“You made the wrong choice.” – Opie
There is no way that people – ladies and dudes alike – who watch Sons of Anarchy can tell me that they did not shed at least one tear during last night’s “Laying Pipe.” In one of the most gut-wrenching episodes that Sons of Anarchy has aired to date, a Son lost his life and Jax Teller might not be the same ever again.
Jax, Opie, Chibs, and Tig are now in jail and face the threat of Damon Pope’s allies on the inside. Even though they have some protection from Romeo’s connections, the danger is bigger than Jax can handle. Pope pays him a visit and tells him the only way for him to leave them alone and to make the charges against them go away is for them to give Pope half the money from the drug mule-ing, Tig has to stay in prison and Jax has to choose a Son, either himself, Opie or Chibs, to die.
The four men go to solitary together and when alone with Opie, Jax spills all his secrets about the RICO operation, Romeo being CIA and the real reason why Clay killed Piney. Opie thinks Jax made the wrong decision about saving the club and not killing Clay. Jax also tells Opie that Pope is making him choose one of them to die. The four men are put together and Jax fills the others in on what is going on.
When the corrupt sergeant in Pope’s pocket comes to collect the man who is going to die, Jax tells the guys it is his call and proceeds to punch the sergeant. Opie intervenes though and is taken into a different room. As the other three are forced to look on through a window, Opie is given a pipe to defend himself against three other men. He fights back but is dominated by the other inmates and takes a fatal blow to the head. As Opie falls, Jax has not only a look of sadness on his face, but also a look of anger. On the way out, Jax tells the sergeant that he will be coming after him.
When Pope comes to tell Jax that he and Chibs will be freed, Jax tells him that he will get his money, but Jax wants Tig on the outside too. He tells Pope that now Tig owes him and it gives him an internal advantage. He also tells Pope, “After I’m done, you can send Tig out the same way you did his kid. Cause I really don’t give a s—.” Jax tells Tig that he is free too, but from now on he will back every decision that Jax makes but leave out the part that he doesn’t care what happens to him.
I am not going to hide the fact that I cried and while I was crying, I thought “Why Opie?” I mean, it sort of makes sense since he had already lost everything that he cared about, a wife and a father and he was on the outs with the club. It is also in his nature to be there for his best friend Jax and at some point Opie probably would have made the ultimate sacrifice. The reasons though don’t make it less devastating and he didn’t deserve to die. There are other characters on the show whose death would have made more sense, like Tig who started this mess in the first place by killing Veronica Pope and Juice who ratted out the club to the police last season. Elsewhere, Tara and Gemma continued to battle with Tara not letting Gemma have visits to daycare with her grandsons and Gemma telling Wendy that Tara is self-medicating and she should go after Abel. Tara figures the plot out after a visit from Wendy and threatens Gemma. These two are amazing together and kudos to the people who are making Gemma look as bad as the decisions she is making. The old Gemma needs to come back though. You know she is not herself if she has to ally with Wendy to get even with Tara.
Clay wanted to know what Gemma was up to so he made Juice take him to Nero’s. Both received a little something extra when visiting the escort service. You couldn’t help but chuckle as Juice was led back to a room by the leading madam of the place. When Gemma showed up and found Clay with a girl, she proceeded to go crazy and beat up the escort (guest star Ashley Tisdale). It seems like things with Clay are not over yet. The show finished with Nero’s place being raided and Gemma ending up in handcuffs.
Don’t despair fans of Sons. It will be hard without Opie, but Jax’s journey is just beginning and it will be interesting to see what kind of vengeance he is going to take. Opie has been a favorite since the beginning and will be greatly missed. It was hard to watch his story end like this because after all of the crap he has been through, deep down you wanted him to ride off into the sunset. This show, especially Ryan Hurst, better be winning some awards next season.
Some stats and info about Sons of Anarchy, “Laying pipe”
TV SHOW – Sons of Anarchy
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 5, Episode 3
AIRED ON – September 15th, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FX
GENRE – Drama, Crime Dramas
CREATED BY – Kurt Sutter
CAST – Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal, Mark Boone Junior, Kim Coates, Tommy Flanagan, Theo Rossi, Dayton Callie, Maggie Siff, Ron Perlman, David Labrava, Jimmy Smits, Drea de Matteo
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.