It was nice to see more Christopher. I can’t decide if I think Chris or Paulie will bring down the mob.
IMHO, Christopher will be sleeping with the fishes in the near future.
Paulie would never be a rat, that’s what Tony realized on their trip to Florida. Paulie may be a first class asshole, but the mob is all he’s got. It’s the only thing in his life.
Since Tony has to worry about both Chris and Paulie, as well as Phil Leotardo, I won’t blame him for whatever he does.
Wasn’t he great in those scenes with Melfi? It’s probably not difficult for an actor to bring tears, but to almost cry – that’s gotta be hard.
Tony was okay with A.J., wasn’t he? Didn’t mind that he was a dropout, working in a pizza store, as long as the kid was happy.
I don’t get what brought that on with Chris and Dolan. Was Chris worried that he talked too much? Or was it the reminder that he was in the mafia? “Oh yeah, I’m a hood. Better kill somebody today.”
The scene with Tony and Melfi was beautiful. Even though Tony is a mob boss, he still is a father dealing with a depressed son. I felt a little bad for Tony when he blamed himself and his genes for bringing this on A.J. Tony knows how bad depression is, and I think it is killing him that A.J. is going through this. What father hasn’t shared Tony’s sentiment, that he should be dealing with this depression and that his son should be left the fuck alone?
It seems as if depression is not the only thing A.J. is getting from his father. It looked like A.J. started feeling a lot better after him and his friends poured acid on that kid. That seems to be what makes Tony feel better too- the drugs, sex, and violence. There was one episode where Tony had to stay away from the Bada Bing because he was advised to lay low. He became even more depressed than usual because of it. A.J. looks as if he is headed down that road. You noticed how hyped up he was when he got home? It could have been that he was doing hard drugs, but I think it more likely that he enjoyed beating up that poor kid. Carmella was of course happy that her son was happy, if she only knew why…
I don’t know what to make of this whole Chris thing. He drinks and people make fun of him, he stops and people don’t like him. I don’t know if there is anyway out of this mess for him. Well, maybe there is a way out, but Chris is way too dumb to figure it out. He is going to end up trying shoot his way to the solution and that can’t end too well.
I loved the second half of this one. I missed part of Tony’s scene with Melfi, but when he was talking about his genes, that did feel very real.
And when Tony was pushing A.J. out of the house, he was pushing him right into that. Even though he always said he didn’t want that for A.J.
I think it was the comparison of AJ to the other kids at the Bing. They may be thugs, but at least they had a pulse. He may not have been giving AJ a direct shove into the biz but that may be the outcome.
Oh yeah. Chrissy is toast. As soon as the details come out about Tim Daly’s whacking, Tony and friends are going to put two and two together… and his distance from the boys at the Bing will certainly mean that The Family will cut their losses, just like they did with Adriana.
Looks like AJ had his initiation into the life. Being known as “Tony Soprano Jr.” gives him juice, and just like his dad with the chopping fingers at Satriale’s many moons ago, he’s “wired” by seeing some schlub getting burned with acid.
No, I don’t think it was intentional. I guess it was inevitable- who here ever thought AJ would be good for something else anyway?
I think it was a culmination of a lot of bottled rage and personal revelation. Tony’s crew are assholes to him. His father figure, Tony (who Chris feels like he sacrificed the love of his life for) has been completely insensitive to him on a personal level. When Chris saw T laughing after Paulie basically said Chris’s daughter would end up a whore, it was a personal betrayal and a realization that these assholes he’s always been so loyal to – has literally killed for – don’t really give a shit about him. He’s given away his soul to a bunch of petty thugs and dipshits.
So then he goes to see JT, a guy outside “the life” who he thought he could talk to – who he (mistakenly) thought was a friend – and JT basically tells him he doesn’t care about him either, he’s always just been afraid of him because he’s a mobster (and a violent psychopath at times, let’s face it). Bad enough to get dissed by the likes of Paulie, but now he knows he’s (understandably, considering how Chrissy has treated him) not even liked or respected by the AA buddy.
Plus he was drunk, and also I think it’s just a bad idea in general to ever tell a wiseguy that he’s “in the Mafia.”
I think Chris may flip. Ironic since I would have thought he was the least likely character ever to do that a couple of seasons ago but if he ever gets pinched (like for shooting the writer), he might feel that Tony et al do not deserve his loyalty.
Truth is, I don’t know that he’ll be worth a damn at this either but he’ll get a pass because of who he is.
With only four episodes left, I’m wondering how much longer things can go before one of the major characters gets killed.
