'Sons of Anarchy' Recap: Season 7 premiere - 'Black Widower'

Welcome back to Charming. We wouldn’t be watching Sons of Anarchy if the final season didn’t open with something along the same violent lines that the last season ended with, so it’s safe to say that we were in fact watching Sons of Anarchy. Starting up ten days afters Tara’s death, the season opens with Jax in county jail, beating the hell out of someone, nearly to death. Once the man is semi-unconscious, Jax carves a swastika into the man’s chest and pulls two of his teeth out, a peace offering for the head of the Aryan Brotherhood, Ron Tully (guest star Marilyn Manson) inside the lockup. Jax wants to clear the air between the MC and the Brotherhood, not wanting a war between them just because Lin and Alvarez are in the process of working together. Jax offers him to put the hate aside and look to Marks should things get ugly.

Jax is pulled aside when he’s told that Patterson is there to see him. She sits down with Jax to discuss Tara’s muser case. The DA doesn’t have anything; a suspect, a murder weapon, nothing. She also mentions that she talked to everyone in the club except for Juice, who no one can seem to find. Patterson tells Jax about how she lost her son and nephew to gang violence, and that all she wanted after was revenge. She knows that wanting revenge is a natural part of the grieving process, but she fears that it’s a real possibility in Jax’s world. As she walks out, Patterson tells Jax that he’s being let go, as there’s nothing to hold him on anymore.

After nine days, Wendy has checked herself out of rehab, telling Unser on the ride home that she needs to be there for the boys after what happened to Tara. Wendy gets back to her apartment and sees that it’s surprisingly clean. She checks out what was moved around, and while she’s in the kitchen, Juice comes out of the bathroom wrapped only in a towel. He tells her that he’s been squatting there for the last week and a half. He’s hiding from the club, thinking that the MC is going to kill him (he’s probably right). Wendy reluctantly agrees to let him stay, but not for too long.

The rest of the Sons are riding with T.O. and the Grim Bastards to find out who ran two Bastards off the road and killed them. The peaceful talk between them and Flynn, a double amputee in a wheelchair, isn’t going anywhere. Chibbs gets a call that Jax is out of prison, so he decides to speed things up a bit. He pulls his gun on Flynn, which gets everyone all riled up. Chibbs shoots one of Flynn’s guys in the leg, while Quinn grabs the chains off the swing set and attaches one end to Flynn’s wheelchair and the other to Bobby’s bike. After getting dragged halfway down the block, Flynn gives up the car that hit the Bastards.

Back the the ice cream shop, Jax is welcomed by the Sons. Before heading inside for club business, he talks with Wendy, who is there to make sure that the boys are OK, and that’s her main concern. She doesn’t mention anything about Juice. Jax goes inside and the Sons sit around to table to talk about what’s going on. Jax mentions that he thinks he smoothed things over with the Aryan Brotherhood, which is a good thing since Tully is their number three. Bobby tells his president that Connor and the Irish are working with the Niners and that the Italians are in the club’s debt after handling a problem for them. Jax is also told about the situation with the Grim Bastards, which it seems like he has no problem helping with. He tells his club that moving away form the outlaw lifestyle was a mistake, as it caused more problems that it made solutions. He lost the woman he loved, he says he’s not going to lose his club too.

Gemma goes by Wendy’s to talk to Juice, telling him that Jax is out of prison. Juice doesn’t know how Gemma was able to talk to Jax after what she did. Gemma tells the broken man that she can talk to Jax because she tells herself that she did what she did for Abel and Thomas. Juice says that Tara wasn’t ratting and that Jax turned himself in. Gemma admits to not knowing that and that she acted on the truths she knew.

After Nero comes to visit Jax, he sets up a meeting with Lin and Alvarez. Jax admits to not thinking of the blowback to both Lin and Alvarez’s crews after trading the gun business to Marks due to his desire to distance himself from the outlaw lifestyle. To help clear the air, Jax invites both Lin and Alvarez, along with their crews, to his welcome home party (that he just created) so they can informally meet Connor and hopefully come to an understanding.

Chibbs tells Jax that T.O. has located the Impala that ran down the Grim Bastards. The Sons head to the location, and are puzzled to see a brand new Range Rover next to the Impala. Jax, Tig, Happy, Quinn, West, Montez and the Grim Bastards grab guns and go inside. They bust into the bedroom to see a really weird threesome going on, and it’s being filmed by a guy wearing women’s underwear. The Sons kill them all after the woman shoots at them. These weren’t the men they were looking for. All the men in the room were pastors.

Unser goes to pick up Wendy to take her to Gemma’s house. Wendy had just got back with groceries for Juice, who she has agreed to let stay at her place for a few days. Unser finds it odd when she doesn’t put the groceries away right before they leave. He goes to the closet to grab a coat for Wendy when he notices a backpack on the floor; a backpack with the Sons’ reaper stitched on. Unser comes back to Wendy’s apartment later that night to investigate the bag. Juice holds Unser at gun point and ties him up in the bathroom.

At the welcome home party at the MC’s porn warehouse, Lin and Connor finally meet and seem to be able to tolerate each other so far. One of Lin’s guys is casually enjoying his drink when Gemma goes up to him to chat him up. She finds out that he doesn’t have any family and that he’s just there to do his job. She gives a look to Jax, who then asks T.O. to cash in on a favor. Jax wants T.O. and his guys to grab the Chinese man and drop him somewhere for the Sons. T.O. agrees after hearing Gemma spit some more lies about seeing this guy leaving Tara’s house the night she was killed. Jax, always trusting of dear old mom, believes that the Chinese killed Tara.

T.O. dropped the Chinese man at Jax and Tara’s house. He’s bound and gagged sitting in a chair in the middle of the kitchen. Jax opens a drawer and starts taking some things out. First, he grabs a hammer, then a wrench, a carving fork and some salt. This isn’t going to end well for the very innocent Chinese guy.

And end well it does not. After literally rubbing salt all in this guy’s wounds, Jax tells the tortured man that it will be over soon. He walks behind the Chinese guy, carving fork in hand, and rams it into the back of the guy’s head, killing him. And all of this to a slowed-down cover version of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This final scene was equal parts creepy and disturbing, but sets the tone perfectly for the Sons of Anarchy’s final ride.

Image Credit: FX