What I’m Watching: Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy: Season 3, Episode 11 “Bainne” (A-)

While “Breaking Bad” and fellow FX series “Rescue Me” are on hiatus, this show is doing an excellent job of churning out gut-wrenching storylines, delivering no less than three monumentally tragic and powerful moments in this episode. The extended sequence in which Jax follows the couple that has adopted his son and music is heard while no dialogue is spoken was completely unexpected and atypical for this show, but it worked fantastically. Following that up with Jax finding them both murdered by Jimmy in his latest quest to complicate the lives of the SAMCRO members was particularly devastating. To top that, of course, Jax finally has his grandson back in his hands, and then he gets a call that presumably precipitates the execution of his girlfriend and the mother of his unborn second child. Tara was clever to escape, but letting Salazar’s girlfriend die was not a good thing, and though I can’t imagine the show killing her off, I don’t know what else to expect at this point. These horrifying developments, of course, came after Gemma pointed a gun at a baby and quoted a biblical story about cutting a baby in half to make her intentions clear to the nun. This show is not afraid of taking risks and being edgy, and that’s a good thing, because it’s magnificently compelling. Add to all this the impending takeover by Jacob Hale and the shaky deal between Agent Stahl and Jax and I simply can’t wait for the next two episodes that will close out this season.