Wow. Congratulations, Kurt Sutter! You managed to condense all of Season Three’s disappointment into one underwhelming, anti-climactic massive failure of an episode. Nice job! I don’t have a dog you can kick, but I do have a kid you can take a swing at, if you’d like. You may as well after last night’s blowtastic season finale. That was some weak-*ss, cop-out holy-mother-of-God suck. You took an entire fast-paced, action-packed, intense and violent season and you blew it. It was the complete opposite of Season Three, where a slow season was almost redeemed by a brilliant (and a little-too easy) finale. This season, you shanked it: You pulled out and rolled over before you got to the good part.
Extended thoughts and spoilers, after the jump.
After teasing us all season with the possibility of either Tara being killed or Clay being executed at either the hands of Opie or Jax, last night’s season finale wound toward the ultimate letdown. Everyone lives, thanks to one of the laziest, weakest deus ex machina’s to come along since the “Lost” finale. Basically, just as Lincoln Potter and Eli Roosevelt were about to close in on the Irish, the cartel, and SAMCRO, we learn that Romero and the Galindo cartel were actually a division of the CIA. That actually wasn’t a huge surprise: I’d suspected as much about Romero. What was the bigger surprise was how it played out: Basically, it just stopped the entire investigation in its tracks. They pulled the plug. Why? Because the government needs the cartel to control the drugs and thus to control … Mexico? So, all the work that Potter and Roosevelt did this season was completely for naught. Wasted. (Though, the farewell between Roosevelt and Potter was nice).
Then the silliest twist: Because the CIA needed the deal to go through, and because the Irish wouldn’t pull off the deal with Jax, Jax had to postpone his plans to kill Clay and instead, strip him of his presidency and allow him back into SAMCRO as a regular voting member. Opie, meanwhile, was offered the VP position, although we’re left hanging as to whether he will accept (he will).
More painful is the fact that Tara not only lived, she didn’t even skip town. So, everything that Jax worked toward, to escape the club, to get Tara and his boys to safety, again was for naught. And now we have to live with yet another season of Tara’s insufferable, whining, although at least she’s come over to the dark side.
And the Charming Height’s piece? The subplot that mostly fell by the wayside after the third episode or so? How does Kurt Sutter decide to resolve that? He brings in Lincoln Potter — who really had nothing to do with that subplot — to drop a bag of sex toys off at a planning meeting and put the kibosh on it. Why? Because the good guys needed to win one. I won’t deny there was a small bit of satisfaction in that, but there would’ve been a lot more satisfaction if that subplot had been developed over the course of the season instead of pushed to the background and tied up nonsensically.
So, where do we go from here? Bobby’s in prison, but he’ll get out as soon as Clay makes a deal with the Irish. Juice is back, slate wiped clean. Opie is temporarily in limbo, and Jax is now the president of a club he doesn’t even want to be in anymore. It does set up an compelling dynamic for next season: Clay vs. Jax, Tara vs. Gemma, Opie vs. SAMCRO, but that dynamic is not much different from where this season began, only their respective positions have moved around.
So, essentially what Kurt Sutter did was to play one hell of a game of chess all season, set the King up for a check-mate kill, and then — in the final minutes — pick up the chess board and throw it in our face. And the image of Jax sitting satisfied at the front of the warroom table is supposed to satisfy us? P*ss off, Sutter.
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I love how the whole plot twist hinges on the idea that the CIA needs to arm Galindo, and decided they would orchestrate an elaborate global scheme between the IRA, several outlaw biker gangs, and Mexican drug lords who carry around fucking badges and blab about their CIA ties to bikers. Because that’s the only way the CIA can get access to heavy weapons, see?
Somewhere, Oliver North is making a wanking gesture. Sadly, it’s not prison.
This whole season was a waste, step your game up Sutter you crazy emotional bastard.
God that episode pissed me off. This season was perfect at practically every turn, and then last night’s episode turned into such a dud. We got no payoff at all, everything’s the same except Jax is President and Tig is no longer the…what? Treasurer? Second in command? So basically next season, I see Clay siding with the Irish and trying to get them to kill Jax, Tara & Gemma. Oh, and thanks for the ten minute long ending, where we just see everyone standing/sitting around looking bored or pissed.
Wow…season 4 of the Shield all over again.
