Gemma Teller Morrow

Gemma Teller Morrow is a fictional character on the FX television series Sons of Anarchy, played by Katey Sagal. Gemma is the wife of Clay Morrow, widow of John Teller, and mother of Jax Teller. She is the matriarch of the Sons of Anarchy Redwood Original chapter, beloved by all of the club's members.

Biography

Gemma was born circa 1957 to Nate and Rose and is a native of Charming, California; her maiden name is Madock. According to Sheriff Wayne Unser, she left Charming when she was sixteen and returned "ten years later with a baby and a motorcycle club". She married John Teller, a Vietnam War veteran and founder of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, with whom she had two children: Jackson in 1978 and Thomas in 1984. Gemma has a scar on her chest which is explained when her grandson Abel has surgery. Gemma has a genetic heart disorder^[1] from her mother's side which she passed on to her children - Thomas died in 1990 from complications of the disorder, and Abel nearly died from heart complications after his premature birth. After John was hit by a semi-truck and died in 1993, she eventually married John's friend Clay Morrow. She is of Irish and Russian Jewish descent.

Season One

Gemma Teller Morrow is the queen of Charming and the matriarch of the Sons of Anarchy. A Machiavellian schemer and expert in psychological manipulation, Gemma is extremely protective of her son and grandson, and she longs for the day when Jax will, in her eyes, be ready to assume control over SAMCRO in order to ensure the organization's survival for another generation. She adores her husband, Clay, and does her best to make things work out his way. Many of SAMCRO's plans succeed because of Gemma's quiet intervention (e.g., finding out who raped the little girl at the carnival in episode "Fun Town", and surveillance of L.O.A.N. in season two). She generally has a hostile attitude toward all of Jax's female friends and partners, including his ex-wife Wendy; his on-again, off-again girlfriend Tara (although Gemma later takes Tara under her wing); and the club "groupies" with whom he occasionally has sex. Her tough, but relatively classy, image includes hair highlights and a tattoo on her breast. Nord boss Ernest Darby has indicated that he had a prior romantic interest in her. She claims to be part Jewish "on the angry Russian side".

Season Two

Gemma is raped early in season two by Sons of Anarchy rival AJ Weston and two other unknown men wearing white masks. During the assault, Gemma is told to tell Clay that it would happen again if he did not end his dealings with minorities. Later, Gemma realizes Weston is one of her rapists, when she recognizes his tattoos. When friend Unser finds her at the rape scene, Gemma demands that he not tell Clay or Jax about the rape so as not to play into AJ Weston and Ethan Zobelle's plans to get Clay and/or Jax to do something rash. Unser complies and further covers up the source of Gemma's injuries by crashing her car into a road divider and taking her to the hospital. The only other person whom Gemma confides in about the rape is Tara Knowles, Jax's girlfriend. Unser later realizes that Chief Deputy Hale is starting to become more involved with Zobelle and his people and tells Hale about Gemma's assault. This causes Hale to re-evaluate his dealing with Zobelle. The rape leaves Gemma with significant and visible emotional trauma, which causes problems in her marriage with Clay. She also feels somewhat paranoid that AJ might try to attack her again. Her paranoia is further compounded when someone from L.O.A.N. mails one of the rapists' white masks to her.

When Gemma learns of Jax's plans to become a nomad, she tells him that she knows about the book her first husband, Jax's father John Teller, had written. She tells Jax that she believes John's death may not have been an accident, but rather a suicide. After asking Jax to reconsider his decision, she implores him to read a certain page in John's book, hoping it will give him guidance and perhaps change his mind. The book fails to make Jax decide to stay and when the vote needed to allow him to leave is taken, it passes. Upon learning that Jax still plans to become a nomad, Gemma calls together her son, Tara, and husband Clay at her home and reveals, fairly graphically, the details of her assault and gang rape. As a result, Jax picks up the jacket patches he had removed from his vest after the vote which indicates that Jax has decided to stay with SAMCRO. The following morning, feeling unwanted by Clay, Gemma comes on to an emotionally wrecked Tig, who reciprocates her advances but stops when he sees a picture of Jax and Thomas at the beach as children. Later, Tig is guilt-ridden and proceeds to confess to Opie about Donna's murder. Then, outside the church where Unser's support group meets, Gemma is approached by the priest who runs the support group; he offers her advice to serve others in order to deal with her own self-loathing. Back at the garage, she runs into Chibs, who is distraught about his dealings with ATF agent Stahl. She comforts him and advises him to come clean with the club. After the club meeting, Tig tells Clay, at the end of the day, that Gemma thinks he does not want her anymore; Clay proceeds to the office and shows that he still wants Gemma. When the club goes on lockdown, Gemma looks after other families. She tells Tara that she does not have to take crap from anyone, because she is the old lady of the Vice President. Gemma has been teaching Tara, because she will one day be the queen of the club. Inspired by Gemma, Tara stands up to her supervisor at the hospital, assaulting her at one point when she calls Gemma a whore.

In the second season finale, Gemma happens to come across Polly Zobelle. Wanting to get revenge and also do her part for SAMCRO, she follows Polly to Edmond Hayes' house. She sends Tara home and sneaks onto the property, where she finds a distraught Polly brandishing a gun. Polly attempts to shoot, so Gemma kills her in self-defense. She then discovers Edmond Hayes' body and ATF Agent Stahl, saying that both of them had a bloody day. Stahl offers to let her leave, but not before tossing her sidearm to Gemma, who catches it. Gemma instantly realizes Stahl's trick to get her fingerprints on the murder weapon, and flees. At a bus stop payphone, she calls Police Chief Wayne Unser for help. She is last seen fleeing Charming with Unser with no idea where to go.

