The Second Coming

Yes, another post on Season Six Part II of the Sopranos. Having said those harsh words about Mr. Chase I think it is only proper to give credit where credit is due. This is one of the single most powerful episodes of the entire series (imho, as they say). Now I know the chief can't tolerate Anthony Jr., but I have always felt that he got a raw deal. There has always been so much drama in the lives of Tony, Carmella, and (God knows) Meadow. AJ was spoiled, yes, but it was always a matter of throwing money at him so they didn't have to deal with him, never taking into consideration that he was just a confused kid not knowing which way to go. Sure, he was "Tony Soprano's son" and kids at school took advantage of that fact in hanging out with OR ostracizing him. Did he ever flaunt it? No. Never in the series did he say "do as I say or my dad will come after you." The parents did, and so did some glory hounds, but he didn't. Yes, he was whiny and yes he was a Mama's boy, but what else did he know?

At any rate, the performance of the entire cast in this episode was amazing. If this was the episode that got the emmy recognition and I am repeating what has already been said, I apologize. Go ahead and stop reading, I am an idiot and didn't know. Otherwise, I will continue.

The raw emotion and pain expressed by everyone was so REAL. Here was a family facing a real tragedy. All the bullshit was cast aside and you had a mom and a dad and a sister heartbroken for the baby of the family. The whole relationship thing became somewhat farcical at the end and the overindulgent depression that he went through makes it easy enough for one to say, "get over it, already." I guess I felt that way too. She (Blanca) really only seemed to tolerate (and even pity) him. But I would like to point out that this was AJ's first chance to step outside himself as the boss's son and become his own person. He didn't care that she had a son by another man, and in fact, fell for that kid almost as much as he did for the mom. He also began to realize that not everyone had it as good as he did. He did become somewhat idealistic about what could be done, but this was his first glimpse of the larger world. Some might even say that this awakening could be similar to that of the Prince Gautama who was sheltered from the outside world by his father. When he ventured out into the world and saw the sick, the aged, the dying, he began the journey toward enlightenment. Does that mean that AJ will do the same? No. I don't even mean to change the chief's (or anyone else's) mind with this post. I would only like to refute the claim that Anthony Jr. was nothing more than a whiny bitch. It goes far deeper than that.

Now, to throw some ice-cold water on the situation, the real reason I started this ramble was to point out the sheer artistry that David Chase has in spite of my calling him an "asshole" for what he did to Sil and Bobby. In this series there are a lot of shades of grey. If we accept and love Tony, we must also accept that he does some awful things in his line of work. The people that get hurt by him do awful things to so it works out OK. But, the bad guys have never stood out more clearly than in this series, and they usually get what is coming to them. There is the artistry. The New York boss, Phil Leotardo, has completely lost touch with reality. He is no longer a business man in charge of business-minded soldiers, he is completely insane. To illustrate, he has thrown a birthday party with a cake and candles for his dead brother. He has it in his mind that Tony has done him wrong and that the Jersey crew could be shit upon. One of his henchman, Coco, sees Meadow at a restaurant and sexually harasses her. Meadow is nowhere near the business. This clearly steps over the line. At 39:20 I think I can safely say that I witnessed the most satisfying sequence in television history. Tony walks into the restaurant, pistol whips Coco, waves his gun at that bastard Butchie, picks Coco's head up, puts it on the foot rest by the bar, and stomps his fucking head, sending teeth everywhere. It was beautiful. How often does the bad-guy get whats coming to him? In this episode he did.