Good episode, bordering on great.
Great writing and fantastic acting, but I felt like there were too many poor directorial choices to keep it from being great.The episode begins with Tony waking up, arising and noticing Paulie Walnuts strutting up his driveway, paper in hand. The look on T’s face indicates that he knows he’s going to be greeting another unhappy day. I like the touch that he takes Paulie out to his garden and admires his tomatoes before acknowledging, and almost forgetting, his morning guest and the almost certain unfortunate tidings he bears. That’s a nice little touch there and ties into his outlook in the early-to-middle episodes of last season when the character took opportunities to express his admiration of the smaller things in life. I have already said this but I haven’t seen the season’s premier or the first half of episode. 2, so there are some things I’m unaware of but I’m under the impression that the premier opened with Tony and Carmela waking up, perhaps similar to the way this episode opened. Did the 2nd episode begin that way too? Just curious.
Alrightey, so the main plot line, or rather “co-main plot line”, of the episode is Tony and Paulie lamming it because apparently Larry Boy Bares is talking to the Feds after getting popped at the Cleaver premier and has led them to a body which just so happens to be Tony’s first kill. I guess this guy, a bookmaker named Willie Overalls, was the cherry popper Tony alluded to in the season 2 conversation with Pussy at the restaurant after they killed Matthew Drinkwater. Murder must make you hungry. I used to like the way the writers of this show would recall characters and events that seemed like one-off lines but I think this one was a little too meta. No biggie though.
The character development stemming from these developments is that, while forced to spend a considerable amount of time in close quarters with him, Tony starts getting an uneasy feeling about the loyalty of the aforementioned Mr. Walnuts. Questioning both his loyalty to himself and his path of Omerta, we see Tony express his inner debate to Beansie later in the episode after several little incidents in which Paulie shows himself to be not only an incorrigible gossip and motormouth, he shows an incredibly stupid lack of judgment in deciding exactly which stories are appropriate to share. The other side of Tony’s inner debate interjects that Paulie shows daring brash and unquestionable toughness, as he always has, and that he has now decided that Paulie meant no disrespect with the retouching and hanging of the portrait depicting Tonapoleon Sopranoparte. Central to Tony’s conflicting interpretations of Paulie’s actions and comments is “the joke”. As the writers wring the last bit of life out of the season 4 plot device, Tony peppers Paulie with repeated questions alternating between asking him “Who coulda?” “Why woulda?” and “Woulda you?” Somewhere in that debate fits in Paulie’s bizarre and intense enjoyment of Three’s Company which apparently affects Tony so much his only coping mechanism is to get really, REALLY, liquored up. After the late night conversation with Beansie, Tony decides what to do. Now I don’t know how the rest of you felt about the boat scene, but I think it was one of the more memorable out of the recent seasons. I really think that Tony didn’t know which way that whole boat ride was going to turn out when he set out, and if he did then I don’t think the original plan was for Paulie to come back. Ever the master strategist, Sun Tazoo, T sets Paulie up perfectly. I think if Paulie had copped to telling Johnny Sac about the joke, if he in any way would have acknowledged that yes, indeed, it was he who talked out of school, if he would have put his faith in Tony’s reassurances that it was “okay” and that it was no big deal, if he would have acted the way all of us in the viewing audience felt was acceptable and revealed that he did it and was remorseful for it, then Peter Paul Gualtieri would have ceased being Paulie Walnuts and would have become Paulie Chumnuts in those waters off the coast of Florida. Tony set up a scenario of incredibly intense pressure for his old friend, plied him with alcohol and friendly assurances that he should have no fear of retribution, and finally tested Walnuts. He answered his own question, the one he posed to Beansie by the pool side after denigrating him constantly, the one we all saw in the promo, “Has he really ever been tested?” He put him to the test and found the answer satisfactory. Paulie didn’t fold under questioning, not even under repeated questioning and verbal abuse from his definition of God on earth, his skipper Tony Soprano. I think in that moment it quashed Tony’s inner debate resoundingly. Paulie would never fold under questioning from cops or feds, even with the prospect of 20 years behind the wall, if he didn’t fold, and was even able to turn his back and await his death, when he had to know Tony could have just as easily gone for a gun than for a Glen Livet. I remember thinking, once Tony glanced over to the mini-axe, “this could be the end of Paulie” and just how weird that would be. I also noted that Tony did look like he was rather begrudgingly sparing his old friend’s life.
The other main plot line for the episode featured an increasingly unpredictable uncle junior getting his swagger back in the low security loony bin and taking under his wing a troubled young man with his own unpredictable emotional problems. The character development that was brought out of this plot line turned out to be a convincingly solid exploration of Junior’s increasing senility, his apparent acceptance with his place in life, and his ability to be both insightful mentor and cruel tormentor with the bright and capable young men that gravitate to a man of his character and charisma. This was also some of the best acting, almost all the way around, that you’ll get when The Sopranos uses that many characters. It got a little heavy handed when the character mistakenly called the character “Carter”, a rich and unassuming young Asian man in his late 20’s-early 30’s, by his nephew’s name “Anthony”…just IN CASE we were all missing the point. I can’t knock it too much though because while the viewing audience was aware of just what was going on that was the point that Carter caught on to just what was happening, so I guess the reveal had to happen some way. The inevitable outcome occurs at the very end when Carter, an unstable young man prone to violent outbursts tied up somehow into his relationship with his father, feeling betrayed and cast aside, violently attacks Junior in a scene that was hard for me to watch. I know Junior is an amoral sombitch who has done many evil things in his life and that such characters should be hard to feel sympathy for. But to see an old man, suffering from senility, catch such a violent beat down from someone he very much thought of as a friend and confident, that just made me feel very sad for the man. The last shot of him, bruised and broken as he seeks comfort in solace with a kitten on his lap, seems to me to be highly possibly the last image we will get of the man. Alone, confused, and hurting, Corrado Soprano Jr. will die that way surrounded by people he does not know nor enjoy, still trying in vain to avoid punishment from the government he has openly flouted his entire adult life.
Title: "Remember When" – Tony describes this as the lowest form of conversation. Now whether that was just a shot at Paulie to get him to shut up or whether he really believes that is open to interpretation in my opinion. But I find it quite telling that the elder statesmen of the Soprano family, the only ones who come to visit Junior and show great loyalty to the man by trying to engineer an escape for the man, aren’t the ones engaged in such behavior; rather it is the generation below them, the current leadership, who have nothing to discuss but their glorious and bygone youth. Tony expresses in this episode that things are really going well for him and perhaps this is part of why he finds talk of bygone days, days he didn’t find as rosy and wonderful as his compatriots apparently did, to be annoying and unworthy of him.
