10 Moments That Proved Sons Of Anarchy Was The Best Show On TV
4. The First Cut Is The Deepest
As far as pivotal moments go, season one’s penultimate episode ‘The Sleep Of Babies’ sets the wheels in motion for everything that is to come. You can draw a narrative throughline from here to Jackson’s inevitable fate at the climax of season seven, and most of the worst things that happen between the two are linked to this first atrocity in some way.
Tricked into believing that club mainstay Opie has ratted on them, Clay orders his enforcer Tig to kill him, making it look like gang violence. After dark, Tig tails Opie’s truck to a set of lights, and shoots the driver in the head from behind. The only problem is that Opie had swapped cars with his beloved wife Donna… and it’s her that Trager murders.
Opie is Jackson’s best friend, more like a brother to him – and for the majority of season one had acted as his conscience too. Level-headed, shy and quiet, the big man’s close relationship with the MC vice-president acts as a grounding, stabilising influence on him… until his wife’s death wrecks his life, taking the heart right out of him. After this, Opie can’t be Jackson’s voice of reason anymore, and without that voice of reason Jackson finds himself straying further and further away from his ideals as he travels deeper into enemy territory.