In last week’s recap, I proposed that the only reason Romeo could have for telling Jax that Otto didn’t sell out the club was that he knew something SAMCRO didn’t, and as it just so happens, that something turned out to be pretty big. Shortly after Lincoln and his men set up surveillance on the Sons, Romeo and Luis roll into camp to announce that they’ve been working with the CIA and are shutting down the RICO investigation. I had a feeling this might be the case back when Lincoln was discussing Luis’ history with the Mexican military, but I had completely forgotten about it since then, mainly because it seemed a bit far-fetched at the time. And it still does, to be honest, even if this wouldn’t be the first time that the government has sided with the bad guys for the greater good. They’re essentially bankrolling the Galindo cartel so that they come out on top, because "whoever controls the drugs controls the politics," and in order for that to happen, they need SAMCRO’s deal with the IRA to go through unimpeded.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy in the world of “Sons of Anarchy,” and although the Irish Kings seem open to working with the cartel, they’re only willing to do it with Clay as the intermediary. That puts Jax in a bit of a bind, who openly admits to Romeo that the club is already way over its head on this whole cartel business. Though he didn’t want to have to bring Jax into the loop on their CIA connections, Romeo’s hand was forced by the prospect of losing the IRA gun deal, so he explains to Jax that if the deal goes bust, the RICO case will be reopened and the club will be destroyed. All in all, it was a pretty clever way of keeping Clay alive and ensuring Jax remains in Charming. I also found it interesting that Romeo never intended to hurt Tara, but was instead going to put her into protective custody. That at least explains why the kidnappers didn’t just shoot the both of them when Jax came to her rescue in the park.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen Jax more pissed off than when he went to go visit Clay at the hospital (except perhaps at the end of last week’s episode), because despite every bone in his body telling him to kill the traitorous bastard, he had to keep him alive for the sake of the club. It’s hard to imagine a show where Clay can co-exist alongside Jax, Opie, Tara and Gemma now that they all know the truth, but Jax really has no other choice. Though he’s stripping him of the President patch, Jax is allowing Clay to keep a seat at the table and his vote for the sake of appearances, but what will the Irish think when they realize he’s no longer in control of the club? And while Clay may wish that he was dead now, that’s not going to stop him from putting up a fight when he recovers.

Whatever happens, you have to commend Kurt Sutter for crafting a finale that offered a satisfying sense of resolution while also laying the groundwork for the next season. Tara’s decision to stay in Charming is undoubtedly going to create some tension between her and Gemma as she takes over the role of queen bee, and she’s already been entrusted with a pretty big secret. Though Romeo warned Jax not to say anything about the CIA’s involvement, he pretty much had to tell Tara in order to explain why he wasn’t leaving as promised. Whether or not that decision blows up in his face remains to be seen, but you can be sure that she wouldn’t have stuck around for very long if he didn’t tell her the truth. That was a really great scene between the two of them, and it was a little saddening to watch Jax leave her to go take his spot at the head of the table when he clearly doesn’t want to be there, even if we knew all along that it had to happen in order for the show to continue.

For the most part, everyone seemed to embrace the sight of Jax claiming his rightful throne, although Tig didn't look too happy about being replaced by Chibs as the new Sergeant of Arms. Of course, that’s going to be the least of his worries if Roosevelt’s reaction to Laroy’s girlfriend being killed in the hit-and-run is as serious as he made it sound. Apparently, she’s the daughter of the most dangerous gangster in Oakland, which means that SAMCRO might be headed for another war. Opie is exactly the kind of guy that Jax is going to need at his side if things get bloody, and though he’s yet to accept his invitation to become VP after learning that Clay will be spared for reasons Jax can't say, he hasn’t turned him down either. And I really hope he doesn’t, because the prospect of seeing those two guys run the club is simply too good to pass up.

A few other thoughts from the episode:

* Though I’m still holding out hope that Michael Chiklis will been given an actual role on the show at some point (after all, several other “The Shield” alum have already made an appearance), the cheeky TV cameo was a nice touch.

* I’m going to really miss the enigmatic and oddball Lincoln Potter, but at least he went out in style by taking down Mayor Hale in front of city council, exposing his Asian investors as a bunch of sex toy sickos and pretty much guaranteeing that the Charming Heights project would be shut down. Even his explanation to Hale about why he did it was great: “Because I don’t like you. And the good guys need a win.”