((Okayplayer.com Forum Pass The Popcorn)) Consensus: I know that much had been made of the flashbacks, I’m assuming the ones of Pussy on the boat and not the ones at the beginning of the murder of the bookie, as being a horrible and heavy handed way of conveying Paulie’s uneasiness of setting out with Tony on the boat. As I stated in my opening sentence, my overall review of the episode, I found some choices made by the director to be poor and I’m not confident in saying that this was an exceptionally well directed episode. However, and in contrast to my initial viewing of this episode, the second time I watched that entire boat scene sequence I realized that flashbacks weren’t such a poor choice. Without them all you would have is a long shot of the boat pulling away from the dock with Paulie, standing (as only he can) stiff as a board with his elbows at 45 degrees and his hands not-yet-clasped in front if him, looking pensive and pallid aboard the Sea Voo Play. A brief collection of clipped shots alerting newer viewers to just maybe why Paulie had been acting uneasy and distracted ever since T mentioned “going sport fishing” out on the boat just the scene before. The stuff I did have a problem with though, since you asked, were the clumsy directorial choices that were not only unnecessary but in some cases damped the drama and could have easily been cropped. For example, showing Uncle Junior’s Doug Henning of the medicine as the orderlies backs were turned was not only silly to show but poorly done. As was the showing of his reluctant acceptance of having to take the medicine to avoid being the comatose piss and shit factory he would eventually become without taking his meds. Those were pretty much tedious and in the instance of the first deception, kind of dampened the drama. There was NOTHING as tedious, nor as gratuitous, no not even Tony’s thrust n’ grunt and obligatory roll over to a cigar, as the slow and deliberate pan up to Doc Santoro’s Bugsy Siegel/Moe Green/Brendan Fillone blown out eyeball. Can we say unnecessary gore and inordinately bloody money shot, kids? Good, I knew we could.
What’s left?
Not much Carm this week but man oh man did they nail it with her bitching about Paulie’s “I’m sorry, Tony” gift of the Williams-Sonoma espresso machine. What was the first thing out of her mouth when she complained? That’s right, the price tag. If ever there was a character on The Sopranos who has defined everything in their life by material worth, it is Carmela Soprano.
Tony’s gambling. Nice to see Hesh checking in by phone, apparently while dining at the Plot Point Deli, to grant Tony a 200k loan to cover lost bets. A string of losers lately is costing T some pretty pennies and if the promos are to be believed, and they must be, THEY MUST BE because they never lie dammit, it’s going to come to a head with Carmela and her spec house from Hell. Swear I saw Tom Hanks and Shelley Long stopping by to give Carm pointers about how she could possibly speed the construction process up. I wonder if she still sleeps with the blueprints.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
4/29/2007 The Sopranos : Chasing It
What an odd episode.
This was a real tough episode for me to get a handle on. Especially after one viewing. Last night was DEFINITELY one of the more "plot driven" shows, as opposed to the "character driven" eps that best define the show. plot devices were responsible for the characters dialogue, their decision making, and ultimate resolutions. Any character development that occurred last night was due solely to random plot events. It felt like a one-off or "throwaya" episode in that regard.
Tony's gambling, or rather Tony's continuing habit of losing at his gambles, has suddenly become a problem so severe it is negatively affecting his closest relationships. Adding to T's growing stress is a request from Marie Spatafore, wife of late Soprano family capo Vito Spatafore, for 100K to move the family away from the area in order to give Vito Jr., a severely troubled young man, a fresh start somewhere where the family's history is unknown. The money plot device was needling Tony the whole episode and ultimately dictated how he resolved every problem he faced, and he pragmatically resolved Vito Jr's problem by choosing the cheaper of two evils.
Tony was ugly in this episode. Dammit the man was downright vicious and cruel. I can't remember an episode in recent memory where he was just so wholly unlikeable. Even during some of his more violent and horrifying cruel outbursts and arguments in seasons past, Gandolfini has usually been able to convey something redeemable in the man. I'll be a monkey's uncle if there was any of that going on last night, either in Gandolfini's performance or in the writing. He moved like a wounded animal for the better part of the episode. Taking his lumps, HARD, whenever he would get clobbered on his bets, then in the midst of licking his wounds he would attack, nastily, anybody who was near to him. Hesh's words last night were on point and he had T dead to rights during that scene in which he was discussing with his son-in-law the dangers of doing business with "the Italians". That was a fantastic bit of acting by Jerry Adler and a great monologue conveying the heavy reality of the position Hesh had found himself in. He wasn't being bleak or a pessimist in the least when he summarized his friendship, and ultimately his safety, as being worth about as much as Tony Soprano wanted to part with. Based off the closeness of the two characters, I mean since episode fucking one, I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen the way Tony was acting once he started feeling the pressure of paying up. Tony is an ugly motherfucker when he owes money. In Melfi's office he started in with the "Jews/$$" thing and did not give an inch when she tried to downplay the stereotype (that every gentile alive believes), and from that point I knew shit was going to go wrong for Herschel Rabkin. Did anybody notice Chrissy when Hesh came by Satriale's and Tony started in with the Merchant of Venice shtick? Great little bit of stifled laughter by Imperioli right there.
Speaking of good acting, I'd like to put in a word about the kid who played Vito Jr. That guy had a really tough gig last night and he pulled it off pretty damn well. A lot of times with kids I cringe while watching stuff and usually if a kid isn't just out and out horrible then I'm pleasantly surprised. I was more than pleasantly surprised by the job that kid did. He was able to do some tough stuff, some really "over a kids head" type stuff, and he was able to do it well. Kid held his own with Frank Vincent and Gandolfini, was made up and had his hair dyed to look feminine, and then stood shirtless and shit himself. I think a lot of that stuff would be hard for a kid to pull off as well as he did. Good little actor.
Alright so back to the Tony's gambling, his all consuming destructive habit of "Chasing It". During his second visit with Dr. Melfi I kept waiting for her to ask him, rather puzzled, "Didn't we have a breakthrough revelation in here about you witnessing your dais cut off a man's finger and that, along with your father's imploring you, has kept you from gambling your whole life?". But to no avail. That flashback was about gambling, right? Or was it about paying your debts? Either way, Tony is having real problems with both of those right now.
Anyone else think that Tony exploding at Carm in that horribly cruel way, while definitely INITIATED by the realization he missed out on a windfall with that Jets bet, ended up being about his own dissatisfaction with the way he had handled (or mis-handled) and let down the Spatafores? The more I reflect on what he said about her being a shitty businesswoman and building a rotten house that was sure to fail and perhaps even kill the family residing in it, the more I consider the parallels between Carmela's failure to build a secure home and Tony's failure to provide a sound life for the family one of his top guys.
