The Sopranos

[SoxFan562004]

I still think Meadow takes over the family ala Michael Corleone. The good offspring turns bad. She has been slowly defending and accepting her family's role more and more...

 

I think that would be a great ending...A real purgetory for Tony. David Chase has always said "Goodfellas" is his bible for "The Sopranos"

I think they would seriously have to rev up Meadows character in the 6 (?) remaining episodes. IMO she hasn't been a big enough part to pull that off.

 

If Tony flips, who would he rat on? I guess he could pin everything on Uncle Junior, but with Jonny Sac dead, Tony seems like the big fish the FBI want.

 

I guess after reading my post I should go out on a limb and give my opinion so I just don't critique others!!

 

I really have no clue, but if I would have to guess I would say they will do a soft ending, meaning they might have a major thing happen, like a Silvio or Tony's family member get killed, but the last scene will be Tony going on with business as usual, showing that he could never help himself, and was destined for this life.

Edited April 24, 2007 by SoxFan562004

[Milkman delivers]

I thought the bag of money at the end was gonna be a bomb or something...

[DrunkBomber]

I thought the bag of money at the end was gonna be a bomb or something...

I thought a bunch of guys were gonna storm the house right after and kill hesh

[Brian]

I'm standing by my theory that Tony is killed in the end, and they are setting up a Who Did It? type plot.

[Controlled Chaos]

Sopranos Rewind: Chasing It

Posted by Alan Sepinwall April 30, 2007 4:24AM

Categories: The Sopranos

WARNING: This column contains major plot spoilers for last night's "Sopranos" episode.

 

And the inner circle draws tighter.

 

Each episode of this season has seen Tony driving a wedge between himself and a trusted ally -- first Bacala, then Chris, then Paulie and now Hesh, whose friendly $200,000 bridge loan last week turned ugly once Tony realized Hesh actually expected him to repay it.

 

We've had hints in recent episodes that Tony was gambling too much, but episode four, "Chasing It," has him in full-on Davey Scatino mode, losing big at every game he tries: horses, roulette, blackjack, football, everything short of jai alai or an Oscar pool.

 

Carmela finally sells the spec house (to cousin Brian, a sign the house wasn't a hot attraction) and Tony immediately wants to put a chunk of the profit on a Jets-Chargers game. When she refuses and Tony wins less than he otherwise might have, he explodes, laying hands on Carm for the first time since "Whitecaps" and dismissing her familiar fears about financial security by screaming, "When I'm gone, you can live in a (bleepin') dumpster for all I care!"

 

This is dangerous behavior by Tony, who has historically resisted most of the vices available to him. He doesn't use drugs like Chris or Ralphie, and he had nothing but contempt for Davey when Davey lost his business. Now he's paying a vig to Hesh? What's happening?

 

For the answer, you may have to look to the scene after Hesh rejects Tony's boat show invitation. Carlo, in Tony's doghouse for his failure to run the Family construction business as profitably as Vito, mentions an old "Twilight Zone" episode featuring a thug named Valentine. Tony cuts him off, but Carlo's apparently referring to "A Nice Place to Visit," an episode about Rocky Valentine, who dies during a robbery and wakes up in an afterlife where his every wish is granted. Every woman wants him, everybody thinks he's wonderful and every bet he makes is a winner. Eventually, Rocky grows so tired of what he assumes to be Heaven that he asks to go to "the other place," only to be told, "This is the other place."

 

Tony's existence isn't quite Rocky Valentine's, but it's close. He's been boss of North Jersey for nearly a decade, can do whatever he wants or order someone to do it for him -- and still he's not happy. So he's sabotaging himself, just to make something different happen.

 

He's looking for disaster around every corner, maybe even expecting it. He won't get The Star-Ledger from the driveway out of some paranoid fantasy, assumes all his confidants are out to get him and, after years of living slightly beyond his means, is simply throwing money away on gambling.

 

Several times, we see Tony win big, then immediately lose it all on another bet. Making up with Carmela after their fight, he notes that the odds on surviving Junior's gunshot were so lousy that, "If you look at it big picture-wise, I'm up. Way up." And he'll squander that advantage too if he can. He can't help himself, maybe doesn't even want, deep down, to enjoy his victories. He's trying to get to the other place, see if that's more satisfying.

