Spoilers ahead:

While Jax is probably strategically correct in not fingering Clay and Tig for Donna’s murder, and genuinely concerned about the emotional devastation that Opie would suffer once he knows his brothers were responsible for the murder of his wife, one can’t shake the feeling that Jax is betraying Opie by hiding the truth now and I think the show’s writers are setting up Piney (Opie’s father), Jax and Opie for a bigger dissolution of paternal and brotherly bonds.

It would be extremely tragic for the friendship between Opie and Jax to be torn apart but I think that’s what will happen as this story arc progresses.

Funny how Clay tells Gemma there is nothing to worry about as the White supremacists separatists drive off, …

… just before Gemma tells Tara that the only way for Tara’s relationship with Jax to last is a policy of total disclosure, …

… just before Gemma is tricked and hit with a black jack. I wonder if Gemma would have done things differently if she knew the danger the White separatists posed.

Towards the end of Gemma’s gangbang rape, her eyes seem to show the fire within extinguishing. I really hope that the rest of the season does not show a broken recovering Gemma but a vengeful scheming Gemma.

Something that wasn’t touched on in this episode was the color of the sheriff’s wife. Last season, he reacted explosively to defend his wife when color was made an issue. With white supremacists separatists running around his town, I wonder what his reaction will be. Is Charming’s sheriff going to die before his cancer gets him?

Interesting that Gemma didn’t answer Tara’s question on whether John Teller told her everything directly instead she answered,

You love the man, you learn to love the club.

Who is this man? John or Clay?

Links:

Alan Sepinwall’s season two review:

We see that, even as Jax wants to wrest leadership of the club from Clay and take it in the more peaceful direction his father envisioned, he’s still too quick to consider violence and too willing to exploit others if it serves his own ends. The club, in general, still does despicable things, and not just to rival criminals. There’s an obvious rooting interest for the viewer, but just as “Sopranos” and “The Shield” did, there will frequently be points that make you ask exactly why you’re rooting for either side.

I love this type of shows because of the ambivalent feelings the viewer has for the characters.

Some leftover thoughts from Season 1:

Is Gemma more Lady Macbeth or Gertrude? Depends on your reading of the character Gertrude. It has been argued that Gertrude was not privy to Claudius’ treacherous plot against her husband, if so then Gemma could be considered more Lady Macbeth.

Gemma shows the same strength as Lady Macbeth and Annabeth Markum (a play on the name Macbeth?) in Mystic River. There is something about the wives of men who would be kings – they understand that the men have to get their hands dirty outside just as long as they clean it before stepping into the home

When Donna dies, it happens because of the disloyalty of the leaders. This is a common tragedy of flawed leaders. They demand and command loyalty from their men, but crucially fail to extend the same courtesy when their own skin is threatened.

Are the leaders of Singapore like that? Will they be leavers or stayers when Singapore really needs them.

A comment made over on Sepinwall’s blog:

I like the arc they have set up for Hale – I think we’re seeing the process by which a straight-laced, clean cop becomes Wayne Unser. Both are ultimately interested in the overall well-being of Charming, but Unser is long past being comfortable with the corrupt bargain he made with SAMCRO years ago and now actively embraces it, because he knows that the alternative would be far worse. Hale isn’t there yet, but I think that the Nazis may push him there. You could also read his story as a parallel narrative to Jax’s, depending on how the story turns out – both are going to have to compromise their ideals to the realities of governing.

Is that what happened to our government?