As portrayed by Ryan Hurst, Harry Winston, or 'Opie' for short, is the son of Piney, whom is one of the original nine members. Growing up, Opie was always very close to Jax. The two are seen as brothers in the show and often confront each other for advice with their issues, which is rarely seen between any members of the club. This just goes to show how close the two are.
In the beginning of the show, Opie is portrayed as a loving husband and father of Donna and his two children. He is often conflicted as Donna wants him to leave the club, but the club is all he's known his whole life. After Opie's car and phone is wired by ATF without him knowing, Clay suspects that Opie has turned into a rat. He sets out a hit on Opie but sadly, Donna ends up dead as she was driving Opies truck the night of the hit.
Opie is extremely depressed with Donna's death, he becomes distant and lives at the clubhouse since he can't face his children. While at the clubhouse Opie meets a porn star, Lyla, who is hired by the clubs porn business. Opie falls in love with Lyla and wishes for her to leave the porn business, he attempts to get her pregnant. To her surprise, Lyla does get pregnant. She has a secret abortion so that she can continue to keep working. Eventually Opie and Lyla get married, but Lyla continues in the porn business and confesses her abortion to Opie. Opie is frustrated even more when he finds Lyla's birth control pills hidden in her dressing room.
Opie ends up cheating on Lyla with another porn star hired by the club. This results in Jax giving Opie a piece of his mind. Things continue to be shaky between Lyla and Opie. They begin living seperatly and have minimal communication.
The situation gets worse for Opie as he soon finds out that Clay killed his father and that his wife's death was
also due to actions set by Clay. Fueled with anger, he seeks revenge. He finds Clay in the clubhouse and Jax
attempts to talk Opie out of shooting Clay, but Opie shoots him twice in the chest, resulting in Jax shooting
Opie in the hand. The group covers the shooting as retaliation from another club hit. Opie feels betrayed by Jax, and does not show up for Jax's announcement of becoming the new president of the club. He is often missing from club meetings and goes into hiding on his own.
What are your thoughts on Opie? Do you think it was a mistake to kill his character off?
Although his passing was indeed sad, Opie was really the logical choice to be killed. Opie had run the full angst of depression and guilt over both Donna's death (depression-the love of his life was killed, guilt-he was the one the bullet was meant to kill) and over his father Piney's death.
ReplyDeleteHaving been a fan of the show since the beginning, you knew it would be Opie because Jax gave Opie a full confession of all the goings on behind the "table" in the jail cell which gave Opie the peace of mind that he needed to then sacrifice himself. You can even move forward with the notion that Opie gave the ultimate sacrifice for the club with the knowledge that his "bro" Jax would set all the wrongs to right.
Opie also starts the ultimate catalyst of Jax's character as Pope's character pointed out in that same episode. Jax can no longer run the club through "rose-colored" glasses. Things are going to get ugly.
Jax said it brilliantly, "...Opie has been looking for a way out since Donna died..."
Ryan Hurst portrayal of Opie will be missed but I do look forward to seeing Ryan in other roles very soon.
Regina-facebook fan
I completely agree with you! Even though we all knew deep down that Opie was going to be the one killed off, it was still shocking and hard to see his character go.
DeleteThanks for sharing!