I think its very telling that it was Carm's cousin moving into her spec house. Not only does it provide the obvious realization that she was unable to unload the house on a stranger and had to resort to cheating a relative, but it also toys with the notion of "family" in a way The Sopranos has riffed on and made part of its marketing since Season 1. Tony's other "family", his crew of loyal button men and captains, rely on him as a surrogate father, mentor and most definitely as a provider. The flow of money in the mafia is competently summarized in the term "kick UP". Weekly envelope drops, when guys mention "making collections", travel from the associates to the soldiers they're under, then onto that soldier's capo, and then to the top of the pile where they find their way into Tony's jacket pocket, accompanied by a handshake and a smooch on the cheek. Even though this pyramid scheme favors the Boss in every way, shape, and form, his family of criminals most certainly relies on T for guidance and allowances regarding what scores are acceptable and what areas are free game. In this way Tony is not only responsible for providing a house with food on the table for Carm, Meadow, and AJ, he is responsible for all of his guys' ability to make their own healthy households, and their ability "to eat". All the made guys also certainly rely on "their thing" as a sort of insurance plan for whenever their end game is reached. Tony explains as much during Chrissey's induction ceremony, and the guys come to rely that if they wind up in jail or dead and gone that Tony will look after the other family they leave behind.
Carmela's inner turmoil about intentionally screwing over a relative for her own financial gain is juxtaposed with Tony's screwing over one of his "relatives". His anger arises with the realization that he had failed to protect Vito, had failed to take care of the Spatafore family left behind to pick up the pieces by leaving the job to Phil, and was going to fail them further by advising Vito Jr. be taken to a brutal camp for troubled youth...all because it was the least expensive choice. He knows that parts of the foundation of his other household has been built with faulty wood, and that it wound up caving in and killing that poor baby (Vito Jr./Francesca).
This was a real tough episode for me to get a handle on. Especially after one viewing. Last night was DEFINITELY one of the more "plot driven" shows, as opposed to the "character driven" eps that best define the show. plot devices were responsible for the characters dialogue, their decision making, and ultimate resolutions. Any character development that occurred last night was due solely to random plot events. It felt like a one-off or "throwaya" episode in that regard.
Tony's gambling, or rather Tony's continuing habit of losing at his gambles, has suddenly become a problem so severe it is negatively affecting his closest relationships. Adding to T's growing stress is a request from Marie Spatafore, wife of late Soprano family capo Vito Spatafore, for 100K to move the family away from the area in order to give Vito Jr., a severely troubled young man, a fresh start somewhere where the family's history is unknown. The money plot device was needling Tony the whole episode and ultimately dictated how he resolved every problem he faced, and he pragmatically resolved Vito Jr's problem by choosing the cheaper of two evils.
Tony was ugly in this episode. Dammit the man was downright vicious and cruel. I can't remember an episode in recent memory where he was just so wholly unlikeable. Even during some of his more violent and horrifying cruel outbursts and arguments in seasons past, Gandolfini has usually been able to convey something redeemable in the man. I'll be a monkey's uncle if there was any of that going on last night, either in Gandolfini's performance or in the writing. He moved like a wounded animal for the better part of the episode. Taking his lumps, HARD, whenever he would get clobbered on his bets, then in the midst of licking his wounds he would attack, nastily, anybody who was near to him. Hesh's words last night were on point and he had T dead to rights during that scene in which he was discussing with his son-in-law the dangers of doing business with "the Italians". That was a fantastic bit of acting by Jerry Adler and a great monologue conveying the heavy reality of the position Hesh had found himself in. He wasn't being bleak or a pessimist in the least when he summarized his friendship, and ultimately his safety, as being worth about as much as Tony Soprano wanted to part with. Based off the closeness of the two characters, I mean since episode fucking one, I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen the way Tony was acting once he started feeling the pressure of paying up. Tony is an ugly motherfucker when he owes money. In Melfi's office he started in with the "Jews/$$" thing and did not give an inch when she tried to downplay the stereotype (that every gentile alive believes), and from that point I knew shit was going to go wrong for Herschel Rabkin. Did anybody notice Chrissy when Hesh came by Satriale's and Tony started in with the Merchant of Venice shtick? Great little bit of stifled laughter by Imperioli right there.
Speaking of good acting, I'd like to put in a word about the kid who played Vito Jr. That guy had a really tough gig last night and he pulled it off pretty damn well. A lot of times with kids I cringe while watching stuff and usually if a kid isn't just out and out horrible then I'm pleasantly surprised. I was more than pleasantly surprised by the job that kid did. He was able to do some tough stuff, some really "over a kids head" type stuff, and he was able to do it well. Kid held his own with Frank Vincent and Gandolfini, was made up and had his hair dyed to look feminine, and then stood shirtless and shit himself. I think a lot of that stuff would be hard for a kid to pull off as well as he did. Good little actor.
Alright so back to the Tony's gambling, his all consuming destructive habit of "Chasing It". During his second visit with Dr. Melfi I kept waiting for her to ask him, rather puzzled, "Didn't we have a breakthrough revelation in here about you witnessing your dais cut off a man's finger and that, along with your father's imploring you, has kept you from gambling your whole life?". But to no avail. That flashback was about gambling, right? Or was it about paying your debts? Either way, Tony is having real problems with both of those right now.
Anyone else think that Tony exploding at Carm in that horribly cruel way, while definitely INITIATED by the realization he missed out on a windfall with that Jets bet, ended up being about his own dissatisfaction with the way he had handled (or mis-handled) and let down the Spatafores? The more I reflect on what he said about her being a shitty businesswoman and building a rotten house that was sure to fail and perhaps even kill the family residing in it, the more I consider the parallels between Carmela's failure to build a secure home and Tony's failure to provide a sound life for the family one of his top guys.
I think its very telling that it was Carm's cousin moving into her spec house. Not only does it provide the obvious realization that she was unable to unload the house on a stranger and had to resort to cheating a relative, but it also toys with the notion of "family" in a way The Sopranos has riffed on and made part of its marketing since Season 1. Tony's other "family", his crew of loyal button men and captains, rely on him as a surrogate father, mentor and most definitely as a provider. The flow of money in the mafia is competently summarized in the term "kick UP". Weekly envelope drops, when guys mention "making collections", travel from the associates to the soldiers they're under, then onto that soldier's capo, and then to the top of the pile where they find their way into Tony's jacket pocket, accompanied by a handshake and a smooch on the cheek. Even though this pyramid scheme favors the Boss in every way, shape, and form, his family of criminals most certainly relies on T for guidance and allowances regarding what scores are acceptable and what areas are free game. In this way Tony is not only responsible for providing a house with food on the table for Carm, Meadow, and AJ, he is responsible for all of his guys' ability to make their own healthy households, and their ability "to eat". All the made guys also certainly rely on "their thing" as a sort of insurance plan for whenever their end game is reached. Tony explains as much during Chrissey's induction ceremony, and the guys come to rely that if they wind up in jail or dead and gone that Tony will look after the other family they leave behind.
Carmela's inner turmoil about intentionally screwing over a relative for her own financial gain is juxtaposed with Tony's screwing over one of his "relatives". His anger arises with the realization that he had failed to protect Vito, had failed to take care of the Spatafore family left behind to pick up the pieces by leaving the job to Phil, and was going to fail them further by advising Vito Jr. be taken to a brutal camp for troubled youth...all because it was the least expensive choice. He knows that parts of the foundation of his other household has been built with faulty wood, and that it wound up caving in and killing that poor baby (Vito Jr./Francesca).
