SONS OF ANARCHY “To Be, Act 1″ Review

SONS OF ANARCHY “To Be, Act 1″ Season 4 Episode 13 - This week saw the first episode of the two-part season 4 finale, in which strains of Shakespeare come through more than they ever have, despite the entire show being thinly based on Hamlet. There’s backstabbing, bitchery, and blatant lies, but more importantly there was a hell of a lot of truth. And in Charming, the truth is the most dangerous thing of all.

With Clay in the hospital, everything revolved around Clay but wasn’t really about Clay. Instead, it was more about how everyone else is dealing with events and the truths uncovered, especially Jax. He finally learns about the letters his father sent to Maureen Ashby, about how Clay killed Piney and about how he tried to have Tara killed. It’s more than enough to rile him up, and Tara even gives Jax the means to kill Clay quickly and cleanly. But what will happen after that?

“What are you doing?”
“Everything you taught me. He’s mine.”

There’s a bit of a bitch war going on around Jax too. On the one hand, he has the woman he loves, his ‘wife’, who represents his chance to have a normal family life outside of Charming. On the other is his domineering, vindictive mother, who represents both everything he wants to get away from and everything he’s used to having in his life. But while Tara seems like the most obvious choice, is she? By taking his place as president of SAMCRO, Jax isn’t just taking what he’s owed, he’s in the position to change the club for the better. Can he walk away from that?

“He’s right. Had to be Leroy. He’s gotta die. Like, a lot.”

I adore Happy. He rarely speaks, but when he does he’s hilarious. But his bloodthirsty nature aside, Happy only said what everyone else is thinking. Jax knows that it was Opie, not the Niners, who shot Clay — how far will he let things go before he tells them the truth? Does he protect Opie and let the club go after Leroy? Does he give up Opie? Does he just out and tell them the truth about everything — John Teller’s death, the attempt on Tara’s life, Piney’s murder? And even if he can cool things down, will the Niners retaliate next week anyway?

We didn’t see Juice or Bobby at all this week. Jax paid a visit to Lenny who tells him of his suspicions that Otto ratted out the club, but Romero said that his enquiries didn’t turn up any evidence of that happening. Is Linc Potter just very good at covering his tracks, or is Romero lying for some reason?

This was a brilliant episode, on par with last week’s (which I loved), and I am really excited for next week’s season 4 finale. I still can’t see how the club could come out of all of this on top, but I’m hopefully for a good episode and a strong set up for season 5.

What did you think of ‘To Be, Act 1′? Let us know your thoughts and speculation in the comments below!