Jax investigates a troubling new lead as Juice prepares to face Henry Lin.

“I’LL MAKE SURE IT’S QUICK.”

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

“Suits of Woe” was huge, and I’m not just talking in context of the extended running time of the episode. From the moment Gemma plunged that fork into Tara’s head, a clock began counting down to the moment that Jax would find out the truth about his wife’s death. It took eleven episodes to get here, and there has been a feeling at times that the show has been stalling. None of that matters now though. Sons of Anarchy delivered in a big way here, in one of the biggest episodes of the entire series.

As I mentioned last week, Jax didn’t go jump on his bike and kill Gemma straight away. After spending the night with Abel (when’s the last time he did that?), he already seemed like he had pieced a good bit of it together in his head. Chats with Wendy about Gemma helping Juice and Unser about how Dun couldn’t have been the murderer solidified Jax’s train of thought. Jax still wanted to get 100% confirmation, and the only way he could get that was by talking to Juice. Jax and Juice’s sit-down in the prison was fantastic. Charlie Hunnam and Theo Rossi have to be commended for their acting here as Juice realized it was time to come completely clean, and Jax’s worst nightmare came to fruition. As the realization of what his mother had done sunk in, Jax was a ball of emotion. Just a truly terrific scene.

The rest of the episode featured a couple of other great scenes involving people finding out about Gemma’s deeds, especially Nero. The decision to focus solely on Nero’s reaction to Jax’s call was a great choice, with Jimmy Smits wringing every bit of emotion out of it. Normally there’s a stand-out performer in any given episode, but I’d find myself hard pressed to choose between several great performances here. Jax came clean to the rest of SAMCRO by the end of the episode and, in a refreshing turn of events, owned up to everything that had happened this season. While Gemma started everything rolling with her lies, Jax’s single-minded quest for revenge jeopardized the future of the club. Jax has decided to come clean to the other charter presidents too which, in turn, will go a long way towards deciding what happens to SAMCRO. A “mayhem vote” was mentioned here, but now that it’s been brought up I feel that it is less likely to actually happen.

The long running rat story took a long expected twist this week as Borowski was finally revealed to be the one who turned the club over to Lin. If you’ve been reading my weekly reviews of the show, then you’ll know I pretty much sussed that out from the start, and I’m absolutely certain that I’m not the only one. Peter Weller is so capable of playing such a formidable bad guy that I’m really looking forward to seeing SAMCRO hunting him down. Now I’m going to go back to a little theory I had back in season 6 when Jax killed Venus’ mother. Borowski was the one who took care of the body, and considering he likes to have the upper hand on everyone, I would not be surprised if that came back into play in the next episode or two. That theory is completely out of left-field at this stage though, and it may just come down to the club versus Borowski’s army of dirty cops.

Unser and Chucky also had a couple of great moments this week. Unser has reached the end of his rope with SAMCRO and has decided to fully go against them. His actions this week did kick-start Gemma’s escape, but he was just trying to get to the truth. He used his smarts to get Jax to assault him just so he could get Jax off the street. This puts another layer of drama to these final two episodes as Jax is now a wanted man. Unser still hasn’t pieced everything together though, but it’s only a matter of time before he sees the bigger picture. Chucky’s touching moment with Gemma was simply really nice. Chucky has always been used for comic relief on the show, but hearing him admit that Gemma was his best friend surely had a few tears in viewer’s eyes. Gemma’s “I accept that” reply was a perfect way for her to say goodbye to another person who loved her.

THE BREAKDOWN

I could spend another few thousand words talking about how great this episode was, but there’ll be plenty more to talk about in the remaining two episodes. This supersized episode managed to fit in the death of Henry Lin, the “sentencing” of Juice, the reveal of the rat and the revelation of Gemma’s misdeeds. Unfortunately, we find ourselves having to wait another two weeks before the next episode, but that’ll be enough time to let the events of “Suits of Woe” fully sink in. This was Sons of Anarchy at its finest, and the wait for the finale is going to be excruciating.

What will Gemma’s ultimate fate be? Is death too good for her? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

95/100 – ‘Superb’

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