"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.

The Sopranos Episode #82 "Walk Like a Man"

Jonathan Kleier
05.09.2007

Incomplete Rough for The Sopranos Episode #82

We have discussed Tony’s recent break in morality – his willingness to sell expired medication to innocent civilians, etc. However, it is very shocking that he spoke to agent Harris and in Harris’s words, Tony “cooperated.” The mafia does not cooperate with the government. I think it’s been made very clear that, despite Tony’s and the feds symbiotic, love-hate relationship, ratting is ratting. A few episodes ago when Harris confronted Tony in the driveway (it’s too dangerous, has been for years), Tony said in response, “There’s a word for that,” which I thought very obviously meant that word is rat.

Even more, Tony implicated Christopher. He told them one of his “associates” had provided some fake credit cards (he also sold them guns).

This storyline places us, the audience, in a moral dilemma. We love Tony and do not want to see him cooperate. To cooperate is to betray both his loyalty to his oath of the mafia, yet not to cooperate is disloyal to the thousands of innocents who would be victims to terror attacks.

Tony's Affinity for the Fearless:

Tony loves the tough, the strong silent type... he has an interesting obsession with Gary Cooper, the strong silent type. He was so impressed when Paulie showed balls to the Cubans in "Remember When." That’s who Tony is and always has been. He loves that Carlo Jr. and Patsy Jr. (whatever their names were, Jason, I think?) enjoyed the strippers, he loved that they “major in cash and minor in ass.” He wished AJ would major in ass. His advice on getting over depression was to get a blowjob. Tony is correct on a level. Certainly, the best cure for whatever AJ went through is to go hang out with his friends and find some girls.

And Tony’s idea of normal and good is certainly skewed. He was happy that Meadow was dating Jackie Jr. because at least Jackie Jr. was one of them and he came from “good stock.” However, by no means did Tony demonstrate wanting that type of life for Meadow. He values good stock, and as we see he values good genes.

It might be the same situation with Carlo Jr. and Patsi Jr. They are one of them, they come from, what Tony assumedly considers, good stock. So, the point is, it’s difficult to say if Tony was sending A.J. down the path of mobster or just encouraging him to hang out with what he considers normal kids. He definitely likes the traits that go with that path, majoring in cash, minoring in ass… being a man’s man, a masculine man; however, in Tony’s world, these personality traits are synonymous with the mafia career.

We also see again just how important gestures are to these people. Paulie, I think, tried to reconcile with Chris at the beginning of the episode when Paulie invited him to have a steak. Paulie even offered to pay for the steak – that is a big deal, historically for the two of them. A lot of their beef comes from a dinner where Paulie forced Chris to pay for a 1200 dollar meal. Which lead to an argument, which lead to their shooting and killing the waiter. However, Paulie’s joke that Chris’s daughter would one day be a stripper at the Bing, which seemed out of line. It went too far, but so too did Chris when he rejected the steak. When Ralphie rejected Tony’s offer for a drink it turned into a 2-episode plot line that added a lot to their beef.

With that said, Paulie very inappropriately terrorized Chris’s wife and child. It’s one thing to retaliate against Chris, but there has always been a wall between wives and children.

Christopher:

Let’s talk for a moment about who Christopher is. Christopher is, like most of these characters, very complex. He shows strength in circumstances many would not, yet he is a complete bitch (by Mafia standards) in others. For example, Adriana should be a non-issue. She was a rat and therefore Chris didn’t do anything noble by choosing Tony over Ade in "Long Term Parking." He merely did as he is expected. This mafia thing punishes disloyalty, but they do not necessarily reward loyalty because loyalty is a prerequisite for becoming a made guy. So it’s somewhat confusing why Chris makes an issue of this. It no doubt makes him look very weak. In this world, one’s spouse/girlfriend is mostly a direct reflection of the man. Men are supposed to keep their women under control and punish them when they get out of control. When Janice made the 5 o’clock news in season 4 or 5 for beating a civilian mother at Sophia’s (Bobby’s daughter) soccer game, Tony told Bobby that to get his wife under control. Christopher’s inability to control his woman, followed by his inability to punish her (he outsourced that to Tony/Silvio) is a reflection on his weakness of character.

On the other hand, in season 5's "Irregular Around The Margins," a rumor goes around that Ade went down on Tony. It leads Chris to empty a round of bullets into Tony’s SUV (balls). When Tony is about to shoot Chris in the head, Tony says something like, if you drop this, if you can tell me you believe I didn’t do this then we can all go home and be cool. If you cannot drop the issue, you are dead right now. Chris believed Tony was guilty and thus his refusal to say otherwise -- out of principle. He was ready to die defending his girl’s honor (very manly)… or it might be he was defending his honor; either way, he was very ready to die for that cause.