Welcome back Fans. Episode 9 of Sons of Anarchy. You know the drill. Last week, it came out that Gemma was high when she had the accident and Jax promised her a life in the brothel with ‘hookers and bangers’ if she didn’t cooperate with his plan to get rid of Clay once and for all. Able had to have a small procedure to get his heart beating right again. Eli (the Sheriff) wants Frankie Diamonds and anyone else who was responsible for his wife’s (and 7 week old unborn child) death and he offers to tell Jax who the traitor at his table is.

We open this week in Able’s hospital room where Jax is staying with his son, who is awake, wanting cookies and milk. We also pay a visit to Nero’s place where Gemma is awake and Nero is telling her that he doesn’t care about his agreement with Jax when it comes to Gemma. He offers to take her to meet his son, Lucius (sp?). Back at the hospital, Tara is taking Thomas to day care when she runs into the administrator who tells her, that she’s changed Tara’s status on her insurance from Single to Married. Also, there is some crisis at Stockton where Otto is being held and she has been asked to go there to help. She meets up with Jax in the hallway and tells him that her status change now connects her to the club, being married to a felon. CDC will eventually catch up to this so she needs to make another go at Otto to see if she can change his mind. Also, Bobby has found out Chibs is alive and calls Jax to tell him. Lastly Clay meets up with the mob, to try and get intel on Frankie’s whereabouts. Seems he had some connection inside and they suggest he’s probably in Tahoe. Maybe my memory is bad but this is the first such indicator of this mob connection I’ve seen on the show.

Back at the garage, Chibs is back and he shows Jax the bloody knot on the back of his head. He says a trucker found him and he doesn’t remember many details. Bobby thinks Frankie (who has help) is heading for Canada. Happy comes out and says he’s spoken with Quinn (?) and Frankie is in South Tahoe hooked up with Leo Perelli’s crew. He’s bought himself some mob protection. Clay plays dumb saying he doesn’t trust the Nomads but this is the same info he just received, bought and paid for with a case of glocks. Clay continues to play dumb as Bobby suggests they reach out to the same guy Clay just talked to. A decision has to be made as to what Frankie’s fate is going to be. Two fold.. Strip his patch, and let him meet Mr Mayhem (take him out). Both votes must be, and are, unanimous. Meeting adjourned, everyone leaves the church except Bobby and Jax. Jax tells Bobby that they can’t kill Frankie. I guess Eli got to Jax with his own request for Frankie. He tells Bobby that Eli knows about him, RICO, Otto, the whole bit and there’s a rat at the table (Juice?). The two of them decide that Jax insists he’s the one to pull the trigger to keep anyone else from getting to it first. Then he and Bobby will split off from the group, with Frankie, and hand him over.

Outside, Clay is getting himself ready to ride up to Tahoe when Gemma walks up (I guess she’s there for work before she and Nero go to meet his son). He approaches her in the office and tells her that Skeeter (the guy who works the graveyard crematorium) has Carla’s ashes set aside for Nero. She thanks him for taking care of that. Is she going through with Jax’s demands to (not) get back into Tara’s good graces? The rest of the guys walk out and Jax asks Clay if he got hold of Cacussa (sp) to let them know they’re coming.. He says he has a call in. They leave the garage parking lot. On the road, Clay’s hands are giving him trouble as they had before he got shot. Can’t ride, time to retire, is the rule. Meanwhile, Over at the prison hospital, Tara is there and she’s put in a request to see Otto in the infirmary. The floor nurse questions her about it and Tara tells her that she’s concerned about Meningitis. So the nurse orders a round of tests. On the road again, the guys have stopped for gas and refreshments. Clay has to give up his ride to Phil. He can no longer ride on this particular trip. His hands are too messed up. The guys on the bikes leave as Clay gets a call from Cacussa who tells him where Frankie may be stashed. He decides to hang back a little bit and let the guys ride into a trap if it is one (I think that’s what he’s thinking but he says just give it time to vet itself out as good information (to Juice)). Juice doesn’t trust this guy but he goes along with it. Next we see Nero and Gemma at the playground of the facility where Lucius stays. I forget what he has but he’s wheelchair bound and requires a full body brace to even stand. The two of them are discussing where they are at and how they got there (in life). Nero tried to go straight but his end game is the ranch for he and his son. Not going to happen at minimum wage. Gemma met JT when she was 18 and after her first ride, she was all in. She was pregnant with Jax’s deceased brother, 2 months later. They wheel the kid out and he says to his dad that he was right, Gemma is pretty. Earlier, Nero told Gemma that the kid is a player.

