There’s something to be said for how dark, how loud, and how unsettling “Red Rose” attempts to be… however, there’s also a lot more to be said about how Sons of Anarchy can build to an episode like “Rose Red” for years, then deliver an eighty minutes so hollow, so devoid of creativity, that three major character deaths all feel like whimpers in the darkness, by-products of a narrative stretched out so thinly, the show spends a quarter of its penultimate episodes around tables, setting up a deal that from the beginning, will clearly never happen.
First and foremost, “Red Rose” is supposed to be an episode about karma, about reaping what you sow and coming to terms with it. However, “Red Rose” might as well just be called “Suicide Mission”: every character alive or dead, makes some kind of stupid decision to put their lives in jeopardy – or in the case of Juice, Unser, Gemma, and Jax, basically pulling the trigger themselves with their dumb actions. I suppose I expect these kinds of stupid decisions when it comes to Juice (who delays his own murder so he can be gang raped again?) – but the way the show handles arguably the biggest scene of the series is laughably bad, killing off Unser without a second thought, and turning both Jax and Gemma into quiet, contemplative psychopaths for a few minutes. I mean, Gemma was Wayne’s best friend and Jax’s quasi-mentor, and he blows him away without a second thought, after Wayne basically pleads with him to put a bullet in his chest.
Once Unser was dead, it really felt like Sons of Anarchy was over. Things clearly are going sideways with the IRA (all of a sudden Connor’s a traitor! Who cares!), and Jax’s plan of peace (which includes lying to everyone about Lin’s murder… because that works so well all the time!) isn’t going to work, either on the streets or in the upcoming Mayhem vote, which will presumably end with Jax’s death. Is there any other way this series can go? By this point, Jax has murdered so many people with reckless abandon, watching him kill Unser and Gemma in a matter of minutes doesn’t really have much impact anymore. We know he’s a bad human being, we know he’s never going to be a father to his children… with his actions in “Red Rose”, Jax fully embraces the ‘thug’ life Unser warned him about, which he’s clearly doing with the knowledge that his death is imminent – why else would they be so secretive during the meeting of the presidents, cutting away at obvious points to hide info from the finale (for what it’s worth, Jax’s promise is probably to let minorities into SAMCRO. How noble of him).
But I digress… when Jax kills Unser, then gets coached into killing his mother, Sons of Anarchy reveals itself to be a show empty at its center, a show that spent seven years building to nothing but misery. Did we need a ‘happy’ ending? Absolutely not, but the way the last few seasons have played out, they’ve turned every character into a hollow parody of themselves – none more than Jax, who has become an unhinged serial killer by the end of this episode, something he’s calm and willing to accept as his fate. All the work every script in the last seven years has done to justify Jax’s reign of blood only makes the impact of these Big, Important Moments all the more hollow: at this point, who don’t we expect Jax to kill?
And that’s really all it seems Sons of Anarchy is about: there’s no story of identity, or son struggling with his father’s legacy… just a man heading to suicide just like his father did (hence why he asked for the manuscript… maybe to read one more time, maybe to give to Abel… who cares really?), a victim of his own violent immaturity. Seriously: “Red Rose” asks us to take his execution of Gemma as a noble moment for Jax, who can’t even shoot the gun the first time he points it at his mother’s head. He tears up, and then after his mother tells him it’s ok and “it’s what we do”, it’s no longer an issue. In fact, it seems to have the opposite effect on him one would expect: after killing his mother, he goes home and gets all naked with Wendy, who apparently is no longer a lesbian and not as done with SAMCRO’s crap as she’s said she is for the last four seasons or so. She has a chance to get out and save her kid (and Tara’s son) – instead, the show allows Jax to be comforted for the horrible, unthinkably disgusting acts he’s just committed not an hour before. And of course, since its Sons, Jax is more than ready for Butt Cam: as is always the case on this show, the debate between character vs. Coolness ends in a decision for the latter, using their intercourse as a backdrop for school-grade bits of cinematography: panning shots over bloodied white flowers, Unser’s dead body (STILL nobody cares about the old man, who held cancer at bay to be killed over a murder he didn’t committ), and Juice’s battered, tattooed corpse, a collection of images that sums up both how indulgent and short-sighted Sons of Anarchy has always been (not to mention it single-handedly undermines everything they’ve done with Wendy’s character this season, the lone bright spot of the final batch of episodes).
And with Gemma and Unser dead, there isn’t a whole lot of story left except some gangland nonsense, Nero’s retirement (which I still doubt ever happens), and whatever happens to Jax in the final three minutes. Outside of that, everything’s been rendered extra noise: all we’ve got left is to watch everything completely collapse in the space of two hours (or knowing its the last SoA, probably more like three and a half), something Sons has never shown it can handle very well. Jax has his secret plan (of suicide), and they’ll be some gun shots and man hugs. After sitting through the length chore that is “Red Rose”, however, it’s clear that Sons is going through the motions, written into such a corner that there’s no such thing as surprises or cathartic moments: just death, misery, and suffering, all handled with the aplomb and care of Michael Chiklis’s Mack truck (ok, that was a cool cameo) running over a family of homicidal rabbits.
Photo via FX
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