‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Finale: Gemma Kills Tara; All Hope Dies
Sons of Anarchy is and always will be the story of Jax Teller, and Jax Teller’s story isn’t always a fun one to tell. Over the years he’s lost his best friend, his father, and (arguably) his morals due to his seemingly unbreakable ties to SAMCRO, but there has always been one shiny beacon of hope — a way out of “the life.” That way out was Tara (Maggie Siff), the long-suffering mother of Jax’s two boys and the woman who spent all of Season 6 trying desperately to save her family, no matter what that meant for her own health, happiness, and safety.
Well, “A Mother’s Work” ruined all of that, because the “mother’s work” they were referring to was Gemma’s, not Tara’s. Tara finally — finally — found a way out of the club life for her boys, and then Jax’s own sick, high, deluded mother hit her with an iron, drowned her in dirty dish washer, then finally (this was horrible) stabbed her in the brain multiple times with a two-pronged fork.
It was brutal, it was selfish, it was shocking, it was wrong — and it served as a stark reminder that Sons of Anarchy will never have a happy ending. Tara was that happy ending for Jax — just like Nero (Jimmy Smits) was that happy ending for Gemma, and now both of them are (more or less) gone. Even if Jax manages to avoid that RICO sentence, he’ll have to live with the knowledge that his own mother murdered the love of his life; robbing his sons of a mother and himself of all hope for a happy future. In short, Season 7 is going to be rough, and Tara will absolutely not be the last member of the Teller family to drop before all is said and done.
Somewhat ironically, the best Jax can hope for is that his two sons will run away with Wendy (Drea de Matteo), the recovering heroin addict who is somehow a better parenting option that anyone else on this show. It’s wild.
‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Finale: Who Will We Root For, Now?
But don’t think that Jax will be the only one sobbing into his cereal when the show likely comes to an end a year from now. Remember that sweet, naive little Juicy (Theo Rossi) we met back in Season 1? That Juice is now inwardly deader than Tara — in the past few weeks alone he’s murdered a young mother, overdosed on Oxycontin, and offed a random guard, and last night he killed the morally upright Eli Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar) and covered up Tara’a murder, all in the span of a few hours! What a guy.
The reason I bring up Juice is because, outside of Jax and — for a short while — Opie, Juice was the shiny beacon of hope in SAMCRO. Hope that the club would find the morality John Teller fought so hard for; that not everyone involved in this life had to suffer greatly.
But Juice is gone for good now — along with Jax, Gemma, Tig (Kim Coates), John, Clay, Opie, Tara, Eli, and everyone else that SAMCRO has ruined and/or killed over the years.
If you were hoping that everyone would ride off into the sunset at the end of the series, SoA fans, last night was your final reminder that the show you are watching is a tragedy. Season 7 is going to be brutal, sad, and (due to Kurt Sutter’s mad genius) utterly thrilling, but please don’t expect to come out of this thing in one emotional piece. SAMCRO turns everyone in touches into a pile of dust, and that goes for us, too — in short, buckle up kids, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.
— Shaunna Murphy
Follow @ShaunnaLMurphy
More ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ News:
- ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ Recap: Finale Ends With Shocking, Emotional Death
- ‘Sons Of Anarchy’: Kurt Sutter Talks Clay’s Death & Potential Spin-Off
- ‘Sons Of Anarchy’: Shocking Death Signals The End Of An Era