|
I still love Tony accidentally undercutting Dickie even as he was bonding Chris to him. "He was a carrying a crib for me, right?" "Well... TV trays, but it could have been a crib just as easily."
|
#
?
Apr 25, 2020 23:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:48 |
|
|
You shot my dad while he was carrying a Tv tray for me to watch Tv on?!?!
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 00:31
|
|
|
Matt Zerella posted:One day I came into the thread, your posts about Chrissy were in the toilet. Disgusting. Holy poo poo I almost spit all over my monitor.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 00:50
|
|
|
Bip Roberts posted:I don't think Chris ever showed a sign that he was likely to snitch even if his life was a wreck. I want you to remember this and apply it to real life as well. Never. Never ever, ever, trust anyone on drugs
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 01:07
|
|
|
Since were talking a lot about Chistophah, I just want to chime in and say how good an actor Michael Imperioli is and what fantastic work he did on a show full of great performances. His body and facial language are stellar amongnst a great cast that share equal skill. His role could be easy to over act and go over the top in lesser hands but he never over does it. I don't think I've ever seen him in a movie that sucked or on a terrible TV show. And if I have, I don't recall it being it his fault.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 01:58
|
|
|
Yeah, he was good in that awful Life on Mars remake too. It gets mentioned a lot but he does some of the best high acting I think I've ever seen. It's never over the top or exaggerated and he nails the speech patterns and that weird detached vibe from somebody who is trying and failing to sound sober, which is REALLY easy to overdo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhDq-70caV0
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 02:15
|
|
|
Another great Micheal Imperioli film: Lean on Me with Morgan Freeman.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 02:15
|
|
|
Imperioli shows up in HBO’s Watchmen, in a promo trying to get people to move back to New York after a false flag psychic squid attack, I’m not sure if this needs to be in spoilers since it’s like a 30 year old plot point, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngShLy7Ld_8 ruddiger fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Apr 26, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 02:53
|
|
|
I always forget he's Spider in Goodfellas, too, and that him shooting the pastry shop guy's foot is a callback.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 12:11
|
|
|
Dawgstar posted:I always forget he's Spider in Goodfellas, too, and that him shooting the pastry shop guy's foot is a callback. Hey, why dontcha' go gently caress yaself, Tommy
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 16:02
|
|
|
Does anyone buy into the theory that Little Carmine was only acting dumb, and passive to seem like a lesser threat? When in reality he was a master manipulator setting up powerful rivals like Tony, Phil, and Johnny to kill each other, or get pinched. In the end whether you believe he was just a goofy mob connected yuppie trying to lay low, or a chess master manipulating things from a distance Little Carmine definitely comes off as the smartest guy in the long run.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 22:02
|
|
|
I dont think he was some brilliant puppet master playing 3d chess just a mob guy with slightly different priorities and possibly less of a piece of poo poo than the rest of them. The fact that hes mostly off in Miami and distancing himself whether intentionally or not says a lot. I doubt he'd even be in the mob if not for his father. Hes def one of the smartest and most complicated of them all having seen the big picture of "the life" and just decided "nah gently caress it im just gonna make movies" LC is prob one of my favorite characters in the entire series.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 22:17
|
|
|
I definitely don't think Carmine was deliberately positioning himself for the spot anymore, but I could see him relapsing and accepting the position, reluctantly or otherwise. People fall off the wagon on this show all the time, so I don't find it hard to believe he'd give up on embracing happiness to follow in his father's footsteps. I think some kind of council like Tony suggested in Season 5 probably makes the most sense for that family going forward though.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 22:49
|
|
|
I agree with you guys I think LC was a guy who appreciated the benefits of the life his dad made, but never wanted to go all in himself. I think a lot of the theories about him setting the other mobsters up come from his meeting with Tony and Phil "whatever happened there."
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 23:11
|
|
|
WHATEVER HAPPENED THERE?
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 23:26
|
|
|
Dawgstar posted:WHATEVER HAPPENED THERE? Alright then!
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 23:32
|
|
|
Even if he were a Chessmaster angling to eliminate his rivals, Little Carmine didn't have the street cred to command loyalty after losing to Johnny Sack. His loyalists seemed pretty thoroughly purged and whatever remaining power base is entirely Miami centered.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2020 23:33
|
|
|
Obviously we aren't there yet but what is the lay of the land for the NY family post Made in America.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 01:18
|
|
|
Bip Roberts posted:Obviously we aren't there yet but what is the lay of the land for the NY family post Made in America. My guess is Little Carmine steps up, either on his own or as part of a council running things. Once he's involved in greenlighting whatever happened in the last episode (maybe twice), I think he's in too deep to go back to living the good life stress free. I have to imagine even the other families would be telling them to get it together after all the chaos.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 04:15
|
|
|
Don't ruin my little Carmine head cannon of him living a happy life forever
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 05:22
|
|
|
BiggerBoat posted:"I could write my memoirs" Christofah was my favorite character on the show. This came about because Imperioli is about my age, Chris is about Imperioli's age, and for whatever reason I kind of identified with the character due to him being close to my own age. We had very little in common other than that, but Imperioli's acting and the writing they did for him was just brilliant. It was "mook is dumb" a lot of the time but there was a breadth to the character that was always entrancing for me. I remember being SO pissed when Tony killed him. I fully realized the writers had been in "these are really bad people" mode for a long time, and the closer it got to the end, the more apparent this was. Just the same, I was pissed and to be honest, hurt, that Tony did 'im like that. With the benefit of years of distance, multiple rewatches, and this thread, I realize today how much sense it made for Tony to do that. And I will always think of their hug at the end of "Stage 5" as one of the most chilling moments of the whole series. BiggerBoat posted:I swear to god, the more we talk about it and the more I read these awesome write ups, the central theme of this show seems to be that nobody really changes and only half of them even try. Said it before recently, I will say it again. This, to me is THE central theme of the show.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 06:10
|
|
|
Honestly if David Chase really wanted us to walk away with a feeling that people in general can't change, I don't buy it. My takeaway is that you can only compartmentalize things so much, and if you want to change for the better, you have to actually live the change full time, not try to find ways to make it conveniently fit with the parts of your pre-existing lifestyle you want to keep. That's hard for everyone, but harder still for people in the Mafia who don't necessarily have the option of just casually walking away from the life. The therapist Carmela saw gave the best advice of anyone in the series when he told her to walk away from the lifestyle built on blood money she had, even if he knew there's no chance she was going to take it. I guess Little Carmine's the counterexample, but 1) as I've said before, it's not clear to me that he'll stick with the good life, and 2) if he does, it's not really clear how seriously he was taking the whole thing down in Miami to start with. Edit: I guess the thesis is more that people don't change rather than that people can't change, and tbf that's mostly true. Dr Kool-AIDS fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Apr 27, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 16:31
|
|
|
BiggerBoat posted:"I could write my memoirs" I never thought of this before, but this kind of seems like a reference to Henry Hill and Goodfellas, no? Which brings me to another question, does Goodfellas exist in the Sopranos universe? Characters reference the Godfather several times but I don't remember them referencing Goodfellas?
