What a tragic story Davey Sacatino's is. And in a way, Tony's story is tragic here too. Hell, so is Meadow's and Davey's son Eric's. Davey's a guy who clearly has a problem, and while Tony's right -- he makes his own choices and they're dumb ones and he has no one to blame but himself, but Tony lets him pursue those urges. Even though Tony wants to keep Davey's iron out of the fire, even though he tries to dissuade him, once the die is cast, he reluctantly does his job. And he realizes how it affects his daughter just a little, even if it angers him.
And he's right when he yells at her. Not to yell, but the point that he makes. Everything Meadow has comes from her father's business. It may not be as unmediated or clear as her friend's car, but everything she has is tainted in the same way. It's no fault of hers, but she seems hurt by the realization in the same way that Eric is frustrated by it. Tony seems frustrated by it too. A lot of the first season seemed to deal with Tony having to harmonize his family life and his work life, and against his almost best efforts, here they are colliding again.
When Tony is reflecting with his crew that he remembers his dad and Uncle Junior running the game when they were kids, there's a sense that it was supposed to be something more than this. This is supposed to be an achievement for Tony, and instead it just causes another headache and makes him have to do something he didn't want to do. Like the Happy Wanderer, Tony should be carefree now that he's at the top of the game. But the Executive Game is a microcasm - it's the trophy he wanted, but it doesn't make him happy.
Oh my! It's Lagertha :D
The last 10 minutes of this episode is probably one of the most powerful endings I've ever seen! Gave me goosebumps!
Watching this episode, I couldn't help but be totally distracted by the fact that they recast Daario Naharis.
Money money money. The title says it all, this is an episode about repaying debts, whether it's Junior's debts to his lawyers, the capos' debts to their boss, Tony's debt to his family, or even Chris's different kind of debt to his mother and father.
It's also about the downturn. Carmella says this all has to come to an end, and there's the pall from that sentiment hanging over the episode. Things aren't looking so good for once, and there's a sense that the grasshoppers and ladybugs should start storing food for winter.
I'll admit I didn't love the episode. There was a lot of set up for things that I expect will come later. But it was an interesting salvo for the fourth season.
This one was pretty interesting. Paulie is back around and making a stink again. Adrianna's well-meaning but half-baked plan to escape from the FBI's grasp by marrying Chris was a tidy, heartbreaking little storyline, especially Chris's shitbag response to finding out that she might be unable to have children.
The business with the HUD scam felt like something out of The Wire more than The Sopranos, but just because it was still pretty great and unnerving to see the buck passed and passed until terror rained down on the downtrodden folks in the crackhouse. It was in many ways the strongest part of the episode. (I especially liked Maurice, who was equally great in his role as Ben Urich on Netflix's Daredevil) That said, the related stuff with Tony and Zellman felt weaker. It's hard to say why, and maybe it's just a sign of Tony not being able to restrain himself with what he thinks it his, but it was still a little eh.
So did Tony die or didn't he? I think he did. I think the suddenness of the cut to black and the previous flashback to his conversation with Bobby that you don't see or hear death nods in that direction. But I also think it doesn't really matter. The point, if I may be so bold, is that the end doesn't necessarily come on schedule. It can come at any time, when you least expect it, when you're not thinking about it, in the heightened moments when you fear for your life at a safe house with an assault rifle draped across your stomach, or when you're feeling safe and enjoying a family meal at a diner.
We try to ignore that fact, to try to live as though it weren't true. You pretty much have to in order to keep living any semblance of a real life. But Tony, more than most people, lives, as Carmella notes, with a sword of damocles hanging over his head at all times. And that means that we should, as Tony once said and as AJ reminds him, remember the good times, to try to enjoy those sweet moments when we have them because we don't know how long they might last or how many opportunities we may have to find them again. It's existentialist, but a surprisingly optimistic take on it for this show.
Drawing back to the title, there's always been something the show posits as quintessentially American about Tony. In the final scene, they surround him with Americana at the diner: the friendly young couple, the cub scout troupe, the sports hero murals on the walls. Even Tony is assembling his nuclear family. He's from an immigrant family, considers himself self-made and both proud of his heritage and a part of the melting pot. Is Tony himself an aging superpower, or am I reading too much into it here?
The finale spends more time with AJ than I might prefer. But it also shows that as much as Tony wanted it, his kids cannot really escape his orbit. AJ is naive and misguided for the most part, and certainly insanely self-pitying, but he also shows a (again naive) sense of understanding about the greater tragedies in the world. His method of trying to help is an interesting one, but also a hard one, which is not typically the Sopranos way. Instead, his parents ply him with a cushy job (as the equivalent of a D-Girl, as Chris might say). And suddenly his concerns about the material world seem to drift away. He may not be a mobster, but he can be corrupted.
And Meadow has given up Tony's dream for her - becoming a pediatrician, and helping little babies. (The episode does lean hard into the "sociopaths like babies and pets" idea between this and the cat.). Instead, she's going to become a civil rights lawyers, and Tony can see her representing folks like him, marrying another mobster, and being pulled into a life he did not want for her. If there's a persistent theme to these series, it's not simply about the difficulty of changing on a personal level, it's about it on a generational level, how we carry the baggage of our parents and grandparents and other generations past, that makes it difficult to escape from their orbit. The show is a little blunt about it when Meadow says that if she hadn't seen her father dragged away so many times civil rights wouldn't be such a salient concern for her, but it's an interesting idea.
