This woman certainly knows how to end a TV season. In the Season 6 finale of Sons of Anarchy, all devoted fans know that Gemma killed Jax's wife Tara with a grill fork to the skull. It was a brutal, unforgettable scene that both scarred us and changed the very face of Sons of Anarchy forever as it approached its final season. But it's a scene that Jax only knows the half truth of and Gemma intends to keep it that way. The only question is: Is Gemma really doing the right thing?
In the Season 7 premiere of Sons of Anarchy , Gemma tells Juice that she needs to keep the lie to herself for Jax's sake. Now, this sounds like everything Gemma has ever said... right before doing something despicable. But those times were different. This time, Gemma knows the horrible truth of what she did — as Juice told her, Tara didn't give Jax up to the feds, he went willingly. She wrongly killed the one person her son loved more than SAMCRO, and in the process, changed Jax's heart forever. It's no wonder Abel wonders aloud in the Sons of Anarchy Season 7 trailer about whether or not his father is a bad guy.
This time, Gemma is actually making sense — and not just in support of her own interests. Jax has fought the dark side, so to speak, for six whole seasons. Tara's death — as we see in the final moments when Jax brutally murders the man Gemma tells him killed Tara with the audible crunch of a skull as Jax drives the grill fork in — has turned Jax toward a darker path. While Gemma will certainly benefit from not telling Jax the truth by continuing to receive the love of a son who needs his mother's comfort now more than ever, her presence as his emotional rock could be one of the only things keeping him in the light.
The second Jax knows that Gemma betrayed him so heartily, he won't just learn the truth. He'll lose the last woman in his family. Whether or not Jax is capable of killing Gemma for her awful deed, she'd cease to be his mother. And while I'd like to believe that Jax could find enough strength from the hopeful presence of his young sons, he's so prone to anger and vengeance that I doubt he could keep it together for their sake. After all, he's continually been unable to leave the club, even though it would be for their sake.
As wrong as it feels to side with Gemma, she's right. Jax can't know what really happened. And if anything, having Jax think some random guy did it will make Gemma's life even more hellish. She's about to not only have Tara's blood on her hands, but the blood of a random guy, and whatever blood is spilled when the inevitable war between the Chinese gang and the Sons begins over Jax's revenge killing.
It may seem like she's getting off easy, but Gemma certainly isn't going to be skipping in daisy fields with Jimmy Smits any time soon. This is a Kurt Sutter show, after all.
Image: James Minchin/FX