6/10/2007 The Sopranos : Made In America (final episode)
The Sopranos, as I can best describe it, has been a series of glimpses into the life of one man, Anthony Soprano and the immediate members of his "families". The dual nature of the word "family" provides the impetus for the events that transpire in the brief glimpses we are allowed. Modern life and its myriad trappings provide the panoramic backdrop for the dealings of this man and his families in and around Northern New Jersey, as well as provide heavy dialogue fodder for the many characters to trash, celebrate, question, marvel at, dismiss, aspire to, etc. Point blank: we have followed a 3rd trimester baby boomer (born 1960) gangster, his relatives and cohorts, through a series of episodes and watched them try to do what we all do: make sense of the world and our place in it.
If you watched to see mobsters be mobsters, you got that. If you watched to see a dramatization of the modern American upper-middle-class family, you got that. If you watched to see debate and deconstruction of what it means to be a human being in 1999-2007, you got that. The Sopranos had the ability to be all and everything at once, making fans of so many differing, and seemingly un-mixable, genres happy with the knowledge that such quality television was being brought to us.
The Sopranos also had the ability to be nothing at all like anybody recognized nor expected, unnerving innumerable viewers as the show somehow gleefully failed to, or was deliberately unwilling to, deliver on promising storylines. Any time a character had the opportunity to learn a lesson and really expand their personality in a positive direction; they'd eschew the challenge and revert, happily, to their previous pattern of behavior. When fans wanted to devour mafia beef, they got served Johnny Cakes. When they ached for resolutions in the form of final answers, they were puzzled and confused by test dreams. When I myself wanted the well written and conceived show I had been following for 7 years, I was treated to the debacle that was the first half of Season 6.
Whatever the show was or wasn’t; however it delivered or disappointed, it was most definitely original. It was also something that belonged to absolutely nobody except David Chase. This point was driven home repeatedly throughout the series run, proven true by both the masterful storytelling weaving great scenes into fantastic episodes into amazing seasons as well as the strict adherence to pleasing no one but himself. I am not among the many who think David Chase "hates" his audience and delights in their torture through deliberate sabotage of his greatest, and most financially rewarding, creative achievement. That makes no sense to me. I am, however, among the howevermanyofusthereare who thinks that Mr. Chase pities his audience and feels he needs to break us of our dependence upon Hollywood and old-fashioned "The Biz" type entertainment.** I can attribute the decision to end the episode the way he did to this and I can do that without rancor or offense. For me, the decision to end it that way was great and it was executed (pardon the pun) brilliantly. It sparkled with the same subversive sensationalism he has brought to the whole series and will go down as one of the greatest series enders ever just for the sheer "talkability" of it. Love it or hate it, you have an opinion on it. Unlike the pedestrian finales of once-great series' like Family Ties, Cheers, or, the poster-child for "BLAND FINALES", Seinfeld, this was an ending aimed to satisfy one person and one person only. However, the majority of the discussion, and the focus of much of the heated discussion, seems to focus on the actual "cut-to-blank-screen" definition of "ending" and not the "last glimpse into this man's life" ending. That's a real shame.
In my opinion, Sopranos Season 6 Episode 21 "Made In America" was as satisfying a season finale as Season 1 Episode 11 "I Dream If Jeanne Cusamano", an episode often cited as the season finale that best tied up its particular season. Not only was it as good as "IDOJC", but during the final scene at Holstein's that episode was referenced in a way that best encapsulates why the show doesn't need to tie everything up in a neat little package. AJ remembers his father's passionate insistence from Season 1 that his family savors the smaller happier moments in life, to "focus on the good times". All of us that have been following the show since the beginning know immediately what he's talking about. We can identify the conversation and name the episode it came from. We saw it, we remember it. Tony, on the other hand, has no recollection of this conversation. He thinks AJ is chiding him at first, then when he recognizes it as good advice that he might have actually tried to impart he acknowledges and accepts it. For him, this made-up man in this made-up universe, it was just one lesson of many millions he tried to teach his kids. One of many millions that we didn't get to see. Why should that lesson, or for that matter that whole rainy night when they were stuck out in a storm and had nowhere to eat but a candle lit Vesuvio's, have been any thing special he would have remembered? It was only special for us because it was a memorable episode that ended the first season. As I said previously, these episodes that are the canon of The Sopranos universe are merely "glimpses" into a life. They are not the entirety of that life. Everything we witnessed during these glimpses happened, sure, but some were important enough to further explore and perhaps "wrap up", and some, simply, weren't.
I was perfectly satisfied even before the final scene with the last visits we were allowed with the most important characters. I liked the way it was done, as if we got to go along with Tony for one last visit with Janice, Sil, Paulie, and Uncle Junior. They successfully conveyed how these characters were going to go on from here, from this "just another glimpse".
Janice: Or perhaps should I call her "Livia Jr."? She out and out admitted that she is going to hold Bobby's daughter hostage because Domenica is so attached to her big sister. Bobby's son has expressed the desire to live elsewhere (who can blame him?), and Janice seems to take this completely reasonable expression from a child who has lost both parents in 4 years as some sort of insult. Yet another reason to go about in pity for herself. Barbara got out, Tony looks like he's finally accepted it and put it in its proper place, but Janice is a walking, talking, three dimensional example of the havoc wrought by the mother from Hell. Is she even aware of how much she now emulates her mother? True she never offered up any "Oh, poor you"s but she most certainly has begun to channel her late mother by pointing out how the hard work and effort she puts forth continues to go unappreciated. Meanwhile we have yet to see any scene, I mean even one, in which Janice is doing anything besides handing her child off to someone else. Usually with an admonishment of the child, the babysitter, or perhaps both. The thing I found most telling about just how much she has become her mother was when Tony suggested that perhaps Harpo could come to live in this huge house with her and the kids. Janice appears to mull it over and then spits that Harpo has changed his name to Hal now. This conversation came up once before between these two only then she relayed the Harpo/Hal information regretfully, sad that her son lives away from her and also to show Tony how out of step he is with her life. Now she says it with a bitter finality. "Harpo" becoming "Hal" has somehow become Janice's reason for staying separated from him and his life. Just like Livia once tearfully scolded her for going from "Janice" to "Parvati", I'm willing to bet that Janice considers her son's name change a betrayal, a rebuking of her as a mother. Perhaps she knows from her own experience that's exactly what it is.
Sil: Tony's number two from day one, the without-a-doubt most loyal of the Soprano clan. Spent his last waking days solidifying his position of who he supports and ended up paying the price for that loyalty. Tony seemed reticent to go and visit Silvio, something his underlings didn't appreciate. However I don't think they appreciated that he wanted to do this alone, on his own terms. Having been near death himself recently it had to be hard for him not to think "There but for the grace of Chase go I..." That scene was perhaps the most touching scene in the entire series run between two of "da guys". Didn't Sil look weird with his hair down too? I like the way that was composed, first from the right with his hair looking like it normally does, like Vanilla Ice circa 1990, and then from the front-left where we see it down and relaxed, like Dru Down circa 2000.
