Chibs Telford

Filip "Chibs" Telford is a fictional character on the FX television series Sons of Anarchy, played by Tommy Flanagan.^[1][2] He is the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club and, unlike most of the gang's members who are American, he is Scottish. He is nicknamed 'Chibs' because of his facial scars ("chib" is Scots for scar or knife), which are actual scars Flanagan received in a mugging. He is extremely loyal to Jax Teller, the club's President, seems to have a good relationship with Tig Trager and appears to be an increasingly father-like figure to Juice Ortiz.

Biography

Telford is originally from Glasgow, Scotland, but grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland^[3] and served as a medic with the British Army for five months before being court-martialed. He was married to Fiona Larkin and has a daughter named Kerrianne. However, when he was thrown out of the True IRA, the group's leader, Jimmy O'Phelan, took his family from him because of jealousy. Chibs was originally a part of SAMBEL until he transferred to SAMCRO in the U.S. O'Phelan also scarred his face and told him never to return to Ireland. It is likely that he gained entry to the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club's chapter in Charming, California easily due to the IRA's links to the club's Belfast chapter. He is also SAMCRO's connection with the True IRA, who sell guns to gangs in the United States. He is heard to speak Irish and Scottish Gaelic.

Season One

Season One began with the Sons of Anarchy finding their weapon storage warehouse being burned down. When they arrived at the scene, police were already investigating. Gun parts and the corpses of two illegal immigrants were found inside. Later that night, all of the chapter's members attend a meeting ("Church") where they are informed that it was the Mayans, a rival biker gang, who destroyed the warehouse and that they are now storing the guns in San Leandro. They decide that they will ride out to San Leandro the next night and steal the weapons back. Clay Morrow, Jax Teller, Tig Trager and Chibs all go to the industrial storage warehouse in San Leandro and locate the guns but are interrupted by four men who turn up in a car outside. Clay and Tig take care of the men, three of whom are Mayans. The other man, Whistler, is a member of the Nordics and is shot by Jax after he shot Jax through his bulletproof vest twice.. The group then take the weapons, bomb the warehouse and flee.^[4]

The police begin to investigate the club when they discover that the burned-down warehouse belonged to the Sons of Anarchy, and the Sons decide to distract the police to keep them off their case. Chibs, Jax, Juice Ortiz and Half-Sack Epps steal a car owned by Ernest Darby, the leader of the Nordics, and some dead bodies from the local morgue. They then set them up in a fake shoot-out which is made to look like a racist murder involving the Nordics, a neo-Nazi gang. On the way back to town, they are cut off by a man driving a red muscle car on the road. They later catch up with this man at a petrol station and Jax beats him up. The driver then pulls out a pistol and attempts to shoot him, but is wrestled to the ground and then killed by the Pakistani shop keeper who hits him with a fire axe. Chibs then steals the CCTV tapes and they flee the scene. Later on Chibs attends the "funeral" of the two Mexican prostitutes killed in the warehouse fire.^[5]

When local businessman Elliot Oswald goes to the Sons of Anarchy and asks them to find the man who raped his 13-year-old daughter, they quickly agree. When the gang find that the rapist is one of the carnies from the nearby traveling carnival, they return there. After a brief fight they retrieve the rapist then torture and murder him. Chibs proves to be one of the gang's most capable fighters during the brawl with the carnies. Later on, when Michael McKeavey of the True IRA come to Charming to sell weapons, Chibs travels "up north" with him, most likely to help him distribute his guns.^[6]

The club enter Half-Sack into a bare-knuckle boxing competition to raise funds to buy weapons. During this time, he is trained by Chibs, who insists that he has "no booze, no weed and no pussy". This suggests that he has had some boxing experience himself. At the competition, Half-Sack reaches the final but is then told to take a dive by Chibs and Tig because they bet on the opponent. He agrees, but then sees Clay and Cherry hugging at ring-side. This brings on a sudden surge of rage and he knocks his opponent out.^[7]

Chibs and Jax had to go into a One-Niners bar in Oakland to get Piney Winston after he went in, took a hostage and demanded to know who killed his daughter-in-law. That night, Chibs went with Tig and Happy to San Joaquin to kill the witness who identified Bobby and Opie after the murder of Brenan Hefner. The safe house was being guarded by two sheriffs and a female ATF agent, but they managed to knock all three unconscious and gain entry to the house. When they saw that the witness was a teenage girl, they were having initial doubts about killing her. However, Tig stepped up and just before he shot her, Jax came in and stopped him doing so at gunpoint. Jax then told Chibs and Happy to leave, and beat Tig up for killing Donna. Season One ended with Donna's funeral, which was attended by SAMCRO and other Sons of Anarchy from all across the country.^[8]

