Chris Philpott Analyzes Jax Teller Who He Considers  One of a Handful of Really Well Written and Acted Anti-Heroes on Television

In times past, people liked their protagonists – the good guys – to be perfect: good-looking, highly intelligent, exceedingly masculine or feminine, not too big-headed, and capable of the extraordinary. Try to imagine Superman/Clark Kent crossed with James Bond. Why did we want perfect leading men? In part, because they embodied the traits we imagined in ourselves; “Hey, Clark Kent is good-looking, smart, extraordinary and good, and since I’m good that means I must also be good-looking and smart and extraordinary.”

Jax seems to be going through something of an internal struggle, trying to balance the new way he sees SAMCRO following the birth of his son (the goodness inside) with the actions he is forced to partake in as part of the club (the flaws).

We see glimpses of this throughout the early episodes of the show, from the moments when he sits back on the roof of his house and thumbs through his father’s memoirs, to the times when he looks through the window of the intensive care unit at his premature-born baby son or grips his sedated ex-wife’s hand while holding vigil at her bedside.

A couple of moments from last night’s episode showed this internal struggle again. Take the climactic scene in the forest when he realises Clay has used the rapist-hunt as an opportunity to push his own ideals – Jax seemed genuinely conflicted between doing what was right (turning the rapist over to the police after Oswald’s failure to enact justice) versus doing what he has sworn to do (following Clay’s orders and his vision for the club).

The scene where he leads ex-wife Wendy in to see her son for the first time was touching as well. You get the sense that Jax understands life a little more, and finally has something real to live for.

For all of his flaws – violent and murderous temperament, criminal activities, etc – Jax is a person who aspires to take the high road, even though he stumbles occasionally. The character works because we sympathise with the struggle he is going through, and we see ourselves in him inasmuch as we feel that the way he behaves is also the way we would behave in that situation. It’s the same reason we love Draper, McNulty, Bauer and the rest.

That makes Jax all right with me.

Check out the complete artice HERE.  Photo courtesy of FX Media Relations.