It’s almost like they don’t want to kill off anyone important because then they lose a storyline that they’ve been taping since Day 1. However how much longer can you drag out “WILL JAX KILL CLAY!?” and “WILL OPIE KEEP HIS BEARD AND BRAIDS!?”
I keep saying it: You get two seasons with Kurt Stutter. That is all. After the second season he starts trying to top himself without actually killing main characters and everything becomes a cartoon.
I said this in another forum, but I’ll repeat it here where it might actually be read:
This was sooooo close to paying off and working. Why not have Romeo reveal his CIA connections just to Potter, before the raid is assembled. Have the scene between Roosevelt and Potter take place as Potter is disgustedly breaking down his offices, without revealing to the local PD the CIA connection. Have Romeo threaten SAMCRO not with a RICO charge but disappearing families and beheadings. The plot still moves where it needs to go (Clay lives, Jax takes over, Juice is freed, Tara stays, Opie stews) – hell you can even keep the scene with Potter and the sex toys. But if only the viewer knows that the Romeo is CIA and backing the cartel, it adds another layer of tension because not only is the club’s future in danger if Jax messes up, but if Romeo is discovered.
Instead we got Deus ex Machete, and the disturbing thought that the clubs actions in future seasons will continue to have no consequences because the CIA is knowingly protecting them. I’ve lost complete faith in Sutter’s ability to tell a cohesive story now.
Yeah. I quit watching after the 9000th episode they were STILL in Ireland looking for the kid.
Looks like I made the right decision.
Hammer,
Isn’t this Sutter’s first show? He worked on the Shield, but only as a writer in the early seasons. And anyway, that got better as it went on, not worse.
My reaction after watching the first 20 minutes was “Okay, there’s still 40 minutes left for them to make this work.” That is not a good thing.
You know what else isn’t a good thing? A plot twist (the CIA thing) that immediately made me think “Really? The
I didn’t hate it. I like the set ups for the next season. My only complaint is waiting 9 months. This definitely would have made a better season finale if it’s back in January.
@Otto he was pretty much involved in The Shield from beginning to end in some capacity.
Kurt Sutter: I need a way to wrap up this season without making any real changes to the current cast or dynamic
Learning Anex Creative Writing Student: Just say the cartel is working for the CIA
Kurt Sutter: Well there is some precedent there, but could a low level CIA official derail a major domestic criminal investigation as they are about to serve warrants by flashing his badge?
10 Year-old child: Sure.
fin.
I guess playing a piece of shit cop comes naturally to David Aceveda.
Last night’s finale had more deus ex machina than Doctor Who, and that is saying something. I had this to say about it though: at least it explained why there were a bunch of white dudes in the van that tried to abduct Tara.
It took me until last night to realize that the guy working with Potter was Ronnie.
That’s what made the biggest impression on me.
The show no longer has any balls. Now it seems Sutter only wants to stay on the air as long as possible, otherwise someone would have died.
SOA needs to start chopping off some heads.
Written by somebody who expects every season finale of SoA or a drama to have some explosive bloodshed and violence.
Let me ask you this: Is the Charming Heights subplot, the RICO case (we saw this in S2 and S3 with the female FBI agent), or Juice’s ethnic heritage REALLY more interesting or compelling than Clay as a villain, the cartel connection, or the Irish connection? No.
Clay as a villain: What more do you want? Sure we would have loved for him to have died, but did you expect him to live? No. We get more Ron Perlman, which is a good thing. Do you think he’ll go quietly into the night – or actually “kill characters off” as he goes down? For all intents and purposes, Clay dying is like Jesse or Walt dying. The show would never be the same. there are clearly outside considerations going into this beyond simply the script of the show, and SoA may not be so quick to let go of one of its two leads without a definitive end date or resolution.
Cartel: The introduction of the cartel was THE thematic shift in the season and the defining challenge to the Sons. Clay is the villain, but the cartel story was the equivalent of the Irish in season 3, and the nazis in season 2.
The Irish: This is a no brainer. Did you think this was going to get resolved so easily? Sons aren’t getting out from the Irish, not with the foundations of the MC itself and several seasons of the show tied into them.
