[QUOTE=AuntiePam]
I want to know why Blanca dumped A.J. Besides the fact that he’s A.J., what changed her mind?
[/QUOTE]
If you look back over the last couple of episodes, they had closeups of Blanca looking uncomfortable every time she was over at the Soprano house. It made me wonder if she decided she didn’t want to get involved with a mobbed-up family. Notice how she broke up with him in a very public place, with a male relative around?
[QUOTE=flickster]
Notable scenes:
… Nancy Sinatra - time has not been kind
[/QUOte]
Nancy Sinatra was born in 1940. Time would seem to have been kind enough to her at age 66. At age 54 she posed for Playboy and still looked amazingly good for her age at the time.
This was another episode that did little for me.
Jim
To me this episode - and the ones preceding it - was about fathers. In the first ep we see that Johnny Boy Soprano, far from being the protector of the family from Livia, had a nasty little streak himself. Tony as a father figure to Christopher - that’s gone tits up. Vito Jr., another opportunity to be a father - Tony’s ineffectual there as well. AJ loses his girl and the surrogate fatherhood he had over the kid. For a show that focused so much on mother-son dynamics this is a pretty big shift.
Pure speculation so I won’t spoil this. I think AJ is going to come to the realization that he doesn’t have any marketable skills, and he’s going to (probably incorrectly) think that Bianca left him because he doesn’t have any money, so he’s going to find a way to get into the family business. Not as a front-line hood, but maybe something behind the scenes. Phil Leotardo is never going to get over his brother being killed by Cousin Tony. And Phil is clearly indicating that he’s uncomfortable with Tony’s directness. Phil wouldn’t mind seeing another capo in Jersey. I can’t quite figure it out, but all of Tony’s potential legacies are huge disappointments - Vito is dead, Christopher is clearly elsewhere mentally, Paulie is annoying, and Sil seems uninterested. So maybe AJ is going to appear as a savior of sorts. But obviously Sil is the best imaginable choice to take over after Tony… goes. Funny how that hasn’t been really highlighted. Is it because he’s the same age, if not older, than Tony?
I fully admit I have no idea where this is going, and I love it!
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow]
But obviously Sil is the best imaginable choice to take over after Tony… goes. Funny how that hasn’t been really highlighted. Is it because he’s the same age, if not older, than Tony?
[/QUOTE]
Sil was in charge when Tony was in the hospital, and was completely ineffectual. Remember, he was using the inhaler, and he couldn’t rule on the Bobby/Paulie thing. (I think it was bobby/paulie). He was out of his element.
AFAIC they put that to bed. Good captain. Bad general.
[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
Good on Tony for thinking of Francesca’s long-term emotional welfare, though.
[/QUOTE]
Although he only thought of her enough to send her son to the cheap corporal punishment camp - he gambled with that money and didn’t want to spring for the Maine one when he lost. I liked Chris and Paulie there, too - praising Tony’s generosity while refusing to offer to help or anything. What selfless guys. 
This episode didn’t blow me away, but I got a good laugh out of Tony and Phil failing to reach Vito Jr. - particularly “there’s no eating in the car.”
Anyone else notice the look that Tony had when he saw the Italian guy talking to the middle eastern guys?
Don’t know if that’s going somewhere, but they’re not dropping it.
[QUOTE=Trunk]
Sil was in charge when Tony was in the hospital, and was completely ineffectual. Remember, he was using the inhaler, and he couldn’t rule on the Bobby/Paulie thing. (I think it was bobby/paulie). He was out of his element.
AFAIC they put that to bed. Good captain. Bad general.
[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah,I forgot. Good point. But I just thought about the Hesh-Renata thing. I’m pretty sure that Tony had nothing to do with it, but Hesh is probably thinking there’s some connection. Not necessarily “Tony did it REVENGE!” but more like, “This guy brought stress in my house and my relationship, and I missed the signs that she was sick and our time was short.” Hesh is one of Tony’s oldest friends, and the joking anti-Semitic jibes seemed to take an ugly turn. No-one’s loyal to Tony now. Paulie, Bobby, and Christopher have all turned their backs on him. The only loyalty he seems to have is his real family - Carm and he went at it pretty good, but all was forgiven at the end. Meadow and AJ clearly love their dad. Everyone else? Not so much.
Am I the only one that is seriously beginning to suspect that this series finale is going to end pretty much like any of the other finales in a given season, that other than one or two people getting whacked, nothing will be resolved and it will be as if the show was coming back next year?
