Sons of Anarchy’s season finale opened with Jax (Charlie Hunnam) sitting in the graveyard where Opie’s tombstone rests, scribbling in a journal he’s keeping for his sons. He wants them to know him, how much he loves them, writing it all down before the fateful day truly begins.

Sons of Anarchy Recap

While Jax continues to explain the bad things he’s done throughout his life and the growing sense of remorse that coincides with the realization that he needs the high-stakes lifestyle to feel alive, the rest of his crew and family were taking care of their own business. Juice (Theo Rossi) helps Tig (Kim Coates) and Chibbs (Tommy Flanagan) remove the recovering Bobby (Mark Boone Jr.) from the cabin. Wendy (Drea de Matteo) is packing up for a stint in rehab. Unser (Dayton Callie) is mourning Clay’s grave at the prison. Gemma (Katey Sagal) is washing dishes. Nero (Jimmy Smits) is conversing with the Byz-Lats. And Tara (Maggie Siff) remains in the hotel with Jax’s two boys.

At the clubhouse, Brooke Putner (Hayley McFarland) is working of the damage she made outside in a half-hearted attempt to avenge her mother’s death. While there, Gemma gets her out of the way so that she can have a one-on-one chat with Juice. She tells Juice that Jax doesn’t know that he tried to kill himself. Juice is more worried about what he told Nero when he came to, and Gemma reassures him he didn’t say anything inappropriate, not knowing that Juice spilled that Jax commanded him to kill Darvany.

After Eli (Rockmond Dunbar) informs the DA and the ATF agent that Tara never returned home, leading them to wonder if Tara ran – or if Jax planned to kill her if she made the deal – they head to the clubhouse. Jax sends Gemma to tell Nero to meet him at Diosa later and then sits down with the DA. She wants to know if Jax has any idea where Tara might be. He claims that Tara took them on a retreat, but the DA knows better. She warns him that if his wife and children pay for the errors of his ways, she’ll make him pay even worse.

Jax Puts Plan A In Motion, Tara Considers Her Deal

Jax then informs the club that the DA doesn’t know were Tara is either, meaning that she hadn’t yet ratted and there was still time to convince her not to. However, if she can’t be coaxed out of making the deal, Jax suggests their Plan B – which could either be eliminating her or turning himself in. Regardless, the first step is finding her. But before he can get to that, Jax has to sit down with Marcus Alvarez (Emilio Rivera). Alvarez isn’t sure that giving the Irish distribution to Marks was a sound idea and wants to know why he doesn’t get it. Jax says it all has to do with Marks having better connections, and that the guy doesn’t want to upset the current status quo of the Oakland gangs. Marcus insists on meeting with Marks with Nero there for a second pair of ears.

Tara, meanwhile, places a call into her lawyer to tell him she hadn’t fled, but was weighing her options. She wants to meet with him again to make sure she thinks the deal is okay. When he tells her he’ll just go to the office to get the documents, Tara tells him she’ll text him a location to meet at. Little does Tara that Juice and Bobby are tailing the lawyer.

Alvarez & The Niners Build Trust

At the meeting with Alvarez and Marks, Jax grills Nero about him knowing the Mayans were going into Stockton. Nero tells him he just found out yesterday but didn't want to burden him with the info when he just learned his children were gone. Nero had also refrained from calling Jax out on having ordered Juice to kill Darnacvy. When Alvarez comes over to catch up with his old prison pal Nero, Tig tells Jax Marks isn’t going to show up so he’ll have to talk things over with Tyler (Mo Mcae). Tyler tells Marcus nothing is going to change, but Marcus wants to know how Jax killing off a bunch of the Chinese, including Lin’s uncle, won’t hurt Oakland.

Jax, after telling Barosky (Peter Weller) that there’s no bad blood between the Mayans and the Niners, learns from Rat that Tara’s lawyer appears to be waiting for someone at a park that Jax knows Abel loves. Jax heads out with Happy while Tig tells Barosky that the Mayans weren’t happy that SAMCRO was handing over gun distribution to Marks. Nero will play a large part in how everything pans out for Barosky. Nero is still talking with Marcus, who empathizes with Nero’s desire to get out of the game and start a quiet life on a farm. He suggests he let Fiasco be his successor.

