Prashant Gupta/FXLast week, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) asked for the help of both Juice and his mother to get enough evidence to bring down Clay (Ron Perlman). He also continued to use his wife as a tool in getting Otto (Kurt Sutter) to recant his part of the RICO investigation, which had dramatic unsavory consequences—namely a nurse dying at Otto's hands as he used a Crucifix to slice through her throat—a Crucifix Tara brought him.
WHAT WE LEARNED
The RICO Case is Dead, but It Could All Blow Back on Tara: After last episode's brutal nurse killing by Otto, Tara (Maggie Siff) could be in serious trouble, considering that she provided the murder weapon. (It wasn't impossible to see this coming, yet, man, the brutality of it all still made it feel shocking.) At least there's one positive spin on things: Otto's words in the RICO case now mean nothing, seeing as how he's murdered a nurse at the prison, and he has about as much credibility as…a psychopathic imprisoned nurse killer.
Meanwhile, Nero's Club Is Bumpin' With Thugs: Unfortunately for Nero (Jimmy Smits), his old crew has come back, pissed. They want guns for protection. But Nero doesn't play that way anymore. The Sons, however, do, and to appease the guys, Jax offers to sell them some hardware at a discount. It's a deal. But it's hard to imagine the deal going well.
Tara Has Some Kind of Personal Crisis While Unser Pukes: Gross. Tara visits Unser (Dayton Callie) while he's receiving treatment for his Stage 4 cancer, and they get to talking. Unser, wise as he is unfortunate looking, points out that she doesn't seem happy with herself. And she's not. She misses being a surgeon—and now with a new job offer—the time to return to a normal life appears to be now. But is it the right time for Jax? Probably not. And then, in a moment of juxtaposition and gruff beauty, Unser pukes while the soul searching is at its peak.
Clay Has It All Figured Out: Clay meets with Jax to try to influence him to be favorable to the Galinda cartel. He realizes he has leverage with other gangs—but he tells Jax that he turned it all down (which we know is not true). He knows that Jax wanted to kill him, but didn't. And he knows about the RICO case. So now he's appealing to Jax to let the cartel thing play out. But Jax realizes Clay has other motives. He tells Clay he has a different plan, and in a moment of scary honesty (everyone's afraid of it around these parts) he snubs Clay's faux appeal for amicability. Enter: impending doom.
Jax, Now Kidnapped: Jax and Bobby meet with Henry to get some serious weaponry, because the guys know that Romeo is gonna need it. But then, on the way back, just as the guys are going to confront Clay over the documents that Juice finally found, Jax is kidnapped by the Mexicans. The men confront Jax, thinking that he wants to kill their gun deal. But he tells them his new plan, which will actually help them, which he fortunately just set up with the Chinese. Funny how that worked out. And suddenly Jax is loose. If all goes according to plan, the Sons can walk away from drugs.
Nero Meets His Breaking Point: Nero is under the impression that his former crew kidnapped Jax. He doesn't much care for this, so he heads to their hideout and starts asking serious questions, like where the hell is Jax, and what the hell did you do with him, and he does it all while waving around a gun. When he meets resistance, he begins to shoot. Against guys he once called friends. It all gets worse, too: Nero finds out in the end that it wasn't his guys who kidnapped Jax. It was Romeo, and Jax is just fine now. He went all out against his crew for nothing.
The Case Against Clay: The tension between Jax and Clay is bubbling over, and finally it seems things are going to come to a head. Just as Jax almost had proof against Clay, his chances were dashed. But Jax wants to move ahead with his plans against Clay anyway, and he presents his case to the higher-ups among the Sons. And now it appears sides will be taken. We end on this ominous note. Things appear to be headed in a bloody direction.
ONE-LINERS
"I'm aware that we don't just pick it up where we left off, but maybe this is a chance for us to do it different?"—Clay
"Just trying to stay alive, brother."—Clay
"I know my Stage 4 charm is not the reason you've come to see me."—Unser
"I'm tired of being crushed under the weight of greedy men who believe in nothing."—Jax
"I'm back."—Nero
"I'm here to keep you alive."—Bobby to Clay