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 17:53
|
|
|
Crow Enthusiast posted:I never thought of this before, but this kind of seems like a reference to Henry Hill and Goodfellas, no? Scorsese’s body of work is acknowledged (“Kundun! I liked it!”), so we know that much at least, but since both Goodfellas and Sopranos share several actors, they probably tried to avoid any direct references.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 18:33
|
|
|
Crow Enthusiast posted:I never thought of this before, but this kind of seems like a reference to Henry Hill and Goodfellas, no? Uh. It's just typical Chris being an idiot and hilarious type stuff. Along the lines of "both of em?"
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 18:38
|
|
|
Christopher thought the Cuban Missile Crisis was a movie.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 18:52
|
|
|
Could be bullshit but I heard somewhere that mobsters hate Goodfellas because the central character is a real life rat. Edit: I don't think the meta aspect would really bother the creators because they had Frankie Valli play a mobster plus mentioned the real life Frankie Valli playing at that Indian casino. Human Tornada fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Apr 27, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 18:57
|
|
|
Smiling Mandrill posted:Does anyone buy into the theory that Little Carmine was only acting dumb, and passive to seem like a lesser threat? When in reality he was a master manipulator setting up powerful rivals like Tony, Phil, and Johnny to kill each other, or get pinched. In the end whether you believe he was just a goofy mob connected yuppie trying to lay low, or a chess master manipulating things from a distance Little Carmine definitely comes off as the smartest guy in the long run. If this were a D&D campaign, Little Carmine would be Intelligence 8, Wisdom like, 14
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 18:58
|
|
|
ruddiger posted:Scorsese’s body of work is acknowledged (“Kundun! I liked it!”), so we know that much at least, but since both Goodfellas and Sopranos share several actors, they probably tried to avoid any direct references. Father Phil asks Carmela what Tony thinks of Goodfellas in season one, but she's cut off before she can answer.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 19:01
|
|
|
Crow Enthusiast posted:I never thought of this before, but this kind of seems like a reference to Henry Hill and Goodfellas, no? Tony accuses Christopher of wanting to be a Henry Hill, which at least references the book(s)... Edit: Tony: "I'll loving kill you! Whadya gonna do, go Henry Hill on me now?" (end of s01e01) BrotherJayne fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Apr 27, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 19:25
|
|
|
Human Tornada posted:Could be bullshit but I heard somewhere that mobsters hate Goodfellas because the central character is a real life rat. This makes sense to me. Could also be that the end of the film sees a paranoid DeNiro whacking anybody and everybody around him with a connection to the Lufthansa Heist; it plays into the thing Jerusalem has noted time and again about how everybody talks a lot about how they're concerned with "the rules" of the mob until breaking them becomes convenient for them personally. Nobody wants to admit to themselves or one another that they'd all readily turn on one another in a second if they needed to. In short, the entire Sopranos crew would dismiss Goodfellas for "third act problems."
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 19:27
|
|
|
Smiling Mandrill posted:Does anyone buy into the theory that Little Carmine was only acting dumb, and passive to seem like a lesser threat? When in reality he was a master manipulator setting up powerful rivals like Tony, Phil, and Johnny to kill each other, or get pinched. In the end whether you believe he was just a goofy mob connected yuppie trying to lay low, or a chess master manipulating things from a distance Little Carmine definitely comes off as the smartest guy in the long run. No. He was incompetent but also wise enough to realize it. Johnny Sack got the position and look where he ended up. Little Carmine ends the series happily married and with a steady trickle of cash coming in from his businesses, and little to no stress because he doesn't have to lead anything.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 19:55
|
|
|
Human Tornada posted:Could be bullshit but I heard somewhere that mobsters hate Goodfellas because the central character is a real life rat. From what ive read they all considered him to be a joke and mostly full of poo poo. Considering how many times he was kicked out of witness protection and never got killed I cant imagine they hate the movie that much
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2020 21:37
|
|
|
You know when you really think about it, I guess you could call some things Tony did to Gloria...Trillo harassment
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 03:56
|
|
|
JethroMcB posted:This makes sense to me. Could also be that the end of the film sees a paranoid DeNiro whacking anybody and everybody around him with a connection to the Lufthansa Heist; it plays into the thing Jerusalem has noted time and again about how everybody talks a lot about how they're concerned with "the rules" of the mob until breaking them becomes convenient for them personally. Nobody wants to admit to themselves or one another that they'd all readily turn on one another in a second if they needed to. I recall that a major piece of evidence that convinced Sammy the Bull to flip were the recordings they had of Gotti talking about killing him or setting him up because he didn't like how popular Sammy was becoming. The ideal of the mob is the same as the classic ideal of the gentle nobility, ruling with grace and respect adhering to a strict moral code. In reality it was just money, power, and the abuses of such against people who didn't have it. Social/unwritten rules went out the window the moment someone higher up was annoyed or inconvenienced by what you did. But that ideal is the only thing keeping it remotely functional so everybody just chalks it up to a once in a lifetime exception even when it happens on a regular basis.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 04:48
|
|
|
Is there any different on how Henry Hill's ratting is viewed because he wasn't made?
