Sons of Anarchy saw its lead character, Jax Teller, doing his best to keep his sons away from outlaw life, but one detail in the final season of Sons of Anarchy shows Jax’s sacrifice was in vain. Back in 2008, Kurt Sutter took the audience to the fictional town of Charming, California, and into the world of motorcycle clubs in the drama series Sons of Anarchy. The show was very well-received from the beginning, with most praise going towards the performances of the main cast and the themes addressed in the series, such as racism, corruption, and brotherhood.
Leading Sons of Anarchy was Jackson “Jax” Teller (Charlie Hunnam), the club’s VP at the beginning of the series and the son of John 'JT' Teller, one of the club’s founding members. The series kicks off when Jax finds JT’s manifesto, in which he shared his ideas and views for the club, which were very different from those of the club’s current President (and Jax’s stepfather), Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman). This sends Jax on a journey that makes him question his relationships, family, and role in the club while also dealing with many other issues within SAMCRO and with other clubs and gangs. Of course, Sons of Anarchy also followed Jax’s personal life closely, and his biggest struggle throughout the show was giving his sons a better life and a brighter future.
Jax failed to fulfill most of his father’s wishes, but he did manage to take SAMCRO in a different and less dangerous direction than the one Clay put them in, and he also did everything he could to keep his sons, Abel and Thomas, far away from the club and its lifestyle. However, a detail in Sons of Anarchy season 7 shows that Jax’s efforts and his sacrifice at the end of the series were all in vain, and his sons won’t be able to escape outlaw life.
What Jax's Death Really Meant (& Why His Sons' Futures Were Unavoidable)
Given that his father was one of the founders of SAMCRO, Jax grew up in that environment, and he was well aware of the dangers of it and how it can mess with other aspects of your life. Jax, then, didn’t want Abel and Thomas to follow his steps and instead wanted them to be as far from the club as possible, but his mother, Gemma (Katey Sagal), had the opposite mentality. Gemma was fiercely protective of her family and the club, and she wanted Abel and Thomas to follow Jax’s steps as the heirs of the club. As mentioned above, Jax arranged for his sons to leave Charming by telling his ex-wfie, Wendy (Drea de Matteo), to take them and leave Charming with Nero (Jimmy Smits), as that was the only way they would be safe – but an episode earlier, Gemma gave Abel a SAMCRO ring for when he “patches into the club someday”, showing that Jax’s sacrifice was in vain.
Gemma giving the ring to Abel suggests he and Thomas won’t be able to escape the club and their family’s legacy no matter how far from Charming they are, and so Jax’s sacrifice was for nothing. Jax believed so much in keeping his sons away from outlaw life that he put an end to, as Sutter put it, “the lineage of Tellers being associated with the outlaw life” by killing himself in the finale of Sons of Anarchy, but Gemma’s gift feels like an omen of Abel and Thomas eventually following their father and grandfather’s steps, and not even her and Jax’s deaths could stop that from happening. Jax’s death in Sons of Anarchy takes a different meaning after this, becoming just punishment for his crimes against other charters of the club, which led him to meet Mr. Mayhem.