Sons of Anarchy Season 4 Episode 4 recap

When I last talked to Lainey about this show, I told her “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about these people’’ but that I like Gemma. She responded with “wait ‘til she really starts to do some f-cked up sh*t”. I have this feeling today is the day…

Anyway, you remember what’s been going on with the weapons delivery and whatnot, right? And how Jax wants out and Clay promises that’s OK? And how running drugs passed at church, 6-5?

Tara wakes up to find Jax scribbling some notes, but he’s cagey about what they are. And she goes ahead and makes fun of him for writing a diary. Jax has to leave, and Tara asks if he’s really going to a bike show like he says. He wonders whether she wants to know more, and she admits she doesn’t.

At Gemma’s, she’s tending a bunch of plants, miserably. They got too much sun. I’m watching on my teeny tiny computer screen so I can’t tell if there’s weed in there or not, but there is, right? She injects Clay’s hands with something to help the arthritis – and then suddenly they’re outside, she’s kissing him goodbye, but he can tell there’s something wrong. There’s a beautiful, acoustic Spanish version of ‘The Times are A’Changin’ playing over all this, and I know enough about this show by now to know exactly what kind of misery that’s about to bring us.

Our boys caravan down the road, Jax gives Clay another injection. Finally, at night, they pull into what sounds like Tucson, to meet another chapter of the Sons. There’s those kinds of greetings where everyone’s being nice to one another but not really, every comment has a barb. Anyway, pleasantries are interrupted by a teenage couple screeching because the Tucson Sons won’t sell them more crank, which makes Clay and Jax furious because of what it could endanger but when Clay tells them to shut it down, they more or less tell him to shove it.

Sons meeting of the minds. Clay says they’ve never dealt, and that the charter needs to deal because the town is dried up. Someone reasonably points out that SAMCRO can use another charter if they want, but they’re closer to the border than anyone. There is a muttered conversation about something that happened five months ago, but the upshot of it is that if I’m not mistaken, Lincoln’s picture is on the wall in the Boulder chapter’s club – upside down…

Flower shop. As Lincoln watches, Gemma complains about her Mariposa Lilies that aren’t blooming. Rita in the flower shop is sympathetic, and it seems pretty loaded. After the creepy guy with the fake hands – Chuck – offers Rita his hand, she and Gemma seem to talk more freely. Gemma points out a “save natural gardens in Charming” poster, and Gemma implies Rita’s husband (Roosevelt?) could get in trouble if it was seen. They circle around each other with who knows who each other is, and they’re about equal tough! I really want them to be friends! Anyway, some talk about donors for the Gardens, etc and Gemma says she’ll be back. I’m pretty sure she wants them to be friends!

Outside, Lincoln feeds Gemma some information about how the planning commission might fall through. She offers him a light, but he walks away…

In Tucson, SAMCRO wait for their contacts as Jax muses to the others that it doesn’t make sense the other guys are now dealing drugs. He thinks it’s related to the death of little Paul, but is distracted when Bobby starts implying – and by that I mean straight-out saying – that muling and dealing are the same things. Which, he has a pretty serious point here, but Clay does his ‘I am soft and totally imposing’ face, and it kind of goes away.

Clay and Jax go to their Mexican contact but he’s not cool doing the deal because SAMCRO have a tail… so they take the game on the road, but the red van – who Clay is convinced is a local Narc – tails them…

Soon Clay and the other guy are drag racing, which would be fine if Clay’s hand wasn’t bothering him so much…

And then, in a move straight out of the cartoons, the Metzasuna guys let some barrels of gas roll off the back of a flatbed and shoot into it, creating a roadblock the red van can’t possibly get past…

Back in the war room, Lincoln is surprised because “a grease truck doesn’t sound like our boys, does it?” And then, as his deputy goes out of the room, he gets all balletic about solving crimes - I don’t love him yet, still.

