The season that began with “Two Tonys” comes to an end, with one Tony
departing SopranoWorld forever and another Tony coming back home.
Episode 65 – Originally aired June 6, 2004
Written by Chase, Green and Burgess
Directed by John Patterson
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Many viewers found “All Due Respect” to be a let-down. I’ll agree that the episode is, at least in a conventional sense, somewhat lackluster. It doesn’t quite live up to our expectations for a Season Finale. (But this is quite common for The Sopranos—it is usually the penultimate episode of the season that packs the real punch. This was true this year as well, with “Long Term Parking” providing the wallop.) And yet…there was something about this hour that just worked its way under my skin. “A.D.R.” may be short on fireworks, but it is long on tone and texture and atmosphere. A mood of anguish and unease dominates the hour, but it’s also somehow colored by cheerfulness and poignancy and sweetness. I have never made (and probably never will make) a list of my top five favorite Sopranos episodes, but if I did, I’m pretty sure “All Due Respect” would be on that list.
Phil Leotardo is furious, he wants Blundetto’s blood but will settle for someone else’s in Blundetto’s absence. After claiming his brother’s body from the morgue, Phil goes to Christopher’s mom’s place to look for him. Chris is inside the apartment, waiting with gun in hand, but Joanne Moltisanti doesn’t give him up—even after Phil threatens to stow her Discman in a very inappropriate place.
The NJ guys are deeply unhappy with the way their Boss is handling the threat from New York. They feel they are all threatened because Tony S seems to be giving Tony B special consideration. Several members of la famiglia voice their discontent—and anger—about the situation. (Chase gets some mileage out of the possibility that a bloody mutiny is brewing against Tony.) When Benny Fazio gets his head smashed up by Phil outside the Crazy horse, Tony knows that he has to act before more of his guys are made to bleed in place of Blundetto. But Tony genuinely doesn’t know what the correct course of action is. Should he or should he not hand Blundetto over to the vicious New Yorkers? Blundetto is a part of his family, but he is also a member of la famiglia. Tony has obligations to both of these families, and his obligation to one is at odds with his responsibility to the other. Tony can talk the talk—he puts a mobster-spin on the “family values” speeches that politicians were commonly regurgitating at the time: “We are a family. And even in this fucked-up day and age, that means something.” I’m sure that Tony genuinely believes in these values, but his sincere belief in the value of both his family and la famiglia makes it only more difficult for him to reconcile his contradictory obligations to each of them.
And this is why I love this episode. We get a deep sense of Tony’s dislocation—he has lost his way. He is vacillating. He doesn’t know what to do as a man or as a Boss. Tony struggles to find the correct course of action and thereby regain his own sense of self. I think we can find a parallel between this hour and the Season 2 finale “Funhouse.” Both episodes are deepened by the despair of Tony’s struggle. In “Funhouse,” we recognized that Tony was made ill by more than simple food poisoning: he was despairing over the betrayal of his best friend Big Pussy. He ultimately chose to sacrifice Big Pussy, and now he must make a similar choice about cousin Blundetto. This is more than a simple managerial decision—it is an existential problem.
Several interactions with other characters reveal just how deep Tony’s confusion runs. Early in hour, for example, Tony and Silvio discuss the Blundetto situation. (I believe this is Steve Van Zandt’s longest two-person scene thus far in the series, and he does a nice job with it.) Tony reveals the burden of leadership to Silvio:
You got no idea what it’s like to be Number One. Every decision you make affects every facet of every other fuckin’ thing. It’s too much to deal with almost. And in the end, you’re completely alone with it all.
A hallmark of existential crisis is feeling frozen, unable to act, when confronted with a difficult decision that is sure to have a ripple effect. Someone once said (was is Sartre? Freud?) that there is nothing more terrifying to us than our unmade future. We are burdened with the knowledge that our decisions today can have manifold, significant effects on our future life. When we stand and face our unknown future, we may feel like we’re standing at the brink of an abyss.
Dr. Melfi expressed this same sentiment as she tried to explain the philosophy of Existentialism to Tony back in “D-Girl” (2.07). She described the burden that each one of us must bear as we try to shape our life and our future:
When some people first realize that they are solely responsible for their decisions, actions and beliefs, and that death lies at the end of every road, they can be overcome with an intense dread.
Death certainly lies at the end of every road in this episode; whichever decision Tony makes, someone will be killed, either his cousin Blundetto or one of his other guys in Blundetto’s place. Perhaps Tony’s indecisiveness now can also be attributed to the events of the previous episode. The decision to kill Adriana must surely have been one of the most harrowing and difficult decisions that Tony has ever had to make. He may be feeling a little gun-shy about having to make a similar decision now. He must surely still be in pain after calling that play against Adriana. But he tries now to hide his pain over her fate; when he meets Christopher in a motel room, he speaks extremely callously of the young woman:
Chris: She was willin’ to rat me out because she couldn’t do five fuckin years? I thought she loved me.
Tony: She’s a cunt.
Tony may certainly be angry at Adriana’s betrayal (and for the way she “forced” him to order her killing), but his callous words are an attempt to mask his pain over her death. Moments later, Tony and Chris clasp each other in what is probably the most desperate, anguished embrace that we’ve seen two people make on the series. Both men are fighting back tears. They are united (or perhaps shackled is the better word) in their knowledge that they betrayed a woman they both cared about.
In his anguish, Tony goes to Corrado for counsel. His uncle has given him good advice in the past. But Corrado is no longer the man he once was. He is slipping into senility and provides no help to his nephew. Tony tries to share his distress with Dr. Melfi, but she is frustrated by their inability to talk openly and freely. She becomes haughty and sarcastic, mistaking Tony’s deep confusion for “high sentimentality.” Their conversation becomes so broken that Tony seems to be speaking more to himself than to her when he finally sighs, “All my choices were wrong.” (If Melfi’s words did have any effect on Tony, it probably would have been to push him towards murdering his cousin.) Tony’s deep sense of dislocation is emphasized during a quick scene at the Bada Bing…
SIGNIFYING NOTHING
We may remember that after killing Ralphie in “Whoever Did This” (episode 4.09), Tony’s attention was drawn to the empty stage as he was leaving the Bada Bing. His most immediate reason for attacking Ralph in that episode was the suspicious death of Pie-O-My, but he also had some lingering anger and sadness over the meaningless, unnecessary murder of Bing stripper Tracee. The overhead spotlight shone down on nothing at the end of the hour, underscoring Tracee’s absence. By literally highlighting “nothing,” the spotlight underscored the “nothingness” that lurks at the heart of Chase’s universe:
Certain SopranoWorld characters are constantly struggling against nothingness, against the abyss of meaninglessness. Livia failed in this struggle, falling into nihilism and coming to believe that meaninglessness is the natural state of the universe—“It’s all a big nothing,” she told her grandson in Season 2. Now in “All Due Respect,” Chase repeats the imagery of the empty stage from episode 4.09. (Chase is literally repeating the image, grabbing a shot from footage that must have been made for “Whoever Did This”—every bottle and glass is in the exact same place as it was in that earlier episode.) Chase now cuts from the Bing’s empty stage to an important sequence: Tony calls Johnny Sac and comes very close to revealing Blundetto’s whereabouts, but slams the phone down without ratting his cousin out:
I think the empty stage functions as visual shorthand for nothingness, for meaninglessness. By juxtaposing the stage with Tony’s phone call, Chase expresses the existential dimension of Tony’s indecision. Tony is struggling to make the right choice, the meaningful choice, the one that will pull him back from the brink of absurdity and psychological chaos.
