Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy
Sons of Anarchy Sons of Anarchy
Created by	Kurt Sutter
Starring	Charlie Hunnam Katey Sagal Ron Perlman Mark Boone Junior Tommy Flanagan Kim Coates Johnny Lewis Maggie Siff
Opening theme	"The Dream We Left Behind" by Primal Scream
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer	Kurt Sutter
Running time	approx. 45 min.
Original release
Network	FX
Release	September 3, 2008 – present

Sons of Anarchy is an FX television series starring Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman, and Katey Sagal about the lives of a close-knit motorcycle club operating in Charming, a fictional town in Northern California. Sons of Anarchy was created by Kurt Sutter, a former writer and producer on The Shield, another FX television drama.

Story

The Sons of Anarchy are an international outlaw motorcycle club with many charters, including the Charming local, based out of a clubhouse adjacent to the Teller-Morrow auto mechanic shop. The Sons mostly ride customized Harley-Davidson Dyna Superglide motorcycles. Led by Clay Morrow, the club controls Charming through close community relationships, bribery, and violent intimidation.

The full name of the motorcycle club is Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original Charter; on occasion, the show will abbreviate it as SOA, though more frequently the club is referred to as SAMCRO (a rough acronym of The Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original Charter) or "Sam Crow." This nickname is also reflected in the original title of the show, Forever Sam Crow.

Club members have "day jobs" in local industries, but they primarily make money by importing illegal weapons and selling them to African American drug gangs in the East Bay. (The gang that SAMCRO deals with is called the "One-Niners," the same fictional gang that feature prominently in The Shield, another FX drama on which Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter wrote and produced for several years).

SAMCRO keeps meth traffickers out of Charming, which puts them at odds with the meth-distributing white supremacist "Nords" gang, headed by Ernest Darby. The SOA also have to deal with a rival Oakland-based MC, the "Mayans", led by Marcus Alvarez. Unlike their rivals, the Sons are relatively diverse and inclusionist, having one Jewish member, a Scottish member, and one Hispanic member, and disdaining the Nords' social perspective. (For example, they are quite happy working with the local sheriff Sam Trammell, who happens to be African American.)

John Teller and Piermont "Piney" Winston co-founded Sam Crow. Clay Morrow was the youngest of the "Redwood Original 9". Following John's death, his widow Gemma married Clay. John and Gemma's surviving son Jax (another son Tommy died in childhood of the "family flaw", a congenital heart defect) is second in the club's line of succession after co-founder and sitting president Clay. Jax is recently divorced from Wendy, the mother of his son Abel, who is born 10 weeks premature as a result of his mother's meth addiction.

The family drama is loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet; indeed, star Ron Perlman has said, "I’m sure they’re going to stick to the structure of Hamlet all the way to the end" of the series. Clay is based on the role of King Claudius and Gemma as a Gertrude figure. Jax stands in for Prince Hamlet himself; his reflective questioning of the SOA culture, brought on by the birth of his son, references Hamlet's melancholy over the death of the king. Additionally, Jax "communicates" with his dead father by way of his late father's unpublished journal/manuscript; Hamlet, of course, literally communicated with the ghost of his father. Lastly, narratively the Sons are typical antiheroes.

Episode list

Season One

There are 13 episodes in the first season.

