Welcome back. Last week, Jax had secured the location for the companionship business he has gone into with Nero. Gemma is on the outside looking in (it seems), and Sheriff Roosevelt’s wife had been shot in one of these home invasions. Tara’s arm is on the mend so she gets a removable cast. We finally meet up with the Irish for what seems like the first time this season.

We open this week at Jax and Tara’s house where Tara is feeding the kids. Gemma walks in they have some banter and Gemma sees in the paper that Sheriff’s wife has been shot. Tara tells Gemma that she will be off site for the day and offers to let Gemma look in on the kids at day care. Part of me thinks this is a mistake on Tara’s part. Jax, is in Oakland, club business. Now we are in Pope’s car who assures Jax that his people, are not behind the home invasions. Jax hands Pope his ransom of $50k. Pope is impressed and makes Jax a new offer. He says since they are already hauling 30 kilos, why not make it 60. In other words, serve two masters. The Cartel, and Pope. His offer is another $100k, no more ransom, and a 2% taste of the profit on the extra for Jax. Meanwhile, over at the hospital, Roosevelt and Unser are talking about the invasions. Both think that they are club related. No DNA results yet. That will probably take a little while but I’m sure we’ll see scratches on somebody’s neck. Unser offers to help if he can. remember that the main theory is that somehow Pope is tied to this. They both agree that it doesn’t make any sense to hit a cop’s wife. Those of you who watch Judge Judy, if it doesn’t make sense, it probably isn’t true. Sheriff Roosevelt is called aside, his wife, Rita, has died. Now it’s murder. Somehow I doubt whoever did this will ever see the inside of a jail cell. I know my wife’s killer wouldn’t (if I had one and she in fact was shot).

Clay is visiting his doctor who basically tells him to keep doing what he’s doing as far as rehab. He also tells Clay he no longer needs to carry the oxygen tank around. Next checkup, in two months. We then see Clay walking out of the doctor’s office with the tank on. Clay’s hand in these invasions is seeming a lot more probable at this point. He sees Unser at the coffee vending machine who tells Clay that Rita has died. Clay notes that Eli had busted a bunch of Pope’s crew a couple days ago and it’s likely retaliation. Unser notes that Pope isn’t that stupid. He’s a street thug basically and has himself so well insulated, he’s nearly untouchable. Unser says, it feels ‘local’. Someone trying to bust Charming from the inside out. I think he just all but accused the MC of these invasions and Clay asks if he has proof of that. Not yet, says Unser but, Clay asking has me more convinced that he’s involved. Remember though, that we never know what Jax is thinking until the season nearly ends. We’ll just leave that on the table for now.

Gemma arrives home and she has company, unbeknownst to her. Carla is back, and armed. Gemma asks how she got into the house and Carla says, practice from an old habit. She instructs Gemma to walk to the bedroom and makes a phone call, I assume to Nero. While the two are walking, Carla appears distracted so Gemma makes a run for her purse only to learn that Carla isn’t as stupid as she thinks she is. Carla fires a warning shot and it appears to Gemma that Carla has the situation well in hand. Meanwhile, over at the clubhouse, they are having a meeting. Jax lays out the deal that he’s been offered by Pope. They have a discussion about it and take a vote. The table is divided but Tig, reluctantly I’m sure, breaks the tie to a 6 – 5 vote, it passes, they are now in business with Pope. Clay of course was against it saying that once you get into business with a guy like that, you become his bitch (my words, not theirs). Jax assures the club, before the vote, that isn’t going to happen. He says ‘My (note the MY) club will never be anybody’s boy’. Meeting adjourned and as they are leaving, Clay notices a bandage on the Gogo’s neck. Remember Rita put up a fight and marked one of her attackers. Those of you who thought these invasions were internal to the MC at the beginning of the season, Well done.

In previous episodes, we saw Jax tell his lawyer that the feds are building a RICO case against the club. Otto has flipped and laid out Bobby’s involvement in a few things in exchange for moving up his execution date – no appeals, remember? With her connection to the club, the lawyer can’t get near Otto. We also saw Tara tell the hospital administrator that she will be taking a 30 day leave of sorts to do some pro-bono prison work. Now, Tara is inside the prison and is getting a basic orientation on how the infirmary works inside the prison. Ahhh, says your blind recapper. Maybe the lawyer can’t get to Otto but Tara can. Let’s see how this plays out… She writes an order to have Otto brought to the infirmary.