Of course, Tony wouldn’t find anything particularly significant about an empty stage; after all, he works out of the back room of the Bing, so he must see its empty stage all the time. However, he does find great significance in another object (an object which also happens to be closely connected to “Whoever Did This”)—the painting of Pie-O-My. Paulie has had Tony recast as a General in the painting (though not Napoleon; he’s a bit portly to be Napoleon). Tony confiscates the painting from Paulie and is just about to destroy it when it begins to “speak” to him. The military uniform and the sword in the painting remind him that he is, above all, a soldier. Tony begins to regain his sense of self, and accepts what he must do to Blundetto.
Tony may have been primed to have this particular epiphany by the documentary he watched earlier about Field Marshall Rommel. Erwin Rommel was a gifted man, physically courageous, mentally disciplined and tactically brilliant. He was a well-respected soldier and leader—the type of man that Tony envisions himself to be. I think some horse-imagery from Tony’s “test dream” two episodes ago also connects to his epiphany now. In the dream, Tony armed himself with a pistol, got on Pie-O-My and went out to deal with Blundetto personally. The painting of Tony with his horse recalls this imagery from “The Test Dream.” Tony knows what do now. He’s back in the saddle again.
The dream-sequence two episodes ago tapped into a lot of Tony’s personal mythologies. Mythology does not always give us clear, concise explanations, but it can nevertheless help us to resolve contradictions and deal with existential problems. (A well-known example: It is very difficult to reconcile the idea that God is loving and benevolent with the fact that human life is full of pain; but reconciling the two becomes easier when we throw in the mythology that Mankind suffered a Fall from grace that prevents us from automatically receiving God’s love and benevolence.) Tony’s mythology of himself as a strong, silent type who does what needs to be done gets bolstered by the Rommel documentary and by the events in his dream, and it helps him resolve his contradictory feelings about how to deal with his cousin.
Up in Kinderhook, Tony Blundetto passes a red barn as he pulls his car (actually Feech’s Cadillac) into his hideaway. Interestingly, a red barn first appeared on The Sopranos all the way back in episode 1.03, in a painting at Melfi’s office. Tony Soprano believed that the painting was a “Korshack” containing some bleak & gloomy hidden messages:
I’m probably treating the red barn like a Rorschach myself now, giving too much significance to it. But the barn does now appear just before one of the most bleak & gloomy moments of the series: the murder of Tony Blundetto at the hands of his cousin. Van Morrison’s “Glad Tidings” scores the sequence, making all sorts of interesting lyrical and tonal contributions to Blundetto’s final scene.
There is some imagery in Blundetto’s final scene that really caught my eye, despite being only about one second long. As Tony turns the corner of the porch with shotgun in hand, Chase includes a shot of his feet making the turn. This echoes a shot of feet in the dream (and on the TV within the dream) from two episodes ago:
Don’t worry, I’m not gonna analyze every little detail from “The Test Dream” to see how it prefigures or relates to Blundetto’s death now. (Van Morrison even advises us “not to read between the lines” in his song.) I just like this “footsteps” thing because it is another example of how Chase likes to use imagery that we almost certainly would not consciously think about, perhaps not even notice. Some of his imagery is meant to tug at us at a subconscious level.
Tony squeezes the trigger and fills Blundetto’s face with buckshot. Although Blundetto meets a violent end, it is a quick and relatively painless end compared to what Phil Leotardo had in store for him. Tony Soprano provides to Blundetto the most humane death possible. I think this is where the “Erwin Rommel” reference from earlier really comes into play. Rommel is the only member of the Third Reich that is still honored in Germany today. He was a humane and decent man, earning even the respect of his enemies. He treated enemy POWs honorably. He was a morally courageous man, ignoring any inhumane or criminal orders made by his superiors. He wanted to have Hitler arrested and brought to trial. Of course, we can’t ignore the fact that Rommel was an officer in the most evil regime of the 20th century. He was a Complicated Nazi—sort of like our Complicated Mobster. Tony Soprano is part of an evil organization, and has the capacity to be evil himself, but he also has a capacity for decency and honor. Tony plays by the rules of the game: he knows that Blundetto must pay for his actions. But he bends the rules to give Blundetto a relatively humane death. Afterwards, he brings Christopher back into the fold by giving him the honor of burying their cousin. At the Bing, he accepts his men’s unspoken gratitude (and unspoken condolences) with humility and understanding. And he stands up to snide Johnny Sac with the mix of finesse, reason and fortitude that we have come to expect from him. Tony has pulled himself out of the quagmire of self-doubt and indecision to find himself again. He is the Boss of north Jersey.
The final scene of the hour reemphasizes that Tony has regained his self and his life. After an FBI raid interrupts the meeting between Tony and Johnny Sac in front of Johnny’s house, Tony must find his way home. He traverses over hill and dale, crosses through cold streams and snow and slush. When we see the hedges of the Soprano backyard begin to rustle, we may think for a moment that the black bear has returned. But no, it is Tony Soprano. Like a modern-day Odysseus, he has successfully returned home. It has been a long journey. Season 5 started off in the Soprano yard, with some well-chosen images meant to convey to the viewer that Tony was not living at the house, that he was still estranged from his wife after their Season 4 separation:
Season 5 notably closes in the same yard where it began, with a concerned Carmela now opening the backdoor to let Tony into their home.
