Previously, on Sons of Anarchy … A bunch of white supremacists picked the wrong town to move into (Charming, California) and the wrong lady to gang-rape* (Gemma Teller Morrow), then spent their brief tenure in the San Joaquin county hamlet learning to regret those strategic missteps.

Also: Agent Stahl -- whom you will all remember as having an ambition-to-competence ratio of approximately 100:1 -- managed to badly bungle a plan to take down the IRA's Northern California operations. She shoots an IRA informer, Edmond Hayes, then manages to pin the murder on Gemma (who was there to murder Edmond's girlfriend, Polly, the White Supremacist's Daughter).

Unsurprisingly, Edmond's dad does not take news of his son's murder well. Clay sums it up quite accurately with: "Cameron [Hayes] killed Half-Sack and took my grandson because Stahl lied and framed Gemma."

So we start this season with Gemma on the lam, Abel off-screen with a grief-crazed IRA gunrunner, and the SAMCRO regulars up to their eyebrows in all sorts of legal trouble. Here's what happens in the Season 3 premiere:

SAMCRO's managed to get Gemma out of California, and she's parked in a motel up near the Rogue river in Oregon with a few local riders and Tig to keep her safe. Clay makes the call to keep the news of Abel's kidnapping from Gemma, reasoning that, should Gemma find out what's happened, she's likely to head back to California, thereby increasing her chances of getting caught.

Even with Gemma unaware of the Abel situation, she's still convinced she needs to get back to California, so she tries to take off. Tig is the voice of reason who stops her first escape attempt. Yeah, swirl that phenomenon around in your head like a fine wine: livestock-molesting, ear-macerating Tig is the voice of cool rationality.

But Gemma's not to be deterred. When she sneaks out of her motel room -- someone needs to tell the SAMCRO boys up in Oregon to pay attention to their surroundings -- and tries to steal an SUV, she's caught by the outraged owner, and when she stabs him, that's when the SAMCRO boys finally realize Gemma's not doing her nails in the hotel room. Tig figures that it will be a lot less stabby for the Emerald State's residents if Gemma gets what she wants, so he agrees to help her head back to her family. First step: visit her newly-bereaved, demented dad. (He's a reverend. Which explains a lot about Gemma's attitudes toward religion.)

Meanwhile, back in Charming …

Jax spends much of the episode in a fog of helpless grief. The SAMCRO regulars have no time for moping around, and they get his ass back on the bike and begin chasing down any leads they can as to Cameron's whereabouts.

However, Jax still manages to steal away for some quality brooding time at his dad's grave. Piney finds him there and tells Jax to get his head together. This gets Jax going, and we find out the real problem: He's having work-life balance issues. It's hard to co-run a motorcycle club when your work insists on breaking into your home and stealing your kid. (Who in corporate America hasn't been there?) Piney's advice? Channel John Teller: "Be loyal, decent. Love the right things."

Tara has to go talk to Stahl about Cameron's baby-napping. That turns out to be the high point of her day: Jax pulls the "I'm no good for you" act and dumps her, then she has a panic attack during a neonatal surgery. But Tara rallies -- at least on the love life front, and tells Jax, "We're just better people when we're with the people we're supposed to be with." Since Jax has spent the last two seasons groping toward a vague-yet-idealized sense of self, the idea of Tara as his ticket to being a better person ultimately convinces him to un-dump her.

(By the way, Cameron and Abel made it to Belfast, and have met his cousin Maureen [played by Paula Malcolmson, thanks to the Laws of Casting that guarantee a minimum number of Deadwood actors on any decent show]. She's now taking care of Abel.)

Then it's time for Half-Sack's wake. Over the coffin, Clay gives Jax his version of the "get your head together" talk, pointing out that Jax is a leader in the club, and that means stepping up as a leader and a father even when he can't imagine doing so. When Clay mentions that John Teller unspooled after his son Thomas's death, Jax mutters, "I'm not my old man."

DING! We have a theme for the season: Whose son is Jax, really? He has Piney counseling him to embrace the best of what John Teller had to offer -- but John Teller is dead, and Clay is alive and doing whatever he can to get the baby he considers his grandson back.

And then the episode ends with a bang -- a van pulls up outside the funeral home and begins shooting. Wounded: Chuckie the masturbating accountant and some bystander's kid. Very likely dead: Hale, who gets taken out by the van when trying to shoot it down. One of the assailants falls out of the van and he's apprehended by the police, but Jax finally snaps, flings away all three officers and beats the guy into the middle of the next episode.

* Not that there is ever really a right lady to gang-rape.