‘Sons of Anarchy’ Review: “Crucifixed”

‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 5 rides again with its tenth episode of the year, 90-minute “Crucifixed,” as Jax attempts to turn Juice's betrayal to his advantage while pursuing one of Opie's prison killers, Gemma makes a move on Clay, and Tara's prison meetings with Otto (Kurt Sutter) take a deadly turn.

Last week’s ‘Sons of Anarchy’ episode “Andare Pescare” saw Jax trying to prevent Clay from getting to Frankie Diamonds first, while Tara visited Otto in the hospital once more, and Gemma made a difficult decision regarding her future with Nero.  So how does “Crucifixed”  keep things running?  What more damage can season 5 of ‘Sons of Anarchy’ do to SAMCRO that hasn't already been done?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 5 episode 10, “Crucifixed!”

Jax continues following Juice to his home, only to see the police outside waiting to take him into custody for questioning, likely a stall from Roosevelt.  Meanwhile at Teller-Morrow, Gemma arrives late to find Chibs working alone, before Bobby appears to bring Chibs up to speed about Juice and the RICO case.  When Jax himself arrives, Chibs confesses that he knew about Roosevelt’s leverage on Juice, but Jax insists they watch the threads for now rather than risk spooking their new alliances

Over in Roosevelt’s office, the sheriff explains to Juice that Jax figured out he was the rat, and his best option would be to leave town, but a visibly distraught Juice quickly exits the office.  The next morning, Jax awakens to find Juice already waiting to talk to him, and the two quickly drop the pretense.  Juice had believed he was protecting the club through his past transgressions, but Jax offers him a way to avoid the reaper if he finds out about Clay’s secret documents to confirm Frankie Diamonds’ confession.

While the prospects eye one of Opie’s killers being released from prison, Tara meets with the Oklahoma hospital representatives to confirm that they're still interested in hiring her, despite her hand injury.  Meanwhile back at TM, Mayor Hale drops off the Charming Heights prospective to Jax, which Jax will help fund in exchange for service rights to the maintenance vehicles, and a house for Lyla.

Over at Stockton, Otto agrees to undo his RICO statement, but asks of Tara that she bring him an old crucifix out of storage, so that he might pray with it for a few minutes before guards confiscate it.  In another part of the prison, Clay meets with Lenny “The Pimp,” who confirms that Jax knew about the RICO case in progress last season.

While Gemma asks for Unser’s help in looking into Clay’s dealings, the Sons track Opie’s paroled murderer Randall Hightower to a bar, inconveniently noticing the Grim Bastards’ motorcycles parked outside.  Bastard leader T.O. warmly greets the Sons inside, explaining that Hightower hired them for protection, not realizing he meant from SAMCRO.  Additionally complicating the matter is that T.O. and Randall grew up together as cousins, though the moment Randall eyes the Sons he opens fire.  The Sons return fire, but Randall manages to escape in the chaos.

Unwilling to turn over his cousin, to which Bobby backs up that twenty years of history between the clubs needs to hold, T.O. agrees to turn over his cousin if the Sons spare his life, in exchange for information about Opie’s other killers.

Elsewhere, Clay meets with Romeo Prada (Danny Trejo), having deduced that Jax spared his life to keep the cartel deals in place and hold off RICO, and that the Galindo must be working with the CIA.  Clay assumes that Jax must be trying to kill the RICO case on his own, freeing him to end the cartel deals, to which Romeo counters they’ll find a way to put Clay back at the head of the table and keep everything in place.  Clay protests the idea of any harm coming to Jax, but Romeo doesn’t leave him with much of a choice.

Meanwhile, Jax meets with Damon Pope to evaluate the Charming Heights deal, but the gangster only agrees to move forward with it if Jax will soon follow through on his promise of delivering Tig.  Jax assures the man he’ll soon find a way to bring down Clay, thus freeing up Tig for Pope, as the gangster smiles at Jax’s growing callous.

On a tip from Pope, the Sons show up to Randall Hightower’s boatyard hideout, the Grim Bastards having already known and kept it secret.  T.O. protests that his cousin was forced to kill Opie by the guards, but Randall once again flees upon spotting the Sons.  Following his promise to T.O., Jax and the Sons manage to corner Randall in a warehouse, but spare his life in exchange for what little he knows of Opie’s killers.  Once he gives up the names however, Jax okays Chibs to kill him anyway, claiming that the Bastards broke their promise first by not delivering the man.

Back at TM, Bobby chews Jax out for destroying twenty years of friendly alliance, but Jax and Chibs assert that had Bobby seen the malice in Randall’s face during Opie’s murder, he’d have wanted him dead as well.  Tig too seems unnerved, but Chibs swears his undying loyalty to Jax no matter what.

Juice searches through Clay’s house for the missing documents, finding only a few guns in a cabinet, before Clay himself arrives.  Clay deeply thanks Juice for all his help in the past few months, lamenting the bad choices he’d made in his life, and asking Juice for his protection in the future.  Gemma interrupts them by arriving with groceries, and Juice makes himself scarce after a horrifically guilt-inducing hug.  Alone with Gemma, Clay gently moves to be intimate with his estranged wife, but through uncomfortable tears she only agrees to go along with it if they return to their former home and bed.

Having gotten the crucifix from Gemma earlier, Tara complies with Otto’s wishes to place it around his neck and under his shirt out of sight.  She leaves him to pray, but once alone Otto pages the nurse into the room wanting to be led back to his cell.  The guard begins to undo his restraints, and when Tara returns to the room ahead of schedule, Opie disables the guard and knocks out his nurse, forcing Tara to watch as he brutally kills the woman by stabbing her in the neck with the crucifix.  The other guards drag Otto away, as Tara watches the blood pool around the dead nurse.  Poor Karina Logue.

At TM, Jax reminds Juice of his ticking clock and confers his Clay findings with Unser, as back at their home Gemma gets ready for bed with the man.  Clay stops her to explain that throughout all the chaos, he realized his wife to be all he truly cared about, but doesn’t want to get back together if there’s a chance he could lose her again.  Somewhat moved, Gemma assures him he has her, and gives in to her husband.

Jax returns to find Roosevelt waiting outside, assures him of Juice’s safety, and agrees that they have another common enemy in Clay.  Inside, Tara explains to Jax that Otto’s murder of the nurse effectively threw out his testimony and killed the RICO case, but that the resulting investigation will expose Tara’s association with SAMCRO, and make her an accessory to the murder, likely Otto’s intent.  Jax assures her they’ll get through it, and hopefully save her career, but she retorts that their version of “getting through it” again is what scares her the most.

For a 90-minute episode, there didn't seem to be much all that monumental about "Crucifixed,' in spite of some powerful and disturbing scenes.  It seems that most of the walls have been knocked down, with club members aware of Clay's dealings, and the RICO case put to bed, but what remains to be sorted is all the damage Jax has left in his wake this season.  We couldn't help feeling the episode might have delivered more, but certainly promises a strong close to the season to come.

Did you get your fill of road-rashing ‘Sons of Anarchy’ drama?  What did you think about the episode? Join us next week for another all-new ‘Sons of Anarchy’ episode recap of “To Thine Own Self Be” on FX!