As the title, “Call of Duty,” suggests, this episode of Sons of Anarchy is about the guys sitting at home and playing the online multiplayer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. No? You’re not going to let me go with that? Okay…. here we go then. And as you may have noticed, that episode was 90 minutes, so I apologize for being lengthy.

And then Wendy came in….
After her tirade against Jax, Tara woke up the next morning apologetic. But Jax, being Jax, didn’t let her apologize. He just said that he still wanted to go with the plan. Take the money, get out of Charming, and let her get better until she can open her own practice. And even if we could tell she wasn’t sure, she said she believed him. He left, letting her rest, and then Wendy came in. She’s 2 years sober and has a job and as we learn later, got her tubes tied and likes the ladies. She also wants to see Abel. As she repeats on several occasions, she gave up the right to raise him, but not the right to know him.

As you can imagine, this doesn’t go over well with the already shaky Tara. As soon as Wendy leaves she smashes her casted hand into the vase of flowers Wendy brought and then proceeds to smash the cast into the nightstand repeatedly. When Gemma shows up (Tara never sees her face, btw) she sees the card from Wendy and sets up a meeting. Gemma says fine. You can see him, but on my schedule and my rules. Wendy doesn’t trust her and says she’ll bring a lawyer. Gemma calls her a junkie whore to which Wendy chillingly responds:

“If you thought I was dangerous when I was a junkie, just wait til you see me when I’m sober, baby.”

Scary. Later, Gemma tells Jax that Tara freaked and is on a psych hold after more surgery. But she leaves out that whole messy Wendy bit. Nicely done, Mom. Jax goes to see Tara and looks at her with such love and sadness my heart breaks as he crawls into bed to hold her. These two can’t catch a break.

Everyone loves Gemma
Wayne spends the night – on the couch – after finding Gemma beaten. She reiterates what she said before: Still put Piney’s death on the cartel and she will deal with Clay. She knows now he would kill her, so she will be careful. She goes to the hospital where Margaret is the first to see her and her immediate reaction is both worry for Gemma and protectiveness of Tara. She tells Gemma that Tara wants to leave and this is proof she needs to let her. Then Jax sees her.

I could, like last week’s gas station scene, write a novel about how many emotions cross Charlie Hunnam’s face in the silence of seeing his mother. His acting is mind-blowing here. His explosive anger that Clay did this to his mother that turns into frustration when Gemma tells him to not do anything. Then the sadness that somehow his actions (you know he blames himself) caused this to happen to his mom. Then the acceptance that non-action is what she wants right now. I was in complete awe how he portrayed all of that in silence. Anyway, he tells her that he wants out and not to give Tara crap about it. She agrees.

Then that night she and Tig is there. My stomach lurches because this is the scene I’d been waiting for all night and it took nearly the full 90 minutes of the ep to get there. Earlier Tig and Clay got into it when Tig asked if Clay got into a fight with Gemma. It turned into Tig saying Clay doesn’t trust him now and Clay giving him crap for whining about it. Tig told him he’s losing the club not because of the drugs, but because he’s shutting them all out. So when Tig sees Gemma and realizes just what Clay had done… my heart nearly stops. His face when he realizes it – it takes him a second because his immediate reaction is just worry for Gem. The hate in his eyes… But Gemma says “Not now, Tiggy,” knowing he is ready to kill. Instead he goes one better. He removes his Sgt of Arms patch and turns it in, with almost no words. Clay looks out the clubhouse and sees Gemma across the way who shuts the door behind her. Then he cries. He may still have a soul, but it is shriveled and dark and he needs to go.

Otto’s List and Japanese Money
Potter goes back to see Otto to get him to talk. But Otto is definitely the one in charge of this meeting. After asking Potter some questions to see if he can trust who he is and what he wants he makes demands. They are: All of his money to go to Luann’s sister. A better eye doctor to get new glasses. Lenny Danowitz to get some of his privileges back. Move up his execution date (sad face!). And he gets to be the one to tell Bobby that he gave him up. Get him that – he’ll tell all Potter wants him to. Ouch.

