A Bold Move:

As the week begins, word of Jason's bold move quickly spreads.  "I'm running the business now" says Burton in character. "The Zaccharas hit one of our shipments and I basically burn down their house."  The point of the fire might well be to let Jason's rivals know that there is a new Sheriff in town, so to speak.

"We haven't done anything to them in months" says Burton. Sonny, however, is not thrilled with this development. Hearing about the fire from Ric, who suggests  his brother make it very clear to Anthony that he had nothing to do with the incident.  Sonny takes Jason to task, or tries to.

"I'm running things and it's my business now" continues Burton. "But there's also that point of Sonny not wanting to let go 100% because he wants to control things and whether he gets ticked off or not, he has to say 'Yeah, you're right.   You did what I asked (by taking over) .'  He wants to fight it, but logically, he can't."

Trouble for Carly and Jax:

Across town, Jax tells Carly he wants to fight for their troubled marriage.  Too bad his first request is that she distance herself from Jason and his dangerous life, because obviously, she's not about to do that. In fact, she makes it pretty clear that he has a better chance of asking the sun not to shine.  Jax confides in his brother, only to be accused of trying to cut and run whenever things get tough in a relationship.  But even as Jax wonders how much longer he can let Carly's associations put their entire family in danger, he finds out that she has rolled out the red carpet at the Metro Court and allowed Anthony to stay there.

Furious, Jax insists his wife give their hotel's dangerous guests the boot, but she says the Z family is welcome any time, if only so she can keep an eye on them for Jason.  Trying to compromise, Carly suggests that if he mellows out where her friendship with Jason is concerned, she'll try not to bristle at the fact that he's doing business with Kate. Of course, Jax points out that Kate probably won't bring a hail of bullets down on their family.

Sonny Has Regrets:

Meanwhile, Sonny has a tough time dealing with the reality that he no longer wields the power he once did.  In fact, when Kate runs into a problem with launching her magazine, he slips back into Mob mode to try and handle the situation.  And while Sony did what he did in order to protect his loved ones, others insist that he has simply pushed Jason and those he cares about into the line of fire

Johnny, too, is fretting that Jason is now calling the shots, fearing that the new boss will take a much harder stance against the Z family than did his predecessor.  "Johnny should be worried because Sonny wasn't doing anything," admits Burton, speaking as Jason.  "The thing with Johnny is that I never really saw him as a threat.  But after burning down their house, I don't know.  The dynamics can change immediately after that!"

Sensing that Jason isn't a guy to cross, Johnny pays him a visit to make an appeal for peace.  Claudia too, goes to see Jason, but she has a slightly different take on the situation.  As far as she's concerned, the situation will never get better until her father is out of the picture.  And just so there's no misunderstanding she makes it clear that she means Anthony has to die!

Battle Lines Are Drawn:

Family matters loom when Monica, upon discovering that her son is the new big cheese, blames not Jason, but Sonny.  And when someone Sonny loves is on the wrong end of a smack down, he can't help but think it wouldn't have happened if he were still in power.  The mounting frustrations of recent days finally boil over, causing him to lash out at Jason.  "We've never seen Sonny this kind of fragile,"  previews Burton of what's ahead in the weeks to come.  But if Sonny decides he wants to take control again, will Jason simply step aside?  "It could make for good conflict if he wanted to take everything back"  admits Jason's portrayer.  Heck, maybe Jason could opt out of the life, freeing himself up to be with Elizabeth and Jake!  "It was nice for Jason to want to have a family," admits Burton.  "But when you think with emotion, a lot of times you get burned!"