Sons of Anarchy - Season 5 Episode 5 - Orca Shrugged - Recap

Still dealing with the death of his best friend, Opie, Jackson finds thrust himself thrust back into business as usual, once again cleaning up the messes of the day before.

In an effort to move forward the deal with Nero, Jackson, Bobby and Chibs pay a surprise visit to Jacob Hale, Jr. to propose leasing the Elks Lodge property he owns. Hale refuses to deal with Jackson, or the Club, but his interest is peaked when Jackson promises to help make Charming Heights a reality if he leases them the lodge. The guys knockout insurance agent, Allen Biacone, and set up a photo shoot with him and a cross-dressing male call girl in order to blackmail him to vote for Charming Heights. The plan seems to have been blown when Allen’s stepson pops into the office, but they easily trick him into a compromising situation with the “call girl” himself and threaten him if he tells anyone what he saw. Just as they are putting everything back how they found it, Biacone wakes up and, in a drugged haze, takes a huge bite out of Tig’s rear end. Happy quickly knocks Allen out and the guys take off, back to the Clubhouse to get Tig stitched up. Later, Jackson meets with Mayor Hale and shows him the photos of Biacone. He offers to blackmail Biacone for his vote. Still reluctant to deal with SAMCRO, Hale questions Jackson’s motives. Jackson tells Mayor Hale he is trying to get the MC out of the dangerous businesses they have been involved in, move into more legitimate opportunities. After brief thought, Hale agrees to deal with Jackson and to allow him to blackmail Biacone.

Jackson tells the Club about the new partnership he’s established with Nero between the Caracara Studios girls and Diosa International. He tells them he wants to bring SAMCRO in on the deal once it is up and running, but Clay pushes to vote the new business in right away. They vote on it, and everyone is in on the new venture.

The Sons finally meet with the Irish and the Galindo Cartel. Clay goes to great Galen who quickly notices that Jackson is now wearing the President patch. Clay assures him that nothing’s changed and he’ll still be handling their dealings, but Galen seems annoyed by the change. Noticing his disapproval, Jackson goads Galen into an argument that escalates to a fistfight. Just as they’re getting going, the Cartel arrives and the fight ends in a draw, as everyone is anxious to get down to business. Pleased with the guns, and happy with their cash, the Irish and the Galindos agree to terms on future gun deals. Galen shoots up two of the Clubs’ bikes to demonstrate the power of the new big guns, infuriating the guys, especially Chibs. Happy with the progress of the deal, Jackson takes the high road and shrugs off Galen’s insult.

The Sons, like the rest of Charming, are getting increasingly antsy about the continuing home invasions. With Pope out of town, Jackson has not made much headway in discovering who is behind the attacks. Lt. Robinson calls Clay and Gemma down to the station to look at the stolen goods they recovered from some guys they arrested in the home invasions case. They are unable to identify anything of theirs and the arrests seem a bit too easy when Clay overhears the deputies tell Robinson the guys they arrested were gang bangers from Pope’s district in Oakland. Lt. Robinson’s home is broken into. Home alone, his wife, Rita, is able to call 9-1-1 before being shot in a scuffle with her attackers. As she’s being wheeled into the ER, Lt. Robinson notices Rita scratched one of her attackers in the scuffle. He asks the nurse to get him the skin from under her nails right away.

Unable to reach Nero by phone, Gemma heads to Diosa to check on him. She finds him there packing and he tells her about his new partnership with SAMCRO. They argue and Nero eventually tells Gemma he cannot be involved with her because of promise he made to Jackson. Fuming, Gemma leaves to confront Jackson. She finds him at the Clubhouse, but the confrontation only leads to an argument about Jackson’s feelings about Gemma’s involvement in JT’s death.

When Gemma takes a package over to the house for Jackson, Tara seems to extend her an olive branch, inviting her in to help feed Thomas. Jackson comes home to find everyone asleep and the package on the table. The episode ends with Jackson opening the package to find a cooler containing the body parts he must deliver as proof of death to Nero’s crew.