Sons of Anarchy – Episode 7.1 “Black Widower”

Where to start with this. Let’s do a recap. In terms of timeline, it sounds like approximately 10 days have passed since season 6’s finale. What are our characters up to?

• Gemma is happier than a pig in shit because she now serves as the sole maternal influence on Abel and Thomas. We do see a sliver of grieving and/or remorse at the end of the episode, but Gemma has a cold storage shed where her heart should be, so I’m not banking on her emotions being the result of her own actions, but rather witnessing Jax’s own pain. On the upside for her, though, Nero is back in the picture. Speaking of …
• Nero is back with all the best cardigans Charming & Stockton can offer, and appears to be in full swing with the Mayans. He displays some hesitancy with this partnership, but as far as job opportunities go, this is the most economical since Jax has axed him from Diosa.
• Wendy thinks checking herself out of rehab after 10 days is sufficient enough to conquer heroin cravings, and I’ve seen enough episodes of Intervention to know what comes next. She continues to show the worst judgment by letting Juice live in her apartment, even after he confesses the club is looking for him and will kill him when found. This makes no sense because it is really Jax’s ass Wendy needs to be kissing, not Gemma – so if she wants to get on Jax’s good side, she should spill the beans. Also, when Jax find outs – which he obviously will – Gemma will have an easy scapegoat in Wendy. Wendy is also equally horrible about keeping up the lie because she buys groceries and 1) Tells Unser she’s not taking them with her when he picks her up to stay with Gemma, and 2) leaves said groceries OUT ON THE COUNTER, MILK AND ALL when she leaves, despite Unser knowing she will not be back, and 3) ASKS UNSER TO GET HER COAT OUT OF THE CLOSET EVEN THOUGH JUICE MIGHT HAVE ITEMS IN THERE AND WHY WOULDN’T HE BECAUSE HE IS A ORGANIZATIONAL CLEAN FREAK WHO OBVIOUSLY PUTS HIS BELONGINGS IN A CLOSET.
• Unser, who is nosier than a grandma, decides to go back to Wendy’s apartment and give the closet a thorough look-through that evening because he had earlier spotted an SOA gym bag (but seriously – where can I get one of those?). Juice then pulls a gun on Unser and, in typical Juice fashion, decides to make the questionable decision to keep Unser hostage, tied up in the bathtub.
• And Jax. Based on the implied timeline, Jax spent approximately 10 days in jail, but it was just enough time to carve swastikas into other prisoners’ chests, followed by teeth-pulling for good measure. He does this because he needs to make a deal with Marilyn Manson that will benefit both him and the club. I’m hazy on the details of this arrangement, but I’m sure it will become more clear as the season progresses. Jax also arranges a meeting with the Chinese and Mayans to apologize for giving the entire gun trade to the Niners without consulting them first. In a show of goodwill, he invites Lin, Lin’s crew, and their family/friends to an SOA-hosted event. Lin is obviously hesitant to join because he believes Jax is being shady, but goes anyway. What seems like a family-friendly event, porn stars and escorts abound, is actually all part of Jax’s plan to isolate one particular individual associated with Lin. Gemma then drops the bomb this individual (I don’t know his character’s name, but was wearing a yellow button-up, so I will refer to him as such) is more than likely the responsible party for Tara’s murder. Despite very little questions asked by Jax or the rest of the Sons (which I will address in more detail below) about the veracity of this story, the Sons arrange for Yellow Button-Up to be corralled to Jax’s house. With a very Dexter-esque décor displayed, Jax proceeds to torture and kill Yellow Button-Up, with the final blow coming in the form of a knife to the top of the head.

I have to admit, Gemma’s character makes me feel all sorts of feelings. She is arguably one of the most well-written female characters on television. She can make audiences feel extreme sympathy in one scene, and unbridled rage the next. One of the more poignant scenes from this episode is her conversation with Juice about their next steps. During this conversation Gemma tells Juice, “We need to keep our truth away from him.” This statement says so much about Gemma and her view of reality, but it also demonstrates how smart she is.