Tony has surely regained his sense of self and his home, but as the season closes, we still can’t help but feel that he has irrevocably lost something as well—his soul. Despite his going to therapy over the years, we’ve never felt that Tony Soprano is genuinely interested in rehabilitating (much less redeeming) himself. But because David Chase has continuously given us such a complex portrait of him—a hideous man who is nevertheless capable of tenderness and honor—there was still a sense through the seasons that Tony’s soul was still somewhat in play. There was always some possibility, however small, that he would turn the corner, begin again, do right, live right. By the end of Season 5, however, it becomes very difficult for us to feel that there is any hope for Tony Soprano. As he enters the warmth and security of his upscale home in the final moments of this season, we know that his security, comfort and lifestyle have come at horrendous costs. They are costs that put him beyond the possibility of redemption.
In her 2007 article for Commonweal magazine, “Salvation and The Sopranos,” Cathleen Keveny found Season 5 to be making an argument that redemption is impossible not just for Tony but for almost every major character in SopranoWorld. She starts her case with the two major characters that died at the end of the season:
Neither Tony Blundetto nor Adriana LaCerva ever had a chance. In both cases, fate conspires with greed, the characteristic moral failing of mob life, to bring about their doom…These two grim tales suggest that we are trapped in a world ruled by an inexorable fate that seizes upon our moral failings in order to bring about our ruin.
Another example is Janice, who tried to redeem herself therapeutically, going to anger management classes to change her life. But she allowed Tony to derail her efforts. Keveny also brings up the case of JT Dolan, who had found salvation from opiates in a 12-step program but quickly fell into an abyss when Christopher introduced him to high-stakes gambling. And of course, we can’t leave out Carmela. For much of this season, it seemed that Carmela might actually salvage herself, get away from her old life and her old ways. But the arc of the immoral universe is long, and it bends towards Tony Soprano. The devil on Carmela’s left shoulder eventually whacked the angel on her right so that she could get her old life back (with a $600,000 parcel of land to boot). These characters seem doomed now with no possibility of salvation. If we take a look again at the photograph that Annie Leibovitz made for Season 5, we can now better understand the implications of its imagery: as the sun sets on any hope of redemption, the darkness that has always lurked at the center of The Sopranos will spread unchecked to corrupt the entire landscape of the series.
As I mentioned in my entry for “Two Tonys,” some viewers figured out that this photo might based on Delacroix’ painting, The Barque of Dante, which depicts a river-journey to the Underworld. In the Christian belief-system of Delacroix and Dante, the underworld is that mythic-religious place where lost souls go after their death. But in Leibovitz’ photo, all the characters—including those still living—seem like lost souls. SopranoWorld has finally become a vision of Hell.
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Y’ KNOW WHO HAD AN ARC? NOAH.
One of my favorite things about Season 5 is the way that Chase plays with character arcs throughout the season. Some arcs are long, some are short, some reach conventional resolutions while others reach an unexpected endpoint, or are simply left dangling. Part of this is just standard television practice: variously shaped arcs create tensions that push and pull against each other, thereby engaging the viewer. But I think Chase was doing more. I think Chase conscientiously structured and shaped his arcs in particular ways in order to stretch our understanding of how much narrative and thematic potential there can be in one season of a television show.
Chase may have, for example, used arc-length to set up a formal contrast between Blundetto and Carmela. Most of us figured that both of these characters would eventually return to Tony Soprano by the end of Season 5, despite their efforts not to. The only thing up for debate was how long it would take. Once Blundetto gets a taste of the high life, he falls quickly—he is back in the mob by the midpoint of the season. Carmela, in contrast, holds out for almost the entire season; it’s not until the twelfth episode that she remortgages her soul back to the devil.
We can also look at how Chase manipulates the “Class of ’04,” all those new faces that appeared this season. There is a real diversity in both their fates and in the lengths of their arcs: Lorraine Colluzzo made only fleeting appearances before she got whacked on her hands and knees early on; we thought Feech was going to meet an end like fellow hotheads Richie Aprile and Ralphie Cifaretto, but he was peacefully redistributed back to prison; Angelo Garepe went down in the NY power struggle late in the season; Tony Blundetto is taken out by a family member in the final episode; and Phil Leotardo lives on to fight another day.
THE STAGE IS SET
As I mentioned 12 write-ups ago, Season 5 is my personal favorite, and I believe that the majority of viewers rank it closer to the top than to the bottom. The upcoming season, however, was much more polarizing—many viewers just found it too bizarre and scattered. I’m a big fan of Season 6, I find it wildly innovative and interesting. But I think Season 6 only works because it builds on some of the characteristics of the season that preceded it. S.5 sets the stage for S.6 primarily in three ways:
1. Politics
Chase took a couple of quick jabs at the Bush administration in Season 5, but political and social issues play a greater role Season 6. He will take shots at both the Left and the Right in clever, subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle ways.
2. Unconventionality
Season 5 stretched TV conventions. It played with the shape of arcs and storylines. Season 6 takes this to another level, almost abandoning the very idea of an arc at times. Season 5 played a little bit on the meta-level, mainly through the inclusion of several famous faces, and this practice becomes formalized with the Cleaver storyline in Season 6. The extended, experimental dream sequence of “Test Dream” primes us for the extremely long dream sequence (or out-of-body-experience/alternate-universe/whatever) of “Join the Club” and “Mayham.” Also, the SopranoWorld time-line strays from its usual logic in Season 6: the earlier episodes flow rather continuously, but there are notable skips in time elsewhere in the season.
3. Bleakness
Season 5 puts the question of redemption for these characters to rest. There will no longer be much of an inquiry into their moral potential. In Season 6, Tony becomes a lumbering, almost Satanic, beast. Several characters will suffer paroxysms of despair, nihilism, and addiction. And some of the grimmest, most bleak imagery of the series is yet to come. Season 6 won’t be all gloom-and-doom, however. There will be plenty of humor and playfulness. We’ll still have some laughs at AJ and Corrado’s expense, and then some more at the FBI’s. There will be plenty of “boring” moments too—the fuckin’ regularness of life will continue to be a major theme. And Season 6 will supply some of the most gorgeous imagery and vistas of the series. But the overarching sentiment of the next 21 hours will be that things fall apart, the center cannot hold. It just gets darker from here on out. I can hardly wait to get to it.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- When Chris tells Carmela that Adriana has left him, she tries to comfort him with the age-old platitude: “There’s other fish in the sea.” Her words may be inadvertently accurate—there’s always the possibility that Adriana may have actually been dumped in the sea.
- Chris says that he is taking some jewelry to Milt’s Pawn Shop, but we know that it’s not just “some” jewelry, it is Adriana’s stuff. Jesus frickin’ Christ, Christopher—her body is not even cold yet.
