Sopranos: 5/2

Cafe Society
1

Wow, what an intense episode. Finn was just a “boyfriend” before this episode, not a character but he came alive pretty well tonight as a three dimensional person. He seems to want to be a good guy but doesn’t know how to handle Meadow’s family baggage at all. The stuff at the construction site was incredibly unfomfortable and the site of Vito’s head popping up in the car was actually more scary than funny. I wonder if Finn proposed to Meadow purely out of self-preservation, hoping that becoming Tony’s son-in-law will protect him from Vito. It’s amazing how clueless that Meadow seems to be about what these friends of her father are actually like. I loved the irony of Meadow preaching to Carm about “having things handed to her” and citing Finn’s construction job as an example of self-reliance-- a job that Meadow pulled family strings to get him.

Tony’s confession to Melfi was hella intense and well acted. It shouldn’t have been a surprise about why Tony really missed the job that sent “Tony Uncle Al” to the can but I didn’t see it coming.

I also found it amusing that Carmela had expected to be able to go after Tony’s assets in any sort of legitimate manner.

Oh…and the bear is back.

2

I didn’t expect Tony S. to totally lose it that way when he found out about Tony B.'s involvment, but it makes sense. He’s been trying very hard to stay out of the middle of the entire Johnny Sack/Carmine Jr. situation, and with good reason. Tony B. just involved him without even thinking twice.

I can’t believe Carmella would seriously think Tony would let her have a divorce. Or that any attorney in the tri state area hasn’t heard of her husband, and would consider taking the case.

Scenes from next week look very intense.

3

I think this episode started off a little bit slow, but more than made up for it by the end.

The title of this episode was “Unidentified Black Males”. Sure enough, whenever anything bad happens (fight with your mom, foot gets run over, etc.) the excuse involves unidentified black males.

Does anyone else think that Meadow is way too passive in her relationship? “I don’t know, you decide.” On the other hand, I can’t work up much sympathy for her after seeing the crap she pulled with her boyfriend. His life may very well be in danger and she gets pissed at him for being pyshically and emotionally exhausted. I don’t think she believed him when he said Vito made a pass at him. In her mind, her father’s associates only exist at barbeques, funerals, and weddings and are just sweet older uncles to her.

The little confrontation between Vito and Finn was terrific. Simple little conversation with so much subtext. When Vito reached for the tickets I was almost certain he was reaching for a gun. It just goes to show that nobody has to die in an episode to make it exciting. I have no idea what’s in store for the Finn and Vito storyline, but they damn well better not just let it drop.

Carmela … where to begin? I’m very conflicted about her. At times I want to feel such great sympathy for her, but at other times I think her problems are at least partially of her own making. She lives a pretty damned good life off of money she knows comes from illegal sources. At the same time she’s often quite high and mighty and clearly does not consider herself to be as sinful as her husband. Yet, if Tony were working a legitimate job making half of what he does now I bet she’d be nagging him about making more money.

It’s interesting to see that the bear is back. I think the bear is Tony Soprano. Or rather, it’s the dark side of his aggression. The same primal male energy that he sometimes harnesses to feed, clothe, and shelter his family is also the energy that can destroy it. I think it’s no accident that the bear first appears in the episode titled “The Two Tony’s”. Clearly on the face of it this is a reference to Tony Blundetto, but there’s more to it. As Tony tells Melfi, “Forget the way Tony Soprano makes his way in the world. That’s to feed his children. There’s two Tony Sopranos…you’ve never seen that other one…That’s the one I want to show you.”

The little bit about Tony B.'s 158 IQ may or may not be important. Obviously, it’s important to the extent that Tony S. believes it matters; I’m just not sure if it really says anything about Tony B. It does seem as if Tony B. is being portrayed as being very competant and as having many leadership abilities. Possibly there will be some sort of struggle between Tony S and Tony B for control of the Soprano family. This may be a real physical struggle or a more abstract one as Tony S realizes that Tony B is simply more fit for the job. Then again, I wonder if Tony B is really as competant as he sometimes seems. He’s slipped and hurt himself, sorta got conned into doing all the work on the massage parlour, and managed to get his foot run over while performing a hit.

Tony S is absolutely right to try to remain as neutral as possible with regards to the New York situation. That said, I think if push came to shove I’d have to side with Johnny Sac over Little Carmine. Carmine strikes me as thinking himself more capable than he really is. He’s not a complete pushover, but I don’t think he’s nearly as hardcore as Johnny.

Speculation for next week - What is it that Janice gets arrested for? Posession of pot? Probably something relatively minor like that, but I suppose it could be something worse.

4

She tries to put on a holier than thou attitude, but it’s all BS. She’s lived the good life compliments of Tone (knowing full well where the money comes from), and wants it to continue without him. Tough luck toots. She’s quite the gold digging bitch.

