How accumulated body count has led SAMCRO to a crossroads; fifth in a series (NSFW)
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''Sovereign'' (season 5, episode 1)
RIP: Laroy and Darnell
Death by: Bullets, presumably; Bullets
Reason: Season 5 picked up three weeks after Tig (Kim Coates) killed the daughter of gangster Damon Pope (Harold Perrineau) upon hearing the lie that Clay (Ron Perlman) was shot by the Niners gang as opposed to Opie (Ryan Hurst), who'd learned that Clay had killed his father. Pope had told the Niners not to respond because the police would look right at him. Plus, the Galindo cartel had phoned Pope asking him to sit down with new SAMCRO president Jax (Charlie Hunnam) to see if the club could make amends.
Result: Niner president Laroy (Tory Kittles) made his own call to hit a SAMCRO truck and lost a man in the process. Pope's righthand guy, August Marks (Billy Brown), killed and chopped up Laroy offscreen, revealing his remains to his reluctant successor Darnell (BJ Britt). At a meet-up with SAMCRO, Darnell followed Marks's order to kill Jax but the gun Marks had given him was empty. Marks shot Darnell in the head in front of Jax and said Pope would be in touch.
Reverberations: Marks told Darnell's even more reluctant replacement Tyler (Mo McRae) to tell the Niners the beef with the Sons was done. Jax already got the message meant for him: ''This is Pope lettin' us know he's the one who decides who lives and dies.''
*Click here to start from the beginning of SOA's death tally, here for a glimpse of season 2's carnage, here to fast track to season 3, or here to remember who was lost in season 4.
Image Credit: FX