Author: Jamey Codding (Page 7 of 10)

With one episode to go (this year, before the eight bonus episodes starting in January), here’s some of what we know:

Phil is going to be a major pain in the ass. Johnny Sack is gone after accepting a 15-year plea bargain last episode, leaving Phil as acting boss and likely successor. He’s been riding Tony’s ass (no pun intended) about the Vito situation, and when word leaked that Vito approached Tony incognito at a mall, asking to be allowed to buy back in, Phil set up a meeting with T to see if the rumors were true. The telling thing about that meeting was when Phil said, “If Vito was here and you knew about it….” He didn’t get to finish the thought because Tony walked away, but it’s clear there was a threat waiting at the end of that sentence. It’s also clear that Phil doesn’t have much respect for Tony, because he found Vito himself and watched as two of his guys beat him to death in a hotel room. Later, we learn they rammed a pool cue (unchalked, rumor has it) up his can.

The thing is, Tony had already reluctantly told Sil that Vito needed to be taken care of; instead, Phil offs one of Tony’s captains. How should T respond? He knows taking out one of Phil’s made guys would set off a war, and that’s the last thing he wants. Looks like that’s exactly what he’s going to get since Carlo took out one of the guys who killed Vito with a butcher knife. Sil helped, first by knocking him over the head and then jumping on his back when he lunged toward Carlo. We’ve known Phil was going to be trouble right from the beginning of the season, and now we’re finally seeing just what kind of trouble he’s going to cause. T and Johnny had their issues but they made it work. Phil is just a prick. The question is, does Phil try to take Tony out before Tony takes Phil out?

AJ is a little too much like Daddy. He likes to party, likes the women, has a violent streak and doesn’t much care for the law. He even had his very first panic attack a few episodes ago. This week, Carm finds out AJ was fired from Blockbuster for stealing movie posters and cardboard cutouts, and then selling them. “You always tell me to think like a businessman,” AJ tells Tony, “but every time I do, it’s no good.” Damn, he’s right. AJ made money by selling stolen merchandise, and he made money when he organized and promoted high school parties, but he got his ass chewed in both instances. If T and Carm aren’t happy with the choices AJ’s making, maybe they should take a hard look at his role models. Later, when Tony suggests to Carm that they shouldn’t have spoiled AJ, she says, “This is something in him. Deep down, it’s like this big ‘Fuck You’ to everything.” To which Tony pricelessly responds, “I don’t know what that’s all about.” Hello? D’uh! Anyone ever heard “Like father, like son”?

At this point, I’m trying to figure out who’s on a more dangerous path, Chris or AJ. Neither one of them seems headed toward anywhere good, though we’ve seen very little of Christopher the last two weeks. Tony confesses to Melfi this week that he hates AJ, which isn’t true, of course, but if it wasn’t for Carm, Tony tells AJ earlier in the episode, “I would’ve knocked out all your baby teeth with one shot.” Melfi, however, points out that the protection Carmella gave AJ when he was growing up is exactly the kind of protection he wishes his mother had given him from his father. Deep stuff. It’ll be interesting to see what course David Chase has plotted for AJ in these final nine episodes.

Carmella is bored and Tony is back. Carmella’s trip to Paris with Roe this week was an eye opening experience for her, one that will no doubt have her sniffing around the Adriana situation some more when she returns. Think she’ll learn that Tony had Ade killed? No marriage survives that. Carm is looking for more independence, which doesn’t exactly thrill Tony, and it’s going to be worse after this trip. “Who am I? Where am I going?” Tony said to nobody in particular as he faded in and out of consciousness in the hospital. Carm admits to Roe this week that she feels the same way. Meanwhile, Tony appears to have fallen off the spiritual wagon. He was forced into ordering the hit on Vito to help sooth relations with Phil, and shortly after making that decision, we see T getting road head from an unbelievably hot stripper while “Back in Black” is blaring from his car stereo.