 

Years ago, he described Davey Scatino as "the happy wanderer," envied how Davey could always have a smile on his face even when he was losing. Where Davey's default expression was a slightly bewildered grin, more and more, Tony is scowling. He's either killed or alienated all of his real friends, and even his relationship with Melfi is in danger. She's finally recognized that, with the panic attacks gone, he doesn't view this as therapy so much as "an oasis in my week," and she won't stand for that.

 

As Tony tries to see if misery will make him happier, other characters suffer without even working at it. Hesh's younger girlfriend Renata dies unexpectedly in her sleep -- which ironically saves Hesh's life, since Tony takes pity on him and pays off the debt. Vito's widow Marie tries to get 100 grand from Tony to move troubled son Vito Jr. -- who, like A.J., gets expelled from school for relieving himself in something other than a toilet -- to a new home in Maine, but Tony blows the money on another football bet and instead forces Marie to send Vito Jr. to a boot camp. (Tony doesn't care about Marie's concerns about corporal punishment, so long as the price tag is smaller.)

 

I should make some mention of the cameo appearances by Bing customers Muhammed and Ahmed. For a long time, I've been dismissing their presence, and Agent Harris' attempts to turn Chris or Tony into anti-terrorism deputies, as one final tease by David Chase, something to spin the audience's wheels without taking them anywhere. But the fact that the show keeps coming back to them -- this time, Tony is uncomfortable seeing them in the presence of so many Arab-American men in more traditional dress, rather than just as two lowlifes who frequent the Bing -- makes me wonder if I'm underthinking this.

 

A key theme of this season has been the unintended consequences of seemingly minor events. Who even remembered that Tony dropped a gun in the snow when he was running from Johnny Sack's house, let alone imagined that he'd be arrested for it? Who still cared about the money Carm stole out of the duck feed, or the HUD scam that cousin Brian gave to Tony and Ralphie?

 

I'm not expecting The Russian to come back (even though Tony's still laundering money through Russian mob boss Slava) or Melfi's rapist. But, as Chris so aptly put it while discussing Vito's death, actions these characters take are "Like a pebble in a lake. Even the fish feel it." If Tony's going to have a downfall brought on by external forces, maybe it'll be a ripple from obscure characters like Muhammed and Ahmed, or this truck-hijacking deal with the Cubans from Miami, or, hell, the HMO hustle Tony tried way back in the pilot.

 

All I knows is that it feels like the giant piano Carmela talked about isn't just hanging over Tony's head, but everyone's. There may not be a lot of carnage (outside of Renata's peaceful passing, this was a completely bloodless hour), but doom is coming.

 

Some other thoughts on "Chasing It":

 

-A question that's come up several times in e-mails and chats: Is Blanca pregnant? It would explain both her moodiness at the "Cleaver" premiere and those odd looks she kept flashing at the news that cousin Brian is having a baby. But if so, why would she give back the engagement ring? If there is a baby, maybe it isn't A.J.'s?

 

-Is it just me, or is Bacala a changed man since the Canadian hit in the premiere? For the first time, he seems like an unapologetic tough guy, particularly when he encouraged Tony to ignore the debt to Hesh.

 

-The more screen time Marie gets, the more distracting it is that she's played by Lorraine Bracco's sister.

 

-In one scene, Sil is gluing together a busted lamp in the Satriale's office, and a few minutes later we see why, when Tony trashes the Bing office after losing a big football bet. When you work for Tony, furniture repair is a mandatory skill.

 

-So Frank Sinatra Jr. played in the Executive Game against Davey, and now Nancy Sinatra serenades Phil at his coronation dinner (with, appropriately, "Bossman"). Is it too late for a Tina cameo?

 

-Due to outside circumstances, next week's Sopranos Rewind may not get done in time for the Monday print edition, online, or both. If that's the case, we'll put a notation in both the paper and the Sopranos blog explaining exactly when and where you'll be able to find it. Sorry for the potential inconvenience, but as Nancy's old man said, that's life.

[Jenksismyhero]

Just watched the episode last night. Thought it was ok.

