The Worst Thing That Happened To Unser In Sons Of Anarchy

Oh, Wayne Unser, everyone's favorite corrupt cop in Sons of Anarchy had been helping the club for years, looking the other way for most of their crimes taking place in and around Charming. His actions were constantly questioned by Deputy Chief Hale, who hated the fact that the gang had the town's law enforcement on their side through Unser. Yet, Dayton Callie's character didn't exactly reap the rewards for turning a blind eye to the motorcycle club. Even when he eventually retired from the job, he wasn't left with much in the wake of his divorce from his wife, Della Unser. He goes from being Charming's police chief to living in a cluttered trailer on the Teller Morrow lot.

He's even taken beatings for his ties to the club, but he's still convinced that SAMCRO has a set of morals when it comes to protecting Charming from other gangs and the violence that goes hand-in-hand with their various criminal enterprises. Throw in his unrequited love for the club's matriarch, Gemma Teller (Katey Sagal), and Wayne is one of their most loyal devotees. In fact, his love for Gemma winds up being the worst thing that ever happened to the former police chief.

Although Gemma is clearly fond of Unser as she constantly confides in him throughout the series, the pair never end up together. And for Unser, Gemma is the reason for his eventual downfall in the final season. In the run-up to the show's emotional ending, Jax Teller discovered that his own mother was behind the horrific murder of his wife, Tara Knowles-Teller. And the biker, not knowing any other way through his grief than revenge, felt an uncontrollable urge to kill Gemma for her crimes.

Unsurprisingly, Wayne stepped in to try to save Gemma from her son's wrath — even striking out at Jax for neglecting his children in his pursuit of vengeance. This later led to a tense standoff between Jax and Wayne, as the former police chief refused to let the biker kill his own mother because "this is all I have." Clearly, Unser meant that Gemma was the only thing in his life that gave him any sense of purpose, even though she was in a relationship with Nero Padilla. 

But unfortunately, Jax had been stripped of his sympathy and his patience over the entire ordeal, choosing to shoot Wayne in the chest. Given that he's a cancer-ridden old man, surely it would've been better for the biker to beat him up instead of killing him? But regardless, Jax saw him as just another obstacle on his road to revenge. Thematically speaking, Wayne Unser's love for Gemma and the club is what kills him in the end, and they didn't even give him a leather jacket... Rude. It's a tragic death for one of the show's most enduring characters.