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 05:29
|
|
|
Bip Roberts posted:Is there any different on how Henry Hill's ratting is viewed because he wasn't made? Michael Franzese is a guy who was pretty high level in the Columbo family who just walked away from it one day. There are several interviews like the one I just linked on YouTube that are worth a watch.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 06:24
|
|
|
I think he is the only Capo to ever walk away without being wracked, or in witness protection. His dad John Franzese living to 103 and being so well respected might have had something to do with it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 06:30
|
|
|
Season 6, Episode 19 - The Second ComingCarmela Soprano posted:It wears you down, Tony. That's all I'm saying. A pile of asbestos coated debris sits on the side of street overlooking the wetlands, particles blown openly by the wind into the environment. AJ struggles to sleep and finally decides to just play rap music loudly in his room, waking Tony in his room with a jerk. He lumbers downstairs where a beaming Carmela thrills over a "mysterious" package from FedEx that she knows has come from Tony. He watches with pleasure as she opens it: a Baume & Mercier watch with an engraving of "You are my life. Love T." Apologetic but amused, he explains they couldn't fit Tony on but she doesn't mind, she's thrilled by the gift... so she can't help but chuckle that she doesn't know WHY he is giving her the gift, which suggests she knows perfectly well. Tony's extravagant spontaneous gifts more often than not come when he's feeling guilty about something, but by this point in their often rocky marriage she's clearly reconciled with the fact that he's never going to remain faithful to her. The conversation takes a more sombre turn when he notes that he felt bad about having to rush off to Vegas so suddenly last episode, and she dismisses that by saying she understood once he told her it was to take care of some of Christopher's business. That just (unknowingly) lays on the guilt further, especially when she brings up that Kelli is going to need every bit of money she can get to help raise the baby. Tony nods but doesn't comment, and Carmela catches herself being maudlin and makes a showy point of beaming over her lovely gift some more. At an old emergency room building, John Stefano is discussing a potential delay with the foreman of his work crew when Bobby Baccalieri and Anthony Maffei pull up to make their collections. Bobby declines to shake Stefano's hand even after he assures them that he doesn't "touch that poo poo" in reference to the asbestos. Stefano's concerns don't extend to his workers, Polish and Ecuadorians working without the proper protective equipment because "that's a Union rule" and he couldn't make money if he had to do annoying things like not massively jeopardize the health and lives of his underpaid workers. Money sure doesn't seem to be in short supply though, as he hands over a thick wad of $100s, Bobby grumbling that it doesn't come in an envelope.   AJ attends therapy with Dr. Vogel, who wants to know why the beating of the black cyclist has stuck with him so hard since he assumes he's seen people get beaten up before (just in the general sense, not specifically calling out his family's mob background). AJ isn't sure, but notes that it's hard to think of his friends as the same people who attacked the cyclist, since they had his back and helped him feel better after Blanca dumped him. Vogel doesn't call out his lame excuse that he didn't break up the beating since he's just one individual. He continues to hold his tongue when this child of privilege who witnessed a hard working immigrant get beaten moans about how he can't catch a break because his expensive anti-depression medication isn't working. Vogel isn't there to confront, he's there to try and help AJ get his poo poo back together enough to engage in society again. So he focuses on the positive, the last time they spoke AJ was excited and invested in his college classes, how are those working? AJ complains that English is boring but the Israeli-Palestinian class is interesting but depressing. Vogel is concerned to see that the only time AJ is sparking up in their conversation is when he gets an almost feverish excitement talking about how terrible things are in the world. He talks about watching CNN, seeing the children suffering in Iraq being juxtaposed with stories about fat Americans at the mall. He likens it to his parents and their excessive consumption, which brings him back to Blanca as he mentions how she couldn't afford to send her son to a decent school. Vogel, trying his damnedest to get AJ to engage on more than a surface level and actually explore his feelings, suggests he write a short story about the beating. For his pains he gets what was probably a familiar expression to all AJ's teacher in high school: confusion mixed with hostility, why would he ever write a story? Giving up and all but providing AJ with the answer, Vogel asks him if he thinks his feelings about Blanca and the Somalian cyclist might be connected. AJ is confused, how could that be when Blanca isn't black? But then he pauses and maybe he sees it at last? Maybe the connection has finally been made? Or not, as he ponders quietly,"Well... she's pretty tan." In the back of Satriale's, Silvio is reading a Consumer Reports book on "How to Clean Practically Anything" (Third Edition) when Tony arrives. They're all delighted to see him after his trip to Vegas, and he can admit to them what he couldn't to his wife: that he had a blast. But like with Carmela, he can't make it seem like he took off to have fun immediately after Christopher's funeral, so calming himself he notes that he also had to deal with some of Christopher's business, collecting money from guys who owed it to him and leaving it unsaid that this money will now be going to Kelli (which reflects well on him, of course). He spots a photo of Christopher on the wall and Walden tells him Little Carmine provided it and they framed it. It's a good photo, taken of Christopher at a moment where he was achieving his fondest dream: being on set on a film of his own creation. Tony nods and says nothing, but the photo is one final and permanent reminder: Cleaver to Tony is a representation of Christopher's loathing for him as a person, and now it has pride of place forever in one of the places he spends his days. Moving to happier memories, Tony tells them something else he couldn't tell Carmela: he met a beautiful girl and they took Peyote. They're all delighted, including Bobby and Maffei who has just arrived. Carlo cracks a joke about Bobby taking mushrooms that they all enjoy, including Bobby. Tony tries to elaborate further on the feeling of tranquility and understanding that came over him, and doesn't appreciate it when Walden speaks up to tell them he took Ecstasy once. Getting back onto his train of thought, he tries to translate the near spiritual awakening he felt he had, but he doesn't have the words and it's not even clear if the others would understand him anyway. So he waves it off with a laugh to hide the depth of his feeling and pours himself some wine instead. Maffei hands over the wad of cash from Stefano, still not inside an envelope, and Silvio admits there has still been no progress on the asbestos front: they'll need to arrange a meet with Phil. That's not a pleasant thought and Tony finds himself being pulled deeper down away from that sun and light he felt so close to at the end of the last episode. Paulie adds one final remark, like Walden sharing his own experience with drugs (acid in his case) in an effort to join the conversation. Tony smiles along with everybody else, but inside he's just like everybody else and assumes that HIS trip was by far the more genuine and pure and everybody else's must have been a pale imitation.   