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Bip Roberts posted:Also I just looked it up and the lake house location was Roy Scheider's house on Lake Oscawana (about an hour north of NYC). I hope his neighbours played shark pranks on him every summer, three yellow barrels floating just off the dock.
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Mar 14, 2020 17:27
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Bip Roberts posted:I like the parallels between the Tony - Bobby fight and the Tony - Ralphie fight. Both were started over stupid poo poo and involve two hippos of men grappling with each other. It really raises the stakes if tony is going to choke our bobby right there in the lake house. Ralphie killed a girl around meadow's age and a quasi pet, I don't think there were any comparable emotional stakes in the lake house fight.
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Mar 14, 2020 18:17
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One of my favorite episodes, mostly because of the little things. The characters and actors do a great job with an excellent script all trying to say things they actually don't want to say as they dance around their real feelings. I think all of the them do tremendous work acting with their bodies and faces too. It's always been a strong suit of the show but it really shines here how much they emote their true feelings without speaking. They also do a great job of acting drunk; something a lot of actors overdo. Little stuff, man. The clanking of the bottles after a hard night of drinking...we've all been there. All the little passive aggressive comments with deeper meaning brushed off with the "I was joking" excuse. Great write up. The loving hotel stuck to Tony's face is not only hilarious but I think is also a deliberate call back to the Kevin Finnerty hotel stay he took in the coma. Janice is Janice as usual but has perfected her game a lot, pretending to be enlightened while mostly virtue signaling but also admittedly the best of all of them here at de-escalating - at least in any situation that doesn't involve her kid. Was she talking about Ritchie or Ralph in that ex boyfriend story? I always took it as Ralph until I red the recap. Carmella does her usual compartmentalization and selective memory thing like the hypocrite she is. I highly doubt that Bobby was in danger of getting whacked on the "golf outing" though. I can't picture Tony returning by himself and trying to explain that Bobby went into the WPP or got carjacked by drug dealers. I guess the tension was exclusive to the wives knowing what's what and expressing their own fears but, as a viewer, I was never worried about Bobby's immediate safety. Tony making him murder that guy was top notch revenge and much worse than anything else he could do physically. The conversation in the boat... IS 100% foreshadowing. I've looked at this season a lot through Chase's lens of saying that "it's all there" and I don't think it's a coincidence that Bobby describes Tony's death in the first episode of the final season. Also, in The Blue Comet episode, Tony lays down on his mattress (like a morgue slab) and stares at the door with the assault rifle that Bobby gives him. It IS all there and I'm gonna be the "Tony died" guy for the rest of these summaries if no one minds.
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Mar 14, 2020 21:12
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Oh yeah, I never felt at any point that Tony was gonna kill Bobby on that drive, but Carmela and Janice's (unspoken) fear was very real for them personally, even if they were both internally trying to assure themselves that he wouldn't do it. BiggerBoat posted:I'm gonna be the "Tony died" guy for the rest of these summaries if no one minds. All I ask is that when we get to Made in America, we can discuss that episode itself without letting the final scene completely dominate things (which is why I've listed it as a separate entry on the episode list). It's a great episode and a ton of it never gets discussed or covered because everybody focuses so much (understandably) on the final scene.
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Mar 14, 2020 21:48
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Jerusalem posted:Oh yeah, I never felt at any point that Tony was gonna kill Bobby on that drive, but Carmela and Janice's (unspoken) fear was very real for them personally, even if they were both internally trying to assure themselves that he wouldn't do it. I don't see how either of them could honestly think that was possible though, even knowing Tony, what he's capable of and completely understanding what happened the night before. I mean...Tony comes home and Bobby's not with him then, well...wtf is he going to tell them? There's not a made up excuse in the world that would explain it. I get why they were nervous but killing Bobby basically destroys the entire family. At least the domestic side of it. And don't worry. I won't gently caress up your discussion with my rather conclusive theory but I will point out tells and symbols that support it as we go along. You're putting in a lot of fantastic effort for such a low traffic thread and I appreciate it and want to keep the discussion going.
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Mar 14, 2020 22:06
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It's one of those things where you KNOW it isn't going to happen, you KNOW that it would be ridiculous and make no sense, you KNOW that both guys are gonna come back just fine.... but you're still utterly terrified it's going to happen anyway. It doesn't make any sense, but that's the way people's minds just work sometimes. Seeing the two run out to eagerly greet their men is not the type of thing either ever does, but even if they're not consciously aware of why, they're both just incredibly happy/relieved to see them both still alive and well.
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Mar 14, 2020 22:37
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Related to Bobby getting his button, is there anyone who has proposed/noticed the s5-6 throughline of white shoes? I noticed it awhile back and was going to do a writeup (since I've never seen it anywhere) but assumed it was old hat given the age of the series and my unwillingness to comb through *shudder* reddit. Just didn't want to till sowed ground.
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Mar 14, 2020 23:32
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Outside of a scene in the next episode between Ginny and Johnny, I never noticed anything like that so I would love to read your thoughts on the throughline!
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Mar 14, 2020 23:48
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Awesome, thanks-- it's been brewing for a couple years and I'll do a thing on it this evening.
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Mar 15, 2020 00:20
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Alright, so I’ve noticed that there’s a ‘white shoes’ motif in the later seasons of the Sopranos, and specifically the second half of S6. There seems to be a link between white shoes and a character’s self-identification of their soul, perhaps through the lens of how qualitatively prepared they are for their own death and the afterlife. This may have been explored elsewhere but this is what I’ve personally found/noticed so far. Like most other theories about little recurring objects or physical themes in pop culture works it’s pretty nebulous and fuzzy around the edges. Thankfully, with such a large amount of richly-staged material, there are many examples to track down and cobble together. Conversely, though, the sheer amount of screentime creates a lot of ‘sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’ false positives (both types of indicators are included below). I’ve found a few notable representations but it’s certainly not meant to be an exhaustive list. If nothing else it will motivate me to do yet another series watchthrough and keep an eye out. Feel free to pitch in anything else you may have noticed, or take a huge poo poo on any part you like. Go nuts. S6.13, ‘Soprano Home Movies’. Bobby’s first hit takes place in a laundromat. As an establishing shot, a pair of white shoes is shown tumbling in a dryer. Whose shoes are they? They do not belong to the man Bobby is here to kill, since he hasn’t opened his laundry bag yet. Bobby’s first bullet passes through his target’s torso and comes to rest inside the dryer itself. There’s a moment of confused realization where Bobby can’t break his gaze away from what’s now irrevocably different— the shot holds on the tumbling shoes, Bobby’s shoes, the simple soul of a gentle giant, now tarnished behind shattered, blood-spattered glass, as the bullet tumbles and clangs pointedly within the still-running dryer.  S6.14, 'Stage 5'. Scene opens with Ginny cleaning Johnny’s white shoes next to his hospice care bed. She says, “Here, sweetie; nice and clean, just how you like them”, and the camera lingers on her placing them gently on the floor next to his bed. This is the last thing he understands/responds to. He then loses focus, tries to talk to his dead mother, and passes.  