I don't understand how EVERYONE wants Clay dead. Seeing him reduced to a standard member and doing some undermining while setting up Jax to take a huge fall from grace is exactly what this show needs. I think he'll be dead by the end of this or next season no doubt; but the Jax/Clay relationship is what makes the show compelling. Without Clay, the only internal conflict is going to be Jax/Opie over allowing Clay to live. Clay brings the conflict element forward to other members of the club.
Under the rules that Jax and the club operate in, Clay needed to die. It could have at least been interesting if Jax decided he wouldn't succumb to those blood-thirsty desires and
chose to spare Clay's life, but that was forced upon him by CIA directive. So it's not even like Clay is still around because Jax is trying to change the club. He's around because the powers that be didn't want to get rid of him.
There's no reason there couldn't be drama without him either. You'd still have Jax going up against the club's institutionalized violent tendencies in trying to change the heart and soul of the club. You could still have Gemma puppeteering from the background to protect what she helped build. You'd still have Jax trying to find a way to get out of all the club's dirty businesses without bringing on the wrath of their other gang partners. Still have the problem of how SAMCRO protects Charming without being engaged in those endeavors. The club's fairly self-sustaining due to the relationships it has in place, so those would be suitably difficult challenges for Jax. Clay's death wouldn't remove those obstacles.
All of season 4 was about how Clay was a fucking monster and needed to be put down, and then the show copped out, didn't have the balls to kill a main character. It's the show's own fault that people want Clay dead. And really, if they didn't kill off then, I doubt they'll ever do it. That was THE time to do it.
