Sons of Anarchy introduced viewers to the members of the title club, and one who became a fan favorite was Filip “Chibs” Telford – but what if he was actually a rat and his purpose was to take Jax down? Created by Kurt Sutter, Sons of Anarchy premiered on FX in 2008 and came to an end in 2014 after seven seasons full of drama, betrayal, and a lot of action. Sons of Anarchy received great reviews throughout its whole run, with most praise going towards its story, themes, and the performances of the main cast, especially that of Katey Sagal as Gemma Teller-Morrow.
Sons of Anarchy tells the story of Jackson “Jax” Teller (Charlie Hunnam), VP of the motorcycle club Sons of Anarchy in the town of Charming, California. The series kicks off when Jax finds a manifesto written by his late father, John Teller, one of the founding members of the MC, and in which he shared his plans and vision for the club, which were very different from those of the current President and Jax’s stepfather, Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman). This sends Jax on a personal journey that leads him to question his path, role in the club, relationships, family, and more. By the end of Sons of Anarchy, Jax had lost almost everything and had no other option (per the club’s rules) than to kill himself, leaving Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) as the new President of the club.
All members of SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original) went through a lot of changes and ended up becoming fan-favorites, and among those is Chibs. Filip “Chibs” Telford was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and served as a medic with the British Army. At some point, he was part of the True IRA, but he was kicked out and the leader, Jimmy O’Phelan (Titus Welliver), took his family from him and scarred his face, which earned him the nickname “Chibs”. He later joined SAMCRO and was one of its most loyal members and the club’s link with the True IRA to sell weapons. Now, there are some viewers who found his attitude in the final season of Sons of Anarchy a bit suspicious, making them think Chibs never really stopped working with the True IRA.
The theory comes from Uproxx’s Dustin Rowles, who suggests Chibs’ loyalty towards the True IRA never went away, even after all his personal troubles with O’Phelan and more. The moving force of Sons of Anarchy season 7 was Jax’s quest for revenge for the murder of Tara (Maggie Siff), who was killed by his mother, Gemma, but instead of confessing, she let Jax engage in a war with the Chinese and more as she made him believe they were responsible. Rowles points out that it was odd that Chibs would encourage Jax to continue with “a misguided plan” that resulted in many, many deaths and that brought nothing to the club as it was a war nobody was going to win. Chibs, then, could have been secretly working with the True IRA all along, and this was his way of pushing Jax towards self-destruction and get rid of August Marks, the One-Niners, and the Chinese in the process, all so the Irish could once more run guns through SAMCRO and its new president: Chibs.
If that's the case, Chibs played his cards very well as he earned the trust of everyone in SAMCRO (including Gemma) and the audience as well, and as seen in the spinoff series Mayans M.C, he’s still the President of the Sons of Anarchy club. Whether Chibs was a rat and had other intentions as a member of SAMCRO or not is up to every viewer, and it might be interesting to keep this idea in mind if you choose to rewatch the series.