Speaking of Bobby, he’s busy still dealing with Georgie. Elliot showed up to tell the guys that Hale got the money from some Asian investors and Charming Heights is going to happen. So the guys head over to find Georgie who apparently lost control of the Asians he was supposed to have just pretend to give Hale money. Opie finds Lyla to get where Georgie is. He basially tells her it was never going to work anyway. The scene is awful. Not as awful as later when Opie tells Jax he’ll never really get out, but still bad. (I hate when the Opie/Jax bromance is on the rocks).

The guys go to Georgie who calls the Japanese. They are indeed investing. Then Bobby says he won’t kill him if he admits to what happened to Luann. Georgie says he sent guys there to rough her up and they took it too far. So Opie and Tig (not Bobby!) kill Georgie and the boys say Bobby should go tell Otto. Awkward. Meanwhile, Otto is going to talk, but since his requests for Lenny didn’t come through, he said he won’t sign the transcripts until they do. It’s bad stuff all around.

Unlike Call of Duty, you can’t respawn in real life
The guys get the guns from the Irish, which Juice says he’s only seen stuff like in video games. It’s like Call of Duty. But Jax is more worried about the Lobos. Romeo and Luis bring him two dead guys, but when Jax says there were three, they just pretend to go with that and say they’ll get the other guy. So they set up an ambush of the Lobos camp. The whole gang (minus Tig, Op and Bobby who are dealing with Georgie) go to this ambush along with the Galindos. But when they get to the main camp, they find a minefield. And by find it, I mean a Galindo steps on one and blows up. And then moments later, so does Kozik. (OMG, Those bastards killed Kenny. RIP Kozik)

Jax, Chibs and Happy, along with Luis and some Galindos are on the other side of the field and can’t get their guys out. Luis’s other men are hours away, so Jax calls for  the prospects to bring the heavy artillery. They use some RPGs to clear the area. And kill all the cartel members, but to get out, the boys still need to walk through the minefield. Juice basically runs out, causing Chibs and Jax to worry about his stability. And then when he breaks down about Kozik, Chibs goes to talk to him about it, which brings me to….

A love letter to Chibs
Dear Chibs, You are an amazing friend. Your genuine worry for Juice – not that he’ll screw up but for his life and sanity – is beautiful. And then how you don’t even flinch when Juice admits Roosevelt is blackmailing him into talking because he found out Juice’s dad is black? Amazing. You just let Juice know that if his birth certificate says Hispanic, than he’s Hispanic. That’s all anyone is going to care about. So stop crying, tell Roosevelt to [redacted for graphic imagery that made me giggle] and remember his brothers love him. Then you hug it out. In the bathroom. I love you, Chibs. You are an amazing man. I’m sorry Juice didn’t listen and still called in when you left. I know that will break your heart when you find out.

The Moment Opie Winston Broke
Opie decides he is going to go find Piney at the cabin and catch him up with what’s been happening. He tells Wayne, who of course, follows him up. Opie goes in and find his dad, long dead and starting to get ripe and breaks down. Then Wayne comes in and Opie pulls a gun on him, knowing Wayne came because he knew about Piney. Wayne, still stinging from an earlier confrontation with Clay, decides this is the moment. Yeah – he knew Piney was dead. Clay did it. Gemma wants to hide it and then Clay nearly killed her after she confronted him on it. Then Wayne piles it on thick bringing up Donna as well. Opie crumbles to the floor in rage and sadness. Then Wayne closes the ep with a line that echoes Gemma’s of last week.

“Clay’s got to go, son. Before he kills someone else you love.”

And there you have it. Another intense episode that sets up what is sure to be an insane final three hours. The scenes from next week’s nearly killed me! I am loving what is happening, but more than that I am loving how these story lines are bringing out the best in each actor. I’m SO IMPRESSED with each and every one of them.

What did you think? Do you think Opie should be the one to kill Clay? Do you think he will? And could Wendy possibly have worse timing?

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter @serrae

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