Sons of Anarchy - "Dorylus"

Season 4, Episode 3

What is this, a procedural?

“The older we get, the farther we get from who we think we are.”

-Unser

I fear that there’s really not much I have to say about tonight’s episode of Sons of Anarchy, although the fact that there’s really not much to talk about is probably something that is its self worth talking about.

If I had to pick a description for how tonight’s episode played out, it would have be “disappointingly similar to the formula to most network procedurals”. This isn’t to imply that this episode was as bad as those show could be – it was still leagues ahead – but that there’s something wrong in the way in which it’s telling its stories. What made season two so much better than season one is that the entire thing felt cumulative; all of the stories fed into one another, and the finale, as well as many part before, only really paid off if you knew how they got there. Yet season four is moving into a more sectioned-off, choppy kind of storytelling.

Tonight, for example,  there was a very clear divide between the short-term – the guns getting stolen and Jax having to get them back – and the long term – the club still divided on the vote as to whether or not they should run drugs . The former wasn’t very interesting, mostly because it was predictable – you knew Kozik playing ball with those guys wasn’t a good idea, you knew that they were going to have to get the guns back, etc. – but also because it represents how Sutter seems to be laying out at least part of the season-long narrative. While there’s something to be said for breaking a show down so that the characters get to accomplish a goal by the end of each episode (it worked great for Lights Out), but when the episode break down into stop gap measures, way to pad out the story, then it just becomes frustrating.

The power play stuff may have been frustrating for the same reason (it did seem to take way too long to get to that vote), but at least it was more interesting. I have to give credit where it’s due, and the show has been going full-tilt into this whole “danger from within the club” angle, with several different factions, sub-factions, and unsteady alliances, each with differing levels of knowledge about the big picture. So while I’m not happy that the show put off something that it could have easily gotten done with earlier in the episode, I respect it for giving me a clearer picture of this very intricate web.

There was some more movement on the Roosevelt/Potter side of things, but not nearly enough to make me happy. I’m still waiting for them to flush Potter out some more, to give us a good look at who he is and what his game plan is, but tonight we just had to settle for an excellent scene between Juice and Roosevelt. It turns out that Juice (who finally cut his hair, thank goodness) is part black, something that would put him on the outs with the club. (Because of the One-Niner connection, or because they’re actually racist? The show doesn’t say.) I like how this played into his decision to not support the drug running, and I hope the show can develop this some more.

Oh, and Gemma finally confronted Tara about the letters, and was able to guilt her into hiding them from Jax. Well, that was a disappointment.

What I have to ask now is what’s Sutter’s game plan, exactly? I know we’re working towards Jax leaving (or attempting to) at some point, and eventually Potter/Roosevelt will take more drastic action against the Sons, and I’m hoping that Tara will eventually show Jax the letters, and that Piney will take more decisive actions against Clay, and so many other things will happen as well. But right now the show is slowing things down for reasons I don’t fully comprehend, and frankly it’s making everything a little boring.

Sons, I officially give you the green-light to just start tearing into plot. Hell, at least season three always felt like it was going somewhere.

Other Thoughts:

Apparently "dorylus" is the type of ant that we saw feeding on that one guy Charlie Horse had stuck out in the middle of the desert. There's some obvious symbolism there, I just wished it could be coupled with a more interesting episode.