Sons Of Anarchy's Season 6 premiere opens on a young blond boy, who's never been seen before on the show.
He's dressed in a school uniform and sitting in his well-kept bedroom writing in a notebook.
The blond child appears like he could be a younger version of SOA's main character, Jax Teller, who narrates over the scene, reading what sounds like a letter to his own two sons.
Later in the episode, the boy appears again, dressed in the same clothes. He seems to be on his way to school when he runs into the Sons Of Anarchy motorcycle gang riding through a California suburb.
Later, we see the kid again. He's sitting outside the bakery/criminal front owned by Charlie, a newly introduced criminal associate of the Sons.
He sits outside reading while Jax and gang discuss a new business opportunity (specifically, a joint escort service venture) inside the shop.
Later, when Jax exits the bakery he sees the kid still hanging out and sitting on the sidewalk with the same notebook he was writing in at the opening of the episode.
When he notices him, Jax is struck by the boy.
Probably, because they look pretty identical.
As the episode draws to a close, we encounter the kid once again on his way to school.
Before going into the building, he stops at a bench and puts his bag down. Then he neatly, meticulously folds his blazer before sitting down.
The boy then rolls up his sleeves to reveal many cuts and scars on his left forearm.
He takes out the notebook and starts writing furiously when the bell for class rings...
As the school bells chime, the kid pulls a giant machine gun from his backpack.
And a huge second magazine.
The boy begins to walk away with the gun in hand and spare clip tucked into his back pants pocket. The camera focuses in on his notebook.
"POP GOES THE WEASEL"
"GOD DOESN'T LIKE BULLIES"
"THY WILL BE DONE"
He walks into his school.
Seconds later, as he enters the classroom, an adult male teacher screams and the the audience hears the gun begin to unload as the room lights up and blood splatters against the classroom window.
The next scene features all too familiar images. Children being swiftly escorted from the school by SWAT.
The heartwrenching face of a parent waiting, agonizingly, for his child to emerge safely from the building.
A parent tightly embracing his kid, who luckily got out alive.
A distraught and bewildered first responder.
It's important to note that the chaotic scene outside the school after the shooting is not how the episode ends; there's a mostly unrelated montage and other loose ends are tied up. The shocked first responder sitting next to his emergency vehicle is not a cliffhanger.
The kid, as a character, is confusing. He never talks. He never directly interacts with any of the main characters, except that little moment with Jax. And he moves in parallel with the rest of the events of the episode without directly impacting anything...and then he shoots up the school.
What does this all mean?? What we do know is that Kurt Sutter, the creator of the show, was deeply affected by both the Newtown, Connecticut and Aurora, Colorado shootings. Worth noting: Sutter wrote this episode himself, too.