Did Jax call Stahl this episode?
Zach said in his review Jax made a couple calls to Stahl over the course of the hour. I'm pretty much this didn't happen unless I blacked out a few times.

Wasn't expecting that from the good Father…
… and I'm not sure I am completely satisfied with his moralizing.

I know both the Tonight Show and Conan are listed as being on for one hour but I thought I had read that the run time of the actual content for Conan would be about 5-7 minutes less than the Tonight Show. I may be wrong though. If so, my bad.

The Hour Format
I think the hour format will help out Conan in the long run immensely. One of the issues with his Tonight Show shows was that they tended the lag in the middle (drawn out interviews and less than great sketches mostly.) Everything tonight felt tighter.

I'm pretty sure this was the chain of events:

I work in politics for a firm in DC and got the tickets through my work.

I was one of the VIP ticket people…
… who was in the front section and even up there they were having major issues with the audio and video. The rally itself was a bit of a hot mess in terms of logistics and I thought some of the comedy gags fell a bit flat.

Oh, and also thank god I started Kenny Britt last week. I think every league I'm in whoever owned him had him on the bench. He had an insane game.

The Skip-Skop Skanks are creeping up in the standings… beware!

I dunno. It'd certainly add an interesting dynamic to the show. Jax and his 3 kids: the junkie baby, the estranged doctor girlfriend baby, and the incest baby. Shit, maybe they could get a spin-off show like those babies from the eTrade commercials.

Tara asked for a clinic where she could schedule a discrete abortion for Opie's girlfriend. Her boss assumed it was for her and told her if that was theoretically the case she would agree with Tara's decision because Tara is unsure of her future and wouldn't be able to provide a stable environment for a baby.

Because they were tipped off by Jimmy (who got his information from the one Son in the N. Ireland chapter) that they were on their way (and about their warrants and when they were arriving and the route they would take, etc.) It would have been the most effective way for Jimmy to get rid of them without being…

I think the missing piece will revolve around Father Ashby.
It seems like everyone else has their cards on the table except him. He tells Jax that Jimmy wants to cut the Sons out of the gun business, but I don't think Jimmy has ever explicitly said that on screen. The scene in the opening when he goes to the orphanage…

So much for Jax's well laid plans with Stahl.
Well, maybe not. I'm sure the writers will find a way to have their cake and eat it too. It makes sense from a dramatic standpoint to have Gemma in Ireland. The confrontation between her and Maureen should make for compelling television.

Jax is still a bastard…
… and I suppose that's a good thing. I know the Tara/Jax storyline was dragging but I still have a soft spot for Maggie Siff and didn't think she was as much of a dead weight as Zach seems to think. Given Tara's circumstances (being a surgeon with real responsibilities but clearly having…

I meant "rating system" not "rating series" in the above post. Still a bit drunk from the Wizards game and shenanigans afterward (yes I attended a pre-season basketball game.)

I think when compared to other episodes of SOA this rates in the A-/B+ range. It's hard to compare series like this with ones like Mad Men or Boardwalk Empire or whatever because they're just fundamentally different. I tend to gauge my AV club ratings for shows I watch based more on other episodes of the same series…

Just saw them last night…
… with N.E.R.D. at the Patriot Center in Northern Virginia.

The scene where Pearl gets cut…
… could have been executed better. It's fairly obvious the violence therein was supposed to be shocking, so why telegraph it by showing the guy hold the knife behind his back? It would have been much more startling and scary had he just whipped the knife out without the cut-shot.

Secrets Revealed!
I've already made several comments in previous weeks about the tenuous plausibility of the potential routes the Belfast story line may take, but not much was revealed this week so no need to beat that up again.