From the very beginning, “J’ai Obtenu Cette” (French for “I got this”) seemed to be building towards one of the most memorable season finales in recent years—certainly the weightiest one in Sons of Anarchy’s five seasons. The proverbial noose is tightening one last time around SAMCRO and like many season finales before, this one will change everything.
The introduction begins when Jax meets with Pope one more time to discuss the business end of the Charming Heights deal. While something seems off about the businessman, Jax still agrees to lead Tig to his ultimate demise. It also touches upon Clay, who is ready to jump ship to Northern Ireland. He’s awaiting Gemma’s response, which is that her suitcase is packed and she’s ready to go. Tara’s move to Oregon to be a surgeon again is set up to play an integral part in the finale, especially when Gemma discovers the truth.
After all of the chips are laid out, the show starts gambling away everything it has worked on for an entire season. There’s an intense action sequence dealing with some of Nero’s old men that unifies SAMCRO and Nero even more, getting him in deeper with the club that he wanted to keep his distance from. His arc this season has been one of my favorite “special guest starring” roles from the show and continues to please up until the very last minute.
Tara’s battle with Gemma has hit so many climaxes that it’s unwarranted to say it hits another, but now that Gemma knows Tara was going to leave Charming and take her boys with her, the club mother seems to go off of the deep end one more time. Gemma threatens Tara and then cooly walks out to meet Clay for their supposed departure.
In one of the most teeth-gritting moments, Otto is about to be interrogated by the U.S. Marshals, but completely commits to his silence by biting his own tongue off. Otto has been quietly one of the most important characters this season, and his ultimate silence proves once again the power of the brotherhood of the club.
As much as Otto’s brief screen time paid off immensely, it was nothing compared to when Jax finally delivers Tig to Pope. Tig’s desperate pleas mean nothing to Jax as the head of the table coldy asks Pope’s men to shut Tig up so he can finish his business with Pope. Knowing you’re going to die must be the worst feeling in the world. After watching Opie send himself to his own death earlier this season, I felt I was ready for anything, but I wasn’t ready for how Jax still has a little good-crazy in him and eventually saves Tig and ends Pope. It was a gleaming moment in Jax’s recently dark downfall—but then you realize the good-crazy of saving Tig is really sort of evil as Pope says, “You know what will happen to the guy who kills me” and then we discover it was Clay’s gun. This was Jax’s final piece to get his stepfather out of his life forever. It all leads the police to Clay’s house, where Gemma won’t provide an alibi for him and in fact serves her husband up on a silver platter.
Bobby reminds Jax that it wasn’t about being smart enough to hurt Clay and get away with it, but it was about being smart enough to leave him alone. Then he reminds Jax that he had the chance to be different from past head of tables that he so feared turning into. “Maybe I’m not so different,” Jax responds; thus his transformation into a madman is nearly complete.
Regardless of how similar Jax seems to Clay, he remains different in his ultimate desire to get out of the life he’s living. His conversation with Nero near the tail end of the season reveals so much about both of the characters and their desires, but as Gemma overhears, she wants to make sure both men she loves stay in Charming. She makes one last move and rats out Tara to the police for conspiring with Otto to kill the nurse a few episodes back.
With Clay in jail, Pope dead, Gemma held tight in Nero’s arm and Jax and Tara happily together everything was as happy of an ending as Sons can provide. Then, just as that noose seemed to be loosening with SAMCRO heading in a positive direction, it snaps tight again as everything in the club’s life is left to question and if Jax hasn’t gone completely off of the deep end yet, next season will surely send him into anarchy.