Tony and Carmela have Kelli and baby Caitlyn over for dinner, where Kelli admits that the house she once loved now feels too big and empty, especially at night. Tony assures her that she can call him any time if she's scared or concerned and he'll be over in a flash, and she thanks them both for being so kind to her. It would probably be uncharitable towards even Tony to suggest that he has an ulterior motive for wanting to be the strong protective man in this beautiful widow's life, but at this point there also isn't much I would put beyond him. AJ comes downstairs and heads straight to the fridge, Tony restraining himself for Kelli's sake and telling him to come sit at the table and eat dinner with them. Carmela has made his favorite, but her reward is AJ turning to stare with contempt and inform them that they spray virus on beef at the slaughterhouse rather than clean the ratshit from it. Tony tries to control his temper at AJ's rudeness but when he won't let up about the virus and the FDA and people living with their heads in the sand, he loses it. He offers to shove AJ's head in the wall and angrily and loudly reminds him that Kelli has been through a tragedy, and a grumpy AJ returns to his room with his microwaved snack. Tony is pissed that AJ spent his entire life refusing to study or show any interest in the outside world and now suddenly he thinks he's the world's foremost authority on everything. Carmela though sees the bright side: he's reading, he's staying informed, he's showing academic interest! He is, too. Despite his claim to find his English class boring, he listens with unusual focus at his next class as the teacher reads from Yeats' The Second Coming. That night he lays in bed and reads the poem himself, drinking in the apocalyptic imagery it evokes. Tony meets with Agents Harris and Goddard again at Satriale's, where he's surprised to learn that Harris is still suffering from the parasite he picked up in Pakistan (or perhaps he's been back?). They show him photos of Ahmed and Muhammad and ask him if they're the same men he knew from the Bing, and they are. He waits but they offer nothing, so he demands to know what they were wrapped up in. Goddard admits they merely think they "maybe" involved in financing, which isn't enough to give Tony any peace of mind at all. Harris doesn't help by shrugging and saying they don't even know if either man is still in the country, and they leave. Tony, world thrown for a loop by the thought he might have had terrorists as regular customers at the Bing, shouts a sarcastic thanks after them. That's how he deals with the terror of the unknown, in stark contrast to his son as we will soon see. Tony's next meeting isn't any more pleasant. They have arranged a meeting at the Averna Social Club with Phil, yet another sign of the change in positions as well as proof of Phil's assertion he would never be the one going to see Tony again. Phil pays lip service to pleasantries, asking if Kelli got the flowers he was sent, "magnanimously" saying he isn't expecting a thank you card any time soon since he knows how long the grieving process takes when you're close to somebody... yet another dig about the death of his brother. The pretended purpose for this meeting is that Tony wanted to tell Phil that the condominiums going in at the Navy Yard are soon to break ground, which means money coming in for them all. Phil acknowledges that this is good news, and this allows Tony to raise the REAL reason he came: to broker a deal on this asbestos situation. Last week Phil gave a ridiculous opening position and Tony walks away to preserve face, and now he's coming back with a reasonable sounding counter that will still be too low, and then they'll meet somewhere in the middle. It's how things have always been done and there is no reason to think this time will be any different... until Phil calmly tells Tony he already told him what the number was going to be and that's the end of the negotiation. Tony is surprised and not more than a little disbelieving. That's it? No negotiation? He points out he came all the way to New York and made a reasonable offer, and Phil calmly lies that he considered the offer and rejected it. When Tony asks to speak to him in private Phil rejects that too, unwilling to do anything to acknowledge Tony is on the same level as him. So Tony speaks in front of everybody: Sil, Bobby, Butchie and all the other gathered Lupertazzi Associates. He reminds Phil of the time he visited him in the hospital, of the connection and understanding they came to as fathers and men. Phil doesn't reject this... but he does reject that it has anything to do with this situation: this is business they're talking about. Pissed off himself now, Tony knows he's been put into a position where he must either kowtow to another Boss or risk the consequences of not, he gives Phil a final warning. Yes business and personal life are supposed to be separate, but there comes a point where the two will bleed into each other if they aren't careful about keeping them separate. If Phil continues down this track, it will make working together financially unfeasible, and he leaves it unsaid what the bloody implications of that will be. Phil, unperturbed, cracks wise about Tony's talk of connecting on a human level and that's the final straw. He makes one last effort, asking if there is really to be no negotiation, no compromise? Phil proudly repeats a variation of the "no more" speech he made to Butchie at the bar not so long ago: he spent his life compromising, especially the 20 years he spent in jail. He's done with that. Tony is done too. Getting up, he leads Silvio and Bobby out of the club, knowing that things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better.   Tony's counter-move is immediate. Another day not long after this meeting, Butch and Coco go to a construction site to pick up checks for phony jobs on the payroll... and are informed those non-existent jobs no longer exist. The foreman is apologetic, saying somebody should have called, but Silvio got in touch with him and told him to pull those jobs, there are no checks for them. Livid and also somehow surprised that Tony would reciprocate the clear insult paid to him as a Boss, Butchie and Coco take it out on the poor sap who was only the messenger. They beat the poo poo out of him and rifle through his wallet, Coco snarling that Tony Soprano now owes him $320. As always, it's the people low on the totem pole who take the hits. Meadow pays an awkward visit to her brother's room where he quickly closes his laptop before she can see what he was viewing. Trying to make small-talk, she tells him she's been watching Borat, and he complains that it wasn't fair to the people involved in the film that Sacha Baron Cohen made fun of. She doesn't buy that, she knows he loved the film when it came out, and in an effort to shake him out of his funk she moves to turn off the song playing on his stereo, a first person account of drowning. He snaps at her not to touch the stereo, and admits that he didn't take an exam he was supposed to sit then goes one further by letting her know that he's dropped out of college... again. Worried about her brother, having already confided to her parents her fears he might be suicidal, she tries her best to connect with him and let him know things are going to be okay. He says he isn't sure if he's still depressed due to the break-up with Blanca and she tells him it's okay to be sad, noting she cried every day after her and Finn broke up. But he has (or thinks has) bigger things on his mind: America is gonna bomb Iran! She's surprised by the sudden shift in conversation as he mumbles despondently that she knows he's right and that President Bush will be sure to bomb the country before he leaves office. Trying to make light of this all, she laughs that he's talking all this maudlin stuff but when she came in he was surfing for porn. For once she's wrong on that front though, as he opens her laptop and shows her... he was watching Al Jazeera. Now she's really worried, he's become obsessed with trawling the news for despair, for signs of hopelessness and how wretched everything is. She was probably too young to ever really see it for herself, but at less than 21-years-old her brother is embracing the worst fatalistic tendencies of their grandmother Livia. Just like Livia he's also only interested in complaining, not finding actual solutions. When a concerned Meadow tells him he needs to start setting goals and working his way out of his current open sore of an existence, he immediately shuts down any possibility that either things could ever get better or that he's in a position to make positive change. He can't move out because he can't hold a job. He can't be alone because he's on medication. He needs his mother's cooking because without it he could mess up his blood chemistry. There's always an excuse, a reason to simply wallow in his despair and take some horrible miserable satisfaction from that. He warns her not to tell their parents he dropped out. She reminds him about how she took some time off too and while they were upset it wasn't all THAT bad (she ran away and they thought she'd fled the country!). Of course not, he complains bitterly, she's always been their pet, their perfect child. Her response, tinged with bitterness itself, may go some way to explaining at least partly why she has always been so driven and excelled in so many ways: they're Italian and he's their son.... he will ALWAYS be more important to them than she is.   