 

My main problem thus far has been the lack of any plot building; last week with Paulie, and now this week with Hesh. One little incident and Tony is ready to forget decades of friendship. I understand he's mentally not there, and that he suffers from relationship issues, but these ridiculous overreactions just aren't believable. It's one thing for him to blow up on Carmela. We've seen that he has a short temper. But he's ready to off Paulie because he realizes how annoying he can be, and he's ready to off Hesh because the guy is asking for some money back. This is especially true this week when Tony goes to confide in Hesh about Phil and his coronation dinner.

 

I dunno, I just feel like these last few episodes have been so weak. I think I expected too much. The whole series, as great as it has been, will ultimately be 60 something 'eh' episodes with a few great ones mixed in.

[southsider2k5]

Ugh, this was a disappointed episode as it really didn't seem to add anything to the climax, and it sure didn't really give any answers. maybe that will change in retrospect, but I sure didnt' see it.

[retro1983hat]

I didn't like this week's episode mostly because it showed new ideas and story lines that never existed. We all knew Tony gambled, but we never saw him as compulsive in 9 years before this episode.

 

Also, same thing with Hesh. Tony never showed anything but love and respect for him. And why did his girlfriend have to die unexpectedly?

[Brian]

Good stuff tonight. Glad it surrounded Christopher more. I like the stuff with AJ, teasing that he may enter the life.

[Milkman delivers]

Yeah, things are definitely beginning to move pretty quick now. You can see the stuff that happened today leading directly to some bad stuff.

[DrunkBomber]

I really liked this weeks episode. the stuff with AJ is pretty interesting. I thought when Christopher walked up to Paulie at the Bing he was just gonna kill him right there.

 

I normally wouldnt think something that drastic would happen but with so few episodes left anything can really happen.

[mmmmmbeeer]

Many characters regressing tonight back to the days of old. Chris putting the family tree back upright at the end seemed to solidify that point.

 

We're in for a few good weeks I think. Tonight's show really picked up the pace, literally, as we moved from scene to scene and story to story very quickly.

[Controlled Chaos]

Sopranos Rewind: Walk Like a Man

Posted by Alan Sepinwall May 07, 2007 4:05AM

Categories: The Sopranos

WARNING: This column contains major plot spoilers for last night's "Sopranos" episode.

 

"Everything turns to (excrement)," laments Tony.

 

Funny how often he's the reason for that.

 

Episode Five, "Walk Like a Man," follows the pattern of the Junior/Paulie episode "Remember When," constructing parallel narratives about Tony's biological son (A.J.) and the person he's always treated like a son (Chris). Where "Remember When" was about the pain of growing old alone, "Walk Like a Man" showed the psychological toll of being related, by blood or by bond, to the Family in general and Tony in particular.

 

A.J. and Chris have both inherited unfortunate traits from their fathers: Tony's depression and Dickie's substance abuse. (Tony, naturally, goes about in pity for himself about the former and has no interest in hearing about the latter.) Both are dealing with their problems in their own way - A.J. by curling up into a weepy little ball, Chris by avoiding the Bing - but Tony doesn't have patience for any coping mechanism that doesn't involve living up to the episode's title. Chris may have a handle on his problem, but he didn't take the Gary Cooper approach, and Tony dislikes him for it.

 

(Tony's also, as he was when Janice's anger management therapy was briefly working, jealous to see someone getting better when he never does. Witness his frustration when Chris calls him about Paulie trashing his lawn and verbally closes off any avenue Tony might have to yell at him.)

 

Tony may have a point about the face-to-face nature of the business they have chosen, but he's also the one who guilted Chris into drinking some of that wine they stole from the bikers last year. And, sure, there are better ways for A.J. to get over Blanca than watching bad James Franco movies, but what does Tony expect when A.J. has been pampered his entire life? He and Carmela (who was happy about the break-up because of "the culture divide") are awful parents, maybe not Livia and Johnny Boy-level, but terrible at meeting A.J.'s needs in good times and bad.

 

Chris may have his problems with spelling and grammar, but he's not stupid. He can see that Bacala has taken his place in the inner circle - at the barbecue, Tony and Bobby discuss business over two cold ones, naturally - and he knows that his problems with Paulie wouldn't be nearly as bad if the two could go out for steak and a shot.

