Yep, the theme for this week’s show was clearly “you can take the boy/girl out of the mob, but you can’t take the mob out of the boy/girl.”
Very appropriate that Tony B’s story was capped by a shot of a fish out of water!
No doubt he could get busted for violating his parole for beating up his boss. But his boss doesn’t want to cross Tony Soprano, so he won’t say a word. Presumably, his job at the laundry will officially remain on the books, but Tony B. will become a no-show now that he’s given up civilian life.
Also important to note that at the beginning of the episode, Chris mentioned to Tony B. that “they” had a “guy” in the parole office who was a supervisor and he didn’t really need to keep going to his laundry job to stay good on his parole. The only way Tony B.'s going back to jail for violating parole is if he crosses Tony S. like Feech did.
After further thought, my guess is that the “guy” in the parole office is probably the same guy who we saw bust Feech. He had a supervisor-ish don’t get out of the office much sorta look to him… 
I also like the money bringing Tony B. back in. It seemed to make some sense. He was living the high life, acting more like the boys (ignoring the wife and gambling all night long), and when it was running out, he was feeling some of the stress, in addition to the stress of doing the job and making the massage parlor. Should be interesting to see Tony B. go to work. Buchesmi has said that his character would be the cold, calculating type.
That was a nice shot of B.'s new shoes causing him to “slip-up” during his day job. Maybe a bit on the nose for symbolism, but I liked it. Along with his taste of “the life” calling him back, the stress he was under may have caused him to pop. He had barely slept for what, 3-4 days? Nice of Paulie to announce he was heading for breakfast then bed when dropping B. off at work. The angry phone call from his girlfriend didn’t help matters either.
I loved that little smirk from Tony S. as the screen went to black.
…as the ambiguity of “It’s hard doing business with strangers” floated across the table. 
Thanks Larry Mudd for the “duck” association; I think you are absolutely right, and my usual high esteem for the writers just went up a few notches. The fish out of water of course goes back to that series of dreams about the fish, Coney Island, etc.
By the way, the educator character, Eddie, turned on Carmella after he pulled a Tony Soprano with the teacher. He muscled the guy, and in my opinion, liked it too much. His ultimately namby pamby character couldn’t take it that he got in touch with a tough guy part of himself, so he had to project it onto Carmella who “used him” into discovering a hidden part of his own psyche.
I think Carmella is right: that is exactly what friends do, watch out for each other. The loyalty of friendship and tribe drives ethicists crazy; ethicists want us to treat all people equally, as if we live in some disembodied forensic setting. The loyalty of friendship forces us to face othe aspects of the self. The educator perhaps preferred the castrated romance of Abelard; disembodied, intellectual passion, not the kind where you actually risk something for someone you love.
I think because they were in private and not around the other guys Chris just told him what he really thought. Remember that Christopher also had aspirations to have a life outside of “the life,” he wanted to be a screenwriter. Unfortunately he didn’t have what it takes to leave the life either.
How about that David Strathairn, hmmm? I saw him on Broadway in Dance of Death and he was sexy live and sexy here. I don’t think Carm deliberately started the affair just to help AJ, but once it began she just drifted back into her old habit of getting what she wanted from the men in her life. He was very cruel in breaking it up the way he did. But sexy.
Poor Tony B. That money doomed him.
What did you guys make of the way Tony sidled up to Carmella after they dealt with AJ? “I think we handled that just right…” as he looked at her with something akin to longing. Maybe he was affected by her glow…
Could be. My take is that he is in search of any kind of positive validation this season. I found that moment akin to his “You love me, don’t you?” query of Uncle Junior.
Did anyone hear that Furio is supposedly coming back this season? A friend of mine said he heard a blurb about it on XM radio news yesterday. I did a bit of searching and found nothing about it, wouldn’t be the first time this guy misunderstood something. I liked the Furio character, but never bought into his thing with Carmela. If Tony had been married to Keira Knightly, maybe I could have accepted him taking the obvious risks.
David Chase, creator of the Sopranos, is on record as saying Furio is not coming back. (And neither is that Russian guy who escaped in the woods. Deal with it. 
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