I thought it was a great episode. Sure it was low-key, but solid and effecting.
I loved Tony’s angst over his lost dog, and would love to know what was going through his mind when he was looking at the William Wegman photo while he was "showing Valentina that he loved her. 
Water-chestnuts in duck sauce? Heh.
Christopher was pure class.
I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the kid in the picture with Tony’s dog is actually Tony’s half brother.
I loved the moment when Tony realized that his Father’s mistress didn’t care enough about his Father to quit smoking, but his Mother did. Wives give love and support, goombah’s give only sex.
I thought that this episode was pretty funny, good comic relief. Did you all catch that Buscemi directed it? It had a little bit of Coen Brother’s influence, lots of dark humor. Not as subtle and elegant as the Coens, to be sure. But definitely darkly creepy. I was on pins and needles just hoping like hell that Polly Bergen wasn’t going to flash us, especially after the trauma of seeing Carmela naked last week.*
*I think that Edie Falco is an attractive woman, all things considered, but 1) my folks widescreen, where I watched last week’s episode, was set on the wrong aspect so her ass looked HUGE and 2) it’s still Tony Soprano’s woman. I was sure that guy was going to get whacked.
It’s likely also totally blown his rationalization of the way he’s treated Carmela all of these years. So he can’t be feeling too good about himself OR his dad at this point.
And I second the half-brother suspicion voiced by Honey.
It was definitely an unusual episode. I can’t believe no one else has mentioned this, but didn’t anyone else catch Tim Daly’s character playing SNOOD on his laptop? The one we all thought he was writing the script for Dick Wolf on? 
Polly Bergen was excellent as the fur saleslady from Bambergers (LOL I worked in a Bambergers, Christmas season of 1974, btw :p). Tony saw the pic of her son and recognized his old dog, Tippy, but I guess it never occurred to him to wonder who was the father of the son–it certainly could have been Johnny Soprano!
Naw, I’m pretty sure if it was Johnny Boy’s kid Polly would have let him know, and some arrangement would have been made for his upkeep. It was just a kid from somebody else who she raised as a nice Jewish boy.
BTW, according to HBO’s website, Tony was born in 1959. So he was 16 or 17 during that flashback, and Johnny Boy probably died when Tony was in his early 20s. I kept on wanting them to zoom in on his tombstone so I could see the dates.
Kind of the theme of the episode – something I just got: this episode’s title is “In Camelot”, which, while having the JFK connection, also references the title song in the '60s musical Camelot.
The song is about a place where the King has decreed that everything must be impossibly and enduringly perfect.
Apart from the explicit reference, it’s tempting to project the entire plot of Camelot onto the episode, although it’s probably a huge stretch.
Johnny S. would be Arthur, naturally, with Livia as his Guinevere. Junior as Lancelot. Tony would be the boy that Arthur implores to keep the memory of Camelot alive in the reprise of In Camelot.
Maybe, if Johnny Boy’s illegitimate son shows up to stir up shit in the near future, there might be something to it. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
I thought it was a good episode as well. And I needed to shower after the “Happy Birthday” scene.
On the Janice/Bobby front, did anyone else notice how Janice leaned forward on the couch as soon as Bobby put his arm around her?