Sometime later, Meadow out of the house now, it's just AJ and Carmela at home. She's made Lincoln Log Sandwiches, the kind of treat she probably made for AJ when he was a little boy. When he comes downstairs she shows them off to him and he grumbles that he might eat later. She's heading out to see Gabriella Dante and they're going shopping, so she asks him to set the alarm if he goes out (she has high hopes). She offers him a little kiss on the cheek, doing her best to exude love for him, then heads out and he finally has the house all alone. He's been waiting for this moment, building up to it in his head, and now all alone at last with Yeats' poem and the world's troubles and that song all jumbled up in his head, he makes his move. A neat visual transition shifts from inside the kitchen staring out at the covered pool to sitting on the diving board, sneakers sitting in the water, a rope tied around his calf. In one hand he holds a cinder block, in the other a plastic bag. Tears roll down his cheeks as he pulls the bag over his face and locks it in place with a rubber hand around his neck. He dumps the cinderblock into the water and drops himself in, immediately plummeting to the bottom of a pool I never quite realized the depth of before. At the bottom of the pool, the bag pulls tight as he screams in shock at the cold and the sudden loss of air. Shocked into motion, adrenaline making him feel awake like he hasn't in some time, he scrambles back to the surface and tears the bag off of his face... but he can go no further. The rope he tied around his leg is too long to keep him from the surface, but not long enough for him to make it to the edge and pull himself out, especially not with the weight of the cinderblock holding him down. He makes frantic sweeping gestures towards the diving board, his only hope, but he cannot get purchase. Tony arrives home and enters an empty house, spotting the Lincoln Log Sandwiches and happily taking a bite. He hears AJ's voice calling, and looking outside is confused at what he sees: his son, with a plastic bag for a hat apparently, is clutching for dear life to the diving board and screaming for help. Heading outside, still more confused than concerned, he hears AJ moaning that his arms are frozen. "What the gently caress?" Tony asks, still at this point thinking his son is just doing something stupid but harmless... until his son calls out in a plaintive wail,"Dad! Help!" and then goes under the surface again. Immediately Tony is in action, launching into a sprint like he hasn't shown since two would-be assassins tried to kill him at his Uncle and Mother's bidding. He dives straight into the pool without a second thought, suit and shoes still on, grabbing his son and pulling him towards the side. But AJ cries out in anguish that his foot is stuck, and for the first time Tony seems to realize just what has happened as he looks down and sees the rope and cinderblock. "What the gently caress did you do?" he demands, but he doesn't stop moving, hauling AJ to the side and demanding he hold onto the side. Diving down deep, he hauls the cinderblock up to the surface and out of the pool, then helps AJ clamber out. Now in the aftermath, his son out of immediate danger, his rage erupts. "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!?" he roars, thumping one meaty fist on his son's back... and then AJ's pathetic, unrestrained sobs of grief and fear trigger a change in him. Suddenly AJ isn't the maddening 20-year-old who keeps disappointing him, he's his infant son who needs to be protected. Tony's rage dumps out of him in a flash and is replaced by concern and a healthy dose of his own fear. Turning AJ around and putting his head into his lap, he strokes his hear and assures him,"You're all right, baby. You're all right, baby. You're all right. You're all right." He's saying it as much to himself as to his son. Dr. Vogel walks beside a valiumed up AJ in a wheelchair through the corridors of a hospital, with Tony, Carmela and Meadow close behind. They reach a point they can't follow and can only stand and watch as their son and brother is wheeled away out of their reach. Meadow and Carmela openly cry while Tony does his best to remain strong, embracing them both, and Carmela and Meadow both do their best to assure the other they did their best to help him.   Robert Iler was often overlooked as much as AJ Soprano himself was, overshadowed so much by Jamie-Lynn Sigler/Meadow. In the last couple of seasons he came into his own as a character, and Iler stepped up a great deal performance wise from his initial role as the chubby kid trying to come to terms with his burgeoning understanding of his father's double-life. Nothing he has done in the show before this or indeed in the few episodes still to come approach this scene though. AJ's attempted suicide was THE scene for this character and he clearly understood that because he knocked his performance out of the park. The raw emotional devastation present in his howling sobs after Tony rescues him will stick with me for a long time. In the back of the Bada Bing, a boisterous game of pool turns silent when Tony arrives. He tries to stick with business at first, asking if there has been anything further from Phil (there hasn't), then decides to just confront it head on: his kid tried to kill himself, there's no denying it. Awkward, unsure how to react, they stay silent till Bobby (of course) asks the pertinent question: how is AJ doing? Tony tries to keep it gruff, grunting that AJ is a stupid gently caress... but he can't keep it up, this is his son and of course he blames himself for somehow not doing enough to keep him from this path. The others are quick to deny this, and not just because he's their Boss but because all of them understand on some level that the attempted suicide of a loved one is not normally something you can blame yourself for. They point out the pressure on kids these days, that all kids are different, and in direct contrast to the happy picture both Patsy and Carlo painted recently they point out their own boys often have real issues. Carlo's kid gets the blues, Patsy's younger son has hyper-activity, Silvio is sure it's to do with brain chemistry, Paulie blames toxins in the foods etc. While it's all a long way from their utter disdain for Eugene's suicide, the empathy on display is touching regardless of the reasoning behind it. Despite their best efforts though, when Tony comes down to the kitchen the next morning as Carmela keeps herself busy cleaning, he complains he can't shake himself out of his funk: he's depressed. It is unfortunately the exact wrong time to be telling her this, because Carmela's reaction is not an empathetic one. She snaps at him not to start with this now, she has enough on her plate without his "bullshit". He's shocked and also upset, his "bullshit"? He reminds her that this is an actual illness (does he hear the hypocrisy of his own mocking of Christopher using the same argument for his addictions?) and she snaps back that she's well away of the "Soprano curse" and that's when it really comes out. She's upset and she's frightened and she's looking