10 Moments That Proved Sons Of Anarchy Was The Best Show On TV
5. One Blunder Too Many
Remember we said that the horror takes centre stage in season five? Well, way back in season one Clay’s right hand man Tig Trager had been tasked with assassinating club member Opie, but ended up shooting Opie’s wife Donna instead by mistake. In season four, Tig takes it upon himself to take out Laroy, the leader of a rival gang… but ends up killing Laroy’s girlfriend instead by mistake.
These two accidental murders are catalyst to some of the most tragic storylines in the show’s history, and have a profound effect on the club and everyone in it. Tig has some atonement to undertake, and it’s pretty clear by the close of season four that it’s not going to end well for everyone’s favourite deviant murderer. However, no one could predict exactly how horrifying ‘not going to end well’ would actually be.
You see, Laroy’s dead girlfriend also happens to be Damon Pope’s dead daughter… Pope being the criminal mastermind that runs Oakland, a drug kingpin so devious and violent that he’s had a contract posthumously taken out on the life of anyone who actually manages to get to him. Pope has a reputation to uphold and, in a vendetta kind of mood, chooses to take Tig’s own grown-up daughter from him. Kidnapping both of them, he chains Trager up and forces him to watch as he burns poor innocent Dawn alive.
Sutter needed to set up his new Big Bad as an untouchable gangster from the outset of season five, and opening salvo ‘Sovereign’ certainly does that. Even hardened Sons Of Anarchy fans were appalled at the lengths that Pope was prepared to go to for revenge… but this would only set the tone for the violence to come.