* The only thing better than that line of dialogue was the reason Roosevelt gave to Juice for helping him clear his name: “You’re a criminal. You do bad things. I’m a cop. I stop you. I just want to get back to that.” I can’t wait to see what part he plays in the imminent war between SAMCRO and the Niners, because while he’s clearly not crooked like Unser, I think that he still sees some value in what the club does for Charming.

After last week’s cliffhanger left many wondering if Clay was dead, tonight’s episode was quick to clarify things by confirming that, while he was definitely wounded, Opie hadn’t succeeded in killing him. (Surely a shot to the head or the heart would have been the way to go, but then there wouldn’t be a need for a two-part season finale.) Of course, Opie could have easily finished the job if Jax hadn’t shot him in the hand, but at that point in time, Clay was still innocent until proven guilty in his mind, despite Opie’s insistence that we was telling the truth. Jax wasn’t ready to buy into that theory just yet, and promised Opie that he would get to the bottom of Piney’s murder, to which Opie mockingly replied, “Just what I need. Another promise.”

It probably wasn’t the best idea for Jax to pin the shooting on “some black guys,” but no one could have expected that Tig would take the news so personally. I can understand why he feels like it might be his fault after turning his back on Clay, but to just retaliate on the Niners like that without any proof they were even responsible was really stupid. Tig was lucky to get out of that situation alive, because you can be sure that’s not the last we’re going to see of the Niners. Though Laroy made it out in one piece, his wife/girlfriend/someone important was killed in the initial attack, and two more of his men died in the ensuing chase. Geez, just when all the gangs in Charming we’re starting to play nice with one another and Tig had to go and mess it up.

Meanwhile, Gemma looks like she’s finally done protecting Clay (either that, or she just wants to be on the winning side) and decides to open up to Tara about all the horrible things that Clay has done lately. It was obviously just a ploy to make her feel guilty about using John Teller’s letters as leverage, but it worked, because Tara gave Gemma the key to the storage unit where they were hiding all along. After reading through the letters, however, Gemma took out the ones that implicated her and Unser and handed the rest over to Jax, which ultimately led to her spilling the beans on years of secrets – from Clay's initial attempt to kill JT by sending him into a Mayan ambush, to rigging his bike to crash, to shooting Piney in the cabin and even putting out the hit on Tara.

All in all, it was a pretty clever attempt at getting Jax to stay in Charming and take over his rightful place at the head of the club, but Gemma wasn’t expecting Tara to outwit her. This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen the good doctor evolve as a result of spending so much time around Gemma, but it is the first time that she’s let her know it. Tara knew all along what Gemma was going to do with those letters and even had the gall to brag about it. In fact, she’s so confident that Jax will keep his word about leaving town that she’s willing to help kill Clay (using a blood thinner, natch) and allow him to wrap up business with the IRA and the cartel before heading off on their merry way, and Gemma definitely wasn’t happy about it.

What neither woman realizes, though, is that Jax is about to walk in to a world of trouble. Forced to take Clay’s place at the meeting due to his (ahem) condition, Jax is given assurance by Romeo that despite what Lennie the Pimp may have told him about Otto striking a deal with the Feds, his inside source has confirmed that it’s not true. Now, either Romeo knows something that the Sons don’t or they need to find better sources, because if Jax and Chibs get caught at the meet, they’ll be arrested as part of the RICO case. And when you think about it, that only makes Juice’s cooperation with Lincoln that much worse, since those are the two guys (particularly Chibs) who were there for him after his suicide attempt. Kurt Sutter always has an ace up his sleeve, however, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with this time around.

After the events of last week’s riveting episode (are you reading this Emmy voters?), it didn’t seem like Tara would ever be able to forgive Jax for what happened. But now that she’s had a night to calm down, she certainly seems willing to try, even if she doesn’t look entirely convinced that they’ll be able to leave Charming as promised. Jax still believes that they can get out, though, and now that the hospital in Providence has offered Tara a job despite her recent accident, their plans to start a new life together are still alive. Or at least they were until Tara foolishly broke her hand all over again after freaking out following Wendy’s visit. Personally, I don’t see why it’s such a big deal. Wendy is, after all, Abel’s biological mother, and if she’s completely reformed, then why shouldn’t she be able to get to know her son? Gemma sees the reasoning behind it and agrees to let Wendy into Abel’s life, but only under her rules. That could mean that Drea de Matteo is coming back to “SOA” full-time, but I wouldn’t place any bets just yet.