to lash out at something and Tony is the closest available target. "He doesn't get it from MY side of the family," she declares, which may be the cruelest thing she has ever said to him since she told him he was going to hell way back in episode 1. Looking to lash out himself rather than wallow in his own sadness, he rips into her family too, and they start going at it about his father being TOO open with his emotions, and Tony himself being so happy-go-lucky and charming in high school but a miserable sad sack now as an adult. "It wears you down," she tells him after complaining about how he has played the depression "card" too often and now has gotten their son doing it too. He's disgusted that she would call depression a "card" and when she snaps at him that it's horrible living with somebody who only ever complains, all he can offer back is a sneering,"gently caress you!" that causes her to tear off the expensive watch he bought her and throw it in her face. She storms out of the kitchen and he picks it up and hurls it down the corridor. Much different to their explosive fight from a few episodes earlier, this fight lacks the passion of that one because it's a very different type of argument. Neither are truly angry at the other, they're just frustrated and scared and looking to vent at somebody else, and both provide an easy target for the other. The depth of their concern for AJ causes them to go too far and say truly venomous things they will both regret later, but really what both were looking for was an outlet.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 16:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:48 |
|
|
In therapy, Tony misunderstands Melfi's suggest this was a cry for help and points out that AJ did call for help... that's why Tony heard and saved him! She explains she means that the rope being too long might have been his subconscious way of ensuring he didn't die. "Could just be a loving idiot," Tony counters, acknowledging that his son hasn't always been the brightest spark. He finds himself torn though, in spite of his earlier insistence to Carmela that his depression is hereditary, he can't quite bring himself to excuse his son not being happy in spite of all his advantages. He complains that AJ collapses when faced with any obstacle, and responds to Melfi's pointed look by admitting that yes he is the same way... but then his own self-preservation instincts kick in and prevent him as always from really taking a good hard look deep into himself. He's not going to take all the blame for AJ's state, Carmela coddled him and was always there to pick him up whenever he faced the slightest inconvenience, and that is what made him into the man he is today. Melfi asks him if he's ashamed of his own son and after a long pause Tony finally admits a truth he only really verbalized once before and deeply regretted immediately: yes he is ashamed of him. He complains that suicide is the coward's way out, and Melfi counters back that whoever coined that phrase didn't understand depression.... but he does. He has no comeback for this statement, nowhere to hide. He understands that blackness, that all encompassing dread and unfathomable sadness that seems to come from nowhere, and he can't deny that on some level he understands AJ's decision.   Carmela visits AJ at mental care unit, bringing him tea and telling him that Meadow got rear-ended on Bloomfield Avenue and that's why Tony couldn't make it just now, but he will be here later. AJ clearly doesn't believe this, asking if he's still mad at him for what he did, and of course she assures him that his father was never mad at him, he loves him. AJ wants to know when he can leave and she explains as gently as she can that it is for the best if he takes a "time out", and he complains that he feels like he's back in pre-school. Carmela spots a girl sitting alone in a chair not far away, stroking her own hair to the point it has started to come out in her hands. Trying to maintain her composure in a similar fashion to Carter Chong's mother, Meadow asks if he's eaten and promises to bring him tastier food tomorrow, but he morosely informs her that this probably isn't allowed due to the bulimic girls. In New York, Coco and Albie are having drinks together when Coco - who has had a few too many - spots a familiar face. Meadow is out on one of her mystery dates, a handsome man who is busy informing her that he's gotten them front-row mezzanine tickets to a show. Coco approaches and asks if she's Tony Soprano's kid, leaning forward uncomfortably close, causing her date to have to sit back to not get knocked over. Meadow is polite if confused, does she know him? Creepily, Coco reaches out with one large finger and brushes it against the corner of her lip, noting that she has some cream there. "Be happy to add to it," he leers at her. Meadow's date has had enough, especially when Coco cracks a joke about how lucky Tony is to "tuck her in at night". Well-built himself, he's much smaller than Coco who seems amused at seeing him squared up and apparently ready to fight. Albie quickly approaches and tells Coco it's time to leave, calling him by name. Coco laughs, tells Meadow to give her best to her father, and the two depart, leaving both her and her date flummoxed. The next morning Meadow has made the mistake of telling Carmela about this unusual encounter, having expected Carmela to back her decision not to let Tony know about it. Carmela is having none of that though, somebody menaced her daughter? Tony is going to know about it. Tony comes down from upstairs with a spring in his step and a smile on his face, both of which disappear as he realizes something is off. At Carmela's prompting, Meadow recounts what happened and mentions Coco by name, and Tony's confusion quickly becomes insistent as he demands she recount exactly what was said. Sensing the quiet rage building in Tony, she shares a pointed look with Carmela and Tony spots in. Immediately masking his rage, he forces a natural looking smile and assures her he's just mad because Coco is an idiot... but a harmless one. He assures her he'll just talk to somebody to make sure he gets the message not to bother her again, and naively she and Carmela both appears satisfied with this. Indeed, Carmela actually moves to ask for more information on the mystery date, and with a sigh Meadow - already back to her default mild annoyance at her slightly lame parents, finally lets them know it's Patrick Parisi she's been dating. They're both surprised at this, but Tony also has other things on his mind and he can't keep his emotions masked much longer. Getting up, he grunts he has a meeting with Sil and leaves, Carmela calling after him not to forget they have to meet Dr. Vogel later. Mother and daughter left alone again, they talk more about Patrick. He was engaged much like she was, and just like her both their engagements ended badly. They "kinda hooked up" at the Cleaver premiere and have been getting progressively more serious ever since, but she hasn't told them because she knows neither she nor Tony ever liked him. Carmela insists that wasn't true but can't come up with with a plausible alternative to why they ever treated him like they did (unseen by us the viewer, this is Patrick's first appearance). With a mixture of judgement and amusement she guesses that all those times she thought Meadow was staying with her friend Kimmie in the city she was actually staying at Patrick's, and Meadow admits that sometimes she was. But there's something else too... she's decided to give up Medical School. This does shock Carmela far more than the Patrick news, especially Meadow's explanation that it's because she found it too hard. When Meadow says she's decided to go with Law instead, Carmela finds herself torn. On the one hand, a lawyer is still a successful and respected profession where you can make a lot of money (and therefore have worth in Carmela's eyes) but on the other it's linked even tangentially to Tony's profession, plus it appears a large part of Meadow's decision is based on Patrick being so interested in Law himself in much the same way Finn's passion for dentistry made her want to be a doctor. Speaking of