I don't know about y'all, but I am very much looking forward to watching all the ways these two are going to try and make each other miserable this season.

Jax is conferencing with Romeo and Luis, explaining that Gaalan's latest hissy is over "our black problem," and Luis snarks, "Yeah, hard to spin 'killing an innocent girl' in a good direction." Jax sighs that he knows, and trying to deal with rampaging gangsters isn't exactly his idea of moving things along. "I need to get to Pope and make things right," Jax says, and presses Romeo to help make it happen. After all, he reasons, the sooner SAMCRO settles this unfortunate business with Pope, the sooner they can go back to running guns to the Irish, which means the sooner Romeo and company can wrap up their gun-running cases with the cartel. Also relevant to this scene: 1) In order to keep the whole Otto-ratted-on-Bobby thing quiet, it's going to be necessary to bring Bobby into the know on this whole cartel situation -- but nobody else in the club is to know any of the details. (I enjoy how Jax's leadership of the club requires him to lie by omission to a group of people who do not take kindly to anything other than total transparency from their brothers.) 2) Jax has figured out that the feds had a current mole in the club, something Romeo absolutely does not deny. (Again, handy way to separate Jax from the rest of the club by forcing him to live with the knowledge that one of his brothers is a rat.)

Romeo says that Jax should keep the guns and drugs flowing, and he'll keep RICO off Jax's back. Jax calls, "When are they off my back for good." "When I don't need you anymore," Romeo says. Jax's entire demeanor changes as he calmly threatens, "I wouldn't dismiss me that easily, commander Parata. You had no choice but to play your CIA card. It gave you leverage and kept us in line. But it also gave me a big stick. Now, I'm sure Galindo's crew embraces Uncle Sam's help, but how would the street react to that? Anyone around here finds out you're doubling up as a Fed, your sway in Cali ain't shit? Your coke demand dies in a day." Romeo says, "Looks like we need each other." That was a little too easily conceded. Remember how Potter said SAMCRO's ultimately on the losing end of this whole thing? I suspect we're going to look back at this scene later and wince for how wrong Jax is about everything.