S6.15, ‘Remember When’. Paulie and Tony drive to Florida to wait out some heat after the decades-old body of a bookie is found. Tony has lingering feelings that Paulie’s loyalty has never been really tested, and is concerned about how much he talks. It’s implied that Tony realizes Paulie’s responsibility for the leaking of the joke about Ginny’s mole. Beansie Gaeta, in a one-on-one with Tony, says that Paulie’s a ‘stand-up guy’, to which Tony immediately counters that he’s sick of ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’. Beansie also drops a line about how a single man like Paulie can go a little crazy without a wife and kids to travel through life with. When packing for the trip at the beginning, Paulie is seen taking three identical pairs of white shoes out of his closet for the trip. There is a shot to specifically show how he leaves one sun-kissed pair-- his pair-- behind. Do all the pairs he took with him represent souls? If so, are the three pairs he does take representative of emotional baggage of an imagined wife and kids? If people only have their one pair of shoes/soul, did him leaving that one pair behind tie in with Tony building suspicion of quite whack-able reasons and yet letting Paulie remain untouched?   S6.20, ‘The Blue Comet’. Silvio garrotes Burt Gervasi in his home, and a panning shot specifically highlights Burt’s white shoes as Silvio’s black shoes walk out of frame in the background. Burt had recently proposed to Silvio an opportunistic flip to the Lupertazzi side of things in which Burt would be hailed as a diplomat, and Silvio would be Tony's likely successor. Having committed himself fully and internalizing a new alignment of his loyalties, Burt was proudly wearing his white shoes already when Silvio arrived to ostensibly discuss next steps for their plan.  Looser correlations/earlier stuff (I'm sure there's more): Paulie’s rant about dirty shoes. “…(E)ven if you don’t touch the body, bacteria and viruses migrate from the sole, up.” S3.X(?): When Matt Bevilacqua is killed, he pisses himself while wearing only one white shoe, which is obviously scuffed and soiled.  At the end of S4, Johnny Sack, Carmine, and Little Carmine are golfing to determine what happens as a final say on the Esplanade stuff. Carmine decides to give a bit of leniency to Tony's 'glorified crew'. Johnny (black shoes) and Carmine (white shoes) are in opposition originally, and Little Carmine (half black, half white shoes) is acting the diplomat between them. This is just before Carmine's unseen stroke (his funeral was in S5.1).  E: no spell good Pissed Ape Sexist fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Mar 15, 2020 |
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Mar 15, 2020 21:31
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That was really interesting, thanks! The great thing about stuff like this is that so much of it is open to interpretation, and by the show never bringing attention to it (if it was deliberate at all) it leaves the audience free to consider any manner of theories. It's one of those things where now that you've pointed out all the white shoes, it's kinda crazy to realize how many times you see them in the show. Oddly enough though, all I can think about right now is Jon Favreau's nervous suggestion of how to turn Christopher's terrible "signature" shoes in his first script into a trigger for the lead character's father to realize his son is a murderer 
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Mar 16, 2020 00:15
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BiggerBoat posted:One of my favorite episodes, mostly because of the little things. The characters and actors do a great job with an excellent script all trying to say things they actually don't want to say as they dance around their real feelings. I think all of the them do tremendous work acting with their bodies and faces too. It's always been a strong suit of the show but it really shines here how much they emote their true feelings without speaking. They also do a great job of acting drunk; something a lot of actors overdo. Man, I cannot agree with this enough. The interpersonal relations in this show, especially among the little-f family, have always blown me away. There is something just so incredibly authentic to them... it's great writing, but even more than that every actor knocks it out of the park, every time. The scenes at the guest house in this episode are some of the best of those, in a long list of great ones. There is so much said just with looks, body language, etc. I have never seen a show that has so many scenes where I can "see" what a character is thinking, rather than being told what they're thinking through dialogue. Also I am 100% with you on the foreshadowing. Originally, watching the last couple of seasons at a rate of one episode per week with a ten-month break in between 6a and 6b, I think there were a lot of subtle things that I missed or failed to put together. The first time I marathoned the series after I had it on DVD though, I thought there were a ton of things that foreshadowed that final scene.
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Mar 16, 2020 01:21
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The shoes Richie Aprile brings Junior from the Scatino bustout are white.
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Mar 16, 2020 01:39
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Also from this episode, I love the irony of Bobby's reaction to the Quebecois story: "Take a child away from their mother? What kind of person does such a thing?!?" ...when a couple of days later, he's taking the child's father away, permanently. About the white shoes, I did notice this in a couple of episodes recently on a rewatch. But I still didn't catch just how many times we see white shoes until I read these examples. Interesting.
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Mar 16, 2020 02:08
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Half of the lake house shots were on a replica sound stage. Gandolfini got sick during filming on location, so they had to finish the shots 6 months later on a set that cost $250k. This episode is special to me since its the only one I watched as it aired. I was in hospital, and as soon as I got home I rented out the Season 1 DVDs and started watching from the beginning. I even made fanart of it. 
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Mar 16, 2020 03:11
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This is fantastic. Trying to figure out which character I'd want to play. Going with "Janice" Or maybe AJ since you'd just automatically win without having to fight
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Mar 16, 2020 11:06
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BiggerBoat posted:This is fantastic. Trying to figure out which character I'd want to play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0n73UtDsGM&t=40s
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Mar 16, 2020 11:25
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"FINISH HER...!" We've already seen Jan's fatality move
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Mar 16, 2020 11:44
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Paulie's super is throwing a chair
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Mar 16, 2020 14:36
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They should make it like that old WWF WrestleMania game, so when you hit Ginny Sack, Devil Dogs and butter brickle fly out of her.
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Mar 16, 2020 15:12
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Now I'm just thinking of an 16 bit Melfie who fights with a JoJo style ghost of Freud for all her moves.
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Mar 16, 2020 16:26
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I can't sing Under The Boardwalk without changing the lyrics to stuff about schlongs in Janice's mouth. Forever ruined? Or improved?
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Mar 18, 2020 09:55
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What color shoes was Eugene wearing when he hung himself?
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Mar 18, 2020 11:59
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Black I think. Will get Stage 5 done in the next day or so, sorry for the delay, things have been busy and so far I'm still not working remote from home.
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Mar 18, 2020 12:52
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BiggerBoat posted:What color shoes was Eugene wearing when he hung himself? They're black, but he wasn't exactly at peace with his choices when he went out. I always forget how much of a tight squeeze the poor doofus was in.
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Mar 18, 2020 13:25
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I love all the weird injokes that come out of great Sopranos dialogue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX90ZoHltbA
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Mar 18, 2020 16:07
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Stage 5 is the one I have been waiting for the most since you've started these writeups. It's a top tier episode.
