Sons of Anarchy - Andare Pescare: Gemma's sacrifice

Tuesday’s episode of Sons of Anarchy was called “Andare Pescare,” which is Italian for (basically) “to go fishing.” It works, doesn’t it? Eli is fishing with the Sons to get his hands on Frankie for Frankie’s part in Eli’s wife’s death. Jax is fishing for proof that Clay was behind the break-ins, and he’s using Gemma as bait. I don’t usually have a lot of sympathy for Gemma, but that’s starting to change.

My opinion for the first four seasons was Gemma made her bed a long time ago—and played a part in the death of JT—so she deserved to get hit by any shrapnel that exploded around her. Ever since she took that beating from Clay last season, though, I’ve started to look at Gemma differently.

She was 19 when she fell for JT and became an old lady. She’d had two kids—and lost the oldest one—not too many years after that. As she herself put it, she was “all in” from Day One with JT. Her man, her club, her babies—that was her life, and she did whatever she thought she had to do to protect them. She still does. She’s a grown woman living the life a teenager designed for her, and she’s trying to make the best of it.

I don’t think she loves anyone more than she loves Able and Thomas—not even Jax. And now, Jax is leveraging that love to get what he needs from Clay—a confession—so that he can finally push Clay from the table and maybe even kill him. He’s becoming more Clay-like with each episode. When Gemma told him about how happy and “light” (I loved her use of that word) she felt when she was with Nero, I really thought Jax might give her a pass, that he might say, “You know what, Mom, I want you to be happy. Forget about what I asked you to do.” But he didn’t, did he? Clay wouldn’t have either.

So, Gemma is sacrificing a part of herself so that she can still have her grandchildren—and her son, I imagine to some degree—in her life. Her eyes looked so dead when she showed up at Clay’s house with the cortisone. I don’t know what will be left of Gemma when this is all over, and even with every bad thing she’s done, my heart (finally) goes out to her.

And then there’s Juice.

I love Juicy. I’ve loved him for a long time. He’s another one that got in way over his head (with Eli and the feds) and doesn’t know who to trust or how to fix it now. I think Juice has been swinging from that tree, gasping for breath, for a very long time now. It’s only a matter of time until gravity does what gravity is best at and he breathes his last. I will cry, truly cry, when we lose Juice. I agree with Bobby: “I’m tired of burning brothers.”

This has been a gut-wrenching season of SOA. Sutter (who is fantastic as Otto, IMHO) is fearless when it comes to his story lines, and I admire him for that. But I hope we’re about done losing Sons. I think Juice’s loss is inevitable, but I hope he’s the last one for Skeeter for quite a while.

Don’t forget … next Tuesday’s episode of Sons of Anarchy is 90 minutes! If you don’t (or can’t) watch it live, set your DVR accordingly. See you then.