One of the assailants has rolled, fallen or been pushed out of the van. He's unnoticed for the moment. SAMCRO's collective firepower is no good against the rapidly escaping van, and now everyone who's not in a cut has noticed that Hale is in really bad shape. Josh Hale and Unser both sprint over there. Both men reel at the extent of the damage done to the righteous would-be sheriff.

Three deputies have the left-behind assailant pinned. As Jax takes in the chaos around him -- a woman weeping for help because her son's been hit, Chuckie the masturbating accountant hunched over his wound, Hale reduced to a pile of bloody meat on the macadam -- all he hears is his own pulse. And he charges over to the officers, flings them out of the way, and begins savagely beating the guy into the middle of next week. Piney looks horrified, while Clay and Opie rush in to pull Jax off before he can kill the guy.

And that's how we start season three. To those who say "Bring it," I am reasonably confident that it will be broughten.

sobell, AKA Lisa Schmeiser, is a business and technology reporter living in the SF Bay Area. She tweets at lschmeiser, writes for whomever wants to hire her, and admits her upstairs bedroom looks a lot like the nursery Tara trashed.

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