Well, the boys are back in town, but they’re not celebrating just yet. In fact, Jax barely has time to unpack before Stahl comes looking for an update on Jimmy. When she learns that he’s been given safe passage to the States in exchange for Abel, she realizes that it means Jimmy is under the protection of the Russians. Luckily, SAMCRO happens to know someone with ties to the Russians – First 9 member Lenny “The Pimp” Janowtiz, who’s currently spending his days in a maximum security prison – so Jax asks Stahl to set up a meeting between Lenny and Otto in order to get some info on Jimmy’s whereabouts. And they better hurry, because Jimmy has already made a deal with the Russians to give them a piece of the IRA gun trade while he heads on a permanent vacation to South America.
Of course, Gemma is still worried that the club is going to catch wind of Jax making deals with Stahl, although he seems pretty confident that it’s all going to work out in the end. She’s not, however, and lets Unser know about her concerns. Unser offers to look into it for her, but Gemma tells him that she would rather he just focus on finding Tara. Plus, Gemma’s never been afraid to get her hands a little dirty, and before you know it, she’s kidnapped Stahl outside the police station and threatened to tell her superiors about the fake statement that was fed to her if she doesn’t put an end to the deal she made with Jax. Yeah, like that’s going to happen.
And as if anyone needed more problems at the moment, Tara is still missing. Worse yet, the Mayans are planning to kill Salazar as retribution for ordering Alvarez’s assassination, and Jax is worried that Tara might get hurt in the attack. Clay warns Alvarez that they need to capture Salazar alive in order to prove that Jacob Hale is dirty, because if they don’t, Hale will likely be voted the new mayor of Charming and his changes will put an end to the Mayans’ heroin trade. I’m not too sure that Alvarez is even scared of Hale, but he agrees to join SAMCRO in the hunt when they come across some new info about his possible whereabouts. The search comes up empty, but they do find a pair of dead bodies – Salazar’s girlfriend and an innocent bystander. (You didn’t think they’d actually kill Tara, did you?)
Of course not. Salazar still needs her if he wants any chance of making it out of this whole ordeal alive. He’s even smart enough to take Jacob Hale hostage and calls the police demanding safe passage to Mexico for his safety. In addition, he wants to trade Tara for Jax, and Jax is all too happy to oblige, even if he knows that Salazar is only going to try and kill him when he arrives. Fortunately, Hale takes advantage of an opportunity to stab Salazar with a pen before that can happen, allowing Jax enough time to get the gun out of his hand. Salazar manages to squeeze free and makes a run for it, but Jax chases him down and promises not to let him live as long as he rats out Hale. Salazar agrees, only to find himself on the receiving end of Jax’s knife seconds later. It seemed like a stupid bit of improvisation on Jax’s part, but from the look that Clay gave Alvarez after confirmation of Salazar’s death, it must have been the plan all along.
Agent Stahl certainly wasn’t happy to hear that the chase had ended so soon, as she was likely planning on pinning her partner’s death on Salazar after shooting her point blank in the neck. Instead, she sent over a distress call on the walkie talkies claiming that three Mayan males had attacked them behind the building where Salazar was holed up. She later recanted that statement during her interview with Internal Affairs by admitting she didn’t know what gang the men belonged to, but the damage was already done. Her partner was starting to get nosy about her deal with Jax, and Stahl knew that if she killed her, she could pin Edmond Hayes’ murder on her without anyone being the wiser. All I could think while watching that scene was, “Man, she’s good.” She had the tears flowing and everything, and none of the lying or killing that she’s committed seems to bother her one bit. Is there a bigger villain on TV?
Jax definitely needs to be careful if he’s going to keep working with Stahl. For the time being, though, I think everyone is just happy that they finally have a chance to breathe. Abel and Tara are safe, Opie has asked Lyla to marry him, and even Unser seems to be back in SAMCRO’s good graces. Unfortunately, there’s still the issue of the club’s impending jail time, and with six new transfer members on the way, someone needs to be around to lead the charter. Kozik is the best option, but Tig refuses to vote him in. I can understand why he might be a little stubborn if Kozik had stolen the love of his life or something, but the fact that he’s mad about a dog? The writers better have a good explanation for this, because Kozik has too much potential to lose him over something as unbelievably silly as this.