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Mar 20, 2020 02:28
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Season 6, Episode 14 - Stage 5Phil Leotardo posted:No more, Butchie. No more of this. Mob Boss Sally Boy walks nervously through the chop shop, calling for Frankie. He finds him... strung up with his guts hanging out, the latest in a series of gruesome murders. Behind the stunned Sally Boy, a car lowers to the ground and Michael rolls out of the trunk, the cleaver attached to his stump banging on the metal as he greets his former Boss. Sally Boy tries to keep his cool, reminding Michael that as Boss, "what's mine is mine, what's yours is mine", but that just leads Michael to remind him that the cleaver is his too, and he's going to give it to him now! As he slams the blade into Sally Boy's oddly fake-looking head, the camera pans to the windscreen of a nearby car. Dangling down are a crucifix and a cutesy key-chain (the same type that Furio gave to AJ as a gift from Italy), and the movie fades to black. It's the latest edit of Cleaver, watched with pleasure by Christopher and Little Carmine as well as two key investors in Carlo and Larry Boy... oh yes and also the director, the never before seen Morgan Yam who is clearly reveling in getting to have made a movie even if it came with mob money attached. Christopher raves about Daniel Baldwin who plays Sally Boy, declaring he took Ben Kingsley to acting school with his performance (oh Chrissy) but also showing reluctance at the others thinking they could use one more murder scene... that means two more shoot days and THAT means more money from Tony. But it could mean they could get the film - which Larry Boy thinks might out-profit their porn releases - into theaters for even a "bullshit theatrical" release, which surely all filmmakers dream of. Morgan points out that The Cleaver could kill one of the strippers at the strip club, giving no reason for why the revenge-obsessed Michael would do this to some random woman, and it's Little Carmine who surprisingly comes up with an excuse, albeit a hackneyed one: maybe the stripper happened to be Sally Boy's ex-mistress!?! In any case, a call from Tony brings Christopher back down to earth. More interested in picking out boxes of cereal down in the garage, he doesn't want to come in to watch ADR, he doesn't care that the Eldridge Cleaver Estate wants an injunction on the title etc. All he wants is to know if Christopher has spoken to the distributor of air mattresses they're trying to do a deal with before the holiday weekend comes and everybody heading to the beaches. After hanging up, Christopher complains to the others that Tony won't be coming because he finds production boring, and Larry Boy admits that to his surprise... it kinda is!   John Sacrimoni stares with a mixture of anger and jealousy at a picture of a man enjoying time with his family. Along with two US Marshals, he's paid for his own travel to Cleveland and the office of Dr. Uri Rosen, an expert in his field... which unfortunately for Johnny Sack is cancer. Johnny does not look good, and it's not just because he's wearing an orange prison jumpsuit rather than expensive tailored clothes. Rosen's diagnosis doesn't help, the tumors have resisted all the treatments and spread throughout his entire body... including the brain. Johnny listens blank-faced as Rosen tells him that his options for treatment are now so limited that Rosen doesn't recommend any at all: he has stage 4 small-cell carcinoma of the lungs, and as Johnny correctly figures out: there is no stage 5. Doing an admirable job of maintaining his cool even after Rosen admits he is looking at perhaps 3 months left to live, Johnny stands, shakes his hand and thanks him for his candor. Being driven back to the U.S Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri he admits to one of the Marshals that he finds it ironic that once in prison he gave up smoking after 38 years, started eating a healthy diet and got regular exercise... and for what? All the Marshall can offer is that it was the right thing to do at the time, regardless of what he's now facing. Johnny took the deal with the hopes of getting out still young enough to enjoy spending time with his grandchildren, he gave an allocution admitting something he was NEVER supposed to admit in order to get that deal... and now he's got a 3-month death sentence anyway. Inside the Medical Center, wearing a hospital gown and hooked up to an oxygen tank, he's visited by Ginny and Allegra. Initially he tries to ignore their questions as to what the doctor said to ask after them, but finally he can't put it off any longer. Struggling to maintain his composure, he admits he is very, very sick, and both break down sobbing. He's quick to comfort Ginny, hugging her and telling her he loves her, then doing the same for his daughter. Both times however he is given a stark reminder of his current status and how powerless he now is, as a bored guard standing nearby flatly warns them that physical contact is prohibited. Biting his tongue, not wanting to waste a precious second in a stand-off that can only end badly for him, he has no choice but to let it go. He asks them to visit with him tomorrow when they'll have more time, and once they're gone to wheels his oxygen tank over to another prisoner who is smoking as he watches television. He asks to bum a cigarette and wordlessly the other prisoner gives him one and his own to light it with. Johnny, pulling the tube from his nose, takes a deep, satisfying drag of the cigarette... after all, at this point, what more harm can it possibly do? The Sopranos are at the dinner table, joined by Blanca and Hector, where the subject of conversation is the premiere of Cleaver. Carmela is determined that everybody needs to dress up, it's a premiere! Plus they'll be having an after-party at a rooftop bar in the meatpacking district which is VERY chic! Tony cracks a bad-taste joke which makes AJ laugh, and Blanca casts her boyfriend a dirty look in response. The subject moves on from the premiere to the Christening of Christopher and Kelli's baby, with both Meadow and Carmela awwwwwing happily over the idea of Kelli converting her wedding dress into an outfit for the baby. But everything comes crashing to a halt when Tony suddenly lets out a mild burp and thumps his chest uncomfortably. All eyes lock onto him, Carmela the first to ask if he is okay. He doesn't respond, just quietly takes a drink, clearly not liking everybody treating every single sign of heartburn as portent of doom. It's been months since his miraculous full recovery from being shot, but the family understandably fears any indication that his body - which took a severe shock - might be shutting down. Trying to turn the conversation back to normal, AJ asks Meadow if she'll bring a date to the premiere, which is how we learn that her reckless engagement to Finn has collapsed. She complains she can't find a normal guy (Blanca not-too-quietly commiserates) and shuts down any attempt to mention Finn. AJ, again trying to lighten the mood, laughs that he is looking forward to hanging out with celebs at the after-party, and Blanca immediately snaps at him: does he think he's going to sleep with Paris Hilton? Shocked, he says of course not, but she's still pissed, fussing over Hector to eat his noodles (he doesn't like or want them) and then leaving the table. Confused, AJ asks where she is going and she snaps back angrily that she's going to the bathroom. It seems the domestic bliss in the mansion they enjoyed last episode while Tony and Carmela were out of town is well over, but when Carmela asks him if they've had a fight, he admits with the simple ignorance of far too many boyfriends before him that he doesn't actually know if they have or not!   Johnny Sack is in his hospital bed as Doctor Gupte does the rounds, an orderly mopping the floor behind him. Gupte checks on the patient in the bed beside Johnny and tells the nurse they'll continue with Ceftin for his treatment, but as he leaves the orderly speaks up to point out the patient should be on Heparin. Gupte warns him that he told him - Warren - before not to interfere and leaves the room, and Warren grumpily moves over to Johnny's bed and begins changing his sheets, expertly doing so around Johnny, moving him at appropriate times. Johnny of course is interested, why did he try and tell the "Gunga Din" what to do? It turns out that Warren is Dr. Warren Feldman (played by Sydney Pollack!), who was once an oncologist who specialized in liver cancer. Now he is a fellow-prisoner, admitting openly that he killed his wife for cheating on him, though he also admits he was abusing cocaine and alcohol at the time so it was only a suspicion of infidelity. Unfortunately(er) for him, he had no idea her Aunt was ALSO in the house, so he killed her too, and got spotted by the mailman so hell he killed him as well... might as well fully commit, right? Johnny's explanation for why he is there is less open, simply stating that he was accused of being part of "a certain Italian-American subculture". But Feldman laughs, he didn't mean what crime... he knows who Johnny Sack is (probably everybody there does). No he means what illness has him in the medical center? When he hears he has lung cancer, he asks about the usual treatments and then