Pet store, and I cringe. And so do half the viewers. They’re here because the proprietor used to be in SAMTAZ, and now he’s out. Tats black and everything. The boys break a fishtank, and then Tig grabs a bunny and pulls out a knife and I’m almost crying. Finally, pet shop boy (heh) says he learned he had been banging Little Paul’s Old Lady. But when he tapped out, so that Ellen wouldn’t be shunned, Huff voted in drugs, essentially unopposed…

Tara’s office. Where we find Piney. Sleeping. He looks mildly mortified when she wakes him. He’s here to spill about John Teller, which is nice…? They dance around each other a little, and he implies that “something that you read, maybe, helps me keep the boat from rocking too much”. She calls him out on his bullsh-t, but before they get too far, Gemma bursts in, with plastic hands in tow. There’s a George and Gracie line here that I shouldn’t know what it means, but I love them.

Anyway, Gemma is giving Tara the gears re: joining the garden crew and she pushes pretty hard but before they can get too into it, Plastic Hands yells about Piney – something’s wrong …

SAMCRO discuss with the Mexicans and apologize for the infusion of local law. Romeo’s deputy asks if “we trust these guys”. Romeo replies, “As much as we need to”.

Lincoln and his weird, weird assistant. He has a ‘beautiful mind’ style wall of post-its and is excited that they’re looking for Romeo…

SAMCRO and SAMTAZ meet “Akey”, a twitchy tweaker, and exposes what SAMTAZ did, drumming Reggie out of the club and killing Little Paul. There’s some posturing about not listening to Clay’s bullsh-t, but, as dude goes for his gun, Clay – in an awesome move – squeezes his hand to death. And because he’s Clay, he gets to say, “Having trouble with your grip”?

Piney, now upright in a hospital bed, begs to go home. He says this happens once in a while, and Tara smirks that the alcohol’s not helping. But this is, of course, all a pretext for them to have a nice, warm chat about John Teller by the bed. Piney says he was book smart and too loyal – and admits that Jax is a lot like JT. Piney says the only thing he wants to know is why his best friend was afraid when he died. Tara reveals JT wasn’t into SAMCRO being in the gun business. He was setting up meetings in Belfast and trying to get the club out of the gun business. Tara just finishes spitting all this information when Gemma bursts in, looking all for the world like the Wicked Witch of the West. Anyway, everyone gives each other significant, Clue-like looks. As Tara leaves, Gemma tells Piney his jig is up. And that he needs to back off of his line of questioning “before it kills you”. He gets the last line though: “That’s half the reason I’m doing it.”

Nighttime. SAMTAZ takes away someone’s cuts as the leader guy tells Clay that – look at that – crank passed anyway in SAMTAZ. Anyway, everyone’s annoyed, but mostly Bobby Elvis…

Gemma turns up at the flower shop after hours. She has $5000 for Rita, for the gardening committee. Gemma assures her it’s on behalf of Dr. Tara Knowles. They smile at each other, and I want a spin-off with these two so badly! Because of course, Gemma also brings Rita her dead bulbs…

Now the club meets the Mexicans –

Elsewhere, Lincoln walks into a crazy cell like I’ve never seen, and is talking to Big Otto, and whose long hair looks like Lincoln himself. In any event, Lincoln outlines that his Luann had semen in her underwear belonging to Bobby Elvis, and opines that he’s who killed her. When the pictues are laid out…it’s horrifying. Anyway, Lincoln obsequeiously says he’ll try to get the guy out of the box but not before he lays the pictures of his dead wife on his abdomen. Alone in the box, the guy looks at the pictures and has emotional pain. You can tell because his eyes are closed.

Parking lot. Night. Arms exchange. Clay and Jax get nervous about how many men they have running around, and whether the Sons need more. They hand over the $700,000 and reveal 30 kilos of uncut cocaine. Bobby Elvis almost pukes, I’m not joking. Even Clay looks like he might suddenly need a bathroom. But he barks at the boys to load it up, as if they do it every day, and as Jax looks at him with resolve, you see that maybe he’s not all JT. Maybe he got some of Gemma’s steel as well…

…Did we just get through an episode with no bloodshed?