The CIA moment wasn’t nearly as much of a deus ex as people are claiming it to be. It curtailed the RICO case, which – let’s be honest – clearly took a back seat to the cartel connection as the season developed. Nor was it nearly as interesting. What about the fact that it’s very evident that the threat of the CIA is much stronger to the MC than the FBI, police, or D.A., who’ve been diddling around like dipshits for 4 seasons and can’t make a case stick? This review also entirely neglected the revelation about the girl Tig killed in the hit and run and who she was connected to. Maybe because the Niners weren’t on screen people seem to have forgotten that’s now another threat on the horizon for the MC – and that threat looms much larger after this revelation.
The only big problem with the episode – as most other reviewers have illustrated – was the final, melodramatic image. An episode doesn’t have to have a death to be a great finale – to a show or a season. The Wire did it plenty of times without it, and there weren’t ranting and raving cries for blood. Too much reflection of drama this season has been based on Breaking Bad’s finale – and that just simply isn’t a fair comparison. The window for breaking bad has been established, and we know when it’s going to end. That naturally expedites plot resolutions in a show, both internally with the flow of the story and externally with production decisions. I have a feeling this episode will be remembered more fondly by people who hated it as time goes on.
It took me until last night to realize that the guy working with Potter was Ronnie.
It’s a tragic story. Ronnie almost got his revenge against the Mexican cartel for burning his face, and they slipped away.
“I know he tried to kill my mom, my wife and killed my best friend’s dad but it’s ok HE DOESN’T HAVE A PATCH ANYMORE. Everything’s fine.”
LOLWUT??
No Jameson juice box?
Weak finale on a good season.
@Sarpedon
You make great points, except that the episode was boring.
Well I didn’t think it was horrible like everyone else seems to, but I did think it was a little bit of a wet blanket.
As for what Sarpedon says above (I read it because I’m sad and lonely), maybe shows like this do need a certain ending. Maybe the Breaking Bad thing works. Something like The Wire paid off plenty with its season long storylines and it only lasted five seasons. Maybe this one needs that, especially with the possibility that it could easily spin out of control.
We know shows aren’t going to last forever and I think by having an ending you aren’t going to be throwing out cheap episodes or funky story twists.
Also Lost sucked, I’m over that now. Perfect example of not knowing what the hell you’re doing. At least here I think there is a plan, I just would rather he lead to an ending rather than a big question mark.
Kurt Sutter sucks dicks.
I saw Potter coming after Hale. He never really seemed to like the guy and in one episode Potter goes into Roosevelt’s office and Hale is there saying that Charming Heights will happen. He leaves and Potter says to Roosevelt, So Hale found investors, and then asks if he can see the paper work. Roosevelt asks why and he says he’s just curious. So obviously he was planning on going after Hale somehow.
Let me ask you this: Is the Charming Heights subplot, the RICO case (we saw this in S2 and S3 with the female FBI agent), or Juice’s ethnic heritage REALLY more interesting or compelling than Clay as a villain, the cartel connection, or the Irish connection? No.
Maybe those plot points weren’t central to the story, but Sutter did spend the entire season developing them, and to have all three resolved by a couple of guys waving badges and the principals shrugging and saying “Eh, nevermind” was terrible storytelling.
You also can’t compare the RICO arc this season to the Agent Stahl arc in seasons 2 and 3, or say that the Irish storyline trumps them all so therefore they don’t need to be developed. Ask most viewers what gave them more satisfaction in last year’s finale, Chibs killing Jimmy or Opie killing Stahl.
Holy screaming Christ has this show become become boring. It’s like a Saturday morning cartoon for grown ups. No meaningful resolutions, no real character growth, and characters behaving in completely unbelievable ways. At least Krang and the Cobra Commander had sweet voices I can use to upset the girlfriend.
Oh thank God I’m not the only one who was disappointed with this shit heap of an episode. It was like watching SOA on ABC. No violence, no murders, everything gets resolved and reset for the next season, lol!
I made my dog go to bed early as a punishment for barking when I started watching the finale. I now realize letting him stay up would’ve been the greater punishment. I believe even his canine mind would have been able to process what a cop out that CIA thing was.
I agree that the finale was awful with compared to the rest of the season, but I think it did a great job of setting up conflicts for next year. Obviously Clay against Jax and Opie, with Tig jumping on Clay’s side because of Jax ousting him from his seat. The neverending drama with Gemma and Tara is going to be ramped up with Tara becoming the number one lady now. I think Bobby’s gonna bring a bunch of drama next year. He probably went through some sort of “awakening” in prison during the 3 days he was there or whatever.
