Sons of Anarchy - Katey Sagal & Jimmy Smits on "Sad, Grim" and "Satisfying" Series Finale

“I think she would kill anybody,” Katey Sagal suggested in a conversation with SpoilerTV and other press outlets of her Sons of Anarchy alter-ego Gemma Teller-Morrow. “At the end of the day if it was to protect her grandchildren, her son or herself, I think she would kill anybody.” Days after that call, Gemma was killed by her son, Jax (Charlie Hunnam), in the series’ penultimate episode. Although many fans would say the scene was inevitable, a clear goal since last season’s finale which found Gemma murdering her daughter-in-law, Tara (Maggie Siff), it still came as quite a shock. Gemma has been as much of a driving force in the series’ storytelling as its titular motorcycle gang since it premiered on FX in 2008, and despite Tara’s killing being perhaps her most gruesome offense, it was made clear from day one what Gemma was capable of. Still, fans couldn’t help but sympathize with the twisted matriarch – thanks, in huge part, to Sagal’s complex and emotional performance (seriously, Emmy voters, what gives?)

“I’m excited for them to see the conclusion,” she told us, despite not being present for the final episode. “I feel like this season overall has been so strong in the character department. It’s not that there’s not action, there’s a lot of action, but there’s also a lot of character to character conversation and slower beats.” Of filming her final scene with Charlie Hunnam, where Gemma talks her hesitant son through killing his mother, Sagal told us “I can tell you there’s lots of tears that were shed.”

While Gemma seemed to have made peace with her impending death the moment Juice (Theo Rossi) told her that Jax knew the truth, others may not be taking it so lightly. “You’ll see more than guilt,” Jimmy Smits said of how Nero will react to discovering what’s happened. “I was a little surprised specifically about the way Nero ends up, but I totally get it. I totally get it,” he said of the final episode. “As much as it is exciting and sad and funny, it’s got that grim quality to it as well.”

“I’ve been continually shocked with the past maybe five scripts in terms of, like, we’re really blowing shit up here. [Kurt Sutter is] going for broke, so it was always with like a little bit of trepidation on everybody’s part when that new script would come into your email,” he continued. “I don’t think audiences are going to be disappointed at all. I think they’re going to be very satisfied and it’s touching in a lot of ways. It’s sad, but it’s also it’s grim, too.”

Grim is certainly an accurate term to describe Sons of Anarchy’s tone this season. While Jax has always been a dark character in an even darker world, his wife’s murder has sent our antihero on an ultraviolent path to avenge her death. The pile-up of bodies in the wake of Gemma and Juice’s homicide and cover-up has neared triple digits and as the last episode closed out Jax seemed at peace with his own possible impending demise. Whether or not fans want to see Jax dead is still up in the air.

Tonight’s series finale has many burning questions and loose ends to tie up, but most of all fans will miss seeing these characters each and every week. “The fact that people had become so engaged and so invested in the story and the characters, that’s done something for them,” Sagal told us of the series’ loyal and vocal audience. “I think that’s its own legacy; that it has become a successful way for people to be entertained... Really our job is to entertain and I think we’ve done that.”

The final episode of Sons of Anarchy, “Papa’s Goods”, premieres tonight at 10pm EST on FX.
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