****Sopranos Season 5 Season Guide (Spoilers) (2 Viewers)

[TonyD]

it looked to me like aj was transforming into a "boss" or"captain" like character and the other guy was his first "soldier".

 

[LewB]

A 'boss' comes up thru the ranks, he has to be a solider first. AJ is a spoiled wuss.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Tony S is willing to get his hands dirty, I don't see any of that in AJ.


Cut into them and they make you cry?

 

[JohnFF]

Great episode. Good to see Sil and Paulie play critical roles again. Interesting to see AJ finally finding himself (I had the same reaction as Tony when Carm mentioned the Event Planning thing). No Janice! I hope Melfi can live with herself if she finds out about Tony B. She did look good though...

Very uneven season but good overall. The final two episodes made up for that awful dream debacle.

The good (for me): the final two episodes, Feech, the whole thread about the gardener ('he jumped out of a tree and attacked me with a chainsaw'), the 'lots of Meadow' episode, Tony B, the Melfi body-double, the Tony S - Junior relationship, the Tony and Johnny relationship, Philly Leotardo, the Chris and Aide relationship.

The bad: not nearly enough Silvio and Paulie, all of the episodes that focused on Carm, Janice or AJ, too many stories that had to do with Carm or Janice, too many scenes with Carm or Janice.

The ugly: that miserable dream episode.

 

[Todd.Martin]

Paulie is a trip- guy's been in the mob that long and obviously has some $ but he lives in a place that looks like my college apartment and had that "great" painting on his wall. He's a freakin child- "you don't visit me any more Tony"

 

[Todd.Martin]

And I still think it would have been better if Tony had given out the location of TB but then got word to TB- "they found out where you are, it's too late to run, but this is my favor to you- you knwo they are coming." I think if TB was ready he could have taken out Phil and a couple of his hoods. What could Sack say if the hit went "bad"? I gave you the info, not my fault Phil got himself shot. There are risks involved in a hit and frankly having phil gone might have been a good thing for Sack. Hey even send Chris up to help TB.

Not like Phil was a brainiac-he didn't know Tb was already dead, he's trying to surprise TB and yet he drives up to an isolated house and goes up the driveway? Then he gimps up to the front door with a cane? Like if TB was unaware and hiding out he wouldn't have heard Phil coming?

 

[Philip Hamm]

Paulie is not well off. Remember a couple seasons back he killed one of his mothers' friends after she let it slip that she had a large amount of cash on hand in her apartment. That's desparation. He stole the old bag's money after murdering her and gave a bunch of it in tribute to Tony S.

 

[Chuck C]

ya, but half of that was uncle jr. faking it b/c of the sh** pile tony dropped in his lap.

 

[Jason Hughes]

Is Christopher going to get "made"?

I assume he meant to ask if Christopher will become a captain next year.

 

[John_VI]

I guess I'm in the minority in that I really didn't care for the finale. Most of the episode was good, but the ending sequence with Sack - while superbly acted - left me very let down. If the Feds nabbed the gardner, why the hell didn't they follow Tony? Wasn't there any Feds in the woods in back of the house to prevent Sack's escape by that route? Too neat and tidy, IMHO. Loved the bear analogy at the very end, tho.

Tony whacking Tony B. was the right thing to do. Very well done. We witnessed Tony's struggle regarding his obligation to his family vs. his "perceived" obligation to his cousin. In the end, he made the hard choice that generals make in battle, and it was the right choice.

The scene in Paulie's apartment was classic. I'm so glad that Tony finally saw the painting, and it was great that it played such a huge part in his coming to grips with his true responsibilities.

Silvo confronting Tony was also great. Silvo is such a good consigliarri.

And when Tony walked into his office in the Bing after he had whacked Tony B., I was wondering why the mood was so strangely strained, but eventually chalked it up to what was going on with Tony B. and the crew's dissatisfaction with it. But on a second watching, I realized that they (Sil, Patsy and Bobby) already knew that Tony had whacked his cousin, and were grieving with Tony regarding what he had had to do re: Tony B.