But, the part I’m most excited for is finding out who the father of the girl Tig ran over is. That wasn’t mentioned at all by anyone here, but I believe that that is going to be one of the major plot points for next year. The major Kingpin in Oaktown? Count me in.
But yeah, the finale sucked, though there are a bunch of possibilities for next year.
I said this earlier, but it’s worth repeating; the Galindo/CIA reveal and Tara’s decision to stay were straight out of the Entourage “everything always works out for our boys” playbook (and given his excessive use of the word “bro” and the way he walks with his arms flailing wide like he’s the great brothority, the parallels between Jax and Vincent Chase have become more than alarming). Also, are you allowed to have your own guitar in prison? That whole thing with Bobby playing the guitar in his cell was just… odd. And stupid. WTF. About the only thing that seemed to have any payoff is the reveal on Tara’s kidnappers — if you noticed that the kidnapper who took his mask off looked Caucasian, at least that tied together with what happened in the end and gave you a reward for paying attention. Other than that, I’m hard-pressed to see how things like Juice’s dad being black (one of the dumbest plotlines ever in SoA because it’s never been suggested that SoA is anti-black, and made even dumber when Chibs explained away Juice’s fear by saying that all that matters is your paperwork and what’s on your birth certificate) or Potter upending Hale’s Charming Heights project (or the project itself), or Wendy’s random return to Charming will ever matter in the grand scheme of things.
At this point, the only thing that gives me hope for SoA is that Sutter has always said that his vision for the show was a seven season story arc, and that a lot of things would make sense once you could take a step back and look at the whole picture. I’m clinging to the hope that he’ll ultimately make good on that, but this season really cemented doubts raised about Sutter and SoA last season.
The biggest I had was how the story with Juice was tied up. Granted now we know how willing he is to rat out his club so that could always come back in the future. The rest of it I am fine with. Jax will now have to living knowing that he can’t touch the man who killed his dad as will as not being able to explain why they have to keep working with the cartel. The stuff with Tara is just a continuance of her becoming Gemma, something that has been building for awhile.
@Taco_Jones – I got nothing. I just chuckled
@StinkyPete I agree that perhaps they were resolved in an unceremonious manner, but would it be better to have 6 unresolved plot lines, or 3 hastily resolved and 3 major ones continuing? (numbers inaccurate here) I feel like the more weighty plot arcs are continuing and the ones that were secondary got conveniently wrapped up.
“You also can’t compare the RICO arc this season to the Agent Stahl arc in seasons 2 and 3, or say that the Irish storyline trumps them all so therefore they don’t need to be developed. ” – I realize I wrote a wall of text, so my comparison of those story arcs may be muddled. My comparison was intended to be in the similarities between the “law” as an antagonist for the Sons, as opposed to a more criminal element serving as the antagonist. I don’t think the Irish storyline ‘trumps’ anything, I just believe that the depth of entanglement that SAMCRO has with the Irish – going all the way back to J.T. in his youth – makes it almost a very necessary element of the show going forward. But hey, we know what happened to the Russians – I could be wrong.
I agree with you though, and think Stahl’s killing was much, much more satisfying than Jimmy O’s. Maybe it was that fucking sneer. I love Titus Welliver too – he didn’t get enough time on the show. But Stahl’s plotline, to me, seemed much more intricately woven in with the Irish and the events of season 3; and everybody agrees that season was boring as shit at parts. Additionally, Opie just seemed…more deserving of empathy at that time. The show didn’t make the D.A. out to be nearly the villain Stahl was in my eyes. Manipulative and meddlesome like her, but not willing to sacrifice lives (the Juice threat obviously rang hollow).
In this season, he just doesn’t appeal to me as much. Now I think this is no fault of the actor, but I believe it’s due to the amount of attention given to Opie and his storyline now, vs. how central the Donna conflict was then. I liked Piney way more than Donna, but (again, to me) it seems like Donna’s death carried more weight in that season than Piney’s did now. Maybe there was just so much going on this season that it got lost in the mess. I also found myself wondering what the actual time frame was covering the numerous episodes between Piney’s murder and the discovery – days? A week? The show didn’t convey that well.
Sutter came out with this lovely response [sutterink.blogspot.com] . Basically, if you didn’t like the finale you just don’t “get” his show and that it’s supposed to be a soap opera, not a serious show. Sutter really is one pretentious pos.
He’s a feisty little bitch, I’ll give him that.
