"Pilot" is thepilot episode andseries premiere of theFXtelevision seriesSons of Anarchy. It was written by series creatorKurt Sutter, and directed byAlan Coulter andMichael Dinner. It originally aired in the United States on September 3, 2008, and garnered 2.5 million viewers.^[1]

In the town of Charming inSan Joaquin County, California,outlaw motorcycle gang the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original (SAMCRO), loses a shipment ofautomatic weapons and their warehouse is destroyed by a rival club, theOakland-based Mayans.Jax Teller, the vice-president of SAMCRO, witnesses the resulting explosion.

The next morning, SheriffVic Trammel – who is on SAMCRO's payroll – tells club presidentClay Morrow that the warehouse was destroyed by arson, showing him the bodies of two women who were hiding beneath the building. Clay instructs Trammel to set up a meeting with the One-Niners, anAfrican-Americanstreet gang who buy weapons from SAMCRO. In Oakland, One-Niners leaderLaroy Wayne, who needs SAMCRO's guns to control the localheroin trade, reluctantly gives Clay more time to replace the lost weapons.

Meanwhile, Jax has moved into SAMCRO's clubhouse after separating fromWendy Case, his pregnant ex-wife who is addicted tomethamphetamine. In his family's storage unit, Jax finds old photographs of his late father and Sons of Anarchy founder, John Teller, as well as a manifesto written for Jax detailing the history of the club and John's disillusionment with the increasing violence. SAMCRO memberJuice Ortiz traces the stolen guns to a Mayans warehouse inSan Leandro.

Jax's mother,Gemma Teller Morrow, finds Wendy unconscious; she is hospitalized and her baby, Abel, is delivered ten weeks premature viacaesarean section. Jax's formerhigh school sweetheart, Dr.Tara Knowles, tells Jax that Abel has aheart defect which, combined with Wendy's drug abuse, gives him just a 20% chance of survival. Angry, Jax and other SAMCRO members confront local drug dealers, theWhite supremacist Nords; Jax brutally beats a Nords member for selling the meth to Wendy.

In preparation for the planned assault on the Mayans warehouse, Jax asks his best friend and lapsed club memberOpie Winston to come along. Opie, an explosives expert, reluctantly agrees as he was recently released from a five-year prison sentence and promised his wife,Donna, he would not become reinvolved with SAMCRO's criminal enterprise. However, Donna confronts Opie after discovering him rigging explosives; Jax interferes and tells Opie to stay home and takes the explosives.

At a club meeting, Jax suggests that SAMCRO look into other ways of earning money, but Clay prioritizes retrieving their stolen weapons. Jax tells Gemma about John's writings. That night, Gemma warns Clay about the manifesto and wants to prevent Jax from straying from SAMCRO. The following day, Clay, Jax andBobby Munson meet with Nords leaderErnest Darby and warn him to keep his drug dealing out of Charming. At the hospital, Tara recommends that Abel's heart surgery happen immediately. Gemma confronts Tara and the two argue, with Tara claiming she is not interested in becoming romantically involved with Jax.

In San Leandro, Clay, Jax,Tig Trager andChibs Telford find their guns and the Mayans' stash of heroin. However, a group of guards show up, resulting in ashootout. The guard Jax shoots is discovered to have aswastika tattoo, and SAMCRO deduces he is a members of the Nords. Jax is hesitant to kill the man, so Clay steps in and shoots him. Jax uses the explosives to blow up the Mayan warehouse, and SAMCRO rides back to Charming.

Tara performs a successful surgery on Abel and Gemma visits Wendy, ridiculing her. Wendy says that she will get clean, but Gemma threatens her, saying that if she tries to get custody of Abel, she will kill her; Gemma gives Wendy ahypodermic needle. Jax returns to the hospital and is overjoyed to find Abel is alive. He embraces Tara, while Wendy has an overdose in her hospital bed.

Originally,Scott Glenn was cast in the role ofClay Morrow and an entire pilot episode was filmed with him. However, series creatorKurt Sutter decided to go in a different direction with the character and re-castRon Perlman in the role, and Clay's scenes were re-shot.^[2] Additionally,Emilio Rivera was originally cast as a Sons of Anarchy club member named "Hawk," who eventually evolved into the character ofTig Trager.^[3] Also, the One-Niners street gang who buy weapons from SAMCRO first appeared inThe Shield, which Sutter produced.

IGN gave the pilot a 7.2/10 rating, stating, "At first blush,Sons of Anarchy is not nearly as assured or gripping asThe Shield.Charlie Hunnam is excellent as Jackson, andPerlman andSagal are great as usual. The show looks good, the dialogue occasionally crackles and the story has rich possibilities. However, the show rides very close to being self-parody. While Jackson might be having second thoughts about the Sons lifestyle – the show itself is certainly in love with the bikes, the guns, and the brutality. This isn't good enough to recommend without reservation – but if you need to get your manliness on- this might be just the thing."^[4]

• "Pilot" atIMDb

• 2008 American television episodes
• American television series premieres
• Sons of Anarchy episodes
• Television episodes directed by Allen Coulter
• Television episodes directed by Michael Dinner
• Television episodes written by Kurt Sutter

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