"... Melfi's therapist, Elliott, tells her of a study he read about how talk therapy actually enables sociopaths instead of treating them."

When I saw the show, I couldn't help thinking about how this relates to the current administration.

No matter how hard they try to remain secretive the truth always come out and how it, in some visceral way, enables them.

I wish I could go back and edit posts..

Tony and Carmine showed up at Phil's house "on a human level" I believe Carmine said.. But Phil doesn't have a "human level" to him. That is why you couldn't see him - there is no humanity left in Phil.

Interesting AJ is so bothered by the Palistinian and Israeli conflict which is similar to the NY / NJ conflict that is happening.

I think AJ might kill the 2 Jasons, or start a crew with them.

Phil orders a hit on someone, as you see in the next episode trailer. I don't think it will be AJ. Possibly Bobby or Tony.

I forgot about the wrath of Janice, but I don't think she would hurt Tony. In a way she is a sociopath like Tony is, manipulating and cruel. But Tony can help her if she needs it (He gave her a house!) so she probably feels she needs him, even if she won't admit it.

Tony's bus comment - I think it had meaning. I am still trying to figure it out - but I think it has to do with the fact he never got the love from his mother, and by "chasing the bus and trying to get back on" he has been trying to get validation for what he does in life, or motherly validation. By letting the bus go - its a tremendous weight lifted off of him.

Tony also mentioned to Melfi about the duality of life. Tony's family side and Tony's business side I think. The evil he does in his work is balanced by the love of his kids, as I think he belives. He does whatever he has to do to provide for his family.

I also think the Kevin Finnerty "Tony" will become (or is) a reality, possibly witness protection program, or "the something else to this world, something outside of this" or whatever Tony said to Melfi - Melfi responded with "a parallel universe?" and Tony said "Maybe.. something like that..." Although at the time I took it as maybe him realizing a spiritual existance, phisical or otherwise.

I am happy that Tony went into the peyote experience with his friends - I think it was his way of realizing that they are important other than just business associates. He looked at Chris' picture, I think he actually does feel remorse for killing Chris..

I liked Paulie discribing his acid experience on the airplane - listening to Frankie Vallie and the guy next to him with the lasers shooting out of his eyes.

I liked Paulie's comment

I think Chase is saying that Tony's compartmentalization of his life was always destined to fail, and that this failure will destroy only thing he really values--his children. AJ was almost seduced by the power and violence of his father's world, but in the end just didn't have the stomach for it. The only way out for him is to join up, kill himself or walk away. He's tried the first two and failed; I'm guessing that he ends up succeeding at leaving.

Meadow is the harder case. Like Carmela, she loves the status, power and money that come from being part of Tony's family, but she's deep in denial. She can't give it up, even though she knows it's wrong. But this week is the first time that she's actually made herself complicit in a criminal act. When Tony asked her what had happened to upset her, she held back, knowing that if she told him exactly what had happened, he would have to act. In Tony's world, he could never ignore an intentional insult to his daughter, and she knew it. When he pressed her, she gave in easily, because she wanted him to do something. She wanted revenge. And now she's dating a boy from the neighborhood who clearly has roots in her father's world.

For Tony, these outcomes are disastrous. AJ, his heir, is headed away from the family toward the unknown, and Meadow, whom he tried to completely insulate from his world, is headed directly into it.

...waiting to be born, the rough beast whose time has come at last.

It's fascinating that the most boring, self-absorbed major character of the entire series has become the heart and center (the center that will not hold??) of this show. It all comes down to AJ now - will he perpetuate the family legacy of putrid genes and horrific actions? Or will he break the cycle, find his way out, develop a moral sense that not only enables him to escape but compels him to?

It's been beautiful, funny and painful to see AJ's intellect rousing itself from its lifelong slumber, to see the feelings that have been damped down by indulgence and privilege awakened by some combination of being in Blanca's world and more fully in the world of his father. He's like a kitten whose eyes are just now opening after stumbling around blindly all his life - he is actually seeing the world, the world of his family ("the" family) as well as the larger world for the first time. And he's right - it's all dicked up. It's so dicked up, even AJ can see that it is.

I can't predict what will happen but I think that Chase is determined to have AJ reflect the Sopranos family fate, and in a larger sense, the fate of all Americans who choose to live lives of indulgence and numbness, cocooned in their McMansions, driving their SUV's and moving blithely through life as if nothing bad is happening in the world.

Like The Godfather, the Sopranos has always been an indictment not just of a group of criminals, but of the American way of life itself. Now Chase asks the most poignant question of all: The children, what about the children? What legacy are we leaving them? Will they make it to Bethlehem and find their souls, or will they be lost while waiting to be born?