Despite the fact that FX’s hit biker gang series Sons of Anarchy came to it’s conclusion more than five years ago, the impact that the show had on it’s fans hasn’t waned a bit.
Sons of Anarchy was a hit show straight out of the gate, and it’s not hard to see why, as it’s pilot episode does a fantastic job of laying out the premise of the series and laying the groundwork for most of the major developments and twists throughout the show. But what interesting scenes and key moments from the series premiere have most of it’s fans forgotten about?
10 Half-Sack Is A Vegetarian
Although he never explains why exactly he abstains from meat, when Jax asks Half-Sack to chainsaw through a deer that is stuck through the windshield of a car at Teller-Morrow and pretend that it’s carve your own steak night, Half-Sack replies that he doesn’t eat meat.
Perhaps it’s for health reasons, but if he refuses to eat meat on moral grounds, it’s interesting that he has no problem murdering human beings.
9 Alvarez Is The One Who Attacked Them
The relationship between the Mayans and the Sons of Anarchy was definitely complicated throughout the course of the series, and they vacillated between being rivals and something resembling allies.
But it’s easy to forget that one of the first characters that appears on screen is Marcus Alvarez, the leader of the Mayans, and that he shows up because he is the one who is blowing up SAMCRO’s secret gun storage facility.
8 Darby Was Fresh Out Of Prison
Many antagonists came in and out of the Sons of Anarchy’s lives throughout the course of the series, and one of the most consistent mainstays from the beginning of the story to (or at least near to) the end was Darby.
His first introduction to the audience was actually in the pilot episode, and he had just been released from prison, so the club was concerned about his plans after serving his time.
7 In Prison, Opie Was Protected By The Aryan Brotherhood
At the start of the series, Darby wasn’t the only one who was fresh out of prison, Opie had recently been released as well and was trying to fly straight.
Obviously Jax had issues with the fact that Darby’s crew provided Wendy with the drugs that nearly killed Abel, but their relationship was complicated by the fact that Darby and the Aryan Brotherhood were the ones who protected Opie while he was in prison.
6 Abel Had A 20% Chance Of Survival
As a result of Wendy’s drug bender, Abel wound up being born 10 weeks before he was due. And because he was so premature in addition to the fact that he was born with a congenital heart defect and a tear in his abdomen, his prospects for survival were incredibly low.
His doctor initially gave him a 20% chance of surviving, and Tara told Jax that she thought that even that low percentage was an optimistic estimate.
5 And Jax Had Already Given Up On Him
Although Abel’s initial prognosis at birth was more than grim, it wasn’t a certainty that he wouldn’t make it, and 1 in 5 odds is still far better than zero.
However when Jax finally discusses the situation with his mom, he immediately says that Abel is going to die, and it’s Gemma that (violently) reminds Jax that he can’t give up and that he’s the only one that Abel has to rely on at the moment.
4 Abel Did Die
In a roundabout way, Jax’s assumption that Abel wouldn’t make it was right. When Abel was on the operating table in the first episode, he did actually flatline and had to be resuscitated.
Obviously Tara and the other doctors and nurses were successful in bringing him back, but the moment when it looked like Abel might actually die was clearly one of the tensest parts of the premiere.
3 Gemma Immediately Recognized The Threat Of John’s Ghost
It seems like Gemma’s instincts for Jax’s choices and how John’s latent influence might change the direction of Jax’s life were extremely prescient.
It took years for Jax to fully start pulling away from the darker sides of the club, but in the pilot episode when Gemma gets some hints at Jax’s misgivings at the state of the club, she immediately tells Clay to get him under control. Clay thinks she’s probably overreacting, but the future of the series would indicate otherwise.
2 Jax And Tara’s Relationship Was A Mystery
Although it was clear that Jax and Tara knew each other from the start, and their final moments together in the pilot clearly indicated that there was something more serious between them, the series didn’t actually delve into their long history until after the first episode.
And although the series premiere did indicate that their relationship was going somewhere, it wasn’t obvious that it was going to become a defining element of the entire show.
1 Clay Asks Jax To Kill Him
In a clearly facetious moment after the Sons are apprised of the situation with the newly destroyed gun warehouse that unfortunately also houses two dead bodies, Clay asks Jax to kill him.
However, it’s not hard to imagine that this could be an interesting bit of foreshadowing, and even if it’s not, it’s definitely a pretty curious coincidence that Clay asks his killer to kill him within the first 10 minutes of the series, despite the fact that he doesn’t die until the penultimate season.
