Sons of Anarchy was an FX series about a motorcycle club that ran from 2008 until 2014. The series starred Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman, Katey Sagal and more, including Taylor Sheridan. The series was set in the fictional California town of Charming, where the Sons of Anarchy served as both menace and protector; meanwhile Sheridan played the Deputy Chief of Police, David Hale, who was often at odds with the club. While the show lasted seven seasons, his final appearance in the series was the Season 3 premiere, "SO".
Who Is David Hale?
David Hale is the Deputy Chief of Police in the town of Charming, and he served under Police Chief Wayne Unser, but they often clashed as Unser worked with the Son's motorcycle club, SAMCRO, in order to maintain some semblance of peace within Charming. Hale took issue with this approach, as he had a much more black and white approach to morality, believing there was no room to debate the technicalities of police corruption.
He not only clashed with SAMCRO and Unser though. When he disagreed with the methods deployed by Agent June Stahl of ATF, he stood up against her as well, enforcing a sense of right and wrong beyond just which side of the law a person was working on. He had his morals and was all set to replace Unser as police chief in order to usher in a new, less corrupt regime in the town of Charming prior to his death.
How Did Hale Die?
In the Season 3 premiere, "SO," Hale has been promoted to the Police Chief of Charming. He also makes peace with his brother, Jacob, who unleashed a Neo-Nazi chapter into Charming during Season 2 and is now running for mayor. Later in the episode, David attends the funeral of a fallen member of SAMCRO named Half-Sack. While he may have his issues with SAMCRO's illegal activity, he does acknowledge their role in the community. For instance, Half-Sack was murdered trying to protect a baby, and it has the whole town on edge, and Hale is aware of the complications of that.
At the funeral, SAMCRO is targeted by a drive by shooting, which injures several of those in attendance, including a child. Hale tries to stop the shooters in the van by stepping in front of the fleeing vehicle and shooting at the driver. Unfortunately, he fails in his attempt to stop the van and is killed horrifically as the car runs him over. While Unser and his brother ran to his side, he did not survive the incident and was not seen on the series again.
Why Did Sheridan Leave?
Sheridan was the deciding factor in writing Hale off Sons of Anarchy, with two key reasons being cited for his decision to leave. The first comes from the series showrunner Kurt Sutter, who says Sheridan asked to leave the show in order to focus his attention on other projects. At the time, he did not reveal what those projects were. Sheridan would later go on to find success behind the camera as the screenwriter of Sicario, Hell or High Water and Wind River, which he also directed. He'd also develop the Kevin Costner television series Yellowstone.
Sheridan has provided additional information regarding his departure. He has said that his salary from the series was not enough to support himself and his young family, as he had to teach acting classes and meet the demands of a rigorous television filming schedule. He no longer felt that lifestyle served him, so he moved to Wyoming with his family and started screenwriting, thus ending David Hale's time in Sons of Anarchy.