What a piece of work Christopher is (although his writer buddy was a very willing schlep). Would anyone in their right mind take a seat at that poker table and think they had a chance of winning? $15.00 for an emmy 
Seems like Junior finally had his fill of funerals.
I kept waiting for the old broad to come out wearing a see-through number to see if T was really a chip off the old block. And seeing as how T “would screw a catcher’s mitt”, he would probably taken up her offer.
That was the WORST episode ever. I understand that it showed how Tony was beginning to reconcile his father’s life to his mother’s bitchiness. And perhaps it may lead to Tony taking a longer look at how he treats Carm. But it was so boring.
Hear, hear! What a snoozefest. It reminded me of something out of crappy season four.
I believe they are setting up a reformed Tony, because he is not only realizing how he inherited his father’s behavior and treats Carmella as badly as his father treated his mother, but he may also begin to see how his example is going to affect his own son. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
But, um, yeah, that was a somewhat boring episode.
I have a question about the previews from the next episode. Carm says something like, “the secret is out” to an older woman who looks familiar. Who is she?
Haj
That’s Angie Bonpensiero, Big Pussy’s widow who thinks he ratted on the crew and went into Witness Protection.
I was so afraid we were going to have to watch Tony bang that old lady. GAH!
The only redeeming quality of this episode WAS the Christopher sub plot. I love all of his AA mottos and phrases. Remember two weeks ago he just randomly said “Fear knocked at the door…Faith answered” and then ate a sandwich? Ideal.
Here’s my question though. What was the deal with the ending scene. Why was Tony’ making the JFK story bigger than it was? It made no sense to me.
Tony was getting reflected status off his late father–sure, she was now a sad alcoholic, but she had banged JFK once–since everybody but her was dead, why not exaggerate a little?
A little miffed that they didn’t advance the NY/NJ storyline much–that chase of Phil is so gonna get Tone in trouble–or AJ’s, or Carm’s, or Ade’s, or Diet Tony’s. But if that’s Angie Carm was talking to, stuff is going to start moving soon.
I didn’t think I wanted to rehash Livia, but they pulled it off beautifully. It doesn’t excuse everything she did but it does underline her bitterness, that Johnny Boy simply wasn’t there for her. I do get the feeling that Tony would not have deliberately not gone to Carm’s side if anything happened to her (out of carelessness, yes) so he’s not as far gone as his Dad was, but the parallels were almost too much for Tony. And yes, they used a different actress for Young Livia, Laila Robbins from before is in a play.
Still confused about Tony’s age. Gandolfini is only about 42 and playing older, but how much older? And dammit, how old was he was Johnny Boy died?
Polly Bergen, still a musical theater star who has a large following, was just right. The glamour turned to creepiness subtly but inexorably. Her story was paralleled with that of Christopher’s friend.
And Junior…! Too fucking sad.
Aside from watching Tim Daly’s character get cheated blind at poker, about the only thing that was semi interesting about this episode was watching the exchange between he and Christopher:
“You’re charging me interest?”
“Hey. This is your problem. I will not enable you.” 
Your friendly 12 step gangster.
I thought it was interesting the way hat Chrissy seemed to completely compartmentalize his “business” relationship with Daly from his personal relationship. “Why didn’t you call me?” LOL
It was like he really din’t see the gambling debts and the asskicking as having anything to do with the AA support stuff or the friendship in general. Business is business.
It seemed like Tony was unwilling to face the truth about his father and fell back on blaming his mother for everything. If he has to really confront his father’s actions and the effect they had on the family, he also has to acknowledge his own actions vis-a-vis Carm and he isn’t willing to do that yet. I think his embellishment of the JFK stuff was a defense mechanism. He wanted to preserve his father’s own mythology for himself (ala “Camelot.”)
The old gal singing “Happy Birthday” was truly creepy.
Was there evidence of this that I missed?
It looked more to me what poker players call “steaming”. He was pushing crappy hands really hard, and making dubious calls. Beginners can see through that stuff.
Anyway, boring but somewhat meaning episode. I thought the dichotomy of chris’ personal and business relationshipo with the guy was good and kind of had a logic to it.
FUnny line when Daly says something like “are you here to intimidate me like this is pulp fiction?” and the guy says, “I didn’t see it.”
Yep, he was on tilt for sure. But…you didn’t see the dealer pull from the bottom of the deck? It was pretty blatant.
Please, don’t remind me. I felt queasy and almost puked when I was watching that. It seemed like it lasted 20 minutes. I think it made me a better person because on the odd chance that there is a hell, I’m positive that my “mate” is going to be a washed-up alcoholic who is self-delusional enough to think that she still has enough sexual appeal to seduce a mob boss.
