There was a very telling scene: The garbage truck dumps all the asbestos in the pond, while in the distance we hear the ducks . . . the ducks, Tony's symbolic family.

Among the wreckage: A.J. gets pinched for dealing all the anti-depressant medication his doctor has unwisely prescribed for him. Since when has A.J. had a thought deep enough to cause depression? His "it's all fucked up" act last week was contrived to get pills he can sell to his Next-Gen Thug friends.

Of course Coco was just trying to get Tony to bring about a battle with Phil. She was Connie Corleone to Tony's Sonny. When has any of these mooks done anything but pat her on the head?

And it's clear to me that the thing slouching toward Bethlehem is indeed AJ, who will take Tony down one way or another. Maybe not by killing him, but by somehow destroying the evil empire. (Probably as ineptly as the time he and his pals trashed the school trophy case, but still . . .)

Wouldn't it be funny if, after all those years of hanging in the background looking stupid, little Fredo had overheard enough to put Tony away?

It's Tony who's being reborn, really. He's had enough. He beat up Coco in a nice big public way for a reason. All season he's been revaluating and smelling roses, and his talking to the FBI about the "terrorists" was sort of a practice run at being a snitch.

Thank God this isn't a network show, or the coma dream would turn out to have been Tony's real life and the last 10 years have been the dream!

I think AJ will totally repudiate everything. There was glimmer when he bargained with those kids who were making Blanca's life miserable. I'm hoping he leaves his new thug friends behind, at least.

I agree it's a bit disingenuous for Breathed to count himself among the ranks of "serious" children's authors being invaded by celebrities. That said, he hit on one of my pet peeves.

Celebrities are invading all sorts of entertainment where they don't belong in this anything-for-a-buck media world. See the cast list for any animated film in major release in the last 5 years. Check out the bylines in "Interview" magazine ("Britney Spears interviews Sam Donaldson!")

As for White House dog Barney having a bestseller, don't assume that means anything about the reading public. Bestseller lists are based on how many copies are bought by bookstores, not on how many they sell.

. . . when he was telling her to leave Tony alone:

"It won't be cinematic."

No glorious, balletic, poetic slo-mo violence. If Tony dies, I see a simple bullet to the back of the head. All very mundane and simple.

And please, please, everyone stop with this fantasy about Meadow jumping in to take over the family business. What do you think you've been watching, an ABC Movie of the Week from 1971?

I meant to add how gratified I was that Silvio had nearly as dehumanizing an exit as he gave Adriana.

I hope he lives, hangs on for decades in a semi-vegetative state until he too runs out of money like Junior and is then transferred to some shithole institution.

I thought it was a scream how Tony and Carmela were accepting condolences that Meadow has decided to become a lawyer instead of a doctor.

I guess that's like a law-abiding family having a criminal for a kid.

Yeah it was exciting, but come on! Vic abandons his Review Board hearing and then -- voila! -- finds a guy driving around with all the evidence he's been looking for, all packed neatly in his trunk. Cross-referenced and color-coded too, no doubt. The only thing more unrealistic would have been a neon sign.

And as I watched Shane walk away from hysterical Corinne and Cassie locked in that trailer, all I could think of was a certain classic Western movie.

"Shane! Shane! Come back, Shane!"

timbuktom, the "evidence" people cite for Adriana being alive is that we didn't actually see her die. Like Silvio's murderous expression was an act of some kind.

Hey, maybe Adriana grabbed Sil's gun, killed him and has been posing as him for the last 2 seasons!

About the child drowning being a foreshadowing of AJ's suicide attempt: I believe that was actually a way lof showing that Tony is becoming his mother. Remember all the gory stories she used to tell about moithers dying with their children? Tony sounded a lot like Livia when he brought that up.

Not to mention he now says "Poor ylou" an awful lot.

I still can't get over AJ's ludicrous attempt at suicide. AJ was perfectly capable of diving down and getting the block, then getting himself out of the pool. But as he has never had to do a thing for himself his entire life, maybe we should not be surprised. His whole life has been about Mommy and Daddy saving him from himself. I had to laugh when Tony told him he was "handsome, smart and a hard worker." Ha! One out of three, maybe.

Mackey did get disappointingly nice after the first couple of episodes. And his wife was a near-accomplice in the pilot. Next thing we know she's run off with the kids because . . . because . . . Wait, give me a minute. Because it made a good season finale?

See, the TV powers don't think we can handle a series lead who isn't likeable in some way. So they had Vic save a few babies and crack-whore moms, so that we would think it's OK for him to beat, torture and murder suspects.

By the way, if you're one of the people who say, "Sure, Vic does bad stuff but boy I sure would want him with me in a fight" -- well, you better hope you stay on his good side.