Welcome back friends. When we left off last week, the club had just loaded Opie into the hearse and shut the door. I was kind of hoping we would see the funeral but I guess that wasn’t part of Kurt Sutter’s plan. We also left off with an agreement for partnership between Jax and Nero. This week we open with Jax in the apartment writing as he narrates the script of what I assume, he wants to tell his sons. Much like Jack Teller (JT) did for him and/or his brother about the direction of the club. What he’s telling his sons is that his hate is hard to contain. There is a meeting in the clubhouse and it’s purpose is to discuss the goings on about the break ins as well as Jax’s plan to get the club into the escort business to help cover expenses. He offers the club the chance to wait and decide if that’s the best thing to do and Clay asks why wait, vote now. The vote is taken, the MC is now in the companionship business.

The fellas, Jax, Bobby, and (I think) Juice meet up with Jacob Hale, who, I guess, is now the mayor of Charming. His dream is still for Charming Heights but it seems he’s one vote short on the city clowncil to make that happen. Hale, owns the building that Jax wants to put Nero into to put the companionship business back together and get it up and running. Hale refuses to lease them the building but Jax tells him he can get that one vote needed for Charming Heights. Now, in case anyone has forgotten, it was Hale who brought Ethan Zoebelle (the white supremacists) into Charming to try and expedite Charming Heights among other things. This eventually ended with the kidnapping of Jax’s son, Able, who was shanghei’d to Ireland. Anyway, Hale refuses to lease the building to Jax even though, the purpose is all legal and proper, according to the club.

The club meets up with Irish for a gun deal with Romeo and his people (the ATF or CIA, can’t remember which). The Irish rep (don’t know his name yet), is concerned that Jax now wears the president’s patch and not Clay. Remember Clay was the only one this guy would deal with and it’s the only reason Clay is still alive. He is reassured that nothing else has changed. Jax and the Irish rep have a little ‘Irish chat’ (beat the hell out of each other) and in the meantime, Romeo pulls up to cut the deal. After the chat is completed, they go into the barn where the weapons are stored, the deal is made, money changes hands, and testing commences. As the barn doors are opened, the Irish guy opens fire with what looks like a 50cal machine gun on the club’s motorcycles. Chibs is pissed, Jax says he will send a bill.

Taking some initiative, we next see Chucky enter the business of I guess the guy on the council who is the descending vote. They guy probably weighs 450 pounds and when Chucky tells him he’s just dropping off samples from his new fudge shop, the guy says he’s diabetic but asks Chucky to leave it anyway ‘for the clients’. Naturally, the guy scarfs it down and passes out. Enter the guys to ‘prep’ him. They do and do they ever. We next see this guy stretched out, nearly naked, with a ball gag and a leather spiked speedo and then, in s/he walks. As if I’m not scared for life enough as it is, we meet, Venus VanDamme. Ummm, okay. Of course the job s/he has is to provide the entertainment while Juice takes the photos to blackmail this guy with. Tig, who s/he refers to as Titan, is oddly attracted to this person. I think it’s the boobs but who knows. Really Tig? Are ya THAT desperate? Anyway, as the photo session is going on, in comes the guy’s stepson. Who really hates him apparently. He’s all for embarrassing the guy and wants pictures for himself to use against the guy. Of course, SAMCRO isn’t going to let that happen so they pay Venus to give him the time of his life. They tell him it isn’t a gay thing, they’ve all done it. So he agrees and allows himself to be blindfolded (while photos are taken of him). Jax promises to paint his facebook wall with the photos if he breaths a word of what just happened. After Venus leaves, they go to put this guy (Orca) back the way they found him but as they are wheeling him back, he awakens, and bites Tig on the ass, creating a pretty good sized wound. I guess the Fudge and fun weren’t enough for this guy.

