The series finale of Kurt Sutter’s super-violent Shakespearean biker-gang saga represents a high-water mark.
Jax spends much of the episode trying to mend the bursted gangland seem that he was entirely responsible for opening.
The slow-moving guillotine that’s been hovering over the heads of so many characters in the final season starts to speed up in this episode.
It’s been a while since Sons of Anarchy has unleashed a parade of carnal images like the ones that begin this episode.
Images fixated on agitation abound in the episode’s early stretch.
The episode merely bides time until the bloody series finale and leaving viewers in a state of disorientation.
While Bobby’s fate is left in the balance, the fact remains that Jax and his leather-clad brethren can no longer deny who has the upper hand.
Throughout, labels of race often express the long-gestating tension between different gangs, especially when there’s a drastic shift of power on the streets.
If it weren’t for all the bloodstains and gaping wounds, the eerie opening shot might seem like the beginning of a party sequence gone wrong.
Directed by Guy Ferland, it’s a nasty and sleek episode that plays off the striking tonal juxtaposition between calm and chaos.
For a few moments at the beginning of the episode, Sons of Anarchy doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Cagey strategies occasionally play a role in taking out enemies foreign and domestic, but SAMCRO prefers all-out blitzkrieg.
The show’s seventh and final season will be a reckoning for the countless sins of its lead character and Hamlet stand-in.
It appears that Sons of Anarchy is going down in the same manner it started: as a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.
FX’s Sons of Anarchy seems more intent on pushing the envelope with more and more exploitive violence than anything else.
The first two episodes of season five set up more antagonists, complications, and subplots than most shows would in an entire season.