doctors, Melfi meets with Elliot Kupferberg for her latest therapy session. The subject this session is that the daughter of her latest boyfriend resents her, understandably of course, and she jokes about how Elliot's "favorite patient" would say she should put her foot up her rear end. Elliot is confused, he has a patient who says that? Patiently she explains that she means his favorite patient of hers, and since SHE is the one who brought him up Elliot feels safe to note that he hasn't seen Tony in the paper much lately. Amused she points out how much of a thrill he gets from reading about the mob, and he openly admits this is true and that it probably stems from his father being such a fan of The Untouchables. But being on this subject reminds him of a recent encounter with a colleague who works on staff at Riker's Island. They discussed the treatment of sociopaths, and a recent study (a real life one that actually came out decades ago) that indicated that talk therapy is actually worse than useless for sociopaths. If anything, it helps them sharpen their skills as conmen, to validate their bad behavior and to excuse their criminality. Melfi hears this in silence, too smart not to see where Elliot is going and also too skilled an observer not to note the little hint of a smirk playing around his lips as he just so happens to bring this up unbidden. He insists he isn't, then points out data showed sociopaths in therapy actually had higher re-conviction rates than those that didn't, and this time there is no hiding his smile even behind the water bottle he chugs on while carefully watching her all the while. She saw right through his little game, but it doesn't change the fact that a seed has been planted.   At a small restaurant in New York, Coco is giving instructions to a waiter when Tony comes by for that little chat he mentioned to Meadow. Gripping a pistol tight in one hand, Tony has no intention of shooting Coco, instead he approaches and as he turns around Tony smashes him right in the face with it, then again as he follows him down to the ground. Butchie, sitting at a nearby table having a meal, leaps to his feet with an angry demand that Tony stop.... until Tony turns around and points the gun at him. Suddenly tough guy "real man's man" Butchie who thought he was intimidating him at the hospital when they first met is (understandably) cowering away, putting his hands up, quietly telling Tony to take it easy. Turning his attention back to the moaning, bloody Coco, Tony continues to pistol whip him, hissing,"My loving daughter, you motherfucker, my loving daughter!" He james the pistol into Coco's mouth and Butchie, trying once again to exhibit some authority, shouts out that he's making a big mistake. Tony immediately whirls on him again, pistol drawn, pure rage in his eyes, using every ounce of control he has not to pull the trigger. "How about I put a bullet in your loving head, huh?" he asks, and once again Butchie is cowering back, hands up, eyes lowered, submissive and careful to make no sudden moves. Satisfied that Butchie is suitably cowed, Tony grabs Coco by one arm and drags him screaming to the wall... and jams his open mouth against the edge of the skirting board. "Don't do it!" demands Butchie, and Tony turns and sneers at him in complete disregard, then turns back and stomps down on the back of Coco's head. Butchie winces, the staff can only watch in horror, and Coco's teeth spill across the floor in a bloody mess. Turning his attention back to Butchie, Tony asks him if he wants some, and the ultra-confident idiot who stood in his way once before and smirked that they had to stop meeting like this is nowhere to be seen. Butchie just keeps his head down and says something, and Tony leaves without looking back. The brutality of the act is understandable if not something that can be condoned. Coco crossed one of those largely imaginary lines of conduct in the mob by harassing Meadow the way he did, and Tony's reaction was exactly the same as what almost any of these men would have done in his position. But, as always, the temporary fleeting satisfaction of acting for immediate gratification is only going to lead to further troubles down the track for Tony. He just drove from his territory into Phil's and savagely beat one of Phil's top guys.... in the middle of an already escalating tense situation between the two Families. And for all Phil's big talk about how family is everything, there's no way he won't answer this "insult" back, even in the best of circumstances which these decidedly are not.   Vogel holds a family session for AJ with Carmela and Tony, who still managed to make the meeting time as promised. It's not going well, or perhaps it's good that they're all venting a fair bit of pent-up anger even with Carmela trying to be peacemaker but also constantly looking to Vogel for validation. Vogel doesn't offer any, he just lets them get it out of their system, AJ complaining about Tony calling him a mama's boy but also blasting Carmela for calling him an animal at his Confirmation. She insists she never said that and he reminds her that she called him that for smoking marijuana, and she again turns to Vogel for support as she points out he was smoking illegal drugs. Of course, AJ isn't just venting but following a long-established pattern of trying to find excuses or lies to cover up getting caught doing something bad. So he smoked marijuana at his Confirmation... did it ever occur to them he was self-medicating!?! Or the time in second grade she made him wear a dorky raincoat and he got beat up because of it? A surprising aspect of AJ is becoming clearer as this session continues, one that neither Tony or Carmela quite seem to grasp: their son listened to them. In spite of all signs to the contrary, all the frustrating times it felt like they were banging their heads against a brick wall... he was absorbing EVERYTHING going on around him. The trouble is, he wasn't expressing anything, simply bottling up in resentment and self-pity all the negative things they told him. As AJ and Carmela thrash it out, Tony becomes distracted as he notices something in the cuff of one pants-leg... it's one of Coco's teeth. Alarmed, he surreptitiously lifts his leg to retrieve it unseen. The session continues, Tony mostly passive after his initial attacks, Carmela also taking the opportunity to vent about her own long bottled up resentments, including the poetry she believes was unhealthy to teach students, looking for something else to blame for AJ's attempted suicide. But as all these things get dredged up, something key has been avoided or forgotten, and it is Vogel who finally speaks to ask AJ to repeat what he told him in an earlier session. AJ does so, and this truly perks up Tony's attention, because - of course - it's Livia. AJ drank in everything he was told by loved ones even if he didn't appear to be listening. This included Livia Soprano, the grandmother he mostly tolerated as an irregular necessity of life. "What'd she say?" Tony asks quietly, resigned even after all these years for the shadow of his mother to still be falling over them all. AJ tells them that Livia told him life was a big nothing, that you die alone in your own arms because your friends and family abandon you. Carmela is horrified and Tony is revolted, because she's done it again. Dead for years, Livia - not a biological Soprano, mind - and her wretched vitality continues to infect his life. When AJ speaks about how Livia could barely breathe or speak but found the power to sit up to impart this knowledge, he fails to understand or remember that on that particular day she seemed to grow in power and energy as she warmed up to her favorite subject: the unfairness and misery of a cruel world. Where AJ found a sick fascination with dark and disturbing stories which eventually lead to his attempted suicide, Livia would revel in them. She took a sick glee in stories of babies drowning. Tony would get depressed and fixate on similar stories (as seen in Soprano Home Movies) and AJ... well AJ nearly became one of those drowned babies himself. "When was this?" Carmela asks, and AJ explains it was when she was in the nursing home. The intense scene ends on a slightly comedic note at least, as Tony slaps one hand over his face, long past the point he can work up the energy to complain,"It was a Retirement Community!"  