sons of anarchy series finale
Charlie Hunnam as Jax in a scene from the "Sons of Anarchy" series finale. FX

After seven long seasons running the streets of Charming, the boys of SAMCRO went on their final ride Tuesday night when “Sons of Anarchy” aired its series finale. Kurt Sutter, the mastermind behind the motorcycle drama, discussed the intense episode on the “Anarchy Afterword” aftershow, revealing the method to his madness – specifically, how and why he created the jaw-dropping ending.

WARNING: If you haven't watched the series finale of “Sons of Anarchy,” stop reading now.

In episode 13, “Papa’s Goods,” Jax (Charlie Hunnam) decided to meet Mr. Mayhem as a way to end the chaos he'd created in Charming (all based on a lie surrounding the death of Tara, played by Maggie Siff). But instead of being executed by his club for wrongfully killing the Indian Hills charter president, Jax took charge of his own fate.

Jax killed himself the same way his father died; by driving JT’s bike into an oncoming truck during a police chase. Guess the rotten apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree. Sutter explained during the “Sons of Anarchy” aftershow that he knew all along Jax was going to die before the series concluded – but it would be on the protagonist’s own terms.

“I had a sense really from the beginning of this ride that I liked the notion of Jax being brought to the same place of his father, but getting it right. You know what I mean?” Sutter said. “The idea that he was going to go out in the same way.”

Although the creator had a vision of how the series would conclude, Hunnam dished that the specifics of Jax’s death were a little fuzzy.

"We had talked about there being various potential versions of the ending in the beginning of the season and had a couple of conversations," Hunnam revealed. But the brainstorming of Jax’s death concluded when the actor read the final two episode scripts. “And that was the moment that it really dawned on me that you had decided to really go for it and we were going to say goodbye to Jax at the end.”

Sutter further admitted he struggled to decide how much of Jax’s death to show in the series finale. “I wasn’t sure how much of it I was going to leave up to the imagination of people. There was a discussion that he’s on the road and we see that truck and we leave it sort of open-ended,” he noted. “And then ultimately I felt like this has not been a show of’ ‘what ifs,’ to a certain extent. This has always been a show about direct, specific choices and direct, specific consequences. So I realized I needed to be clear in terms of whether it happened or it didn’t.”

What did you think of the “Sons of Anarchy” series finale? Sound off in the comments section below with your thoughts!