Letters to the Editor
-
It's coming down
It was a great episode last night.
I think it's obvious that since AJ doesn't have a girl, has a lame job it was not a surprise that he got amped being part of torture. I also think it's great that there wasn't an explanation of this is why I dumped you, in real life how often does anyone really know why they are dumped? I think she didn't love him, a case of he's nice, he takes care of my kid, but she wasn't ever passionate about him, I mean "okay" as a proposal acceptance? That is not elation at marrying the man you love and also in the back of her mind she knows who his family is, would you marry into that? It was no surprise to me that she dumped AJ in public with her brother ready to drive her away.
I think AJ will enter the gambling, immoral life. You could sort of see in his eyes, oh, so this is what my dad's life is like and I think I kinda like it.
Chris is either going to get caught for TJ's murder and flip on the family or be killed because he was so careless. Paulie's back to being an asshole, he's no longer really afraid of Tony and that could be his downfall and it's still possible he's a rat.
Either it's going to be a hailstorm of bullets between the families because Phil Leotardo is feeling mighty powerful or the Feds are going to close in.
The murder of TJ, the murder of the canadian guy, too careless.
I just wonder if the Soprano family will be left standing at all, will Carmela flee with any cash she can? Will Meadow just marry whomever and be a lawyer? Will AJ get caught in the crossfire?
-
Tony is apporaching is Clockwork Orange moment
Remember - playing at repentance and reflection but never abandoning the desire to get even and reassert his old power...only it never happens, everyone has their own version of ego and ultraviolence to defend it. We saw it with Carm - letting her cousin move in to a sub-standard house that may well crash in on them, all so she could rake in $600K and feel safe from having to face a world where Tony's past finally catches up to him (she seems to think that, in this regard, her fate is not really tied to Tony's, that money will protect her. Ha.)
So, Tony is like the guy in Clockwork Orange. He's going to end up helpless before both his victims and the people he has so ruthlessly ruled. He won't die - he has a living death in store for him, but he won't die.
My prediction:
Tony will spend the last episodes in the hospital from eating the stuff he's not supposed to
From there he, and we, will watch his world crash around him.
- Cwisstofuh will kill Paulie
- AJ will kill Cwisstofuh at subtle prompting from his dad.
- Bobby will kill AJ on Phil Leotardo's orders; this will bring Tony from his bed to a set-up - he'll go to kill Bobb and end up holding the bag on Cwisstofu
- the Feds will visit Tony in his hopsital bed, saying that the 5K letter might mean he doesn't get executed but he's probably looking at life.
-Carm's fears have all been realized; she ends up living with her daughter Meadow while her husband rots away in prison, like Johnn Sac's wife
I think the Christopher story is really key to the whole thing. I am amazed at how people think he's trying to change. What?! He just gave up drinking and drugging. He never gave up the ultra violence. Have you forgotten that he was mastermind and perpetrator of mugging an old lady (Lauren Bacall) because he was jealous of the bag of schwag he got? The Life has corrupted him utterly (or, already corrupt, he is not interested in looking for anothe rway to live) - Christopher lives by the gun and dies by the gun. Shooting JT was presaged by the episode when Christopher picked up an award and asked, "What's this?" JT, affecting modesty, starts to tell him about the writing award, and POW Christoper sucker punches him with it right in the eye, all so JT would go and take responsibility for the story line in the Cleaver movie - the story line that tells us how Christoper REALLY feels about choosing Tony over Adriana.
An alternative ending: Christoper turns states witness and ends up living in witness protection, like Adriana wanted him to all along...only now, after killing her for 'betraying' the Life, he has to do it alone.
-
Christopher getting ridiculed
I honestly thought Christopher was going to shoot Paulie when they were making fun of him, just like HE was shot by Joe Pesci in Goodfellas at the card game. It would have been a great twist.I guess I am more creative than David Chase.(Unless he wanted to make us think that).
-
Christopher is the key
I predict that (1) Christopher will finally kill Paulie (his actual desired target last night -- the screenwriter was just a temporary stand-in because Christopher didn't have the balls to go after Paulie), (2) fear of the consequences for himself and his family will be what causes him to finally turn stooge on Tony, and (3) Tony will then kill Christopher, perhaps using his brother-in-law (forgot his name) as the triggerman. The quasi-Oedipal Tony/Christopher dynamic is the closest to Tony's love/hate relationship to his own father, and it has to be resolved with the death of one or the other. It also presents the irony of Christopher turning into a rat after killing Adriana for the same thing.
-
Sociopaths
While I agree with Ms. Havrilesky's observation that Tony and Christopher (and many other characters on "The Sopranos") are ruthless killers who represent "everything ugly about the ugly American," I still feel more pity than anger toward them. These characters, who have just as many personal and existential issues as people in less despicable professions, are stuck in an environment that values balls over emotions. Sunday night's episode in particular seemed focused on this problem. I believe Christopher shot J.T. after realizing he is, as J.T. shouted moments before his death, "in the Mafia" -- a world that will ultimately provide him with little support, and no sympathy.