Since the premiere of "Sons of Anarchy," Gemma has proven to be a fiercely loyal and devoted mother and grandmother. The lengths she will go to in order to protect her family can be frightening. On the Season 6 finale, though, we saw just how terrifyingly protective she could be. It was unexpected and left us absolutely shell-shocked.
Gemma misunderstood the deal Jax and Tara made with the D.A.'s office. She thought Tara struck a deal to betray Jax for her own freedom. In truth, Jax was sacrificing himself to protect his wife and the club. Too bad for Tara, Gemma was misinformed. When Tara came home, Gemma was there and her response to this perceived betrayal was both swift and deadly.
Gemma slammed Tara upside the head with an iron, punched her and tried to drown her in the kitchen sink. She then grabbed a carving fork and repeatedly stabbed Tara in the back of the head until she stopped moving. Juice showed up and shot Sheriff Eli, then covered up her crime. Distraught, Gemma ran to the loving arms of Unser.
That only left Jax. He showed up moments before he was to turn himself in to find the bodies of Tara and Roosevelt lying on the kitchen floor. When Patterson showed up, she saw Jax's gun lying near Roosevelt's body where he'd dropped it in shock and grief. The final minutes of the episode were "the most horrific sequence to date" according to TVLine's Megan Masters.
HitFix's Geoff Berkshire, however, was far more critical of the whole thing. "It's not enough that Tara had to die. (Did she? I'm not convinced. But, to make this easier, let's accept that she did and get to why it sucked.)," he wrote. "She had to die in an amazingly idiotic way. The show clearly wants us to view her death and everything leading up to it as tragedy. Horrifying. Inevitable. Shakespearean! But it's impossible to see as anything other than the ultimate example of this show's forehead-slapping stupidity.”
Were you blown away by the season finale, or less-than-impressed? Do you think Tara's dead? Sound off in the comments ... after all, we need something to distract ourselves with until Season 7 kicks off next fall.
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Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Juice showed up with Unser and Roosevelt and saw the aftermath, but Unser was not present in this scene.
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