I’m guessing Paulie’s dream where he asked himself, “When my time comes, will I stand up?” may have been a bit of foreshadowing.
Nah, Chris loves being told he’s in the mafia. Remember when the indictments got handed down, how pist he was that he wasn’t named (and Brendon was mentioned), he’s always felt like a bit of a nobody, and I think he likes hearing being reminded of what people on the outside think of him.
As for what’s going to happen with him (like others have said), virtually every character on the show has a standing invitation with the Feds, anyone of the can flip whenever they want. Now that Chrissy is married and has a kid, I can see it as a possibilty.
I agree.
When the writer told Chris “you’re in the mafia!” he did it in a “get the hell away from me” kind of way. As Diogenes the Cynic mentioned before, that is why Chris lashed out.
It wasn’t about being outed, he was told to fuck off by one friend too many. It could have also been a double fuck you, since that guy reminded Chris of his reality. I guess it was a hard pill to swallow.
Maybe I might be leading too much into this, but I think that final scene where Chris fixes a tree, could be a metaphor for how he is dealing with his situation. His whole lawn is ruined and he tries pointlessly to adjust one tree. Likewise, his whole life is probably ruined and his efforts to fix things are also pointless. Unless he fixes everything and leaves the mafia, nothing will get resolved.
The irony: he was working on a script for Law and Order when Chris showed up. Nice.
Terence Winter’s stuff is consistently the best on this show, and the other writers aren’t exactly hacks. Great stuff.
What a fan-freakin’-tastic episode!
I wonder what Bobby and Tony were talking about at the barbeque. Was that there just to show that Christophuh was being left out of the family business again?
Anybody catch what AJ poured into his hand from the baggie in the previws? It looked like little rabbit heads. Guess I’m not so much up on what the kids are taking today.
I thought that it indicated that he was back in.
Instead of lashing out at Paulie’s behavior (as he did the rest of the episode), he’s covering it up, smoothing it out.
What a great episode. . .so much shit got said. Tony & Melfi, Chris & Paulie, Chris & Tony, Tony & Carmela over AJ.
Some super lines… .
I think Chris said, regarding his wife, “she wanted to get her teeth wet.”
Paulie told Chris, “why are you getting all cunty. . .I’m just breaking your balls.”
And later, “you can suck it outta my ass.”
I loved the shot when Paulie told Chris “your daughter will be working here one day,” and they showed all the guys cracking up in slow mo. And, we got a great whacking.
That, plus J.T. was a bit of a condescending git, and Chris had already been shown to be sensitive to that. Not that I think that’s a reason to kill someone, but Chris might. He’d already clubbed him with his own writing award, and since J.T. had just told him to get bent, Chris might have been trying to get the last word. Also, the Mafia taunt might well have had something to do with it. The scene reminded me a bit of Chris shooting the bakery guy in the foot in the first season. “I’m mobbed up! I’m made! Rarrrhhh!”
Did you catch who the other guy was in the bakery, the guy the Chris made wait outside. It was Vito, but he was playing some civie named Gino, and he was credited as “Man in bakery.”
As for Chris, I think he shot Tim Daly because he was drunk, and Chris does stupid stuff when he’s drunk. He told Tim Daly he let him work on Cleaver with him, as if 10 people were begging Chris to write the script and he chose him, he was full of himself, drunk, and Tim wasn’t respecting his mafia-ness.
So I’m thinking we said goodbye to Jr last week, and this maybe the end of Chrissy. Since he’d drinking again he’ll be back at the Bing and deli, but he’ll be pretty useless as a worker. And since he doesn’t like the way he get’s treated when he’s drunk, he might just go and spiral out somewhere else. As for fixing the tree, I think it was a metaphor for one day at a time, he fucked up his life and he knows it’s going to take some doing to get it right again, a little at a time. I say keep an eye on the tree, see if someone trips over it and knocks it over, the landscaper yanks it out while redoing the yard, the mailman steps on by accident etc… Come to think of it, it was Paulie who gave him a hard time about the club soda, it was Paulie who he was drinking with and it was Paulie who tore up his lawn. Paulie caused problems in his life both physically (lawn) and chemically (alcohol).
No one has really mentioned it, but you can’t 't underestimate the significance of Tony talking to the Feds.
Sure, it’s seemingly about him helping with terrorist stuff, but that’s always just been about them just getting a foot in the door. They got Tony to break through the wall of “never talk to the feds about anything”
I’m just saying. . .I don’t think the show is setting us up to see Tony break up a terrorist plot. He’s not talking to the feds, but he’s talking to the feds. Maybe he slams the door shut, or maybe not. He seemed excited to be doing it though.