Also loved at the construction site how quick Paulie changed his attitude toward Finn after he found out who he was. One minute “Hey clean this dog shit off my tire” to kissing his ass the next.

5

I dunno…Tony seemed pretty peeved about his “name being all over the news.” You can bet Janice did or said something to set that off.
Adriana calling her fed contact…I’m sure that’s going to play prominently next week. She thinks Chrissy’s being threatened by Tony B., and it sounds like she wants to step up the proceedings.

6

I took it to show her trying to get him to decide ANYTHING. The guy was completely wishy-washy. Couldn’t decide where to go what to do couldn’t even get a job without her help. Then when he decided he might be in deep shit he just pulled out some bags then didn’t pack. Only when pushed to the breaking point did he make an actual decision and that was more of an effort to keep the status quo then anything else.

7

Did Mike Imperioli write this episode as well? Aside from Finn’s interaction with da boys, I thought it was quite tedious.

8

Unfortunately I missed most of the dialog at this point because of some stuff going on at our house. Anyone mind spoiling it for me, please?

9

Tony started having an anxiety attack in Melfi’s office. Melfi encouraged him to talk his way through it and Tony told her that the real reason he had missed the job that got got Tony B. sent to prison was not because he had been jumped by a bunch of black guys as he had always maintained, but because he had been arguing with his mother and then had an anxiety attack on the way to his car. He had passed out and cut his head open. Later he made up the story about getting jumped. He’s been feeling guilty all these years and that’s why he’s protective of Tony B.

10

I thought this episode was great. Although I was able to empathize with Carm’s exasperation with regards to her inability to divorce Tony AND get what she considers to be her fair share of their money, I can’t help but wonder just what the hell she expected to happen. She just can’t be that naive, can she? My husband agrees with the poster that called her a gold-digging bitch, by the way. He’s felt that way ever since the episode a couple of seasons ago when Tony bought her a full length fur coat of some sort and she forgave him and had sex with him that night. I think he lost all respect for her character after that.

Mr. Tech also thinks Finn’s proposal was based solely on self-preservation, too.

Last night’s episode reminded me just how much I hate Meadow Sorprano. What a spoiled, self-absorbed bitch. And coming from a spoiled, self-absorbed bitch such as myself, that’s really saying a lot. How she could continue to berate this poor guy’s who’s scared for his life was just revolting. She disgusts me. If that’s the feeling the writers wish to elicit from the viewers, kudos to them. Job well done, fellas. I also love the fact she seems to have deluded herself into who’s responsible for Jackie Jr.'s death.

Moving onto Vito. I gasped so hard there was an audible ‘pop’ from the sudden drop in air pressure in our living room! I wonder where this is going. I’m so intrigued!

11

I thought that he proposed just so he could get some sleep. He was in one of those arguments that you just can’t win. I would have been out of there and back to California so fast it would make your head spin. He’s scared for his life and now he wants to marry into the family? Heaven help us. Also, and I’m just a straight guy, so who knows, but isn’t Finn Meadow’s Ugliest Boyfriend Ever?

What I found funny about this is that Vito still seemed pretty nice and looked as if he might be genuinely hurt when Finn stood him up for their “date”. Has Vito ever hurt someone on the show?

12

If I’m not mistaken, Vito shot and killed Jackie Jr.

13

Did anyone else think it was stupid for Tony S. to make up that story on the whereabouts of Tony B. on the night of the shooting? Isn’t he setting himself up as a liar if he’s ever found out? I mean, Sacks is going to go ballistic if he finds out that Tony lied to him. I think the smart thing would’ve been to stay out of the mix. He could easily have said that he “heard” that Tony B. was doing such-and-such as opposed to being with him. In any case, I don’t think that Johnny Sacks is buying it.

14

Finn’s story was one of my favorite plot lines in a long time. He got a good look at the logic in Soprano-world, which makes no sense whatsoever in any objective sense. He tries to repay Tony’s kindness by paying for dinner, and gets reamed for it. A guy gets the shit kicked out of him for jokingly suggesting that someone is gay while the other guys laugh, and the next day one of those other guys is blowing a security guard in the parking lot. All it takes for his girlfriend to stop her marathon whining session about the lousy state of their relationship is to propose marriage. I’d be freaked out, too.

Meadow is nuts, isn’t she? I thought the scene at the end where she was telling Carmela about her engagement was great. Edie Falco’s acting was perfect–she was tearing up, but she obviously didn’t look happy, or especially sad. She looked conflicted.

I cackled out loud when Vito’s head came up out of that guy’s lap. My guess is that, much to BlackKnight’s chagrin, we won’t be hearing much else from this. For one thing, Finn is now the boss’s future son-in-law, so Vito isn’t likely to mess with him. For another thing, why would Vito keep trying to stir things up, when he could just act like none of this ever happened and avoid questions? I think it works better as subtext anyway. I’d also rather see Finn kept on the periphery–that’s why this plot worked so well.