Oh yeah, Tony appears to be back alright, though reluctantly. He wanted to let Vito relocate to Atlantic City, and he walked out on half-naked Juliana Marguiles because he didn’t want to cheat on Carmella. As hard as he’s tried to cling on to the perspective he gained through his time in the hospital, and as much as he may want to shake his lifestyle at times, it’s clear that Tony Soprano is and always will be Tony Soprano. And that’s most likely going to mean trouble for Phil Leotardo.

Earlier this season, Chris and Little Carmine were pitching a script in Hollywood that they described as “‘Saw’ meets ‘The Godfather.’” Seems “The Sopranos” these days is a “Brokeback Mountain”/“The Godfather” blend. Some of you thought the picnic scene from a couple weeks ago was graphic, but this week the heat on Vito’s relationship with Johnny Cakes was turned up several degrees. They even had their first couples fight. Ah, but Vito’s bored – he’s working too hard during the day (the scene where he looked at his watch, thinking it was 11:30 and time for lunch only to learn it wasn’t even 10:00 am, was money) and everyone he knows turns in before midnight. So he bails on Johnny, empties out his closet and dresser in the middle of the night (apparently very quietly, seeing as Johnny didn’t even wake up), and heads back to Jersey. But on his way back, Vito slams into a parked car and, instead of calling the cops to file a report, he shoots the driver in the back of the head and takes off. Just like riding a bike, apparently.

(By the way, I’ve been calling Vito’s boy toy “Johnny Cakes” for weeks, but I think this is the first time I ever heard Vito actually refer to him as “Johnny Cakes.” Did I really just make up a nickname, or did I steal one without even knowing it?)

Has anybody else noticed just how fast our widdle gangster is growing up? During Tony’s session with Melfi, he says that he and Carm had an agreement when they reconciled (only Tony says it like “rewind,” with a long “e”), that if Tony backed Carm on her spec house, “she would have more of a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy toward my work…and my recreational life outside of the home.” So you know what that means? Tony tossed Julianna Marguiles off his lap a couple weeks ago because he didn’t want to cheat on Carm, not because Carm may find out. That’s an interesting distinction. Of course, that may also mean that we’ve seen the last of Julianna, since she seems to have been more of a temporary diversion for Tony rather than his new goomah. (What a shame, because she looked fabulous in her two episodes. Those boots…ooh, those boots.)

And then there’s the favor Tony did for Janice. Early in the episode, she comes into his office and starts bitching about how hard T is on Bobby and wondering why he hasn’t been made captain yet before breaking down and telling Tony that she sat with him and cried for him while he recovered in the hospital. He says he was grateful, and it’s obvious he was sincere, but then he lobs this classic: “But we both know, no matter how much help I gave, you’d still be here fuckin complaining.” Wow, so damn cold and yet so damn true. And yet, after examining the root of his resentment toward his sister in another session with Melfi (“I love it when I can take a shit on her. And her husband,” he admits), Tony gets Johnny Sack to sell his house to Janice, a house she absolutely loves, for half market value. What a great little brother.

Of course, Tony did Johnny (Sack, not Cakes) a favor, and when that favor became more of a hassle, Tony took the opportunity to improve his end of the deal. Had Tony known what Johnny was up to, though, he probably would’ve turned him down. Imagine what you would have to do to make 15 years in the can sound like a fair deal for a guilty plea. So what’s Johnny Sack’s purpose now? If he’s not going to give anyone up, it seems he’s no longer useful to the overall story. In fact, I think we’re about to find out what David Chase has planned for Phil Leotardo – they’ve been setting him up for a major role all season, and it’ll likely come to a head in the final two episodes.

And as for Chris, well, we only saw him this week as a federal marshal towed his car, which Johnny Sack’s wife sold to him for $25k cash after Johnny was arrested. I know you all think I’m crazy for thinking Chris has flipped, but we’ll have to wait another week or two before I prove you wrong. (Or before I eat a steaming plate of crow, whatever.)

