I have to admit that I was a little surprised how Gemma handled the discovery of the death threat left in Tara’s car, because I thought for sure that she would either rip it up or take it directly to Clay demanding an explanation. Instead, she doesn’t even seem to consider that it might have anything to do with Clay, and instead shows it to Tara, who characteristically freaks out. Of course, when Clay hears about the death, he knows immediately that Unser is responsible and warns him to stay out of his way. But now that Unser knows that he was used by Clay in order to cover up John Teller’s death, I think that he’s willing to accept the consequences of the truth coming out if it means that an innocent life will be saved in the process. Granted, I’m not really sure how informing Tara’s supervisor Margaret is going to help protect her, but maybe Margaret will be able to transfer her to another hospital for a while until all this blows over.

And at the rate things are going, it could be sooner than later, especially now that SAMCRO knows that the Galindo cartel’s main competitors are targeting their associates – namely, the Mayans and the Sons – in an attempt to force Romeo and his crew out of California. Bobby has been trying to tell Clay that getting into bed with the cartel was trouble from the start, and he’s so disgusted with how everything has turned out that he’s decided to challenge him for the presidency. That’s a pretty bold move on Bobby’s part, but while it might seem like an easy win for Clay considering he got the majority vote over the last decision involving the cartel, now that the club has seen just how much danger they’re in after only a few weeks on the job, there’s a pretty good chance that at least one person will jump ship.

Of course, Juice might not even be around to cast his vote if Lincoln has anything to do about it. After Roosevelt informs him that Juice won’t turn over the coke sample until he meets the guy pulling the strings behind the operation, Lincoln orders Roosevelt to set up a fake meeting and bust him for possession instead. Though Roosevelt refuses to play dirty in order to get Juice’s cooperation (a statement even Lincoln finds ironic since he was more than willing to destroy the Sons’ clubhouse with a fire axe), he’s eventually coerced into going along with Lincoln’s plan. But for as much of a pain that Roosevelt has been to SAMCRO since his arrival, you could tell that he felt really bad about the situation that he was putting Juice in. After all, if Juice doesn’t cooperate, he’ll be thrown into prison and likely killed. And if he does cooperate but SAMCRO finds out, he’ll be killed well. Either way, he’s a dead man walking, and Juice’s expression as he left the police station implied that he knew as much.

I’m actually quite shocked that Chibs isn’t more suspicious of Juice after the way he’s been acting lately, but you’ve got to love that he’s at least looking out for the guy when no one else seems to notice that something is wrong. I’m sure that Juice would have rather Chibs didn’t go to Clay to voice his concerns about him, however, because after that very fatherly speech by Clay about how proud he was of him, it only made Juice’s guilt that much worse. My stomach was positively tied in knots during that final sequence as he sewed on the Men of Mayhem patch and then hung himself from the tree, but I’m confident that he’s not actually dead. In fact, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear what sounds like a tree branch breaking just before the episode cuts to black, so make of that what you will. Regardless of the outcome, you can bet that it’s going to make Roosevelt think long and hard about what he’s done to push Juice in that direction.

With time running out until Romeo’s arrival, Clay decides that he has no other choice but to condemn the pair to death and try and save face with the cartel. But Juice, who doesn’t exactly want their blood on his conscience, suggests that they give the prospects one last chance to return the brick with no questions asked. If it shows up, they’ll be kicked out of the club, but at least they’ll still be alive. That gives Juice just enough time to run out into the woods, grab a sample for Roosevelt, and take the brick back to the warehouse… or so he thinks. Instead, he runs into Miles, who quickly puts two and two together and realizes that Juice is the thief. The ensuing chaos led to one of the series’ biggest “holy shit” moments yet, with Juice getting a hold of Miles’ gun and shooting him clean through the face. And now that everyone thinks Miles was the one responsible, Juice has been given yet another lifeline.

But how much longer can this realistically go on? Though the club was a little surprised that it was Miles who stole the cocaine, they don’t seem to be putting too much thought into why he might have done it. Chibs, on the other hand, is the only one who’s even remotely suspicious of the whole situation, especially after the way Juice was acting around him all day. Their conversation about the prohibition of color in SAMCRO must have come across as pretty random to Chibs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he started sniffing around Juice’s personal life. Those two appear to have a stronger friendship with each other than most guys in the club, so Chibs will undoubtedly want to do everything he can to get Juice out of trouble before the rest of SAMCRO finds out. The whole thing still feels a bit contrived to me, and even more so after Chibs admitted that many of the club’s rules were pretty outdated. After all, if one of its own members doesn’t even agree with certain by-laws, then surely there’s room for some change.