 

So he goes off the wagon again and sees the other wiseguys for what they really are: a pack of cackling animals who take pleasure in other people's misery. He goes to his old AA buddy/punching bag J.T. Dolan for comfort, but J.T. wants no part of Chris' revenge fantasies about turning rat, or of Chris wallowing in self-pity. As he says to Chris, with such force that Chris puts a bullet between J.T.'s eyes in response, "You're in the Mafia!" J.T. means that he, as a civilian, shouldn't be hearing about Ralphie and Adriana, but also, what does Chris expect? How can he ever hope to get better living in such a violent, emotionally twisted world?

 

It's a world that Tony has now pushed A.J. into by forcing him to befriend Patsy and Carlo's sons, a pair of book-making frat boys who are like competent copies of Jackie Jr. Tony has never wanted this life for A.J., but in his impatience for the crying jags to end, he sent his son to hang out with guys who keep a vial of acid handy in case they should run across a deadbeat in need of torturing. Tony can't even plead ignorance, because he knew that the Jasons were running a Family-affiliated sports book. Right now, he and Carm think they've done a wonderful job of helping their son heal, but whatever comes of his new friends is 100 percent on Tony...

 

...as is whatever happens to Chris. In cutting a deal of nebulous value with Agent Harris about Ahmed and Muhammed, Tony may have sold out Chris - who, after all, was supplying those guys with credit card numbers and guns. And the pressure by Tony and Paulie has Chris drinking again, his resentment over Adriana now doubled with his realization that his "friends" have put him back in the grips of his disease.

 

And I really do hope something is coming of all this. Since this final season began, I've been warning everyone that Chase and company may not be going for an earth-shattering conclusion, but more of a life-goes-on finish. But the writers have spent so much time over the last five episodes hinting that some apocalypse is coming - whether it's Phil making war with New Jersey, Tony taking out Chris or vice versa, the FBI completing their RICO case, Muhammed and Ahmed up to no good - that if none of that comes to pass, every bit of anger from the fans is going to be justified.

 

There comes a point when the storytelling stops being daring and unconventional and starts being sloppy and cruel.

 

The character moments this episode - and this season - have been superb, but if the plot just comes to an abrupt halt at the end of Episode Nine, a lot of viewers are going to be echoing Tony's line to Melfi: "After all the complaining and crying and (expletives deleted) - is this all there is?'

 

Some other thoughts on "Walk Like a Man':

 

-Longtime "Sopranos" writer Terence Winter did a fine job in his directorial debut, helping himself by penning the best therapy scene in a long time. When Tony and Melfi are getting along, it's because he doesn't need help and is just shining her on as part of his "oasis." Whenever he's really in trouble, though, he gets hostile with her, and the tension brings out the best in Melfi the therapist - and Gandolfini and Bracco the actors.

 

-Speaking of that scene, Tony doesn't want Melfi to make a referral for A.J. after the therapist she sent Meadow to in season four almost convinced Meadow to drop out of school. It's a good thing he doesn't know about the referral Melfi gave to Carmela - the elderly shrink who tried to convince Carm to leave Tony and his "blood money" - else their sessions would go beyond hostile and into a very dangerous area.

 

-Squint-or-you'd-miss-it cameo: in the scene where Tony's hitting on one of the Bing girls, you can just barely see Georgie working behind the bar again (actor Frank Santorelli was also in the closing credits), even though he apparently quit for good after a beating from Tony gave him permanent hearing loss in Season Five's "Cold Cuts."

 

-Theories from last week that need putting to rest: Hesh's girlfriend Renata died of natural causes (per one of the writers and HBO.com), and Blanca doesn't appear to be pregnant. She's just not that into A.J., or it's like A.J. told his shrink: she was uncomfortable around all of his family's money.

 

-How many young Jasons has this show featured? Both Patsy and Carlo's kids are named Jason, Little Paulie's sidekick is Jason Molinaro, Melfi's son is Jason La Penna, Lorraine Caluzzo's partner/boytoy was Jason Evanina, one of the Blundetto twins was a Jason, Dick Barone's son was Jason... Is this the 2007 version of that "Goodfellas" joke about all of the kids being named either Peter or Paul?

 

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at [email protected]

[Milkman delivers]

I think someone big goes down tonight...just a feeling.