Paulie: Finally rewarded with what he probably feels he's deserved all along, the lucrative "Altieri/Aprile/Cestone/Cifaretto/Spatafore/Gervasi" crew. From T's own mouth, "Paulie's always has been a little quirky" and his reluctance to accept the bump up stayed true to his character. His revealing that he once saw the Virgin Mary at the Bing was the second funniest thing in the episode, just behind Agent Harris' exultation of "Hot Damn we're gonna win this thing!"*. We got the "Paulie" episode earlier this half-season during the spate of episodes that seemed to be focused on tertiary characters: "Paulie", "Hesh", "Chrissey", etc. Looking back now, I recognize those episodes were more about defining Tony than any of those characters. Paulie and Tony's relationship, while strong and full of mutual respect and affinity for each other, will never be as great as it once was. I get the feeling that these two are tight due mainly to circumstance and that they will never truly understand each other. A relationship centered on convenience, comfort, and familiar repetition...hmmm...sounds a lot like Tony’s marriage.
Uncle Junior - David Chase has never been afraid to go dark on us. I don't think he's been any darker than he has with his treatment of the elderly. Watching Uncle Junior's journey through the run of this series has been a bleak endeavor, one I would like to have seen end differently. The wily cunning and creepy antagonist of season one has descended into senile abandonment. He is confused, lonely, and afraid. He speaks of men from other planets coming to see him. He confuses his niece with his sister-in-law and speaks gibberish Italian to her. The cold and wintry gusts seen throughout the episode may signify the Winter of Tony's reign but they most certainly signify the harsh finality that we are in the Winter of Corrado Soprano's life. I think it’s worthy to note that Junior's dementia is profoundly more pronounced now that he's in a state-funded home rather than a costly private facility. Chase can find almost any tool with which to comment and critique on contemporary America. Tony's final visit with his once intimidating uncle after writing him off for the entire final season, was not played for sentimentality. Far from it. These two did not romanticize the past, laughing through tears at days gone by. Junior offered no inspiring insights to his nephew, nothing to show that even as we get old we still have room to grow. There was no final reconciliation between the two, no mutual understanding of wrongs committed and forgiveness given. Basically nothing that Hollywood would EVER have for a final good-bye scene between two heavyweight characters. None of that to be found here. Instead, what we were given was startling real, dark as dark can get. Tony implores Uncle Junior to remember where his hidden stash of money is so that Bobby's kids may be taken care of properly. This money, the only evidence left of Corrado Soprano's entire life of crime, is as forgotten and lost to the old man as the life itself. Upon realizing that not only does his uncle not remember where the money is hid, he doesn't even know who Tony is and can only remember that they played baseball together. Tony tries to get Junior to remember his kid brother, Tony's father. Sensing that even family ties no longer ring any bells for him, Tony with focused intimacy speaks of "this thing of ours". Junior recognizes the inference and for a slight second I hold out hope that perhaps there will be some acknowledgement and recognition. My hopes are then dashed by Uncle Joon's non-committal "that's nice" after being informed that he and his brother once ran North Jersey. Tony backs away, somewhat horrified that this was once the great "Uncle Joon", and I don't think any of us have to wonder if he will ever see him again. As much as I would have loved to see a Corrado/Tony reconciliation, or even a final showdown between the two, I loved that Tony recognizes that as senile and confused as his uncle or any made men might become, "the life" could still possibly hold a place somewhere in their diseased mind. Tony intrinsically knows that somehow "the life" is more personal, more intense, more cemented in the fiber of these men than any friend or family could ever be. Great bit of dialogue, done so subtly yet still powerful.
Some more thoughts: I think David Chase basically told all of the viewers who tune in each week for mob hits what he thinks of you. Phil Leotardo's gruesome ending Sunday night was the coup de gras for a season chock full of truly shocking displays of the grotesque. With only two exceptions I can think of, Philly's death was administered the same way all the hits have come this year. With a calculated cold efficiency common throughout all the hits, gunmen casually walked up on the intended target and pumped round after round into people. We then were treated to close-up shots of exploded eyeballs, heads exploding over plates of pasta and red sauce, gut shot women screaming for their fathers, and lifeless corpses twitching with each new bullet slamming into them. So what does David Chase think of you? For this I point you to last week's episode "The Blue Comet". Immediately after the two zips massacre Phil’s Russian cumare and her father, it cuts directly to a women getting her vaginations mouthified by some man or woman while another woman behind her caresses her enormous breasts. The zips’ American contact, Corky (shout-out?), is in the porno shop he presumably runs for the Family staring intently at the action on the screen. Just like all of you clamoring for more and more mob violence were staring at your screens not 2 seconds before. The graphic mob violence is simple pornography. Its obscenely graphic titillation for titillation’s sake in the eyes of David Chase and with that simple edit he called all of you perverts.
Looking back at the hits in the final season of the show, I'm noticing an interesting trend. Please remember, I didn't see the season opener "Sopranos Home Movies" so I may be off on this but if I remember what I read about it correctly Tony got picked up on a gun charge stemming from the gun he ditched during his mad scramble from the FBI raid on the Sacramoni home back in the Season 5 finale. One notable thing that seemed to be featured this year was how often the hitmen dropped their firearms at the scene, indeed making a point of doing so. Going from memory, and getting names from wikipedia, the hits this year were:
Bobby whacks Rene LaCours. (drops piece according to wiki)
Gerry the Hairdo getting it at the restaurant with Sil. (don't know if he did)
Doc Santoro doing his Paul Catsellano impression and getting it in the eye. (can't remember if the hitmen dropped their guns or not)
JT Dolan killed by Chrissey (I don't remember if he takes the gun or not)
Tony killed Chrissey. Fucker. (dropped peyote)
Sil garroted Carlo's cousin Burt. (dropped piano wire)
Dudes whacked Bobby. Fuckers. (dropped guns)
Danny Aiello's kid and some other guy (character names are Petey B. & Ray-Ray, I shit you not) did Sil. Mother Fuckers. (dropped guns)
Guy driving in from of the Bing! squished the motorcycle rider. (he may have dropped a load in his pants)
Yrena (Phil's cumare) (dropped guns)
Yrena's dad (Phil's cumare's dad) (dropped guns)
Walden whacked Phil Leotardo. Bye-Bye PopPop!! (dropped gun)
So is there any relevance to the discarding of guns and Mink's revelation that Tony is 80-90% likely to be indicted, quite possible for ditching a gun? Maybe it’s a version of the old "live by the gun, blah blah the blah" saying: You cannot escape your past murderous deeds, they will definitely be revisited upon you.
I cracked up HOARD at the way Agent Harris excitedly reacted to the news of Phil Leotardo's death. You gotta feel for this guy. He clearly did not sign up to do battle with the Taliban and spend his days watching video of Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, trying to get a bead on which one of a million guys who look the same to him is the real bad guy. Not too mention the job is literally killing him with intestinal parasites. That fellow agent he had his little tryst with...was SHE the Brooklyn source? She seemed pissed off for some reason and I think it may be because she feels he's going to get her snitch killed or he's getting too close to Tony. Whatever’s going on, all I know is FBI must stand for Fuck Buddies Inc.