- I chuckled when Carmela, wearing a negligee, gives a sexy “I’m comin’ to get ya” look to her spec-house blueprints.
- I laughed my ass off when Tony and Carm wondered about their son’s sexual preference after coming to believe that he is interested in “event planning.”
- Hmm, interesting: Tony Blundetto hides out at Uncle Pat’s farm in Kinderhook, NY. Kinderhook was the home of schoolmaster Jesse Merwin, a friend of Washington Irving and the man whom Irving supposedly based his character “Ichabod Crane” on. We learned in 5.10 that “Ichabod Crane” is the nickname that “some very sorry people” had given to Blundetto. (My guess is that it’s just a coincidence that Chase had Blundetto hiding up in Kinderhook, it’s probably not some elaborate allusion to “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”)
- The schoolkids’ rendition of “Mr. Tambourine Man” wafting out from the schoolhouse somehow adds the perfect texture to Tony’s wintery trek through suburban New Jersey.
- Van Morrison’s “Glad Tidings” has always made me want to get drunk on champagne and jump around the room. Now, the memory of this episode has so thoroughly grafted itself on to the song that every time I hear it, I want to raise a glass to Tony Blundetto before I leap on to the couches.
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Sopranos Autopsy 
Ron, really appreciate you and all the hard work you’ve done. It’s like getting a scooter on Christmas morning every time there’s a new post. Also, I love the point here about this being the end of the possibility of redemption for so many of the characters and about Tony becoming a lumbering, Satanic beast – couldn’t agree more. I love Season 6 too, even though it’s like a watching an inevitable slow motion train wreck (and indeed at one point IS watching a slow motion train wreck).
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Thanks, I appreciate it. And you’re so right, Chase does find a way to turn the ‘slow motion train wreck’ analogy into something real near the end of the series…
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WOW, Season Five is done! You’re really chugging along!
I don’t know if you were going for this, but as I was reading the last paragraph (prior to the additional notes), I found myself reading in the same style as Sam Elliott narrating the closing of The Big Lebowski. It reminded me of his summation of the film, though it took me a while to recognize my own reference point. It wasn’t until a couple of hours after reading this that I realized why it seemed familiar. Perhaps David Chase isn’t the only one who likes tugging at our subconscious. Or maybe you, too, didn’t like seein’ Donny go…
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It’s a shame that Donny had to go…
Shit, now I can’t read it without hearing Sam Elliott’s voice.
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No, Donny has to go, iykwim.
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Lol
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I don’t think Walter would have cared for Livia and Junior.
“Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”
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Ron,
I genuinely love this site. Your write-ups collectively form the definitive analysis of The Sopranos in my book (even without all the episodes being finished yet). You do a great job analyzing and reviewing each episode individually, and then giving us context as to how that particular episode fits in with the show’s overall themes. This site is an absolute hidden gem!
I have several friends itching to do a Sopranos’ rewatch, but I’ve been telling them to wait until you finish all the write-ups so they can use this as a companion site. Great stuff!
After you’ve finished all the episode write-ups, do you think you’ll do some more general posts about the show’s themes, individual character analyses, etc? In my opinion that would be great for bringing it all together.
Keep writing!
Josh
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Thanks Josh. I don’t know if I would do any more additional posts, it’s taking me a lot of time just to get through the episodes. Plus I sort of like the purity of 86 write-ups for 86 eps…
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Ron – Sounds of 1,000,001 feet tapping on the floor (hint hint) 🤡
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I look forward to your analysis of season 6. One of the things I love about this episode is the contrast between the end of the previous episode and this one: while Long Term Parking completely destroyed me, All Due Respect made me laugh out loud to see Tony/The bear returning home.
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Ron, great write-up as usual. You pointed out so many little details
that I missed. The red barn rhyming with the picture of the red barn
in Melfi’s office, and Tony thinking it symbolized death now makes sense.
When Tony met up with Christopher and said “We never had a chance to talk
about Adrianna”, Chase made me fall for his trick. I actually thought they
were going to talk about feelings (what??), then felt dumb as Tony grilled Chris
about anything he may have spilled to Adrianna while she was a snitch.
But then the hug afterwards made up for what they couldn’t say out loud.
Priceless.
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hey Ron, great write-up. I think it was in do not resuscitate that you wrote that Tony slowly descends into a slovenly, lumbering beast. I remember when i read this that the idea of Tony as an overindulged roman emperor came to mind, with his outrage over the death of his horse being a great Caligula callback about the dangers of excessive power. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the episodes after this show tony’s men as becoming increasingly wary of him, in the same way that Caligula was viewed with increased suspicion by his own people. is this something that you have noticed or had in mind when you say that tony becomes a lumbering almost satanic beast?
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Thanks Alex. That Caligula association is very interesting and could definitely fit Tony, but I’ve been tossing that “lumbering beast” phrase into the write-ups mainly to build up the idea of Tony as the “rough beast” that “slouches towards Bethlehem” because the image/reference shows up in Season 6…
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Great catch on the red barn and Feech’s Cadillac. Didn’t even cross my mind.
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The manner in which Tony grabs the chair to “talk about Adrianna” with Christopher is eerily reminiscent to the manner that Michael Corleone likewise did when speaking to Carlo at the end of the original Godfather. In fact, the chairs themselves seem to be similar. Of course, both Carlo and Christopher meet the same fate, albeit in different time frames.
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Hi Ron, many thanks for your write-ups. Your insights not only make the series even more enjoyable and fulfilling, the ways in which you shed light on the subtleties and messages help my own meager attempts at creative writing. Question: Ever written/read about what significance there may be to lamps throughout the series? E.g., in The Test Dream, in Tony’s room in the Plaza, the woman from Jade moves the lampshade during Tony’s phone call w. Paulie. When Jimmy Altieri is killed, his blood splashes on a lamp. Paulie chokes the Russian Valery with a lamp. And, of course, there is the government bug in the lamp, the Beacon, and other examples here and there. Thanks again!
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Thanks so much.
I think you can add Richie’s “Manson lamps” to the list. I wish I had something smarter to say but I never really noticed it.
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Not to mention Livia, “Take the lamp. That’s real Ormolu! Somebody has to take this stuff!”
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Maybe the lamps shed light on all of life’s darkness… Many of these scenes described bring to light new transgressions
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👍🏼
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Excellent post! Always loved this episode. The “Pie-O-My” painting scene is one of those scenes that could only exist on this show. Love how Paulie’s furniture is all wrapped in plastic. And I love the way the final scene plays out, it starts the sequence of events leading to the end and brings the whole bear thing full circle too.
