'Sons Of Anarchy' Recap: Gemma Visits Clay In Prison And The Irish Blow Up Clubhouse In 'The Mad King'

by UInterviewOctober 9, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Sons of Anarchy suffered a huge blow in “The Mad King,” with Jax continuing to butt heads with his SAMCRO crew and making decisions without the club, causing the Irish to blow up the clubhouse.

With the clubhouse on lockdown, the boys were on high alert, staking out the Irish and staying up all night. After an all-night watch, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and Happy (David Labrava) intercept two Irish and demand to know where Galen and Connor are. After some violent persuasion, the Irish tells Jax that Galen has gone, but Connor was still in California and was supposed to meet them in Lodi. Jax comes up with a plan: SAMCRO would take the Irishmen’s car and go to their meet with Connor, but first he has some escort business to take care of.

Meanwhile, the DA is getting closer to SAMCRO by going after Tara (Maggie Siff) and orders Eli (Rockmond Dunbar) to get more information on Nero (Jimmy Smits), who is still a suspect in the murder of the escort. Eli tails Nero and Jax when they go pay Colette a visit, but is scared off by Barosky.

Unser (Dayton Callie) confronts Tara of her secret conference with her attorney and Wendy (Drea de Matteo) – he knows she’s working on an “exit strategy” and offers his help. Tara says it’s better for him if he doesn’t know, but he tells her she should think about it.

At the Irish warehouse, the boys end up killing one of Connor’s men, destroying their alcohol and stealing their guns. They also manage to get Connor alive, and Jax contacts the Kings. Jax calmly explains to them that Clay’s days are numbered, Galen isn’t looking out for their best interests and dealing with August Marks could triple their business. The Irish aren’t interested; they don’t want to enter in a partnership with a black gang. The Irish, of course, have Galen with them, and they believe him when he says that Marks will use them to increase his business, then drop them. Galen also insists that he has no secret deals with Clay. He was close to finalizing a deal with Clay that would get Jax out of guns, and out of the picture.

Gemma (Katey Sagal) pays Wendy a visit. He wants a copy of the will to show Jax how Tara is planning on taking his boys away from him. She brings Wendy baby pictures of Abel, and tells her that she always thought Wendy and Jax were a good fit, that is, before she became an addict and almost killed their child. Gemma’s visit put Wendy’s loyalty to Tara in question and Wendy burst in to talk to Tara, exposing their relationship to Rat, who had been assigned to protect Tara. Wendy can’t handle all the lying and, if she’s going to align herself with Tara, she wants to see Abel, and soon.

The boys get word that Clay’s lawyer is setting up a conjugal visit for Clay (Ron Perlman) and Gemma. Clay must have a message for them (conjugal visits aren’t recorded). Nero confronts Eli about his surveillance, and Eli comes clean about the investigation: he’s not interested in the escort’s murder, he wants to tie SAMCRO to the school shooting.

At the prison, Clay tells Gemma that the Irish have approached him with an offer: they will break Clay out of prison, set him up underground to assemble a crew and run the gun operation from Belfast. If that happens, Clay says, SAMCRO is out, and that wouldn’t be good for anybody. He wants Gemma to tell Jax and have him make the call. Before Gemma leaves, two prison guards inform her that, as a conjugal visit, Gemma and Clay have to have sex for them to watch, or one of them will rape Gemma. Clay refuses and the guards begin to beat him until Gemma agrees. After, Clay swears he is going to kill them.

Gemma later breaks down and tells Nero everything. She doesn’t want to keep things from him. As the tense couple pulls up in front of the clubhouse, sirens go off – Eli got the DNA results back.

Back at the clubhouse, Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) finally confronts Jax and calls him out on his stupid offer to the Kings – asking them to partner with a black man was offensive to them and he should know better. Chibs warns Jax that he can’t run the club by himself, he needs them. Does he even trust them anymore? Jax tells Chibs that the Irish would be calling the clubhouse at 8 p.m. with their answer, and Jax wanted SAMCRO to be present so they could vote immediately.

Everybody gathers at the clubhouse, Abel sleeps in Jax’s room while Tara tends to a crying Thomas. It’s 7:58 p.m. and Jax is preparing for the call from the Irish when he notices a shamrock pen at the bar. He asks Chucky how it got there, and Chucky says the beer delivery guys left it a few hours ago. But no one had ordered beer, and it didn’t take long for Chibs to put two and two together. Jax and Chibs call for immediate evacuation. Jax orders Tig (Kim Coates) to get Tara and Thomas out while he goes back for Abel. Chibs ushers everybody out of the clubhouse and waits for Jax. The clubhouse exploded, but it seems everyone made it out safely.

Sons of Anarchy airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.