Bullz-Eye: First of all, I’m supposed to tell you that Donal Logue says, “Hello.”

Megyn Price: Awwwwwww… I love him! We’ve been going back and forth on Twitter. My former TV husband…

BE: Yeah, he and I just did an interview in conjunction with his debut on “Vikings” for the Onion AV Club.

MP: Oh, you did? Oh, great! That’s fun. He’s such a great guy, isn’t he? Did you have a 400-hour interview with him? ‘Cause he can not stop talking. [Laughs.]

BE: Well, actually, it started out a phoner, and then we ended up doing a bit more by email. It was for a feature called Random Roles, and I wanted to try to cover as many of his roles as possible. Lord knows he’s got enough of ‘em…

MP: Oh, God, I bet he loved that! He has the best stories. He used to tell a story about being on “The Patriot” anytime wardrobe would come up to us on “Grounded for Life,” about how there was this stampede, where everyone was getting run over by horses, and he said that wardrobe would come up to him and fix his collar. He’s, like, “Okay, you don’t need to fix my collar. I’m about to get run over by a horse!” [Laughs.]

BE: Okay, on to the topic at hand: your directorial debut. What took you so long to get behind the camera?

MP: It’s hard to get the shot, y’know? There are no small directing jobs. There are small acting jobs, but no small directing jobs. Somebody’s really got to be generous and kind, like our producers were on this show, and give you a shot. And, y’know, I think I had to earn it a little bit. A) I had to have the experience, but B) I had to do a lot of research and a lot of studying with other directors and prove that I was serious about it all.

BE: Was it something that you’d been wanting to do for awhile?

MP: Yes. Like, my whole life. [Laughs.] It’s something where…I always look at shows, look at scenes, look at projects that I choose from the directing standpoint. I mean always. I always think of myself as sort of a reluctant actor, because I think I’m really good at acting, but it only engages one side of my brain, which is the really base monkey brain that just goes and does it. I don’t really think about it. I just can do it. But the directing is much more the analytical side. It’s a creative side as well, but it’s, like, you get both sides of your brain working, which to me is a dream come true.

BE: You mentioned that you had to study with other directors. I’d guess that Ted Wass must’ve been one of those directors, given how many episodes of “Rules of Engagement” he’s helmed over the years.

MP: Actually, no! I’ve worked with Ted a million times, but Ted has a style that is really interactive, so…you almost don’t have to study Ted, because it’s so apparent when he’s working, so I went and shadowed people who are a little quieter. Not that Ted’s a big loudmouth. [Laughs.] But I shadowed Mark Cendrowski, who loves to teach what he knows, and I shadowed Andy Ackerman a couple of times, ‘cause he’s probably my favorite director that I’ve ever worked with. He’s so quiet that I really wanted to just sit on his shoulder and watch was he was doing, which was so informative. It was amazing. And Andy works really well with actors who are having a hard time, which I didn’t know until I watched him. He’s so kind, and he becomes almost like a dad. He was just great. But I think that once I kind of realized that I might have a shot at directing our show, I started hyper-watching everybody who directed our show.

BE: I’m sure you picked up more than a few things, but was there any particular lesson that you learned while shadowing these directors that really surprised you, something that you’d never really noticed before?

MP: [Laughs.] Well, I’ll tell you: the thing that was the most interesting to me was a conversation I had with Anthony Rich, who is one of my dear, dear friends, but he’s also been directing “The Big Bang Theory” for the last couple of years. I think he’s directed six or seven episodes at this point. But I called him the morning of the taping, and I said, “Anthony, I just can’t believe how vulnerable actors are!” He goes, “What are you talking about? You’re one of ‘em!” I said, “No, but I’m not a vulnerable actor! It’s amazing to me that your main job as a director is to make sure the actors are comfortable.” And he said the greatest thing I’ve ever heard: he started laughing, and he goes, “I love that you’re now realizing this. I’ve always called directing…it’s like wrangling unicorns. Because actors are magical people, and if you make them comfortable, their magic turns out…and if you make them uncomfortable, their magic turns off. So that’s your main job: to make sure that everyone’s comfortable enough that they can let their magic show.” And it’s great advice, because it’s so true! I know it from the other side: if I’m worrying about stuff, I’m not a good actor.

BE: Was it weird being on the other side of the camera for your own show?

MP: No, it was weird being an actor the week I was directing. Which sounds completely insane, but it was. It was weird. Because, like I told you, when I act, I don’t think about anything else at all. I’m just totally present, doing my thing. And when I’m acting and I’m directing, my head’s going, “I wonder what this looks like. I wonder if we need to tighten up that shot. Oh, he needs to say that differently…but I can’t say that ‘cause now I’m an actor in the scene!” [Laughs.] It was a bit of a schizophrenic kind of experience. But I think the night of taping I figured out a few tricks to really just turn off my directing head once the shots were set and just actually be an actor, so I didn’t ruin the show.

BE: How was it directing your cast members? Did they treat you with kid gloves, knowing that it was your first big shot behind the camera?

MP: They were beyond incredible. Talk about turning on their magic! They turned on their magic in rehearsal. They were unbelievable. They were so great. And I will tell you that, when you work with people for seven years on a show, there are many weeks when – I myself included – do not bring the A-game during rehearsal. [Laughs.] But they really did. Every single one of ‘em. And it was a rough week for David (Spade) and Adhir (Kalyan), because they had tricky stuff to do. I know you haven’t seen the episode, but…well, it’s called “Timmy Quits,” and they had to kind of play it real a little bit, because it was kind of an intense thing that Timmy was quitting, and then there was a joke five seconds later. So it was a tricky week for them, but they worked their little buns off.