At Satriale's, Tony is unsure quite how to respond to a beaming Patsy pointing out they could both soon be grandfathers themselves. Tony had Patsy's twin brother murdered, Patsy knew it and contemplated killing Tony (or himself, in that same pool as AJ tried) but in the end submitted and became a loyal soldier and trusted aide to his brother's murderer. Now their children are dating and he's talking about them becoming literal family. It's all a bit much to take in. Carlo informs Tony that Little Carmine has arrived to see him, so he gives Patsy a hug and sends him on his way, though not before Patsy - clearly a believer in counting his chickens before the hatch - suggesting both families get together for dinner soon. Once he's gone, Little Carmine offers his support if he needs anything regarding AJ, and points out his own child trouble like when his Alexandra had anorexia. Tony is surprised, she tried to commit suicide? Oh no, nothing like that and she's perfectly fine now, in fact she didn't really even have serious problems. Tony is confused as to what the hell the point of Little Carmine's story was and decides to just move on to the more unpleasant task of why he is here: Coco. "You're at the precipice, Tony," warns Little Carmine,"Of an enormous crossroad." Apparently Phil has already considered his counter-move in the next escalation of this pissing contest, and it involves a plumbing strike to shut down the new mall project. Tony considers this and figures gently caress it, he can eat that loss... and Little Carmine points out that easy for him to say but HE has the scaffolding contract! But he insists that's not the reason he's trying to broker a peace, even if he agrees that Tony's rage was justified when Coco dragged Meadow into this. Little Carmine does understand that, but he also understands it called for a beating and not near-death, Coco is alive but it could have easily gone different. Tony snaps bac that he should have killed him and everybody would have supported him if he had, and Little Carmine sees the writing on the wall and decides not to get in Tony's way, offering back that maybe simply curbstomping Coco and shattering all his teeth over the floor was the "prudent" move after all. Tony, of course, knows better and says as much himself now that he's spent his fury. He DID go too far and he knows it. Little Carmine sees this as a good sign, and makes the suggestion he came to make in the first place: Tony has lost any leeway he had to try and force Phil's hand to a compromise, so he has to accept this defeat and go to Phil now and give him what he wants. Tony smashes a cup on the table to the floor in another burst of immediate rage, but it's because he knows Little Carmine is right: he has to eat humble pie on this one. In therapy, Tony complains that he doesn't understand why life keeps making GBS threads on him since he's a good guy... basically. Melfi, the seed in her head still effectively buried, encourages him to elaborate. He explains there is a yin and yang to life and the fact he loves his family should somehow balance out the bad things he has done, so why is he being punished? He decides to let her know about taking peyote, and she doesn't judge him, just motions to him to continue and let him explain for himself why. He claims it was just curiosity, and he was let down by the lack of "Roger Corman poo poo" in his trip... but he did feel like he reached some kind of understanding about life. Again mistaking his first-time trip on hallucinogens as a spiritual epiphany of sorts, he explains that - in contrast to his mother's bleak outlook - he saw for "certain" that there is more to existence than "this", what we see and experience is not the be-all and end-all of what is. He doesn't know how to put it better than that and isn't going to pretend he does, but part of that understanding was the realization that mothers are like buses: they're on their own trip and they carry you part of the way and then let you off... but people keep trying to get back on anyway. Is he talking about AJ's inability to break away from the safety of Carmela? His own desperate desire to have a loving relationship with his monster of a mother? Both? In any case, Melfi notes that this is rather insightful of him (I would like to think most people realize at a younger age that they have only been a part of their parent's lives) and he sarcastically remarks she shouldn't be so surprised. He ponders his own philosophy and admits that a frustrating part of life is that you have these kind of thoughts and you almost grab them and then.... pfft, they're gone. Melfi doesn't know it because they never met, but Tony's quick dismissive gesture as he says this strongly echoes his mother's own dismissive waves.   Having swallowed his pride, Tony makes good on his promise to accompany Little Carmine to Phil's house for the uncomfortable process of capitulating entirely to his fellow Boss' demands. But when they arrive at the house, it's Butchie who answers and - his arrogance restored from the safety of the interior of the house - sneers that Phil isn't accepting visitors. Little Carmine is baffled, this isn't an unexpected call, he's brokered this meeting and arrangements have been made. Tony though can see exactly what this is, smirking at the powerplay. Little Carmine is offended though, complaining they came all this way AND brought a peace offering: a trailer full of power drills. "We don't want your loving drills!" laughs Butchie with contempt, a tough guy once again now that he feels safe. Tony, disinterested in putting up with this farce any longer, tells Carmine they're going. They walk away, but as they do a voice calls out from an upstairs window, Phil Leotardo telling the "cocksucker" to go back to New Jersey. They turn back around and Phil is there in the upstairs window, but well back from the window and behind shades (maybe a matter of actor availability, maybe a sign of Phil not being so tough himself divorced from his place of power at Averna Social Club) so he can barely be seen. Little Carmine attempts a desperate effort to salvage something from this, but Phil is having none of it, insisting that cooler heads prevailed after he agreed to the meeting. Tony offers no reply, doesn't shout insults back or try to negotiate, he knows this is pointless. Phil disappears further back into the house and a baffled Carmine says he doesn't understand why Phil is like this. Tony probably suspects, pride can be a horrible thing after all, but there's nothing that can be done about it now and surprisingly things are now on a slightly more even footing again. After all, he came in good faith with a gift and the intention to capitulate, and was turned away despite an agreement to meet. The only thing that has been achieved from this meeting is that Tony know longer needs to feel like he has no choice but to kowtow. AJ sits in the common room watching a bizarre commercial about sleeping pills. As he sits watching, Tony comes up in the elevator with a pizza, the same gift he brought his son once before after telling him how embarassed he was to have him as an heir. He's informed that there is no food in the unit and quietly leaves it behind, signs in and follows the nurse through the security doors. AJ steps out into the corridor to meet him, and after a quiet moment staring at each other, father and son walk on together. Livia Soprano said in the end your friends and family abandon you and you die in your own arms, and she did die alone and largely unmourned. Tony saved his son though, and will do everything in his power to keep him alive. There's still room on this bus to ride.  Season 6: Soprano Home Movies | Stage 5 | Remember When | Chasing It | Walk Like a Man | Kennedy and Heidi | The Second Coming | The Blue Comet | Made in America | The Final Scene Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6.1 | Season 6.2 Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 12:08 on May 17, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 16:01
|
|