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Recap: Sons of Anarchy Episode One: “So”

By Ian Cullen Sep 9, 2010, 0:42 GMT

Tig O\' My Heart - Kim Coates - "Sons of Anarchy" Season 3 Hollywood Premiere - Arrivals - Cinerama Dome at The ArcLight - Hollywood, CA, USA © Tatiana Beller / PR Photos

So, Sons of Anarchy has returned, and the opening episode kicks off a short time after events seen in the season two finale.

Jax is still reeling from not rescuing his son Abel from his kidnapper Cameron Hayes (Jamie McShane), who in a state of grief has stolen the baby after hearing over the police radio that Gemma killed his son.

Clay (Ron Perlman) and the gang have to sober Jax (Charlie Hunnam) up from his bender, and as the alcoholic fog lifts, Jax tries to push Tara (Maggie Siff) away and tells her she doesn’t belong in Charming with him.

Meanwhile, Gemma (Katie Sagal) who is on the lam and in hiding is being watched over by Tig (Kim Coates), is completely in the dark about Abel’s kidnapping and going stir crazy.

Back in Charming, Clay and Jax along with the rest of the gang meet up with a forger, who admits to having made papers for Cameron Hayes, but says that he didn’t create any papers for the baby.

Following this lead, Jax and the rest of SAMCRO find Cameron’s boat in the Marina, but it proves to be somewhat of a dead end. Watching from a distance are a few members of a gang; a dramatic chase ensues which ends in a bit of a short-lived confrontation. Jax tells the rival gang the situation, and the gang leader explains that the Irish man he bought the boat from didn’t have a baby with him.

Deputy Chief David Hale (Tayler Sheridan), soon to be Chief of Police has a meeting at the sheriff's office with his older brother Jake, who is asking for his support in his run for political office.

At Charming PD, Tara is being interviewed about Abel’s kidnapping, and Stahl (Ally Walker) who framed Gemma for murder is trying to push Tara for any IRA connections to SAMCRO but with little success. When leaving to go home, a brief altercation ensues between Tara and Agent Stahl, and Tara warns Stahl to stay away from her family.

Clay witnesses this and tells Stahl that if anything happens to his grandson he’ll shove a gun up her boney arse and blow her black heart out. Sounds like the perfect drinking buddy to me. Wonder what the encore would be?

Back at the motel, Gemma tries to do a runner on Tig by attempting to steal a car only to be caught by the car's owner. When he confronts her she stabs him, and nearly cuts one of his nads off.

This event is just about too much for Tig to take, and he agrees to accompany Gemma to go see her father Nate (Hal Holbrook) who is suffering from Alzheimer's.

Back in Charming, while making preparations for Half Sack's funeral Tara and Jax have another chat, and Tara convinces Jax that she’s in Charming to stay.

While at the funeral, which is attended by most of the SAMCRO motorcycle clubs from across the region, Clay has a brief heart-to-heart with Jax telling him that he needs to do something to tell the rest of the club that he’s still one of them. That he has to do something to let them know that retaliation and action is needed in the search for his son.

At the funeral, a rival gang, which is as yet to be revealed makes a run at SAMCRO and fires on the entire funeral party including SAMCRO, injuring and killing a few of people.  The police apprehend one of the shooters who fell out of the van, while Deputy Sheriff Hale gives chase unsuccessfully and is mowed down by the van. We have lost Hale in Sons of Anarchy.

Seeing the gang member that the police have arrested, Jax sees red and dishes out some street corner justice and proceed to beat ten tons of shit out of the guy, before being pulled off by Clay and some of his fellow club members.

Review: Well... it would seem that Sons of Anarchy has returned with style and has upped the stakes in the drama.

Some brilliant performances here, and some really great writing with wonderful one liners such as, “It was only a flesh wound” delivered by Gemma after damned near cutting a guy's testicle off.

Some nice father-son type scenes between Clay and Jax in this episode, but perhaps my favorite scene is a brief chat that Jax has with Piney (William Lucking) at the cemetary.

The big shock moment of this episode is seeing Deputy Sheriff Hale killed. An event, which am sure could have repercussions later on in the season as his older brother, Jake Hale, looks to do whatever he can to get SAMCRO out of his town.