Another great bit of true to form mafia culture: seeing "Uncle Pat" come visit Tony after Janice's tearful begging for Uncle Junior's money. Pat is an old-school Mafiosi, a good loyal soldier. Remember him and Beppy were trying to figure out a way to spring Junior out of his nursing home in "Remember When". I liked that when he came to sit with Tony and implore him to see Junior that he came with a suit on. Even at his advanced age, nearly double that of Tony's, he still respects that he is going to see the Boss and he gets natted up. This just another one of those little things that The Sopranos could always be relied upon to get right, and is one of those little things that really hooked me.
Great commentary on the changing face of America and of the strength of the mafia today when Butchie is talking to Phil on the cell phone. As the call goes on, with Butchie imploring that Phil come back and bring back some stability here, Butchie walks on oblivious to the direction he's going or what is around him. At the beginning of this scene, we're exposited that we're now in Little Italy and that the area has gone from 40 blocks now down to one square mile or some shit. Once Butchie's call is completed, and he now looks up to see where he is at, he finds he is a stranger in a strange land, far from home. True it’s only Chinatown and he knows how to get back to Little Italy but the message is there. I think it also represents Butchie's bewilderment at, and feeling of disassociation from, Phil. Unlike most of the posters here, I didn't think Phil threatened Butchie when he promised to meet up with him when he returned. I think the exact opposite, that it was a promise they would sit down and square everything out smoothly once he got back. Remember from Big Pussy's disappearance and the sudden alarm with which Paulie related a missing Carlo, these guys HATE when people go missing or break established routines. Nothing disrupts the regularity of business like the uneasiness setting in from guys going "off the reservation". Phil, being a fuckin Boss and going under, creates more anarchy and disruption than any Soprano clan attack could. He signed his own death warrant with that.
Carlo: I've liked Arthur Nascarella in The Cooler, Running Scared, and this real shitty low budget movie with Mira Sorvino and Mariah Carey. He was one of the latter-day crew members I really liked. Was it his cousin getting iced by Sil? Was it Jason getting busted and probably implicating his dad? Was it the "power vacuum" he mentioned at the beginning of the episode? Probably all of the above. I wonder how long he was a rat for or if he flipped and went under immediately after getting busted. If he's been wearing a wire for a while then he's got the goods on Tony. Shits his testimony alone places Tony at Fat Dom's murder as well as ordering that he be chopped up and his head dropped down a storm drain.
I'm still trying to figure out that look Carmela was murdering Tony with when he turned the session with AJ's shrink to himself. Was that an "Oh-oh, here we go again" thing, is she just that tired of hearing it, or was it because this was supposed to be about AJ and not him? Or is it something I'm totally missing?
Meadow & AJ, children absolutely MADE IN AMERICA, have definitely become carbon copies of the adult influences they grew up with. All this time Meadow seemed to be the one to escape, but she has willfully put the blinders on and decided that the Federal Government is a big bad institution that unfairly persecutes Italian-Americans. Tony's con job and Carmella's self delusion succeeded. The thing is though, I don't think Tony is happy about it. I think he KNOWS the truth and liked it a lot better when meadow did too. He seemed somehow disappointed in what she was saying. AJ looked like he could actually turn into a decent human being for a whole 15 minutes until his parents dangled something shiny in front of his face. New car? Cush Job? Model girlfriend? What terrorists? I also loved how when they sat down to talk him out of the Army, Tony asks AJ what "Rahooney" thought of him going of to war. When he reluctantly replies that she didn't like the idea, Tony all of a sudden celebrates this 16 year old girl's opinion like it matters and like he wasn't just summarily dismissing their relationship. Any port in a storm I guess.
If you watched to see mobsters be mobsters, you got that. If you watched to see a dramatization of the modern American upper-middle-class family, you got that. If you watched to see debate and deconstruction of what it means to be a human being in 1999-2007, you got that. The Sopranos had the ability to be all and everything at once, making fans of so many differing, and seemingly un-mixable, genres happy with the knowledge that such quality television was being brought to us.
The Sopranos also had the ability to be nothing at all like anybody recognized nor expected, unnerving innumerable viewers as the show somehow gleefully failed to, or was deliberately unwilling to, deliver on promising storylines. Any time a character had the opportunity to learn a lesson and really expand their personality in a positive direction; they'd eschew the challenge and revert, happily, to their previous pattern of behavior. When fans wanted to devour mafia beef, they got served Johnny Cakes. When they ached for resolutions in the form of final answers, they were puzzled and confused by test dreams. When I myself wanted the well written and conceived show I had been following for 7 years, I was treated to the debacle that was the first half of Season 6.
Whatever the show was or wasn’t; however it delivered or disappointed, it was most definitely original. It was also something that belonged to absolutely nobody except David Chase. This point was driven home repeatedly throughout the series run, proven true by both the masterful storytelling weaving great scenes into fantastic episodes into amazing seasons as well as the strict adherence to pleasing no one but himself. I am not among the many who think David Chase "hates" his audience and delights in their torture through deliberate sabotage of his greatest, and most financially rewarding, creative achievement. That makes no sense to me. I am, however, among the howevermanyofusthereare who thinks that Mr. Chase pities his audience and feels he needs to break us of our dependence upon Hollywood and old-fashioned "The Biz" type entertainment.** I can attribute the decision to end the episode the way he did to this and I can do that without rancor or offense. For me, the decision to end it that way was great and it was executed (pardon the pun) brilliantly. It sparkled with the same subversive sensationalism he has brought to the whole series and will go down as one of the greatest series enders ever just for the sheer "talkability" of it. Love it or hate it, you have an opinion on it. Unlike the pedestrian finales of once-great series' like Family Ties, Cheers, or, the poster-child for "BLAND FINALES", Seinfeld, this was an ending aimed to satisfy one person and one person only. However, the majority of the discussion, and the focus of much of the heated discussion, seems to focus on the actual "cut-to-blank-screen" definition of "ending" and not the "last glimpse into this man's life" ending. That's a real shame.
In my opinion, Sopranos Season 6 Episode 21 "Made In America" was as satisfying a season finale as Season 1 Episode 11 "I Dream If Jeanne Cusamano", an episode often cited as the season finale that best tied up its particular season. Not only was it as good as "IDOJC", but during the final scene at Holstein's that episode was referenced in a way that best encapsulates why the show doesn't need to tie everything up in a neat little package. AJ remembers his father's passionate insistence from Season 1 that his family savors the smaller happier moments in life, to "focus on the good times". All of us that have been following the show since the beginning know immediately what he's talking about. We can identify the conversation and name the episode it came from. We saw it, we remember it. Tony, on the other hand, has no recollection of this conversation. He thinks AJ is chiding him at first, then when he recognizes it as good advice that he might have actually tried to impart he acknowledges and accepts it. For him, this made-up man in this made-up universe, it was just one lesson of many millions he tried to teach his kids. One of many millions that we didn't get to see. Why should that lesson, or for that matter that whole rainy night when they were stuck out in a storm and had nowhere to eat but a candle lit Vesuvio's, have been any thing special he would have remembered? It was only special for us because it was a memorable episode that ended the first season. As I said previously, these episodes that are the canon of The Sopranos universe are merely "glimpses" into a life. They are not the entirety of that life. Everything we witnessed during these glimpses happened, sure, but some were important enough to further explore and perhaps "wrap up", and some, simply, weren't.
