Sex, Violence, and Motorcycles

Tonight's show - Season 2 Premiere "Albification" - began with the violence of a makeshift target shoot and the wail of automatic weapons. Shells flew through the air like mosquitoes as the Men of Mayhem aimed their guns (I have no knowledge of the subtle differences between one form of murderous weapon and the next) at paper targets. All the while, Anvil's version of The Who's "Slip Kid" raged above the din of the weapons' report. It ends with the brutal rape of my favorite Lady Macbeth/Gertrude, the wonderfully, seductively protective and ambitious Gemma. The image of three men in Michael Myers masks (one of whom is undoubtedly the wicked Henry Rollins, who gives me the shivers when he isn't playing a an Aryan asshole) attacking Gemma while offhandedly apologizing to her "for the trouble" has remained with me all evening. I'm kind of worried I'll have nightmares. I want Gemma to be okay, but I want her to get her revenge even more. Please, Mr. Sutter, let Gemma have her own revenge.  

I love it when television shows - often lambasted by the high-minded "I don't watch television" crew - make me reflect about how morality is a question of shades and hues, and not primary colors. The evil of white supremacy, or any group that operates under the premise that one race is better than another and that races should not mix, and the efforts undertaken by that particular form of evil to dominate others and control societies overshadows any other form of skulduggery that tends to preoccupy the legal system. White hate scares me because of the zealotry behind it. Fundamentalism in any form frightens me, but white hate is absolutely terrifying.  Is it the white robes and dunce caps? Is it the swastika (a much maligned symbol originating in eastern philosophy)? I don't know...I guess that needless rage and anger that makes the world that much more difficult to live in makes me wonder what purpose hate serves.

Perhaps it serves to put in perspective the kind of crime Sam Crow decides to engage in - supplying guns to Oakland gangs, using somewhat illegal means to protect Charming from sprawl - and makes them comparable to the tragic heroes who act out of love but still cause pain. Make no mistake - the SoA are a ruthless crew who use criminal tactics to protect what they hold dear, tactics that result in death and deadly anarchy. No matter how you package it, the SoA does some shit that will eventually require atonement. But Kurt Sutter has made clear that the motives behind the SoA's actions are rooted in love - love of family, love of brotherhood.

I have trouble seeing past the hate that emanates from the Aryan crew to the humans underneath - if they're even there. I have no trouble at all on that front with Sam Crow. The love is there, and that makes their humanity as clear as crystal.