SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen Sons of Anarchy‘s season 4 finale, stop reading now. Creator Kurt Sutter talks us through the intense final hour and teases what’s to come.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
I think most fans will want to know when you thought of the twist that Romeo and Luis work with the CIA and need SAMCRO to keep working with the cartel and the Irish, who will only get in business with the cartel if Clay is involved.
SUTTER:
From the beginning. I sort of go in with those big arcs knowing what I want to do and how I’m gonna do it. Then really, it’s about breaking the episodes down and hanging the meat on the bones and creating the story to get there organically. I thought people would pick up on it. If you go back and look at all those scenes with Romeo and Luis and the guys, it all fits. It all makes sense. Even from the second episode when they suddenly just showed up outside of that reservation saying, “Hey, yeah, we got word on the pipeline that you guys were here.” Clearly they found out these guys were in trouble and they needed them around, so they sort of showed up and shut down the Russians. So all those clues were there all along, and it’s exactly what happened with Pablo Escobar. It’s what the CIA does. It goes in and empowers one cartel. We give one set of bad guys the money and guns to ultimately have some hold of the political reins in a territory. The history was there, and I was afraid that somebody was gonna pick up on it earlier on, and they didn’t. I think it was a fun reveal for everyone.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
Was that one of the advantages of casting Danny Trejo as Romeo? I don’t think anyone would think of him as being government issue. You knew the twist when you cast him?
SUTTER:
Yeah. [Laughs] It’s interesting. I had an interview with Danny, but I think Danny wasn’t really familiar with the show. In my initial interview with him, I told him all about this. I told him that he is who he is, he worked for the Mexican military, but instead of being recruited by a cartel, he was recruited by the CIA. I told him all that. But I think he was so overwhelmed when he came in that he completely forgot about it, which ultimately, I think, was a good thing. [Laughs] He came into me at the end and goes, “Oh man, I can’t believe that I’m working with the CIA.” I’m like, “Danny, I told you that already.” He’s so funny. I sorta knew that we were gonna do it from the jump. You have to be careful with things like that. It’s really hard to do later in the game after you’ve written other episodes because then it feels like a forced fix. I wanted to be sure that people could go back and look at all those scenes and storylines and realize that it all makes sense and falls in place.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
As I told Ron Perlman when he and I spoke about the finale, we did a poll asking readers how the season would end for Clay, and only 19 percent thought he’d still be alive. That must be satisfying.
SUTTER:
That most people thought he’d be dead? Yeah. You get into the throes of this, and I sorta forget the impact that it has on the fan base. Not that it doesn’t make sense, but I was somewhat surprised how Clay ultimately has become the most hated character on TV. I can’t obviously hate any of my characters, and in my mind, it’s all coming from a desperate place for Clay. Even though his actions are nefarious and awful, I can’t help but know what’s going on with the guy underneath, so I always feel like there’s a reason for all his actions. But yeah, people felt very strongly about him going away. [Laughs]
Read the full interview at EW.com.
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