So in the end, I guess the actual END of the episode was the only thing I didn't like. Chalk me up as one of those who wanted to see a LOT more conflict between the NY and NJ families. Now, I'm thinking that the NY family will be nothing more than a footnote in the next season. All of the emphasis will be on the timing of when Tony and his crew gets ratted out by Birthday Boy, and how that whole thing will shake out.

 

[Shawn C]

He was only doing that to push Tony's buttons. He was playing the pathetic card knowing that Tony would have bought into it, at least partly. He was just trying to make Tony feel guilty about not coming around anymore, to distract his attention from the painting.

As soon as Paulie opened the door, I was like "Oh man, Tony is going to see that painting now!"

 

[Brett_H]

Wow. I wasn't expecting nearly that much resolution in this episode, so it came as quite a shocker. I was convinced that we'd have a war one way or another (on-screen or off), and now it seems to be a non-issue.

Now we're having Tony's guilt about TB going from the incident that landed TB in jail to "doing the right thing" and killing TB, only to have it not necessarily matter in the end. Yes, it was right as far as the mob was concerned, and there's no way TS could have known about the impending bust, but still, that's going to eat at TS now. That will be an interesting Melfi conversation, if it ever comes.

I could use some clarification about the character that was seen giving the tape to the feds: that was the same character whose birthday party was shown, correct? He is also a different informant than the one that brought down Sack's organization, right? Have we ever seen Sack's crew's informant?

And finally, a random thought about next season, possibly the end of the show. If they really wanted to pay homage to the Godfather, I could see Meadow's wedding taking place, a grand event at the Soprano house, only to be brought to a halt by the feds coming in to bust everyone in attendance...

-Brett.

 

[John_Lee]

So, was the crew setting up TS with his breakfast sammich [I'm not even going to pretend I know what a 'bialy' is or how it's spelled] and coffee the morning after he shot DT the LCN version of Chris Rock's "Daddy's big piece of chicken."

 

[Sam Favate]

I thought he already did, back in season 3 or 4. There was a ceremony with blood rituals and Tony's "once you enter this family..." speech.

 

[todd stone]

I think some of you are missing the stuff about AJ. I have a feeling he will be used quite a bit, or play an important role in a very important episode in the final season.

They don't have all the AJ hijinks for nothing

 

[phil-w]

I was hoping that AJ would get whacked instead of Tony B

And...why did Tony S toss down the latex gloves with the gun, hasn't he seen CSI? I would think that they could pull a print off the inside of the glove along with some DNA.

 

[Todd.Martin]

i thought he took the gloves off and put them in his pocket.

 

[Jean D]

To me, I saw AJ acting more like his father. He organized the party and watched as the other kid handled his light work. Obviously, he's the "boss" of his crew. Slowly we've been seeing that he is becoming Tony....and the look on Tony's face when he found out that AJ made $300 doing the event, and the way he handled the underage drinking comment made by Carm, seemed like Tony realized the inevitable. Tony would rather see him involved in "waste management" rather than be a f*ck-up.
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I dont think anyone in Tony's crew is even questioning Tony anymore, since he handled matters properly with Tony S. It seemed to resolve the conflict within the crew.
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As far as Tony being at Sak's house when the Feds came through, they knew Tony S. was there, they saw him, his car in the driveway, and let him get away for some reason unknown as of yet (many possible plot twists could be used for this one). Carmine Jr. will obviously take over for the family again, but without Sak's fight for power, instead, he will have the support of everyone, but will have a lot of people talking into his ears now cause they dont respect him, hes a pushover remember? Now, the guy (forgot his name) who is giving the info to the FBI is still within the family, he hasnt gone into Witness Protection yet, so the NJ family could possibly think that Tony set-up Saks, especially since he got away easily.

 

[AjayM]

They stink?
Oh, they make you cry.
Oh, you leave em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs.

Andrew

 

[AndrewG]

I have a question about Tony's and Chrissy's conversation about Ade. Tony asks Chris if he mentioned anything to Adrianna about Ralph or the B.... Kid. Who is this second person? I didn't quite get the name but regardless I couldn't place a face. Obviously Tony is talking about people he "took care of" and of course I could remember Ralph. Can anyone help here?

Andy