IMHO, Tony didn't look too upset or "hurt" ... seething probably (so what else is new) but Melfi had given him warning in previous episode, offered referral elsewhere, and besides "she was being hormonal" and besides he hadn't had an anxiety attack in months.

Tony was using his therapy sessions (when he went) as a safe harbor, some "me time", but he had settled in and was no longer interested in changing anything ... just narcissistic and juvenile whining and complaining ... rather than being a baby-mommy, Melfi had become the adolescent Tony's mommy.

Melfi had gone along for many reasons ... Tony was something rare fish with largely routine anxiety "problems." As Carmella said, "She really wasn't doing you much good ..." (or something similar).

Melfi did not cut Tony free because of any crisis of conscience on her part, but because it became to uncomfortable for her to continue "supporting" him. She was confronted with the squirmy reality that she was playing ineffective, naive therapist to a mobster and that Kupferberg had no professional respect for her (which was incidental but related, and probably not confined to HER -- a change of therapist is in order.)

I was fairly appalled at how AJ's suicide attempt resulted in zero change ... that he was being permitted to spend his days in bed like a little prince. I wonder how much that resembled Tony's adolescence, interrupted by occasional despised butt-kicking by an older male.

It was telling that Silvio took care of the turncoat without consulting Tony because Tony was "busy" with AJ's problems and Carmella's tires. Like Bobby was "busy" with his trains. The whole crew had become a bunch of lazy-ass man-childs... whining about how others weren't performing -- the fall of the roman empire ...

I wonder how hard it has been on Chase and the actors to create/inhabit these wonderful awful roles for all these years and if there haven't been times when the stench lingered.

As others have mentioned, the casual carelessness of this crew is its signature. That they had to get outside help to attempt a hit on Phil -- and then blew it ... with the hitmen making a wrong ID, going to the wrong address, not having a clue that their target had no goomba and didn't speak Russian ...

The big boys from New York are going to straighten them out and make them fly right ... and they will be welcomed by some, according to Silvio.

Very little if any note has been made in any discussion I've read of Tony's transgression wrt Phil: Sneakily using Phil-arranged dumpsites to dump asbestos.

My guess is that even the Mafia fears "the big C" and that exposing an "associate" (i.e. Phil) to liability in this way is simply "not done." Illegal dumping being one thing, illegal dumping of known -- incontrovertably known -- toxic materials is another thing. The reason Tony's making BIG money on this job is precisely because it's so EXPENSIVE to properly dispose of these materials. So, slyly dumping them on an associate is a double-whammy ... and then there's his fuck-you fuck-your-dog reaction when his little trick was discovered and he was asked to fork over, was it?, 25% ...

So, the episode ends with Tony and crew having fucked up Plan A -- preemptive strike against Phil -- having no Plan B ... How sloppy to find out FROM THE NEWSPAPER that your hit on someone, which you had been told was mission accomplished, in fact was a mission well fucked up and they're gunning for you. How pathetic to be caught with your figurative pants down when you've been warned ...

Many family businesses fail in the second generation... or third... when the fire-in-the-belly has been replaced by complacency. AJ mirrors Tony so well in all his whiny, lazy, entitled, ostrich-ness.

I think the photos of Carmella's european trip were a "we didn't know those were the good old days" moment ... the future certainly looks grim.

it's like one of those godfather moments in which a traitor inadvertently reveals himself ....

they all had opportunities which they turned their back on ...

Meadow most noticeably is apparently chosing a mobbed-up husband and the transition from mafia princess to mafia wife, like Carmella. In her own way, she's lazy and timid.

AJ has regressed back to adolescence after some big-boy steps away.

Carmella has lost virtually every bit of warmth and softness she ever had ... which was never overwhelming. She had opportunities to leave, she stayed.

Tony is still "wobbling", hates his life but is not changing a thing ... as in Maynard G. Krebs, "work?"

Everyone is tainted by this parasitic existence. A paracite cannot live apart from its host. Can the Soprano clan survive?

If Phil's crew is "decapitated", will they let Tony live? I'm doubtful.

If Tony survives, will his crew ready to fall back in line? Doubtful.

Aside from Tony's unpleasant personality, he been a top dog for too long for anyone to want him as a lieutentant or captain or sub-boss. He's "overqualified."

He may in fact end up selling patio furniture in Scottsdale, Arizona, out by the highway.