They’ll never find him in the closet, either.
Poor Uncle June.
Earlier question answered.
The voice-over and music from the opening is William S. Burroughs reading from The Western Land. Link here and here .
Brilliant.
Got to agree with those who think that Junior wasn’t trying to kill Tony, but defending himself from some imagined danger. He hides in the closet like a child, yes, a very dangerous child who’s a pretty good shot, but he does seem more afraid than angry.
Carmela is just such a piece of work, showing off her new Porsche to those less well-off than she, seeming let down when Mrs. Big Pussy actually has a nice car of her own.
I love the Sopranos.
Yes, I thought so, too.
Wow, this was good. It started off very subtle, and then went for a bang at the end. I like the way Carmela is being sucked back into the lifestyle. That was always her weekness. She knew what Tony was, but she wanted the life he could provide more than she wanted to worry about what it really meant.
Was Florida-boy a new character? I don’t remember him from previous seasons.
No good deed goes unpunished indeed. Read all the reviews beforehand which hinted at a big shock at the end of the episode, so when Tony entered Junior’s darkened house with 5 minutes left I figured something bad was going to happen to one of them.
Eugene…he’s been around, a background character on the periphery of the family, a guy on the same level as Chris without the family connection to Tony. Most notably, he was made in the same ceremony as Christopher. It’s usually the kiss of death when they suddenly devote the greater part of an episode to someone like him.
And finally, no more questions on who is the old guy who’s talking to the feds! Goodbye Ray Curto, we barely knew ye.
Another great almost throwaway detail…Mrs. Sack telling Johnny that Christopher was interested in his precious Maserati. 
He got made with Chris and you might also remember him as the guy at the construction site who beat the shit out of some other guy (I don’t remember who) for making some kind of gay joke at his expense. The incident freaked out Meadow’s boyfriend, Finn and made him not want to work for the family any more.
When did Chris get promoted to captain? Wasn’t he just a “soldier” last season?
Johnny Sac should be inducted into the Smoker’s Hall of Fame. That man does enjoy his smoke.
Yeah, when I asked my husband who that was (I found that the length of time between seasons really affected the flow of the storyline and my ability to figure out/recall people and relationships), he said, “Oh, that’s the new dead guy.”
“Last Season” is a total joke or ratings ploy. There are 12 episodes scheduled for 2006 (so 11 more) and 8 episodes planned for 2007. “Last Season” my ass.
Pretty much a certainty that Tony ain’t gonna die any time soon.
However, I hear there will be an extended dream segment upcoming where Tony imagines his life if he never got into the…uhm…you know. Mob.
Apparently he imagines his life as a traveling salesman. Does this mean he is in a coma or out of it for a while?
Random thoughts:
I’m imagining that they put Tony into a coma, or at least the hospital. That would allow for the power struggle to start wtih Vito, maybe AJ, and others. That leaves room for a gradual take-over of power since Tony will still yield some. And, it gives the writers an “out” – letting Tony live – if they don’t like where it’s going.
Vito and the hot dog was funny, but it was funny because he took the dog out of the bun because he’s a mobster on Atkins.
Also, wife and I were both thinking, “man, Tony looks fat” so we thought it was funny when he got on the scale. He gets it down to 280 by undressing and goes, “meh”.
Sunglasses: It was odd. Maybe Tony isn’t really trying to placate Sacs as much as he’d have us believe. Chris made a crack about “passive-aggressive” behavior at one point, so maybe they’re playing with that a little. He’s saying the right things, but undermining it at the same time.
Not enough Paulie and Silvio, but it was a pretty packed episode. They’ll get their time.
Meh.
Tony is fat. We knew that.
Meadow is hot. We knew that.
Aj is a slacker. We knew that.
Carmela is shallow. We knew that.
Uncle June is crazy. We knew that.
You can never leave the mob. We knew that.
The FBI is inept. We knew that.
Christopher is an ass. We knew that.
Janice needs to be slapped. We knew that.
Was Paulie even in this episode. If he was, I must have dozed off.
They really sexed Meadow up this season, didn’t they?
He was in one of the restaurant scenes for, like, 2 seconds complaining that he needed to see a menu.
All I can say is that if I’m one of the actors and my name isn’t among the first five or six to run through the opening credits and I find I have more than two pages of lines, I’d better do a bang up job of acting. This is my last episode.
I believe we see AJ and Meadow a combined total of 30 seconds, and that counts Meadow’s “dance” in the opening sequence. Was Carm dreaming all of that or just the part with Ade?
Little Pussy Malanga was the guy who June was going to whack in the Old Vesuvio before the unfortunate “fire” that left Artie’s restaurant several blocks away. I seem to recall his name cropping up from time to time in reference to old times.
Maybe Agent Harris, in addition to picking up a Pakistani parasite, has been toking on the Flonase a bit much. Interesting how big a part he had in the promo for the new season.
Aren’t you glad you won’t be buying Carm’s spec house? $600,000 lot; $20,000 house.
How many clues did we get that Tony was going to suffer in this episode, maybe even the season? The scales, Vito’s concerns for his health, the deal in the backyard with the shovel and June’s going on about Malanga, even the Melfi references to the pillow.
The look Tony had when the brother of Jinny Sac says something about the “weight of the world on her shoulders.”
Chris seemed to have a good batch of lines this time, and the few shots we get of Paulie he’s also cracking wise. Even Sil had some good comedy time.
Great episode!
They pulled in some obscure characters. Angie Bompensaro (sp) having lunch with Carmella, and Tony and Janice’s sister doing a “shift” of watching Junior.
The little thing of Chris asking about the masarati is the sort of thing that will get him in trouble with Johnny if he gets out of jail.
If Tony is really going to be out of it, I think Silvio & Paulie would rally behind Chris. AJ would have nothing to do with a power struggle at this point.
Vito could be interesting and Janice will probably push Bobby to do something stupid.
Does Junior get arrested for this or locked up or squirreled away somewhere by the FBI?
Jim
Not AJ. He don’t know nuttin’ about the business.
In history of the American Mob, it’s very unusual for a boss to be succeeded by his son. Usually they raise their sons to do something more respectable.
Yes, AJ.
IMO, that was the entire point of the keg party he threw the previous season. . .making money off illegal activities and muscling money out of people.
He doesn’t even look remotely ready. That will be part of the drama.
I don’t care about the history of the American Mob. Even heard of Michael Corleone? What happened when his father got shot?
And what “respectable” thing has Tony been raising AJ to do?
AJ is too young and he is not a made man yet. Chris would be the Heir Apparent by Blood. A Capo and well liked by the two senior Capos. He would mind the business for Tony until he was better. As he is a very flawed character this would cause a struggle for power within the family. AJ is not even a candidate yet but if Tony is incapacitated for a while then AJ could be brought in and make his bones by Chris to bolster his own position. OF course when Tony recovers he would probably kill Chris for bringing AJ in.
Jim {Just my conjecture of course}