A detail that always nagged at me: immediately after Tony’s pep talk to the family, Pasty remarks “that was great”. I always saw it as sincerity, but I suppose he might have been being sarcastic. Thoughts?
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I think he was being sarcastic to Vito, who says the whole Blundetto situation is bullshit which Tony overhears.
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Thank you so much for these write-ups; I stumbled on this site when I was re-watching the series about a year ago and have checked back periodically in the hopes you were writing more.
One small thing that struck me when you brought up the use of Glad Tidings was this one particular repeated line throughout the song:
“And we’ll send you glad tidings from New York”
David Chase has a killer sense of ironic humor.
Can’t wait for your write-ups of season 6!
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That particular lyric ends the scene where Silvio says “this should tide you over” when giving some spending money (a form of glad tidings?) to Chris who is hiding out from New York. (Also noteworthy in this scene: Sil calls him ‘Claude Rains’ in what must be a reference to “The Invisible Man.”) Chase is a genius.
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What should we make of the fact that the song plays under the Chris/Benny/Sil scene AND before Blundetto’s death?
Has the show ever used the same song in two discrete scenes before?
Am I reading too much into it to think of it as a harbinger of Chris’s fate?
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Hmm that’s an interesting thought, because Chase has connected scenes with the same music before. But I’m not sure that he had Chris’ fate plotted out so far in advance…
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Well crap. I’ve been reading these as I watch the series for the first time and it appears I’ve caught up!
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6.01 should be out within a week…
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Hi Ron, thanks for your response to my post! (re: lamps). This is probably not even worth mentioning, but since your other post indicated 6.01 is in the works: In a scene from 6.01, Eugene, wearing his Members Only jacket, receives from Chris his orders to go to Boston (about 34 min. in). As Eugene appears to contemplate matters, we see on the wall behind him a pistol-like shape. The next cut is to Tony, seated at the sushi restaurant. Makes me think of Master of Sopranos’ theory: That Tony was shot by the man in the Members Only Jacket, firing from behind him to his right. Any significance whatsoever? Happy holidays!
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Before I read a word of this review, for an episode that seems anticlimactic to the less seasoned viewer, my main hope was that you would underscore what a great hour of TV it is and what a proper ending it is for season 5. You did both. Well done.
One conversation I wish you had dwelled on (though this is by no means a critique–it’s impossible to analyze every scene) is the one between Tony and Johnny Sac before the FBI raid. Specifically, when Tony says: “I paid enough, John. I paid a lot.” On the surface, this is a tense but standard line of dialogue, but beneath that, there is SO MUCH going on between both characters. One of the reasons this show is so great is getting mileage out of this micro-moments, and this is one of my favorites.
Can’t wait to see you sink your cadaver into season 6!
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Haha thanks… You’re right, Tony’s line is a great one and your point has given me an idea for how I might revisit this scene in my write-up for 6.13 (because of course Chase revisits this scene in 6.13)…
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Tony looks like a hobo at the end when he sits on the school steps. I love that shot. But now he has somewhere to go. Carmela,like so many wives, is his bridge between the poverty and despair of the streets and a warm loving home.
Carmela is an enabler. In many ways I think she is the most evil of the lot,she temporarily mortgaged her soul for good, not evil. Edie Falco is outstanding.I had to watch two series of Nurse Jackie just to convince myself not to hate her because she wasn’t real.
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Andy – No, she’s not evil. Carmela (like all of the other characters) is a narcissistic, manipulative and greedy woman who, as Dr. Melfi so succinctly put it, is ‘complicit’. She knows no life different from her own – and probably doesn’t want to – because it’s familiar and acceptable to her. 😖
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Let’s not forget there is more eggs=death imagery at play in this episode when Tony angrily disposes of the painting of Pie-O-My. After he hurls the painting in the dumpster he slips and looks down to notice he has slipped and almost fallen on… broken raw eggs!
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I’ve thought a lot about the egg scene. It could be interpreted many ways. Was it a picture of Humpty Dumpty? Tony’s falling down and it can’t be fixed. Maybe it’s the cliche that you gotta break some eggs to make an omelette? Tony is going to have to kill Blundetto in order to make things right. Perhaps it’s suggesting that Tony has been walking on eggshells? He needs to be decisive, and he needs to do it now. I’ve always leaned toward the last one. Tony’s been tiptoeing around. Despite his caution, he’s still making a mess and now it’s getting slippery. It’s time to stop tiptoeing and time to march forward.
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The internet tells me that broken eggs symbolize failed dreams or things that cannot be mended. Tony in that moment is feeling distraught that he’s made the wrong decisions and can’t be the perfect general Rommel that he wishes to be, and thus rejects Paulie’s admiration of him as a general-like figure. The cracked eggs are everything to do with the Blundetto stagmire, and staring at the painting Tony understands that he can’t stand around in his mess forever trying to bargain over B’s life and his sentimentality. He has to don his general’s uniform and get back on that horse whether he likes it or not. The last time he let himself get emotional and dug himself into a hole of course was over Ralph and that damned beautiful creature Pie O My
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The gun tony used to kill tony uncle al, looks like the same shotgun the pair was carrying back in the good old days on the farm. He killed him with the same gun they were using when they were kids.
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hmm interesting
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I don’t think Tony was feeling bad about Adriana’s death. Christopher was shedding tears for Adriana. Tony was shedding tears for Tony Blundetto.
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Phil Leotardo beats Bennie with a pipe. Tony promises the Plumber’s union health plan will cover it the hospital bill.
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haha the irony
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Especially if it was an iron pipe?
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The shooting of Tony B was the most unrealistic and poorly staged shooting of the entire series. Nothing about it seemed real. It looked so much like it should have been part of a dream sequence that I was waiting for Tony S. to wake up.
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I believe the red barn in Kinderhook was a trompe l’oeil, so there is a reference to the unreality of it and maybe even to remind us that this is a fiction. I thought that was particularly interesting.
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I just found something interesting on my most recent viewing that I have never noticed before. When Tony is running from the FBI during the raid on Johnny Sacks house, as he tosses the gun the camera gives you a view from above suggesting that someone is watching Tony. Later in “Soprano Home Movies” it is revealed that a kid saw the whole thing and retrieved the gun. Up until now I always thought that it was just written into the series to create interesting drama, however like a good chess player maybe Chase was 10 moves ahead of everybody, and already had it in his mind that a teenager witnessed the whole thing.
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Hmm that’s interesting. I can also imagine it happening the other way around—Chase may have been inspired to add the eyewitness after remembering that he had shot the overhead view..
