Whoa, missed AJ in Vesuvio’s. Missed the whole “can’t keep your whores/horse” thing too. Gotta watch again, I know I missed other stuff too, which just reinforces my opinion that this episode was brilliant. It was short though-- it ended at 9:50, so it was about 48 minutes long. A densely packed one, though.
These are all just my ideas, not fact, but–
Finn is a dentist, Tony is losing his teeth… it’s a power issue. He’s being superseded by Finn in Meadow’s affections, or at least is insecure about that.
Tony B is not a made man, right? Phil Leotardo is, don’t know about Billy, but a non-made man killing a made man ain’t OK. Also, it was an act of war, though the Leotardo boys were sooo asking for it.
Annette Bening was just a random celebrity stand-in for an unknown person, Mrs. DiTroglio (however you spell it, Finn’s mother). Maybe it’s just me, but that happens in my dreams sometimes, my psyche plugs in a celebrity, whom I recognize as a celebrity but who “plays” another role as well.
The Godfather sequence was to show that Tony ain’t no Michael Corleone-- he doesn’t have his “piece,” just his cock in his hand, another impotence issue. He’s obviously feeling very emasculated and insecure right now.
Who else loved Christopher’s pseudonym “Mr. Mantovani?”
That could be true. Melfi’s being in the hotel lobby might suggest that it was all a dream. OTOH, it doesn’t make sense to put somebody in a dream if the dreamer doesn’t even see her. Against the rules, no?
At first I was settling in expecting another rather expositional episode… we’ve had it established that Tony is lonely, Tony has an empty heart, Tony can’t stand to see other people get well, and now we’re finding out that Tony has gotten reckless with money, too. Thank Og that weren’t all…
That is the only way Lionel Richie will ever pollute my slightly-above-median-quality sound system.
What a great episode. (Yeah, I like it when the show gets all surreal–“Funhouse” was my favorite episode yet.)
I cracked up at Tony’s “You’re Annette Bening!”, because I had just come to that conclusion myself. (I knew she looked familiar.) Then there was Annette’s lead-in to the Godfather shout-out–“I don’t want my husband coming out of that bathroom with just his cock in his hand.”
I liked the way, both in Melfi’s office (with Gloria) and in the kitchen with Carmela, that for a while it wasn’t clear whether Tony was still dreaming or not.
I’m really looking forward to the last two episodes. This episode set it up just right. It’s hard to believe the season is almost over–I guess that’s what happens when there are only 13 episodes and they show one every week.
…late for work…must type fast…
Three more things I noticed…
At the restaurant, Finn’s parents say that he won’t amount to anything, when Carmella agrees that’s when AJ shows up in his place. I assume Tony is thinking the same thing about AJ (that’s also when his second tooth falls out)
When tony and his whores (I mean horse) want to come back, the first thing Carmella says is something to the extent of “First I have some non-negotioble ground rules” which I think is EXACTLY the same thing she said when AJ wanted to move back in.
Did anyone else notice that Finn’s dad is Corey’s dad from Boy Meets World. (As I side note, I just saw Clarrisa’s dad from Clarrisa explains it all in a car commerical.) I really should stop watching so much TV and get to work
:::runs to work hoping to be able to log back on to SDMB while this is still the last post:::
I’m not sure about the dentist thing – loss of teeth is a reasonably common dream element that the Freudians thought was symbolic of impotence (or fear of impotence.)
He’s also Det. Makasian, the dirty cop who wound up committing suicide in Season One. Did anyone notice that Tony B “whacked” Phil Leotardo on Heard St., which is the last name of the actor who played Makasian? Cute.
I was thinking about Tony B shooting Phil with his finger and Phil asking if how long he had to wait until he got up-- maybe Tony doesn’t quite realize that all the people who he killed or who have died are really dead, which goes right along with his “this is the real world” “no it isn’t” exchange with Makasian/Finn’s dad in the bathroom after the Godfather send-up. He may not, on a deep moral level, really understand that it’s all for keeps, this is his life, and those who are dead can never come back. That would kind of make him a sociopath, wouldn’t it?
