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Sons of Anarchy 'Small World' a mendacious one too, some thoughts

By April MacIntyre Oct 17, 2012, 15:20 GMT

Last night\'s episode continues the neck deep story telling that Kurt Sutter is so good at. We said goodbye to two great female characters, Carla (Wanda de Jesus) and Rita (Merle Dandridge), one by self-inflicted means, the other as gang / crime collateral.

Last night's episode continues the neck deep story telling that Kurt Sutter is so good at. We said goodbye to two great female characters, Carla (Wanda de Jesus) and Rita (Merle Dandridge), one by self-inflicted means, the other as gang / crime collateral.

We also see Unser (Dayton Callie) call Gemma (Katey Sagal) out on her manipulative sh*t, and she didn't take it well. 

Gemma is at a crossroads and she's medicating at the local dive bar, which of course is never good, especially for lone females. Grifter guest star Joel McHale is chatting our inebriated needy biker mama up, and from the looks of the trailer for next week, pulls a Brad Pitt move from the film "Thelma and Louise" and absconds with her money after a roll in the no-tell motel.

We already know that Frankie Diamonds and the Nomads are the break-in criminals. The episode's final scene shows that Clay's (Ron Perlman) the brain behind this - and that he's furious with what went down with Rita.

Our mendacious little Clay is the rattlesnake of the series still.  He's been obfuscating his true physical condition, healing up like a champ but using Juice to cart his oxygen tank limping self around, while coaching the new SAMCRO additions on the art of the break in, except these guys cack it up. 

Clay is now screwed, as law enforcement has some DNA, and it's a matter of time before they are found out. Unser already has a suspicion. Eli (Rockmond Dunbar) is ready for revenge and senses the truth on some level despite Jax's ignorance of his club's involvement.

The other deaths we witnessed were the "small world"  snow globe bludgeoning of the corrupt sadistic prison guard who facilitated Pope's hit on Opie behind bars.  Cultural kitsch is ripe fruit for Sutter's sick sense of humor, and most people will agree after a visit to Disneyworld, the 'small word' music ride makes you insane.

The fourth murder of the night was the guard's wife, who served as a cold-blooded therapy session for our Tig (Kim Coates) who has transformed into a full-blown psychotic this season.  Classic wrong place wrong time collateral damage.  Tig's future actions are one to consider, he's really unhinged in a scary controlled way.

I want to talk about Wanda De Jesus, an actress who could hold her own in scene with Sagal, no easy feat.

De Jesus brought so much depth and interest as Carla to the series, it pains me to see her taken out so quickly. Every time a great female antagonist comes along, (June Stahl/Ally Walker) her days are numbered. I hope to see De Jesus in something very soon, her short arc was superb.

Tara and Jax are keeping secrets again from each other, which isn't good. The Otto Delaney (Kurt Sutter) interface was withheld, and Tara is determined to go back it seems to win Otto over.

Sutter is a tremendous talent that can write the story and then act in it. Otto's character is pure gravitas and anger in check, and we feel his sadness and fatigue with the burden of living behind bars. Their scene was fraught with sexual tension and menacing unspoken intent.

"Small World" was an interesting episode, less 'in your face' than the previous week with transsexual Venus/Walt Goggins, but one that makes you think of all the chess moves to come.