Prashant Gupta/FXAre you able to breathe yet?! So much s--t went down on tonight's extra-long outing of Sons of Anarchy that it took us a while to realize that absolutely none of the big players died during the entire 73-minute-long episode.
That's right, the only death during "Suits of Woe" was Henry Lin (Kenneth Choi), who was chained up in a boiler room in prison for Juice (Theo Rossi) to kill—after he recorded Lin's confession that it was Barosky (Peter Weller), and not SOA Indian Hills president Jury White (Michael Shamus Wiles), who sold out the club's gun stash to the Chinese.
And with that final hit completed, Juice was oddly calm and ready to face his own impending death now that he was "done" making up for his mistakes in the club.
But Juice wasn't done yet. Not by a longshot.
After Abel's (Evan and Ryder Londo) disturbing question to Jax (Charlie Hunnam) at the end of last week's episode, Jax sat awake by his son's side all night long, and was forced to see that not everything added up in Tara's (Maggie Siff) murder. He started to question if his own mother Gemma (Katey Sagal) actually had any involvement in his wife's brutal killing, especially when Wendy (Drea de Matteo) had a sudden desire to come clean to Jax about knowing that Juice was shacking up at her apartment when he was on the run from the club, and Gemma helped set him up there.
Armed with this new and shocking information that his mother and disgraced club member Juice were working together behind his back—plus the fact that Unser (Dayton Callie) told Jax that he knew the club was lying about the Chinese guy that Gemma identified outside Tara's house the night of her murder since he was actually locked up in a Vegas drunk tank that night—Jax realized there was only one person he had to talk to...
Juice.
With a promise to Unser that Jax will tell him the truth about Tara's murder, Jax had Unser set up a face-to-face meeting with Juice in prison to finally get the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
And Juice delivered. In one of the most intense scenes on Sons of Anarchy to date, Jax tearfully told Juice everything Abel had done over the past few days, with his self-harm and out-of-left-field comments about Gemma, and asked Juice if his son was either delusional or traumatized. And Juice tearfully told Jax that Gemma did kill Tara.
Not only that, but Juice, in an oddly-detached way, detailed exactly how brutal Gemma was when she killed Tara. He also came clean about shooting Eli Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar) and helping Gemma cover up the murder, hence why Gemma owed him a favor when he needed to hide from the club.
The entire exchange was set up so simply—just two men sitting across from each other in a stark room, talking—but the emotions from both haunted men and the dangerous intel being discussed made the scene absolutely explosive. Jax left Juice with a promise: he'll make sure that Juice's death in prison will be "quick." For those hoping that Juice's confession would grant him immunity from Jax's ire, looks like he's not escaping his past sins. He's just going to die with a clean slate. (Sob!)
What Jax decides to do next will change him for the rest of his life. Will he kill his own mother? Will he give her up to the cops? Will he let her run away? We're not sure yet, since Juice used the phone Tully (Marilyn Manson) gave him to call Gemma and warn her that Jax knows the truth, giving Gemma ample time to pack a bag and leave town. Yeah, we still haven't seen Jax and Gemma face-to-face since Abel's cold question, and it's killing us!
But even if Jax managed to catch her before she got away, it's not like he even knew what to do with her, since as he tearfully told Nero (Jimmy Smits) at the end of the episode as he broke down in his pseudo-father-figure's arms, despite everything he now knows about his mother, he still loves her.
Of course, even though Gemma's on the lam, she'll obviously be found and brought back to Charming, or she'll return on her own, before the series finale ends...and there's only two episodes left in the FX drama's run. Because now that the rest of SAMCRO knows the truth about Gemma—Jax told them all during an emergency club meeting—justice will have to be served.
Now, whether that's going to be outlaw justice or actual justice remains to be seen, since we're not counting out the outraged Unser at this point. After Jax blew off Unser's trust by having the cameras in the room during Juice's meeting turned off, Unser got so angry he provoked Jax by saying some really cruel things about Tara, so much so that Jax just went and slugged the guy right in his face. Unser ended up having Sheriff Jarry (Annabeth Gish) putting out an APB on Jax for assault, leading Jax to have an epic high-speed chase in a black Challenger set to some really upbeat jazzy music to get away from the cops.
By the end of "Suits of Woe," Jax was safely holed up, hiding away at Alvarez's (Emilio Rivera) place until the heat dies down—giving these two presidents ample time to bond now that Nero sold his half of Diosa to the Mayan prez, making them business partners. His next move concerning Gemma's fate? That's anyone's guess at this point.
Sons of Anarchy airs Tuesdays at 10 pm on FX.