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Sons of Anarchy, Ep. 5.07, “Toad’s Wild Ride”: Will history repeat itself?

Sons of Anarchy, Ep. 5.07, “Toad’s Wild Ride”: Will history repeat itself?

Sons of Anarchy Season 5, Episode 7: “Toad’s Wild Ride”
Written by Kurt Sutter
Directed by Peter Weller
Airs Tuesdays at 10pm (ET) on FX

“Get the truth, take it to the table – let SAMCRO decide who lives and dies” – Wishful thinking on Jax‘s end, considering that it seems the killing spree of SoA‘s writers is not over just yet. If they continue at this speed there‘s going to have to be some new character additions to keep the body count going. And while the killed off Nomads Greg and GoGo didn‘t really stick around long enough to get attached to (or ever do any good, really), the potential death of Abel could be a little much in the book’s repeated history. We have yet another element forcing Jax down route his own parents took, losing Jax’s brother Thomas. This season is slowly overloading, with Tara turning into previous seasons’ Gemma, Tara and Jax resembling Gemma and JT, and now Jax supposedly losing one of his sons as well. But this is getting ahead of itself, the episode starts off rather innocently, compared to the potential gravity of its cliffhanger.

Clay is doing the best he can to cover up the mess he has created, ordering the Nomads to leave town, while Unser and Jax, who are more than suspicious, come up with a plan to get to the bottom of it all. They set out to stir the pot a little, with Unser taking on Greg and GoGo while Jax puts the screws on Frankie (Oh his funny looking mustache would be missed, but as he‘s the only one who got spared, we will surely get another sight of it). Right after, Jax sets out to drop in on Nero who‘s just getting settled in at CaraCara, with Lyla as the new Carla; which at least means that not all plotlines attached to Op have been cut that fast.

Meanwhile, Gemma is doing the best she can to continue to be the drunken mess that she has been from the get go this season, except this time she actually manages to get conned out of her wallet and car by a banana vodka-drinking Joel McHale. This twist that doesn‘t feel overly necessary, but it leads to a ridiculous car chase and a nice little heart to heart between Jax and Nero, not to mention the truly heartwarming moment shared between mother and son. It is quite nice to see Jax and Gemma warming up to one another for what may be one of the last times. This incident causes Nero to lose control and that glimpse of Nero enraged means there is certainly some dark past to be unraveled in the future about this character.

Another character to watch is definitely Juice, who started off this season as the new guy in Clay’s pocket but is slowly realizing that he might be backing the wrong guy. Given his overhearing Tara and Clay and everything he suspects about Clay‘s part in the home invasions, he might become an important figure in the outcome of all of this, though he’ll have to be careful in which steps he takes, as Clay has proven he‘s not a guy to hesitates when it comes to potential threats and people who know too much.

The aftermath from last season‘s snitching hasn‘t hit yet, but it might very well come back to hunt Juicie down. With Frankie on the run, however, he‘s not the only one who could potentially bring Clay down. The attack on Jax and Chibs (how often in one episode can one make Jax role down a hill on the side of the road?) will surely play into Clay‘s hand, pointing the finger at once again absent villain Pope. And while Jax and Chips are in luck tonight, only catching a bullet in the leg, the fate of Gemma and Abel (at least we can hear Thomas crying) remains uncertain after a drugged up Gemma totals the car on the side of the road. While I doubt, and sort of hope, that Abel will actually be next in line to be offed, this will surely make Gemma hit her absolute low.

How does everyone else think this one will be resolved? Is there even the slightest chance for Jax and Gemma to ever get past this – with or without Abel actually having to die? Will Clay pull off yet another cover up? And on a completely different note, does anyone have an idea why Clay is so obsessed with that marriage certificate?

Merle Fischer

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