 

BTW, how many episodes (including tonight) are left?

[Brian]

I think someone big goes down tonight...just a feeling.

 

BTW, how many episodes (including tonight) are left?

 

4

 

After last week, we have to see more of Chris. He should be a key to ending the series.

Edited May 13, 2007 by Brian

[Milkman delivers]

4

 

After last week, we have to see more of Chris. He should be a key to ending the series.

 

I'm thinking he takes someone down, he goes down, or both tonight.

[Milkman delivers]

I'm pretty good...

[Jenksismyhero]

Wow. Crazy first 5 minutes. Did not see that coming.

[Brian]

Crap, it's weird. You wait for the episode where a major character goes down and when it happens, it's kind of sad. I was actually hoping the whole episode was a dream sequence. I kept swearing after it happened. Like I lost a member of my family. sniff sniff

[Mr. Showtime]

What happened? Someone got axed?

[Brian]

What happened? Someone got axed?

 

I'm gonna wait til tomorrow to say who it was just in case. I know the thread says be careful of spoilers, but I will give it a few hours.

[Milkman delivers]

What happened? Someone got axed?

 

I'll tell ya.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris and Tony were driving back from a meeting with Phil at night, Chris was screwing with the radio, he swerved into the other lane, and got sideswiped off the road. The other car kept driving because it was a girl on a learner's permit, and Chris' car flipped a few times off the road. Tony pulled himself out of the car and Chris had internal bleeding (he was coughing up blood). Tony went to help him out, and Chris said he wouldn't pass a test (he had cocaine in his system). Tony noticed that the baby seat in the backseat was destroyed by a tree limb, and he realized how Chris was still too irresponsible, so he suffocated Chris before the ambulance showed up.

[Mr. Showtime]

 

Whoa.

[RockRaines]

Probably one of the best episodes in years IMO. The deaths, the girls, the plot, Im loving it.

[Controlled Chaos]

Sopranos Rewind: Kennedy and Heidi

Posted by Alan Sepinwall May 14, 2007 12:12AM

Categories: The Sopranos

WARNING: This column contains major plot spoilers for last night's "Sopranos" episode.

 

It's not Vegas. It's Hell.

 

It may not seem that way to Tony right now. He's high on life, winning big at the casino tables for the first time in forever. He has a gorgeous stripper on his arms and an even more beautiful desert vista before him. When he collapses on the casino floor in a fit of giggles, it's the happiest we've ever seen him, and even that's quickly surpassed by the image of him giving a victory salute to the desert sun.

 

 

But all that joy comes with the roughest butcher's bill of the series. Tony's this ecstatic because he just killed Christopher.

 

Coming as suddenly (and as early in the episode) as it did, Chris' demise at Tony's hands was one of the series' most stunning moments, but it was also foreshadowed throughout last week's episode. Tony was separating himself from Chris, Chris was falling off the wagon and getting into his revenge fantasies again, and Tony was even singing the lyrics to Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." The same song happens to be playing on Christopher's car stereo at the moment of the crash that inspires Tony to murder him. (The lyrics as Tony realizes Chris is high: "I cannot put my finger on it now / The child is grown / The dream is gone.")

 

"Comfortably Numb" might have made a better episode title than "Kennedy and Heidi" (a joking reference to the two girls whose car Chris nearly ran into, causing the accident), as that sums up Tony's attitude throughout it.

 

His eyes are flat and lifeless as he smothers Chris to death, taking advantage of a golden opportunity to remove a threat to his freedom. His only reaction to the grief of Carmela and Kelli and Chris' mother -- grief he created directly -- is irritation, and after he gets taken on one guilt trip too many, he packs his bags for Las Vegas and floats through the rest of the episode, self-medicating with wine, pot and, eventually, peyote.

 

Surprisingly for an episode that spent half its time with Tony staying in a hotel and had him taking hallucinogens, the only actual dream sequence appears early on, as Tony imagines confessing his past killings to Dr. Melfi. (The dream turns out to be a useful rehearsal, as he later recreates most of his dialogue from it in less self-incriminating fashion.) But the entire episode had the air of a dream, or of alterna-Tony's trip to the Purgatory (or fantasy, or alternate universe, or whatever it was) of Costa Mesa.

