There’s been a lot of debate recently over the validity of Father Ashby’s conduct regarding baby Abel, but if he truly is planning on using the kidnapping as a way to get rid of Jimmy O, then the pieces are starting to fall into place. Maureen’s phone call to Gemma has already stirred the pot, and although Jimmy’s right-hand man, Luke, ensures the club that Abel isn’t in Belfast, Jax promises him that if he’s lying, he’s going to personally track down Jimmy and beat the truth out of him. And if I were Jimmy, I’d probably start looking for a good place to hide, because it isn’t long because Jax hears back from Maureen confirming that Abel is in Belfast.
On a side note, I’m really curious to learn more about Maureen in these coming weeks. Though she has obvious ties to the IRA due to her brother’s involvement, her loyalties seem to lie more with SAMCRO – not only because she’s married to the Belfast chapter president (McGee, who might just have the coolest beard on TV), but also because she seems to have a secret history with John Teller. When Jax first brought up Maureen’s name at the hospital, Gemma and Clay shared this telling look of concern. And then, after he had left the room, Gemma declared her apprehensions about Jax going to Belfast because “stones [would] get unturned.” Or in other words, Jax would learn something that Gemma doesn’t want him to know.
Unfortunately, Gemma can’t do much to stop him as she’s currently stuck in the hospital recovering – not from a heart attack, but her arrhythmia. Plus, she’s under the custody of the Feds after she agreed to turn herself in to Agent Stahl in exchange for a deal that would remove the death sentence from the table and give her weekly visits. But when Stahl informs her that the deal has been denied due to some silly technicality, Gemma’s future seems even more uncertain than everyone thought. And to make matters worse, she blames Tara for Abel’s kidnapping, claiming that she didn’t do enough to save him because he wasn’t her child. It’s a pretty cruel thing to say to anyone, and I don’t think she would have said it were it not meant to transition into one of the night’s big reveals: Tara is six weeks pregnant, and she’s keeping it a secret from everyone, including Jax. How Gemma knew is beyond me, but I guess we can chalk it up to mother’s intuition.
Gemma may know about Tara’s pregnancy, but she has no idea what Jax is about to do to save her from going to prison. And if anyone at the club finds out, they’re not going to be too happy about it, either. This isn’t the first time that Jax has considered turning rat in order to save the club, but now that the deck is so stacked against him and his family, he really has no other choice. It’s a pretty good deal too: Jax gives Stahl the bust of a lifetime by informing on major players in the IRA, and Gemma gets her name cleared and SAMCRO is given a reduced sentence on the assault charges. And as a sign of good faith, Jax has even delivered Luke and a van full of illegal guns on a silver platter to prove that he’s serious. It’s the kind of game changer that not only affects this season, but will have long-term ramifications on the series as a whole, and I just hope it doesn’t prove to be too much of an obstacle for the writers, because it’s risky storytelling like this that makes “SOA” one of the best shows on television.