Season Three

Gemma is still on the run at the beginning of Season 3. Tig is keeping her at a motel until Clay and SAMCRO can figure out a way to clear her name. Clay elects not to tell Gemma that Abel has been kidnapped because he believes she already has enough to worry about. While at the motel, Gemma reads something disturbing in a newspaper (the obituary of her mother, whom Gemma and her family did not have a good relationship with). That Gemma's relationship with her mother was poor is reinforced when Opie gives Jax his condolences for the loss, and Jax dismisses it, stating that "he hardly knew her that well". Eventually, Gemma is able to convince Tig to help her sneak away. They end up at the house of her father, a reverend who is suffering from late stage Alzheimer's Disease. After an incident involving Tig and the Guatemalan caretaker, which resulted in Tig's being shot, Gemma requested Tara's assistance. After the caretaker discovers that Gemma is wanted and that there is a hefty reward for her capture, Gemma ties her up in the basement of her father's home. Shortly thereafter, the caretaker escapes by overpowering Tara. The caretaker then attempts to overpower Gemma but is accidentally killed in struggle with Gemma and Tara. Soon, Gemma makes the hard decision to move her father into an assisted living home. Gemma then breaks down, escapes in Tara's car, and contacts Agent Stahl. Tara and Tig inform the club that Gemma has disappeared and Clay realizes that she was heading home to be with Abel. However, upon returning home, Gemma discovers that Abel had been kidnapped. This aggravates her heart condition and she ends up in the hospital. Gemma had made a deal to turn herself in to Stahl upon her return to Charming, in exchange for not receiving the death penalty for the murders of Edmund Hayes and Polly Zoebelle. However, Stahl reneges on the deal, informing Gemma that because she did not turn herself in at the agreed-upon time (because she was in the hospital), Gemma has violated the terms of the deal. Later, Jax secretly works out a deal with Stahl, wherein he will give Stahl information on the IRA and get her back in the good graces of the ATF in exchange for help with his mother. (Stahl had been demoted and taken off the IRA case following the events at the end of season 2.) Stahl then supplies Jax with a statement for Gemma to give to the ATF, in which Gemma states the real events of the Hayes and Zoebelle shooting, except that Gemma fingered another ATF agent for the Edmund Hayes shooting. In "Widening Gyre", Gemma finds out that John Teller had an affair in Belfast in the late 1980s, which produced a daughter. She makes up her mind to go to Belfast with Clay and Jax and employs Tara's help in breaking out of police custody. After a tense standoff with Wayne Unser, Gemma successfully makes it to the airport with SAMCRO. Once she and the SAMCRO arrive in Belfast, the Sons are in danger of being deported to America. When they are all in the van, Gemma forces a SAMBEL member to run the police off the road. After SAMCRO's release from police custody they head to the SAMBEL clubhouse, where Gemma meets Maureen and Trinity Ashby. Gemma and Maureen talk later and Maureen tells Gemma they should continue to keep the secret about John's being Trinity's father. However, Gemma may still tell Jax, because he and Trinity may be attracted to each other. Ultimately, Gemma decides to tell Jax that Trinity is his sister after finding them in a compromising position.

The next day Gemma, Jax, and Opie go to the orphanage to get Abel. When they get there they are under orders of Father Ashby, who tries to prevent them from taking Abel home by lying about knowing where Abel is. Gemma sees right through this and takes the baby hostage and threatens to kill Ashby. When they finally tell where Abel is, Gemma gives the baby back and Jax goes to find him. When Jax comes back without Abel, he tells his mother that neither he nor Abel belongs there and Abel belongs with the other family. Gemma enraged that Jax is willing to give up his own son and tells him that Tara is pregnant. When father Ashby shows up, it is revealed that Sean Casey was tortured and the priest tells them that Jimmy is now after Abel. Everyone, including Gemma, tries to get to the hotel to save Abel, only to find that they are too late. After a deal is made between Jimmy and the True IRA, Abel returns home with his true family. Once back in Charming, the club is trying to find Tara and Gemma is struggling with the deal Jax made with Stahl. Gemma knows that it does not matter how much the rest of the club loves him; if they find out he ratting they will kill him without hesitation. Jax is still confident that nothing will go wrong and promises her that everything and everyone will be alright. Gemma, still afraid, decides to take Stahl at gunpoint and force to kill the deal, warning that if Stahl doesn't end the deal she will turn herself in and tell where previous statement really came from. She later greets Tara and hugs her for her safe return from Salazar.

In the season 3 finale Gemma is still worried about the deal Jax made with Stahl. When she sees that the deal is still on and that Jax is giving the head of the IRA she tries to turn herself in, only to find out that it is too late, because Stahl already gave her statement clearing her of the killings. Gemma warns Stahl that someone will get hurt. When Clay comes to see her in jail she tells him that they can't look at Jax the same way the saw John Teller, because club has been in desperate times. At the end she sees Jax arrives with Stahl. She watches with sadness as Stahl sets up Jax to die at the hands of his own club by exposing the deal they made. But Gemma gets some relief after Jax sends her a letter explaining that he was never a rat and that the deal was a trap the entire club was in on and the only reason they didn't tell her was to keep her from being an accessory if thing didn't go as planned. At the end it is intensely hinted that Gemma and Clay are responsible for John Teller's death through a letter from Teller to his mistress Maureen Ashby.

References

• FX Sons of Anarchy cast page
• IMDB character page