"Remember When" as end of Act 1 Season 7

Jonathan Kleier

Originally written following week 3 of the season, "Remember When." However, for posterity...

With this episode, I think The Sopranos end is shaping up. I see obvious connections to the season's first episode, and the ripples that follow all the way back. No doubt complexities abound, but there is an emerging theme we cannot ignore.

Very deliberately in 7.1 "Sopranos Home Movies" we're told that Bobby has not popped his cherry, and then that point is driven home when we witness Bobbie's popping his cherry. In 7.3 we are for the first time made aware of Tony's cherry popping. More importantly, the circumstance: Tony's father orchestrating it. In 3.13 Tony expresses sincerely that he A.J. will not be lead down this path. In somewhat parallel, Tony decides that his (other) son, Chris will take the Family into the new Millennium.

Chris is a drug addict. He was even high when Tony told him that he would become Boss. He was high later when Tony called him to dispose of Ralphie. That was, more or less, the end of Chris as potential leader. Not that Tony explicitally telegraphs it, but I'm sure Chris still believes that he can be Boss. For us the audience, it's assumed Tony simply reassessed the situation, checked his mental list, and moved on.

In parallel Tony began to lose interest in A.J. In season 6 there was a glimmer of "I want a better life for my son" in his quite sincere speech post A.J.'s botched attempt at revenge on Junior. Then, Tony explicitly hates A.J. which is followed by A.J. landing a construction job. If Finn is any indicator, construction is bad news. Now A.J. works at a pizza parlor but doesn't go to work. As Carmela says in Test Dream, "the dye is cast."

So with issues of legacy, Tony must find someone that he can trust. Tony only trusts blood relatives, and unfortunately the only blood relative available is A.J.Tony is going to orchestrate a situation that will allow A.J.'s cherry to pop. Afterall, the ducks are back. Tony's greatest fear is losing his family (not clear blood or other) and his bread and butter is hooking "degenerates" and then milking them for the rest of their lives.

It's difficult to tell if Tony is malicious or simply a victim of circumstance. Tony's genes have mafia written all over them. Obviously, nurture considered, he had a pretty bleak and narrow path. He enjoys violence, he loves being on T.V., he loves that his kid's friends compare him to The Godfather. Tony is sinister, he likes being sinister, and will always be.

While Tony's moral compass has been eroding, it has stayed its lane. Tony mostly plays in his own walled garden of a universe. But increasingly, Tony is knowingly harming innocent civilians. I fear it will begin to and I fear Tony will maliciously punish A.J. in a way described above.

On the other hand, Tony has made some pretty good progress in his therapy. He has learned to control impulses (violent, at least) at that is the 2^nd reason Tony continued the therapy. Panic attacks disappeared other than the David Chase psyche out blowjob.

I really do not want this because I really like Tony. Chase would damage my feelings, but dramatically it's all clean.

ADE Matters A lot:

Carmela will not drop the Adriana issue. Morality not the issue, if Carmela can prod enough and ultimately piece together Adriana's story, it will bring down the thin veil of "knowing" and now she will know murders, specifics. Tony has specifically never given Carmela any detail at all that could ever "make you an accessory after the fact."

She would now know details of Adriana's death, and in that process, becomes what Adriana was. A federal target. A candidate for murder, to prevent her becoming a federal target. FBI wanted Ade for much less.

If Carmela discovers that, an outsider like Adriana, who Carmela is almost the same as, is murdered; then Carmela realizes that Carmela can be murdered. Changes the whole dynamic I think.

She is already paranoid. In Season 6's premiere we see the montage sequence with William Burroughs "7 Souls" on top. Close to the end, Adriana and Carmela, with Ade puffing a cig and passing it to Carmela. Yeah, it's symbolism bullshit that I usually like to not discuss, but this time I cannot, given Carmela's persistence on the subject.