Isn’t that “putting on a brave face to the world” as opposed to “head in the sand” in this case? I don’t think they believed anything they said, they just did not want to admit how unhappy they were.
Jim
That definitely could be true, but I think, given both their histories for this kind of behaviour, especially Carm, it seemed more like dissembling to me.
E.g., Tony, taking everything Melfi said to justify his criminal way of life;
Carm, pretending not to realize why people (Pussy, Ralphie, Adriana) have just disappeared.
Well when Carmela made a comment about being relieved that Meadow was going into law, Tony looked at her and gave an incredulous “What?”. I saw that as Tony drawing a fine line between brave face and outright lying.
Tony’s “What?” came after Carmela’s comment that Meadow lacked compassion. I can see Carm bitching about AIDS and insurance companies, but saying your daughter isn’t compassionate? Very strange statement.
I thought it was Junior’s house.
I’m wondering if Tony could cut a deal with the Feds to take down Phil without having to provide info on what’s left in New Jersey. I would imagine not, but I can see it as a way that would make a scenario that would appeal to Tony.
I thought it was Junior’s house too. Would that make it T’s childhood home?
And I think we need to give AJ a break. We talk about how fucked up the family is, a bunch of degenerate mobsters, and act like something is wrond with AJ because he is tripping out about his family going into hiding? His reaction seems NORMAL, and people giving him a hard time are decrying him for not manning up and accepting his new role as fugitive.
The cardboard cutout was Sil, but I don’t know where it came from. If I was in a safe house waiting for someone to show up, the last thing I would want is a cardboard cutout to freak me out when I walk into a room.
So did I. Tony had a very strange look on his face when he walked in the door.
That’s what I thought, too.
Now that would be a great ending!
I almost gave up on these last 8 episodes, but after the first two kind of slow ones, things sure have picked up! I have no idea how this is going to end, but I’ll be watching next week’s episode over at someone’s house who gets the east coast feed-- I don’t want to wait until 9PM PDT!
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=423453&goto=newpost
How far up the ladder can you be and still flip? I thought guys as high in the organization as Tony would be the ones they’d want to indict. Is Phil that much more significant that the Feds would allow Tony to avoid prosecution in order to get him? Or would they cut Tony a deal for a reduced sentence or something? How would that even work, being in WP but also having to serve time?
As Phil pointed out, Tony and Jersey are small potatoes compared to Phil & Brooklyn. Tony might have also helped already with Terrorism which trumps Mafia actions. If Tony is out of action, Jersey disorganized and the feds get to take out Brooklyn, why wouldn’t they go for it.
Jim
Please clear something up for someone that missed the last few seasons: Chef’s-wife mentioned that Meadow’s new beau works for Tony. Is he mobbed up? I got the impression from the dinner scene where she was accosted that he was just a regular guy.
His father works for Tony. That’s what she alluded to in the scene, that his father still worked for Tony, and that it could be awkward. I honestly have no idea if he’s mobbed up or not. I don’t think so, but I’m not sure.
on edit: Quick check of Wikipedia says that he’s in the legal biz. So probably just another guy.
I don’t think it was about his distress re: going into hiding. The family is in crisis mode. Tony was saying that he needed AJ to come through for his mother and Aunt Janice. AJ’s response was, “What do you want me to do?” When Tony said he needed to help out, he came back with, “But, Uncle Bobby is dead! This is all really depressing me!” Sorry, buck up, son. Yes, it sucks, but this is the lifestyle that got you that pimp stereo, the car, the money for Krystal. Sad about losing Uncle Bobby? Cry about it later-- if we stick around here while you whine and wallow in it, we’ll all get killed.
Seemed to me like AJ was, as his father does, using his depression as an excuse not to step up and help out. He didn’t seem to understand that it was literally a life or death situation, and his self-indulgence needed to wait for a quiet, reflective momeny LATER.
ETA: The Parisi boy is apparently a lawyer, which is why Meadow now wants to be one. When she was dating Finn, a dentist, she wanted to be a doctor. :rolleyes:
Jim: Can the Feds really give Tony a total pass? I don’t see how. He’d have to serve something, take a plea, I’d imagine. The rest of the family, WP.
I think they can, they have very little on him, or he would already be in custody. In this one small respect, Tony lives a charmed life. The Feds never get a break when it comes to Tony. They lost Big Pussy, Adrianna and I think a few others.
Witness Protection has reportedly protected some nasty killers that make Tony look like a minor sociopath. It might only be UL, but it should be good enough for a TV show solution.
Jim
Johnny Sack also had white shoes in his prison hospital. His wife cleaned them for him.
That’s what got me started on the white shoe thing. There was an instance either in the episode before or after that episode. I remember thinking about how Johhny’s shoes arn’t as clean as the other pair I saw, that and they were kinda, what’s the word, limp, they didn’t look like new shoes. Not like Paulie’s anyways.
Here’s an interesting theory I heard from a friend today: Agent Harris isn’t really with Homeland Security. The whole terrorism thing was a ploy to get closer to Tony and gain his confidence. The Arabs may even have been agents themselves, set into the neighborhood to intentionally look suspicious. Mobsters actually have a long history of cooperating with the government when it comes to national security. So maybe agent Harris was just trying to get closer to Tony, maybe even use the fake terrorists to trick Tony into giving up information he otherwise wouldn’t.
But then they learn that the New York mob is going to war with New Jersey. What to do? You decide to try to flip Tony. First, you gain his confidence by tipping him off about the hit. Then you hope he flips when the heat is turned up. That way, you avoid a bloodbath and you bring down the New York mob. The downside is that you’ve gotta let Tony go into witness relocation. Oh well. That’s an acceptably small price to pay for averting a war and bringing down one of the Five Families.
That may not be what’s going on, but that’s a pretty well-worked-out theory.
The House Next Door has an excellent recap.
Tony is a psychopath. If anyone of us liked him, we have been tricked by him just like Dr. Melfi was.
I was sure Tony was going to get the Cubans to take out Phil. Maybe he still will.
I wonder if the Cubans have a “made” ceremony that would be acceptable to Phil.
Cubans? Did I miss something?
I thought it was another excellent episode. They seemed to be making a show of Tony’s lying to himself and others. Like when he tells Janice it’s too expensive to heat the pool, or all his conversations about Meadow, or his delusion about why Melfi is dropping him. That was funny as shit when he put the recipe for the steak back into the magazine and smoothed it out. He had a look on his face like he had the moral high ground with Melfi.
Did anyone notice that when Tony was dragging AJ out of bed, AJ’s foot wrapped around the cord to his stereo, and dragged it off the shelf, echoing his drowning scene, and the recurring themes of these peoples endless consumerism?
I’m still not sure where they’re going with the FBI. I thought all along that his FBI guys really didn’t care about terrorism that much, but was just there to get him talking to them. Whether the whole thing was staged from the beginning or not is really immaterial to how it affects Tony, but is interesting nevertheless. Still, the stage is set so that it’s more believable that he could flip.