just one thing: I too considered the possibility that T was putting Chris out of his misery, as it were, except for the look in his eyes. I call that look The Rattlesnake. I recently directed Richard III and my lead actor and I studied James Gandolfini's Rattlesnake look in discussions about King R, so I'm always looking for it. It's like everything human in him vacates the premises, and only the Rattlesnake is left, to do whatever deed the other parts of him are too conflicted to do. His eyes become hooded and almost seem to glow a sickly yellow and every part of Tony you ever liked is nowhere to be found. So cold. I don't know if that's a Gandolfini special trick, or a combination of his acting with the way it's shot, but it's chilling. And was present while he suffocated Chris, so I can't call that a mercy killing.

I have been interested in the asbestos discussions: from gatsby to 9-11. It's clear to me that asbestos is the waste that kills, second hand smoke on a big scale, now in the water supply, now killing the workers who work under the table (outside of the law) so that the working class men who run the system can eke out a little profit: it's the absolute type of waste, the waste unburied, on the surface, an open secret, a poison in the atmosphere. As with all open secrets it induces violence and more secreting: the whole system falls apart if people acknowledge the lies that bind to inappropriate places and people.

The asbestos is the key to what's falling apart: the poison that made houses warm but toxic. Leotardo's last scene, secreted away in that house and yelling from a window, could have been staged by Samuel Beckett. He's pure power and sovereignty now, so hiding his body and delegating his brutality to his henchmen, just as Tony has done. But Tony's too human to become pure power, he has to get out there and do the deed, to expose himself, and to feel the consequences. No one has said this, but I took the killing of Chris to be one of those tragic gestures--he looks in the backseat and sees the heroin apparatus, he sees that Chris is being destroyed by his contradictions (the relation of his sentimentality to his brutality, a la Tony) and he puts him out of his misery, which is shared by Tony and threatens him too. He can see that Chris is leaky, and above all, telling secrets, being toxic in the wrong place, threatens Tony's endurance in his position, threatens to diminish the comfort zone that is, with each week, becoming smaller, limited to the small rooms--the bedroom, the backroom, Melfi.

One more thing, in contrast to some previous posts: I think Melfi went into that post-Elliot session ready to reject Tony for his sentimental seductivity, but Tony was honest and moved across the range of emotions (expressive and defensive) he was having. I think it was actually a fabulous transaction and that she could feel something other than that she had been helping him build better compartmentalizing skills.

But I have to wait until my two year old isn't home before I can watch these murderous fiends... For what it's worth, here are my thoughts, in no particular order.

AJ & the commercial-- while it is like Jun and Wheel of Fortune, it also literally begs you to go back to sleep. Many people here have talked about AJ finally waking up, well...

Fed w/ illness-- yes, that was the same guy. I wonder if he's going to die from it. You know they throw a big cast dinner party for each character that is killed off, and now every time someone dies, like Christapha, I think, "Oh! He got his party!" I feel like that Fed is going to get his party too, though I don't know where that would lead.

Vegas trip-- I felt like he was trying to recapture the coma, go back to being Kevin Finnerty, even if he doesn't remember consciously. The sunrise looked just like that beacon when it flashed, and like the coma, he came away almost understanding something profound.

Silvio & the cleaning book-- yes, I know, metaphor, but also, that was just damn cute!!! While it seemed out of place for a mobster in the Bing, it seemed like a perfect Sil thing to do. He's neat as a pin, and a reader, and just goofy enough to get that book and then give you a "Wha? You gotta problem? You WANT one?" if you break his balls about it. I like the metaphor, but I love the face value.

Phil & the non-meeting-- he was also in what looked very much like a castle tower. And in perfect Sopranos style, a castle tower with a window AC. Ah, I love this show...

Meadow's career-- (yes, she'll probably never make it out of this series alive, but if she did...) interesting that what she actually says she wants to do is "the law" and is inspired by "justice" (as opposed to saying "I want to be a lawyer"). A while back I'd thought she would end up as the family's lawyer. The way she said that, I wonder-- could she actually become one of the good guys, and fight for "justice" and "the rule of law"? Oh well, she's got one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel, so it's probably moot.

Tony at the Bing after AJ's suicide attempt-- remember this is a major weakness. His son, as Meadow said, is the most important legacy Tony leaves and he's a "crybaby coward". More than a man without friends, he was a politically weakened king in that scene.

Meadow dating mob guys-- she did try to date outside the mob with Finn and it was a disaster. No one outside "gets it", plus bringing an outsider in puts him in danger, whereas men already in are already complicit.

Elliott and the water bottle-- Was that water? Because I thought he seemed drunk. The bottle was ridiculous, the contents not seen, he had trouble following her, he was all smirky, and he--her therapist-- basically attacked her work as pointless. I don't know what plot point this serves, but he was drunk.

Enabling sociopaths-- did Chase feel like he had to explain why all these years of therapy never accomplished anything?

Absestos-- Can someone please star Gordon's first post about the insulating but toxic asbestos? That was brilliant. What T wraps around himself poisons him. And the first thing I can think of is all this hatred and resentment of his mother, he wrapped that around him tightly while it poisoned him.

Last but not least, I loved that last shot where Tony put his arm around AJ like he finally understood that they were alike, and no one else understands them, and the potential for a parent to help heal that T is just starting to grasp.