asks if he can look at his chart. What he sees isn't pleasant, though he hides it by commenting on Rosen instead and noting he's not quite the great messiah some make him out to be. He expresses surprise to learn that Rosen gave him only three months to live, saying that he should have a window of 1-3 years. Johnny is confused, the metastasis is supposed to be what is killing him so quickly, but Feldman assures him confidently that the specific medications he's taken in conjunction with radiation treatments would have slowed (though not stopped, he never says that) Johnny's cancer to a crawl. Why then would Rosen say 3 months? Feldman jokes that if you say 3 months and a patient lives a year, it makes the doctor look like a hero. He says a fond good night and leaves, and Johnny - so resigned to a quick and inevitable death - is left with a dangerous emotion fluttering up from deep within him: hope. Tony lumbers down the driveway to collect his paper, and is unnerved when a waiting car suddenly turns the corner and comes towards him. Recognizing the make of the car and those inside it, he flinches back and curses, caught between his desire to hold his ground to keep his dignity and wanting to make a run for it. It's Special Agents Harris and Goddard, but they're not here to serve a warrant or put him in cuffs (perhaps on the lovely gun charge the FBI took from Essex County) but simply to repeat an offer they've made before... one they also asked Christopher to pass on to him that he clearly never did. They're still on the Joint Terror Task Force, they know Tony is involved with Port Newark, and their concern is that terrorists get their funding by taking part in illicit activities. So once again they're asking him to bring them - no questions asked - anything he happens to see or hear about involving Middle Easterners, Pakistanis etc. Tony can't help but smile, they're basically asking him to violate every rule he has and to be a snitch... but the smile drops when Goddard quietly notes that Meadow takes Premed classes in New York and asks if she uses the tunnels to get there. The implication is clear: what if you say nothing and terrorists bomb the tunnels into New York and kill thousands... including your daughter? Tony turns without a word and heads back up the driveway, as they call after him that they just want him to keep their offer in mind. Back inside, Tony bitterly complains to a confused Carmela that it's been too dangerous for years for him to have to go down the driveway to collect the paper. From now on, their maid has to bring the paper up with her when she arrives in the morning! Of course he refuses to explain WHY it is dangerous or why he is angry, and Carmela knows him well enough by now to just shrug and not push back against him being unreasonable.   The night of the Premiere comes at last. Little Carmine welcomes a packed theater, cracks a few jokes, gets out a few trademark malapropisms and then introduces two of the fellow "parents" of the film: Christopher and Morgan. J.T Dolan watches from the audience with his girlfriend as Christopher speaks with heartfelt gratitude of the silent man behind all this who deserves credit at last... Tony Soprano! He also thanks the other investors, his wife Kelli and their new baby, and after a quick check with Little Carmine reminds everybody to turn their cellphones off and enjoy the movie. As he and Little Carmine leave, Morgan steps up with some notes to also say his thanks... after all, he is the director... and the microphone is pulled out from in front of him and the lights go down, leaving him startled, confused, and forgotten. After all, he's only the director! The movie progresses, and a very familiar scene in which Sally Boy - in boxers, undershirt and bathrobe - angrily dresses down his men in the cellar greatly amuses everybody who knows Tony... well maybe not Paulie, who is busy yapping on the phone when it rings in the middle of the film... of COURSE Paulie left his phone on. When Sally Boy hurls a jar of nails into a wall, AJ is thrilled at what he - lamentably - recognizes as the trademark temper of his father. Similarly amused, Carmela happily tells Tony that Sally Boy is him, and he laughs it off, motioning to a beaming Christopher a mock punch for the "tribute". But it's not quite as amusing when a scene of a familiar looking back room features Sally Boy clearly making moves on Michael's fiance. A beautiful Asian woman, she is worried for Michael, but Sally Boy calmly assures her that Michael is fine before pointing out that he's a boy.... but what she needs is a MAN. As the two kiss (Paulie loudly talking the entire time), Blanca ponders the significance of the words for her own situation, while a grumpy Rosalie fumes over something she is entirely too sure has happened many times with most of the men in this room... including her late husband Jackie. She trades a meaningful look with Carmela who quickly shakes her head, while on-screen (not seen by us) the kissing clearly quickly turns into a softcore sex scene which must be uncomfortable for most everybody present. At the after-party, AJ grumpily points out to Carmela how casually everybody is dressed, while a proud Little Carmine congratulates his daughter Alexandra on picking up on the "sacred and the propane" symbology of the crucifix and the figurine. Blanca complains to AJ that she's starving, and serves him a withering look when he pathetically points out he offered her popcorn. They all head off to get food, Tony spotting Christopher and pulling him tight in an embrace, mockingly angry over the obvious inspiration for the Boss in the cellar scene. Getting serious though, he congratulates Christopher on his achievement: no matter what else happens in life, nobody can take away the fact that he made a film, and it's something that will live on long after they're both dead. Christopher basks in the praise, and makes Tony even prouder by happily pointing out he's also stolen some cases of Imperia Vodka from the party's supplies and slipped a couple cases into Tony's car.   The only thing that really flattens their mood is when they spot the Lupertazzi Family members who have come out to join them on the night. Phil, Butchie, Gerry and Doc pose for a photo with Little Carmine and then eagerly call over Daniel Baldwin to get a photo with them too. Elsewhere, Larry Boy's wife is revealing to Janice, Bobby and Carlo the shocking secret she learned from hanging out on the set... the actors don't make up their own lines! Larry Boy chimes in to agree with his wife's stunning revelation: even DeNiro has to learn lines! Somebody calls out Larry's name, and the fact they say Lorenzo should be the cue for him that something is wrong. Instead he turns around with a bright smile to greet the bald, suited man approaching him... who opens his lapel to reveal a badge as he introduces himself as a U.S Marshal. Yes, Larry is STILL under house arrest and is once again openly flouting the terms of his bail, and this time the law has him dead-to-rights. He's cuffed and taken away, his wife screaming after him as he bellows at her to call the lawyer (it's a pretty open-and-shut case!). Tony and Christopher had been about to go meet Danny Baldwin, but this display means Christopher has to talk to Baldwin's manager instead to make sure things stay unruffled. That leaves Tony alone, and with a sigh he spots who is approaching and braces himself with a big fake smile as he "welcomes" the return of Phil Leotardo into his life. They embrace, and commiserate briefly over Johnny Sack's current health woes. This leads into them comparing their own ailments like a contest, with Phil complaining about the physical therapy to get back to his old self after the bypass, while Tony laments that anything spicy puts him at risk of going back to the ER. But they both agree that things could be a LOT worse, they're lucky fucks and there is no denying it. Talk not turns to the Lupertazzi Family itself though. Tony's reasoning for making peace at the end of the last "season" was the fear that whoever replaced Phil would be an unknown quantity. It seems that fear is somewhat coming to pass, because in Phil's absence things are chaotic on the New York side of things. It is hitting Tony in his bottom line, the carpenters and joint fitters' unions are passing over envelopes 10% down on what they should be. Phil is adamant though, he's put that part of his life behind him: being the Boss is a young man's game, a HEALTHY man's game, and he's neither. Tony points out that Gerry Torciano - Made not that long ago - is the favorite to become the new Boss, and he isn't impressed by Phil's limp statement that Gerry is his protege and he won't stand in his way. Further talk has to come to a temporary stop when Doc Santoro suddenly appears, bringing Daniel Baldwin in tow, assuring him that Tony can take care of a speeding ticket Danny recently got. Tony happily agrees he can make it disappear, a smiling but nervous Daniel (who needs these B-Movie roles, he's not Alec Baldwin after all!) quick to assure him it's not necessary. Doc talks over them, calling over a photographer to get a picture, and while they all smile it's really only Doc who is happy to be there in that moment.  