Sons of Anarchy was an unlikely candidate to become a series I awaited eagerly, as I mentioned in my sneak peek at this new season. The world of bad-ass bikers is about as polar opposite to my personality as you can get. But through great characterization and amazing acting, it got me.
This new season is looking to up the stakes on a personal level for the men and women of SAMCRO. The cast welcomes Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins to the series as white supremacists. Arkin is also a businessman planning to open the latest in his chain of shops in Charming.
But the Sons of Anarchy have long kept Charming free of multinational chains, saving it instead for the small businesses the town was built on. A noble gesture from a gang of crooks, and just a small morsel of their complexity. They’re also violently opposed to racism. Arkin and Rollins won’t stand for it, though, and decided to send a very powerful message to Clay and the boys.
After watching a full season of Sons of Anarchy, I’ve come to expect a certain level of violence. Hell, I’m even used to misdirected violence, as we saw tonight when Opie took out his revenge on Donna’s death against the wrong guy. That’s a whole different situation, though.
The closing moments of the episode saw A.J. (Rollins) Weston and Ethan (Arkin) Zobelle create their message through the abduction and rape of Gemma. Everyone was hooded so I can only be sure, as Gemma will learn, that A.J. was there; he had a visible tattoo she noted.
Rape is always difficult to portray on screen, as well as to watch. Even worse is when it’s a character you’ve grown to like and respect. Gemma is such a strong and powerful character, you can’t see her as helpless or a victim. It made it even worse to see her reduced in this way. They even lured her into their web by preying on one of her strongest character traits: her passion as a mother.
Katey Sagal carried the emotional turmoil through these scenes to painful perfection. The humiliation mixed with forced pacifism and seething rage boiling just under the surface scream from every slight movement of her face and glance from her eyes.
What these boys don’t realize is that they just assaulted the wrong woman. Whether it’s Gemma who comes after them herself, or Clay, or Jax or the entire motorcycle club, there’s a world of hurt coming their way and they can’t even fathom how bad it’s going to be.
I can’t figure out what Gemma’s going to do, though. Will she try and hide it and exact her revenge on her own? I would think it impossible for her to go about her life as if nothing had happened. But if she confides in Clay or Jax, their righteous retribution could destroy the club as they lose focus of everything else going on, and there’s plenty of that.
This scene was just one small part of an amazing season premiere, but it was the moment that cemented the depth of passion and emotion that would drive this season. Opie’s shattered, Jax and Piney are driven, Clay and Tig are scrambling and now Gemma’s been put through this in the first episode?
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Sep 08, 2009 @ 23:00 EST5EDT
Thanks for the review. I just watched it my self and the rape scene (as any is) was difficult to watch but then my head started spinning around the ideas of how she will get her vengeance. I hope she carries it out with extreme prejudice and to the horror, literal horror, of those that violated her. I thought they were going to beat the crap out of her but yes, they raped the wrong woman.