Sons of Anarchy "Poor Little Lambs" Review: What Goes Around Comes Around

Sons of Anarchy S07E04: "Poor Little Lambs"

As we prepare to draw a chalk outline around Sons of Anarchy, longtime fans of the series are bound to have all sorts of feelings about how things are ending. Well we have feelings, too, two of them in fact, and we'll let 'em be known in another conversational review. Let's see if Kaitlin will contain her excitement about Juice's butt from "Poor Little Lambs."

Tim: I'll be more than happy with this final season of Sons of Anarchy if it continues at this pace of senselessly murdering the minor characters of Charming before moving on to the bigguns. I really respect what looks to be Kurt Sutter's choice of having no remorse and leveling his own show as he walks it into the grave. He's like a mad dictator frantically pressing the big, red "Nuke" button as the coup approaches the door. It doesn't make for great dramatic television, but this has turned into a must-see television event just to see how far he takes it, and let's face it, it's fun as all heck. It is ludicrous, it is insane, and it's exactly how Sons of Anarchy should go out. And "Poor Little Lambs" had the biggest body count of any episode so far (bye-bye, whores!). Though that didn't translate to the best episode of the final season so far, it's a relief to me that Sutter is showing no signs of hitting the brakes, and according to his not-so-cryptic tweets, the bloodbath will continue. Kailtin, am I a bad person for wanting to see everyone die?

Kaitlin: You're a bad person, but not because you want everyone to die. You're a bad person because you didn't break out the balloons and kazoos to celebrate that Kim Dickens' Colette was among the ladies who were gunned down by the Chinese! I never took to her character last season, nor did I care about her in any way, shape or form, and I'm pretty sure you were supposed to care at least a little bit when Jax looked over and saw her lifeless body lying on the floor beside so many nameless characters. But I suppose if we were really supposed to care, Sutter would have left Lyla in charge of Diosa instead of promoting her to porn producer. But I digress, because the hit on Diosa means two things to me. One, it pulls Nero into the fray in a big way. He's been tagging along and following Jax's orders—probably because he loves Gemma in a big way that I'll never understand—but now his business has taken a hit and it's finally personal. This wasn't a hit on Nero, this was a hit on the Club and that is the very definition of blowback. Jax wasn't thinking, and I've been saying this for last few weeks: this was bound to happen. And I hope that it means Nero is finally going to punch Jax in the face. Secondly, it means that someone ratted the Club out to Lin, but who was it?

Tim: Whoever ratted the club out probably knew the club was duping Lin, and knew the guns were in storage in Stockton, right? I think that means it was probably RoboCop, aka Charles Baroski, which is a big time backstab from a character who had trouble written all over his firehead. That's my guess, even though it goes away from Charles' racist ways (race traitor!) since he'd obviously be in cahoots with Lin and possibly the Mayans. What makes me happy is that all this means the other gangs are no longer sitting around idly, and that they're holding their own private meetings. I was getting a little worried there that SAMCRO was the only gang pulling strings and everyone else was sitting around like DUH DUH DUH.

Kaitlin: You're telling me. I was getting worried that everyone on this show was completely out of touch and stupid, which would have made for a fairly boring story arc in the show's final season. Jax was so able to make so many easy moves last week that I honestly questioned if the writers thought we wouldn't notice. Knowing that they're not all just sitting around watching America's Next Top Model reruns makes me feel a little bit better about the state of things this week. Of course, it also makes things a bit more complex now, too. And speaking of complex, how about the fact those preachers they murdered in the premiere after a case of mistaken identity coming back around? I thought we'd seen the last of that storyline, but of COURSE it's somehow tied in to Marks.

Tim: What a coinky dink, right? With the final episode in sight, it appears the writers are much more interested in WHAT happens than HOW it happens, because the sloppy coincidences are everywhere. Sure, SAMCRO can say, "What a small world!" when an unrelated murder they committed ends up being very related, but we all know it was way too convenient. And hey, those two Charming officers just happened to see Jax and Chibs riding down the street and then followed them to a field where a big heroin deal was going down, forcing the white trash dealers to try to kill them both (successful with one, but another not so much)? And the fact that an all-out gang war is happening because Gemma lied about who killed Tara? Again, I like that huge things are happening and barreling towards the series finale, but I laugh at how they're happening. Thankfully I'm willing to let the outrageous circumstances slide and enjoy the carnage. One thing I'm not willing to let slide is the only human story going on, and that's Juice. His speech about being so lonely! Ugh, that punched me in the emotions!

Kaitlin: Wait, are you telling me that I'm not the only one on Team Juice now? Has his pain finally gotten to you, too? Because Juice is the only thing that's keeping this show grounded right now in the midst of all this chaos. Theo Rossi is once again delivering some great work here (and I don't just mean that butt shot, although HEY-O) and it frustrates me knowing that come awards season he'll get no recognition because Sons of Anarchy continually goes unnoticed by the hoity-toity Emmy voters. But hey, Theo? I noticed. And I think you're doing some great work, so keep it up.

Now that the APB is out, things are getting real serious, real fast. Cops everywhere are going to be looking for Juice now, not just the ones in Charming, and Gemma is personally driving him up to her father's house, which doesn't feel far enough away. Of course, I don't really expect them to make it there, not when both Gemma and Juice are packing heat. And to Gemma's credit, she at least looked a little conflicted about packing her gun, but if she pops Juice, it means the only other person who knows the truth about Tara is dead, so feelings aside, she's looking at this as a win/win situation. Juice? Well, I'd love it if he took Gemma out for me, but I don't really see that happening either.

Tim: "Poor Little Lambs" was a solid set up episode that threw in the first bit of payback for SAMCRO that we all knew was coming. Everyone is scrambling now, and with one of the Charming cops dead, it isn't just the gangs in a panic. Sheriff Althea Jarry said it best: "Charming. Our name says it all. This is a bad place, isn't it?" Indeed. Welcome to Charming, Sheriff.

SKIDMARKS

– FINALLY Tig and Venus kissed. What we would have given to see what happened after the director called, "cut!" I bet Kim Coates kept kissing Walton Goggins.

– But before that, Tig took some buckshot to the gut! We're praying for you, Tig.

– Jax to Gemma: "If I had a mommy fetish I'd be hooking up with some psycho dominatrix." And yeah, he was right about Gemma creeping everyone out by talking about Jax's mommy fetish. GROSS.

– Chibs and Althea holding hands in the car! This is really developing into something romantical!

– Grenade in the ice cream store! Quick throw your body over the chocolate chip cookie dough to save it!

– R.I.P. to Rane Quinn, the first SAMCRO member to die this season. How many more will follow?

– This season still has Jury's fury in its back pocket. He's like a Jack-in-the-Box waiting to spring out, and when all the gang stuff is at its most complicated, that's when Jury will pop up with his sights on Jax.