Tony isn't the only one concerned about the Lupertazzi Family's management issues. On the Geraldo Rivera Show, Mafia expert Manny Safier (played by series writer Matthew Weiner) joins another expert where they discuss the power vacuum. Safier and the other expert politely bump heads and passive-aggressively snipe at each other as they struggle to be the first to list all the potential successors to Johnny Sack who have so far failed to replace him: Phil, Gerry, Doc... and of course, Little Carmine. Watching all this in his home, drinking wine with his wife, Dr. Elliot Kupferbeg - who has clearly had an ongoing fascination from his third-hand connection to Tony Soprano - smirks that he called Doc Santoro being the favorite a year ago! Anthony Infante travels to Springfield to see his brother-in-law, making light of the long trip. They sit down at the table and Johnny explains why he called him up: not all the doctors agree on how long he has, but if he dies soon then he wants to settle his affairs. In particular with Ginny, who he loves dearly and knows is intelligent... but not when it comes to business. He wants to put Ginny on a monthly stipend from his life insurance so he'll know she'll always have money coming in. Anthony agrees this makes sense, but he's curious which doctor disagrees with Rosen's assessment. He's not impressed to hear it was the wife-murdering doctor, but when he sees how desperate Johnny is to cling on to the notion that he might have a year or more left rather than weeks he quickly backs down and agrees that Feldman still has the knowledge even if he is in prison. But this brings up another thing that has been weighing on Johnny Sack's mind... how will he be remembered? He doesn't mean the standard stuff: loving father, devoted husband etc.... how will he be remembered on the street? Infante, who is not a mobster and holds only a tangential relationship to that life, admits that he can only go on what little he knows... but it seems to him that everybody continued to like and respect him even AFTER the allocution. Other mobsters had named names when facing far less time than Johnny got, but while he committed the sin of admitting to being a part of the Mafia, he never gave any details beyond that. If he'd left it there, Infante might have been able to leave Johnny a satisfied man. But before he can stop himself he voices out loud the only negative thing he ever heard said about Johnny, and has no choice but to finish his sentence when Johnny demands it. The fact is, when Johnny became Boss he changed. He became a hothead, trigger happy. Johnny laughs, a little of his old arrogance coming back as he notes that any of those who said this simply don't know the pressures that came with such a thankless job like being Boss. Meanwhile, another man with the thankless job of being Boss of a family is in his mansion, pouring expensive coffee into the mug adorned with the logo of the movie he just financed. How Tony is holding up under the weight of all this thanklessness is beyond me, but somehow he's able to notice in spite of all that his wife is in a bad mood. He assumes she might be hungover from the Premiere but that's not it, and demonstrating the same awareness as his idiot son with Blanca, he outright asks her why she is being so pissy. He's astonished as she complains angrily about the scene in the movie where Sally Boy had sex with Michael's fiance, pointing out it's obviously a reference to himself and Adriana. He's bewildered and on the defensive, reminding her what he even managed to convince her of when they at their most divided: nothing happened. But Carmela isn't actually mad at Tony in this situation, she's upset at Christopher. Because she believes the scene represents what Christopher still believes REALLY happened, and reminds Tony that Cleaver may only be a fictional movie, but it's also a revenge fantasy with a Boss character clearly based on him who ends up getting his head split open.  
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Mar 20, 2020 14:05
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At the Bada Bing, Tony grabs a club soda and gently questions Silvio about his thoughts on the film, getting more probing as he goes. Silvio isn't quite sure where Tony is going with this, but he makes his answers carefully as he senses that something is up. What did he think of the movie? Is Christopher around? What did he think of Daniel Baldwin? What about the girl he was loving in the movie? Did Silvio think she was hot etc? Silvio says less and less, mostly nodding and tilting his head in a wordless response, pretending to be more interested in his paper. Finally Tony moves on, much to his relief. Christopher himself is meeting with his new NA sponsor, Eddie Dunne (played by Christopher McDonald) where he's discussing the weirdness of being involved in the creative process. The conversation turns to Kelli and the baby, and everything sounds great, Christopher's life seems to be going well. Eddie reminds him that he needs to remember that, to savor these good moments when they're here. They're briefly sidetracked when Christopher spots an FBI Agent outside, telling Dunne (who is clearly fascinated in much the same way Kupferberg is) that they pop in and out of tailing him every so often. Forcing himself back onto the subject, Dunne reminds him that he needs to remember that only 3 months ago he was a complete mess, barely able to function at a meeting, accompanied by "that woman" (Julianna Skiff) who was in an even worse state. He's clawed his way back and can't fall back down, and Christopher admits part of what makes it hard is that keeping himself away from places that trigger his urges means staying away from his fellow mobsters... and they're quick to interpret that as an insult. He laughs at the idea that explaining how difficult being around alcohol is won't help, especially with the likes of Paulie, and Eddie finds himself in the rough position of knowing that Christopher's chosen lifestyle puts him at serious risk of abusing alcohol and drugs again, but also that it's one he can't really escape... and despite himself, Dunne is fascinated by it too and perhaps relishes getting to hear about it second-hand. Johnny, who never named names and maintained a lifetime of Omerta, is happily smoking and openly telling stories about Carmine Lupertazzi having people killed but only AFTER they had stopped being a source of income for him. He's not talking to law enforcement, just sharing the story with fellow sick prisoners including Warren Feldman, who all share that same fascination as Eddie Dunne, but it's still a surprising breach of protocol. But then again, he's smoking too. Once again, at this point, what the hell does he have to lose? Ginny and Allegra arrive, having walked all around the medical center trying to find him. Ginny is horrified to see he is smoking and Allegra points out he's on oxygen, but a stubborn Johnny refuses to back down even though he does stamp out the cigarette, reminding her that he's going to die anyway. Ginny, who sure as gently caress doesn't want to hear that kind of talk, reminds him that Feldman said he might have a year or more left, and points out that negative thinking is the kind of thing that could have made him sick in the first place. Johnny isn't having that, mockingly asking if all the little kids who have leukemia got it from negative thinking too. He starts to cough and out of bloody-minded defiance grabs another cigarette and lights it up to prove he's still in control of his treacherous body. Ginny, overwhelmed and furious, storms out of the room, leaving behind a horrified Allegra and a miserable Johnny. Gerry Torciano and Silvio have dinner with their goomars at a nice restaurant. Alone for the moment, Silvio and Gerry discuss the power vacuum in the Lupertazzi Family, Silvio reminding Gerry that whoever comes out on top they'll ALL need to work together for their mutual benefit. Gerry admits that he's disappointed in Phil for not taking the spot when Johnny went away, leaping on Silvio's reminder that his heart was the issue. Silvio doesn't get what he means and Gerry has to spell it out: his mentor lost his balls at the moment of truth. Silvio doesn't criticize him for insulting the man who protected and guided him up from loan-shark associate to heir-presumptive, just mockingly calls him Walt Whitman and tells him to just say what he means next time. The girlfriends arrive back at the table and take their seats, Gerry's asking if they should order more wine. Happy, relaxed, Silvio asks his goomar to remind him of that nice drink they ha... and then the sound drops out and blood sprays across his face. It takes a moment for him to register what has happened, everything is in slow-motion as his head jerks up just in time to see the flash of the gunfire fading. An assassin has walked brazenly into the restaurant and up to the table and unloaded several shots directly into Gerry, and Silvio didn't see him coming at all... Gerry certainly didn't, just like Bobby opined to Tony in the previous episode. The thing is, once the initial shock is over, things unfold with remarkable clarity. Gerry, already dying, tried to get his gun before collapsing to the floor. He's cognizant enough to try and crawl away, but even as he's falling and crawling, even as the assassin walks after him to fire the final shot, Silvio is standing up and almost calmly ordering the two goomars to leave the restaurant with him. He's not a target, he knows it, and he walks with surprising steadiness as he's the last of the fleeing patrons to leave. In fact the assassin has fired the final shot and exited through the kitchen before Silvio - not even looking back in case he was next - has reached the doors.   