The sixth season of “Sons of Anarchy” started off strong this week. As is usual in season premieres, the show captivates while intimating some of the issues the characters will have to overcome. This episode, “Straw,” was particularly interesting, as it dealt with problems from previous seasons, providing a compelling front for these next episodes.
Throughout the past five seasons, the characters have seen varying repercussions of being members in a bike gang that runs guns. The culmination of this episode held a shocking surprise about these consequences.
The ninety-minute premiere begins by reminding the viewers how both Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff, “Push”) and Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman, “Hellboy”) are in jail for crimes they did not commit. Knowles refuses to see her husband, Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam, “Pacific Rim”), leader of the Sons of Anarchy motorcycle gang while incarcerated, as she does not wish for him to see her in such a way. Teller does not understand her logic and lashes out. Both she and Morrow are offered a deal by Lee Toric (Donal Logue, “Blade”), the ex-U.S. Marshal whose sister was killed by another SAMCRO member. Knowles immediately refuses. After the years of being a president of the club, Morrow is not eager to give them up, but when faced with the reality of prison life, chooses to save his own skin. Toric is also working to punish Otto Delaney (Kurt Sutter, “The Shield”), the former SAMCRO member that killed his sister, by having him tortured repeatedly in his psych ward cell.
Nero Padilla (Jimmy Smits, “Star Wars”) and Teller, enemies turned allies, work together this episode when one of the bike gang’s porn star friends returns from a job that was not all it seemed to be. The group decides to raid the warehouse, where they come upon all sorts of torture devices and men who believe that what they are filming is a good idea. SAMCRO teaches them a blood-filled lesson. It seems that the club can no longer find a way of resolving problems that does not involve guns, knives or any other form of weapon. A question is quietly raised here- do the Sons of Anarchy now only speak the language of violence? Their motto is “live free or die” but they currently seem much more worried about continual dominance over their town than the independence they initially so desperately sought.
“Sons of Anarchy” is well known for its brutality, but this time, the episode might have gone a bit too far with torture porn, prison rape and the drowning of a character. The scenes were uncomfortable at best, gratuitous at worst. Shock value is a factor, because after a previous five seasons, it is hard to surprise viewers. Granted, the jolting scenes contributed to a furthering of a plot arc for the season, so it is difficult to condemn a show for merely wishing to entice those watching to continue doing so.
“Straw” closes with a montage of emotion-filled scenes. The viewers see all the characters completing actions that will have bigger effects later on, twisting the once straight path of SAMCRO’s ideals. “Sons of Anarchy” has always had a strong showing for the beginning of a season, but the choices and events that occurred in this episode imply a very compelling story ahead.