With three of their moles now dead (Adrianna last season, and Ray Curto and Gene Pontecorvo this season), the FBI needed a new snitch. I’ve been saying all season that I thought Chris was an obvious target, considering his tight relationship with Tony, his own personal history, and the fact that he’s dealing with some shady Middle Eastern dudes, an association that the FBI could potentially use as leverage against him.

Well, I no longer think Chris could be the guy; I think he is the guy. Tony and Chris stole several cases of wine from two members of the Viper motorcycle gang, who were actually in the process of stealing the wine (and an ATM machine) themselves. Later, while enviously watching Tony drink the wine during dinner, Chris mentions that he sometimes misses drinking. Tony pours him a glass, saying they need to toast Chris’ new marriage and baby (out of the blue – I don’t think they even showed Chris’ new girlfriend before tonight, then she walks out of the bedroom and – BOOM – tells him she’s pregnant), and eventually they wind up in the restaurant parking lot with a freshly opened bottle, sloppy drunk. They start gushing about one another, as drunk guys often do, talking about the bond they share and yada-yada-yada. Then, out of nowhere, Chris brings up the Adrianna situation. Again.

Now, I’m not going to go back and watch all the previous episodes, but that’s at least the third or fourth time Chris has mentioned something about Adrianna to Tony this season. It never struck me as odd before tonight – I just figured Chris was still having a hard time coming to grips with it all – but a warning light started flashing tonight. Maybe it was the fact that we saw a flashback of the scene that Chris was talking about, when he broke the news to T that Adrianna was a snitch. They were in Tony’s basement and, after Chris told him, T tore open Chris’ shirt to make sure he wasn’t wired. That seemed off to me; why did we have to actually see the scene again?

Well, because later in the episode, Chris drops by unannounced and finds Tony in the basement, putting his newly acquired bottles of wine on his wine rack. So what did they talk about? Nothing. Chris told Tony that he ended up selling his wine, which prompted Tony to relive some of the events from the night they robbed the Vipers. But that was it. There was no point to the conversation whatsoever. It seemed like a wasted scene. BUT…if you get a chance to watch it again (TiVo, HBO on Demand, whatever), take a close look at Chris’ shirt. There’s a slight bulge just below his collarbone, something that you wouldn’t notice unless you were looking for it (as I was). He was wired. He had to be. Why have that conversation with Tony? He was digging for information, that’s why. Maybe he wanted Tony to talk more about the wine, just like he’s seemingly wanted Tony to talk more about what happened to Adrianna on several occasions this season. And why show that flashback earlier? Because the last time they were in the basement, Tony made sure Chris wasn’t wearing a wire. Talk about symmetry.

Of course, there are a couple of holes in this hypothesis, like why is Chris so excited about buying a house with his new wife if he’s working with the feds and could some day soon have to go into hiding? And during the wine robbery, Chris shot one of the bikers as Tony drove away. Would he be immune to punishment for that if he’s working with the FBI? Still, I’m holding firm: Chris has flipped and we’re going to find out about it soon (only three episodes left, in case you missed the previews for next week). He’s going to destroy Tony’s family from the inside out, but maybe not before he destroys himself, since he’s clearly rolled right off the wagon. Shooting some heroin will do that to a guy.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much space to talk about the rest of tonight’s episode, so I’ll try to quickly wrap this one up. Tony finds himself bored with life (“Every day is a gift, it just doesn’t have to be a pair of socks,” he tells Dr. Melfi), and though we only briefly saw Julianna tonight, I’m sure she’ll have a larger role in upcoming episodes. Trouble ahead for T and Carm. Paulie hasn’t been featured much recently but it looks like he found out at the end of the episode that he’s got Cancer. How’s he going to react to that? For a while there, Paulie looked like a ticking time bomb, and maybe he still is, but in that final scene with his mom/aunt, he just looked defeated and depressed. Meanwhile, Phil Leotardo has started cutting Johnny Sack out of the loop, which will make things that much more interesting when Tony and Phil butt heads over the Vito situation. And speaking of Vito, I don’t even think anyone mentioned his name tonight, which means we should see him and Johnny Cakes go on a picnic or three next week.