What I’m Watching: Sons of Anarchy (Season Premiere)

Sons of Anarchy: Season 7, Episode 1 and 2 “Black Widower” and “Toil and Till” (B+)

This is it – the final season of this show, which I’ve often considered to be the bravest series on television, perfectly willing to kill off a series regular in the middle of an episode. The season finale definitely showed that, and now the death of Tara has made Jax a much more hardened man and transformed everyone around him too. It’s disturbing to see just how eagerly Jax tortures the man Gemma told him killed Tara, and to see the lengths he goes to in order to ensure that those he thinks are responsible will truly pay. It’s a sign that Jax really is more like Clay than like his own father, ready to do what he believes is necessary to show others how he should be treated. Katey Sagal has a formidable task this season, to play Gemma as a woman keeping this brutal secret, unapologetic for the many lives of all shades and colors that she is going to be directly responsible for taking. Juice is in bad shape, and it can’t be long before he cracks, though it’s good that he opted to let Unser go once he realized that he wasn’t a threat. It doesn’t seem like Gemma has learned her lesson about jumping to conclusions, and Unser’s cushy new consulting gig may not work out so well for him. I am eager to see more of Annabeth Gish’s new sheriff as she becomes the latest actress to make her way around FX. After everything, it’s good to know that Wendy does have her children’s best interests at heart, and maybe she’ll be able to look out for them while everyone else is busy trying to kill each other. The murder of the Asian Gemma framed and a whole bunch of Lin’s crew is just the tip of the iceberg, and I can tell that this is going to be one miserable, irreversible season.