprises, but he is a smart, standup guy with his own ambitions and dreams. In many ways, he's a reminder of what the club used to stand for.
But as the club tried to fend off the threat from the Sonora cartel, Juice was trapped in a nightmare. The club used to be about unity, but Juice was all alone as Roosevelt confronted him with a choice that, as the sheriff acknowledged, wasn't really a choice at all. A few weeks ago, Juice may have had options before him: He could have gone to Clay and the club and revealed who his dad was, and taken the chance that he'd be stripped of his patch and thrown out (or worse).
(I know some have questioned whether the club would have really kicked Juice out over having had a black parent, and I wondered a bit about the club's racial policies when I spotted a prospect who looked part-Asian or part-Hispanic in the clubhouse toward the end of the episode. But to me, what matters is that Juice believed there was a chance of him being drummed out of the club, and I can understand, given the backgrounds and outlooks of the men who founded the club, why he thought that possibility was real. SAMCRO is his only family, and I can see how even a 10 percent chance that he could lose that patch and those connections would have been, in his mind, a big risk.)
In any event, the time to explore SAMCRO's diversity policies has been over for a while. We've had intimations before about who would sacrifice whom this season, and Juice's sad case is a prime example of sh*t running downhill. It's now very clear to Roosevelt that Lincoln Potter would easily sacrifice the sheriff's career in the attorney's quest to take down his RICO targets. And an uneasy Roosevelt made it clear that he would sacrifice Juice to Potter's cause rather than risk his own livelihood and future.So Juice was left with no good options: He could either rat out his brothers or get killed in prison. After his heartbreaking moment with Clay -- who I think both cares about Juice and is also a little worried about his loyalty to SAMCRO -- Juice tried a third option, but did it work? I distinctly heard the sound of a branch breaking just after Juice flung himself off that tree with a chain around his neck. Something tells me we haven't seen the last of young Juice, given that Tig may find him in time to get medical help. We'll have to see.
Speaking of seeing, so many things became clear in this hour of painful revelations. The Sonora cartel isn't about to let the Galindo operation expand its business north of the border -- both SAMCRO and the Mayans now know that. Tara now knows that the price of Jax "making bank" could be her family's safety and even their lives. Opie has lost another woman thanks to the dangers of the world he lives in (and Ryan Hurst did powerful work in that wordless scene in Lyla's bedroom. The fewer words you give this guy, the better he is). Even Unser knows that Clay is on to him and the ex-sheriff better step very carefully if he wants to keep Tara (or himself) alive.
But for me, the episode's best moment (even better than the excellent Clay-Juice scene) was Bobby's challenge to Clay's authority. The time for plotting and sniping in the background is over; we're halfway through the season now, and it's time for chickens to come home to roost. As Tara pointed out, two weeks into the cartel deal, the entire club has landed in a world of pain -- and all that blowback is exactly what Bobby predicted. But as Clay is proving with vehemence this season, having him for an enemy is very dangerous.
Next week, we'll find out the results of the vote Bobby instigated -- if the vote even happens. There's every chance that the next twist in the Juice story could change everything for the club. But there's little doubt that things are likely to get worse.
A few final notes:
* In case you hadn't heard, 'Sons of Anarchy' was renewed for a fifth season on Monday. No surprise there: 'SOA' is FX's biggest hit.
* One of my favorite moments in this very solid episode was the brief glimpse of Opie and Jax playing with their kids on the club's swingset. Glad someone other than Tig is finally using that thing.
* Nice action sequence courtesy of an enraged Jax, who clearly thought whoever hit the Mayans could well be connected to the threat on Tara. And the taut scene in the unfortunate shooter's apartment was about as well shot and tightly edited as could be; it reminded me of the kind of tension confrontations you'd often see on 'The Shield,' the show creator Kurt Sutter wrote for before this.* The closing musical montage is a go-to move for 'SOA,' but I generally think the show does a good job of weaving together various strands of the story in those segments; I certainly don't have the "this again?" response to those sequences (as I often did when I used to watch 'Rescue Me'). Those 'SOA' scenes work well partly because the music choices are usually so good, and the subtle ominousness of Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' was an excellent accompaniment to Juice's Gethsemane moment. Holiday's song is about lynching, and Potter, for all his bearded weirdness, quite clinically engineered the situation that Juice is in. Potter didn't lynch Juice, but he gave him the option of turning rat or dying. It's hard to say who's more scarily determined this season -- more Gus Fring-like, if you will -- Clay or Potter.
* Another favorite moment in the episode was the look on Tara's face when she was outside the clubhouse talking to Clay. Her look and body language very clearly said that she trusts Clay about as far as she can throw him (she didn't quite go Crazy Eyes on him, but I wouldn't rule it out in future). The woman is no fool, and as she tried to remind Jax, Clay is not about to let anyone -- including her or Jax -- get in the way of what he wants to do. I can certainly see a scenario in which Tara (with or without Jax) begins plotting against Clay and/or Gemma down the road. Or she could pull a Lyla and just get the hell out of town (with her kids, of course). In any case, does anyone want to start a Tara death pool? I love Maggie Siff as an actress, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure how much more deeply Tara can get into this world without either ending up dead or deciding to get out, with or without her man. It's very clear to her now that her family is not safe at all, despite Jax's reassurances. At some point, she's going to have to choose between her kids and her man, and I don't think the engagement ring on her finger is going to sway her toward sticking with the club's V.P., as much as she loves him.
* You will notice that at no point did I make a pun about Juice being squeezed. But it was there. And it was so tempting.
* If we're talking about potential deaths, obviously Juice is a candidate for that (if he's not already gone), but I also don't see how Piney lives out the season. Things are also looking dicey for Unser and Bobby. Your thoughts on who's most likely to take a dirt nap?
'Sons of Anarchy' airs 10PM ET Tuesdays on FX.
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