Prashant Gupta/FXWARNING: We're recapping Tuesday night's episode of Sons of Anarchy, so if you have yet to watch it, look away! Trust us, you do not want to be spoiled. For everyone else, let's talk about "Aon Rud Persanta"!
Game-changer. Series-changer. Life-changer! Call it whatever you want, but Sons of Anarchy just took your other TV faves' shocking episodes and punched them in the face.
In tonight's episode, "Aon Rud Persanta", we said goodbye to an original SOA castmember. And while the last couple of episodes made us quite certain that something big was about go down this week, we were not prepared for the events that unfolded before our very eyes. Because the big, huge, OMG death of the episode was...
Clay!
RIP, Ron Perlman, you O.G. SAMCRO dude. He died at the hands of Jax (Charlie Hunnam), which was appropriate, no? Let's back up and do a quick recap:
Jax and SAMCRO set out to bust Clay out of his prison transport, and at first it all went smoothly. They overran the transport and they quickly removed Clay from the truck. S.W.A.T. was busy on the other side of town and the two cops they disposed of seemed harmless. Until after they drove away and one of the cops from the truck shot Bobby (Mark Boone Junior). Juice (Theo Rossi) ran him over real quick, and the boys headed toward the airfield.
When the guys got there, they took Clay into the office to meet with the Galen (Timothy V. Murphy) and two other Irishmen, and after a few exhanged words SAMCRO gunned down all the Irish just before Gemma (Katy Sagal), Tara (Maggie Siff) and Nero (Jimmy Smits) got there. As soon as that happens, Clay knows what's really going down.
To settle things with the Irish, the guys plan to kill Clay and pin the deaths on him. The SAMCRO crew all gather with Clay back in the office where the three dead Irishmen await, and Jax is given the gun to promptly shoot Clay in the neck while Gemma watches through a window. Jax fires three or four more shots into him for good measure, and that's the end of Clay. While Gemma rides back with Tara and Nero to get medical supplies for Bobby, she breaks down and starts crying, saying that she hated Clay so much and she doesn't know why she's so sad. Later, Maggie operates on Bobby and it looks like he's going to be just fine.
So what happens now? Well, Jax gets his story straight with the IRA so that seems like the end of their gun dealings...or is it? And the D.A. is pissed because her deal didn't include dead bodies. We'd go on and on about our own theories, but we think it's best we leave it up to Kurt Sutter to tell us. Also, the anticipation leading up to Clay's death was masterful work by the writers and actors in that scene. So much kudos to SOA for that hangar scene.
And breathe, SOA fans. What did you think of tonight's episode. Can you believe that Clay got killed off? Talk about your jaw-droppers. Let's hash it out in the comments!