Sons of Anarchy - S01E04: Patch Over

'Patch Over' is noticeably better than last weeks episode - if only for the fact that there is a bad-ass firefight. And it seems they have started to get a few of these long-term storylines in motion.

To my understanding, 'patch over' is where a smaller club merges with a larger and more established one. I think club symbols and labels being patched on the clothes of members and in their establishments is the meaning behind the term 'patch over'. Anyway, the club merges with a smaller club in Nevada and they celebrate with a party. But beforehand Jax and Bobby see a guy sitting on Jax's Harley. The guy admits to beating his girlfriend who is trying to take a picture of him and the Harley, so Jax beats his face and takes off with the girl - she happily obliges. The girl is given some sort of initiation by another girl from the club that recently merged with the Sons. When Jax's new girl sees the other girls being passed around like a bong, and the firefight between the rival gangs, she decides to leave with her old boyfriend - going back to her old life, and uncovering a harsh truth about a world she most likely fantasized about.

Jax searches out an old writing on a rock in Nevada where his father wrote something about his idea of the club, freedom, and the dream. Every episode seems to have a scene or two from this narrative thread, and will continue to challenge Jax - though I don't think we will see any big events happening from this at the moment, just little developments, gradual revelations, and after a while Jax might do something big with what he has learnt. So far it just seems like he is reading it, without adapting it - which he probably couldn't do yet even if he wanted to - maybe he has a little, but for the most part he is just living the life the other guys are.

The best part of this episode was the gunfight between the Sons and Mayans. Jax is being chased by the Mayans and leads them back to the others at the club. The Mayans waste no time and start shooting through the walls of the club, so the Sons quickly prepare and come out firing with pistols and shotguns. There are a lot of guns and a lot of gunfire, but only a few guys take hits.

The episode ends with Tara in the hospital looking upon Jax and Gemma with the baby, as she opens a letter containing a photo of Jax and his short-term Nevada girl having sex. I wonder how that happened? And who the hell did it?