Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
As SAMCRO tries to rebuild its gun business, Jax Teller reads the manuscript his late father, John, left behind and sees how far the club has moved from John's hopes. President Clay Morrow keeps the gun-running operation alive, while Jax's doubts grow alongside his friendship with Opie Winston, who has promised his wife Donna he will leave the club's life behind. Jax also has to face the return of Tara Knowles, his former sweetheart, and care for infant Abel, born prematurely after Wendy's overdose.
The federal investigation tightens around the club. The ATF's June Stahl uses the murder of a port commissioner and the arrest of Bobby Munson to press SAMCRO's families and manufacture distrust. After Stahl makes Opie look like an informant, Tig kills Donna in a botched attempt to eliminate the supposed informant. The Niners are blamed, and Opie is left grieving a wife killed by the club he returned to protect. Jax learns from Hale and Laroy that Stahl set Opie up, then confronts Clay, who denies responsibility.
At Donna's funeral, Jax takes the Sons' cut from Tara and stands apart from Clay's circle. He has stopped accepting the club's account of events, but he has no clean route out: Bobby still faces trial after Jax frees the teenage witness, and the gun sale meant to fund SAMCRO leaves the Mayans and Niners with its weapons and the club without cash. Stopping Tig from killing the girl marks a break with Clay's methods, while Piney gives Jax another copy of John's writing to carry forward.