Every week I anxiously wait to see what is going to happen next in Charming. Every week gets better and more intense than the last. Despite the increasing body counts week to week, Tuesday’s episode was the beginning of the shift we’ve been waiting for since the season began. As we’ve been discovering since the start of the final season, alliances end as quickly as they begin, and this new alliance with the Mayans is no different. But the central point of the episode is all about Juice. Obviously Juice didn’t kill Gemma, as we see her walking down a deserted road in the beginning of the episode. Juice let’s her live, takes her car, and shows his face to the Mayans. So this is Juice’s well thought of plan in order to escape? He’s been in hiding, his conversation with Chibs didn’t go as expected, his ally tried to kill him, so what does he have left to lose? He asks Alvarez for safe passage to Mexico, and offers some money and Gemma’s ride as payment. Not to mention any information on SAMCRO that the Mayans want to know. Alvarez in turn contacts Jax with this new development. I’m surprised no one in SAMCRO saw that was Gemma’s car at the Mayans clubhouse, but Nero did. Poor timing on Juice’s part, since Jax just struck an alliance with Alvarez, and more importantly nobody likes a rat.
Don’t tell me your heart wasn’t racing when Juice looked up and saw Jax and the crew walking in. I think it sent the tension in the room to warp speed. If things weren’t tense enough, the Mayans decide to lock Juice in the closet, the same closet Nero happen to be locked in. At this point I thought Juice might come clean to Nero about Tara, but no such luck. This would have been an opportune time to unleash all the secrets he’s been hiding, but he’s still keeping quiet for now. Losing Gemma as an ally, losing the respect of the Club and having an APB out on you, it’s no wonder that Juice did the unthinkable.
Now that Nero knows that Juice had Gemma’s car, he knows that she was helping him. Nero confronts Gemma, and she just breaks down. She still didn’t admit to anything, and Gemma is not one to unravel but it’s quite evident that she’s hiding something. It’s a very fine line that both her and Juice are on. After Juice leaves her on the side of the road she finds a diner. Before Unser and Wendy pick up Gemma, she makes conversation with her waitress. Again, Gemma is talking to herself, and the waitress Gertie asks if she’s alright. While outside on her break Gertie and Gemma start talking about life. Gemma conveys how her son lost his wife recently, and it was her fault. So little by little she’s breaking, and it’s only a matter of time before it all comes crashing down on her.
