Sons of Anarchy’s seventh and final season opens with Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) behind bars, beating up a Neo-Nazi in an effort to meet with the leader of the Aryan prison tribe Ron Rully (Marilyn Manson). Meanwhile, Gemma (Katey Sagal) is watching his sons and Unser (Dayton Callie) is at Tara's grave.

Sons of Anarchy Recap

At County, Jax gets a visit from DA Patterson (CCH Pounder) and Gemma. Gemma, acting as a sort of go-between, tells Patterson that Jax isn’t going to be eager to talk, having found the woman he loved – loved enough to turn himself in – dead just 10 days ago. Understanding Jax’s pain, having lost relatives to gang violence, Patterson says he can empathize with wanting to exact revenge on those who took loved ones away from them, but that tallying up his own kills will only breed ongoing chaos and death.

In the car ride home from Country, Jax thanks his mother for getting him out of prison, unaware that what led up to his incarceration and Tara’s death was her doing. Gemma tells Jax, who is not yet ready to see his sons, that they know that their mother is in heaven. Later, Gemma relates the car conversation to Juice, who is incredulous that she could casually talk about Tara when she played a part in her death. Gemma reasons that acting like things are normal is best for everyone, especially her grandchildren, and the two plot to pin the death on the Chinese.

Jax Reunites With SAMCRO

Jax, in one of his first acts as a free man, enters Scoops to reunite with the gang and receives a warm welcome. After the tears are hastily wiped away and hugs exchanged, it’s time to divulge the intelligence on their alliances and rivals. There are updates on the Irish, One-Niners and Grim Bastards. Jax tells the group that he and Tully, No. 3 in the Aryan Brotherhood, are on good terms. Jax then delivers the revelation that will color the rest of the season: they’re done struggling for peace; it’s time to go to war.

Nero (Jimmy Smits) drops by Scoops later to share Lin (Kenneth Choi) and Alvarez’s (Emilio Rivera) condolences – and also to try to exonerate them for any involvement in Tara’s death. When Nero offers a sit down, Jax is all in, admitting that trying to distance SAMCRO from the gun trade probably wasn’t his wisest move. To make up for it, he’s going to help the Mayans and hook up Lin and the Chinese with some guns. He then suggests that the Chinese join in on his welcome home festivities, where Irish leader Connor (Scott Anderson) will be there to chat with Lin.

When Jax, Tig (Kim Coates) and Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) spot an Impala that looks like one of the cars that ran T.O.’s (Michael Beach) men off the road, they enter the apartment building it’s parked in front of. Inside, they find two men and a woman engaging in a threesome, while another man – wearing pantyhose – watches on and films the scene. The woman grabs a gun and starts firing. Before long, the woman and all three men are dead. As it turns out, they’re not East Dub. Two of the men were assistant pastors and one the head pastor at Piedmont Grace Center for God. They’re all buried later by transfers in the woods

Wendy (Drea de Matteo), who is out from a stint in rehab and headed to live with Gemma for awhile to help take care of Jax and Tara’s sons, stops by her home where Juice has been staying. After packing up a bag, she waits for Unser to pick her up. She unwisely asks him to fetch a jacket of hers from the closet, where Unser spots a SAMCRO backpack. At night, Unser goes back to the home to check out what’s going on, only to end up with Juice’s gun directed at his head.

Jax's First Act Of War

At Redwoody, Jax’s party has commenced. While he and Chibs talk to Connor about making a gun deal with Lin, Gemma is chatting with a Triad. He is the man Gemma claims she saw running outside Jax’s house the night that Tara died. Jax asks T.O. for the Grim Bastards to grab the guy and tells Tara with certainty that the Chinese killed Tara.

Back at Jax’s home, Gemma bids her son goodnight. Jax then stands before the man, bound and gagged, that he’s about to kill – his first act of retribution for Tara’s death. Believing this man acted on Lin’s order, he cuts him up, literally rubbing salt in his wounds. The final act Jax commits to kill him is ramming a carving fork into the back of his head.

Sons of Anarchys airs Tuesdays on FX at 10/9c.