Welcome back M/C fans. Let’s just get right to this..

The show opened with the guys packing up what is left of their clubhouse to move to a new location. The table, the other reaper paraphernalia, and some other mementos. They are moving to a new temporary location in town. An ice cream parlor they are renting from Mayor Hale. Remember him? Deputy Hale’s older brother who was hell bent on buying up the town for a development project called Charming Heights. They pay him 3 months in advance rent and he tells them the town people aren’t too happy with the club being in Charming anymore. Shocker. These people are all dirty including Hale, and he may be the dirtiest of them all as a politician. With Pope dead, the progress of Charming Heights has slowed to a halt while the transition of power to his second, Marx, takes place. That will likely put a huge delay on the maintenance contracts that the club received in exchange for getting out of Hale’s way on the development. Doesn’t matter I guess, the club is looking at a total rebuild of TM.

The guys have finished setting up the meeting room with the table and the main part of the clubhouse is complete enough to have a meeting. They have business to tend to. They are about to vote in the three members that Bobby rounded up. First, Jax wants them to know what they are getting into. After he explains the lack of funds and any incoming money, they seem agreeable to helping where they can and they are voted into SAMCRO. Jax has one more body to consider for membership. Rattboy. He’s been a prospect for nearly a year and as his sponsor, Jax makes his case for giving him his reaper patch. The members all agree, Ratt (George) is now  a member. They call him into the chapel and tell him to sit at the table, and take off his cut. Then Jax tells him to cut the prospect rocker off of his jacket. Ratt thinks he’s failed of course. As he is cutting the prospect patch off they drop the official club patches in front of him and tell him to replace it with those. He’s In.. A bonified member of SAMCRO.

They head over to their storage warehouse (barn) where they keep the guns and where they are holding Conner. When they get there, they meet up with Marx to tell him he’s out of the loop, for now. The Kings don’t like the complexion of Jax’s idea is what it boiled down to and it’s part of the reason they are now in an ice cream shop rather than their clubhouse. Conner is brought out and is told he’s being set free and sent home. They will take him to meet up with contacts from the Kings and he’s told to deliver the message that they’ve accepted the terms of the agreement. Clay will handle the distribution but if that somehow fails, the other offer is still on the table. As Conner is being stuffed into the van, he thanks Chibs as he and Jax are walking away. Chibs lets him know in no uncertain terms that if it were his say, Conner would be dead. Jax is the reason he’s still alive so thank him. I don’t think that Scot, Chibs, likes these Irish fellas very much.

At the hospital, Tara is drawing blood. Her own. Margaret walks in with some papers, has to be part of Tara’s plan. Since DA Patterson went all ‘hood’ and moved up the trial, which she is prosecuting herself, Tara’s plan has been put on a fast track. She thanks Margaret for her help and apologizes for involving her.

Over at the jail, Nero and his lawyer are talking with Patterson. We saw last week that it’s likely her case against him is likely dead after they toured Toric’s hotel room. He doesn’t know that and neither does his lawyer. Patterson still is trying to pin the school shooting on the club and she’s hoping to use Nero to do it. In fact, that’s the deal she offers him. Later, Gemma is visiting him and he tells her about it.  He isn’t going to take it but his lawyer is recommending he does. She tells him of the visitor that was in his apartment at Derosa. Venus. He’s happy to hear that his girl is back in town. Not happy that she had a shiner (I didn’t notice that). Seems that her nephew, Joey, is in town and her mother, Alice has physical custody of him because his mother has died. He tells Gemma to have Jax do whatever he has to do to get the kid away from her. Bad news, that one. Over at the ice cream shop, Gemma is there with Venus as the guys arrive from setting Conner free. Nothing involving Gemma ever goes smoothly. Gemma tells Jax that Nero is in jail because of his association with the club so they owe him.

Frustrated that she can’t get anyone in this tight knit group to spill against the club, Patterson is still hoping to twist Nero’s arm enough to talk. She’s racing the clock though as Eli notes that the DNA evidence from Toric’s room will be in shortly and his lawyer will be all over it. He tells her he ran into Charlie the dirty ex cop while he was tailing Jax and Nero to Claudette’s escort house for the inspection. She tells him to get something on SOA or Nero’s gang.