The next day at the golf course, Tony places hefty bets on St. Louis, Minnesota and Baltimore as he waits for Little Carmine to join him in the clubhouse. Carmine tries to keep it breezy but Tony is in a foul mood, not interested in the fact he has finally remembered to order an Arnold Palmer instead of an iced-tea (An Arnold Palmer is an iced-tea... with lemonade). He wants to know what is going on with "this family of yours", which after all still bears his name... Doc Santoro sent an assassin to kill Gerry KNOWING he would be with Silvio? Knowing that Gerry would consider himself safe with Tony's Consigliere... which also means that Doc doesn't value Tony enough not to insult him like this. Little Carmine admits that Doc showed a total lack of respect, but when Tony insists that Little Carmine step up and take control of the Family (which he failed to do against Johnny Sack), he admits he finds it flattering... but no. A confused Tony offers rebuttals to Little Carmine's reasons why: Doc has cemented his position, he had a dream that he gave his father an empty gift and Carmine told him to go away and fill it etc. But finally Carmine lays out exactly why he's not staking a claim: he doesn't want to. He tells a bewildered Tony about his daily routine of coming home, stripping naked and going for a swim in his pool, and his wife Nicole brings him a drink and they enjoy time together, just relaxing and talking before he goes up to bed and she brings him his dinner. One night at the height of the issues with Johnny Sack, he came home exhausted and went straight to bed rather than go to the pool. Nicole brought him the drink upstairs, but the deviation from the norm worried her enough that she told him in no uncertain terms that she had no desire to be the wealthiest widow on Long Island. She asked him to quit... and he did. That empty box he gave his father in his dream doesn't need to be filled with being the Boss, but with being happy. The saddest thing about this? It's a completely alien concept to Tony. Little Carmine - often derided for not being all that bright - has just detailed a heartfelt and genuine moment of partnership between himself and a wife who he clearly deeply loves, and who deeply loves him in return. They put their happiness as a couple over his ego and desire to live up to his father's legacy. He saw power as the thankless job that Johnny Sack now bitterly complains about, and his wife saw his ambition threatening to destroy the happiness they had. But Tony doesn't get this, to him this is the story of a disappointing man who let his wife tell him what to do and who didn't have the balls to follow through on securing his legacy. The difference between them couldn't be more stark, and there's a reason why intelligent, ambitious and ego-driven Tony Soprano is constantly searching for some meaning to his life while idiotic, moderate and content Carmine Lupertazzi Jr is living a happy and undramatic life.   Ginny leaves Johnny sleeping in his hospital bed and stops with Feldman in the corridor for a brief chat as he moves cleaning supplies. He explains as gently as he can to her that Johnny's smoking is his attempt to regain some level of control, reminding her that he's a leader and being told he is dying is the ultimate loss of control: he's trying to die the way he lived. Ginny, who like Nicole only wants her husband to stay alive and be with her, isn't having it though, complaining that she's lost 27 pounds but he can't quit smoking for her and the kids? Spotting Dr. Gupte doing his rounds, Warren has to excuse himself, pushing his cart away before he has people on two fronts being pissed at him. Kelli and Christopher pick up baby Caitlin from Carmela, who was watching her while they did the prep work for the Christening. But when Christopher and Carmela are left briefly together by Kelli, the conversation turns awkward. Carmela tries to keep it civil at first, sharing the news that she's had two offers on her spec house (built with shoddy materials, remember!) while she continues to gently bounce Caitlin and coo over her. But finally she has to let loose, telling him how disappointed she is in the movie featuring a scene of the Boss having sex with the lead's fiance, positive it was based on Tony and Adriana. Christopher is shocked, and points out this is impossible anyway since he didn't write the script. She reminds him that he's credited as the writer and he explains that is just to get Writer's Guild Health Insurance (poor J.T didn't even get the credit!) which she doesn't buy. Things get into dangerous territory when she asks if he's heard from Adriana at all recently, and brings up again Liv La Cerva's delusions about Adriana being dead. Christopher hides in being offended, telling Carmela that she may be his cousin but he doesn't appreciate what she is inferring about either the movie or his treatment of Adriana. He leaves in a huff, telling her to tell Kelli he went out for a smoke. Feldman pops into Johnny's room to change the garbage lining, and cheerfully brings up that Gerry Torciano was "hit" last week like he's talking about football results. Johnny, barely breathing, manages to gasp out a reply that Gerry was a good guy before complaining about how hard the air is coming. Concerned, Feldman ups the feed from his oxygen tank, all thoughts of basking in the reflected thrill of Mafia action forgotten as being a doctor comes to the fore. Looking over Johnny's chart again, when Johnny mutters that he's dying, Feldman can't deny it. He admits that the aggressiveness of the cancer surprises him and that in the end he has to concur with Rosen's initial diagnosis. Johnny doesn't get upset, just lets the final confirmation wash over him: it's over, he's going to die and it won't be in a year, it'll be weeks or even days from now. So he offers Warren a thanks for everything he has done for him, while an uncharacteristically subdued Feldman is brought down to earth by remembering the worst part about being a doctor: when you have all this training and still can't do anything. Christopher is doing something though, hammering urgently on J.T Dolan's door in a panic to "fix" the problem Carmela has made him aware of. Groggy, J.T leaves his girlfriend in bed and answers, Christopher barging in, telling him that they're in trouble unless J.T tells Tony it was his idea to put the scene of the Boss banging the fiance in there. J.T is confused... but it was Christopher's idea? Christopher complains that he can't admit that or Tony is going to get the wrong idea and think he put it in there to embarrass him, which leads J.T to ask the pertinent question: why DID he put the scene in there? Angrily, Christopher complains it was just an idea and who knows where they come from (if only Melfi was there), but regardless he has to do it. J.T, who was told that if he wrote the script he would finally be free and clear, complains that it was bad enough not getting credit for his writing but he's not going to take credit for bad ideas that WEREN'T his, especially if they're gonna get him in trouble.. That's the end of it as far as he's concerned, and somehow he's still not savvy enough to see what is coming when Christopher pulls a Humanitas Awards off the shelf and ask him what it is. J.T starts to explain that he won it for writing themes of socially redeeming.... and then Christopher smashes him over the head with it. Furious, he warns J.T to never talk to him like that again, and storms out. J.T's girlfriend races out, concerned, while J.T is left trying to figure out how he gave Christopher everything he asked for, got out free and clear... and yet is still loving caught up in this whirlpool of mob association.  