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You are right either could be the case. In “Pine Barrens” there is also a shot of Paulie and Christopher from an overhead view when they lose Valerie’s trail, many people have interpreted it as Valerie being up in the tree looking down on them.
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Great write up and great ending to an awesome season. I always wondered why Tony wasn’t picked up I mean he was there, they arrested the landscaper. Seems far fetched they would let him go.
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I guess Tony is more nimble than he looks, he knows how to slip away quietly..
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Tony eludes the FBI similar to how the bear eludes the animal control people earlier in the season
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“If this had been a category two, they could set traps…” Or, put another way, a reminder that governmental institutions (whether Essex County Animal Control or Sociopathic Human Control a/k/a the FBI) have a dizzying array of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, protocols, and priorities that often have little to do with the actual prevention of harm. Wild bears have an intrinsic advantage against the rest of us.
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Jfigs – Amen! And what did the cop say to Carmela? The only reason to kill the bear (Tony??) is if he attacked someone . Let’s see what happens to Tony at the end of season 6 PartII …
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The attorney Tony called when he sat on the steps at the school said the feds weren’t looking for Tony. They were after the NY family that was ratted out by the “sweet old guy” Jimmy Patrile. I don’t think they’d dare approach Tony S. without cause, as he’s lawyered up, and often armed. Not so for the poor landscaper.
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Another reason for the “footstep” shot could be to put us in Tony B’s shoes, no pun intended. He hears the steps and realizes someone is coming around the corner, as we learn someone is coming around the corner. Tony B and the viewer have a split second to realize and compute that is Tony S. and that he has a shotgun aimed at him before BAM. Hindsight, of course it was Tony S., but at the time of the viewing, it wasn’t spelled out that Tony S. had made his decision (though through analysis, we can see he did). At that point in time, those feet could have been Phil’s, Chris’…we the audience and Tony B. have that short moment to realize what’s happening before it happens.
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Another thing I noticed that you didn’t mention in your post was the final scene where Tony arrives home, creaking through the bushes is reminiscent of the ducks in the pilot.
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“The devil on Carmela’s left shoulder eventually whacked the angel on her right so that she could get her old life back (with a $600,000 parcel of land to boot). These characters seem doomed now with no possibility of salvation” — excellent.
I also think Tony’s tears in the last shot of “Long Term Parking” are due to his sad realization of the transactional quality of their reconciliation (remember the “negotiations” at Nuovo Vesuvio — Carmella was so ready with that $600K figure that she probably had it on a piece of paper in her purse). The commercial nature of their reconciliation is reinforced by Carmela’s “coming on” to her spec-house blueprints, and also in the following season, starting with the couple’s “infatuation” throughout “Members Only” with the sushi restaurant (Nori’s). This marriage has always been transactional, but I think hitherto Tony deluded himself otherwise.
Tony’s tears in LTP also betoken the tiny shred of humanity that remains in his blackening heart, and also the blurring of his family and la famiglia, as you have astutely pointed out in another context above. Anyone in a marriage is familiar with such transactions — parking a troubling, painful relationship issue in favor of a trip to Costco to get a new fridge, and then opening a bottle of wine to celebrate this. This ability of Chase and the writers to repeatedly make these connections between the ordinary America family and la famiglia with such skill and subtlety is what first drew me to this series and, I might add, what made me very uneasy after watching each episode. Of course, Tony’s “transactions” also involve murder — though that does not necessarily set the quotidian family apart from the Sopranos as much as we might think (“I will speak daggers to her but use none”). Tony wants a real family, but he has brought too much murder and “mayham” into the home for this to ever come to pass. The chickens are now coming home to roost, especially in “Ka, the Double.” All “doomed now with no possibility of salvation.”
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Well said
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“He’s got a problem with rage. He disappointed me, Anthony, in ways that I can’t even begin to tell you.”
-Freudian slip? Maybe he’s talking about another disappointing Anthony here.
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Re: ‘Plenty more fish in the sea…’ This connects Adriana to Big Pussy and to informants in general. The scene then cuts to… Ray Curto.
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Good catch (excuse the pun)
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It’s probably about time I leave a comment.
A little late to the party, I was a bit too young to be watching Sopranos the time it was released. Despite my love for all criminal dramas, it took me until I was 27 to watch it. Oh, what a treat! Adding to my delight has been the discovery of this blog. Watching each episode and then immediately diving onto this. I have paid the price a few times, stumbling upon some spoilers, but, in saying that, none that I wouldn’t have come to the conclusion myself.
Thank you for some of the most insightful analysis I have come across for a series. Season 5 has for sure been my favourite thus far. The deaths of Blundetto and La Cerva have probably been the hardest to deal with from Sopranoland.
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Thanks Danielle
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Ron, I love the “All due respect” discourse between Tony and Sil. They only lock horns a few times in the series, and each one is memorable. I also find it humorous in Season 6 when Sil finally does have to assume the mantle and winds up flat on his back, on a stretcher because of the strain. If Tony were awake, I’m pretty sure he’d be laughing his ass off – especially due to his recent admonition.
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Yeah, the irony of it…
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I love these write-ups! I’m in season 6a during my latest rewatch and I’m reading your essays following each episode.
Regarding Kinderhook, I bet Chase was definitely alluding to Jesse Merwin here.
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thanks!
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Meaning of the title? Could be that it’s a play on the “due respect” primarily being the money or other price that people believe is due to resolve their issues – “everyone’s got a price”. Carmela’s price is the $600k, Johnny Sac’s is Tony B and points in the casino (though Phil Leotardo expects more), and Adriana is the price of Chris’s choices. Tony is back home and he’s paid a lot – including his soul?
Van Morrison – I initially thought that the same line was playing when Chris was hiding out as was playing when Tony B was driving back to the house, “ And they’ll lay you down, low and easy“, well they were both lying low at the time… I cracked up a bit when “and we’ll send you glad tidings from New York” came up 🙂
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Hi,
I’m watching the rerunswith parsimony, because I know how much I’ll miss Sopranoland once season 6 is over.
I’ve just finished season 5 and I can’t get Tony B’s death out of my mind. Ift is sad to think that if Tony S. had hesitated for a few more days, with the New York family now iout of the way, his sacrifice wouldn’t have been necessary.
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Yes, Tony B suffered some horrendous ironies at the hands of the scriptwriters..
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I think its interesting that we see four close up shots of Tony’s feet in a span of only three episodes. First, as you mentioned, in The Test Dream.. Second, walking on dead leafs at the end of Long Term Parking.. Third, him stepping on eggs/egg shells here in this episode.. & fourth, in the very next scene while he’s walking on the porch before he shoots Tony B.
