THE CROW FLEW STRAIGHT ONE LAST TIME

     As you know, I normally write about news stories and try to keep entertainment out of my blogs, but for some reason, I can't seem to shake the ending of my favorite show, Sons of Anarchy. Now, for those of you, who DVR'ed it and plan on watching tonight, which I'm not sure how you could not have watched it last night, just stop reading now because there may be some SPOILER leaks here and I don't want to ruin it for you. That being said, I want to say "Bravo!" to my writing idol, Kurt Sutter on ending this series the way it should have been ended. Yes, some of us knew some of these demises were coming, but Kurt Sutter found a way to put an exclamation point on them and the series' lead character, Jax Teller was no different. 

     I will admit that I didn't watch the series from the very beginning. My future in-laws kept raving about it, so finally after the second season, we decided to give it a shot and were hooked immediately. Sutter's cast of characters were amazing, likable, and for he ladies, pretty good looking for an outlaw biker gang. My guitar player used to rave about this show as well, and a song that I played with Ray West from Spread Eagle for 3 years, "Novacaine" was actually in the first season of the show, which I eventually caught up on within 2 days of intense watching during the third season. Once we finally caught up, Tuesday nights became Teller Tuesday and to be quite honest, that third season in Belfast, where Jax went looking for his son, Abel, might have been my favorite season of the show. 

     Now, back to Kurt Sutter! What an amazing writer and storyteller. After watching the first season of The Shield, it seems Kurt really found his niche in that type of drama, which included sex, drama, action, and plot twists. That style of writing carried over to Sons. Many said that Sutter used Shakespeare's Hamlet as a basis to tell his story about an outlaw biker gang. He may have, but who cares? It made for great appointment TV every week. A lot of my biker friends would ask me why I watch the show and then they would mock the fact that Jax wore white sneakers while riding his Harley. Well, that made him different and I'm sure Kurt Sutter knew that since he immersed himself in the biker world before writing this series. Not to mention, he had Hell's Angels members as consultants on the show to give it some realism. 

     I felt this final episode had the appropriate ending as opposed to The Sopranos, who just faded to black during a Journey song or True Blood, who did that flash-forward thing. It was more like Dexter or Boardwalk Empire, where they gave you closure on all storylines. The tone was set early in the final episode from the word "Previously....," which by the way sounded like John Teller's voice if anyone noticed, to the opening theme song. Jax waking up and burning all of the journals he used to write through the years, photos of his mom and dad and the First Nine, his dad's manuscript on how Samcro went wrong, and the birth certificates of him and his brother. The next scene showed Jax visiting his best friend Opie's grave, who I think had one of the most surprising deaths on the show, and leaving his "SONS" rings on his headstone, and then right behind Opie, Jax would visit the gravesite of his slain wife Tara, who was killed last season by his mom, Gemma, whom he killed last episode for killing Tara. Anyway, he visited Tara's grave and left his wedding ring on her headstone. Um, if that doesn't say I'm going to kill myself, I don't know what does. 

     Without getting too much into last night's final episode, I liked the way Sutter tied up all of the loose ends with the Irish, the club's former nemesis The Mayans, the dirty cop, August Marks, and then eventually Samcro. Most of us didn't want to see the show end, but I have to say, Kurt Sutter ended it the best way he know how and from I've been reading, it was the plan all along. Jax Teller needed to die for the violence to stop in Charming and for his boys to not know his life of chaos. Then again, will Jax's son Abel ever forget? In one of the final scenes, we saw Abel fumbling with a SONS ring of his own and he already showed a violent streak in school. Is this allowing Sutter to come back to a Sons show in the future with Abel a patched in member? Sutter did say that a prequel to Sons of Anarchy might be in the works telling the story of the "First Nine." 

     Many of you are also asking about the homeless woman and the bread. My take on the homeless woman was that she was sort of a Grim Reaper character. If you noticed, whenever one of the main characters died, she was in a scene prior. Jax asked, "Who are you?" She handed him her blanket and told him, "It's time." Now, Kurt Sutter claimed last night, "She's whatever you want her to be." It only makes sense. The bread? I have no idea except that she was the one eating it and maybe the crows picked it up and flew with it and coincidentally ended up where Jax met his demise. Another one of my favorite scenes from last night was that Michael Chiklis, the star of Sutter's previous show The Shield, was the truck driver who would kill the star of his latest show, Sons of Anarchy. Brilliant! 

     Because of Sons of Anarchy, I finally officially got my motorcycle license a couple of years ago. I also discovered that Kurt Sutter is one of my favorite TV writers of all-time and I can't wait to see what he does with his new show The Bastard Executioner. Now, when the hell are we going to see a Sons of Anarchy video game? And what the hell am I going to do on Tuesdays now?