Meanwhile, with the rest of the club now aware of Tara’s attempted kidnapping, they’ve agreed to join Jax in exacting revenge on Lobos Sonora by teaming up with Romeo’s men to get rid of the cartel’s presence in Charming. The attack doesn’t go quite as planned, however, and they accidentally wander into a minefield just outside of the Lobos’ camp. During the ensuing firefight, Kozik steps on one of the mines and is blown to pieces – an event that will likely go down as the most pointless death in the history of the show. I don’t really see any reason why Kozik had to die apart from the fact that Kenny Johnson (the actor who plays him) has a new gig on NBC’s “Prime Suspect,” especially when he was just beginning to mesh with the rest of the cast. That whole sequence played really false to me, with Jax and Chibbs even using some rocket launchers (or as Juice called them, “‘Call of Duty’ shit”) like they were seasoned pros.

Apart from that strange detour, the rest of the episode did a great job of getting all the show’s ducks in a row in preparation for the finale. One of the biggest loose ends still looming in the background was the deal that Clay struck with Georgie to trick Hale into thinking he had new investors for Charming Heights. Unfortunately, the plan worked a little too well, and one of the Asian families went behind Georgie’s back and actually made a deal with Hale, ensuring that the property deal would go through. When the Sons learn that Georgie can’t do anything to stop it, Bobby forces him to confess the truth about Luanne’s murder before giving Tig and Opie the go-ahead to kill him like they should have weeks ago. As expected, Georgie was involved in her death, although he claims that it was an accident and she was only meant to be roughed up a bit.

Of course, that particular piece of intel isn’t going to mean much to Otto since Bobby already lied to him about killing Georgie once. And now because of it, he’s decided to rat on SAMCRO after Lincoln agrees to a list of demands that include giving Lennie the Pimp back some of his prison rights and moving up his execution date. Oh yeah, and he also wants to be the one to tell Bobby that he gave up the club, although that last one is going to blow up in his face as soon as he learns that Georgie was responsible for Luanne’s death. Then again, as long as Otto doesn’t sign off on his testimony, there’s always a chance that he’ll be able to retract his statement in time. And from where I’m standing, that’s SAMCRO’s only hope of getting out of this whole mess in one piece.

Other thoughts from the episode:

* Otto’s traitorous decision wasn’t even the biggest talking point of the night, but rather it was Opie finally discovering Piney’s body in the cabin. I’m not sure why Unser didn’t go finish the frame-up job immediately after speaking with Gemma, but now Opie knows the real truth, and Unser’s warning that Clay needs to die before he “kills someone else you love” suggests that Opie will indeed be the Son who puts him down for good.

* But it’s entirely possible that someone totally unexpected will be the one that pulls the trigger instead. If Tig killed Clay, it would continue in the tradition of the show's other Shakespearean influences, although it would be more “Julius Caesar” than “Hamlet.” And after confronting Clay about being shut out in recent weeks and then turning over his Sgt. at Arms patch after seeing what he did to Gemma, Tig certainly has motive.

* And then there’s Juice, who’s trying to save the club and his brothers by essentially going against everything they stand for. If he would have just went confided in Chibs in the first place about the whole race issue (who claims that it isn’t an issue at all because his birth certificate says he’s Hispanic), he wouldn’t be in the difficult situation that he’s in now, which only makes it that much harder to swallow.

If you haven’t already heard, FX recently granted Kurt Sutter an additional episode so that he could see out the current season the way he intended, and for as good as this year has been up until now, it’s easy to see why the network gave in to his demands. Tonight’s show was a pretty pivotal episode in terms of where the rest of the season is headed, and although there were some other important developments apart from the main storyline (like Jax informing Opie that he was leaving the club and Juice agreeing to work with Lincoln to save it), I’ve decided to focus this week’s blog post entirely on the intensifying drama around the Teller/Morrow clan.

Though last week’s cliffhanger may have tried to play coy about whether Clay was actually moving forward with his plan to order a hit on Tara, it was confirmed within the first few minutes of tonight’s episode. I found it a little strange that Clay demanded Tara’s death to be handled cleanly, however, because if he was planning on blaming it on the cartel, isn’t that the complete opposite of what they would do? Regardless, it didn’t take long for Gemma to realize that Clay was up to no good when she discovered that the money was missing, but I don’t think she knew what he had done just yet.

