MovieChat Forums > Sons of Anarchy (2008) Discussion > Jax progressively going downhill

Jax progressively going downhill

posted 8 years ago by writetopcat
4 replies | jump to latest

There were a few times in the series when Jax suffers crises which send him deeper into his dark side.
Over the course of the series Jax loses much of his good nature, becomes more and more hardened, until the beginning of season 7 when he abandons his vision for the club and can only see red in his need for revenge. In the first season he is very reticent to deliver a coup de gras to the head of a Mayan who had just shot him. Jax instantly shot him back in self defense and the Mayan went down, badly injured. Jax was wearing a vest and was only bruised.
Clay wanted Jax to shoot him again to finish him off and Jax clearly didn't want to do that. Self defense is one thing but killing a man who is not an immediate threat was quite another. He died quickly from the first shot so the issue was resolved without anyone needing to finish him off.

By the time he took the President's patch from Clay Jax was very comfortable with killing, and after Tara died he became very cold blooded, killing without compunction.

When Jax figured out that Clay had ordered Opie's death and killed Opie's wife he started to become angry all the time, understandably. Clay screwed up over and over and Jax steadily became more and more distrustful and disillusioned.

Opie's death hit Jax very hard as well. Opie helped keep Jax level, and they had a shared vision for how the club should be run so there was less exposure to threat of arrest or death.

I think another seminal event was when Jax found out that Clay had ordered Tara's death.

The biggest event of course was Tara's death. Jax was already comfortable with killing people. After Tara died though, Jax could only think about killing the Chinese. His plan to kill off their business and work his way into their trust didn't work from the start. When he killed off the Chinese and stole their heroin, he was the prime suspect and the Chinese began to distrust the MC.
He would have been smarter to listen to August Marks and wait, gather better intel. and make better plans. But he was seeing red.

Though Jax was a better person than Gemma, in certain ways he had become like her. He was intensely emotional and loved his wife and children fiercely, like Gemma. When gripped by deep emotion his decision making was faulty, like Gemma.

The biggest difference between Jax and Gemma, to me, is that Gemma to hid her mistakes, like killing Tara, while Jax admitted his mistakes (unfairly killing Jerry, and all the killings as a result of believing Gemma's lie), even when admitting them meant that he would get the mayhem vote. Gemma did everything she could to avoid anyone finding out about her mistakes.

I know I didn't recall all the seminal events which affected him. What do you guys think?

[–] mgreen9715 8 years ago

Jax character evolution and fall from grace were what made the show so entertaining and what makes me watch it over and over.

I remember a conversation Tig had with Clay in S1 or S2 where Tig was talking about how he was worried that Jax didn't have the balls to pull the trigger.

The last two seasons Jax pretty much got off on the rush of killing. His downfall started to rear it's ugly head after Opey died. He was never the same after his death and I still believe this was the catalyst for his downfall.

[–] julia-solovjova 8 years ago

In the pilot episode Piney says something like "proud of a man you've become". I think at first he was more of a wayward kid enjoying his "royal" status rather than a true criminal.
However, he was already very comfortable with violence in general, it was only a question of time when he acquired the taste of blood.

[–] writetopcat 8 years ago

he was already very comfortable with violence in general

Right. In the beginning he was technically a criminal (breaking society's laws) and was alright with living under the government of club rules as opposed to society's rules. This included understanding the need for certain levels of violence, including the rare occasions when the club administered the death penalty to club members who murdered other club members. But he was not a cold blooded killer then. He participated in stealing stuff, selling guns, and fighting. He wanted the club to remain a brotherhood with its own quasi government but to move away from the stuff that led the club into so much violence and jail time.

He was fine with killing in self defense, but he did not want to kill someone who was defenseless, like the Mayan who shot him in the vest and he shot back in self defense. Once the Mayan was shot down and no longer a threat, Jax did not want to shoot him again. Clay ordered him to take the kill shot and Jax hesitated long enough for the guy to bleed out. That was the first season.

Opie's death, Clay's many betrayals, brutal attacks on the club by various deadly organizations, and finally Tara's murder all seemed to harden him and make it easy for him to embrace killing.

That was the major theme of the show I think; Jax wanting to change the club but the violence and betrayals instead changing him. I was glad the show didn't try to force feed "the moral of the story" but let viewers watch what happened and figure it out. By season 7 Jax was fueled by his rage and had abandoned his vision for the club, until the last couple of episodes when he learned the truth and decided to sacrifice himself to protect his friends and the club.
I liked the symbolism they used, Jax with his arms out to his sides resembling Jesus sacrificing himself for others, the wine colored stained bread on the road. He was saving his sons, and saving the SOA.

[–] writetopcat 8 years ago

I remember a conversation Tig had with Clay in S1 or S2 where Tig was talking about how he was worried that Jax didn't have the balls to pull the trigger.

Yeah I remember that too.
I am thinking it was season 1 but I can't be sure.

His downfall started to rear it's ugly head after Opey died. He was never the same after his death

Yeah that deeply affected him. He began to embrace betrayal without compunction as when he broke his promise to the Grim Bastards not to kill the guy who killed Opie. His thirst for revenge had been wetted and he enjoyed it.