“We gotta get to Belfast.” – Jax Teller
First off, I want to apologize to Kurt Sutter and the folks at Sons of Anarchy. Last week I accused the show of “spinning its wheels.” I was concerned that the writers had backed themselves into a corner and were stalling for time. I should have trusted them; it should have been obvious that they were building towards something truly badass.
“Turning and Turning” was like a shock to the heart, a 42-minute tour de force that reminded me and hopefully everyone else why we love Sons of Anarchy so much. There was so much going on in last night’s episode that I’m not even sure where to jump in.</p>
<p>Let’s start with Gemma (Katey Sagal). When we left her last week she had just collapsed after the phone call from Maureen Ashby. This week, she comes to in a hospital room surrounded by federal agents. She summons Jax, Clay and Tara and demands to know the truth about what happened to Abel. After they fill her in, she tells them about the phone call, to which Jax (Charlie Hunnam) asks the question the audience has been asking all season long: “Who is Maureen Ashby?” Clay (Ron Perlman) tells Jax that Mo is the old lady of McGee, one of the original nine members of Sons of Anarchy, but Gemma’s expression suggests there is more to the story.
This is confirmed shortly thereafter when Gemma says to Clay, “If Jax goes to Belfast, stones get unturned.” (More on this later.) Throughout the episode, a parade of characters filters through Gemma’s hospital room. Unser stops by to tell her and Clay that the citizens of Charming are growing more and more disenchanted with the club and he will be unable to run interference for a while. “I gotta be a cop for a while. I’m sorry,” he tells them. Stahl drops in to try to get Gemma to pressure Tara (Maggie Siff) into talking to the Feds about Sack’s murder and Cameron Hayes. She threatens to pull Gemma’s plea deal off the table over a technicality if she doesn’t get Tara to cooperate.
If that isn’t enough strain on her already ailing ticker, Tara admits that she is six weeks pregnant. Gemma’s verbal attack on Tara in the hospital room struck me as pretty unfair. First, she accuses her of not doing enough to save Abel after Cam stabbed Half-Sack (“What if it was your baby?”), and then she has the nerve to ask whether the baby she is carrying is Jax’s. After all that these two have been through together, I feel like Tara deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Since the first season, veiled references have been made to something that took place in Ireland long ago and it finally appears that we are going to get some explanations regarding just what that mysterious something was. Jax calls Belfast looking for Maureen but gets her daughter instead. He leaves his contact information in Charming but not his name. The daughter passes the information along to McGee, her father, who confronts Maureen. He knows that the phone call has something to do with the missing baby, but Maureen refuses to fill in the details. “”I piss you off, you smack me around. I piss off the army, I end up with my head squeezed off by a razor wire,” she says and he can’t really argue.
Mo calls Charming and speaks first to Jax, confirming that Abel is in Ireland, and then to Gemma. “Is that J.T.’s boy that called me?” she asks. “That was my boy,” Gemma responds, somewhat cryptically. After she hangs up, Mo’s daughter demands to know the truth about what the hell is going on. To which Mo says, “Members from the original charter are coming out here soon, you’ll have more truth than you can handle.”
Here is my theory about what went on in Ireland. While in Belfast, John Teller fathered a child with Maureen Ashby. Initially I thought that Maureen’s daughter was that child, and while that is still a possibility, I am starting to think that maybe Jax is that child and Gemma isn’t really his biological mother. I’m not sure how that would have worked out logistically, with Jax ending up in America and all, but I can’t wait to find out. I’m also looking forward to finding out exactly what the elder Teller was doing in Ireland to begin with. The SOA “mythology” has always fascinated me and the fact that the baby Abel storyline has morphed into a means to explore this mythology is an extremely pleasant surprise.
Aside from the SAMCRO origin story and the mythology that accompanies it, my other favorite facet of the show has always been the ideological war between Clay and Jax over the future of the club. The Abel fiasco has brought the two together, but “Turning and Turning” sets the stage for a resumption of tensions. Jax does the unthinkable and approaches Agent Stahl with a deal. In exchange for a postponement in the club’s bail hearing, a reduction in the severity of the gun charges and a signed statement recanting the accusations against Gemma, Jax would agree to testify against Jimmy O and the IRA. “Not only can I give you your career back, I can make you an FBI legend,” he promises.
And in an act of good faith, he turns over Luke, one of Jimmy’s lackeys (who he kidnapped and stuffed in the back of a van), and a cache of high-caliber weapons. The deal is pretty damned ingenious. It helps to accomplish at least four goals for Jax. By delaying their bail hearing, SAMCRO buys enough time to get to Belfast and rescue Abel. If the federal gun charges from the church assault last season are reduced from felonies to misdemeanors, the club is spared serious jail time.
Since Stahl is the sole witness to the Polly Zobelle/Eddie Hayes shooting, if she suddenly “misremembers” something, the case falls apart. Lastly, if Jax gives up Jimmy and the IRA, the flow of guns into Charming dries up, effectively ending SAMCRO’s involvement in the smuggling business, which is what Jax has been pushing for all along.
Some stats and info about Sons of Anarchy, “Turning and Turning”
TV SHOW – Sons of Anarchy
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 5
AIRED ON – October 5th, 2010
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.