Throughout seven seasons,Sons of Anarchyhad a variety of villains with different reasons to destroy SAMCRO, but its weirdest one returned seven years later in the spinoff seriesMayans M.C., and he was even worse.Sons of Anarchyarrived in 2008 to take the audience to the fictional town of Charming, California, to meet the title motorcycle club, led by President Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman) and VP Jackson “Jax” Teller (Charlie Hunnam).Sons of Anarchyfocused on Jax’s efforts to bring his late father’s vision for the club to life, but he ended up having to change this plan.
Jax also wanted to keep the club afloat while also dealing with a lot of family trauma, which led him to make some questionable decisions throughoutSons of Anarchy. Jax and SAMCRO earned many enemies over the years, going from the leaders of other gangs and clubs to ATF agents and more.EverySons of Anarchyvillainhad reasons to want to end SAMCRO and was a threat to the club, but there’s one who most viewers could never take seriously due to how weird he was: Lincoln Potter (Ray McKinnon).
Lincoln Potter Always Felt Off In Sons of Anarchy
Lincoln Potter was a U.S. Attorney who made his debut inSons of Anarchy’s season 4, where he arrived in Charming with a task force of FBI, ICA, and ATF agents.Lincoln’s purpose was to get rid of SAMCRO, RIRA, and the ROC in one move, and he targeted SAMCRO member Juice Ortiz (Theo Rossi) to blackmail him and use him as an informant. Potter later went after Otto Delaney (Kurt Sutter), trying to get him to rat on the club, but his biggest obstacle was the Galindo Cartel, with whom Clay made a deal to mule cocaine.
Potter was too weird forSons of Anarchy, and his oddness, more often than not, didn’t match the show’s tone.
Despite being a very strategic and intelligent man with clear objectives, Potter was also very eccentric. In fact, Potter was too weird forSons of Anarchy, and his oddness, more often than not, didn’t match the show’s tone. Potter’s eccentricities, such as drinking chocolate milk and smoking while reclining upside down on a chair to help him think, might have been a way to lighten the mood inSons of Anarchy, butPotter ended up feeling way off and his presence on the show became uncomfortable.
When Potter finally had the evidence he needed and was preparing to arrest Jax and the rest, Romero Parada (Danny Trejo) and Luis Torres (Benito Martinez), members ofthe Galindo Cartel, arrived with a legal order to force Potter to stop his RICO plan. Parada and Torres were actually undercover CIA agents, and so Potter had to give them all the information he had. Lincoln left butreturned inMayans M.C., which made sense as not only was he the onlySons of Anarchyvillain who survived the show, but he also had unfinished business in the world of MCs.
How Mayans Changed Lincoln Potter (& Made Him Worse)
Mayans’ Lincoln Potter Wasn’t Interesting At All
Even with all his eccentricities and weirdness,Lincoln Potter inSons of Anarchywas a complex character, but that was no longer the case inMayans. Potter returned as an antagonist, and he was leading a case against the Galindo Cartel and Los Olvidados, using an informant from the Mayans MC. While Potter was still a weird character,Mayansturned him into a stereotypical villain, one that was quite bland, especially when compared to how he was written and portrayed inSons of Anarchy.
Lincoln Potter is one of those characters that isn’t remembered for their story but for how weird they were and how off they felt in the show.
At the end ofMayans, Potter led a raid on the title MC, waiting outside as he heard all the gunshots, so unlike what happened inSons of Anarchy, this time Potter won. Lincoln Potter is one of those characters that isn’t remembered for their story but for how weird they were and how off they felt in the show, and though he was a main antagonist inMayans, he also didn’t leave a permanent mark, unlike other villains.
Sons of Anarchy
Sons of Anarchy is centered around the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original (SAMCRO), exploring the tensions between President Clay and Vice President Jax in the town of Charming. The narrative focuses on their differing visions for the club’s operations, blending legal and illegal enterprises.