BE: You guys are coming up on the end of the season, and CBS’s press department has already released a photo from the finale which shows Audrey and Jeff holding their new baby. Now, when I talked to Patrick Warbuton a few years ago, he said he’d fight against it if they ever tried to add a baby to the mix, and the last time I talked to you, you said, “Oh, God, every time we read even hints of that, we’re, like, ‘That can’t happen.’”

MP: [Laughs.] Yeah, famous last words, huh? Well, you know, we knew it was inevitable. I think that Patrick and I had been fighting against having a baby on the show the same way we’d fight against having a monkey on the show: we’d love having a monkey on the show, but that’d be a big, difficult shoot, wouldn’t it? Every time we have all eight thousand of Liz’s cats on the show, it takes two extra hours to film! But once we had an actual baby on the set, well, of course we just melted. We’re a couple big, sappy idiots.

BE: So what’s the status of the show? Is it still in flux? Will there be a Season 8?

MP: You know, every year we say it’ll take a miracle, and this year it felt done. I mean, we did 100 episodes, and it felt like, “Well, that’s an amazing number for any show to get to.” But as ever with this show, I guess you never know.

(Writer’s note: Funnily enough, if you go back and look at the interview I did with Warburton during the show’s third season, when I ask him about the possibility of Jeff and Audrey having a baby, he replied, “Yeah, well, hopefully, that will be season eight.”)

BE: When you look back at the run of the show thus far, do you have a particular favorite – or favorites – that leap to mind immediately?

MP: Oh, man, I have a million. And the truth is, my favorite…I don’t think of a whole episode as a favorite, generally, as much as particular scenes. Oh, no, wait, there is one. It’s called “Atlantic City.” Jeff lies to Audrey that he’s going to Atlantic City, and Audrey lies to Jeff that she’s going to a spa, but they’re both telling each other complete and total untruths for absolutely no personal gain. And then it just keeps avalanching, snowballing down a hill, lie upon lie upon lie, with both of them trying to race home to prove that the other one is lying while still somehow covering up their own lie. And yet, again, none of it is for personal gain. They’re not doing anything that the other would even care about! [Laughs.] So, yeah, I love that one, ‘cause to me it feels like a Noel Coward play. It was crazy, and very fun to do. But I love anything with Jeff and Audrey just talking about life. Nothing big happening, just their interaction. To me, it always sounds like a real couple. A real messed-up couple, but a real couple nonetheless.

BE: It really is a realistic dynamic that they’ve got between them.

MP: Yeah. I don’t know which one of the writers’ relationships it is, or if it’s an amalgamation of all of them. [Laughs.] It makes me feel sad for their wives.

BE: “Rules of Engagement” is one of those shows that’s been a stalwart of the CBS lineup even as it pretty consistently flies under the critical radar. Does that bother you, or are you just glad that you’ve got the dependable fans who keep coming back to watch the show?

MP: Well, I’ll tell ya: it falls under the critical radar except when they criticize it, but it makes us really appreciative of the people who notice the little things. Like, Patrick called me a couple of weeks ago, and he was, like, “I can’t believe this! I can’t believe this!” In USA Today, one of the writers had written that our relationship was the most realistic, funniest couple that’s ever been on television. And I’m, like, “What, in Season7 They just wrote that?” He said, “Yeah, there’s a whole article about how great our characters are!” And I was, like, “That’s, uh, unbelievably kind!” [Laughs.] Because, y’know, I feel like a lot of fans know that, but we haven’t really heard it in the press too much.

But, then again, our show has been a little inconsistent. I mean, when you have only a few episodes each year, or when you’re pulled and then put back on…we turned over a lot of writing staff, so I think there were years when it was a really, really well-written show, there were years when it was okay, there were years when we had new writers, and years when we had amazing writers who then left and, uh, went to do “Modern Family.” [Laughs.] It’s tough to keep your writing staff consistent when you never know when you’re coming back.

BE: In regards to the writing, is there any plot development related to Audrey that just rang untrue for you?

MP: [Long pause.] Yeah. I think it was very tough for me to constantly…well, I shouldn’t say “constantly,” but it was tough for me to do anything that rings in my ears to be, like, Clichéd Sitcom Wife. So if I’d have scenes where I’m going, “Hey, you’re supposed to be taking care of your health, we’re having a baby,” or that sort of thru-line, it’d just make me nuts. Cliché sitcom couple stuff has always been my biggest pet peeve, starting with taking the show with Donal. The only reason I wanted to do “Grounded for Life” was because that was not a couple that I had seen on TV. So for this couple, for me, every time Audrey feels like any other TV wife, I just get my hackles up.

BE: Well, to start wrapping up, since you brought up “Grounded for Life,” I have to tell you that, in the comments section for that interview I did with Donal, one of the recurring motifs involved people first praising the show, then praising “the hot wife.”

MP: That’s hilarious! You know, I once overheard these kids talking about me when I was on a plane. We were actually in the middle of shooting “Grounded,” and I was trying to get home from Arizona, and my flight was canceled. So I wound up with the last available seat on a Southwest flight back to L.A., so I could make it back for shooting. So I’m sitting in the middle of the aisle in the back of a Southwest plane, and these two teenage boys are sitting behind me, and they keep punching each other and arguing, and they’re whispering back and forth. Finally, one of ‘em goes, “Dude! If that was the hot mom from ‘Grounded for Life,’ she’d have her own plane!” [Laughs.] That’d be nice, wouldn’t it, my own plane? Mostly, though, I was going, “They think I’m hot? That’s so cool!” I also got free flip-flops at a surf store once because the clerk had been 16 when “Grounded for Life” was on!