People really thought this was the Worst Episode Ever? I loved it, and I keep finding new things to marvel at, a phenomenon this thread has been great for stimulating. I’m going to watch it again tonight to see if I can find anything else.
It was Frankenstein. If you watch that part closely, there is a very fast shot of the mob where at least one of them was wearing an old European outfit.
Don’t forget, when the Sopranos helped out the Jewish group with their son-in-law in season one(about the hotels), Tony was called a golem by the father. Since that is technically what Frankenstein is, the chase fit.
Not sure if this has any relevence or not, but did anyone notice that when he was trying to shoot the coach, the bullets seemed to melt into chocolate?
I liked the dream sequences. They were well done and I had a ton of fun trying to decipher what meant what and what was real vs. what was a dream.
At the end, though, I still felt like saying “All that just to find out Tony B. killed Phil and that Tony’s going to have to kill his cousin? Sheesh.” I didn’t think it was a question of if Tony B.'s going to get killed but rather when and who’s going to do it.
Another poster said Phil’s not dead. Wow. I guess I missed that. I’ll have to rewatch the last fifteen minutes, it seems.
Can anybody explain the significance of Annette Bening as Finn’s mother? Or for that matter, explain Heard as his father? (Crooked Cop Makasian was responsible for convincing Tony Pussy was a rat, which explains his re-appearance as Tony Uncle Johnny’s trying to figure out if Tony Uncle Al needs to go. But as Finn’s dad? I can’t make sense of it.)
I have not seen Bugsy. What was A.B.'s role in that movie?
I tried to come up with all the dead characters that didn’t show up in Tony’s dream: Jackie Aprile, Jackie Jr., Matt Bevalaqua, Sean Gizmante (sp?), Emil Kolar (who I guess would be just a talking skull, after last week’s ep), Bobby Baccala’s cancerous father, the Russian guy, Sunshine, Uncle Jimmy, the union guy’s dad (“Only shit in the Bible came out Pharaoh’s ass when Moses parted the read sea!”) – and of course Livia. I’m surprised they didn’t have Livia computer gen’d in, considering that stupid promo HBO always plays before the Sopranos…
Was surprised to see Makazian, since I thought the actor (J.T. Walsh) had died himself recently. Guess not…
My girlfriend is convinced that in Italian folklore, losing teeth in a dream signifies a coming death. Two teeth, but only Billy’s death to back that one up. Maybe not.
More importantly, am I crazy or is Tony B’s mom the same actress who played Livia?
Thank goodness someone said this. This episode was torture. I don’t mind a 3-7 minute dream sequence every now and again, but after watching 5 fucking minutes of him checking into a hotel, followed by 25 minutes of a dream, followed by a 10 minute recap of the dream to Carmella, I just wanted to scream and shoot myself in the head. I found myself praying that he would just wake the fuck up to that asian hooker sucking his dick. I hated Twin Peaks, I hate David Lynch, I hate over the top dream sequences, and while surrealism can be cool when used sparingly, if you go too far you just make the whole damn thing annoying. I watched this show with a few people and we all kept talking about how great it would be when this shark orbiting piece of crap gave way to the murderin’, whorin’, fun-lovin’ denizens of Deadwood.
I would much rather have actually seen the Tony B. wack sequence, not some internalized freakish dream. While it must have been fun for the actors to shoot all of those trippy scenes, it was painful to sit through. It’s not just that it was a dream sequence either, because I loved ‘Waking Life’, which is essentially a 2 hour dream sequence. I just felt like the director was trying to shove down my throat how cool and surreal he could be. Not impressed. I even wondered for a bit if they were intentionally sabotaging the show because people like it for all the wrong reasons - but that would be giving them too much credit, I think.
No, this episode sucked, and I put the official shark-jump moment at the wierd slow down and freeze frame of Carmela from last week. They’ve gotten to the point where they are replacing narrative creativity and risk taking commitments with gimmicks and style. Blah.