Juice Ortiz Character Analysis My Current... - Whitewolfofwinterfell

Juice Ortiz character analysis

My current re-watch of Sons of Anarchy has truly opened my eyes to the complexities and potential of Juice’s character and arc, the unfair ways in which he was mistreated and injustices he suffered to the point that I had to make a post to explore this more in-depth.

Warning: This post discusses sensitive issues such as mental health and suicide. There are also mentions of rape/abuse.

Juice’s character arc is such an important exploration of men’s mental health (which is particularly, raw at the moment with the awareness that has been raised of male suicide with the campaigns encouraging men to embrace and speak about their mental health) and what it means to suffer in silence based on notions of “masculinity”. It showcases the deep conflict one can have in regards to their identity when they live in a world that tells them everything they are is wrong or unnatural. His character arc was so distinctive and unique in comparison to the other character arcs in the series and it’s sad that it wasn’t given the attention or respect it deserved. I’m going to explore all of this more in-depth below, but you can also watch a very interesting character analysis on Juice which neatly covers his arc across the seven seasons. That analysis will be particularly useful in covering the chronology of Juice’s character and the various arcs he goes on throughout the season.

The first thing that sticks out about Juice is that from the very beginning he didn’t really seem to belong in the club. Out of all of the members, he was the one that appeared to be the most “normal”, in the context of not being a naturally violent, cruel, immoral or malicious person. Throughout the series we saw all of the members go up against their conscience and morals at some point and struggle with the mental and emotional trauma of hurting and killing but none of them seemed to carry that burden as much as Juice (x). It was clear that he was considered the “soft” one of the group or, to put it bluntly, the runt of the litter (x). There were numerous occasions across the series where he was used or manipulated by a member or outsider (Roosevelt in season 4, Clay in season 5, Jax in season 5 and onwards, Gemma in season 7 and the list could go on) simply because he was perceived to be pliable.

This softer and more vulnerable side to Juice is directly linked to why he was mistreated by the rest of the club (not that it justifies it at all, because it doesn’t). This post highlights the fact that Juice was overlooked, unappreciated and ignored within the club. There are also instances where Juice was the butt of the club’s jokes (x), which can be perceived as just “laddish banter”, but was actually a reflection of his social standing within the club. Based on a hierarchical structure, with the President at the top and Prospect(s) at the bottom, Juice was one tier above the Prospect. Since there were never any flashbacks and only tiny snippets of information regarding Juice’s past and the history of the club, the assumption is that based on his age and his treatment, Juice was the newest member of the club and had recently been patched in before season 1 began. However, it doesn’t explain why his position within that hierarchy remained static for the entirety of the series, whilst the other members were constantly shifting up and down in comparison. Regardless, his lowly status can be seen in the way in which the club treated him, such as in season 2 when they used him to lure out Dion in prison in exchange for club protection. Not only did that incident have the potential to go very wrong (Dion could have sexually assaulted or raped Juice or he could have turned physically violent when Juice rejected him) but it wound up with Juice getting stabbed.

Season 4 was the point at which Juice’s character arc took a very dramatic twist when Sheriff Roosevelt used Juice’s African American heritage (his biological father is African American) to blackmail him to provide intel on the club. This was a source of conflict and trauma for Juice due to SAMCRO’s rule that no member could be of African American origin. Juice, knowing this rule, was probably tormented about knowing his father was African American anyway and it must have always been lingering in the back of his mind what the club would do if they found out. The fact that he was so terrified of rejection and that the club would cast him out just on the basis of his father’s ethnicity is a reflection of how poorly Juice was treated by the club. Why did he think that his own brothers, friends and family would violently and cruelly turn on him in such a manner, even with the rule about African American’s in place? It shows how undervalued Juice felt, that he thought he was dispensable and that the care the other members had for him was rooted directly into his usefulness as a member rather than who he was as a person. All of the members had at least one member in the club that was a true friend, someone they could rely on to have their back no matter what they did, except Juice. Chibs appeared to be the most supportive member towards Juice and accepted him when Juice admitted his father was African American and supported him after his suicide attempt by not telling the club (except Jax). But even still, that friendship had its limits and Juice knew that.

Season 4 was where Juice’s psyche really started to break due to Roosevelt’s blackmail. He stole a brick of cocaine from the club (and by extension the Cartel) to bring to Roosevelt and when the hunt for who had stolen it started, Juice began to crumble under the pressure and guilt. He didn’t want someone that was innocent to take the rap for what he had done, but likewise, he was terrified of being caught himself. The end result was that he and Miles got into a fight which wound up with Juice killing Miles and placing the blame on him. The trauma of killing Miles, the overwhelming guilt, paranoia and million and one other emotions were too much for Juice to bear. One of the episodes soon after he had killed Miles opened with him crouching beneath the tree where it happened, frantically reciting a prayer and asking for God’s forgiveness. Seeing no other way out he attempted to take his own life and only survived because the branch he had hung himself from snapped. That is how dark a place Juice got to - he couldn’t see any other way out of his predicament. He knew if SAMCRO found out how deeply he had betrayed them, they would do so much worse than simply kill him and he knew there was no one he could turn to to support him through such a horrendous ordeal.