Back at Gemma’s house, Nero walks in (seen by Unser who likely went there to tell her that Rita was dead). When he walks into the bedroom he sees Gemma in a chair with Carla’s gun pointed at her head. At one point, she called him Brother. Really? Brother and Sister? Anyway, she instructs both of them to strip and get in bed. This is all a little too sick for me. The end of this scene is Carla telling Nero she wanted to go out watching him do his thing. Then she blows her own brains out. In the TV mix of all that, Jax is meeting with Alvarez (I wondered if we would see him again), the Chinese dude that gave them Chucky and the new head of East Dub (he looks thrilled to be there knowing he has no say in any of these matters). They all agree to go ahead with running the extra 30 with assurances that it’s good for all of them. We then see Pope’s right hand pull up and they toss Jax and the club a bone. The Sargent prison guard who played a big role in Opie’s death. Pope’s guy along with Jax, Bobby, and Chibs pull up out in front of this guys house and the guy tells them the lay of the land. No kids and the wife is gone until 6. Chibs calls Tig.

In Gemma’s bedroom, Nero is laying out who Carla was. Half sister who was in love with him and had apparently gone off her meds. She had helped him go ‘legit’. I don’t know how running a brothel in California is Legit but whatever. Gemma says, no cops, it only complicates things. Carla has no other family so Gemma tells Nero to go take care of his girls, she’ll handle this off the books. She tries to call Unser but he is at Eli’s house looking for clues in Rita’s attack. He’s not answering the phone so, she calls Clay. Meanwhile, over at the prison guard’s house, Jax, Chibs, Tig, and Bobby pay a little visit. Jax tells guard guy that he Always keeps his promises. Guess what, His wife is home. She unloads a couple shotgun blasts and I don’t know if Tig got grazed or his neck got badly scratched fighting with her. The guy makes a run for it to the back yard but is caught and brought back into the house, hands bound and mouth taped where he sees his wife sitting in a chair in a similar state. One of them note that she is going to be a problem, Tig says no she isn’t and shoots her in the head. Jax isn’t happy about that. He says the purpose of being there was revenge. Killing the wife, was collateral damage. Tig really shouldn’t think on his own. It doesn’t suit him. Bobby asks what next, Jax instructs him to find a pipe. Remember how Opie died?

Next, we’re back at the prison and Tara is being let into the cage where patients are treated. Otto is there (remember he wanted his execution date asap in exchange for testimony) and Tara introduces herself as Jax’s wife. She tells him that his testimony against Bobby will kill SAMCRO. Otto says he’s done, wants nothing more to do with the club, at all. She tells him that work is being done to stall RICO which will also stall his execution and it could even be years. She asks him, for the club to reverse his testimony. Anything he wants in return, just ask. He tells her to get on her knees. She says ‘What?’ and refuses. Says she’s not going to do it. Otto says me neither, No more visits. He’s done. (Is he?). Back at Gemma’s house, Clay has arrived. He questions Gemma about it all, asks if Nero was there, she’s as cooperative with information as she always is. He tells her he trust’s Juice not to say anything, she doesn’t want the club knowing (that once again, she has created problems for them). Clay assures her he’ll take care of it, tells her to go check on the kids. He asks if he can come by for a wellness check later on, she agrees.

Over at Sarge’s house, Tig has found a hammer and a musical snow globe of the Magic Kingdom – it’s a small world. They remove the gag from Sarge’s mouth and the guy tells them that this will come back to them. Jax asks how, by making bets on how long it takes to kill one of them? The guy says he’s sorry and Jax wants to hear how sorry he really is. The guy begs for his life making promises he knows he’s not going to keep as Jax winds the musical snow globe. As the song, It’s A Small World is dinging from the globe, Jax beats the guys head to a bloody pulp with it. That is some sick shit. I don’t care for Disney but I’ll never hear that song the same way again. The scene ends with Jax sitting in a chair with the bloody globe on the table next to him. We next see them with the bodies in the station wagon and deciding how to dispose of them.

