These people are predators. You really think the show indicts their prey?

Since their prey is just anyone, their prey could be you.

So if they killed you, would that be an indictment of you?

There is no way now that AJ follows Tony. It is impossible. Becoming institutionalized in a hospital, crying like a baby, etc. are major signs of weakness in the mafia world that woudl completely preclude him from having any sort of roll in a crime family.

Chase isn't trashing therapy at all. Contrast the actual insights that Tony has experienced in therapy with what Melfi's shrink Elliot (nursing on that big bottle of water last night) says about studies that show therapy making guys like Tony worse. Elliot's study doesn't quite pan out. Tony is still a murderer, but he has had remarkable insights (particularly regarding his mother)during the course of treatment.

Achieving insight in therapy doesn't help much if you're still attached to a dysfunctional family that pulls you back in. Anyone who has ever been rejected by their old friends and family after "getting well" can attest to this.

Like someone else said, in the real Mafia a direct insult/threat to a boss's daughter would definitely result in serious injury or death. No different here. Coco knows that, but felt safe in doing so, which can only mean that not only did he consider Tony - a boss - beneath him, but also that the NY guys think Tony is completely impotent.

Truly, the comparisons I keep coming back to with this 1/2 season, at least, are to Shakespeare. I see definite ties to King Lear, and to Julius Caesar. To illness, to greyness, to age and to global problems.

Ultimately, what Shakespeare detailed and what comes across vehemently in these episodes is the sense of everything being spun out of control, years of consequences coming to a head, and no good solutions being available.

They say sometimes to kill the beast you have to cut off its head, but I think in this case, as in much ancient tragedy and theater, truly crushing the beast, or the king for that matter, will come from eliminating everything around him he loves - and starting with his family.

it's all emptiness. very dark indeed. but very very well done.

The dumping of the asbestos in the marsh reminded me of an earlier scene - way back in Season 1, I think - where Melfi confronts Tony about what he does for a living, and Tony, in his defense, snaps back, "What about those corporations, dumping chemicals and shit into the rivers?" The implication being that the destruction Tony wrought was nothing compared to what "legitimate" business did, with an added caveat that at least when anyone got hurt by him, it was someone who "desevered it" - another mobster ("soldier", he said) or gambler, etc, not an innocent member of the public.

But, as has been pointed out several times here and in other discussion threads, Tony's compartmentalized life is collapsing - his business is intruding on family life and vice versa, and for the first time Tony is forced to acknowledge the consequences of the life he's lead (hence the recurrent scenes hinting at revelation - Tony shouting "I get it!" into the canyon and the constant reappearance of white lights, from the sun over the canyon, to the spotlight over Paris during Carm's trip, to the revloving beacon of light on the horizon in Tony's 'Kevn Finnerty' dreams).

Like most things in the Sopranos, the asbestos has both practical and multiple symbolic implications, which is why the show deserves all the comparisons it gets to classic literature. This final stretch of shows is nothing short of spectacular.

I tend to think that there is the distinct possibility that T will be found in the trunk of his car, at the behest of NY. Aftershocks involve the total de-compartmentalization of the lives of Tony's 'true' family - Carm, AJ, & Meadow, forced to see life in a harsh new light: T dead, media flashbulbs, no $$ rolling in to support the lifestayle they take for granted, etc.

I may be way off, but with Chase's show rooted so firmly in the dystopic realities of mafia life, it seems very possible to me.

i'll be sorry to see sopranos end,reality tv is crap,news reels have turned into soap opreas,I would love to buy tv al a carte

When AJ was watching that drug commercial, it reminded me of Junior, wasting away in his private hell, watching wheel of fortune. Tony has these bookends at both sides of him, drugged and complacent about their lives. As Tony shuffled inside the psyched ward to meet up w/ AJ, he looked like he was coming home- to his own psych ward. It's where he belongs too. He is sick and he knows it. I think Tony just wants to walk away from his life.

Live in the desert and watch the sunset.

He doesn't want this lifestyle anymore. Did you see the dread on his face when he walked into the Bing after AJ's rescue?

He knew these guys didn't get any of this stuff.

He felt sickened, I thought, to have to explain mental illness to them.

What do they know? Not much, we found out. Tony gets even more lonely and depressed.

He now gets that his son is far worse than he ever imagined, something strippers and beer can't fix, and he feels guilty for his lifestyle; the tooth in his cuff, while he tries to listen to AJ and his deep, deep pain.

It is partly his fault.

His personal asbestos has sickened his boy and endangers everyone on his crew.

Tony is toxic. And like the garbage that Phil won't take, Tony has nowhere to go.

He has no more options.

So, Phil retaliates next week. It looks as though someone is being chased outside(I think it's AJ because there is a shot of him on the ground crying, pleading.)

I think to save AJ and his whole family, Tony dissappears.

Or could Tony commit suicide by allowing a hit on him?

All of the comments here have gotten my juices flowing! Can't wait to read more and hypothesize more.