Sons of Anarchy, Season 5, Episode Two: “Authority Vested” Spoilers, Theories and Discussion

 

I find it kind of odd that SAMCRO isn’t in the prostitution business given their past connection to porn through Luann, and the fact that Sonny Barger plays a character called Lenny the Pimp. That aside, I am enjoying the on-screen chemistry between Jax and Nero. Jimmy Smits is playing the former gangbanging hustler beautifully squirrelly. Every tic and sideways glance separates Nero from Jimmy Smits the heartthrob and former television cop, prosecutor, you name it. It seems the online speculation from last week about the peg leg was accurate and that the three newest members of the Sons Redwood Charter are behind the rash of home invasions and beatings affecting Charming residents connected to SAMCRO. What is driving me absolutely batshit is that no one who ‘recapped’ the show seems to have taken the time to note who actually was attacked besides Unser.

Since we now know that nobody expected Unser to be at Clay’s house, he just got on the wrong side of a robbery, a robbery that appears to have been targeting family documents. At the end of the episode we see Frankie Diamonds holding the birth certificate for Thomas Wayne Teller, Jax’s younger brother who died of the congenital heart defect, and the marriage certificate between Gemma and Clay. It seems one of the mechanics at Teller-Morrow’s garage was attacked, and I’m wondering if that mechanic was the same one whose father was murdered by Clay & Tig back in the 1990s, the murder that Piney hinted had something to do ultimately with the coverup of John Teller’s death.

It would seem that the Nomads are looking into John Teller’s death for whatever reason. They certainly blew in from nowhere, and being Nomads would have had to have left their previous charters at some point for some reason. I wasn’t a huge fan of Opie’s solution to “Staying Close” since he blatantly assaulted two officers. While the Sons might get the bullshit witnesses to go away, recant or disappear, I don’t see how Opie would skate on those charges. Who is going to protect Ope when the other Samcro Members make bail?

For the second week in a row, I cannot stand Harold Perrineau as Damon Pope. I don’t find him frightening, and I don’t see any charisma about his character. How does the Godfather of Oakland come off completely soft? Did the CIA put him into power? His #2, August Marks, seems like the real deal, but Damon Pope doesn’t come off as a Gangster trying to be Legit so much as a Legit Businessman trying to be a gangster. I don’t see any pain in him over the loss of his daughter. Nothing. But it’s not a scary nothing, it’s a ‘does this character even have a backstory’ nothing.

I can only hope that Unser’s detective work pays off as he seems to be the only one who actually recognizes the internal threat that the home invasions represent. I also wonder how far Unser’s involvement into covering up the death of John Teller goes. Old secrets always come back to bite someone’s ass on this show. Next week will probably be all about surviving inside, but I’m sure by October we’ll be back into why the Nomads are digging into the family affairs.

What did you think? Am I wrong about Perrineau as Pope?

~ by chrismcdevitt on September 17, 2012.