BE: Okay, lastly, I just wanted to let you know that you were directly responsible for one of my wife’s favorite moments from the Television Critics Association press tour. It was at a Sony party a couple of years ago, and you were talking to my wife when Matthew Perry came up. You and he talked for a few minutes, but then you got called away to do an interview, at which point Matthew Perry turns to my wife and says, “So I suppose you want to talk to me now.” And because she’s not a journalist, she just looks at him and says, “Oh, GOD, no.” His jaw dropped. Then he burst out laughing.

MP: Oh. My. God. That is hilarious! That is so funny. He always loves to bring up how I blew him off when he was doing “Friends.” I was at Jennifer Aniston’s birthday party, and I was totally ignoring him, and he walked up to me and he goes, “I don’t think you understand, little girl: you better date me now, ‘cause my star is on the rise!” And I think in his head he was totally kidding…or he wasn’t, and now he claims that he was kidding. Because at the time it did not sound like he was kidding. I was, like, “How big is your ego, dude? Move on!” [Laughs.] So, yeah, now he likes to bring up how I misunderstood that he was joking. Uh-huh. Sure he was. In the heat of “Friends,” I’m real sure…

My favorite Television Critics Association story was when we were launching “Grounded for Life,” and there was all this talk about how I was only 10 years older than Lynsey Bartilson, who played my daughter, and…I mean, they just could not get off the subject. And finally, this big, fat guy raises his hand and goes, “Hey! Megyn! How old are you?” And I’m up on the dais, in front of this huge group of people. And I go, “How much do you weigh? Can we move on from the rude questions, mister?” It’s, like, “How rude are you, asking ‘how old are you’ to an actress?” And he said it in such a rude way. Thankfully, everybody in the whole room starting laughing, but, I mean, seriously, how inappropriate is that question? But I will say that usually I have fun at the TCAs. They tell you, “Oh, I’m sorry, you have to go to this thing,” but I like it, because it’s not all Hollywood types. It’s normal people. Well, you know, for the most part. [Laughs.]

Two weeks ago, I said, “Violence and adrenaline are as big a draw for [the Sons] as the brotherhood, motorcycles, and ‘easy’ money. You don’t live this kind of life, or at least continue to, without a taste for cheap thrills.” Back then I was referring to Jax, Tig, Chibs, and Happy escaping an ambush by going off-roading in a station wagon as bullets flied in every direction. After confirming that they were all alive, the guys laughed and screamed with excitement. Happy spoke for the group when he exclaimed “I am rapturous!”

That was a long winded way of saying these guys are adrenaline junkies. They are addicted to the lives of danger, risk, and crime they lead. Turn to Clay’s actions at the beginning of this season for further proof. Upon realizing that “the life” might be taken away from him, he did everything in his power to prevent it—like a caged lion claws and scratches in an attempt to find freedom or, say, Bob Hughes hustles to get a fix. Ironically enough, the SAMCRO clubhouse has a “No Junkies” sign, right by the doorway leading out to the picnic tables.

Regardless of what substance, lifestyle, or what have you an addict is dependent on, if he truly wants to quit, he quits. Right there on the spot. If he really means it, there is no last hurrah, no one last fix or drink, he won’t give himself another month of using, he won’t say Christmas day will be his last. Because when an addict gives himself that time, it’s not just time to use, but to reconsider whether he really wants to quit, and, more often than not, rationalize why it’s just not the right time yet.

You may see where I’m going with this. Jax and Tara were never going to get out and live safe, peaceful lives with their boys. They sentenced themselves to life in Charming the second they started making excuses and delaying. Jax was being just as dishonest (with everyone, including himself) when he said he’d get out once he’d “protected the club” as a junkie who promises to quit if he can use for just one more month, day, or hour. It’s always “just one more.” Likewise, if the Teller family really wanted to get out of Charming, they would have done so, right the fuck then, the same way an addict or alcoholic who’s quitting needs to really and truly commit right there on the spot. Otherwise, by the time you actually mean it, it’ll be too late. And for Jax and Tara, boy is it too late.

The episode title, “J’ai Obtenu Cette,” means “I got this” in French (perhaps as a nod to Chucky’s new language of choice). It’s a phrase Jax could have spoken in reference to  just about every task he set out to accomplish this season. He now has everything he ever wanted, but it doesn’t feel right. There’s a reason for that (aside from his wife getting arrested): as we’ve discussed so often, he had to transform into Clay to get it. The scary thing, both for us as fans of the idealistic Jax of the past and the people around him, is that he’s way better at being Clay than Clay ever was. Because while his willingness to do anything is reminiscent of Clay, his intelligence and ability to ensure his own hands appear clean is more in the vein of one Damon Pope. When Marks, Pope’s now-elevated number two, implies that the reason the chips fell where they did was because Jax engineered it, Jax responds, “You think I planned this whole thing? Come on, man, you’re giving me way too much credit. I ain’t Pope. I’m just a mechanic looking out for my family.” Yeah, whatever.