Gemma knows Jax needs revenge, he needs an answer to Tara’s murder. But the actual truth – Gemma killed Tara and Juice covered it up – is neither beneficial for Gemma nor Jax (I’m sure Gemma doesn’t care so much about Juice and his well-being, so much as he has leverage and needs to appear caring). So what does she do? She tells a story. A very good story.

My initial post on Sons spoke about how narratives play such a large role on the show – it directs characters to make decisions without having tangible, hard evidence. Gemma’s lie allows us to explore the narrative paradigm a bit more. The question audiences probably asked themselves most in response to Yellow Button-Up’s murder is, “Why did Jax believe Gemma without question?”Of course, there is the possibility Jax questioned Gemma off-screen when she initially told him, but it’s unlikely because of two principles structuring Fisher’s narrative paradigm: coherence and fidelity*.

With coherence, the narrative (Gemma’s lie/version of events) must make sense to the listener (Jax/SOA). Coherence, by definition, implies a certain structure is present, which is certainly important to narratives. In this particular case, Gemma must replay the scene, articulate the events in a certain order so it makes sense to the known timeline. Gemma provides the necessary structure by stating the time of day, the chronology of events, mentioning certain landscapes (“He went around the side of the house,” etc.). All of these elements come together to make a coherent narrative for Jax. As Fisher stated, “…some stories are better than others, more coherent, more ‘true’ to the way people and the world are.” Gemma might not have given Jax her truth, but she gave him a truth that matches Jax’s understanding of the event. More importantly, though, Gemma’s narrative rings true to Jax’s understanding of the world.

Fidelity, then, is how well a story holds up in our/a world. Jax already knows Lin was upset because of his deal with August Marks. Furthermore, Jax knew how Lin’s crew handled such tiffs based on his experience. Because of this history and experience (because the narrative paradigm states history, biography, and culture serve as the necessary “evidence”), Gemma’s narrative possesses sufficient fidelity. Narrative fidelity is probably the more rhetorical device than coherence, because if the narrative doesn’t ring true to our understanding of the world, then action is less likely. Indeed, the main goal of Gemma’s narrative was Jax’s action – she wanted Jax to kill Yellow Button-Up, or anyone for that matter, as long as it 1) gave Jax the truth he needed, and 2) removed any suspicion from herself.

William Lewis did a study on how truth was handled in Ronald Reagan’s presidential speeches, which he examined through the narrative paradigm. Lewis stated, “As a consequence, the perception of truth depends on the story as a whole rather than the accuracy of its individual statements.” Notice Gemma never explicitly said, “Yellow Button-Up killed Tara,” nor did she have to, but the conclusion was nevertheless drawn because the narrative as a whole held enough truth to be convincing.

With Gemma’s narrative containing traces of both coherence and fidelity, Jax doesn’t need to ask many questions, if any. Furthermore, the timing of the story is particularly beneficial. Had Gemma recounted the story at a later date it would have either A) raised some suspicion as to why she waited so long, B) caused Jax to ask more questions – he’s fresh out of prison itching to kill people, and especially ripe for revenge, or C) All of the above. The only other aspect to coherence and fidelity I have not addressed is the credibility factor. Although I see credibility bleeding into both narrative principles, and could even serve as a separate, third principle, I do foresee this posing a problem for Gemma. Despite her possessing sufficient credibility as Jax’s mom, Gemma doesn’t exactly have a great track-record for trustworthiness – and she’s in the ‘game’ as much as any member of the Sons, and therefore has a knack for manipulation. Credibility plays an interesting role in the narrative paradigm, especially considering Fisher’s arguments against a rational world paradigm and its treatment of hierarchy, but I’m afraid I need to brush up on my research in this area.

Basically, in short – Gemma knows her shit and should teach classes in persuasion. Exhibit A:

 

*The narrative paradigm can most definitely be fleshed out in greater detail than shown here. My plans are to continue looking at the paradigm as it applies to SOA. It should also be noted there have been a number of criticisms made against this approach to communication – some of them I agree with, and some I do not. I will address these criticisms as I continue to explore the paradigm.

Works Cited:

Lewis, W.F. (1987). Telling America’s story: Narrative form and the Reagan presidency. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 73, 267-279.