Staking out near the park, Bobby and Juice watch as Tara pulls in. She likes the deal, realizing that all she has to do is offer up the bullet and give testimony to receive immunity for Pamela Toric’s murder. Her relieved lawyer is excited to relay the news to the DA. Tara says that she and the boys can get picked up in Room 11 at the Barnes Motel.

Jax Turns Himself Over

Instead of leaving immediately for the motel, Tara idles at the park. All the sudden Abel runs away from her and shouts, “Daddy,” running in the direction of Jax, who’s backed up by Bobby, Juice and Happy. Jax then takes Thomas out of Tara’s hands and gives him to Juice so that they can talk privately. Jax tells her not to take the deal, which she believes means that if she doesn’t he’ll kill her. Tara goes on to say all she wanted was to save their sons from the violent, deceitful life Jax lives, and that she wishes she’d realized sooner that their love wasn’t enough to get through it. Again Jax reassures her he won’t hurt her, and then asks her just to be a good mother to Abel and Thomas.

Unser picks up Wendy at Gemma’s to take her to rehab. He’s put off when Gemma implies shrewdly that Jax will off her daughter-in-law if he senses it’s the only way out. She puts him at ease by telling him how much she needs and loves him, and giving him a warm peck on the check. Gemma then turns to Wendy, promising her she’ll pay a visit on family day and that she’ll be able to care for Abel once she’s clean and sober. At Diosa, Gemma and Nero get into it when he asks her if she’d consider heading out to the country with him – leaving all things related to the gang behind. She wouldn’t, so Nero breaks up with her and she storms out the door.

Jax sets himself up in Tara’s hotel room and waits for the DA to arrive. He tells her that in exchange for him, he wants the charges against Tara to be dropped and SAMCRO left alone. She accepts the deal and agrees to let him turn himself in later than day so he can say goodbye to his sons. After the new deal is made, Jax tells Tara he loves her. She tells him she loves him too. They kiss and fall onto the bed.

When Jax returns to the clubhouse, he explains to the crew that he should be able to get out of prison in 7 to 10 years, and that in the meantime he wants Bobby in charge. Chibs will be at his side, and together they’ll manage to keep things stable. He also told them that trusting Juice would be a mistake, spelling out a less than pleasant end for Juice in the future.

Gemma Kills Tara

Gemma is drunk and high when Unser arrives back at the house after dropping Wendy off. He tells her that Jax is getting arrested, which both he and Gemma interpret to mean that Tara made a deal. Unser tells Gemma she’s not driving anywhere in her state and that he blocked her car in. He didn’t, however, hide his keys. When he leaves the room, Gemma grabs them and takes off.

Jax learns from Unser that his mother took off, but doesn’t know that Gemma believes Tara ratted. He does know that Juice ratted on him to Nero, though, and tells his former friend he knows that he betrayed him before heading inside. Meanwhile, Tara had just pulled into Jax’s house, where she sees Unser’s car parked. She enters the living room and runs into Gemma. Realizing she’s unstable, she tries to make a run for it but Gemma whacks her in the stomach with an iron. She hit her a few more times before trying to drown her in the sink. When that didn’t go as easily as planned she wielded a grill fork and stabbed Tara in the head half a dozen times.

When Eli got into the house, he found Tara dead on the ground and Gemma sitting next to the body muttering about how it was the only thing to do. Eli shouts that Jax is the one who made the deal, and then Eli gets two shots to the head from Juice.

At the clubhouse, an unknowing Jax kisses his sons goodbye and tells Chibs that Tara would be coming by for them later before heading out to his house. When he gets there, he sees Eli’s legs first. He pulls out his gone and then enters the kitchen to see both Eli and his wife dead. He falls to the floor crying, saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” while pulling her into his arms. Patterson and two men enter the room, as Jax screams out in agony.

– Chelsea Regan

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