I was perfectly satisfied even before the final scene with the last visits we were allowed with the most important characters. I liked the way it was done, as if we got to go along with Tony for one last visit with Janice, Sil, Paulie, and Uncle Junior. They successfully conveyed how these characters were going to go on from here, from this "just another glimpse".
Janice: Or perhaps should I call her "Livia Jr."? She out and out admitted that she is going to hold Bobby's daughter hostage because Domenica is so attached to her big sister. Bobby's son has expressed the desire to live elsewhere (who can blame him?), and Janice seems to take this completely reasonable expression from a child who has lost both parents in 4 years as some sort of insult. Yet another reason to go about in pity for herself. Barbara got out, Tony looks like he's finally accepted it and put it in its proper place, but Janice is a walking, talking, three dimensional example of the havoc wrought by the mother from Hell. Is she even aware of how much she now emulates her mother? True she never offered up any "Oh, poor you"s but she most certainly has begun to channel her late mother by pointing out how the hard work and effort she puts forth continues to go unappreciated. Meanwhile we have yet to see any scene, I mean even one, in which Janice is doing anything besides handing her child off to someone else. Usually with an admonishment of the child, the babysitter, or perhaps both. The thing I found most telling about just how much she has become her mother was when Tony suggested that perhaps Harpo could come to live in this huge house with her and the kids. Janice appears to mull it over and then spits that Harpo has changed his name to Hal now. This conversation came up once before between these two only then she relayed the Harpo/Hal information regretfully, sad that her son lives away from her and also to show Tony how out of step he is with her life. Now she says it with a bitter finality. "Harpo" becoming "Hal" has somehow become Janice's reason for staying separated from him and his life. Just like Livia once tearfully scolded her for going from "Janice" to "Parvati", I'm willing to bet that Janice considers her son's name change a betrayal, a rebuking of her as a mother. Perhaps she knows from her own experience that's exactly what it is.
Sil: Tony's number two from day one, the without-a-doubt most loyal of the Soprano clan. Spent his last waking days solidifying his position of who he supports and ended up paying the price for that loyalty. Tony seemed reticent to go and visit Silvio, something his underlings didn't appreciate. However I don't think they appreciated that he wanted to do this alone, on his own terms. Having been near death himself recently it had to be hard for him not to think "There but for the grace of Chase go I..." That scene was perhaps the most touching scene in the entire series run between two of "da guys". Didn't Sil look weird with his hair down too? I like the way that was composed, first from the right with his hair looking like it normally does, like Vanilla Ice circa 1990, and then from the front-left where we see it down and relaxed, like Dru Down circa 2000.
Paulie: Finally rewarded with what he probably feels he's deserved all along, the lucrative "Altieri/Aprile/Cestone/Cifaretto/Spatafore/Gervasi" crew. From T's own mouth, "Paulie's always has been a little quirky" and his reluctance to accept the bump up stayed true to his character. His revealing that he once saw the Virgin Mary at the Bing was the second funniest thing in the episode, just behind Agent Harris' exultation of "Hot Damn we're gonna win this thing!"*. We got the "Paulie" episode earlier this half-season during the spate of episodes that seemed to be focused on tertiary characters: "Paulie", "Hesh", "Chrissey", etc. Looking back now, I recognize those episodes were more about defining Tony than any of those characters. Paulie and Tony's relationship, while strong and full of mutual respect and affinity for each other, will never be as great as it once was. I get the feeling that these two are tight due mainly to circumstance and that they will never truly understand each other. A relationship centered on convenience, comfort, and familiar repetition...hmmm...sounds a lot like Tony’s marriage.
Uncle Junior - David Chase has never been afraid to go dark on us. I don't think he's been any darker than he has with his treatment of the elderly. Watching Uncle Junior's journey through the run of this series has been a bleak endeavor, one I would like to have seen end differently. The wily cunning and creepy antagonist of season one has descended into senile abandonment. He is confused, lonely, and afraid. He speaks of men from other planets coming to see him. He confuses his niece with his sister-in-law and speaks gibberish Italian to her. The cold and wintry gusts seen throughout the episode may signify the Winter of Tony's reign but they most certainly signify the harsh finality that we are in the Winter of Corrado Soprano's life. I think it’s worthy to note that Junior's dementia is profoundly more pronounced now that he's in a state-funded home rather than a costly private facility. Chase can find almost any tool with which to comment and critique on contemporary America. Tony's final visit with his once intimidating uncle after writing him off for the entire final season, was not played for sentimentality. Far from it. These two did not romanticize the past, laughing through tears at days gone by. Junior offered no inspiring insights to his nephew, nothing to show that even as we get old we still have room to grow. There was no final reconciliation between the two, no mutual understanding of wrongs committed and forgiveness given. Basically nothing that Hollywood would EVER have for a final good-bye scene between two heavyweight characters. None of that to be found here. Instead, what we were given was startling real, dark as dark can get. Tony implores Uncle Junior to remember where his hidden stash of money is so that Bobby's kids may be taken care of properly. This money, the only evidence left of Corrado Soprano's entire life of crime, is as forgotten and lost to the old man as the life itself. Upon realizing that not only does his uncle not remember where the money is hid, he doesn't even know who Tony is and can only remember that they played baseball together. Tony tries to get Junior to remember his kid brother, Tony's father. Sensing that even family ties no longer ring any bells for him, Tony with focused intimacy speaks of "this thing of ours". Junior recognizes the inference and for a slight second I hold out hope that perhaps there will be some acknowledgement and recognition. My hopes are then dashed by Uncle Joon's non-committal "that's nice" after being informed that he and his brother once ran North Jersey. Tony backs away, somewhat horrified that this was once the great "Uncle Joon", and I don't think any of us have to wonder if he will ever see him again. As much as I would have loved to see a Corrado/Tony reconciliation, or even a final showdown between the two, I loved that Tony recognizes that as senile and confused as his uncle or any made men might become, "the life" could still possibly hold a place somewhere in their diseased mind. Tony intrinsically knows that somehow "the life" is more personal, more intense, more cemented in the fiber of these men than any friend or family could ever be. Great bit of dialogue, done so subtly yet still powerful.
