Hmm. The issue of homosexuality was (briefly) raised this season last episode when Tony angrily asked AJ if he had participated in “kinky sex”. And then later after AJ said that Tony would “be surprised” at his sexual exploits with women, Tony replies, “Yeah, I would.”
I think we can be pretty confident that AJ isn’t gay, so perhaps there is a reason why the issue has been brought up this season. Then again, we don’t really have a lot to go on.
What a fantastic episode! I was clutching a throw pillow and making little whimpering noises during the Christopher/Tony showdown. Murcielago, I felt terrible for feeling a tiny bit hopeful that he was going to get shot, too. What a little shit he is.
Thank you! My GOD, that was bugging me!
I’m leaning that way too…well not personally, of course…but, who was Buscemi’s ‘date’ at the dinner? His mom?
Sopranos is getting a little boring. Christopher should have been whacked and Buscemi or Paulie should have done the whacking for Tony. If Buscemi turns out to be gay, then its going to get worse. At least The Shield’s still decent.
I think the whole AJ/gay thing might be a possibility. Last season, when Meadow had her parents and brother over for dinner, and the discussion between her roommates and Carm about how Billy Bud (or some book, I forget) was about homosexuality, there were some unusually placed shots of AJ during the debate. The whole dinner conversation had sort of a gay/straight vibe to it.
I think the theme of this season for Tony is realizing what everyone in his life thinks of him, and it ain’t pretty.
When he has it out with Dr. Melfi, she tells him she could never get involved with him, not because she finds him unattractive or because she doesn’t like him as a person, but because she doesn’t respect his morals. This pisses him off and he calls her a cunt, and I wondered why. Had he never considered that an educated, cultured woman would not want to be romantically involved with a known murderer and criminal? Apparently not-- he is too immersed in his world and too used to women who either ignore his amoral lifestyle or find it to be an aphrodisiac. This was his first wake-up call.
Next, Carmella tells him he has no friends, only flunkies who laugh at his jokes but don’t really love him. This causes a rare (but ever more frequent) moment of reflection for Tony, during that slo-mo shot at the end of all his “friends” yukking it up. The only one not laughing was Feech, which may be why Tony didn’t whack him… or maybe that’s why Tony had to get rid of him.
This week, Tony discovers that no one could possibly believe he was alone in a car with an attractive woman and wasn’t banging her, even when that woman is Adrianna. He is guilty until proven innocent, and even guys who are supposed to be in his inner circle (Silvio, Paulie, Bobby) are quick to spread and even embellish these vicious and destructive rumors. Worst of all, Christopher, who he is grooming to be his #2, would point a gun at him over these rumors. In this ep, Tony was trying to be good, but he’s the boy who cried wolf, and when the wolf comes, the only person who will help him is Carmella. Interesting.
I don’t know where this season is going for Tony, but it seems that the hollowness of his life and his moral bankrupcy are becoming ever more apparent to him. Also, no one else mentioned this, but Tony has cancer! He said they “got it all,” but… who knows? What better an occasion for reflection, and a moment to see who his true friends are, than Tony undergoing chemo?
This is shaping up to be a juicy season.
Yes, it was his mom
A couple more juicy tidbits from last night’s show:
Paulie went to bat for Christopher, giving Tony an ‘out’ by suggesting that Christopher knew his gun was empty when he walked into the bar and started pulling the trigger, because he had already emptied it into the truck. But of course, Christopher was too stupid/drunk to figure that out.
Adriana REALLY blew it when she said her blonde friend was dead. She had better hope that Tony lost the memory of that conversation in the accident, because if she is spotted with her again, she’s dead. And it was totally unbelievable anyway. I think that accident was a lucky thing for her, because Tony was giving her a pretty strange look over that.
No, the “blonde friend” is not the same person who’s been interrogating her.
FBI agent Deborah Ciccerone was played by Lola Glaudini. (She called herself “Danielle” while she was undercover.) After she and the other agents made their deal with Adriana, Agent Robyn Sanseverino (Karen Young) became the direct liaison. They do look alike, but Robyn is clearly older and, as she told Ade, divorced and childless. Deborah/Danielle was married, with an adorable baby (while telling Ade she couldn’t conceive, IIRC).
Oh, that’s right. Oh well, it was still a suspiciously stupid excuse - one Tony didn’t look like he was buying. “Oh, she’s dead.”
Adriana isn’t very bright.
All I can say is that Christopher is the luckiest camelface in existence. Sweet Lord, the chances he took! The stuff he did! Tony B. was his guardian angel. Loving Tony B.; he is totally unafraid of Tony despite the fact he’s half his weight. However, the only other person we’ve seen who is unafraid of Tone in that world was Feech, and we see what happened to him (and I wouldn’t take bets Loggia is out of the season for good).
The last line from Ade was very revealing. I felt sure she would take off after the beating and stay away, and this would be a resolution of the Ade/FBI storyline that nobody had foreseen. But the status quo was restored at the end. Although I was surprised that she said she would have killed Chris had the situations been reversed–doesn’t she know about the bimbos and strippers, even if Chris doesn’t have a full-fledged goomah?
Terrific episode. Recording cut off before the previews, though, so I’ll have to rewatch.
I think Drea is wonderful at who she’s portraying, but I totally don’t get the eyebrows. Every Sopranos character thinks she is so hot, but the brows seem to be growing every week.
I see the nice tight bod, but does she have an attractive face with all that battle makeup on?
wondering soccer mom
parsnip, Mr. Tech says from the neck down Drea is hot. He thinks her face looks like that of a witch’s, though.
Adrianna is cute, in an exaggerated Jersey kind of way, but my god, Carmella is hot. She’s tough, determined, smarter than she thinks she is, and just plain gorgeous. Kind of bad taste in clothes, though.
This part confused me a bit- was Cristopher too drunk to realize Paulie was trying to help him ( this does seem to be the most probable answer), or was Paulie suggesting that Chris may have been trying to commit “suicide by boss”, which may have been a backhanded stab at Chris’ courage?
Ade is smoking hot in a trashy sort of way in some scenes. In others she looks scary in almost a Micheal Jackson artificial sort of way. She is definitely looking more and more used.
I’ll agree that Carm is looking good again this season. She seemed to have packed on the pounds last year.
Not that you can trust the previews, but it kind of looks like a gambling problem is going to get Tony B. back into the game. He’s going to end up owing one of the bosses and they are going to put him to work. I’ve been wondering if Tony B. is supposed to be gay or if they are just giving his peers reasons to question him.
re: Adriana –
Nope.
I only saw that picture of Drea in the NYT this weekend. She had an interesting face – sort of flat with a wide mouth like Julia Stiles. The part that looked the same was, surprisingly, her eyebrows.
I thought she was kind of pretty (but I don’t on the show).
Melfi’s face is kind of frumpy now, but she looked pretty good in “Goodfellas”.
Maybe a little bit of both? It seems a bit much to expect this sort of insight from Paulie “Prince Matchabelli” Walnuts, but he did seem truly interested in diffusing the standoff. If his statement worked to both placate Tony and embarrass Chris, then all the better. As we noticed last week in slo-mo, Paulie is Tony’s #1 suck-up and bootlicker, and if he can knock the “hair apparent” down a notch, all the better for him. Killing Chris would have been bad for business, and even Paulie could see that.
As far as Tony B. goes: I’m guessing that his dual role of mediator and sympathethic ear are part of a deliberate plan to pick up crumbs from Tony S.'s crumbling empire. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him with his own little loyal army at some point.