Sons of Anarchy was the critically acclaimed biker club series that ran on FX for seven seasons. Obviously, the "biker club series" is only scratching the surface but that's what most people would recognize it as. The show was so successful it even spawned a spin-off on the same network called Mayans MC which will return for its second season this fall.
Sons of Anarchy followed Jax Teller, a single father, grappling with the increasing criminal activities being done by SAMCRO. The show follows Jax's journey and the rising conflict between him and his step-father, Clay Morrow, also the club's president. Despite all the praise it got, every series has a few dud episodes. These are the ten lowest-rated episodes of the series according to IMDb.
Old Bones
The drama between Jax, Tara, and Lowell comes to a head in this episode. Tara finally reveals to Jax that Kohn was an ex of hers who became abusive and mentally unstable. His presence in Charming is a violation of a restraining order Tara has out against Kohn. Jax and the agent get into a savage fight at the barbershop.
Gemma grows concerned with the relationship between her son and Tara. By episode's end, not much is resolved. Jax worries Tara was just using him for protection. Meanwhile, Half-Sack is put to the test by the club when they realize he's good at boxing.
AK-51
SAMCRO sells assault rifles to a right-wing group on behalf of Piney's old friend. But the resulting operation gets Clay detained and forces Jax to step up into a leadership position. But this episode might be best known for the infamous skateboard smackdown perpetrated by Gemma against Cherry. While on the road, Clay sleeps with Cherry and when she shows up in Charming, Gemma takes offense.
In her anger, she picks up a skateboard and smacks Cherry across the face with it. Beyond that, it's not a very memorable episode and doesn't do much to further the plot. There are several season one episodes on this list because it took a little bit for SOA to find its groove.
Patch Over
Jax begins to second-guess Clay's leadership for the first time in this episode of Sons of Anarchy. Things become complicated when SAMCRO visits a brother club, Devil's Tribe, but they cross paths with the Mayans MC. They're forced to patch over the Devil's Tribe to lengthen their hold over the area.
Clay demonstrates his manipulation and thrill of being in control when he overhears Half-Sack talking about Gemma. In return, he sleeps with Cherry, the woman Half-Sack has been showing interest in. We were still getting acquainted with the club at this point. It's not really that bad of an episode but not a super important one either.
Fun Town
This episode proved how serious SAMCRO is about protecting the town from anyone who would try to do its citizens harm. SAMCRO has always acted as the protectors of Charming, and certainly a vigilante group. This time they hunt down a pedophile who assaults the young daughter of a respected Charming family when a traveling carnival passes through the town.
We witness Clay castrate the man and then send his member to the home of the person who hired them to go after him. It's a pretty grim scene but only a taste of the violence that would come later on the series.
Playing With Monsters
Gemma is losing it as her imaginary conversations with Tara continue into the final season of the series. Unser is still determined to figure out who murdered Tara and one has to wonder how long Gemma can keep up her act before she gets caught - and how she'll react if she does. She also gets hit in the face by a man and Abel witnesses it.
That kid has seen some super disturbing stuff. I imagine this episode is so low on the list because it doesn't contain much forward momentum. The final season also dragged with each episode running almost a full 90 minutes, sometimes it became superfluous.
Los Fantasmas
Los Fantasmas is a season six episode that begins to bring the Tara and Gemma conflict to a head. This is a great episode to demonstrate the mess that eventually became of Tara's character arc. She was becoming more of a caricature than an actual person. Her plans to get Gemma arrested were nonsensical at best.
It's understandable that Tara is desperate but her actions aren't really in line with the person she is. Then we've got Wendy turning back to heroin. There's too much stuff going on at one time it gets difficult to keep all the storylines straight.
One One Six
The beginning of season six got off to a rocky start with a controversial plotline involving a school shooting. By the second episode, almost all the major players involved in the shooting are dead. So it leads you to wonder what was the point of the school shooting to begin with?
Of course, like all major events in television, it leads to a chain reaction of other plots and storylines but this episode felt like a big step back from the explosive season six premiere. It's ranked so low for just that reason, I believe. It doesn't carry over the momentum from the previous season.
Oiled
Season three got off to a weird start. Abel went missing and this put the gang in conflict with an Irish gang and even sent them to Ireland. But unlike the obvious plots in season one and two, where things were easier to follow, season three is where Sons began to get muddled and bogged down in too many storylines occurring simultaneously.
It would be plagued by this problem on and off in the seasons to come. "Oiled" is a good example of how distracting that could be. It's hard to rank bad episodes of Sons because more often than not, even at its worst, it's still enjoyable. This episode just isn't as exemplary as what we'd come to expect.
Lochan Mor
The infamous trip to Belfast in season three brought with it some seriously weird storylines. Remember when Jax almost slept with his half-sister Trinity? And then we never really hear or see Trinity again for the rest of the series. Even stranger was that Jax was potentially cheating on his serious girlfriend (Tara) while his son was kidnapped!
Season three was sort of a mess through and through. This episode ranked the second worst episode of the entire series for a reason. It's surprising there isn't more season three episodes in the bottom ranking of Sons of Anarchy but once the gang returns to America it did get itself back on track again.
Seeds
Opie has complicated feelings about the club's illegal dealings but when things get bad financially at home he's forced to join Clay on a dangerous protection run. Plus Tara begins to suspect that Gemma had something to do with Wendy's overdose, which we already know she set it up. It's not clear why this episode ranked so low on the list.
It's surprising this is the lowest ranked out of the entire series because as a follow-up episode to the pilot this is a solid hour of television. It delves deeper into the SAMCRO mythology, we find out more about Gemma's club history and begin to see the major conflicts get pushed into play.