Over at the day care, Tara comes in as Gemma is playing with Able. She asks Tara how the prison visit went and she answers, it was a pointless visit. We’ll just leave that there for now. Next we see Gemma in the hallway and she runs into Unser. She tells him she was trying to reach him and he says ‘what for now?’. This guy is tired of doing thankless favors for Gemma and the club I suspect. He asks her about Nero and what that’s all about and it seems, so I thought, why his turn never came. Huh? So he’s had a thing for Gemma too? He says she just dangles the carrot with a smile to keep them coming back so people will do her bidding. He then assures her that Jax and Tara will NEVER let her do what she did to her own family (JT, Jax, and his brother). He assures her as well, that she’s going to die alone just like he (Unser) will. As I said, this guy is done with this club it seems. He sees the same BS in Gemma that I see.

Jax and Pope meet up again where Jax tells him that the deal is approved. They are all in business together. Pope asks Jax if he got what he wanted from the sarge guard, yes. Pope once again assures him that his people have nothing to do with these invasions and suggests Jax look inside the club for the answers. He tells Jax what it is that keeps him (Pope) alive. Fear and an insurance policy. Fear from his members as well as everyone else. Fear that IF he ends up with a bullet in his head, a paid hit man, the person to kill his killer, gets $5 million. I think he just told Jax that it would be in his own best interest not to try anything. Jax states that he doesn’t have 5mil to buy a policy like that so he always has to be looking over his shoulder (basically). Later, we see Jax, Bobby, and Chibs riding on the highway (I guess they got new motorcycles) and Eli, pulls up along side of them and tells them to pull over (in a civilian vehicle because he’s on a 10 day mandatory leave). The flip him the salute and try to outrun him but he runs Bobby off of the road. A minor skirmish follows (of course).. Jax tries to convince Eli that the club isn’t behind any of these invasions nor Rita’s death. Eli promises to crush the MC. Jax tells him that Pope isn’t behind any of them either. Eli wants to know why Jax is sitting down with Pope and Jax says he’s trying to make arrangements that will end all the killing in Charming.

At Gemma’s house, Clay is there looking for her and Nero walks in. The two talk, Clay asks him where his thing with Gemma is going. Nero says he doesn’t know. At Jax’s house, he and Bobby stop in before going to the garage to close it up. He asks Tara if she saw Otto. She says No, too much of a backlog. Secrets? Or is she going to try again? The two of them decide to go up to the cabin for a couple days, sans the boys. I assume Gemma is going to watch them but that is unsaid. Gemma meanwhile, is at the bar getting loaded. Seems she’s attracted new attention from a guy with a thing for older women. Can anybody guess where this is going? At Clay’s house, Juice drops him off and when he’s out of site, Clay removes the oxygen tube from his face. He walks into the house where Greg the Peg, Frankie Diamonds, and the scratched Nomad is sitting. He slugs Greg and yells at the Gogo that ‘they weren’t supposed to kill her’. Well, There it is. We know who is behind the invasions and also, this isn’t likely to end well for any of them.

There you go my friends, you now know at least what I do. See you next week.

Peace.

Edit- Added Opinion… As many of you know, Otto is played by Kurt Sutter, the creator of the show. Let’s recap a little bit what this guy has been through. His wife, who was once a porn star but was given her own business to help get her out from in front of the cameras became the club’s whipping girl of sorts. All Otto ever asked them to do for her was keep her safe (if I’ve read the previous seasons correctly). Once she went into business with the club, not only did she get screwed out of money (demanded from Gemma) to the tune of $50k to bail the fellas out of jail, but she also got killed by some whack job lunatic played by Tom Arnold, Georgie Caruso. Before that however, Bobby ‘Elvis’ had discovered that she had been cooking the books, perhaps to get her cash back, and instead of just turning her in (to the club), decided it would be a good idea to get some from her. I guess she complied but in the feud between her business and Georgie the killer asshole, She got killed. So, Otto decided to turn and spill the beans on Bobby for everything that he knew, Bobby had a part in. At that point, he had already sealed his fate on death row so nothing to lose for him. Screw the club and I can’t say I blame him. Though he did his own crimes, this club has cost him his wife, and by the time the show ends, his life. Can’t say I blame him for telling Tara and the club to go scratch. I don’t know if Tara gets it yet but I think Otto, promised to send back a message, next time Tara tries to contact him. Could be wrong about that…