Maybe a pile of crap in the Meadowlands is just a pile of crap in the Meadowlands. The location has been used before in the show and the Meadowlands is a dominant part of the Northern NJ landscape. Really, it's the logical place to dump asbestos if you've got it!

The post someone made yesterday about the undead Cleaver guy saying "You can't kill me twice..." made me think of how Tony had Patsy Parisi's twin brother killed.

Around that time, the Feds spied Patsy drunkenly aim a gun at Tony through the window from outside in the backyard, before pissing in the pool and leaving. He just couldn't do it. I don't think Patsy has ever killed anyone. He's a bookie or something.

Patsy was brought over to Tony's crew originally so T could keep an eye on him. He has never been promoted or really become part of the inner circle.

Now, coincidentally (?!) one of Patsy's sons, Jason, sucks AJ into violence and the other, Patrick (who's "moody," according to dad), is dating Meadow. Meadow knew that Carm and Tony would have reservations, hence all the mystery. I agree that Patsy Parisi could very well be a rat and/or playing both sides of the fence.

As others have mentioned, so much is riding on the shaky faultline between La Famiglia and the damage done to real families -- for Tony, for Phil, for Patsy -- for all these people, really. Can't be loyal to one without screwing up the other it seems.

Tony sees the walls closing in on him.

Meadow is getting insulted in public. Guys on his projects are getting beaten and robbed by the NY crew, and they're calling him out as they do it. This stuff doesn't happen by accident: the disrespect that Phil showed Tony when he came to make peace is not just a momentary personal cloud, it's now official NY policy towards Tony Soprano. As a result, Tony's about to take a big financial hit: Phil is going to shut down the Hackensack mall project. His guys are going to suffer, and his leadership will be questioned.

Melfi will tell him that she can't go on enabling him. If he's not changing his ways, all she's doing is making him feel better about being a depraved, murderous criminal. There's no way to reconcile the behavior of a mob boss with a healthy psyche, so she's gonna bail.

The feds are closing in, too. These no-envelope cash transactions can't be just coincidental. They're about to nab a whole bunch of folks. But he's helped them out with terrorism suspects, so they'll offer him a deal.

Tony will decide to take it.

In the meantime, the contempt from NY is shown to be more than just dislike: when Phil says, "I've made a decision; make it happen," he's ordering a hit on Tony. When does one family boss order a hit on another? When he thinks he can get away with it. And he'll think he can get away with it when somebody from the target's family is willing to go along. Paulie's been willing to think about casting his lot with NY before. Since then, Tony's cut his money, made him take a back seat to Christopher, and neglected to order that the family spare some time from Christohper's services to pay respects to his mother. Paulie and Phil can stoke each other's anger toward Tony, Paulie can tell Phil that Tony's personal troubles (the peyote adventure and A.J.'s hospitalization can't inspire confidence) make him ready to be taken, and they'll both bet that at least some of the NJ family can be convinced that it isn't worth your life to defend or avenge Tony.

But Phil's attempt on Tony is going to hit Meadow instead. A.J. will be driving, and he'll somehow survive -- knowing that he'll be blamed for not being man enough to stop it.

Bloodbath ensues. Phil's killed, Tony survives.

A despondent A.J. gives in to his nihilism and he's the one who ultimately takes Tony out.

I think Agent Harris and his Anti-Terrorist unit will raid a gathering of Muslims plotting to blow up something in NY/NJ and AJ will be caught with the others. He will be there because he has become sympathetic to their cause. Tony gets to use his "get out of jail free" card, but it only gets AJ off the hook of being charged as a traitor. This ties up the red herring about the terroists at the Bing. Harris has Tony agree to rat out the mob and go into the witness protection program, but Tony knows he can't live looking at his back for the rest of his life, and no way Carm and Meadow are going to give up their lifestyle and live in Utah and eat Lincoln Logs all day. Tony decides to take out Phil and Butch, but before he can, Phil has the car Meadow and her new boyfriend are riding in blown up and Meadow is killed. Tony kills Phil and any other NY mobster who gets in the way. Tony tells Patsi Parisi that he ok'd the hit on Patsi's brother knowing Patsi will kill him and in the shoot out Patsi is killed and Tony hurt but not dead. Paulie was playing both sides of the fence and Silva kills him. Tony LEAVES Carm and moves to Vegas and like the Junior/Tony relationship, Tony becomes Junior and Bobby becomes acting boss. AJ's stays out of jail but decides to get away from his family. Malfi reads all about Tony in the paper then calls in her next patient..

I honestly don't see terrorists making too much of an entrance into the show. I think its just a side comparison of some kind, but actual terrorist events taking place, or AJ getting involved, again, its too far along to go that route, and its too far out there...

I was also thinking maybe Patsy is the guy on both sides of the fence -

What if he is and Tony kills him? Lets say he does - and the kids discover this. You have Meadow with Patrick and AJ friends with Jason. that would not go over well with anyone. It would be quite the example of business getting mixed with family - killing your daugter's potential father in law...