Sopranos Season 5 - a whole lot of exposition and spoilers

Check out what some psycologist and Mob attourneys have to say about it:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2100255/entry/0/

What I like best about The Sapranos is that you can never guess where the plot line is going, that does leave unresolved conflicts but that just sort of builds the tension level and echoes the chaos that surrounds Tony S.

 

I think it's been a great season so far, and with three episodes left, I am starting to wonder who is going to get whacked near the end of the season. Of the three mentioned above, I believe Tony's cousin (Steve Busceme) is the one to get it.

Why?

I don't believe Busceme signed on for more than one season of the Sopranos!

At the beginning of the season, I thought Adriana was going to get whacked for certain, being an FBI informant, but I think they are going to save this story line and protract it out a bit.

 

I think Adriana will rat out Cousin Tony to the feds and send him back to prison to help Chris to get back into favor with Tony and his number one.

I also think Pauly has got something up his sleeve that we don't know about yet.

 

I love the Sopranos...I missed it Sunday, but watched it last night...C'mon Chrissy, don't be a puss...Tony is such an a-hole for provoking Janice at the end...

I agree that SB is going to be killed...JSacks is going to get something by the end of this season...

 

That was hilarious! Janice is so full of ****. He just had to prove it.

 

I think it goes deeper than that. Tony has some serious anger issues and I think he hates to see anyone trying to better themselves (or he believes that no one really changes). Don't get me wrong, I hate Janice and think she is a skank, but it seemed like she was really trying to manage her anger and Tony couldn't either stand it or believe it.

But you are right; Tony was a prick for provoking her. I turned to my wife in that last scene and said "why is he doing this?"

 

Plot conflicts hanging on the edge:

Adrianna - looks like she will rat on Tony B. to help Christopher like she ratted on her best friend that flirted with Chrissy.

Johnny Sac - Tony has reconnected with the 'old school' at the farm so I think he plans to get even with Johnny. I know that at least Johnny's beloved Mazaratti is in peril. I don't think Johnny will have Tony B. whacked because he must respect Tony's vouching for him though he can and has diassociated himself from further association with The Soprano crew. The only way Tony can resolve the issue without a war between them is to expose Little Carmine complicity in Joey Peeps whack without somehow fingering Tony B and impuning his own veracity.

Chris - I don't think he can live with his past actions much longer without the deadening effect of drugs. He can't go to the FBI and he can't live with the truth.....suicide maybe. Though he could obviously succeed as a male model.

Carmela - She lives in a tortured state of no self-respect because of Tony's abuse but she is addicted to the power and the money. She loved scaring the crap out of the high school counselor by just mentioning Tony's name. Her only hope is Meadow convinceing her she can live on her own like a normal person...fat chance. I keep thinking she will take Tony back into the house and just live with a withered since of self like the Mob wives have always done. (especially since her own father reveres Tony..?)

Paulie Walnuts - Now he's friends with Chris since they have a mutual enemy. I think Tony will use him to expose Little Carmine somehow since it is well known he holds no allegiances. Something like he goes to Johnny Sac and swears he knows how Carmine had Joey Peeps whacked ( not the truth about Tony B. however)

I think maybe I thnk about this just a little too much.

 

This past episode was one of the best ever. We all knew what a cold-blooded person Tony was. But it was always business. He had to do what he had to do for the sake of 'family.' But now, especially in the final scene, we see this guy is just a monster. Just plain evil.

This is the beginning of the end for Tony. His life, his mind, his emotions, and his family are slipping out of control.

The shocker, for me, of the season so far has to be the gay Vito scene. That was great how he confronted Fin. I don't know if he was trying to be nice, trying to set him up for a kill, etc. But now that Fin and Meadow are engaged, Vito can't touch him.

 

eh, it was no better than the 3rd best episode of the season.

I liked last season a lot more than most people, but this season is a huge step up and is up there with seasons 1 and 2 for best overall.

 

Oh yea Janice - Tony just knows she is the queen of denial ; always trying to adopt a persona but never really changeing. She's been a hippie, a born-againer, ' in therapy' etc. but she always returns to her family roots, coping via violence ( remember she killed her last husband and had to ask Tony to clean it up. Chris and Tony had to chop up his body with a meat cleaver in the bathtub)

He was just exposing her true nature to her. He has admitted to Dr. Melfi that he knows he is and always will be a two bit hood; and so he also knows Janice will always be a vilolent , narcissitic manipulator.

 

Sure, Janice is a loser and has her own problems, but she was trying to address them in a practical way and becoming better for it w/anger management. Tony is not (he goes to Dr. Melfi still in some pathetic attempt to get laid, but he never really progresses from it) and obviously has his own anger issues that are worse than Janices.

Tony then channels the spirit of Livia and decides that he can't allow his sister to be content and provokes that episode..another step in his downward spiral from last season.

I wonder if they by making Tony less and less sympathetic, they are setting him up to be killed/incarcerated, or will let him keep on going when it draws to a close. Obviously for him to be imprisoned or killed would bring a sense of "justice" since he's extremely reprehensible at this point, but justice isn't always done...

 

I am freakin' loving this season.

I think Tony Uncle Al will get whacked by Johnny Sac's crew for revenge on the hit on Peeps.

Adrianna will get freaked out by this and rat to the FBI... She will then disappear for good and Chrissy and Aid will never get married.

 

Has Tony ever been a sympathetic character? He has always been a loathesome, manipulative prick to me.

The reason he hates Janice and his mother so much is because he's himself in them.

 

I love how much of a prick he was at the end when he provoked Janice...

I just thought "holy ****!"

Plus the dig at having killed Richie Aprile years ago... and Bobby going "WHAT?"

Awesome.

This show is simply brilliant.

 

One way or another Ichabod Crane is going down, whether he goes back to prison or is whacked by Sack.

I've loved this season as well, the more of a prick Tony becomes the move i love the character. David Chase has said that in the last episode Tony reflects back. Factor that in with this whole F.B.I. storyline and something has gotta give. I think he ends up rotting in a prison cell when it's all said and done.

 

By the way, can someone explain to me the odd use of freeze frame, than swipe away when Carmella walked away from that counselor at A.J.'s school after telling him that she and Tony were getting back together?

Chase has never done this and it freaked me out b/c I thought my TIVO was on the fritz.

 

He's been cool in a "bad guy" type way as the usual victims of his rage (ralphie, e.g.) have more or less had it coming, and the expression of his depravity and narcissism has been in the realm of sex, booze, food & drugs -- stuff I all like more or less. Not really sympathetic, but somebody you could tolerate.

Now he's openly incorporated intentional, regular cruelty to those around him as a staple of his character. (before it was sort of camouflaged or not as obvious); Not into that.

 

I think Tony B gets whacked by someone in the Soprano clan. It would be sweet to see Chrissy whack Tony B. This way, the Sopranos are back at peace with JSac, and Tony S gets revenge for Tony B lying to his face.

Did anyone figure out why Aide called the FBI lady on her own? Usually, their meetings/calls are initated by the Feds.

 

She needed someone to confide in, and the FBI lady is the only person she can confide in.