Jax and the guys listen to Venus as s/he explains the situation. Seems that when he was 10, his homo tendencies were beginning to show so his mother decided to try and straighten him out. The way a prostitute of a mother would. The result of that was a lucrative child porn business. There’s a little more to the story but this is why they have to get the nephew away from Venus’s mother. They ask what they will be walking in to and he tells them that his mother has a tendency for attracting the types that like to hit girls (is what it comes down to) and he has a couple friends there who like to do the same. We then see the club rolling up to where Venus’s mother lives and they knock on the door. They aren’t happy to see Venus of course so the club lets themselves in. There we see the nephew having a bottle of suds at grandma’s house and whatever piece of shit she’s calling hubby these days is there with his friends. The kid is 15 about to turn 16 and can emancipate. Shocker, Venus’s mommy isn’t happy to see it, as it is about to try and walk off with her next child porn star. Alice is played by Adrienne Barbeau and time and gravity have not been kind to her, in the show. I couldn’t find a picture on the net where she really looks like that. There are some nasty things said about the son she use to have and she isn’t letting the grandson go with his ‘aunt’. A fight breaks out when granny busts  a move out the door with the kid and the chase is on. As everyone is piling into the SUV, Venus lets it slip that is his son, not his nephew. Granny Alice is hauling ass in and out of traffic to try and get away from the club. Jax is a bit curious as to the real relationship between Venus (Vincent) and Joey. Turns out, when he was still discovering his womanhood, he and his bestie, Joey’s mother, got drunk and Joey was the result. Now, Alice’s goons come up behind Jax’s SUV and start bumper ramming them. There is a cooler full of guns sitting in the back seat between Tig and Venus. Well, Vincent come out and he takes one of guns and shoots at the car behind them causing it to crash and thus, allowing Alice to escape with Joey. The car limps away but the front license plate is left behind. They decide they will have Charlie find out who it belongs to. Just for fun, Adrienne in zombie makeup for some General Hospital role.

Meanwhile, Charlie is at the bakery meeting with DA and Eli. Eli notes that Jax and Nero were there for Derosa type business the day that he met Charlie, and that Charlie went into the house as well. Seems that Charlie has several retirement activities that allow him to draw money. DA Patterson promises to make them all a living hell for him cutting off his money supply if he doesn’t help them get something on Jax and the club. No family connection there.

Charlie has traced the plate to a business at an address. I don’t remember the name of it but it was the name of Alice’s photography company. Everyone is there at this address and when the guys break through the door, they find the place void of people except for Joey who, is laying on the couch, drugged and passed out. This is clearly where the kiddie porn is made as we also see pictures of lots of young kids on the wall. The guys are a bit disgusted by the place. Suddenly company arrives. Alice and her  thugs. They bring Alice in but tell her thugs to disappear. They do. Venus says he’s taking Joey but Alice goes into another of her tirades about the son she use to have who is now a thing. That when Joey figures out his aunt is really his father, he will kill himself at the shame of it all. She goes on and on until Jax has heard enough from her, and he splatters her brains all over the wall. Remember that meeting that Charlie had with Eli and DA? Charlie says he will take care of the mess and get rid of Alice’s thugs, pro-bono. HE now has something to give to the DA.

I am glad to know why Venus has shown up but that whole part was just a little too weird for me. Let’s get back to Tara. Tara has been working her magic all day to bring her plan into action. She has had the lawyer draft a petition to keep grandparents away from the boys (that Jax must also sign), Asked Unser to get her a restraining order (but wouldn’t tell him against who), and given Wendy her script. Gemma arrives at the hospital as Wendy is coming out of the back door, it looks like, and tells Gemma that Tara has changed the custody plans because Wendy cannot be trusted. Also that Tara plans to divorce Jax. Instead, the kids will go to Margaret the administrator. This of course enrages Gemma and when she storms into the cafeteria, Tara tells her to meet her outside (I guess in an office or conference room). Remember that blood Tara drew earlier, she quickly hides it in her groin for what is about to happen. Gemma storms into the room, and slaps are exchanged. Gemma tells Tara that she’s lucky she’s pregnant. This is when Tara slams her groin against the table, bursting the bag of blood, making it appear as if she’s just lost the baby (that she never had). Just in time for the others to come bursting into the room to see what hellified thing Gemma has done to Tara. There are even a couple cops on hand to haul Gemma away.

We next see Tara in a hospital bed with a doctor examining her to confirm she is no longer pregnant. Also with Lohan the lawyer standing by. Later Jax is in the room with Tara and she tells him all the awful things that his mother has done to her, half of which she never said anything about. He signs the petition to keep his mommy away from his kids. He doesn’t know yet that Tara plans to divorce him and take custody of the kids. Then one of the most beautiful sights on the entire episode. Gemma cuffed and stuffed into the back of a police car.

Somewhere in all this time, Jax tells Venus that he has to tell Joey the truth about who he is. Venus says that nothing in his family ever goes right and the only escape is for one of them to die (or something like that). In the end of the episode, we see Venus putting Joey on a bus to Seattle where he can stay with friends. We also see Gemma in a drunk tank holding cell.

There were a few other things that happened but those are the highlights.

See you next week, MTH.