The scene in Melfi’s office was great, too. I knew there had to be more to the story of the night Tony B. got pinched, especially when Tony started blaming the titular Unidentified Black Males. (Does anyone but Tony Soprano use the word “jigaboo” anymore? I thought it had joined “darkie” and “pickaninny” at the Old Racial Slurs Retirement Home.) That wasn’t what I expected, though. Is this the first outright indication that Tony’s panic attacks have gone back that far? The first episode seemed to be the first time he was having them worked up (when he got the MRI).

Tony B. dicked Tony S. over good when he did that job for Little Carmine. Johnny Sack has not been the most stable person ever, and Tony lying to him like that will turn out to be like pissing on a grease fire.

The headstone was hillarious. Silvio cracks me up.

15

No. Back in season 1, Tony had a panic attack after taking a package of cappicola (gabagool) out of the fridge. Later, he remembers an incident when he was 13 or so with Melfi. He saw his father cut off the finger(s?) of the previous owner of Satriale’s. Later, when he saw his mother get all hot and bothered after Johnny brought home free meat, he took a header onto the kitchen table.

What a great twist for Vito. Pretty fitting that he used to be in Ralphie’s crew too. Poor Finn…I have a feeling that Meadow, despite all her Ivy League liberal baggage, which end up exactly like Carmela in about 10 years. If Tony won’t let Carmela divorce him, do you think he’ll ever let Finn leave Meadow?

16

Timeline question. The Saturday that Tony S. lied about being away with Tony B looking for Tony B’s daughter is the same night that he spent with Carmela isn’t it? If so, nobody saw him around that night except Carmela.

17

NYU. Hmph :slight_smile:

18

One of the funniest moments was when Finn said something to Meadow about how Jackie Junior was killed and she says, “that was a couple african american drug dealers”.

And THAT DAY after the bottle in the face, Finn had heard the mob guys say “if the cops show up tell them a couple niggers did it.”

Quite the dig at little miss liberal who is, in effect, being just as racist but without the words.

I thought it was a really good episode. My two cents: I thought Vito was just gonna forget it and wanted to have a good time at the game. They’d been shooting the shit about baseball all week and he got a couple good tickets.

He’d already put it aside with the “you get in pretty early” comment, IMHO.

I think they drop this Vito stuff.

What almost got lost in the mix was Chris getting worked up about being passed over for the casino. his shit is building.

19

Was I the only one who thought that Finn scored very high in composite wussiness? How can Meadow have any respect for him?

He’s got some good reasons to want to back away from Meadow, once he’s had a better look at the Soprano culture. If he doesn’t want to get mixed up with that, it’s time for him to get out. Instead, he spends all night trying to not-quite-save the relationship with Meadow: “I don’t know, do you want to stay together?” Then he proposes, as has been said above, to get an end to all this ambiguity and if nothing else get a good night’s sleep. Surely not motivated by a brave decision to accept all of Meadow’s violent baggage, but more of a “I don’t know what to do, so let’s get married” kind of thing.

And sure, Vito was intimidating when Finn came out of the john. But if he was really afraid of Vito, and if he had any balls, he would have gotten the next plane to California. Do not pass home, do not collect a cashier’s check from your bank.

I’m just not buying that he hid out at home just to be with Meadow.

Maybe I hallucinated this, but didn’t Adriana call the FBI agent shortly after one of Chris’s more tiresome rants?

20

“Unidentified African Americans” was the title of the episode and there were at least four times in the ep that imaginary “UAA’s” were used as generic scapegoats. Tony B. blamed them for his foot, the guys on the construction site after the fight, Meadow blaming them for Richie Aprile Jr. and Tony blaming them for missing the hijacking job. In a more subtle way, Finn used them too when he said he didn’t go to job service becaues he didn’t want to “take a job away from a minority.” This whole ep was about avoiding responsibility. Even Carm was forced to face the facts about the source of her cushy lifestyle and her own complicity in it.

Ironically, the only character who did ultimately own up to his own accountability was Tony in the Melfi session. (I liked his line about how therapy was like “taking a shit.”)

Engywook, Yes, Finn is a bit of a wuss and I think that bugs Meadow. It came out when she wanted him to just pick a movie. Everything with Finn is just “Whatever you want.” Meadow’s template for manhood is a domineering father who made all the decisions. She thinks she wants to get away from it but I think she also craves the security she felt with that kind of father.

The argument was kind of funny- all the undergrad psych terminology and attempts to “validate” each other. I’ve been there done that with my own wife when we were younger. “Abundant intention,” hee hee.

I think Finn proposed probably out of a combination of fear of Vito and simply being beaten down by Meadow. Maybe he figured it was the only way she was ever going to shut up about that damn suitcase. It was after 4 AM by the time he finally proposed which means that Meadow had to have been haranguing him for like six or eight hours. His choices were to propose or flee back to Ca. and he was too tired to flee any more.