_You know that saying about the rich just getting richer? Well, on Sons of Anarchy the badass just keep getting even more badass. Eloquent? No, but that’s exactly what this full-throttle crime drama is about. Within the first five minutes we play witness to a booze- and drug-infused orgy and then a highway ambush followed by a subsequent shootout.
While the drug trafficking is the show’s biggest push and serves as a link for the broader strokes, it’s the characters’ interpersonal connections that drive each individual episode, and the season five premiere is no different. “Sovereign” introduces Jimmy Smits as Nero, a tatted-up pimp, excuse me “love connector,” who is at the center of the orgy with Gemma (Katey Segal). Smits has always carried a rough aura to whichever show he pops up in. His calm and collected demeanor when Gemma pulls a gun on him the morning after proves the character is going to be able to talk his way out of anything. And I’m assuming he’ll need that charm time and time again.
Newly appointed SAMCRO president, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) has long been the lynchpin of the series. Now, with more power coursing through his veins, he has to deal with the repercussions of last season’s events. Opie (Ryan Hurst), still distraught over his father’s death at the hands of Clay (Ron Perlman) and still yearning for the killer’s head on a platter, is coming to grips with Jax’s decision to cover up the truth. “It will hurt too many people,” the SAMCRO president warns his friend during a somber scene at the graveyard. It seems as if there has been too much damage done and Opie might have to step away from SAMCRO.