Gemma’s been making me sad this season. For the first three seasons of Sons of Anarchy, she’s been a strong, albeit slightly evil, lioness who has done everything in her power to protect her family. Yes, she made Tara’s life miserable, and yes, she held a gun to a baby’s head, but the point is, you did not fuck with Gemma Teller. This season, however, we’ve been seeing more and more examples of Gemma’s true place in the club and in Charming: not as a leader, but as “just another old lady.” Gemma is clearly so much more, but when you lie down with brutal misogynistic dogs, you wake up with black-eyed, loose-toothed fleas.
The thing about Gemma and her protection of her family is that she makes everyone her family. Yes, there’s Clay and Jax, but she also considers the club to be her family, as well as most of Charming. The problem is, when everyone’s your family, no one is.
Gemma’s family has had competing interests before, and she’s pretty solidly come down on Clay’s side. It started 20 years ago with the murder of her husband, and continued last season when she told Jax she couldn’t protect him from the club if he was working with Stahl. She was still protecting Clay and taking his side a few episodes ago when he brutally murdered Piney, another member of her “family.” It looked like there would be no end to Gemma’s loyalty and that it would ultimately destroy everything important to her. But then, this week, Gemma made a decision.
Gemma has taken her knocks from Clay before, but let’s be honest: she can take it. Plus, it’s clear that Clay’s been on the receiving end of some blows as well. This was different though. It was about more than just Clay beating the shit out of her – Gemma’s certainly dealt with worse – it was about Gemma finally realizing that she’s not safe. Clay is a wounded animal; he can’t be saved, and not even she is safe from him.
Katey Sagal was amazing in this episode. This season has been chock full of incredible performances (didn’t the Tara and Jax hospital scene just break your heart?) and this is just another one that gave me chills. The final scene, when Gemma was talking to Unser was amazing not only because it’s a total game-changer plot-wise, but because you could see a physical shift in Gemma. She stared at Unser with shark eyes and you knew that she had made her decision. Clay is going to die, and Jax is going to be the one to do it. In a show full of ever-shifting loyalties, Gemma seemed to be the one constant, but this is a whole new ballgame. Clay doesn’t stand a chance.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Nov 08, 2011 @ 23:01 EST5EDT
So, let’s follow Clay’s line of thinking here:
“I let you manipulate me in to killing your husband, so I’m not only going to remind you of that, I’m going to beat you down and make you angry. There’s no way you’ll find another person close enough to you, who also could have secondary reasons to kill ME.” Idjit.