The guys on the bikes, meet up with Quinn (still don’t know if that’s the guy’s name) outside of the bar that is apparently Leo Perelli’s Italian Social Club.. You know the kind of place, never any paying customers inside but looks like a legit business (and it may be). Right away as they walk into the place, the goon bouncer is up their asses. Jax tells Leo that he’s made a big mistake helping Frankie and all hell breaks loose. After things calm down, Jax explains to Leo that Frankie stole half of a million dollars from them and is using it to bankroll his escape to Canada (this part is important, remember that Frankie took 130k and a couple ‘nice watches’ from Nero). Leo of course is all badass mob guy and the fellas inform him that if he thought They caused a ruckus, The Cartel and the IRA wouldn’t be so neat about it. Jax wants Frankie and tells Leo he can even keep the money. Leo seems to get the message as they begin to depart to where they are keeping Frankie. Looks like the Nomad intelligence just panned out.

Over at the prison hospital, Tara is ushered into the room where they have Otto waiting to see her. He is restrained to the bed. Apparently, Otto has a fetish for sticking things (probably sharp objects) into people’s ears. Otto isn’t too happy to notice her presence. He calls her ‘a persistent little gash’. She tells him she has something for him and pulls out a small blue bottle of Luanne’s perfume. Lets him take a whiff and that shuts him right up. Has asks why she’s doing that and she tells him to remind him of the things he loved. She tells him he feels guilty for turning on the club. He questions if she’s now a shrink too and she tells him, she’s an old lady, protecting her man. Just as Luanne would have done for him. He asks her to put some of the perfume on her wrist so he can get the full affect. Just as he’s getting a good snoot full of the stuff, a tech walks in to draw blood from Otto. Someone is always ruining the moment for this guy.

Now we find ourselves at the cabin where Frankie is being kept, under ‘guard’. The guard gets a call from Leo to let him know they are coming and I guess Leo told the guy to inquire about the money and more specifically, if he told them about all of it. Frankie says he gave them all he had, $15ok, and whoever told them different, is a liar. Well, the guy tells Frankie that he can work that out with them because they are on their way. Remember, Jax wants Frankie alive. Frankie takes the guy’s gun and kills him with it. Remember that phone call Clay got at the gas station? Guess who beat the fellas to the cabin. Clay and Juice. As Frankie is coming outside, Clay and he see each other and begin exchanging gunfire. Juice says Jax probably wants him alive but that isn’t in Clay’s plan book. He sends Juice to cover the back. Clay aims the van at the propane tank, lays a rock on the gas pedal, puts it in gear and lets it blow the tank when the van crushes it. The blast of course doesn’t kill Frankie and in fact, much of the cabin is still standing (I’m thinking bullshit on this ‘special’ effect). Jax and the fellas see the smoke from the blast and race to get to the cabin. Meanwhile, Juice corners Frankie in the cabin, and he spills to Juice the entire Clay/Nomad plan, just as Clay walks in. He clears Juice out of the way and is standing there with a shotgun at Frankie’s chest when Jax and the others arrive, along with Leo. Leo sees his guy sitting dead on the couch, and pumps five shots into Frankie, Killing him dead. Frankie Diamonds is no longer a part of the show. I guess Jax didn’t figure this angle in his plan to hand Frankie over to Eli. Bobby was skeptical about it working anyway. Once again, Clay may have slithered away.

While this is going on, Nero and Gemma are at the cemetery where she hands him the box containing Carla’s ashes. Nero questions if this is what it’s all about. Gemma’s reply, “Come in crying, go out in Tupperware”. Okay, I’ll admit, I laughed at that. Nero decides he wants to plant her in a mausoleum so he decides break into one. Gemma isn’t comfortable with that idea and when Nero questions her about if she ever did it as a kid, she replies, “No, I’m not Tig—- Never mind”.. Right now, my mind is flashing to the Dr Hook song, Freaker’s Ball (Look it up on YouTube or visit the free rein part of the farm if you want to know why). They break into the mausoleum, Nero deposits her ashes, says some words in Spanish, and they leave. He asks Gemma to promise him that this is not His fate.

Back in prison, Tara walks back into the exam room and apologizes for all the tests. She asks Otto to recant his testimony to kill RICO by saying he lied. He asks for the perfume, she says she still has it. He asks her to free his right hand. As she does so and then walks  back over to his other side, he asks her to put her hand on his head. He then reaches in to his pants to give himself a happy ending. She backs away and he says, please, he just wants to feel a woman’s touch, one last time. She complies, he does his thing and that scene ends with him sobbing. I guess he got what he wanted. Or did he? Will it be enough? Since the change on her insurance form, this may be the last visit to the prison for Tara.