Some more thoughts: I think David Chase basically told all of the viewers who tune in each week for mob hits what he thinks of you. Phil Leotardo's gruesome ending Sunday night was the coup de gras for a season chock full of truly shocking displays of the grotesque. With only two exceptions I can think of, Philly's death was administered the same way all the hits have come this year. With a calculated cold efficiency common throughout all the hits, gunmen casually walked up on the intended target and pumped round after round into people. We then were treated to close-up shots of exploded eyeballs, heads exploding over plates of pasta and red sauce, gut shot women screaming for their fathers, and lifeless corpses twitching with each new bullet slamming into them. So what does David Chase think of you? For this I point you to last week's episode "The Blue Comet". Immediately after the two zips massacre Phil’s Russian cumare and her father, it cuts directly to a women getting her vaginations mouthified by some man or woman while another woman behind her caresses her enormous breasts. The zips’ American contact, Corky (shout-out?), is in the porno shop he presumably runs for the Family staring intently at the action on the screen. Just like all of you clamoring for more and more mob violence were staring at your screens not 2 seconds before. The graphic mob violence is simple pornography. Its obscenely graphic titillation for titillation’s sake in the eyes of David Chase and with that simple edit he called all of you perverts.
Looking back at the hits in the final season of the show, I'm noticing an interesting trend. Please remember, I didn't see the season opener "Sopranos Home Movies" so I may be off on this but if I remember what I read about it correctly Tony got picked up on a gun charge stemming from the gun he ditched during his mad scramble from the FBI raid on the Sacramoni home back in the Season 5 finale. One notable thing that seemed to be featured this year was how often the hitmen dropped their firearms at the scene, indeed making a point of doing so. Going from memory, and getting names from wikipedia, the hits this year were:
Bobby whacks Rene LaCours. (drops piece according to wiki)
Gerry the Hairdo getting it at the restaurant with Sil. (don't know if he did)
Doc Santoro doing his Paul Catsellano impression and getting it in the eye. (can't remember if the hitmen dropped their guns or not)
JT Dolan killed by Chrissey (I don't remember if he takes the gun or not)
Tony killed Chrissey. Fucker. (dropped peyote)
Sil garroted Carlo's cousin Burt. (dropped piano wire)
Dudes whacked Bobby. Fuckers. (dropped guns)
Danny Aiello's kid and some other guy (character names are Petey B. & Ray-Ray, I shit you not) did Sil. Mother Fuckers. (dropped guns)
Guy driving in from of the Bing! squished the motorcycle rider. (he may have dropped a load in his pants)
Yrena (Phil's cumare) (dropped guns)
Yrena's dad (Phil's cumare's dad) (dropped guns)
Walden whacked Phil Leotardo. Bye-Bye PopPop!! (dropped gun)
So is there any relevance to the discarding of guns and Mink's revelation that Tony is 80-90% likely to be indicted, quite possible for ditching a gun? Maybe it’s a version of the old "live by the gun, blah blah the blah" saying: You cannot escape your past murderous deeds, they will definitely be revisited upon you.
I cracked up HOARD at the way Agent Harris excitedly reacted to the news of Phil Leotardo's death. You gotta feel for this guy. He clearly did not sign up to do battle with the Taliban and spend his days watching video of Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, trying to get a bead on which one of a million guys who look the same to him is the real bad guy. Not too mention the job is literally killing him with intestinal parasites. That fellow agent he had his little tryst with...was SHE the Brooklyn source? She seemed pissed off for some reason and I think it may be because she feels he's going to get her snitch killed or he's getting too close to Tony. Whatever’s going on, all I know is FBI must stand for Fuck Buddies Inc.
Another great bit of true to form mafia culture: seeing "Uncle Pat" come visit Tony after Janice's tearful begging for Uncle Junior's money. Pat is an old-school Mafiosi, a good loyal soldier. Remember him and Beppy were trying to figure out a way to spring Junior out of his nursing home in "Remember When". I liked that when he came to sit with Tony and implore him to see Junior that he came with a suit on. Even at his advanced age, nearly double that of Tony's, he still respects that he is going to see the Boss and he gets natted up. This just another one of those little things that The Sopranos could always be relied upon to get right, and is one of those little things that really hooked me.
Great commentary on the changing face of America and of the strength of the mafia today when Butchie is talking to Phil on the cell phone. As the call goes on, with Butchie imploring that Phil come back and bring back some stability here, Butchie walks on oblivious to the direction he's going or what is around him. At the beginning of this scene, we're exposited that we're now in Little Italy and that the area has gone from 40 blocks now down to one square mile or some shit. Once Butchie's call is completed, and he now looks up to see where he is at, he finds he is a stranger in a strange land, far from home. True it’s only Chinatown and he knows how to get back to Little Italy but the message is there. I think it also represents Butchie's bewilderment at, and feeling of disassociation from, Phil. Unlike most of the posters here, I didn't think Phil threatened Butchie when he promised to meet up with him when he returned. I think the exact opposite, that it was a promise they would sit down and square everything out smoothly once he got back. Remember from Big Pussy's disappearance and the sudden alarm with which Paulie related a missing Carlo, these guys HATE when people go missing or break established routines. Nothing disrupts the regularity of business like the uneasiness setting in from guys going "off the reservation". Phil, being a fuckin Boss and going under, creates more anarchy and disruption than any Soprano clan attack could. He signed his own death warrant with that.
Carlo: I've liked Arthur Nascarella in The Cooler, Running Scared, and this real shitty low budget movie with Mira Sorvino and Mariah Carey. He was one of the latter-day crew members I really liked. Was it his cousin getting iced by Sil? Was it Jason getting busted and probably implicating his dad? Was it the "power vacuum" he mentioned at the beginning of the episode? Probably all of the above. I wonder how long he was a rat for or if he flipped and went under immediately after getting busted. If he's been wearing a wire for a while then he's got the goods on Tony. Shits his testimony alone places Tony at Fat Dom's murder as well as ordering that he be chopped up and his head dropped down a storm drain.
I'm still trying to figure out that look Carmela was murdering Tony with when he turned the session with AJ's shrink to himself. Was that an "Oh-oh, here we go again" thing, is she just that tired of hearing it, or was it because this was supposed to be about AJ and not him? Or is it something I'm totally missing?
Meadow & AJ, children absolutely MADE IN AMERICA, have definitely become carbon copies of the adult influences they grew up with. All this time Meadow seemed to be the one to escape, but she has willfully put the blinders on and decided that the Federal Government is a big bad institution that unfairly persecutes Italian-Americans. Tony's con job and Carmella's self delusion succeeded. The thing is though, I don't think Tony is happy about it. I think he KNOWS the truth and liked it a lot better when meadow did too. He seemed somehow disappointed in what she was saying. AJ looked like he could actually turn into a decent human being for a whole 15 minutes until his parents dangled something shiny in front of his face. New car? Cush Job? Model girlfriend? What terrorists? I also loved how when they sat down to talk him out of the Army, Tony asks AJ what "Rahooney" thought of him going of to war. When he reluctantly replies that she didn't like the idea, Tony all of a sudden celebrates this 16 year old girl's opinion like it matters and like he wasn't just summarily dismissing their relationship. Any port in a storm I guess.
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