The look on Clay’s face upon learning that Jax and the kids were joining Tara on her trip up to Oregon was priceless, and although he tried to call it off, Romeo said that it wasn’t possible. What he doesn’t know is that Romeo could have easily canceled the hit if he wanted to, but now that he knows that Tara is a potential liability, he’s going to do whatever it takes to protect the cartel – even if that means killing her himself. Of course, as soon as Romeo does come after Tara, that’s surely going to spell the end of the cartel’s relationship with SAMCRO, which is exactly what the club wants anyways.

Still, for as much as that guy was paid to kill Tara, you’d think that he would be a little better at his job. Though he successfully got her into the van, Jax was able to shoot out the tires, prompting Tara to try and escape only to have her hand crushed by the door. As soon as that happened, I immediately knew where the story was headed. With Tara’s career as a surgeon pretty much finished (save for some miracle recovery), Jax will be forced to stay in the club in order to support her and the family. The fact that I didn’t even consider that possibility before is a little embarrassing, but I have to applaud Sutter for doing what was necessary without making it feel like a jumping the shark moment. The emotional ramifications are going to be huge, because I can’t really see how Jax and Tara will able to be continue their relationship when she already resents him for what happened.

There may be a dearth of strong female characters on television, but “Sons of Anarchy” has two incredible ones in Tara and Gemma. The latter really showed her fortitude tonight when, after confronting Clay about breaking his promise to stay away from Tara, she pulled a gun on him and threatened to tell Jax everything. But while Gemma certainly got a few good punches in after he attacked her, Clay did most of the damage, beating her up so badly that she looked even worse than she did after the rape in Season Two. I honestly don’t see how Clay is going to make it out of this season alive, and now that Gemma has finally admitted he’s beyond saving, she’s ready to let him go. Unser would prefer he’s delivered justice by the law, but Gemma believes he has to die, and only at the hands of a Son. But who will it be? Jax, Opie or someone else?

I should have known that Juice’s failed suicide attempt was going to have much bigger repercussions once someone in the club found out, and sure enough, it’s become almost as much of a problem as the race issue that got him into this whole mess. After Jax learns where Juice’s neck bruises really came from, he reminds Chibs that “Sons don’t kill themselves,” and as a result, Juice would likely be voted out of the club since they can longer trust him. But Chibs seems to believe that Juice is worth saving and asks Jax for a little more time to see if he can't help him get out of this emotional rut.

What neither of them realizes, however, is that Juice isn’t depressed – he’s just nursing a guilty conscience, which he hopes to remedy by getting out of the spy game with Roosevelt. But Lincoln believes that he can still be useful, so he brings Juice into the secret RICO room to show him just how deep his investigation goes. Though he claims that he’s only after the Real IRA and promises that SAMCRO won’t be dragged into a federal case (thereby saving the club and all of its charters from certain extinction), he can’t guarantee that some of its members won’t be punished for their involvement. All Lincoln wants in return is the details of the upcoming meet between the IRA and the cartel, but Juice probably couldn’t get that information even if he wanted. In fact, if he’s so adamant about helping the club, his best bet would be to just call Lincoln's bluff, because it's pretty obvious the investigation hinges on whether or not he cooperates.

SAMCRO could sure use the old Juice on their side, especially with increasing pressure from Lobos Sonora, who they discover have been working with the Niners to expand their coke business into the States. Though it’s hard to blame the Niners for cutting a deal with the Lobos while the Sons were still in prison, Jax convinces their President that’s in his best interest to stay out of the middle of a cartel beef and join them and the Mayans in working for Galindo. Part of that deal means luring the Lobos into a trap so that Torres can take care of them once and for all, but when the surprise attack goes south and a few manage to escape thanks to some handy grenade launchers, Jax persuades Torres not to take out his anger on the Niners by ensuring him that they’ll be more useful alive than dead. All in all a pretty worthless subplot in the grand scheme of things, although it did provide Torres the chance to give Clay a cell phone that would solve his “doctor problem.” And just to emphasize the gravity of the decision, he tells him that once the assassination is set in motion, it can’t be stopped.