Might be thinking too much into it but dead leafs, eggs & a creaky porch could all produce a similar sound.
I also find it funny & a little fascinating that Tony steps on eggs while figuring out the he has to take out Tony B.. I’m not talking about “cracking a few eggs..” or “stepping on egg shells”.. Even though those phrases are relevant.. But I’m talking about how Junior once referred to Tony B as, “Tony Egg”.
So many layers.
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Just thought of another one.. We get another close up near the end of the episode when Tony walks in the stream and then is walking on the sidewalk with water squishing in his shoes.
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👍🏽
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Hi there, love and appreciate these insightful posts!
As a WW2 nerd like Tony, I find it interesting how Rommel and his Afrika Korps were dispatched to Africa in order to reinforce the flagging Italians there. And this program on him now helps to reinforce another flagging Italian – Tony. Might this also be a reason why Chase chose to include that scene?
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That’s an interesting thought..
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Tony watching The History Channel made me nostalgic for the days when it actually showed history. Note we enter the scene with the documentary narrator talking about how much Rommel’s men trust him. Then 17 minutes in Silvio gives Tony the hard lesson that he doesn’t have that kind of trust himself now unless he acts. Tony angrily rebuffs him but I think it is his hotel dream made manifest. Then the next scene his soldier (and former driver Benny) is getting beaten up. Tony knows he has to do it.
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“And in the end, you’re completely alone with it all.”
Tony is paraphrasing his mom here (as am I), “in the end you die in your own arms”
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A small detail I noticed after many viewings of this episode – the house where AJ throws his lucrative party is another incarnation of the “white house with green shutters” motif we see so often associated with death and decay in this series. Perhaps this party scene is a precursor to the “Inn at the Oaks” party we see in “Mayham”? This scene does show AJ first starting to become fascinated with violence as the party-crashers are beat up by his friends, and perhaps portends the violent fate of Blundetto later in the episode in such a similar house.
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The shot of Tony’s feet turning the corner before he shoots Tony B. reminds me of a similar shot in The Godfather when some button men turn the corner around a car to whack Vito as he’s buying oranges. Probably didn’t even hear it when it happens.
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Wouldn’t Tony have been 100 times Angier at Pauly for having a picture of him as a General, that would be proof to the feds that Tony was the boss.
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The full circle moments of seasonal and thematic arcs are a delight in the Sopranos. I must admit I found the disparate pacing of the arcs of S5 to be choppy and disconcerting: Tony B holding firm for five episodes until he implodes in one episode and finally dying over three episodes; Ade slow burn anxiety for two seasons, out of the blue sexual tension with Tony that starts and ends within one episodes before dying in one episodes; vs Carmella’s season. However, I also acknowledge where it works: Tony S needing three episodes to come to terms with killing Tony B juxtaposed to half an episode to kill Ade tells you exactly how disposable Ade was to Tony S compared with friends and family formed in his youth/innocence (Sal and Tony B). Objectively, Tony shows little regret over Ade and I thought was mainly feeling sorry for himself in that scene with Chris. Tony is a wonderful complex and compelling character, but I don’t know that redemption was ever on the cards – which begs the question – does moral anguish and deliberation and “high sentimentality” really matter in the end? (when not played out in front of appreciative audiences for entertainment 😉
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Johnny Sack actually falls in snow while running from the FBI, very violently at that. It was the moment we knew he is completely fucked until the very end of his miserable life, he falls face down in snow, and it all goes downhill for him from that point on.
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Do you really think most viewers rank season 5 near the bottom? In my experience it is the consensus favorite season, it really has everything: great mob drama, great tragedy (Ade being the best), lots of people loved Buscemi, though his presence was a little incongruous and ‘lampshaded’, and, while bleak, it has nothing of the nihilistic overbearing sadness of season 6. I dunno, I think its one of the high points of the series.
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No I said that I think most people rank it closer to the top than the bottom. (Or are you replying to someone else’s comment?) S5 is my favorite season.
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Opinions on the rankings of seasons in this show seem to be pretty diverse, but it seems to be 2 that’s most commonly the favorite among fans.
S5 seems to be generally mid-tier
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I don’t have much to add about this episode and I never noticed the red barn so good catch
Random observations:
– You brought up Van Zandt’s increased screen time here and, it’s funny. He’s a non actor wearing a ridiculous hair piece and his performance is pretty over the top and very exaggerated – almost a characiture. It absolutely SHOULD NOT work yet somehow it does and I’m not sure why or how but everybody loves Syl. We can see this fine line get crossed in The Many Saints of Newark where basically the same delivery and performance (minus the hair) comes off horribly and lands way too hard into the area of cartoonishness.
– I think Michael Imperiolli is an underrated actor and that scene with Tony here is just incredible. He uses his face quite well; showing not telling. We see it in the previous episode where we can watch the news about Ade gradually sink in and get processed.
– I know Georgie finally quit but the Bing scenes reminded me of him. Was that guy EVER in a scene where Tony didn’t beat the shit out of him? LOL. Poor guy.
– It’s always bothered me that for all crime scene evidence these guys have left behind and all the “mysterious” disappearances of FBI informants, that the ONE proverbial smoking gun for Tony was one he dropped in the snow and some random kid found. THAT’S the nail in the coffin (or at least a screw to turn)?
– Lastly (and I’m not sure which thread to put this in), but I think we should look at the idea of whether or not therapy made Tony a better mobster or a worse one. Melfi seems to come to the conclusion that she’s aided him but I tend to think that, overall, the therapy had a detrimental effect on his “job performance”. In his line of work you can’t afford to have empathy, sympathy…FEELINGS. I think that more often than not, some of this self reflection that Tony gleaned from therapy (and even the medication) opened him up for exploitation, created blind spots in his judgement and softened him in ways that run counter to what makes one an effective mob boss. As progressive as things like, say, accepting homosexuality or getting someone into rehab are the correct approach, we’re shown how hard it is to shoe horn those ideas into the cut and dry, regressive old school mentality and traditions of the mafia. I think therapy cost Tony in this regard and that always having one foot on each side of the fence (run the mafia vs improve mental health) kind of messed up both.
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Season 5 reminds me of Jaques’ soliloquy in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’:
“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts”.
Tony, and all the other characters, seem to be acting and reacting in maladaptive ways to their own scripts, but more importantly, to the scripts that he forces upon them. I see the beginnings of an onset to Tony’s horrible, yet pitiful, decompensation that will weaken him, his crew, and his relationships with all of those who surround him. Although almost everyone raves about the ‘wonderfulness’ of this season, it truly frightened and depressed me.