Episode #	Title	Writer(s)	Director	Original airdate	Viewers
91	"Pilot"	Kurt Sutter	Allen Coulter Michael Dinner	September 3, 2008	2.5 million
When a rival club cleans out and destroys their illegal arms warehouse, SAMCRO executes its own sense of justice in retrieving the guns; family issues take center stage with a medical emergency involving Jax Teller's newborn son.
1.01	"Seeds"	Kurt Sutter	Charles Haid	September 10, 2008	TBA
As the club deals with the aftermath of its illegal arms warehouse attack, the deputy chief of police poses a new threat to SAMCRO's reign over Charming; Jax continues to worry about his newborn son's fate; Opie faces a difficult decision.
1.02	"Fun Town"	Kurt Sutter	Stephen Kay	September 17, 2008	TBA
When a prominent Charming family's young daughter is assaulted at a carnival, SAMCRO races against the authorities to capture the assailant; a new shipment of guns arrives from the group's IRA connection; Tara's ex-boyfriend arrives in Charming.
1.03	"Patch Over"	Jim Parriott	Paris Barclay	September 24, 2008	TBA
The club travels to Nevada to store arms with a brother club; when the Mayans pose a threat, Clay decides to "patch-over" the Devil's Tribe, making them an official charter; Tara's ex, an ATF agent, investigates SAMCRO.
1.04	"Giving Back"	Tim Hunter	Jack LoGiudice	October 1, 2008	TBA
A former SAMCRO member, who was the cause of Opie's arrest, creates tension at a town fund-raiser. In an attempt at a huge payoff Clay must protect a parolee. Meanwhile, the club is still under investigation.
1.05	"AK-51"	Seith Mann	Nichole Beattie	October 8, 2008	TBA
A small favor for Piney's old war buddy turns into a big problem for SAMCRO. With Clay detained, Jax must step-up to handle the situation.
1.06	"Old Bones"	Unknown	Unknown	October 15, 2008	TBA
When old bones are discovered on the outskirts of Charming, Clay must deal with long-buried secrets; the club sets its sights on prize money in a bare-knuckle brawl; Kohn's investigation becomes personal when his true intentions are revealed.
1.07	"The Pull"	Unknown	Unknown	October 22, 2008	TBA
With the IRA gun payment looming, Samcro scrambles to come up with the cash; the Mayans and Nords take a drastic step toward strengthening their alliance; Jax finds himself in a dangerous position with Tara. Pepperjack Parker guest-stars.
1.08	"Hell Followed"	Unknown	Unknown	October 29, 2008	TBA
SAMCRO plans to retaliate against a rival biker club while dealing with a wounded Cameron Hayes in the clubhouse. Meanwhile, Jax, Bobby and Opie set out to put an end to the gun debt for good.
1.09	"Better Half"	Unknown	Unknown	November 5, 2008	TBA
1.10	"SCF, FSC"	Unknown	Unknown	November 12, 2008	TBA
1.11	"The Sleep of Babies"	Unknown	Unknown	November 19, 2008	TBA

Season Two

On October 6, 2008, FX said it had ordered a second 13-episode season of the series.

Character list

Club members

• Clarence "Clay" Morrow (Ron Perlman) is the president of SAMCRO. He is married to Gemma Teller Morrow and stepfather of Jax Teller.
• Jackson "Jax" Teller (Charlie Hunnam) is SAMCRO's vice-president. His day job is mechanic at Teller-Morrow auto. Having recently discovered several of his father's old journals, laying out the original manifesto for SAMCRO, he finds himself doubting the club's direction.
• Robert "Bobby" Munson (Mark Boone Junior) is SAMCRO's treasurer. He does Elvis impersonations in Lake Tahoe. Munson is Jewish. He is a demolition and explosives expert.
• Alex "Tig" Trager (Kim Coates) is SAMCRO's sergeant-at-arms. He is particularly close to Clay, and is one of the club's more violent members as well as having an expressed fondness for necrophilia
• Filip "Chibs" Telford (Tommy Flanagan) is a member of SAMCRO. He is originally from Scotland.
• Piermont "Piney" Winston (William Lucking) is a co-founder of SAMCRO. Opie is his son. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War.
• Harry "Opie" Winston (Ryan Hurst) is a member of SAMCRO. He works at a mill chipping wood and is a demolition and explosives expert. Piney Winston is his father, who is disappointed at his son's inability to make ends meet on his day job and his reluctance to participate in the club's illegal activities following his incarceration. He has recently taken a more active role in the club's gun-running operation. He spent five years in prison.
• Jean Carlos "Juice" Ortiz (Theo Rossi) is the club's hacker and intelligence officer.
• Kip "Half-Sack" Epps (Johnny Lewis) is a prospective member of the club. He is a veteran of the Iraq War. His nickname ("Half-Sack") stems from the fact he lost a testicle during the Iraq War. He was the junior lightweight champion of the armed forces boxing competition and is a surprisingly formidable fighter.
• Big Otto (Kurt Sutter) is a member of the club who is currently incarcerated in state prison.

Former members

• Kyle (Brian Van Holt) Kyle was excommunicated from the club after abandoning Opie during a robbery, leading to Opie's five-year incarceration. He refused a club mandate to remove his Sons of Anarchy back tattoo, and when this was discovered, Kyle was given a choice of removal methods ("Fire or knife?"), liquor to dull the pain, and then the tattoo was burned off of his back with a welding torch.