Clay just wants to make sure it doesn’t blow back on him or the club, because after killing Piney the night before, he must be starting to worry about what might happen to him if anyone finds out. (Which begs the question, why didn’t he just have the cartel kill Piney to make it look more legit?) Thankfully, he has Gemma on his side, who will do just about anything to protect her husband – even if it means planting a suspiciously seductive kiss on Unser’s lips. Though Unser initially wanted to call the murder in to the cops after he realized that Clay had officially lost control and was beyond saving, he suddenly changed his mind after that kiss, which admittedly made him look pretty weak.

In defense of Gemma, she’s doing her best to clean up Clay’s mess. You can tell from her reaction upon discovering Piney’s body that she never expected it would come to this, and she wants to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to Tara, who Gemma believes is no longer a threat after admitting she would never show JT’s letters to Jax at the risk of how it would affect him. But while Gemma makes Clay promise to her that he won’t hurt Tara, he’s already proven to be cold-hearted and an adept liar, and I wasn’t very surprised when he opened the cell phone in the final scene and dialed the contract killer’s number. Fortunately, Jax has decided to drive Tara up to Oregon for the hospital conference, so at least he’ll be there to protect her. I just can't wait to see Clay's face when he finds out that Jax is with Tara and he can't cancel the hit. What will he do then?

Other thoughts from the episode:

* The whole scene between Lincoln and Otto seemed pretty redundant. I mean, didn’t he try to turn him against the club already? Okay, so Georgie Caruso might have an alibi that places him in Thailand during the time of Luanne’s murder, but that doesn’t exactly exonerate him of her death. He could have easily hired someone else to kill her. Plus, what exactly could Otto give Lincoln on SAMCRO that would be of any substance?

* If Tara doesn’t plan on telling Jax about the letters or the truth behind JT’s death, then why is she being so damn secretive? She could have easily prevented Piney’s murder if she had just given them to Gemma in the first place. How much do you want to bet that Jax discovers the letters on his own?

* The discussion between Bobby and Jax was perhaps one of the most telling moments of the season thus far. Though Jax claims that he wants out of the club, Bobby is adamant that the President’s chair is not only his birthright, but his fate. And from the way that he handled the situation with Torres and the Niners, it’s hard to argue that he’s not the best man for the job.

I really wanted to begin this week’s post with a big “I told you so,” but based on the comments from last week’s recap, it appears I wasn’t the only one who believed that Juice was still alive after attempting to commit suicide. He even seemed ready to give it another shot right away until he was interrupted by Chibs and Tig, who were sent out to round him up for the impending vote. Of course, that didn’t stop Juice from going back later the next night to try again, but this time around, Chibs followed him out there, and he wasn’t happy with what he found. Juice clearly has a death wish, but if he’s willing to kill himself, then why not just take his chances with the club? Sure, their methods are more brutal, but there’s always the possibility that he’ll be forgiven as well.

It’s definitely one less distraction the club could do with at the moment, especially after the vote for the president challenge was delayed following the attack by Lobos Sonora, who shot up the clubhouse and delivered a bag filled with the heads of members from both SAMCRO and the Mayans, including Tucson president Armando. Dirty Phil was able to shoot one of them before they got away, but he wasn’t a very cooperative hostage – at least, not until Galindo’s right-hand man gave him a dose of truth serum and he fingered one of the Mayans as a spy feeding the cartel information. But while Alvarez wanted the traitor killed on the spot, Jax suggested that they use him to set a trap for the Lobos at the warehouse instead. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned, with the Lobos managing to stay one step ahead by taunting them with a truck containing the bodies of the headless victims in the back. Could there be another rat in the group?

Who knows? But with the lives of the Sons and their families now officially in danger (and Roosevelt sniffing around the clubhouse), the last thing that Clay should be worrying about is the looming threat of John Teller’s letters. Though Piney tells him that the recent string of attacks is a great excuse to pull the plug on their new business venture, Clay refuses to believe that Romeo will let them just walk away. But if Clay doesn’t think that they can free themselves of the cartel now, then how does he plan on ever getting out? Or does that become someone else’s problem after he steps down?

