Sons of Anarchy: "To Be: Act 2" Review

So when we last left Son of Anarchy, Gemma told Jax about the letters, Opie was nursing his gun shot wound courtesy of his best friend protecting the murderous, conniving Clay, and Tara told Gemma to back the f*ck off her man.

More to come after this quick break for Mike & Ike...



Oh Kurt. Kurt. Kurt. Kurt. Kurt. Kurt. You just made your entire season pointless. What the hell were you thinking? I know married men who have more balls than this.

First, let's go with the good.

The Good:

• Lincoln Potter making Jacob Hale looking like a complete idiot. While Hale became somewhat of a back of the mind villian throughout the season, it was still very good to see that royal douchebag get somewhat of a commuppance courtesy of Potter outing who Hale's financiers are for the "Charming Heights" project. I think the "Som Yong Boi" was a great touch to show just how low Hale would steep to get whatever he wanted. And the best part was Potter's explanation for doing what he did, "Because I don't like you. And the good guys needed a win."
• Roosevelt calling out Potter for being a "really odd dude". He finally said what every single viewer was thinking for the entire season. And Potter's retort, "It serves a purpose. I don't really like people all that much" was in perfect character.

Sadly, that about ends the good for this episode. Sutter just took what could've a been a great season that would've been a turning point in what had been up until this point a great series. Instead, he created a copout that not only kept Clay alive (maybe the worst part) and still involved with the club, but made the Juice storyline pointless, Potter a useless character, and Jax stay with the cancer that has been plaguing his life.

The Bad:

• The fact that both of the major players in the Galingo Cartel turned out to be CIA, with the CIA funding the cartel itself, erased almost every storyline the previous 13 episodes built, starting with making the entire RICO case Potter was bulding pointless. Potter, while a weird dude, was a great character and good villian for the Sons. Sadly, with this one little move, his entire season was wiped clean.
• Because of that, the Juice arc ended without zero consequences for him after he a) sold out the club to Potter and Roosevelt because his father was black, b) killed Miles when it was discovered that Juice was the one that took the cocaine, and c) almost successfully hanged himself because he was racked with guilt from killing Miles. To have this season end without Juice either in a lengthy prison sentence or dead, while Theo Rossi and his superb acting chops would be missed, is a complete and total desctruction of a large chunk of this season's story.
• The CIA forcing the Sons to stay in the deal with Irish, which led to two of the worst aspects the destruction of season four. Because O'Shay, the stupid Irish bastard that no one should really even care about, won't deal with anyone but Clay, it forces Jax to keep Clay alive, even though the man has killed 3 founding members of the club, one being "the Godfather" John Teller, as well as trying to orchestrate a hit on Tara (whether the cartel was going to follow through with it or not is irrelevant) and being the reason for so much anguish in Opie's life. Really Sutter?!?!?! You can't just have O'Shay be fine with working with Jax and let him kill the murdering traiterous son of bitch in his hospital bed?! Too afraid you can't find a new big bad?! Not killing Clay was the biggest chickenshit move of all of them! It is literally infuriating.
• Forcing Jax to have to stay with the club in Charming. I get that you don't really want your lead wondering around away from what the show is about, but you could've done it for the first few episodes of season five before finding a legit way to make him come back. But by having him blackmailed by the CIA, a move completely out of left field, is a cop out of the highest degree. It's annoying.

What happened tonight is one of the biggest reasons why I've never been a fan of a series lasting more than four or five seasons. Because the showrunners don't want too much to change (which if Sutter had the balls to do this correctly, at least three of Sons would've been out of commission instead of just poor Bobby getting sold out and sitting there playing his guitar), they come up with the pathetic little copouts like this CIA storyline, which does nothing more than infuriate the fans that love the show. Tonight's episode could've been a fantastic way to either end the series (Clay dead, Juice and Bobby in jail, Jax getting to ride off into the sunset with Tara and the boys, and the club moving on in whatever direction it wanted to go) or a great set up in to a final fifth season (backlash from the cartel and the Irish from the RICO raid, Jax hiding with Tara and the boys, CLAY DEAD, and a super pissed off gangster from Oakland looking out to avenge his daughter's death). Instead, we go into season five with some big changes (Clay somewhat marginalized, Jax as Pres and his new guard, Opie not know whether he's in or out) but no real consequences to some major events throughout season four. It's highly dissappointing from Sutter. Whether I continue watching Sons anymore will be determined by the first few episodes of next season, but I can definitely guarantee that my expectations for the show will be much lower than previous seasons.