The finale of Sons of Anarchy's sixth season left fans with their jaws wide open as it came to a heartfelt close last night (10 Dec.) - SPOILERS AHEAD - as Tara (Maggie Siff) laid dead in the arms of a crying Jax (Charlie Hunnam) having being stabbed to death by an enraged Gemma (Katey Sagal) armed with a carving fork.

Katey SagalMaggie Siff
Sagal (L) and Siff (R) provided the emotional and shocking ending to season six

The death was shocking (what the hell kind of weed was Gemma even smoking?), but the circumstances around the death made it heartbreaking, as Jax gave Tara permission to leave Charming with her boys and under her own terms while he served time for providing guns to the boy who shot up the elementary school at the opening of season six. Taking unwarranted revenge on Tara after receiving some bad information, Gemma's heinous act also resulted in the death of Eli Roosevelt (Rockond Dunbar) at the hands of Juice (Theo Rossi) after witnessing the killing.

As shocking as the ending was, there was method to the madness, as show creator Kurt Sutter explained in a Q&A session held on Tuesday following an early screening of the final episode of season six. He explained (via MTV), "Obviously it's a major shift in the mythology and I knew ultimately where I wanted to take Jax in that final season. I wanted to remove his true north for that last season."

Kurt Sutter
Sutter had Tara's death planned as soon as she was introduced

Next Page: Sutter, Sagal and Siff describe filming the scene and what will happen next