‘Sons of Anarchy’ fans were furious when a beloved character was killed Sept. 25, but Kurt promises the big death serves a much larger purpose.
If you still haven’t recovered from last night’s shocking Sons of Anarchy death, you’re not alone. Fans have been tweeting their anger, confusion and sadness to creator Kurt Sutter all day — but during a conference call with reporters Sept. 26, the showrunner justified his “gut-wrenching” decision: “It’s not a death that will happen in vain.”
Kurt explained that Opie’s (Ryan Hurst) death was a necessary event, one that will instill a sense of duty and purpose in the show’s “hero,” Jax (Charlie Hunnam).
“This is the first [season] I’ve had to think about the end game, and knowing where I wanted to get my hero and knowing how I wanted to get there, the road I wanted him to travel,” Kurt said. “Jax needed that emotional upheaval, that one event that happens in a mans life that can change the course of his destiny — the death of his best friend was [that].”
Kurt also noted that, although Ryan initially struggled to accept his character’s fate, he eventually realized “the importance of it in the mythology of the show.”
“It’s a difficult thing,” Kurt admitted. “[Ryan] is very plugged into the show and loves the character, and Ryan is a super-sensitive dude, so it was difficult for both of us to figure out how to do this.”
You’re probably still bummed about Opie’s death, but do you feel better after reading Kurt’s explanation? Drop us a comment with your (new) thoughts on the show’s tragic loss.
— Andy Swift
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KOwen
Posted at 10:18 PM on September 27, 2012
I don’t normally participate in forums or replies to columns, but my frequently online wife told me about the abundant posting in various sites over Opie’s death. I have to wonder why many people watch artful film or TV, because a surprising number of viewers here and elsewhere have said that the decision to kill the character was a “bad” one and that they will no longer watch the show. Huh? The point of dramatic art is to make the audience deeply feel ALL emotions, not just the pleasant or harmless ones, but the depths of grief. For those who have forgotten or are–unbelievably–unaware, the greatness of tragedists like Sophocles and Shakespeare resides in their ability to hurt the audience. The hanging of King Lear’s innocent and loving daughter, Cordelia, is so excruciating it kills the king and devastates the audience. It’s supposed to. (Victorian Brits usually saw a Bowdlerized version because they couldn’t allow that much violent grief into the emotionally sanitized world they tried to create.) I bring this up not just as a general concept, but because Sutter himself has referenced Shakespeare on several occasions in interviews, and because specific allusions, especially to Hamlet, abound in the script itself. In Opie’s particular case, his death was perfectly logical and plausible, even inevitable, within the universe of the show and in the context of the character’s personality and history. God, the man was so hollowed out by loss he wasn’t even sure if he loved his children anymore. Logic of plot and character is what matters in narrative art. (Aristotle figured this shit out more than two millenia ago!) Because of it, Opie’s self-sacrifice was one of the most devastating scenes I’ve seen on film, whether in a movie or in a TV series, and I thank the Sons of Anarchy writers for affecting me so deeply. Opie’s death is a “bad move” only if the show’s purpose is shallow entertainment that coddles the audience, but Kurt Sutter and his staff are attempting high art. Sentimentalist viewers fearful of dangerous emotion are the ones falling short, not the writers.