Last week, I said that if Jax took Pope’s advice about getting revenge indirectly, going behind the club’s back despite a vote to let Clay be, purely for his own purposes, it would be a trademark Clay move. Pope said Jax needed to “step back from the need to feel it” because “it’s not about the process, it’s about the result.” Well he did all that and more, and it cements his transformation into a hybrid monstrosity. Half Clay and half Pope might as well be equal parts Godzilla and King Kong for all the destruction it’s going to cause. The incredible thing about Jax’s plan is that he’s likely to get exactly what he wants, but guaranteed to get at least some satisfaction. The best case scenario (for Jax) is one of Marks’s guys will off Clay before he’s behind bars. The worst case scenario is they don’t, and Clay will still be behind bars.

Bobby knows what Jax did and calls him out on it. Jax suavely brushes off all guilt on a technicality, he didn’t lay a hand on Clay. Bobby responds to the quip, and Jax’s attitude, by saying, ”It wasn’t about being smart enough to hurt him, it was about being smart enough not to hurt him. You had a chance to be different.” Jax’s response is “Maybe I’m not so different.” I’ll say. Jax has forgotten why he wanted to be president in the first place. It wasn’t so he could get revenge on Clay and do what he pleased without consequence. It was so he could fulfill he and his father’s lofty ambitions for both himself and the club, it was for his sons (small “s”). Jax is the perfect leader for Clay’s Sons of Anarchy, but he wanted to be that leader for his father’s. As a result, part of the ending montage was Bobby slicing off his VP patch. But he won’t be leaving the club. Given that this is a show about transformations, and more often than not, transformations from one character into another, my prediction is that Bobby will be for Jax what Piney was for Clay. That is, the (relatively) old member, an artifact of another time, powerless to stop Jax’s treachery but still constantly yammering in his ear about it.

So Jax got what he wanted, but contrary to what Pope said, the realities of the process make you wonder whether the result was worth it. That’s just how things go in this show. For example, Roosevelt got some measure of vengeance on the man whose plotting led to his wife’s death. The sheriff didn’t have any proof that Clay was responsible for the break-ins, even though Eli knew he was responsible. Contrarily, he knew Clay wasn’t responsible for Pope’s murder, but that’s the crime he had evidence for.

The best example (outside of Jax), however, is Gemma. Despite everything that Clay’s done to her, and done in general, the cold manner in which his arrest went down made it feel somehow wrong. That’s partly because Clay has been getting slightly sympathetic of late, but more because his downfall was sealed by his wife and Juice, the two people he trusted most. But back to Gemma. She finally gets Nero, but at this point neither of them is the one the other fell in love with. Nero used to be an actual junkie, but as an OG he was addicted to the same lifestyle as Jax and company. The Nero Gemma’s getting has relapsed, he’s back to being a gangster. And Jax poked him with the metaphorical needle, just like he poked Wendy with a real one—completely out of self-interest.

Last of all, there’s Tara. I was really blown away by her arrest, it’s just a road I never saw the show taking. It’s possible that Toric got angry when Otto, you know, bit off his own tongue and tried to get some satisfaction another way, evidence be damned. But the evidence strongly suggests that Gemma is behind it (although Clay’s arrest is proof that in Charming, evidence doesn’t mean shit), and I’m not just talking about the fact that she threatened to dime. Tara’s talk about leaving likely made Gemma panic, then overhearing Jax and Nero talking about getting out was the last straw. Plus, she has a history of lying to law enforcement to get to her grandchildren in this very episode. Showing up to comfort Jax right at the moment of his wife’s arrest is a bold move, like an arsonist returning to watch the fire she started. And, of course, they ended with another play on “the shot,” where the resident old lady puts her arm around the president. Gemma and JT turned into Tara and Jax turned into Gemma and Jax.

A few more things:

-Now that I know Joel McHale won’t be coming back, his appearance sort of seems like a waste. It could be argued that it (potentially) distracted from the show (“Oooo, that’s Joel Mchale, wait what were they saying?”) more than his acting talents added over the average guy they’d get from an audition

-Stuff like Tig and the dog reminds us why we love these guys, who’d be villains in literally any other show.

-Can Juice stay loyal to a plan for either side just once? Right before Roosevelt shows up at Clay’s place, Juice tells him to take his bike and run. He’s lucky that didn’t happen, as it would’ve meant a best case scenario of Jax bringing his snitching to the table and a worst case of Jax having him killed.

-It doesn’t seem like Jax forcing Wendy to get high has messed with her recovery (so far), which is lucky considering how painfully obvious it is that a sober Wendy is the best parent Abel and Thomas can possibly hope to have. Although just because we haven’t seen her using doesn’t mean she isn’t. Even if she’s still clean, if that shot was going to bring her back to her old ways, it wouldn’t necessarily be instantly. Just having that experience in the back of her mind could be a trigger and bring on another relapse in time, this one voluntary.

-I can’t not gloat about calling the way things would go down with Tig/Pope.

-Sometimes, Chekhov’s gun refers to an actual gun.

That’s it for the fifth season. “Sons of Anarchy” will be back to make both its audience and characters miserable next year. To make the time go faster we’ll have “Justified,” the next show I’ll be analyzing, premiering on 1/8/13. Be sure to check back then and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @NateKreichman.

Can “Sons of Anarchy” accomplish the unthinkable, can it make Clay Morrow a likable character again? Over the course of the second half of this season, Clay has become more and more sympathetic. He’s not actually sympathetic, not yet anyway, but the Clay of late is at least a human being. His confession to the club was real, the most honest words we’ve ever heard him utter. That’s not to say they were the complete truth or that they didn’t contain some element of self-preservation. And granted, if Bobby got even a whiff of bullshit, I’m sure he would’ve joined the rest of the club in voting “yay” on Clay meeting Mr. Mayhem. But the confession was still a revelation. When we saw Clay ask for some time alone so he could break down and cry, it may have been our first ever glimpse at the person behind the crimes. I had to remind myself of the crimes to stop from feeling sorry for the person.