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast]
Am I the only one that is seriously beginning to suspect that this series finale is going to end pretty much like any of the other finales in a given season, that other than one or two people getting whacked, nothing will be resolved and it will be as if the show was coming back next year?
[/QUOTE]
I agree. People are expecting this to wrap up in a neat little bow, and it isn’t as if the show started that way - with some pivotal life event. I think we’ll get some closure, but much of the show will be left hanging, allowing a whole line of Sopranos books, fanfiction, or even a follow-up series if Chase and co. are so inclined. I think Tony and the Family will part ways at the end of the season, but that’s all that’s guaranteed.
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast]
Am I the only one that is seriously beginning to suspect that this series finale is going to end pretty much like any of the other finales in a given season, that other than one or two people getting whacked, nothing will be resolved and it will be as if the show was coming back next year?
[/QUOTE]
What’s to resolve? Seriously. I don’t mean that snarky.
But, right now there’s nothing really to resolve. If Tony gets whacked next week, there’s stuff to resolve. But, other than that, the crew is pretty much doing the same thing they were 6 seasons ago. Were you expecting growth? Change?
There have been some dominant themes to this season, but no dominant plot line. So in one sense, I agree with you. I can’t say, “oh, it’s leading us here,” so any ending has the potential to have a feeling of “where did that come from?”
On the other hand, there has been a rising feeling of fear, isolation, loss of control (of finances, of the relationship with New York, of his men), so anything that happens could be fair game. . .Tony getting whacked by pretty much anyone on the show (well, except baby Vito), Tony flipping, Tony retiring, Tony separated, Tony broke, Tony in jail, etc. There’s “tension” but it’s not from a particular plot line.
Really, what could you see happening that would tie it all up nicely? They were mobsters when we arrived. They will be mobsters when we leave. And that’s all its really been about.
Are you looking for a war with NY? A logical transfer of power to someone else? A consolidation of power? A retirement?
[QUOTE=Trunk]
What’s to resolve? Seriously. I don’t mean that snarky.
But, right now there’s nothing really to resolve. If Tony gets whacked next week, there’s stuff to resolve. But, other than that, the crew is pretty much doing the same thing they were 6 seasons ago. Were you expecting growth? Change?
There have been some dominant themes to this season, but no dominant plot line. So in one sense, I agree with you. I can’t say, “oh, it’s leading us here,” so any ending has the potential to have a feeling of “where did that come from?”
On the other hand, there has been a rising feeling of fear, isolation, loss of control (of finances, of the relationship with New York, of his men), so anything that happens could be fair game. . .Tony getting whacked by pretty much anyone on the show (well, except baby Vito), Tony flipping, Tony retiring, Tony separated, Tony broke, Tony in jail, etc. There’s “tension” but it’s not from a particular plot line.
Really, what could you see happening that would tie it all up nicely? They were mobsters when we arrived. They will be mobsters when we leave. And that’s all its really been about.
Are you looking for a war with NY? A logical transfer of power to someone else? A consolidation of power? A retirement?
[/QUOTE]
Look, I’ve never been one that’s needed everything tied up in a pretty little bow. That’s not my thing. And I’m not looking for a Dynasty-like ending or even a St. Elsewhere type of ending, but the show is ramping up to something and I get the suspicion that due to…
the fact that we now know that the last scene in the series is filmed in an ice cream parlor that includes Tony, Carm and Paulie
…then it seems logical that nothing really astonishing is going to take place. I can deal with that.
But to have this series end almost precisely in the way that it began (being snatched out from the Sopranos like we were dropped in) will seem a little too empty and certainly anti climatic. We’ve invested a lot into this series and we need at least some closure, even if it is something banal or devoid of merit.
For me, I would be happy if it were something that merely serves as a book end of sorts. Perhaps Tony is in jail and the last scene is a visit from Melfi, where they have an exchange that sums up the life of a mobster from the perspective of a man too affected by his life as a boss and the progeny/progenitor dynamic to understand that his life was really nothing more than the tragic act of a man that has spent his life selling off little bits of his soul, and his hell is contained in the knowledge that the pitiful crumbs that are left are being devoured by the rats.
I believe we need just a little closure, and my concern is that we are not only going to be left in the wind on this, but I’m beginning to believe that what we are going to get is akin to the series being “cleaved” off as if it were mid season last year, with nothing answered for. Not one thread accounted for.
I can deal with nearly anything but the final episode ending and me staring at my screen with jaw agape saying, “What the fuck?”
[QUOTE=Euthanasiast]
Am I the only one that is seriously beginning to suspect that this series finale is going to end pretty much like any of the other finales in a given season, that other than one or two people getting whacked, nothing will be resolved and it will be as if the show was coming back next year?