I’m actually a little surprised that Piney didn’t say anything about JT’s death to Jax when he visited him at the cabin, because he had to have known that Clay was never going to follow through with their deal. He was thisclose to telling Jax, and for some reason, I had this bad feeling that it would be his last chance, because he seemed so vulnerable to a Lobos Sonora attack up there in the woods all alone. Instead, it was Clay who took advantage, shooting him dead in the chest after Piney refused to give him the letters and painting a bloody “LS” on a picture of the club to make it look like the cartel was responsible. It’s not going to take long for someone to figure out that the murder doesn’t follow their MO, however, and I can think of a few people who would have reason to believe that Clay was behind it. And now that Piney’s dead, this could have major ramifications on the outcome of the president vote.

Other thoughts from the episode:

* Clay might have been able to take care of Piney, but Tara is going to be a lot harder to silence if she decides to skip town, which is looking more and more likely after Jax gave her his blessing to accept that job opportunity. Of course, she may feel obligated to stay in Charming if she suspects foul play with Piney’s death, especially now that she has Roosevelt’s protection.

* Chucky has always been a pretty offbeat character, but tonight’s episode was one of the weirdest and most darkly comical subplots involving him yet. You have to respect his quick thinking when it came to hiding the decapitated head in the chili pot, but actually feeding it to a few of Roosevelt’s men reached new heights of disturbing. And to think, I was actually looking forward to winter for the sole reason of eating some chili.

This season continues to get crazier and crazier with each episode, and I’m loving every minute of it. Though the past three seasons have all been great for a number of reasons, this year has done an especially good job of making every storyline – including the ones involving the supporting players – feel equally important and engaging. And you needn’t look any further than what the show has been doing with the character of Juice for proof of that. I may have voiced my displeasure about the way that they’ve handled his subplot in previous posts, but I’m still really enjoying what Theo Rossi has been doing with the material. He’s really stepped it up this season, and tonight’s episode made me realize just how much I’d miss him if he was gone. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s talk about the rest of the episode first.

I have to admit that I was a little surprised how Gemma handled the discovery of the death threat left in Tara’s car, because I thought for sure that she would either rip it up or take it directly to Clay demanding an explanation. Instead, she doesn’t even seem to consider that it might have anything to do with Clay, and instead shows it to Tara, who characteristically freaks out. Of course, when Clay hears about the death, he knows immediately that Unser is responsible and warns him to stay out of his way. But now that Unser knows that he was used by Clay in order to cover up John Teller’s death, I think that he’s willing to accept the consequences of the truth coming out if it means that an innocent life will be saved in the process. Granted, I’m not really sure how informing Tara’s supervisor Margaret is going to help protect her, but maybe Margaret will be able to transfer her to another hospital for a while until all this blows over.

And at the rate things are going, it could be sooner than later, especially now that SAMCRO knows that the Galindo cartel’s main competitors are targeting their associates – namely, the Mayans and the Sons – in an attempt to force Romeo and his crew out of California. Bobby has been trying to tell Clay that getting into bed with the cartel was trouble from the start, and he’s so disgusted with how everything has turned out that he’s decided to challenge him for the presidency. That’s a pretty bold move on Bobby’s part, but while it might seem like an easy win for Clay considering he got the majority vote over the last decision involving the cartel, now that the club has seen just how much danger they’re in after only a few weeks on the job, there’s a pretty good chance that at least one person will jump ship.

Of course, Juice might not even be around to cast his vote if Lincoln has anything to do about it. After Roosevelt informs him that Juice won’t turn over the coke sample until he meets the guy pulling the strings behind the operation, Lincoln orders Roosevelt to set up a fake meeting and bust him for possession instead. Though Roosevelt refuses to play dirty in order to get Juice’s cooperation (a statement even Lincoln finds ironic since he was more than willing to destroy the Sons’ clubhouse with a fire axe), he’s eventually coerced into going along with Lincoln’s plan. But for as much of a pain that Roosevelt has been to SAMCRO since his arrival, you could tell that he felt really bad about the situation that he was putting Juice in. After all, if Juice doesn’t cooperate, he’ll be thrown into prison and likely killed. And if he does cooperate but SAMCRO finds out, he’ll be killed well. Either way, he’s a dead man walking, and Juice’s expression as he left the police station implied that he knew as much.