Nothing else really happened tonight story-wise that was so major it deserves a full breakdown, but there are still plenty of things worth discussing, so as usual, here are some other thoughts from the episode:

* One of the show’s biggest strengths has always been its ability to slip in some humor when you least expect it, and there was a great example of that tonight when, after Happy fired a few more rounds into Miles’ dead body seemingly just for kicks, Chibs deadpanned, “Did you get him?”

* The whole subplot involving Tig and his duplicitous daughter may have seemed kind of lame when compared to some of the other stories this season, but it was a nice piece of character development that allowed the writers to show the usually tough-as-nails enforcer in a completely different light. Some people were probably thinking, “Why did he give her the money if he knew she was lying?,” but that’s what made it so great. He did it because he’s her father, and that’s what fathers do. And that knowing laugh between Gemma and Bobby just about said as much.

* The honeymoon period between Opie and Lyla sure didn’t last long, but is anyone really surprised? They weren’t exactly the ideal couple, and now that Opie knows about Lyla getting the abortion, it’s hard to imagine they’ll be together for much longer. At least Jax made sure that Ima won’t be ruining any more relationships in the future. That was a great bait-and-switch move on his part, and she deserved every bit.

* I can’t believe that Clay is actually going to go through with putting a hit on Tara, and using the cartel to get it done no less. Thankfully, it looks like she’s got a guardian angel in Unser, who has not only tipped off Roosevelt that she could be in danger, but has taken the extreme action of leaving a fake death threat in her car as a scare tactic. I doubt that Sutter would actually go through with killing Tara (or would he?), but it’s certainly going to make for some interesting tension between Clay and Unser.

“I had John Teller killed while I was bedding his wife. It doesn’t matter what the reason was. Jax finds that out, he cuts off my goddamn head, he sticks it on the reaper pole.”

Wow. I mean, it’s not like it was a theory that hadn’t been batted around before, but thinking he may be involved and knowing for certain are two very different things – especially when Gemma was in on it too. Or was she? That’s where the story gets a little interesting, because while she clearly had knowledge of Clay’s plot to kill Jax’s father, I think that she was given the same bogus reason as Unser. Clay apparently told him that JT’s weakness would bring violence to Charming, and though Unser believed it at the time, after breaking into Tara’s office to steal the letters, he realized that it was all just a lie. Clay didn’t like that JT was trying to get the club out of the gun business, and he killed him for it, dragging Gemma and Unser down into the dirt with him. To make matters even worse, Gemma thinks that the letters have been destroyed by Unser, but the originals are still out there, and the only way that Clay can ensure the truth never gets out is by killing the only people who know about them: Piney and Tara.

Meanwhile, after the club receives word that Otto has found out about Luanne’s affair with Bobby (and suspects he may have been involved in her murder as well), SAMCRO tries to set the record straight by tracking down Georgie Caruso, who they believe is the real culprit. But Georgie is nowhere to be found after leaving the porno business for greener pastures in the sex toy industry, so the guys head to Cara Cara to meet with Layla’s new producer/director, Dondo (played by none other than The Hoff), who offers to lure Georgie back to the studio if they promise to kill him for what he did to Luanne.

As expected, Georgie falls for the trap, but when he offers up his wealthy Japanese business contacts in exchange for his life, Clay surprises everyone by agreeing to let him go. That’s because he’s planning to push the investors onto Jacob Hale in an attempt to feign success with the Charming Heights project, only to then pull them out at the last possible second so that the property deal falls through. Unfortunately, that leaves Bobby to break the bad news to Otto, but instead of just telling him the truth about Georgie’s stay of execution, he lies and says that they killed him instead. I’m not really sure why, but I’m starting to have my doubts that Georgie murdered Luanne at all.

Bobby wasn’t the only one acting especially shady tonight either, with Juice’s loyalty to SAMCRO being tested now that Roosevelt is blackmailing him with the information about his biological father. What’s funny is that Roosevelt himself is unknowingly being played at the same time. Though he initially refuses to help Lincoln play the race card against Juice in fear that he’ll be held accountable should Juice end up dead, Lincoln assures him that his involvement will be struck from the record in order to protect him. What Roosevelt doesn’t realize, however, is that Lincoln is lying straight to his face. (And here I thought he was actually one of the good guys). Granted, he did what he had to do in order to keep his investigation alive, but I always figured Lincoln for someone who played by the rules. In any event, Juice is now stuck holding an entire brick of cocaine, and SAMCRO has just noticed that it’s missing. Here’s hoping that doesn’t mean his days are numbered, because it would be a pretty stupid way for him to go.