Sons of Anarchy heads to a great conclusion

You could make a solid argument that Sons of Anarchy has been the best show on television for the past four or five weeks - a stretch capped off by last night's fantastic episode, which set up the direction the series needs to take as it closes out the fourth season over the next few weeks.

(Warning: Spoilers from last night's episode of Sons of Anarchy follow.)

Perhaps the most surprising and entertaining thing has been the complete turnaround of Clay (Ron Perlman) this season, with the way that creator Kurt Sutter has turned him from hero to villain* - and Clay is definitely a villain at this point, effectively sealing his fate last night by going through with the hit on Tara (Maggie Siff) and beating the crap out of Gemma (Katey Sagal) after it fell through.

What was it Gemma said to Unser at the end of the episode? "Clay can't be saved," repeating Unser's words from last week. "He's not going down by law. He's gonna die by the hand of a son."

While Gemma was referring to "a son", meaning any SAMCRO member, the job of dispatching Clay is surely going to come down to Jax (Charlie Hunnam) - he has the most reason: the hit on Tara and the destruction of his way out of Charming, Gemma's beating, the murder of his best friend's dad, and the murder of his own dad. Also, y'know, Jax is the main character on SOA. Justice is normally handled by the main characters in these situations.

But it is here where an interesting parallel starts to emerge.

Let's say Gemma reveals the truth to Jax about the letters, his father, the beating, everything, and Jax decides to kill Clay because that is what would be in the best interests of himself and the club ... umm, didn't Clay think killing John Teller was in the best interests of himself and the club, too?

For all the talking Jax has done about leaving SAMCRO and getting out of Charming, killing Clay would probably be the one thing that would tie him to the club long-term - and that is why I think Clay lives.

As evil as Clay has been, I think Jax probably knows that killing him would send a message about how committed he is to the criminal lifestyle, which would turn Tara against him and, without Tara, what choice does Jax have that doesn't involve living and dying in Charming as a member of SAMCRO? None. No choice, whatsoever.

No, I think Clay lives (albeit probably not as a member of the club) and Jax manages to preserve his soul, and seeing that play out over the next few episodes will be entertaining as hell.

A couple of other quick thoughts:

- How good have Hunnam, Perlman, Siff and Sagal been this year?! Two fantastic scenes last night - the Clay-Gemma faceoff when she confronts him about everything, and the Jax-Tara scene where she talks about smashing her other hand - were as moving as anything we've seen from this show to date. It seems ridiculous that Sagal is the only SOA cast member to have received an acting award.

- The Clay-Jax stuff has been the driving force of the series, but just as effective has been this season's arc between Juice and devious DA Lincoln Potter. I feel the main story (Jax dealing with Clay) is going to converge with Juice's storyline at some point in the next few weeks. And hopefully Potter gets taken down a peg or two.

Are you enjoying this season of Sons of Anarchy? Do you agree that it might have been the best show on TV over the past month? What have been your favourite moments? Remember: no spoilers from the remainder of the season!

(*) I briefly considered using a quote from The Dark Knight here: at one point, Harvey Dent says "you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain", which I thought applied nicely to Clay ... until I remembered that I made a Dark Knight parallel with Justified, another FX show and, in many ways, similar to SOA.

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