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R.I.P. Vinnie Vella (aka Jimmy Petrille, a rat), 2019
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Ron – Your opening narrative mentions ‘unmade future’. I found the following quotation: “The future is unmade and we must create it” (Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar). Maybe Tony thought that he was capable of creating a better future for himself, but all he was capable of doing was destroying whatever future he likely wanted/expected (with unrealistic expectations that he would be forever immortalized). His past, present, and future history of failing to do the ‘right thing’ (making correct decisions, honoring agreements with other factions, etc.) will eventually undo everything that was already ‘made’. Tony is too brazen and narcissistic to believe in fear, or to be fearful. And that will be his downfall.
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R.I.P. Vinny Vella (Jimmy Petrille, Johnny Sacrimoni’s consigliere, a ‘rat’).
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*SPOILER ALERT*
In retrospect, the first five seasons were remarkable, to say the least. Only a few episodes in season six were exceptional – the ones that dealt with ‘housecleaning’ (murders and deaths). Dan Redding (2018) wrote that the last 2 seasons lost focus, noting that “The show ‘jumps the shark’ … Jumping the shark is a reference to a show’s decline in quality, and the idiom is derived from the show ‘Happy Days,’ which took a turn for the worse when Fonzie jumped over a shark on water skis”. Redding (like myself) felt that the ‘gay Vito’ episodes “Just feels like a ham-fisted attempt to incorporate homosexuality, which at the time was being deftly handled by ‘Six Feet Under'”. I find the ‘dead ends’ – the ‘huhs?’ and ‘WTFs’- boring. After all is said and done, in whose hand does the so-called torch of la famiglia end up? Certainly not in the hands of AJ (too stupid), Vito (dies), Christopher (dies), Bobby B (dies), Silvio (coma). Patsy and Paulie are possibilities (women not wanted). But they have no … what’s the word … LINEAGE! Close familial relationships and ‘blood’ just aren’t there. I know that I’ll probably catch flak for my comments, and that’s okay.
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“After all is said and done, in whose hand does the so-called torch of la famiglia end up?”
The show is telling you that isn’t important. Otherwise, time would have been spent on the question. The only answer it gives you, obliquely, is that it’s either Tony or not; there’s no reason to imagine a “glorified crew” in North Jersey that’s just had an ugly conflict with one of the Five Families of NYC is going to continue forever in a recognizable form, especially after Carlo has elected to testify. Just like Tony, maybe the end of the series is the end of the family, and maybe it isn’t…but if it isn’t THAT day, it’ll be another.
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NBS – I appreciate your comments, well done! However, it’s possible that the family will continue, albeit with different leadership. Knowing all that we’ve been told about the Mafia (and I’m pretty darned certain that we haven’t been told the whole truth), it does continue to flourish – on a lower visibility level perhaps. Regarding Carlo, let’s be a bit more realistic about the impact he might have on the Sopranos’ criminal enterprise. We are aware that people who have sworn/committed to ‘flip’ sometimes end up recanting or maybe even … dead. Of course, Carlo’s son’s life might be threatened or he could end up dead. In that case, would Carlos still flip or would he back down and recant? It’s highly probable that the mob – in some shape or form – will always be here, long after our own demise! And that is the way life works. 😎
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“Tony has pulled himself out of the quagmire of self-doubt and indecision to find himself again. He is the Boss of north Jersey.”
Ron, I think you meant “stagmire.”
On a more serious note, what I got from the shot of the empty stage cutting to Tony at his desk was an overwhelming sense of his isolation and the solitary nature of the decision he has to make. No one else can really help him. It’s lonely at the top, and one decision affects everything else. Sometimes it’s almost too much.
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The crew is gathered together to celebrate Carlo’s birthday. About 12 minutes into this episode, the camera pans over each crew member and focon Larry B. The guy is sporting a very, round gold large ‘tie tac’.Could it possibly be a microphone? 😮
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Anyone else notice that Tony B’s hooker at the beginning of the episode looks and speaks a LOT like Carl Showalter’s (Steve Buscemi’s character) truck stop hooker in Fargo? You know–the one who was having sex with the little fella, then.
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Oh yah, you betcha!
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There’s a birthday party for Carlo. Tony comes and tells them about Tony B, who put all of them at risk. He then says everyone needs to support Chris “until as such” (is this foreshadowing?). Later, Silvio meets up with Chris to deliver some money. When Chris bemoans the fact that he can’t fence Adriana’s jewelry and gets upset about the favoritism Tony S shows for Tony B, Silvio reminds him that Tony ‘helped’ him, which shuts Chris up. Later, Silvio confronts Tony and tells him, “You have a problem with authority … [and that] of the 7 deadly sins, yours is pride”. Congratulations Silvio for speaking the truth!
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WAY late to the party (love the site!) but there’s another connection between Rommel and Tony B. Rommel was tangentially involved in the July 20 plot to kill Hitler. When that plot failed Rommel and many others were snared by the Gestapo. They told Rommel that if he quietly committed suicide they would give him a state funeral and leave his family alone instead of torturing him like the Gestapo did to many other July 20 collaborators. This is similar to how Tony B died quickly and cleanly instead of being tortured at the hands of Phil and New York.
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George – I’m not sure that I understand the similarity; Tony B was not advised/pressured by Tony S to kill himself rather thanb be tortured by Phil. I’m probably one of the extremely few people who think that Phil was within his rights to request that he be allowed to execute Tony B.
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Pingback: The Soprano Onceover: #12. “All Due Respect” (S5E13) | janiojala
Rommel wasn’t a Nazi.
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Hi Ron, love your work, so much insight gained from it! One scene that is also really worth analyzing is the conversation between Chris and Tony in the Motel when Tony wants to talk about Ade. There the camera rests on a dumbbell with the number 10 on it for a couple of seconds. When watching this last time, immediately Tony’s words from ‘Irregular Around the Margins’ came to my mind: ‘she’s a ten, a knockout.’.
I believe this scene foreshadows the magnitude of the wedge driven between Tony and Chris because of this whole thing with Ade. Tony resents Chris, because he possessed the love of this “10”, while she was flirting with him for her own ends, perhaps even willing to ‘fuck him over’ and betray him to gain some information for the feds. This also explains Tony’s unempathetic and paranoid behavior in the scene.
On the other hand, Chris sees that this man, whom he sacrificed the love of his life for, still questions his loyalty and only thinks about himself.
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Thanks Valentin
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