Episode 3 of the second half of the last season was very dark with a lot of mixed messages. Plus, I never know if I'm reading too much into what I see or if I'm right on with what David Chase wants us to think. There were only three story lines in this episode and one was rather short. Phil Leotardo felt disrespected by Doc and took him out - consolidating the NY family to one power - himself. We saw that one coming from a mile away. The second story line belonged to Uncle Junior. Junior was feeling like his old self and had a mini-mob running inside his facility. He would sign 8x10's of himself for an orderly who was selling them on ebay, and in return the orderly would get him supplies and snacks to sell at his poker games and look the other way while the games were going on. Junior had a protege of sorts with a younger Asian patient who clearly worshipped him. He watched in fascination as Junior whipped the ass of an ex college professor for getting in his face. The more he watched Junior in action, the more aggressive he got. After the fight, the doctors changed Junior's meds to try to control him and he finally gave in and "got in line" with the facility's program. This disgusted his young protege who then attacked Junior in a fit of rage after Junior chastised him for interrupting singing hour at the home. Seeing Junior conform pushed the kid over the edge. To me, this short story seemed like a microcosm of Junior's relationship with Tony. He taught him everything and then felt betrayed by him when he took power of the NJ family. Instead of this playing out over 25 years, it played out in a matter of weeks. It also showed the devastating effects of his disease that he could run an operation like a poker game and be the don of the facility, and then moments later he can't remember anything. The third story involves Tony and Paulie Walnuts. A guy they whacked together (Tony's first) over 25 years ago and hid is dug up on a tip from an informant. Tony and Paulie pack up and go to Miami for a few days in case they have to leave the country in a hurry. While on the trip, Paulie gets on Tony's last nerve. He won't shut up the entire trip and leaves a trail of stories (to anyone who will listen) on the way down and once there that Tony starts to worry about. They hook up with Beansie who is in a wheelchair thanks to Richie April. Paulie again starts telling stories to hookers and Tony worries when he even mentions some names and places. He has a heart-to-heart talk with Beansie where he is finally convinced (for the time being) that Paulie is just lonely and his legacy is his stories and reputation as a badass. After almost starting a fight before getting a deal signed with some Cubans, Tony has seen enough and asks Paulie to go deep sea fishing. Paulie rightfully so has flashbacks of them killing Pussy on a similar trip. He even dreams about Pussy that night. Tony confronts Paulie again on the boat about tipping off Johnny Sack about a joke Ralph made about Ginny. Paulie denies he did it (though he did) and even though Tony has thoughts of putting the old man out of his misery - he doesn't. In the end, I read it as he just wanted to see Paulie a little nervous. He's thinking if he can put it in Paulie's head that he could be whacked - maybe he'll straighten up and quit annoying Tony so much. The two stories of the elders kind of parallel each other as Tony learned under Paulie as well and is now disgusted with him - much like Junior's protege. The weird thing in play is how Chase has made us believe in 2 out of 3 episodes that Tony could have taken out both Bobby and Paulie - two of his closest partners. It's been alluded to that mobsters end up dead or in jail and you can see that Tony is getting paranoid to some extent about his own people. Even Carmela made mention that at the age they are at - should they still have to live "like this" referring to Tony going on the lam for a few days. This episode didn't further my theory that T will end up in prison except for the fact that the feds were looking into a 25 year old murder to try to tie Tony into it. In the end, the murder was hung on Ritchie April so Tony could return to Jersey.
1 comment:
I think HBO should have worked around the insane Asian plot given last week's events in Virginia. They could have either edited it out, or put that plot in next week and work something else in. I know it was just a horrible coincidence, but the Sopranos has never developed hardly any minority charachters and I can't remember when I've seen an Asian with a speaking line in that show.
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