At the Bada Bing, Silvio is telling Paulie and Tony how the thing that most screwed with his head about Gerry being killed was that he had no idea anything was happening till AFTER it happened. J.T arrives on the scene, all smiles and trying desperately not to poo poo himself while trying to lead the conversation into making them ask about his writing process. Unfortunately after the initial explanation that he thought he was supposed to meet Chris here, they're not following the script in his head. When he asks about the movie, Tony just smiles that it was good while Paulie grumpily states he's hoping to see some profit from it soon. Since they're not biting, he just launches into his prepared dialogue anyway, answering a question nobody asked about how a writer is never entirely sure how an audience will respond. Tony, being polite, notes this is the challenge, and J.T leaps on that to agree with the statement Tony DIDN'T make about how it is challenging to invent characters and make them interact realistically. Why in fact, he doesn't mind admitting he lifted the character of Sally Boy wholesale from Broderick Crawford in Born Yesterday! Just as an aside, Born Yesterday's writer did not receive screen credit for his writing, which is probably why J.T chose it. J.T gets more confident when Paulie asks what the movie was, and even enjoys throwing in some film trivia about Judy Holliday being easy to confuse for Billie Holiday since she's called Billie in the film... except an angry Paulie complains he can't be confused because he hasn't seen the film. Shying away from that one, J.T explains to Tony that he basically took the big, burly character Crawford played, along with the love-triangle dynamic which he turned into the cuckold angle in Cleaver. Tony takes this in quietly, smiles, states with interest that the whole Sally Boy thing in Cleaver was J.T's idea... then immediately asks how he got the bruise on his head. Caught off-guard, J.T bullshits an answer, and Tony - a far better actor than J.T - stands up, pays his bill and assures him he'll tell Christopher that J.T was looking for him. He goes home and watches Born Yesterday, watches the superficial similarities that don't really bare up to any close scrutiny, and comes to a conclusion he'd actively resisted until Christopher tried to make him discount it entirely: his nephew still believes Tony screwed Adriana, and perhaps on some level blames him for Adriana's death. In therapy, Tony is morose as he for once doesn't hold expressing his feelings to Melfi. Christopher's film leaves a legacy to the world just as he said, but the image it leaves of Tony Soprano is of a monstrously cruel and selfish man. He reflects nostalgically on Christopher as a baby and a child, how much fun they had, how simple things were (much like Livia loved her children as babies and resented them as they grew) back then. He admits that in many ways Christopher did used to be like a son to him, but now he sees Tony as nothing but an rear end in a top hat bully. Fighting back tears, Tony explains that he always wanted to be to Christopher what Dickie Moltisanti was to Tony himself. A mentor yes, but more than that. A friend, somebody to look up to, somebody to pass on everything to so that everything he did had some meaning. Instead he has somebody who hates him. Melfi assures him that on some level Christopher still loves him, but declines his suggestion she take a copy of Cleaver home to see for herself. What's important is how Tony feels, but also knowing how Tony is likely to handle this kind of percieved threat, without invalidating those feelings she wants him to consider it is possible he's reading too much into all this. Tony's answer is arrogant but sad, after all these years of therapy he feels he knows enough about the subconscious to know how Christopher is really feeling.   Ginny, Allegra and Catherine all sit at Johnny Sack's bedside. Ginny is carefully cleaning his white shoes, Catherine reads a book and Allegra holds her father's hand. Barely able to breathe, he snaps his head to the side when Ginny speaks to show off his shoes, but they're not sure if he's really hearing her. The end is close now and they know it, and when he suddenly gasps out that his mother is there, they worry he is hallucinating. Ginny tries to get his attention but now he's focused somewhere else, and in her desperate desire for at least one more moment of connection with him she goes so far as to pull out a packet of cigarettes and offer him one. But he doesn't react, just stares into the distance, shallow breath coming fast, a far cry from the dapper, smooth-talking high ranking mobster he once way. In the back of the Bada Bing, Tony is having a good time playing pool with Dante, Silvio, Carlo and Paulie when he's told Anthony Infante has asked to see him. He lets him in with a smile and asks how John is doing, and they're all shocked to hear that Johnny Sacrimoni has passed away. They offer their condolences to Infante who thanks them but admits that Johnny's passing was for the best considering how bad his condition had gotten. Silvio pours drinks and they all prepare to toast him... but Paulie - who perhaps never quite forgave Johnny for exploiting him all those years ago - can't help but smile as he points out that cancer killed Johnny but Paulie survived it. He mangles quoting a song lyric from Blood, Sweat & Tears, and after a brief moment Tony offers a more fitting tribute of,"A buon' anima": God rest his soul. They all drink, but as they take a moment of silence in Johnny's memory, Tony broods. Johnny's time was done anyway, but his passing is a reminder. The Lupertazzi Family high rankers he knew and worked with are all gone now: Carmine, Johnny, Rusty, even the pain-in-the-rear end that was Phil Leotardo has stepped back as has Little Carmine. Who is going to run the Lupertazzis now? Doc Santoro? That won't be good news for any of them. Another memorial is being held, but not for Johnny. Phil Leotardo is making good on his word and spending time with his grandchildren, but rather than going to them he has had them come to him. The family is at the Averna Social Club, where they are marking what would have been the birthday of his brother Billy. The grandkids blow out a candle with 47 candles on it, and Phil explains that the seat at the bar he's standing behind was Billy's favorite place in the world. He'd sit there and tell stories about his family who he loved very much (as I recall, Billy was a sadistic creep who enjoyed hurting people), and now Phil has decided here he will always remain. Climbing a stepladder, he places Billy's urn on the mantel above the bar, announcing that now whenever his friends come to visit, he will see them. Phil, very much the patriarch of his family still, calls out for one of the kids to raise their hands if they can tell him who Leonardo da Vinci is. Matty guesses he wrote The Da Vinci Code (Patty explains that is a hideous, sacrilegious book), but little Annabella knows he was the painter of the Mona Lisa. Phil beams with pride at her knowledge, and explains that their family name was once Leonardo. When they came to America, the officials at Ellis Island changed it to Leotardo. They're confused why, and Phil feels his old fire coming back as he rants about how they did it to disrespect them and all Italians. Patty gently tries to calm him, and he just feels resigned when an older grandchild - Marissa - explains that Leotards are for modern dance and tutus are for ballerina. Matty complains that doesn't matter and with a sigh Phil agrees it doesn't matter, and lets them all have some cake. Phil Leotardo, it seems, is a broken man. The episode ends in a spectacular way, with an incredible musical piece over the Christening of baby Caitlin that culminates in Tony and Christopher hugging each other tightly while both clearly show on their faces that their relationship has strained to the point that even this emotional moment has both of them simply going through the motions. Words don't really do it justice so I'm gonna post the video at the end of this write-up, showing both this final scene and the preceding one I'm about to discuss. Because this penultimate scene is incredible, and the music coming in at the close to kick off the final scene remains to this day an absolute mindfuck in generating so many conflicting emotions. It's the moment that Phil Leotardo decides that enough is enough, and kicks into gear the start of what will be the final season arc of The Sopranos.   Sitting at the bar, Phil fumes as the family eats and laughs and the kids play. He stares up at the urn of his dead brother and the picture above it, alone even when all his family are there. Butchie joins him at the bar, sensing something is wrong, and asks if he is okay. At first it appears that Phil is just being maudlin, considering that Billy was so relatively young when he died, sighing that he himself is an old man who wishes he could live his life again and do it different.... because he compromised on everything in his life. Butchie dismisses that, everybody knows that Phil Leotardo is a hardass (he's infamous for it!), but he's adamant. He spent 20 years in prison and never said a word, and what was it all for? To protect the likes of Rusty Millio and Doc Santoro? He can't even take any solace in Butchie's insistence that he is a Man, a rare thing these days. Why not? Because he stood back and did nothing when Tony Blundetto (who he will only call Tony Soprano's cousin, he can't even bear to say the name) killed Billy. He's been taking poo poo all his life and he thinks it might be in his DNA, after all when his family arrived in America they got renamed to Leotardo and just took it quietly. The name Leotardo is his legacy, and it's a legacy of failure, capitulation and compromise. Phil leans back from the bar as Evidently Chickentown begins to play, and quietly and without fanfare make a decision that will have a gigantic impact . The man who gave up his dream of being Boss, who stepped back to let younger men take his place, who saw his younger brother and then his protege get murdered by men he loathes, has had enough. "No more, Butchie," he tells his friend,"No more of this." Phil Leotardo, it seems, is back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBcbc8eWz6U 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 12:06 on May 17, 2020 |
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Mar 20, 2020 14:05
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That outro has so much menace, it's nuts. Like the floating Mary, there is some sort of animal response it evokes.