Up in Tahoe, Jax and Leo decide to call it square to make everything right. Jax asks Clay how he knew where to find Frankie and he and Juice say that the call came when they split up. Of course Jax doesn’t trust a word he says. Question, With Gemma getting so close to Nero, again, will she still go through with Jax’s plan to get in good with Tara re the boys? I thought we saw the beginning of that before they all left for Tahoe. You know, her pretending to care about Clay again. The gang arrives back at the garage, Jax thanks the Nomad for the truck and he goes in his way. Jax and Bobby have a discussion about what to do re Eli and a dead Frankie. Their problem is two fold. What to do about Eli and what to do about Clay. Obviously, Eli isn’t going to be happy with Frankie’s current condition and Bobby says that with him dead, they have no proof other than a story, about Clay’s involvement with the Nomads and the break ins. Jax asks Bobby to pull some Skeeter cash for Frankie (to have him burned) and he leaves to go visit Tara, who is back from the prison. He asks if she saw Otto, she did, let’s just say that she didn’t tell Jax Everything that happened. All she said was that the perfume, broke him. Admin lady walks in, it seems Able is good to go. Tara tells her she’ll probably need another week at Stockton and Admin lady should arrange that. Admin also tells Tara that some people are coming down from Portland (where she was going to go last season with Jax, to get away from Charming and the club). Jax is surprised that the offer may still be on the table. She kind of plays it off but it seems she’s willing to talk to these people. At the clubhouse, Bobby is getting money from the club safe to burn Frankie when Clay walks in. He suspects that he has a target on his back. He of course is concerned about the president’s chair and whether Jax is able to handle it or not. He asks Bobby if ‘there’s anything he should know’ to which Bobby replies, with the same question about Clay. Clay says his conscience is clear, Bobby says that a conscience has never stopped Clay before. As Clay is leaving the room, Bobby tells him that he knows Clay is responsible for the Nomads. Bobby tells him that he hopes Clay is as smart as he thinks he is. He’s tired of burning friends. Before that, Clay said he wasn’t so sure he wants the gavel back (bullshit. Number one, I don’t ever trust anything this guy says. Number two, now that the chapter knows he can’t hang on the bike for a long haul, he won’t get it back by a vote).

Tara and Jax arrive home to find Gemma sitting at their kitchen table. Tara puts the kids away while Jax questions why she’s there. She’s come to return the key and asks him to sit down. Makes her say please before he does. She asks how serious the offer was if she does what he wants her to, re Clay. He says if she does it, done deal. You see, there’s only a few times she’s ever been Really happy. Jax and his brother, Able and Thomas, and Nero makes her happy. She wants to hear that this deal is good with Tara too, from Tara. Especially if she’s going to lay down with Clay. Tara says if she goes through with it, she can have the house key back And the family that goes with it… Now, side note.. I’ve heard this line before. From a certain Irish priest who told Jax, that if his bidding was done, Able would go back to the USA with his family. He did Not say Which family. Could Jax and Tara be pulling a fast one on Gemma? You all know that on these stories, I’m a conspiracy theorist. End side note.

Jax has some unfinished business waiting in the back of his truck as well as out in the woods (Eli). First however, we have to pay another visit to Nero’s place. Gemma walks in and wants to talk to him. I think she originally intended to tell him of the plan but she hears birds chirping. It seems Nero noticed she has a thing for birds and bought her (or had Lila pick out) a pair of love birds. Gemma tells him she needs to go home, soak in her own tub, then sleep for a couple days. The plan is in motion but she didn’t share the entire plot with Nero. I don’t really know what the point of this next part was but back at Tara’s, she’s rubbing whatever lotion she uses to make her skin soft and then digs the perfume out of her purse. You know, Otto’s favorite scent. She puts some on her wrist and then digs into her pants. I guess Jax’s goodbye kiss left her with some feelings.

We meet up again with Jax and Eli in the woods. Eli searches him to make sure it isn’t an ambush. They talk a second and eventually Eli opens the back of the truck to find Frankie’s dead body. Eli of course isn’t happy with Frankie’s current condition, neither is Jax as he swears it wasn’t his doing. Remember the entire intent was to get Eli to spill about the rat in the club. There’s some discussion about what to do with the body then Jax, by process of elimination spills that he knows, it’s Juice. Eli says there was no choice, Jax says, there’s always a choice.

Juice has been helping to take care of Clay I guess so the doorbell at Clay’s house rings. It’s Gemma. I guess that bath is going to have to wait. She comes in, Juice goes out to leave. Gemma is helping give Clay his cortisone shots for his hands and all seems right with the world as Juice walks out the door. As Juice rides away, we see Jax begin to follow him in the truck. Is Juice going to survive this night? We’ll have to wait until next week to find out because this is where the episode ends.

See you then, My friends. Looks like we’re winding down with 3 episodes remaining this season. What then?

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