Juice’s battle with mental health was a central part of his story, piquing in season 4 and continuing until the end of season 7. After his first suicide attempt, things for Juice continued to unravel. Juice received little to no emotional understanding or support, not even from Chibs entirely. His suicide attempt was treated like a dirty, shameful secret only adding more to Juice’s shame and loneliness and therefore, worsening his fragile mental and emotional state. In fact, upon finding Juice trying to hide the evidence of his suicide attempt Chibs yelled at him and called him a coward whilst Jax said, “Sons don’t kill themselves.” To make matters even worse, when Jax found out that Juice’s biological father was African American and his dealings with Roosevelt in season 4, he used it against Juice and once again Juice was emotionally blackmailed which led to added further to the emotional and mental distress he suffered. Juice’s fragile mental state was very obvious, with him crying and expressing increasingly dark emotions more often than most of the other characters (x) (x) and it was only made worse by the fact that those around him sought to exploit that fragility for their own benefit. Even in season 7, after he sacrificed everything to protect Gemma from the club finding out that she killed Tara, he was still mistreated. Viewing him as a liability and risk to her safety, Gemma tried to kill him and although Wendy and Wayne helped him stay hidden, their support was as flimsy as Chibs’. By that point, Juice really hit rock bottom. The club always acted as the family he never had, but he had all but destroyed any ties he had to the club through his actions (which in reality, weren’t directly his fault since he was manipulated and exploited by others) and the few people he had in his corner (Gemma, Wendy and Wayne) still had the capacity to betray him or turn him over to the club.

Despite Juice having his own plots and character arc throughout the series, he was always treated like a second class citizen within the writing itself. I’ve already spoke of the way in which Juice was always renegaded to the bottom of the pyramid within the club, but that poor treatment remained consistent and was an inherent part of the writing for Juice’s character. The biggest indicator of this was the way Juice’s experience of suicide was treated in comparison to Jax’s. Within SOA and the writing, Juice’s suicide attempt was branded cowardly and “un-Son-like”, whilst Jax’s suicide was regarded as heroic and brave, with the entire club essentially giving him their blessing to go off and kill himself. Jax’s death represented peace and in comparison to the suffering Juice endured in prison with multiple beatings and rapes, it was peaceful. Yet Jax’s actions throughout the series were so much worse than Juice’s. Whether it was intentional or not is up for debate, but from my interpretation Juice wasn’t written as a sympathetic character in the same way Jax was. I’ll throw my hands up and admit that I didn’t even like Juice for a long time (I didn’t dislike him, I was merely indifferent to him) and at times I totally bought into him being the bad guy that betrayed the club. But now looking from a new perspective I can see that Juice was a victim much more than Jax or any other character on the show was. Whilst Jax often acted of his own accord and made the decisions he wanted to or thought were best, Juice was backed into a corner - manipulated, coerced or threatened into making decisions against his conscience or morals.

Juice Ortiz is representative of what can be achieved when a writer is willing to delve into a person’s psyche and push the boundaries, but also shows the disappointment that can come from a character’s potential not being entirely fulfilled. Whilst Juice’s arc resonated with so many people (and still does), it was consistently brushed aside in favour of other plots and/or characters. Juice’s arc could have been a fantastic exploration of men’s mental health and whilst it was at times, it just fell short of the mark, in my opinion. It didn’t quite go far enough, didn’t explore how and why Juice came to be in that place and Sutter seemed more concerned with pushing him into a corner and branding him a bad guy or making him scapegoat than giving him the screen time he deserved. Nonetheless, I’ve come to see the greatness of Juice’s character and his importance within the show, despite the fact that within the SOA universe and writing he was often cast into the background or overshadowed by bigger characters such as Jax. Along with this, I have also had my eyes open to the brutally unjust treatment Juice was subjected to by the characters and writers and although SOA is one of my favourite shows, I can’t help but critique the lack of opportunity Juice had to redeem himself and receive a second chance. The moment he teamed up with Roosevelt in season 4 it seemed that his fate was sealed and from that moment forward he was doomed to be branded a traitor and a coward. Although Juice was a recurring character that featured across the 7 seasons the show ran, he has often been overlooked or forgotten (even by myself), but I’m so glad I have come to appreciate and understand the importance of Juice’s character. SOA is a show where no good could exist and every character that featured was morally grey, but Juice was arguably one of the only truly good-hearted people on the show and was a victim of circumstance.