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Mar 20, 2020 15:09
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That hug between Tony and Christopher at the end is amazing, no love in their eyes at all.
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Mar 21, 2020 09:19
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BrotherJayne posted:That outro has so much menace, it's nuts. Yeah. I was stunned when I saw that for the first time. It just inspires such a feeling of impending doom. I had never heard the song before that, but still today I feel the same way every time I hear it again.
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Mar 21, 2020 09:59
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My dog at the time (RIP) was named Butchie and I loved saying "No more Butchie, no more of this" when he was a bad boy.
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Mar 21, 2020 16:39
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On a related note, RIP to the actor who played Butchie as well. In a morbid way it's kind of fitting that he died weeks after Frank Vincent.
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Mar 21, 2020 17:16
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I'm not as in love with episode as some. It's fine and still better than 90% of poo poo on TV but I don't see what makes it stand out really. Is the Baldwin playing the faux Tony the Jesus right wing guy? Because if so it seems weird he'd allow himself to be cast on a show like this. I get them mixed up beyond Alec. Stray observations to keep the thread juiced: - I like how the show doesn't feel like it has to show you everything and allows things to happen off camera or between seasons. Meadow's breakup with Finn is a good example here. No need for a Big Fight scene or any final arc. Just "well, he's gone". - Along similar lines, and again, almost every actor on this show does amazing work with body acting. Facial expressions, posture, eye movement and that sort of thing can really enhance the Show Don't Tell aspect of good cinema and this show has it down, going all the way back to season 1. - That hit in the restaurant is ANOTHER callback to Bobby's monologue from episode one and reinforces my take on the finale - about how you never see it coming or even hear it. It's a flashy bit of direction that the show usually doesn't do but the way it's presented is masterful and one of the more interesting bits of storytelling in the entire series. Some have criticized it for whatever reason but I think it's incredible. Awesome use of sound too. - Knowing what's coming for AJ, watching his interactions with Blanca is heartbreaking. The kid is so out of his league and way behind maturity wise that he can't read the fact his girlfriend is past the giddy infatuation phase and is in the "I need to break up with this kid" stage. - Johnny's express lane death was unexpected and another great example of the show subverting expectations. I really expected it to be drawn out and used as a way of heightening the dramatic possibilities of the NYC power struggle but he just gets a quick and early grave. The woman who plays his wife (if I'm not mistaken) won a contest to appear on the show and she does a really good job for a non actor. When she offers him a final cigarette and has his shoes polished it's just...whoa. I hate this show for making care about and sympathize with murderous rear end in a top hat felons but, IMO, this is a hallmark of good writing and the best made, most interesting shows and movies seem to have a way of painting all of the characters as both flawed and virtuous. It's hard to do and a tricky line to walk which is why I enjoy it so much when it's executed well and way more interesting than Good Guys v Bad Guys. - I didn't notice that the seeds for what I perceived as Tony's "sudden" gambling problem were being planted here. That brief arc seemed to come out of left field when it happened and felt forced but had I been paying attention I might have noticed it sooner. - Man, you can just feel it coming DOWN for how bad it's gonna end for Chris. He's walking the sobriety tight rope, putting up the facade of Super Family Man, suffering PTSD from Ade's killing and all the lying and dishonesty that comes with it, can FEEL the love from Tony fading and really see the futility of him trying to juxtapose being in recovery with his "career". Michael Imperioli is a real standout actor in a show full of them and I think I've loved him in everything I've seen him in. The work he does on this show with just his face, his body and his eyes is textbook and needs to be used as a reference in acting classes. (You're droppin your fuckin oranges) - And, yeah, what a great set up for Phil stepping into the role of the main villain. I think it's another example of what I consider to be a main thread in the series: That being no one really changes. Everyone pretends to and some try. Others pay lip service to the idea or fake it through virtue signaling but this far in who has really evolved or learned anything? I'd argue Meadow has changed a lot but mostly for the worse. Characters keep claiming to have had some sort of epiphany due to trauma, illness, addiction, break up or personal loss but, in the end, they just stay the same.
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Mar 21, 2020 18:05
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I'd be so glad if I could just never hear or read the words "virtue signalling" ever again. I guess the same goes for all tools of right wing numbskullery Imagine what Chris would have thought of youtube. Its like showbiz, but just entirely comprised of cheap gimmicks and free handouts, all the while making Cleaver look like classic cinema. He would be all over that poo poo
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Mar 21, 2020 21:03
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I think, more than probably any other show, the Sopranos excelled when it came to effective use of music. This episode, Funhouse, and In Camelot are the ones that always come to mind for me - none of the episodes have bombastic endings by any means, but the endings are incredibly impactful, in large part due to the music they're paired with.
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Mar 21, 2020 23:09
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BiggerBoat posted:- And, yeah, what a great set up for Phil stepping into the role of the main villain. I think it's another example of what I consider to be a main thread in the series: That being no one really changes. Everyone pretends to and some try. Others pay lip service to the idea or fake it through virtue signaling but this far in who has really evolved or learned anything? I'd argue Meadow has changed a lot but mostly for the worse. Characters keep claiming to have had some sort of epiphany due to trauma, illness, addiction, break up or personal loss but, in the end, they just stay the same. Change happens, but it's slow and often takes place between generations. Tony sleeps around and is a mobster just like his father was, but he treats his kids a lot better than his parents treated him, and at least wants the best for them even if he has no idea how to give that to them because of his hosed up upbringing. AJ has panic attacks and the same selfish streak Tony has, but he's not violent and will probably escape a life of crime. Meadow is as materialistic as Carmela and is willing to look the other way on where her money comes from, but she too is probably going to escape a life that's fully connected to crime and is also cultivating a more independent streak than Carmela did since she's going to work and not be caught in the house-wife life that Carmela was. Small changes between generations lead to bigger ones over time, but it's rare to have big sweeping changes at once. Most people and their kids just aren't capable of that.
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Mar 21, 2020 23:20
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BiggerBoat posted:I hate this show for making care about and sympathize with murderous rear end in a top hat felons but, IMO, this is a hallmark of good writing and the best made, most interesting shows and movies seem to have a way of painting all of the characters as both flawed and virtuous. It's hard to do and a tricky line to walk which is why I enjoy it so much when it's executed well and way more interesting than Good Guys v Bad Guys. And it deserves to be said again that to the show's credit, nobody on the show is portrayed as right in what they do. Like as a counter example Sons of Anarchy always felt like it got muddled and we were supposed to genuinely root for its violent criminals, but it will also surprise nobody that David Chase is a lot more talented than Kurt Sutter.
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Mar 21, 2020 23:26
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| # ? May 23, 2024 19:14 |
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quote:Is the Baldwin playing the faux Tony the Jesus right wing guy? Because if so it seems weird he'd allow himself to be cast on a show like this. I get them mixed up beyond Alec. I think that’s Stephen Baldwin, the guy from The Usual Suspects.
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Mar 22, 2020 00:47
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