‘Sons of Anarchy’ Creator Kurt Sutter Clears up Plot Hole About Clay and Piney

Kurt Sutter has answered many Sons of Anarchy fans questions amid the coronavirus pandemic. The series creator has conducted multiple open forums where fans of the hit FX series have posed questions about many of the show’s twists-and-turns and main characters. In his latest Q&A on Twitter, Sutter provided some insight onto one of the bigger moments seen among the SAMCRO storylines: Clay and Piney.

Sutter was asked about Clay killing Piney, and why Clay needed to be patched in by Piney despite him being in the First 9. “JT and Piney started the club,” Sutter responded. “Every member beyond them had to be patched in. At first there was no prospecting period. Just a vetting process. All members had to be okay with the guys being brought in. Clay was number nine. After that, J.T. felt they had a club. A full table. That’s when the complete rules and bylaws were laid down. After Clay, the rules we saw in the series were in effect. My backstory was that JT and a couple of the other weren’t sure about Clay. But Piney liked him. Maybe he knew his family. He saw Clay’s value. So Piney was responsable for ensuring Clay got the patch.”

In the series, Clay takes a shotgun to Piney in Season 4, making him the third member of the First 9 to be murdered by Clay. Sutter has been an open book about all of the series’ biggest characters, none more so than Jax Teller. The creator of the show has seen numerous questions come his way about Jax, including why he opted to kill himself in the series finale. “I think so many things factored into that fateful decision. Tara, Gemma, His father, the club… But mostly it was about ending the lineage of Tellers being associated with the outlaw life,” he responded. “The mayhem had to end with him. He did not want his sons to follow in his path.”

In addition, Sutter also had a follower ask him why Jax, who was played by Charlie Hunnam in the series, took so long to turn on his mother who was behind many of the series’ biggest twists and turns. “Jax trusted Gemma because, no matter how much chaos she created, she was his f—ing mom. And he knew her maternal love was strong and genuine,” he wrote before following up with a second tweet to his answer. “That’s why he trusted her. That’s why Gemma knew when Jax found out about the betrayal, he could only do one thing. The outlaw thing. In the rose garden.”