Season Two

Early in Season Two, Chibs narrowly escapes death in an explosion set up to end the life of a member of SAMCRO, causing him to spend about half of the season in bed. Tara told Jax that he was in critical, but stable condition, as the explosion causes him to slam his head into the ground and cause cranial bleeding. It was revealed in the Season 2 episode "Potlatch" that his wife's name is Fiona and she has come back to Charming to take care of Chibs. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and says the kiss is from someone named Kerrianne. Gemma mentions that Fiona is one of the only three women who scares her. Gemma informs Tara that they have been separated a long time and just never got a divorce, she also tells Tara that they need to keep Chibs in this hospital and how Fiona can never be alone with him. In Season 2, episode "Fa Guan," Jax visits Chibs and updates him on what's going on. Chibs mentions a man named Jimmy O (Edmond Hayes mentions him in an earlier episode) and how he would never let Fiona travel alone, so Jimmy O has to be here as well. Tara informs Chibs that he will be moved to a different hospital for the rest of his recovery. When he hears this news, he gets scared and says he needs to be in a place where there is protection. Later on, Chibs pretends to have a headache and claims that he cannot see through his right eye in order to stay in intensive care. In episode "Balm," Chibs is released from the hospital and on the way to the clubhouse, he tells Half-Sack that they should stop by Caracara. Half-Sack informs Chibs that Caracara burned down and how Jax is going Nomad. In the same episode, it is also revealed that Jimmy O kicked Chibs out of Ireland and the IRA, took Chibs' wife for himself and raised Chibs' daughter, and is responsible for the scars that are on his face. Agent Stahl attempts to use this history to get Chibs to inform on the IRA. Chibs initially refuses this offer, but after Jimmy O insinuates that he will take up a sexual relationship with Chibs' daughter if Chibs does not cooperate with his attempts to repair the IRA's relationship with SAMCRO (Jimmy O wants a meeting with Clay), Chibs turns to Stahl and offers information in exchange for his wife and daughter's safety (Stahl says she will put them in witness protection) and the ATF's promise to keep SAMCRO out of their investigation into the Irish.

In the episode "Service", Chibs meets with Stahl to sign the deal he proposed. When he realized that Stahl altered their agreement, he refused to sign any documents. Stahl threatened to reveal Chibs' betrayal to the True IRA, which would mean certain death for his wife and abducted daughter. Opie accidentally sees Chibs and Stahl leaving from the same building. Feeling helpless and ashamed for both dealing behind SAMCRO's back and for his plan backfiring, Chibs sits alone in the auto shop where Gemma sees him. Gemma gives Chibs advice and encourages him to tell the truth to Clay and the others, which he does. Clay tells him that he did not sign anything, so he is not a rat.

Season Three

In a recent episode, Chibs is reunited with his estranged wife and his daughter. Although there was some hesitance from his daughter, they eventually hug and she calls him "Dad". In "Firinne" Chibs is involved in the capture of McGee and the shootout between Jimmys men and SAMCRO. In the season 3 finale Chibs finally gets his revenge on Jimmy by giving him the same Glasgow Smile that Jimmy gave him and subsequently stabbing him to death. He then uses Jimmy's own blood to paint a Real IRA symbol on the rear windshield of Stahl's cruiser to make it look like the Real IRA committed the hit.

Season Four

Along with Opie, Piney and Kozik, Chibs coordinated the day-to-day operations of the club while the others were in prison and organized the setup of increased IRA hardware traffic. Chibs was at Stockton welcoming Clay, Jax, Bobby, Juice, Happy and Tig after they were released from prison and later attended Opie's wedding. Chibs, Bobby, Happy, and Juice snuck away from the meeting to the Russian hardware, eventually double-crossing and murdering the Russians, as well as an undercover FBI agent. Along with the rest of the club, Chibs is reluctant to enter into a deal with the drug cartel, but points out that the high volume of guns being moved will keep the IRA happy. However, he votes against the deal when it comes to a final decision, stating he doesn't trust the cartel. In the season finale following the events of Clay's unraveling secrets, and Jax taking the gavel, Chibs is appointed Sergeant-at-arms by Jax, taking Tig's seat at the table.

References