We cut to Tara awkwardly feeding Thomas with her left hand. She looks like she's about to open a vein. Who can blame her? Between in-laws who are trying to kill her, a biological mother who wants back in her son's life and a partner who ditches her for club business and lets her deal with the aftermath of his choices on her own, it's a pretty bleak situation. Filthy Phil silently hovers in another room.

More montage-ing: Gemma sits in a darkened kitchen, smoking alone. Clay sits at the head of the table and broods as he smokes. And then a motorcycle sputters to a stop. Clay listens, then relaxes with his cigar in one hand and his gun in the other, and a moment of silence stretches out...

...Until Opie kicks in the door with the same brute suddenness that Clay used when he waylaid Piney. Opie pins Clay to the table, tosses his piece, and trains his gun on Clay, ordering him, "Sit. You're going to die at the gavel." Clay asks, "I get to say anything here?" Opie asks, "My old man get to say anything before you blew a hole in his chest? SIT DOWN!" Clay says, "Someone's been lying to you, Ope." Opie shouts, "Having Donna killed -- that a lie?" Clay seems genuinely surprised that Opie's still hung up on that and says, "That score is settled." Opie screams, "No, it's not! You sit down! Sit. Down." Clay finally does. Clay sighs and resigns himself to being shot right as Jax comes in, pulls a gun on Opie and begs, "Put it down. Please -- don't make me kill you." Opie sobs a little at Jax's defense of Clay, then turns, grits his teeth and plugs Clay twice in the torso. The force of the bullets forces Clay back into the wall, and the episode ends with Jax staring at Opie in shock.

Perhaps Jax is shocked because he's just realized becoming the acting president of the club is going to spike his plans to blow town. Perhaps he's shocked because Opie followed through on something and that concept is alien to Jax. Who knows? We'll find out next week. Oh, and Clay's fate. We'll probably find that out too.

Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter and blogger. She spent far too much time on her Thanksgiving road trip blowing through many of the places name-checked on this show. Send your own anecdata about traversing the roads of San Joaquin county to her at lschmeiser@gmail.com, or follow her on Twitter.