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'Hands' defining moment for 'Sons of Anarchy', some thoughts

By April MacIntyre Nov 9, 2011, 4:59 GMT

Gemma has come out of hibernation like a pissed off mama bear, and creature comfort and status quo with her old man be damned, Clay is now officially Fredo in her eyes.

The FX drama "Sons of Anarchy" has put a stake in the dirt, a line in the sand, and given fans the red meat they demanded of the story that pushes all those primal emotional buttons.

Gemma has come out of hibernation like a pissed off mama bear, and creature comfort and status quo with her old man be damned, Clay is now officially Fredo in her eyes.

The old lady marginalizing would never work for a woman like Gemma, who sees herself as much a SAMCRO member as any of them. Blood is thicker than water and Jax's sons now mean more to her than her old man. Then, getting the shit beat out of her galvanizes the move: A Son will put Clay down.

And Tara is love lay bleeding, in Jax's hands; her livelihood is at risk and she is crystal clear in her anger, rightfully. The MC's dirty dealings took her hard work of becoming a surgeon away and made her collateral damage. Jax is smart enough to know she will never be right by him after this.

Piney is also unaccounted for. His death will send Opie either towards the truth or deeper into the SAMCRO Koolaid; hopefully Ryan Hurst gets his High Noon moment in the Sun with Clay.

Like "Balm" of season 2, this episode "Hands" is one of Kurt Sutter's finest hours, aided by director Peter Weller, a fine actor too, but used for his artful lensing on "Sons."

Emmy award-winning performances turned in by Katey Sagal, Charlie Hunnam, Maggie Siff and Ryan Hurst. Clay (Ron Perlman) is shot in a villain's lighting, foreshadowing his demise.

Unser (Dayton Callie) shows his love once again for Gemma, she is lucky to have him in her corner. Without him, her life in Charming would have been very different.

The wild cards remain, especially Linc Potter (Ray McKinnon) and the cartel. The previews promise an all-out skirmish between the Mexican cartel and the MC, and the bad penny Wendy (Drea de Matteo), Abel's drug addict mother, returns to Jax's life.

The next person I fear for is Sheriff Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar), who seems to be easy pickings in the crossfire. We will see. I feel that Juice (Theo Rossi) will somehow prevail through this mess he is in.

The way this is all shaking out, I am even more excited for Season 5, as so many possibilities arise, and the Romeo and Juliet of the series (Jax and Tara) seem destined for a split. But with a split can come a heartfelt reunion.

Otto will factor in more too; will he fall for the bait Linc has laid out? He's the Christ figure of the series. How much sacrifice can one man take on?

Then, I had an opportunity to ask Tig (Kim Coates) a question through my friend, Bill Brioux, in Canada:
Kim_Coates_Interview

Brioux: "I have a question from another critic who’s a big SOA [and Kim Coates] fan—April MacIntyre, editor of Monsters & Critics. She has a specific question about a scene in Season Two where Tig and Gemma (Katey Sagal) have their moment of passion, and he fights it for the loyalty to Clay (Ron Perlman) and the club, but that passion and those feelings never really go away. Will Tig still be drawn to Gemma in ways he cannot satisfy?"

Kim Coates: "I’ll make this as short as I can. When you’re doing a series and you get the scripts sent to you, you never know where it’s going to go. When I saw that script where Tig gets it on with Gemma, I said I don’t want to do it. Not doing it. [Coates makes knocking sound on table]. Get me Kurt Sutter. He brought me into his office.

I said, “I’m not doing it.” Kurt said, “OK, take a breath. In this land of the Sons of Anarchy, the outlaws biker club, it’s full of incestuous drugs, rock and roll, sex…that’s what it’s full of right?” Now Tig, my character that season, Season 2, was lost. From what he did to Donna in the first season, he was lost the entire season.

I don’t want to say too much to spoil it for folks who haven’t seen the series from the beginning.
Let’s just say this: my character was lost and Kurt made it very specifically clear to me that Katey's character Gemma was lost and she hadn’t been with Clay the entire season. They aren’t having sex from what happened that very first show [of the Second Season]—which I still think is the best show we’ve ever done.

Scared the crap out of me, there wasn’t a dry eye nor a breath in the audience at the premiere that night, it was just frighteningly real and awesomely acted and so sad. Fine. So Gemma and I are both lost and Kurt said, “She comes on to you. And you don’t consummated it, you stop before it goes farther but trust me when I say this, you’re not doing it out of anything with Clay, it's just a moment of two very wounded people coming together for some love, some something, a hug—for a second, and then it ends.”

Will I ever get back with Gemma? I have no idea. All I know is that things are happening this year. Stuff is going down."