This week while watching Sons of Anarchy I laughed, I cried and I got really nauseous. But that’s pretty much par for the course when it comes to this show, isn’t it? Of course this week is special because the knots in my stomach came from more than just nerves. But let’s hold off on the gross out moment for a little bit….

Sons of Anarchy Recap: Family Recipe

In case anyone was still nervous (though I’m sure most of you weren’t) Juice is just fine. Well, I guess fine isn’t the word. Not dead though. And his neck hurts. Chibs and Tig find him to bring him in for the vote and he says that he clotheslined something while riding. Anyway… point is Juice lives to suffer another day. And later when Chibs puts together what really happened there is a beautiful and emotional scene between the two of them I can’t properly describe. Poor poor Juice. But this episode isn’t really about him.

The point is the leadership vote. Well, it would have been, if a truck full of guys didn’t bust in and shoot the entire clubhouse up with some automatic weapons. And they left a parting gift – one of their guys and a duffle bag with Gwyneth Paltrow’s head. Oh wait, that’s not right. It’s 3 heads, one is the missing SAMTAZ member. Now the vote is put on hold. But in case you were wondering, Tig and Clay both voted no on the change (shock!). Piney would have voted yes, and so would Opie, according to what he told his dad. Honestly, I was unsure on the rest. Piney tells Clay this is his way out of the Cartel- tell Romeo they didn’t sign up for all of this crazy. If he doesn’t, he’s showing everyone the letters.

A bunch of the crew takes the left behind shooter to the warehouse to have Happy “question” him. Meanwhile, Jax, Clay and Gemma stick around to deal with the cops who come to investigate the shooters. Roosevelt had just come from Jax’s house where he questioned Tara about the death threat, which he now has since Unser gave the letter to Margaret. Gemma tells him that the she thinks the shooters were the Armenians who own the competing garage. Roosevelt seems to almost appreciate her attempt at putting the shooting somewhere other than on the club. I know I sure do.

As for those heads, well, one apparently fell out of the dufflebag (be careful, guys!) and Chucky found it. He sneaks it into the clubhouse in a grocery bag, but when the place is full of cops, where does he hide it? The chili. Gross. Even worse – those cops are hungry after all this looking at bullet holes and then want some of that chili. So Chucky gives them some. And they eat it. Again… gross. But I love Gemma’s face when she realizes that Chucky added a certain ingredient to her family recipe! Classic. On the down side – I had been wanting to make a batch of chili now that it’s cold here in Oregon. Not happening now!

Meanwhile, Luis shows up at the warehouse and gets the shooter to talk when all of Happy’s torturing didn’t work out. Luis rolls out his crazy tools, including sodium thiopental (aka truth serum). Looks like the Lobos are getting their intel from a member of the Mayans. Alvarez at first doesn’t want to give up one of his guys, but Jax repeats the same thing he said, when Alvarez was afraid SAMCRO wouldn’t kill one of their guys over the cocaine: “Mayan or Son.” So he says he thinks it’s Pedro. They have Pedro feed his Lobo guy a message – guns are going to be stored at the warehouse overnight. So now it’s war. And since Luis doesn’t have enough guys in town, the Sons and Mayans are fighting too.

Clay goes to see Elliot to lay out his plan as far as Charming Heights is concerned. We see it put into action at the fundraiser for the Charming Gardens being put on by Rita Roosevelt. Clay, who is there as an alibi for the war at the warehouse, gives a speech which for one brief glimmering moment made me remember why I ever loved Clay – something that has gone away now that he wants to kill Tara. He reminds all the good people of Charming that the occasional fight and broken window that come from his MC aren’t as bad as the bulldozers that Jacob Hale wants to take through town. All Clay wants to is keep Charming the beautiful town that it is, with the lovely small businesses. So he, along with The Man Who Should Be Mayor, Elliot Oswald, donated the rest of the money to save the Gardens. Charming once again loves these two heroes of the day! I cry. But the real agenda at hand – the gardens will mess up the overpass, the property goes back to eminent domain and will go back to Oswald and nothing Hale does to try to get it back will look good to the town. Oswald’s the conquering hero and Clay keeps Charming. Huzzah.

This scene is played against something less heartwarming – instead of the Lobos invading the warehouse to get the guns, our small army is greeted by an empty truck. Well, almost empty – it has the bodies that match the dufflebag heads. Turns out Pedro wasn’t the only source of information for the Lobos. Things are getting very very bad. So bad, that Jax doesn’t stop Tara (now suspended from work because of the threat on her life) when she says she is taking the kids and heading to Oregon. I look forward to her conversation with Gemma about it.

At the cabin, Piney is getting quite the string of visitors. First Jax. They get in an argument about JT – whether or not Jax is like him. Whether or not he should want to be. Piney tells him to find out more about his father first – a hint to find those letters even if he doesn’t know they exist. Later that night Clay shows up. He told Gemma he was staying at the club house. Problem being, she was AT the warehouse when he told her that. Should have been more specific when you asked her where she was. Anyway, he goes to PIney and says he is going to to call Romeo and get out of the cartel. When he goes to leave, he turns around, busts the door down on Piney and while Piney is down, looks for the letters. He asks Piney if Tara still has them. Piney tries to get him to believe Tara has nothing to do with it and leave her alone. But he kills Piney and says it’s too late for Tara. NOOOOO. When he leaves he puts an LS in blood on the First 9 pic. And I get sad.

Soooooo…. that happened. I’m so nervous for Tara. I want to believe that they wouldn’t kill the mother of Jax’s kids. But they killed Donna off, so that logic doesn’t work. Oh well. Speaking of, being realted to Opie is a dangerous game, huh? Poor Opie.

If you need me, I’ll be recovering til next week.

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter @serrae

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