Mewsings from Lowecat (aka Indianacat)

My rants, ravings, and overall 'mewsings' on life, the universe, and everything.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

My response to the VF SOA Finale Ariicle







If all y'all haven't read the article on line yet, check it out:


 http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/12/sons-of-anarchy-series-finale-jax-dies



Welcome back.  Here's what I sent to Vanity Fair's editors.  Whether they print it at all, or heavily edit it remains to be seen when the next issue comes out.



Regarding Ms. Robinson's article, apparently someone there at VF is not very good at doing fact checking, when you allow a character's name to be mis - spelled.  It's TIG, not TIGG.  

If that were the only problem I had with the article, there'd be no reason for this epistle.  I'm frosted by the overall derisive tone of the article.  Maybe it's overload from some of the fan negativity out there about the finale.  As I said on Twitter, it was Sutter's story to tell, and he told it the way he wanted.  If you feel you can do better, write it and put it out there for criticism.  

I suppose if one WANTED to make the comparisons, one could think that Jax was being characterized as Jesus.  There were some religious analogies as in the bread and wine/blood and body communion illustration with the homeless lady and then with the last shot.  But Jax being another Jesus is far from the central idea.  As someone who has followed the show from the pilot, I feel compelled to answer this point by point.  

He Died for Our Sins.  
Hardly. Jax died because he committed a heinous crime against the charters, that of killing an active charter president when Jax killed Jury (president of the Indian HIlls Sons chapter) and lied about it.  The area charters recommended a Mayhem vote.  Anyone who had watched the show before knew that meant a vote to kill the miscreant, as two such votes were taken by SAMCRO itself against Clay, who was no longer president.  Jax had also just killed his mother and the man who had loved her for years, the former police chief the night before.  In the light of day, faced with his mother's lie about his wife's death and all that he had done to get retribution, he realized that he had been a pawn in his mother's plans his entire life. The antipathy he'd felt for his father for wanting to have a biking commune was shattered and he realized his father was right.  Burning all of his journals - notes to his sons for later in life - along with his father's 'book' about the club losing its' way, the pictures of the club's history - were all part of the process of keeping his sons from idolizing the outlaw life as he had.  (For anyone that doesn't follow the show, Jax had told Tara long ago that all he'd ever wanted from age five was a cut and a Harley).  


His Own Personal Jesus She tells Jax it’s time (time to die), so Grim Reaper or the angel of death seems like a pretty safe bet, but then the camera zooms in on her snack. Hobo wine and bread? Basically the Eucharist? Jesus figure it is, then!  That means a Jesus figure has been looking over Jax and Gemma in their times of turmoil

It seems that Ms. Robinson didn't watch the after show, 'AnarchyAfterword', where Mr. Sutter was asked about the homeless woman.  He stated what he'd always said about that character from the get go:  The homeless woman was what she was, and it was up to the viewer/fanbase to decide for themselves.  How Ms. Robinson could draw the conclusion that the homeless woman was a personal Jesus to Jax boggles my mind  because she works so hard to prove how Jax was being offered up as a Jesus figure.  

Due to the Shakespeare analogies between 'Hamlet' and 'SOA', the homeless woman has already represented to me a spiritual connection to the Tellers, specifically Gemma and Jax.  She was, after all, killed in the same accident that killed John Teller.  She was always seen by Gemma and / or Jax when a significant death occurred within the Teller circle (starting with Gemma meeting the homeless woman before Donna Winston was killed in S1 and continuing with the glance Jax received of her in Belfast as he was shadowing the kidnapped Abel and his adoptive Irish Catholic parents - who were later killed by Jimmy O'Phelan).  The one time she was seen away from Gemma and Jax was when Juice was getting rid of the incriminating evidence of Gemma's murdering Tara.  The only difference is that Juice never 'saw' her.  

But it's really going over the line to call the homeless woman a Jesus figure looking out for Jax and Gemma in their times of turmoil.  A messenger of death, perhaps.  But a Jesus figure would've done something to prevent the bloodbath from occuring that led to Jax's descent into darkness.  Some kind of guidance would've taken place, much as Clarence did in 'Wonderful Life'.  

As for the much discussed blanket, by the way, it was originally loaned to Jax by the same woman at the end of S1, when he spent the night before Donna Winston's funeral getting drunk in the cemetary.  He woke up in front of the entry to a mausoleum, covered by the blanket.  He finds her in the cemetery, returns the blanket to her as she points out a faucet where he could get cool water. It was a nod to that initial meeting between them that Jax used that same blanket to hide his true identity long enough for August Marks and his underlings to pass him by without a second glance until it was too late.  


The Fallen Woman: Jax has always spent time with the prostitutes and porn stars that hang around his club. But this scene with Lyla, complete with a fatherly, beneficent kiss on the forehead, is especially Christ-like.

So what the Hell was Jax supposed to do, swap spit with her?  Lyla was his best friend's widow.  He loved her like a sister, and was saying good bye.  Had he kissed her on the cheek, would Ms. Robinson had drawn the same conclusion?  Jax didn't always spend time with fallen women.  He did marry a doctor!  The wife that was killed that sent him over the edge.  


The Father and the Son: Jax’s last conversation is with his father. Sound familiar? Standing in front of the memorial on the highway where John Teller died, Jax says, “I know who you are know. I know what you did. I love you, Dad.”

I have to wonder if Ms. Robinson has ever watched any of the previous episodes, in order to draw a conclusion between Jax's roadside conversation with JT and Christ's pleas in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jax at first wanted to bring the club back to his father's vision of the club, getting out of gun running and the blood that went with it.  Getting into more 'legitimate' enterprises.  Jax became disillusioned by his father due to the second family in Belfast, but his final conversation with his father was more of a man coming full circle.  'I know who you are NOW was Jax's acknowledgement of having come full circle, which is what the finale was all about.  All his actions before his final ride was to bring the club back to a semblance of what John Teller had envisioned for the club before Clay and Gemma took over.  



Strike a Pose: Jax’s final pose alone was probably sufficient.
We're treated to a never ending loop of Jax sitting on his father's Harley with his arms outstretched, as if his hands were nailed to an invisible cross.  C'mon, now!  What we don't see in that never ending loop is that Jax deliberately opened the throttle in order to gain maximum speed to keep the bike upright while he allowed it to crash into the truck coming his way.  The mayhem vote had already been taken.  The only reason Jax took the way that he took - whether he was killed by the cops in pursuit (he did have an APB out on him for multiple homicides) - or ran the bike off a bridge (as was featured in the S5 promos, incidentally), Jax was not destined to live.  He would be killed in some manner.  Again, Mr. Sutter brought the mythology full circle to have Jax Teller die in the same manner that his father died, on the road, hit by a truck.  The outstretched arms indicated he was at peace with his decision.  

Jax as Jesus?  No.  Jax as an exhausted, battle worn outlaw who didn't want his children to follow in his footsteps and paying the ultimate price for HIS sins?  Yes.  That's the story.  


Myra Lowe