Meanwhile, Gemma staggers into what is left of the Nero’s place as he is packing up. She wants to know why he isn’t answering her calls or returning them. She also asks where Carla is. She claims Tara did the damage but Nero of course knows Gemma put her up to it, which she finally admits. SHOCKER! (not really). This is another guy that Gemma thinks she can manipulate with her drunken stoned wiles. He lets her know that the two of them can no longer be involved with each other because he and Jax are now in business together. I’m sure she’ll screw that up somehow but not sure yet how. A little later, Gemma confronts Jax about pulling Nero off of her and he basically tells her to butt out of club business. Used the word hate towards Gemma. She looked deflated and beaten at that point.

Also, meanwhile, Tara has had her cast removed and is getting her arm examined. The doc says it looks promising, he doesn’t want to rule anything out. He gives her a soft cast and says check back in six weeks. We then see her at the clubhouse trying to stitch up Tig’s behind. That guy must have really bit hard to go through the jeans and tear into him like that. Apparently she’s having trouble doing the stitching so she lets Chibs try his hand at it. Clay is outside talking to the deputy sheriff and he says they’ve caught some guys and recovered some stuff. To charge these guys, he needs proof it’s stolen and who it belongs to. Gemma and Clay go to the sheriff’s office but not before the prospect delivers a box to Gemma for Jax (I wonder what’s in it). Over at the sheriff’s office, Roosevelt is having lunch or visiting with his (pregnant) wife. He sends her on her way when Clay and Gemma arrive to look at the pictures of the stolen goods. They don’t recognize any of it and Clay wants to know where his safe is (it doesn’t matter, Frankie Diamonds has already emptied it). The guys they are holding while this ‘stolen’ stuff is ID’d start a fight in their cell which becomes enough to hold them and search their houses. Plenty of stuff is found so they’ll be going away for a little while.

Jax, with pictures in hand, compliments of Juice, goes to corner Hale at his office. The discussion is basically an offer that Hale can’t refuse, but at the time, he still does. The offer is to deliver the pictures to the council guy with a note kindly telling him it would be in his best interest to vote Hale’s way on Charming Heights. That AND Jax will provide a financial backer for Charming Heights, in exchange for a lease. Of course, Hale’s name will never be mentioned. Later however, we see the two of them meet up again, Hale hands Jax a lease, and gets the go ahead on persuading this councilman to vote Hale’s way on Charming Heights. I think this episode should have been called Crossroads because one of these two guys just made a deal with the devil. What I’m not sure of is, which one is the devil. Hale, or Jax?

Over at the sheriff’s home, is his wife. I knew this episode wasn’t going to end well for her. She hears someone fiddling with the door so she grabs her pistol and calls 911, and lets whoever is on the other side of the door, know what they are walking into. Big mistake in my opinion because they kick in the door and two of the three of them rush in. We don’t get to see their faces but we do see they are not black. A scuffle ensues and the gun goes off. I don’t know who actually fired it but she did take aim at least once, at about 4 feet distance, and missed. When the gun goes off she is shot in the stomach and is left there to bleed to death. I’m thinking this is the last we are going to see of Mrs Roosevelt. She is next shown being wheeled into the ER as Sheriff Roosevelt says he wants the skin from under her fingernails (next week we’ll see that he believes the club is involved in these home invasions).

Over at Jax’s house, Gemma arrives with the box. I’m surprised she didn’t open it as nosy as she is. She asks if the boys are asleep and Tara answers yes but, it’s time to feed the baby and she offers to let Gemma do it. Nice of her, Gemma takes her up on the offer. A little later, Jax arrives, Tara is asleep on the couch, Gemma is asleep in the nursery, he covers them both up and discovers the box  on the table. What’s in the box? A cooler. Why would someone send Jax a Cooler? Remember Emma Jean and the proof the gangsters wanted of her death? Yep, it’s in the cooler on top of dry ice. Will they believe it came from Emma Jean? I guess we’ll find out.

I’m sure I missed something here or there but you all can discuss that among yourselves. I think, if you missed it you can watch it on the FX website or elsewhere. Any corrections you all feel the need to make, feel free. I think I got it all right but can never swear to it. I’ll see you next week with another episode.

Til then, Peace.