Letters to the Editor
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prophetic or pathetic?
"AJ is walking a thin line between prophetic and pathetic."
Exactly, that's the beauty of it!
Every second of this season is pure gold. I can't help but feel for AJ. It's horrible how much of that mediocre everyman I see in myself.
I'd be just fine if they keep the pacing of the show as they have been all season - lingering on moments and detail, pumping silence full of energy. Not everyone has to die. It's going to "resolve" on maybe one or two major events, or maybe not resolve. But not everything can be wrapped up. There is no closure in life, why should there be in this show?
I love that they're making time for things, characters that matter. Yes, AJ is crucial, the fixation on the Soprano children is possibly the show's greatest strength, what it has to offer as commentary on this age. Now it seems that AJ's fate might tie into the Arab subplot.
The peyote was a twist I did not see coming, and that's an understatement. I was even more surprised when they carried the trip aftermath into the next episode. Tony thinks there's something more. I was laughing in disbelief at the scene where he can't help himself, and brings up his psychedelic experience to his mob buddies. He has a Syd Barrett moment there for a second, I almost thought he'd gone right off the rails. That awkward pause - spaced out Tony - is he going to keep talking about peyote? But no, he snaps out of it, finds some secular context to put it in, slough off the sanctity, fuck that. The gravity of "the life" is too much, even mescaline can't withstand it. The scene was brilliantly echoed in Melfi's office, Tony saying "you think you've got it... then..."
How can this show be so brutally real, and still acknowledge the transcendental aspect of human experience? I don't know. Props to the fantastic cast.