Am I the only one who really liked this episode?
The Tim Daly/Christopher stuff was hilarious. So was Junior sitting there at the funerals with a big goofy grin on his face. Disturbing, but hilarious. Tony chasing after Leotardo, the crash, “Hey, mister, you all right?” and then grabbing his head and twisting his already mangled neck – pretty satisfying, after seeing him make that crack to Johnny Sack about Tony only being a New Jersey boss.
It was also good to see Johnny S. back to his usual smoldering, Matchabellian self.
I agree. This season really is a snooze. Polly Bergen was a bright spot as was the Junior-funeral-attending, but like almost everything else so far, it started out good and then went nowhere. That flashback was a bad attempt. It feels like they’re really grasping at straws.
Nope, I did too. I think all this Tony stuff is just foreshadowing to a very interesting change in his character. This was a good character building episode, IMO. It seems to me that Tony is going to change radically after some event happens (A.J. does something really dumb?) and the writers want more than enough background stuff to justify the switch… so we all don’t sit here and say, Tony would NEVER do that!
I thought the older woman to whom Carmella may or may not have been talking (you never can tell with Sorpranos previews) was her mother.
jar, Mr. Tech kept saying Tony was going to sleep with that old chick the entire episode. I not a prayin’ woman but I offered up a silent prayer last night. It seemed to be answered as we were spared having to see vericose-veined legs flailing about except for that brief moment she modeled her new shoes for him. Him being Tony, not Mr. Tech, that is.
Nobody got whacked so it was boring?
I thought the Christopher thing was more than just a sub-plot. Wasn’t there an episode back in Season 1 or 2 where Tony lends money to a friend, and then has him beat up when he can’t pay the vig? I thought it was about how Christopher is become li’l Tony.
And the whole thing with Tony and Polly Bergen is the echo of how Tony can’t see how he’s like his father, and the consequences of the marital cheating. I thought the bit with the dog was really irony-laden. And we see (although Tony doesn’t get it) how bitter Livia became in response to Tony Sr’s womanizing, and we connect (although Tony doesn’t) to what’s happening/happened to Carmella ditto.
My problem with this season is that they’re all scum, with practically no redeeming qualities. In earlier seasons, I kinda kept hoping that Tony might turn into a human being, but that’s clearly not happening. I was hopeful that Steve Buscemi would be there as a character-gone-good, but no luck. They’re all such odious people, they deserve whatever’s coming to them.
I don’t remember the exact details, but there was something back in Season 1 I believe when Tony lent money to Artie Bucco to lend to someone else. Then Artie coudn’t get the money back from that guy and I think he asked Tony to help him get it back. After that the details are fuzzy, but I do remember Arite getting beaten up. (I still remember, Artie was in a hotel room and I thought to my self “Artie never had an earing…he’s about to get his ass kicked” Sure enough, he got beaten up and his earing yanked out. It always bugs me when a show does something out of character just to use it in a joke or to do something dramatic. If Artie always had an earing I woundn’t have thought anything of it.)
I think this is a very good observation. Tony did the same thing with his friend who had the sporting goods store or whatever it was - and over exactly the same thing: Borrowed money for poker debts. And after the guy was beaten, his store taken away, his wife gone, his life destroyed… Tony still wanted to be buddies. Complete disassociation of the ‘business’ and ‘friends’. Mobters use “Its just business” as a catch-all to excuse any amount of hideous behaviour. I imagine that many of them really believe it.
I didn’t mind this episode at all. Some interesting character developments. The thing with Tony is that this woman from the past has rattled his entire worldview. He built an image in his mind of his dad as a saint, married to an evil wife and mother. That colored Tony’s perception of a lot of things, including the rightness of being mobbed up. It’s good enough for Dad, and Dad was a saint. It’s good enough for me.
But now he’s seeing the other side. His Dad gave his dog to his mistress’s kid - what kind of a blow must that have been to Tony to discover his Dad was willing to do that? The first thing he said was, “my mother made him do that!” but I don’t think there’s any evidence of that, is there? Then he flashed back to his Dad making lie to his mom about where he was to hide an affair - while his mom is lying in the hospital pregnant! What a scumbag. I didn’t quite follow the JFK thing, but I think there was another revelation there.
The way I see it, Tony’s relationship with his Dad was crucial to his being able to deal with the fact that he’s a Mob boss and a killer. If that all comes crumbling down, Tony’s in for a bad spell.