Clay now hopes to start and lead his own small club to earn money. It’s a dream that has clear parallels with Nero’s hopes of settling down with his son on his uncle’s ranch, completely free of the life he left behind, or Jax’s desire to mold the club to fit his father’s vision (as well as last season’s goal of escaping Charming with Tara and the boys). These are exactly the type of fantasies we expect from the manchildren that populate this show, ambitions that are almost adorable in their simplicity and improbability—like when a toddler tells you he’ll grow up to be a professional baseball player. But just like the characters, we want to believe.

Clay’s retribution is something we’ve yearned for since season four at the latest (the pilot at the earliest), and it was accomplished in a way that met and subverted our expectations at the same time. Clay was brought to the table during the influx of his humanity, and as a result, the verdict on his survival brought both relief and frustration. Part of me enjoyed every moment of the beating Jax handed out afterwards, because I wanted Clay to die too. But at the same time it was the perfect illustration of Jax’s spiral out of control—the way anger and a thirst for revenge are driving him more than the good of the club ever did. It seems Clay’s justification for his dealings with the Nomads made sense in a fucked up, Clay sort of way. He was right that Jax wasn’t ready for the pressures of leadership, just not in the way he expected. Jax has been a fantastic president for the SAMCRO Clay built. But that wasn’t what he wanted when he took the gavel, he wanted to be a great leader for the club as he and his father envisioned it. The protester outside the White House clamors for world peace, but would he have the strength to make it a reality it if he was the one sitting in the oval office?

Love-hate-love (and vice-versa) arcs have always been “Sons of Anarchy’s” bread and butter. In the case of almost every major character, the show has started us out feeling one way and then worked to push us in the other direction. Often, when a character reaches the other side of the spectrum, the show turns him or her right back again. If you, like me, are starting to lose respect for the man Jax has become, it’s a mark of the show’s success. Shooting Wendy with heroin, given that she is an addict in recovery, was truly reprehensible. It’d be easier for us to see Wendy has a point about being the best person to raise the boys if not for the fact that Jax (and to a lesser extent Tara) are the protagonists. Likewise, Pope advises Jax to find a way to have Clay offed indirectly. Maybe it’s what Clay deserves. But at the same time, Jax going behind the club’s back to off him despite the vote to let him walk, purely for his own purposes, would be a trademark Clay move. If that’s the road Jax goes down, it will be the ultimate symbol of his transformation. Actions like these will give his inevitable redemption all the more emotional impact. I’m certain that by the series finale, we’ll be back in Jax’s corner. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. It might take the entirety of the final two seasons to accomplish.

Speaking of Pope, with Clay now stripped of all power, he’s sure to be a major source of conflict moving forward. I still don’t know if I believe Jax is just going to hand Tig over, even if Clay’s ousting means Tig’s usefulness is diminished (or even gone). At the same time I think the new Jax genuinely looks up to Pope. He tells Bobby that “you can’t sit in this chair without being a savage,” and given that Pope is the ultimate mentor in savagery, it makes sense that Jax would continue to seek his counsel. Whether he’s planning to turn Tig over or go to war with Pope, Jax is going to need every play in the savage book. Jax’s decision on the Tig front will either cement Pope as a friend or an enemy during the finale (if it’s the latter, Jax will have a plan to make it seem like he’s giving Tig up until the very last moment before taking Pope out).

Another source of conflict will be Lee Toric, the retired U.S. Marshall played by Donal Logue whose sister was the nurse Tara accidentally helped Otto murder. I predicted this meta motivation last week based on the fact that the actress who played said nurse was Logue’s real-life sister. Tara played her deposition almost perfectly. It’s clear her interrogator had his doubts about her innocence and naivety, but it’s not hard to imagine a scenario in which she gets off and Toric is forced to seek his own justice. Toric is next season’s big bad, meaning he’s here to stay. His appearance during the ending montage showed him holed up in the dark with enough weapons for a small army and a bag full of pill bottles (perhaps he’s addicted to painkillers or some other pharmaceutical, which would give him a weakness and explain why he’s a retired U.S. Marshall). The most unsettling thing, however, may have been Toric’s choice of literature, “Watchfiends and Rack Screams,” by Antonin Artaud. The book was written during the last three years of Artaud’s life, which he spent incarcerated at a mental asylum, and it reads like it. I made that joke about Jax needing every play in the savage book, well, he might have to ask if he can borrow it from Toric first.

Check out the preview for next week’s episode below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.

“To Thine Own Self” opened with Tara telling Jax about the offer she got from the practice in Providence. She followed the news up by insisting Jax had accomplished what he set out to and that it’s time to get out of Dodge. “I know why you couldn’t walk away a few months ago. The club’s been your whole life, you couldn’t let it die… But ending RICO saves SAMCRO, and whatever happens with Clay you have put the MC on the right track, you’ve done everything you’ve wanted to do. It’s your turn now, we can move on.” On the surface, she’s right. Especially considering all the shrewd (and more importantly, successful) moves Jax made as the episode moved forward. And yet, we all know there’s a zero percent chance the Teller family will be taking their talents to Providence. And it’s not just because a show called “Sons of Anarchy” would be a lot less interesting absent, you know, the Sons of Anarchy.