[/QUOTE]
It’s not going to be Goodfellas where everybody is either dead, in jail or in witness protection, but I think we’ll get some solid impressions about the fate of everybody who survives. We got the final word on Uncle Junior last week, I think.
Was I the only one who noticed the similarities between Tony and his gambling and Christopuh and his heroin addiction? There was the scene where Tony explained to Melfi that it was about the risk, not the money – a scene where he was all but contradicting himself and obviously lying to Melfi point blank. Then the scene where he finds out that Carm netted about $600k from her spec house. Tell me that the glint in his eyes and the excitement in his voice didn’t make him sound like an addict (not to mention the tantrum he threw after he found out that the Jets had beaten the Chargers). At one point, talking to Marie Spatafore, he even used the line, “There is no geographic solution to an emotional problem,” or something, which is a bastardization of Christopher’s (and AA’s?) line about drugs and drinking, “There is no physical solution to a spiritual problem.”
Christopher has largely been successful in dealing with his demons, despite the remission last season. I wonder if a significant plot thread will be whether Tony can be as successful in dealing with his own addiction? And, of course, I probably missed the point entirely, and there’s some sort of self-loathing and self-destruction that’s causing Tony to torpedo himself with gambling, because deep down, all bullshit aside, he realizes that he’s a terrible person and he hates himself, and this is his way out. I guess being bankrupted is better than being shot, or turning rat, or suicide by Fed, or rotting in a jail cell for the rest of his life. Poor and with the only family that truly loves him?
Sorry, got a little rambly there at the end.
[QUOTE=aliquot]
At one point, talking to Marie Spatafore, he even used the line, “There is no geographic solution to an emotional problem,” or something, which is a bastardization of Christopher’s (and AA’s?) line about drugs and drinking, “There is no physical solution to a spiritual problem.”
[/QUOTE]
Good catch, the only problem I have is that when Chrissy said that, he was very serious about it. Tony, on the other hand, was out of money and looking for a cop out.
My favorite line of the evening came when Tony was first talking to Francesca about Vito Jr.: “Losing his father and all that entrails!”
Hee!
I liked how Tony’s economic interests trumped the massive homophobia of the Mob in defending Vito: “Maybe you should suck a cock, because Vito made three times what you make on construction!”
[QUOTE=Trunk]
Anyone else notice the look that Tony had when he saw the Italian guy talking to the middle eastern guys?
Don’t know if that’s going somewhere, but they’re not dropping it.
[/QUOTE]
That wasn’t an Italian guy; that was Ahmed, someone Tony has dealt with in the past.
And good points, aliquot.
[QUOTE=newcrasher]
Tony’s gambling is moving to the center…
[/QUOTE]
You know, this is the first time Tony has ever let himself be controlled by addiction to a vice. Up to now, he’s always been too strong for that. He never could have become a junkie/alkie like Christopher.
Worse still, it’s not clear that Tony really is a gambling addict, yet, in the sense of being addicted to the thrill of playing as opposed to the thrill of winning. (That’s why compulsive gamblers always lose in the end – they keep playing until they’re broke; a win is just what gives them the means keep on playing.) He got himself into a hole with a few bad plays and he’s just trying to recover the ground. But circumstances are quickly driving him down the slippery slope to genuine addiction.
[QUOTE=Labdad]
My favorite line of the evening came when Tony was first talking to Francesca about Vito Jr.: “Losing his father and all that entrails!”
Hee!
[/QUOTE]
The pitfalls of the half-educated . . .
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
You know, this is the first time Tony has ever let himself be controlled by addiction to a vice. Up to now, he’s always been too strong for that. He never could have become a junkie/alkie like Christopher.
Worse still, it’s not clear that Tony really is a gambling addict, yet, in the sense of being addicted to the thrill of playing as opposed to the thrill of winning. (That’s why compulsive gamblers always lose in the end – they keep playing until they’re broke; a win is just what gives them the means keep on playing.) He got himself into a hole with a few bad plays and he’s just trying to recover the ground. But circumstances are quickly driving him down the slippery slope to genuine addiction.
[/QUOTE]
Betting $100,000, in one shot, when that’s money from assets you’ve liquidated to use for something else? That’s addiction. And what about the money he’d won in the first scene? Why not just walk away?
Personally, I’m not sure where this gambling addition storyline comes from all of a sudden (w/ hints in the last 2 or 3 episodes), but they’re playing up the heavy compulsion angle pretty hard, for some reason.