In a series about the lives, politics and drama surrounding a biker gang, Donna Winston provided viewers with an innocent, realistic character looking for familial stability that they could relate to. While never a main focus in the shows first season, Donnas relationship with Opie and desire to keep him from being sucked back into a life of crime and danger was a part of what gave the show its heart, as Donnas noble simplicity at the time stood in stark contrast to the other female characters on the show, with her eventual acceptance of Opies rejoining with the club after her experience with June Stahl feeling natural and highlighting the devotion she had for her husband. Due to all of Stahls manipulations in the first season, though, Clay was tricked into thinking Opie had turned on the club, which caused him to order Tig to execute Opie on the latters way home. Unbeknownst to Clay or Tig, Donna and Opie had switched vehicles, with Clay learning too late to inform Tig that Opie had not become a rat and stop him from accidentally murdering Donna. The sequence of events leading up to Donnas death are still some of the tensest moments of the entire series run and the death itself permanently impacted the club and changed the dynamics of a number of character relationships forever. That the fates of both Donna and Opie ultimately served to echo into the fates of Tara and Jax and highlight that the world of the club is one of cyclical violence makes her needless death so early on all the more poignant.
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
