Paul Risker reviews the fifth episode of Sons of Anarchy season 5…
The war between two generations; the sins of the father; the future and staying alive… Three thematic devices featured in the latest episode of Sons of Anarchy…
The opening of episode five is reminiscent of the season opener, featuring one in a long line of Jax Teller’s monologues, this time on the subject of hate, and tempering it in the face of enemies who derive pleasure from your suffering. He tells us, “But I know what hate does to a man, tears him apart, makes him into something he’s not. Turns him into something he promised himself he’d never become.” From this monologue then spirals the idea of the future expressed by Jax, Bobby and Chibs.
Jax observes, “When I think of my day, I realise most of it was spent cleaning up the damage of the day before, and in that life I have no future; all I have is distraction and remorse.” Pertaining to the drug mulling and his desire to reach that end game, when challenged by another Son, Chibs replies, “I want to stay alive. We’re down three brothers since this started.” When Jax announces he his fronting the cash to go into business with Nero, profits that will not equal those of the drug mulling, Bobby looking to the future tells the table it will keep them out of FED crosshairs, echoing Chibs’ sentiments of survival. But more importantly this monologue and Sutter’s employment of the monologue from the first episode as he sat on the roof of Teller-Morrow establish Jax as a Jekyll and Hyde; thinking man and fighting outlaw.
Just as her husband is hindered by the extremes of his existence, so too must Tara confront her own dark side in the aftermath of her assault on Carla, sharing a moment with the defeatist queen, Gemma. In response to Tara’s exclamation of the horror as to the extremes she is capable, never before such an explosion of her darkest nature evident, Gemma tells her, “Not a lot of grey in this life, sweetheart. Extremes become average.” If Tara should think there was any comfort to be found in such a response, Gemma quickly corrects her and warns her that the words weren’t designed for comfort. It serves as a moment to unite the family when Tara later on affords Gemma access to the children, bridging a void between the three Teller’s, the ties of family fraying under the weight of past revelations, the struggle for Jax to separate the hate and his mother as it pertains to his father’s death still an unwelcome distraction.
If Sons of Anarchy is a family drama, then the father-son relationship is close to its heart – if not its heart. The sins of the father John Teller equally remain a distraction for Jax, the son forced to relive his father’s own hell, to fight the battle his father lost, to pull back SAMCRO from its illegal activities. But John teller’s generation are yet to let go, with Clay still having to assume leadership to secure the transaction between the Cartel and the Irish Kings. If there are already tensions between the two generations, relations boil over, as Jax and Irish King Galen engage in a little bare knuckle fighting. Galen still holds Jax accountable for the death of Father Ashby in the third season, and refuses to do business only if Clay is SAMCRO President.
Any war between generations will not be settled between Jax and Galen, but by the inevitable conflict which we assume must inevitably erupt between Jax and Clay; the future belonging to as Clay told Opie, their generation, but what he most likely meant was the present and not necessarily the future.
Whilst Sons of Anarchy is always imbued with serious grit, there is always room for a little light fun. In this episode the fun derives from SAMCRO’s involvement in a blackmail plot to secure the lease of the Elk Lodge owned by Mayor Jacob Hale Jr, who just so happens to be a council vote short for his Charming Heights project. Enter transsexual hooker Venus Van Damme, also known as Walton Goggins, formerly of Sutter’s The Shield, Boyd Crowder from FX’s Justified, and seen recently in Lincoln and Django Unchained.
Orca Shrugged ends on an image of self-prophecy, Jax opening a parcel addressed to him, which will assist him in cleaning up the mess of the day or day’s before – a breast and a finger. Only in Sons of Anarchy!
Paul Risker is co-editor in chief of Wages of Film, freelance writer and contributor to Flickering Myth and Scream The Horror Magazine.
Originally published March 7, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
