10 Most Shocking SOA Moments From Sons Of Anarchy Novel Author Christopher Golden

The author of the all-new Sons of Anarchy novel, Bratva, takes us through the ten most hair-raising Sons of Anarchy moments. Do you agree?

First of all, if you aren't caught up with SOA, you shouldn't even consider reading what follows. I'm obviously going to be spoiling the hell out of the previous seasons—and a couple from already-aired episodes from this season. So, seriously, if you haven't been following, just get the hell out. Now.

Okay. Now it's just the rest of us die-hards. The Redwood Originals.

I'm not gonna blab much here. If you started reading this for the headline, you came for the list. So here you go. In seven seasons that have been full of shocking and horrifying twists, these are the ten that rocked me hardest.

10. Hobart’s Tattoo (from “Giving Back”):

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Season 1, episode 5: the guys run into an ex-member of SAMCRO named Kyle Hobart and catch a glimpse of the Reaper tattoo on his back. As a former member—one who’d been thrown out of the club—he’s supposed to have eradicated that tattoo. This is not negotiable. At the episode’s end, they drag him into the garage, pour whiskey on his back, and Tig burns the tattoo off Hobart’s back with a blowtorch.

9. Bobby’s Eye (from “Greensleeves”):

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Season 7, episode 7: Bobby drives off in a station wagon, headed up to the cabin. I’d been expecting characters to start dying any minute now, but up to this point even Juice is still breathing. When Bobby is attacked on the road by men working for August Marks, I figured he was done for. Probably would’ve been better for him if so: we only get a little glimpse of Marks’ men digging out one of Bobby’s eyeballs with a knife before they send it to Jax in a box. Things get worse for Bobby later, but as gruesome as things get, the eye is the real shocker.

8. Otto Murders Pamela Toric (from “Crucifixed”):

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Season 5, episode 10: the long-suffering Otto Delaney (Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter) persuades Tara to sneak a certain crucifix into prison for him. Tara thinks he wants the crucifix as a source of comfort—and after all the poor son of a bitch had been through, how can she deny him? Instead, Otto uses the crucifix to savagely murder nurse Pamela Toric, intentionally making Tara an accessory to murder. Why? I thought you said you watched the show.

7. Clay Beats Gemma (from “Hands”):

RantChick CR: James Minchin III / FX / Via rantchick.com

Season 4, episode 10: Hell, I don’t even want to write about it. For all of her controlling, narcissistic, sometimes passive-aggressive craziness, Gemma is the queen of SAMCRO. At a time when we knew just how rotten Clay Morrow really was, Gemma had grown into a stronger, more admirable figure. We couldn’t help seeing her as the one person no one connected to SAMCRO would dare to cross. So when her husband, Clay, grimly but calmly takes his fists to her, beating her without an ounce of mercy, the performance by Katey Sagal is heartbreaking, and the scene transforms Clay into full-on villain, permanently.

6. Jax Shoots Up Wendy (From “Darthy”):

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Season 5, episode 12: This turned the whole show on its head for me. No matter how much ugliness he perpetrated, Jax Teller was always the hero. Anti-hero, yes, but a man who would do horrible, dark things, in order to get to the light at the end. I was always behind Jax, until, in order to make sure the courts will not deem Wendy fit for custody of Abel, he assaults her and forcibly injects her with heroin. Jax lost me there. This didn’t take away my passion for SOA, but it made me realize there are no good guys here. Never were. It was just my imagination.

5. Otto’s Tongue (From “J’ai Obtenu Cette”):

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Season 5, episode 13: Already having undergone severe punishment since the series debut (his poor eyes), Otto has a unique solution to trump investigators who are interrogating him, trying to force him to testify against the club. He chews his own tongue off and spits it onto the table. It’s just as grotesque as it sounds: one of the many times I reacted both verbally and physically to a scene, this one caused a truly visceral response in me. Seriously, Sutter. Gross.

4. Gemma Assaulted (from “Albification”):

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Season 2, episode 1: I don’t even want to put the word “rape” in the title up there. As horrible as all of these things are, there’s still a “holy crap, that was hideous but cool” element to most of them. Not so, with the events of this episode. There is absolutely zero fun in this. Gemma is abducted, beaten, and gang-raped, in one of the hardest-to-watch scenes I’ve ever encountered on television. Again, the extraordinary Katey Sagal is so real that it is painful to watch, and it should be.

3. Gemma Kills Tara (From “A Mother’s Work”):

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Season 6 finale: On any other series this would mark the most shocking, horrifying moment, bar none. Tara is Gemma’s surrogate daughter. Though they have butted heads many times, Tara is her grandson’s mother and the love of her son’s life. Believing that Tara has betrayed Jax and the club, Gemma hits Tara with an iron, smashes her skull against the counter, tries to drown her in the kitchen sink, and then stabs her multiple times in the back of the head with a barbecue fork until she is dead. Yeah. And that’s not #1 on my list.

2. Tig’s Daughter (From “Sovereign”):

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Season 5, episode 1: SOA gave us the most horrifying thing I’ve ever seen on television. Blaming Tig for the death of his daughter, Damon Pope brings our beloved lunatic to a vacant work site. His men pull back the lid on a hole in the ground to reveal the bound, struggling figure of Tig’s own daughter. With Tig screaming like his soul itself is ablaze, Pope burns her alive down in that hole. The scene continues longer than anyone ought to be able to stand. Tig was insane before. Afterward, he’s practically a ghost, just a thing of madness waiting to be unleashed.

1. Opie Dies (From “Laying Pipe”):

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Season 5, episode 3: This brought about the end of all hope. As much as he had lost, Opie kept Jax on the right path. Without even trying to be, Opie was Jax’s conscience, the closest thing to a moral compass in an immoral world. In prison—with Jax watching but unable to help—Opie is cornered by men working for Damon Pope and beaten to death. Right up until the moment they cave his skull in with a pipe, I told myself it wasn’t going to happen. It wasn’t the bloodiest scene in the show’s history or the most graphic. It wasn’t even the most brutal. But for me, at least, it was the most shocking.

Of course, the series isn't over yet...

If you still need a Sons of Anarchy fix now, and want to learn more about the book—starring Jax, Chibs, and Opie in a battle with the Russain mafia—check it out here.

About the Author

Shivohn Fleming

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is most recently the author of Sons of Anarchy: Bratva, an all-new Sons of Anarchy side story from the mind of Kurt Sutter. He is also the the New York Times #1 bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, The Myth Hunters, The Ocean Dark, The Boys Are Back in Town, and Strangewood. He has co-written three illustrated novels with Mike Mignola, the first of which, Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, was the launching pad for the Eisner Award-nominated comic book series, Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies The New Dead, The Monster’s Corner, and Dark Duets, among others. Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com