Women

• Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal) is the wife of Clay Morrow and the widow of John Teller. Jax and Abel Teller are her son and grandson, respectively. Is extremely protective of her son and grandson, she longs for the day when Jax will, in her eyes, be ready to assume control over SAMCRO in order to ensure the organization's survival for another generation.
• Dr. Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff) is Jax's one-time high-school sweetheart. She left town when Jax was 19, trying to get away from small-town life and the heavy-handed influence of the club. She lives in her childhood home in Charming, which was left to her by her father when he died. She is a pediatric resident at the local hospital who is now tending to Jax's gravely ill infant son Abel. Is on bad terms with Gemma, over her manipulations over those around her for her own agendas. She has a crow tattoo on her lower back left over from when she was a teenager. She is being stalked by Scott Kohn, an ex-boyfriend from when she lived in Chicago.
• Wendy Case (Drea de Matteo) is Jax Teller's ex-wife and the mother of Abel Teller. She is a drug addict who did methamphetamine during her pregnancy. Overdosed after Gemma gave her drugs, with the instructions to commit suicide via overdose after Gemma revealed that she would use Wendy's drug addiction to ensure she never have any contact with her son.
• Donna Winston (Sprague Grayden) is Opie's wife and the mother of his children. She does not trust SAMCRO and wishes to separate herself and Opie from the club's grasp.
• Cherry (Taryn Manning) is a "hangaround" and wannabe "old lady" of the Devil's Tribe (a friendly MC). She takes an interest in Half-Sack. She started dating Half-Sack after gaining permission and settling things with Gemma and clearing up what happened between her and Clay at the Patch-over with the Devil's Tribe.
• Luanne (Dendrie Taylor) is a friend of Gemma's. Her occupation involves producing pornography.

Law enforcement

• Wayne Uncer (Dayton Callie) is the Chief of the Charming Police Department. He also owns Uncer Shipping, a trucking company. Corrupt to the core and an ally of Clay Morrow, he finds himself suffering from cancer, which is forcing him into retirement, something Clay Morrow does not want to see.
• David Hale (Tayler Sheridan) is the Deputy Chief of the Charming Police Department. He is next in line for the Chief job once Wayne Uncer retires. Unlike Wayne, David is an honest lawman who wishes to purge the town of SAMCRO upon becoming Chief of Police. However, this ultimately costs him his promotion, as Clay Morrow convinces Uncer to continue on as police chief in order to ensure Hale doesn't assume the position and become a threat to SAMCRO and their ally, Uncer.
• Agent Scott Kohn (Jay Karnes) is a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent pretending to investigate SAMCRO. He is Dr. Tara Knowles' ex-boyfriend, who has a restraining order against him. Recently due to his persistent stalking of Tara and subtle threats against Able, Jax beat him up and Kohn was arrested and seem to be sent out of town to face charges in Chicago. However, he returned and held Tara captive and tried to rape her. Tara was able to get his gun and shoot him in the gut and then called Jax who ultimately shot him in the head to finish him off.
• Sheriff Vic Trammel (Glenn Plummer) is the local County Sheriff, and in addition to being on the payroll of SAMCRO, he appears to have a high degree of insider information on their illicit activities.
• Agent Stahl (Ally Walker) is a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent investigating the club's illegal weapons business.

Rivals

• Ernest Darby (Mitch Pileggi) is the head of the Nordics (also known as "Nords"), a white supremacist gang, mainly involved in meth trafficking, that is SAMCRO's chief rival.
• Marcus Alvarez (Emilio Rivera) is the head of the Mayans MC, an Oakland-based rival biker club that has allied itself with the Nordics in order to break SAMCRO's iron-fisted control over the town.

International broadcasters

• Super Channel - Canada

External links

• Sons of Anarchy at FXNetworks.com
  • Sons of Anarchy production blog
• Sons of Anarchy at IMDb
• YouTube, MySpace Video & Hulu
• Sutter Ink Blog - official blog of show runner Kurt Sutter
• Metacritic.com: Sons of Anarchy
• TWOP Discussion: Sons of Anarchy