SONS OF ANARCHY “Burnt and Purged Away” Review

SONS OF ANARCHY “Burnt and Purged Away” Season 4 Episode 12 - Never let it be said that Sons of Anarchy does things by halves. The contents of this episode, from members of the club being detained, to Opie shooting Clay, are driving the series towards something – but what? If I didn’t know better I would think that the show is about to come to an end. It certainly feels like the end of a chapter. But the big question is whether Clay is going to make it to the final pages.

Juice and Bobby — Juice found himself being taken by ATF agents early on in the episode, after texting the details of the Irish meeting to Linc Potter and his people. Bobby was detained at the prison when he lost his shit after realising that Otto had ratted the club out. Will these guys get out for the next two episodes? How? Since both Juice and Bobby know that the law is coming for SAMCRO, it doesn’t seem all that likely that they would be allowed to go back to the club right now.

Jax and Tara — The more these two say they’re about to leave, to get away from the club, the less I believe it stands any chance of happening. Of course Jax could never leave, his involvement is the whole basis of the show, but there was at least a chance of it happening temporarily for most of this season. Now that seems pretty shot to hell in light of this episode. Clay shot, Wendy waiting in the wings, annoyed Gemma – yeah, these kids aren’t going anywhere.

The Mexicans and the Irish — The Irish aren’t overly impressed with Jax, the clubs use of the weapons in last week’s episode, or the drug cartels feuds. Jax decides to use this to SAMCROs advantage – they’ll tell Romero that the Irish aren’t happy with the sons muling drugs, and that they will have to stop but they’ll continue running guns. It seems like a pretty simple and effective way of getting out of the drug running – but something’s bound to go wrong, isn’t it?

Clay and Opie — Where to even begin? The bad blood between these two started all the way back in season one with Donna’s death by (indirectly) Clay’s hand. It’s amazing that Clay really thought that Opie had let that all pass like water under a bridge. Opie has spent the last few years mourning Donna’s loss – even losing a second wife in the process because of it – and now Clay’s killed his father too. I was actually surprised that it took Opie a whole day to track Clay down and confront him.

The whole final scene and the lead up to it was amazing. There’s no point in analysing it to death – it pretty much spoke for itself. I think my favourite part of it was how Jax told Opie ‘don’t make me kill you’ – and yet he was nowhere near to pulling the trigger after Opie shot Clay. Was it just surprise that threw him off? Or would he, after everything Clay’s done, rather put his best friend’s life before his Clay’s?

I can’t wait to see Jax’s reaction to everything next week – and I’m hoping that he’ll finally find out about the letters. That storyline has gone on so long that the letters themselves don’t really feel all that important anymore. If nothing else, I want Jax to find out about them so their impact is emphasised once again – it will make this whole season, Piney’s death and all that hurt, feel like it really meant something.

What did you think of ‘Burnt and Purged Away’? What do you think will happen in the final two episodes of season 4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!