@Electric Boogaloo
I was just about to post this. I love how he chides the critics and fans for thinking the show is more than it is….
“It’s like going to see a Summer blockbuster movie and being disappointed because it’s not as complex as the Godfather.”
“….applying a level of analysis that is best reserved for a David Simon show. The Wire, we ain’t, nor do we aspire to be.”
….then 2 paragraphs down says this.
“I’d confidently put the quality of our writing, acting and directing up against any other show. But the pulp, entertaining nature of Sons will always keep us a few rungs down the ladder from the obvious choices.”
I found out about the CIA before watching the episode so didn’t feel the immediate sting of that ‘twist’ as I watched, and I’m much more at peace with it than most of the internet seems to be. I re-watched a couple episodes earlier in the season a short while after the finale, and a few pieces do fit better:
When the Irishman calls Clay to voice his concerns about doing business with the “heathen” cartel, it’s pretty clear he only agrees to meet with them because he trusts Clay, and makes Clay promise to be there and make everything alright (I should’ve seen this coming really, I thought at the time it was pretty heavy-handed foreshadowing that something would go wrong with Clay)
Also something that didn’t ring true to me in “Hands” makes sense now: Why, after Clay taking his money back and telling them he’d do it, did the cartel insist on going after Tara? Clay came to THEM with it, and he’d already said it was a family/club issue and not directly related to cartel business. It fits with them trying to take her into protective custody though, and saving and “innocent” from being killed. All of Romeo and Luis’ other murders were criminals and justifiable as being undercover(or whatever their arrangement is) in a cartel.
Sorry about the wall of text, I needed to puke up my thoughts somewhere, and this place is quite nice
Just a couple of observations about the most underwhelming season finale of one of my favorite shows I’ve ever seen:
- WTF did Jax say to Tig and Chibs when he replaced Tig with Chibs as Sgt At Arms? Tig went to sit down next to Jax, and Jax said, “No Tig. somethingsomethingsomething.” And then he asked Chibs a question. I rewound that scene seven fucking times and could not make out what that limey bastard faking a California accent said (love Charlie Hunnam).
- Were Romeo and Luis actual CIA agents or just informants working for the CIA? Does the CIA give snitches badges now?
- So the Irish don’t trust Jax enough to buy a bunch of illegal weapons from him, but they sure don’t mind showing up where the weapons are and taking a look at them.
- So the leader of a violent cartel and his ex-mexican military enforcer, for whom you have arrest warrants, come rolling up nonchalantly to your top secret staging area, where you have several dozen local/fed agents armed to the teeth, and all you do is roll your eyes?
- It’s good to know Opie can take a 9 mm/.40/.45 round right through the wrist and not even lose any finger movement. He’s awesome.
- It’s also good to see Sutter getting some hate on here (finally). I’ve thought for a couple of years now that I was the only that thought he was a whiny bitch.
@jenkiing:
Why, after Clay taking his money back and telling them he’d do it, did the cartel insist on going after Tara? It fits with them trying to take her into protective custody though, and saving and “innocent” from being killed.
It also explains why Romeo told Jax that Otto didn’t flip on Bobby or the MC. They were feeding him bs to keep the deal with the Irish on track. In a Sixth Sense kind of way, it may be interesting to go back and watch the season again knowing that Romeo and Luis are CIA/snitches.
Kurt Sutter basically said, “Oh, you don’t think my show is great? Well, uh, it was never meant to be!”
Squabbler:
Romeo and Luis are agents, as opposed to case officers. They’re handled by the CIA. And no, they would never have badges in real life, nor would the CIA ever do that in real life. A convenience for the show.
Jax to Tig: No Tig, “you’re there bro.” Something like that. Chibbs said something along the lines of “Hell yeah I’m OK with that.”
The Irish showing up: They had no idea Clay wasn’t going to be there, I took it. You can tell by how suspicious/douchey that main guy looks the entire time he’s there.
I doubt the feds and cops would just randomly open fire on a group of cartel members who rolled up to them and just stepped out of a Hummer. It took them by surprise, and then the fake badges obviously diffused any possible shootout. But who knows – this literally would NEVER HAPPEN in real life.
Sutter will never be considered a whiny bitch after how hard he fucked that dude up who was talking shit about SoA and claiming he stole the show from him. He owned that guy.
so….basically they flick the bedside table lamp on and it was all a dream?