 

Only this time, the imagery wasn't of Limbo, but the hotter place. After Tony vomits up the peyote, he and Chris' old stripper friend Sonya (Sarah Shahi from "The L Word") head down to the casino floor, where he's transfixed by a cartoon devil's head on a slot machine. (It's a smiling devil, of course, because right now Tony's enjoying his descent.) After breaking his losing streak at the roulette table, Tony takes Sonya for a trip into the desert where the rising sun casts everything in a crimson glow. When the red sun flares at Tony for a second, it resembles the white Costa Mesa beacon, which seemed to signify Heaven.

 

Moments before the crash, Chris reminds Tony of the "every day a gift" talk he was throwing around after emerging from the Costa Mesa coma. Turns out Tony really has changed, but not for the better. Instead of stopping to smell the roses, he's grown colder, more paranoid, quicker on the trigger. When Tony felt he had to kill Pussy and Tony B. -- for reasons far more pressing than here -- he stalled as long as possible. When he realizes Chris will forever be a drug-addled liability to him, Tony barely hesitates before clamping his hand over Chris' nose and mouth.

 

Everyone is a threat to him now, garbage to be disposed of just like the asbestos one of Tony's guys spent most of the hour trying to unload. Asbestos, of course, is hard to get rid of completely, and Chris' presence in Tony's life no doubt will linger, even if it's just as evidence of how little humanity Tony has left.

 

In contrast to Tony's non-response to Chris' murder, we have A.J. retreating back into his depressed shell upon realizing what he was becoming by hanging with the Jasons. He could go along with being a budding sociopath for a while, laughing at the misery of the kid whose toes got amputated after Jason Parisi's acid bath. But deep down, A.J. still has a conscience, something his old man said goodbye to a long time ago. Tony responds to hitting rock bottom as a human being by going to Vegas, having sex and getting high. A.J. responds to the same by going about in pity for himself and raging against the meaningless violence in the world. (A.J. being A.J., though, he quotes Rodney King's "Can't we all just get along?" like it's the most profound thought he's ever had. In fairness, it probably is.)

 

Several times in the episode, Tony makes reference to the smashed infant car seat in the back of Chris' car. Privately, he's trying to justify the murder of his surrogate son as something other than nuisance-removal. Given how Tony has been behaving all season, I believe he would have killed Chris, car seat or no. But it wouldn't be the first time Tony's thoughts have turned to murder at the notion of innocents being killed. See his reactions to Ralphie and Tracee, Ralphie and Pie-O-My, Chris sitting on Adriana's dog, etc.

 

And yet the innocent creatures he has always felt most protective of are his damn ducks, and I distinctly heard a quacking sound as the asbestos was being dumped in the water at the end of the episode. Tony probably had no idea where exactly the stuff would get dumped, or what wildlife would be affected, but at this point I don't think he'd care. He's in Hell, and Hell is no place for happy ducks.

 

Some other thoughts on "Kennedy and Heidi":

 

-Chris wasn't the only significant death, as Paulie's mother/aunt Nucci died of a stroke (on the way back from seeing "Jersey Boys," of course), giving Paulie the unusual opportunity to act jealous of a dead man. He went so far as to clock the amount of time certain people visited Nucci's wake before heading over to Chris's.

 

-The only people who seem happier about Chris' death than Tony were Phil and Butchie, who were practically giggling as Phil gave Tony his condolences. These guys are like predators toying with their weaker prey.

 

-Wiseguys are no good with natural death (or what they think is natural death), are they? The small talk around Tony's bed was beyond clumsy.

 

-A side benefit of the Vegas trip for Tony: for a few days, he gets to become Chris, taking drugs and sleeping with one of his women, when he could never seal the deal with Adriana or Julianna, for one reason or another, when Chris was alive.

 

-Does anybody in the business play grief better than Edie Falco? Carm's reaction to Chris' death was almost as devastating as her hallway crying jag in the first Costa Mesa episode. Almost as brilliant, in a different way, was her delivery of the line about Julianna -- who reeked of mistress to Carm -- being a good-looking woman. (Imagine how cold Carm would have been if she knew Tony almost slept with Julianna, too.)

 

Alan Sepinwall can be reached at [email protected]