Sons of Anarchy, The Final Season **SPOILERS**

[apsham]

Character arcs that make no sense, and situations that make no sense and are accepted just because they're violent enough aren't exactly my cup of tea.

[Nerf]

Character arcs that make no sense, and situations that make no sense and are accepted just because they're violent enough aren't exactly my cup of tea.

What exactly makes no sense to you? Genuinely intrigued.

[apsham]

Fuck. I wrote a whole reply out and lost it, on my phone no less.

Long story short I was totally with this show right up until the end of season 3, and then season 4 hit and specifically the finale and I just sat there in shock over how a season's worth of build can be absolutely pissed away in the mere minutes of the cold opening.

Ever since then, it's been season after season of a faint glimmer of hope, followed up by stories that just don't really seem to matter in the end. That combined with Sutter's constant whining about how no one gets his show is maddening and why I'm glad it's being put down finally.

Sons for the last at least two or three seasons has just seemed entirely lost to me, it really could've told the story of everything it needed to with five seasons. I just feel that every time Jax or the featured club member of the week made a decision, I really didn't feel a particular motivation. I've seriously felt like, at times, someone should've turned to face the camera and said "well, there's our next for episodes taken care of".

I started watching this because I loved The Shield and I wanted something similar. It felt like it was going to be at first, and yes a lot of the main characters in that show were assholes but man, at least I knew why they were doing it and I didn't have Sutter around to write in "uhh, it's for the club".

[Draevyn]

I honestly can't think of a single thing they've done that hasn't had motivation, whether right or wrong, so I guess maybe we're seeing it from two completely different angles.

[Maxx]

Is this finale seriously 2 and a half hours long?

[punky]

Guessing there is an Anarchy Afterword after this episode? If not, fuck this is gonna be a long episode.

[Maxx]

And not even limited commercial interruption? Yeah I think I'll be downloading.

[Lint]

Not too sure how I felt about that...I mean don't get me wrong, I really liked it, but some things..

[Maxx]

Meh, ended neat and tidy. I rank it the ending behind Breaking Bad and waaay behind The Shield.

Vic Mackey claims another victim!

[EndOfAnEra]

So safe to say that the homeless woman is

the angel of death?

This was interesting to watch knowing the outcome. Realistically after the last episode, this was all that was left. It was very surreal watching a man go through his last day.

Lint, what's bothering you about it?

[Maxx]

Eh, I'll say a bit more about my neat and tidy comment. It ended with everyone who needed to get punished ending up in the dirt and that's that. To me, that doesn't apply a lot of weight, as no one is really paying for their crimes and Jax and Gemma are almost going out on their own terms. Compare it to the brilliant ending of The Shield where

You've got Vic Mackey suffers a fate worse than death, watching all of his friends either get killed, kill themselves or take the fall for all his crimes, having his family leave and getting stuck at a lifeless desk job. He ends up rotting away in a prison of his own design.

Sutter never bothered to flush that out and find a fate worse than death for people who certainly deserved it. It's all a bit too clean for my tastes. Also, really no fucking reason for Unser to have gotten killed, especially if Jax is just going to get to wrap up everything exactly the way he wants.

[EndOfAnEra]

I think that's fair. I will also say it's really stupid that the last memory I have of SOA will be

that absolute garbage CGI job in the last scene.

[Brody]

I totally called that ending weeks ago. Very predictable. Overall, it's no Dexter but it's also no Breaking Bad. I enjoyed it for what it was but I won't remember that finale forever like others. Wrapped everything up but I kinda just expected more.

[Nerf]

I totally called that ending weeks ago. Very predictable.

Overall, it's no Dexter but it's also no Breaking Bad. I enjoyed it for what it was but I won't remember that finale forever like others. Wrapped everything up but I kinda just expected more.

That was my EXACT thought. It didn't feel so much like an atypical series finale as much as it did a "goodbye" episode like Friends. I got super angry when I thought Jax was literally going to ride off into the sunset, but going out in the same way as his father was pretty much the perfect ending to the story arc that made this show so great to begin with. The last few seasons have been massively diluted and lost its focus, so it was nice to see everything come full circle, even if things didn't quite pan out how I'd have liked.

For better or worse, this show has been a great ride and I'm sad to see it go.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Social Justice Nerf

[MalaCloudy Black]

My problems with it were a lot the same as Maxx's. I also think that

It's kind of a cop-out to let Jax go out on his own terms. I think it would've carried way more weight had Chibs had to bear the brunt of killing him, but instead he's all "jk guys you're off the hook ima suicide it up instead". I don't feel like he should have been able to go out on his own terms, but part of me knew that was how it was going to end. Ah well.

Also, did anyone watch all of Anarchy Afterword? Did they ever explain who the woman was? Random Helpful Homeless Lady? The angel of death theory is plausible, but it seems like a lazy way to tie things up re: August Marks.

[punky]

Wasn't the homeless lady the woman that was killed in JT's car accident?

Initially I really disliked the series finale but after sleeping on it, it wasn't that bad but still, like was mentioned before, the fact that Jax got to go out on his terms kinda ruined it for me. Up until this last season, I probably would've been fine with it.. but all the bodies Jax left in his wake, despite all the good things he did or tried to do, made it miss the mark for me.

[apsham]

That ending could've worked a few seasons earlier, but no, after the last two seasons I needed to see Jax soot in the face. Especially for the pointless Unser death.

[Gabriel]

I enjoyed the finale, and it definitely resonated with me because of the connection I've made to the Jax character over the past seven years... however, this show started out as a show about redemption and the sins of the father. Around the time of Opie's death, it became less about that, and more about just being violent and shocking. We basically just watched seven seasons of a man trying to fix what his step-father destroyed after usurping control of it from his biological father... only to wind up becoming the same monster that Clay was, and the same monster that JT probably had turned into.

Yeah, it's poetic that they've dropped hints that maybe Gemma and Clay never killed him to begin with. The idea is there that John Teller took his own life because he was ashamed of what he and his club had become, and didn't want to see his boy grow up to be just like him. It's a great little subplot that added some weight to the finale as Jax made the very same decision... but it came too late. We went from wanting to see the redemption of Jax Teller and Samcro, to having to either just enjoy the carnage or try to defend his actions.

If the story had only lasted up to Jax taking control of the club... or if he had actually managed to fix things... or if he just didn't become a villain... the show would have been a future classic. As it stands, the period from Opie's death-onward tarnished the legacy of the show and was unnecessary, despite giving us some great moments and performances (especially Mr. Walton Goggins).

[Vendetta]

Unser was terminal. He was going to be dead in a few months anyway. You heard him. All he had left was Gemma.

I knew as soon as he shot at the cop and had left his helmet this ending was setting up. Personally this was really the only way I could see it ending otherwise it would leave the characters stuck in the same old cycle imo.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Vendetta

[apsham]

You speak as if Unser was being dealt a favor and his cancer wasn't at the writer's convience for seven seasons.

I don't see how a Jax suicide is the only way versus a Jax getting what was coming to him.