Exhibit A is Jax, Tig, Chibs, and Happy’s escape from the members of Nero’s old crew who decided that while they’d like a cache of the club’s guns, they’d prefer not to pay for them. The guys went off-roading in a station wagon, fired some automatic weapons, and narrowly escaped with their lives. Happy even had a bullet graze his head, and his response? “I am rapturous!” He was speaking for the group.

Violence and adrenaline are as big a draw for these guys as the brotherhood, motorcycles, and “easy” money. You don’t live this kind of life, or at least continue to, without a taste for cheap thrills. It doesn’t matter that the club no longer has RICO hanging over his head. It doesn’t matter that both Galindo and the Chinese are on board for the new weapons deal. It wouldn’t even matter if Clay finally got his comeuppance. There are only two places Jax can end up post-SAMCRO: in a cage or in a box. Sorry Tara, your husband  is never going to be a peaceful mechanic in motherfucking Rhode Island.

It’s become clear that Jax’s little rage trip is not a temporary result of Opie’s death. This is something that’s been building. A big part of it stems from his ongoing quest to kill Clay, which as Bobby points out is turning Jax into the very thing he despises. But one of this season’s major points  is that the gavel is what’s changing our protagonist—that angry and vengeful are necessary characteristics of the man at the head of the table, the man with all the power, the man in control. Maybe Clay became the man we all love to hate because he was under the same pressures Jax is now.

As Jax turns into Clay, Clay turns into something else. These last few episodes, in his talks with Juice and Tig and Jax, those words were genuine and heartfelt. Don’t get me wrong, Clay’s still a snake, as evidenced by the way he slithered those legal documents away just as they (sort of) fell into his former stepson’s hands, but he’s not the same snake. He had the opportunity to eliminate Jax and return to the presidency, instead he gave advice which he believed both good and necessary, that the club shouldn’t just walk away from Galindo. Clay’s not going to give in, let the truth come out, and die in disgrace, but he no longer seems to be motivated purely by self interest. Bobby’s decision to go to Clay at the end of the episode was driven by fear of the new Jax, sure, but it seemed to come from recognition of the new Clay as well.

The new direction of Clay’s character is something I did not see coming. The same can be said of Nero Padilla. When Nero was first introduced, he seemed too good to be true—loyal to Jax, loving to Gemma, a smart and safe business partner—I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I thought the show would wring drama and suspense out of Nero by having him turn on the club, in some way becoming yet another enemy. Instead, Nero was everything he seemed to be and more. And just look at how that’s worked out for him.

I mentioned that Jax’s arc has demonstrated the way being in charge changes people. Likewise, Nero’s arc is meant to show that just being close to the boss brings tumult and turmoil, anger and vengeance, by proxy. His life’s gone to shit not because he’s an enemy of SAMCRO, but because he’s a friend. When Nero believes his former crew kidnapped Jax, he goes out and does a bit of murder, returning to the life of violent crime he’d sworn was behind him. All because the club was quick to call him when they (thought they) needed his help, and sort of forgot to let him know when they didn’t. The Nero we saw at the end of the episode seemed like he’d just stepped out of a warzone, like he’d been truly traumatized, and he has. He’s messed up, but he’s a former OG, it’s something he’ll get over—or would, if he had Gemma there to comfort him. But he doesn’t. And why’s that again? Because Jax has put his mom to work, throwing both her and Nero under the bus in his efforts to eliminate Clay.

Meanwhile, this episode introduced a new character, Lee Toric, played by Donal Logue, whose sole mission is to make the last few months of Otto’s life a little more miserable, if that’s even possible. We know very little about the character so far, other than that he’s got the pull to get into a maximum security prison and beat the shit out of a dude in solitary confinement. His motivations remain unknown. All we have to go on is his desire to torture Otto and his following Tara at the end of the episode. A good guess would be that his actions have something to do with that nurse Otto murdered. Maybe she was a family member and he’s out for vengeance. All that might be a bit too convenient, considering she was played by Karina Logue, the actor’s real life sister, but Toric is sure to be a major player moving forward.

A few more things:

-“This Kenny G shit’s gonna give my cancer cancer.”

-The club’s lawyer is played by Robin Weigert. I knew I recognized her from something but couldn’t figure out what (looking it up is cheating). Last night it hit me, Weigert played Calamity Jane in “Deadwood.”

-As I predicted last week, Jax isn’t going to just hand Tig over, and that’s going to make Pope mad. A confrontation is brewing.

Check out the preview for next week’s episode below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.

Robin Tunney (Ep. 1.1, “Pilot”)
Character: a kindergarten teacher who becomes dysphasic and starts having seizures. Turns out she’s invested with tapeworms.

Sam Trammell (Ep. 1.4, “Maternity”)
Character: the father of a baby girl that’s not even out of the maternity ward and already on death’s door from a virus.

Elizabeth Mitchell (Ep. 1.5, “Damned If you Don’t”)
Character: a nun who looks like she’s suffering from stigmata but is later discovered to be suffering an allergic reaction to a copper cross IUD left over from her, uh, wilder days.

Dominic Purcell (Ep. 1.6, “Fidelity”)
Character: a husband whose wife – the Patient of the Week – turns out to have been unfaithful.

Amanda Seyfried (Ep. 1.11, “Detox”)
Character: girlfriend to the Patient of the Week.

Scott Foley (Ep. 1.12, “Sports Medicine”)
Character: a baseball player suffering cadmium poisoning from all the pot he’s been smoking.

Joe Morton (Ep. 1.17, “Role Model”)
Character: a senator suffering the after-effects of an epilepsy treatment from childhood

John Cho (Ep. 1.20, “Love Hurts”)
Character: a guy who, after spilling apple juice on House’s clothes, ends up being diagnosed by him as having had a stroke. Upon further investigation, it’s determined that he has a trauma-induced aneurysm as a result of a preference for sadomasochism.