I’m actually quite shocked that Chibs isn’t more suspicious of Juice after the way he’s been acting lately, but you’ve got to love that he’s at least looking out for the guy when no one else seems to notice that something is wrong. I’m sure that Juice would have rather Chibs didn’t go to Clay to voice his concerns about him, however, because after that very fatherly speech by Clay about how proud he was of him, it only made Juice’s guilt that much worse. My stomach was positively tied in knots during that final sequence as he sewed on the Men of Mayhem patch and then hung himself from the tree, but I’m confident that he’s not actually dead. In fact, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear what sounds like a tree branch breaking just before the episode cuts to black, so make of that what you will. Regardless of the outcome, you can bet that it’s going to make Roosevelt think long and hard about what he’s done to push Juice in that direction.

At the end of last week’s cliffhanger, it didn’t seem possible that Juice would be able to keep himself out of the crosshairs for much longer, but amazingly, he’s done just that, albeit at the cost of one of his biker brothers. Though the Sons and Mayans were quick to start blaming each other for the missing brick, the club came to the conclusion that the only people dumb enough to try stealing from them were the prospects. And after pretending to torture Miles in a failed attempt to scare Dirty Phil and Rat Boy into a confession (and, let’s be honest, have a little laugh in the process), they forced them to play a game of Russian roulette in order to prove their commitment. Anyone watching had to know that there wasn’t actually a bullet in the gun, and that was part of the problem, because although they both passed the test, it didn’t get the club any closer to finding out who took the cocaine.

With time running out until Romeo’s arrival, Clay decides that he has no other choice but to condemn the pair to death and try and save face with the cartel. But Juice, who doesn’t exactly want their blood on his conscience, suggests that they give the prospects one last chance to return the brick with no questions asked. If it shows up, they’ll be kicked out of the club, but at least they’ll still be alive. That gives Juice just enough time to run out into the woods, grab a sample for Roosevelt, and take the brick back to the warehouse… or so he thinks. Instead, he runs into Miles, who quickly puts two and two together and realizes that Juice is the thief. The ensuing chaos led to one of the series’ biggest “holy shit” moments yet, with Juice getting a hold of Miles’ gun and shooting him clean through the face. And now that everyone thinks Miles was the one responsible, Juice has been given yet another lifeline.

But how much longer can this realistically go on? Though the club was a little surprised that it was Miles who stole the cocaine, they don’t seem to be putting too much thought into why he might have done it. Chibs, on the other hand, is the only one who’s even remotely suspicious of the whole situation, especially after the way Juice was acting around him all day. Their conversation about the prohibition of color in SAMCRO must have come across as pretty random to Chibs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he started sniffing around Juice’s personal life. Those two appear to have a stronger friendship with each other than most guys in the club, so Chibs will undoubtedly want to do everything he can to get Juice out of trouble before the rest of SAMCRO finds out. The whole thing still feels a bit contrived to me, and even more so after Chibs admitted that many of the club’s rules were pretty outdated. After all, if one of its own members doesn't even agree with certain by-laws, then surely there's room for some change.

Nothing else really happened tonight story-wise that was so major it deserves a full breakdown, but there are still plenty of things worth discussing, so as usual, here are some other thoughts from the episode:

* One of the show’s biggest strengths has always been its ability to slip in some humor when you least expect it, and there was a great example of that tonight when, after Happy fired a few more rounds into Miles’ dead body seemingly just for kicks, Chibs deadpanned, “Did you get him?”

* The whole subplot involving Tig and his duplicitous daughter may have seemed kind of lame when compared to some of the other stories this season, but it was a nice piece of character development that allowed the writers to show the usually tough-as-nails enforcer in a completely different light. Some people were probably thinking, “Why did he give her the money if he knew she was lying?,” but that’s what made it so great. He did it because he’s her father, and that’s what fathers do. And that knowing laugh between Gemma and Bobby just about said as much.

* The honeymoon period between Opie and Lyla sure didn’t last long, but is anyone really surprised? They weren’t exactly the ideal couple, and now that Opie knows about Lyla getting the abortion, it’s hard to imagine they’ll be together for much longer. At least Jax made sure that Ima won’t be ruining any more relationships in the future. That was a great bait-and-switch move on his part, and she deserved every bit.

* I can’t believe that Clay is actually going to go through with putting a hit on Tara, and using the cartel to get it done no less. Thankfully, it looks like she’s got a guardian angel in Unser, who has not only tipped off Roosevelt that she could be in danger, but has taken the extreme action of leaving a fake death threat in her car as a scare tactic. I doubt that Sutter would actually go through with killing Tara (or would he?), but it’s certainly going to make for some interesting tension between Clay and Unser.