Carmen Electra (Ep. 1.21, “Three Stories”)
Character: While begrudgingly lecturing a classroom of medical students about a past patient who is depicted as looking like Carmen Electra playing miniature golf. In reality, the patient was actually a male golfer…and he played regular golf, by the way. (Who knew miniature golf could be so sexy?)

LL Cool J (Ep.2.1, “Acceptance”)
Character: a death-row inmate suffering from pheochromocytoma.

Ron Livingston (Ep. 2.4, “TB or Not TB”)
Character: a famous doctor who thinks he has tuberculosis. He doesn’t. It’s actually a tumor and a pancreas problem.

Taraji P. Henson (Ep. 2.6, “Spin”)
Character: the publicist for a famous bicyclist.

Cynthia Nixon (Ep. 2.9, “Deception”)
Character: an anemic woman who turns out to suffer from Münchausen’s syndrome.

Elle Fanning (Ep. 2.11, “Need to Know”)
Character: a little girl whose mom is swiping her Ritalin.

Howard Hesseman (Ep. 2.14, “Sex Kills”)
Character: a man who, in addition to suffering from a brain infection, is also sleeping with his ex-wife, who’s estranged from their daughter. It’s a family affair!

Michelle Trachtenberg (Ep. 2.16, “Safe”)
Character: a teenage girl who, in addition to having survived a car accident only by having a heart transplant, ends up suffering from an acute case of Tick in the Vagina. I only wish I was joking.

Jayma Mays (Ep. 2.18, “Sleeping Dogs Lie”)
Character: a poor, sweet girl who’s contracted bubonic plague through the fleas of her dog.

Thomas Dekker (Ep. 2.19, “House vs. God”)
Character: a faith healer who, rather embarrassingly, turns out to be suffering from a nasty case of herpes.

William Katt (Ep. 2.19, “House vs. God”)
Character: the father of the aforementioned faith healer.

D.B. Sweeney (Ep. 2.23, “Who’s Your Daddy?”)
Character: an old buddy of House’s who finds himself in the midst of a Katrina-related paternity situation.

Elias Koteas (Ep. 2.24, “No Reason”)
Character: a former patient of House’s who’s so disgruntled that he storms into the hospital and promptly shoots House twice. Which, really, isn’t all that surprising.

Kathleen Quinlan (Ep. 3.1, “Meaning”)
Character: the wife of a brain cancer surgery patient who’s paralyzed and in a wheelchair.

Sheryl Lee (Ep. 3.2, “Cane and Able”)
Character: the mother of a seven-year-old boy suffering from rectal bleeding and claims of being tortured by aliens.

Joel Grey (Ep. 3.3, “Informed Consent”)
Character: a noted cancer doctor who, as a result of suffering from the disease himself, begs House for euthanasia.

John Larroquette (Ep. 3.7, “Son of Coma Guy”)
Character: a gentleman in a vegetative state who, thanks to a cocktail of L-Dopa and amphetamines, is awakened long enough to reconnect with his son.

Patrick Fugit (Ep. 3.8, “Whac-A-Mole”)
Character: an 18-year-old who has a heart attack because, as it turns out, he needs a bone marrow transplant.

Meagan Good (Ep. 3.11, “Words and Deeds”)
Character: a firefighter who stands beside one of her medically-challenged coworkers

Dave Matthews (Ep. 3.15, “Half-Wit”)
Character: a pianist deals with a neurological condition which may impair his ability to play.

Kurtwood Smith (Ep. 3.15, “Half-Wit”)
Character: the father of the aforementioned pianist.

Marc Blucas (Ep. 3.16, “Top Secret”)
Character: a veteran who claims to have a nasty case of Gulf War Syndrome but is actually stuck with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia instead.

Bailee Madison (Ep. 3.19, “Act Your Age”)
Character: a six-year-old who’s been affected by their father’s sexual-enhancement cream and, as a result, is going through puberty early.

Lyndsy Fonseca (Ep. 3.22, “Resignation”)
Character: a 19-year-old martial artist drinks drain cleaner and then pretends she hasn’t.

Piper Perabo (Ep. 3.22, “Resignation”)
Character: a vegan and nutritionist who thinks House is interested in her for a job and then gets upset when she realizes it’s more about her, uh, other assets.

Frank Whaley (Ep. 4.5, “Mirror, Mirror”)
Character: a mystery man who comes into the hospital and claims to have numerous symptoms while also suffering from some real ones.

Jeremy Renner (Ep. 4.9, “Games”)
Character: a grunge rocker whose addition to heroin is the least of his problems.

Mira Sorvino (Ep. 4.11, “Frozen”)
Character: a researcher in Antarctica who has to be diagnosed by House via webcam.

Felicia Day (Ep. 5.2, “Not Cancer”)
Character: a teacher who had a corneal transplant and is now dealing with a major brain problem.

Breckin Meyer (Ep. 5.3, “Adverse Events”)
Character: an artist who suffers from a gastrointestinal mass after taking an experimental antacid.

Sherilyn Fenn (Ep. 5.11, “Joy to the World”)
Character: the mother of a teenage girl suffering from both pregnancy and terminal cancer.

Judy Greer (Ep. 5.18, “Here Kitty”)
Character: a woman convinced that she’s going to die because a cat with a disconcerting tendency to sleep next to people on the last night of their lives slept next to her.

Mos Def (Ep. 5.19, “Locked In”)
Character: a guy who gets into a bicycle accident and gets locked-in syndrome for this trouble, meaning that he can think and is fully aware but can’t move or tell anyone of his awareness.

Meat Loaf (Ep. 5.20, “Simple Explanation”)
Character: a terminal patient who, like his life’s not bad enough already, has to endure watching his wife start to succumb to a resperatory ailment.

Carl Reiner (Ep. 5.24, “Both Sides Now”)
Character: an elderly man who claims to have a “squawking ” problem – his term for acid reflux, apparently – but actually has pancreatic cancer.

Curtis Armstrong (Ep. 6.1, “Broken”)
Character: One of House’s fellow patients at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.

James Earl Jones (Ep. 6.3, “The Tyrant”)
Character: a dying African dictator who nobody wants to save because he’s pro-ethnic-cleansing. Can you blame them, though? I mean, really…

Joshua Malina (Ep. 6.9, “Wilson”)
Character: a former patient of Wilson’s who asks him for part of his liver and, after getting it, proceeds to prove himself to be as much of a user as House is.

Ethan Embry (Ep. 6.10, “The Down Low”)
Character: a drug dealer suffering from the repeated aneurysms brought on by Hughes-Stovin Syndrome.

Orlando Jones (Ep. 6.12, “Moving the Chains”)
Character: Foreman’s brother. They’re not real close.

Laura Prepon (Ep. 6.14, “Private Lives”)
Character: A workaholic blogger with a case of Whipple’s Disease. It’s a gastrointestinal disorder. Any more detail would just freak us both out.

Sarah Wayne Callies (Ep. 6.18, “Open and Shut”)
Character: a woman whose open marriage makes it decidedly difficult to determine her ailment.

Jennifer Grey (Ep. 7.5, “Unplanned Parenthood”)
Character: a woman who gives birth to a baby with breathing problems, only to find out that she has melanoma and has passed it on to her child.

Amy Irving (Ep. 7.3, “Unwritten”)
Character: the author of a popular series of children’s books who has a seizure in the middle of trying to commit suicide.

Jack Coleman (Ep. 7.6, “Office Politics”)
Character: a senator’s campaign manager who has kidney failure. Oh, also, he probably had sex with the senator.

Matthew Lillard (Ep. 7.9, “Larger Than Life”)
Character: a musician who learns that parents aren’t fucking around when they tell you that chicken pox can be a major hassle when contracted by adults.

Donal Logue (Ep. 7.20, “Changes”)
Character: a lottery winner whose paralysis and cancer may or may not be the result of his new millionaire lifestyle.

David Costabile (Ep. 7.20, “Changes”)
Character: the lottery winner’s shady cousin.

Michael Pare (Ep. 8.1, “Twenty Vicodin”)
Character: The warden of the prison House gets thrown in after driving his car into Cuddy’s house.

Wentworth Miller (Ep. 8.3, “Charity Case”)
Character: a philanthropist who, in the midst of his own medical issues, offers to donate a kidney to a patient.

Michael Nouri (Ep. 8.4, “Risky Business”)
Character: a businessman whose constant trips to China may be the cause of his medical woes.

Billy Connolly (Ep. 8.14, “Love is Blind”)
Character: the man who would be House’s next stepfather. (In other words, the guy’s sleeping with House’s mom.)

Peter Weller (Ep. 8.20, “Post Mortem”)
Character: another physician at the hospital, one who looks suspiciously like the man who directed this episode.

James LeGros (Ep. 8.22, “Everybody Dies”)
Character: a drug addict who causes House to reflect on his life.

Chi McBride (Season 1)
Character: a billionaire pharmaceutical company owner who donates US$100 million to the hospital in return for becoming chairman of the board. He doesn’t like House. At all. Which is why he leaves quickly.

Sela Ward (Seasons 1 & 2)
Character: House’s ex-girlfriend, who turns up because she wants him to treat her husband, who’s suffering from acute intermittent porphyria. House thinks he’s going to get back together with his ex. He’s wrong.

Charles S. Dutton (Seasons 2 & 3)
Character: Foreman’s rather religious father.

R. Lee Ermey (Seasons 2 & 5)
Character: House’s father. Except it later turns out that he wasn’t actually House’s father after all. But that doesn’t stop him from grieving when he dies.

Diane Baker ( Seasons 2, 5 & 8 )
Character: House’s mother. Things get weird when she finds someone new in the wake of her husband’s death.

David Morse (Season 3)
Character: a clinic patient of House’s who gets pissed off at the way House treats him, and because he’s a detective, he proceeds to make House’s life a living hell for several episodes.

Leighton Meester (Season 3)
Character: House’s stalker. Actually, she only stalked him for two episodes, but it still technically counts.

Kadeem Hardison (Season 3)
Character: House’s attorney while he’s being taunted by David Morse’s character

Fred Durst (Season 4)
Character: the bartender who took House’s keys and forced him to ride the bus home, which subsequently wrecked and killed Amber (Anne Dudek), Wilson’s girlfriend.

Lori Petty (Season 5)
Character: a patient involved in the Huntington’s disease drug trials with Thirteen.

Andre Braugher (Season 6)
Character: House’s therapist when he’s doin’ time at the Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital. The two end up bonding somewhat after House’s release.

Cynthia Watros (Seasons 6 & 7)
Character: Wilson’s first wife. They start dating again. It doesn’t work out. Again.

Candice Bergen (Season 7)
Character: Cuddy’s mother

Paula Marshall (Season 7)
Character: Cuddy’s sister.