Indeed, another theme the show has kept close and blossoms in this episode is the idea that Tony taints whatever he touches. AJ is back to being a spoiled brat. Meadow is too much in the world of the mob to truly escape it. Carmela long ago figured out that she was in too deep to pull out of the life she had made with Tony. Agent Harris has gone native, cheering on the NJ crime family when he hears that Phil has been executed. Paulie talks about taking time off, but instead agrees to skipper the construction crew. And as he hits out in front of Satriale's, there are a lot of empty tables there with him.
So when the episode cuts to black, do we see a man about to get his just deserts, a tumor in the lives of friends and family being removed, or have we simply ended our time with a man who will go on to face a weapons charge? I have my thoughts on it, but more importantly than the outcome is the idea behind it. We don't know whether Tony lived or died, just like we don't know when the end is coming. There are perilous forces in the world like Tony Soprano who result in people like the motorcyclist from the last episode dying, or the comare and her father, who have no reason to suspect they'd be impacted by these events in this way. You can live the high-powered life of Junior Soprano and still have who you are taken away by forces beyond your control. Value the good times, David Chase & Co. seem to say, because we live in a state of sudden uncertainty, where the cut to black could come without warning or fanfare, and those moments become all we have, or had.
Didn't laugh a single time. What has this show become? :/
Hurr Hurr girls talking about geeky things. How weird. Oh they talked about rom coms, it's back to 'normal' now.
Really not sure why I'm still watching this show. It's just insulting, the jokes stopped being funny long ago and the only likable characters are usually the butt of the jokes. I'll be surprised if I finish the season coz I'm done with this show.
i'm not up to date on Game of thrones (yea I said it lol) and there was a few spoilers that ruined the fun for me.
this episode was the most annoying piece of sh*t i ever had to endure.
That last scene. That's the show i fell in love with.
WOW!! This episode was so intense!! I wanna see John meeting his daughter again now that she know who he is. And Morgan being supportive and saying those nice things to her about John was also really sweet.
And now to think that the A team is taken and they need help.
I so need to see Morgan, Devon and Ellie saving Team Bartowski!! It's going to be awesome!
Felt really sorry about Chuck's dad! :( And poor Ellie and Chuck had to watch it
"My death comes without apology." But who is the one-eyed man who told them that Ragnar really is dead? Anyone?
Claire finally broke the 4th wall .Probably the best season so far.
we don't submit to the terror. we make the terror.
No idea if anybody realised this, but at the end of the episode, while in the brothel, there's a song playing in the background. A song that, if anybody has seen Outlander (series) would recognise. The intro, that starts with "Sing me a song, of a lass that is gone..."
Knowing that Bear McCreary composes the soundtrack for both shows explains it. But still, it was cool to recognise it.
Quite a weak story here I thought. Even in the 24th century women seem to be all too easily swept off their feet by a guy with a nice smile
I'm sure many would disagree, but this is the first episode of TNG which I would describe as good, or indeed watchable at all. Up to this point it's a confused mess of cheesy storytelling and awkward dialogue. The Klingon stories are always fun, and while this isn't the first Klingon focused episode of the series, it's certainly setting the template for what was to come. It looks great and benefits from the excellent Klingon ship set built for the feature films.
I actually remember the first time I saw this episode, late night on Sky One. I was a kid and should have been in bed but I was captivated by it, and recognised it as being of higher quality.
Riker is totally on form, showing his ability to adapt and even have fun with whatever situation is thrown at him. Great to see Brian Thompson in his first of several Trek roles, too.
That was really cool! I loved seeing more of the Klingon culture.
Really interesting episode. It seems like the first time the very clearly had a choice to violate the prime directive with emotion. I can't see HQ overlooking what was a clear violation but at the same time the Enterprise ships have always had some extra leeway.
The first encounter with the Borg was probably quite creepy back in the late 1980s, but watching it today it feels a bit underwhelming. Far more interesting is the performance of Guinan, and Picard's need to become humble before Q. Lots of things here which were never followed up on, notably the concept of baby Borgs which was completely abandoned. The 18 dead crew members do lead a bad taste in your mouth, and severely alters any playful side we may have seen in Q.
They also set up a big mystery with Guinan's background, which was never mentioned or explored again. Lt. Gomez could have become an enjoyable recurring character, too.
I'm really starting to like Dr. Katherine Pulaski. Wasn't too sure about her at first, but I've really enjoyed her character and liked her storylines during the last 5 episodes or so.
An amazingly well constructed episode that deals with alternate timelines but manages to be a wonderful character piece. The return of Denise Crosby as Tasha is central to this, and I wish I could experience the original shock of seeing her that must have occurred back in 1990.
The episode manages to bring meaning to her senseless season 1 death, and her scenes with both Guinan and Picard are very layered and powerful. Additionally, the episode has a vividly different look from standard TNG; dramatic lighting and longer focal depth really stand out, giving the episode its own identity. I get a small thrill with the return of the original-era movie uniforms and even set design.
It's also nice the way that the main cast change their performances in only subtle ways. Mainly we see that Picard and Riker have a harder edge, they seem more battle weary and forceful in their decisions. But the old captain is still in there as we see in his discussions with Guinan. This is yet another demonstration of what an important addition Whoopi Goldberg was to the cast.
As for minor criticism, I find the last 5 minutes of the episode a little dull. The battle with the Klingons just isn't particularly exciting. It's also convenient that the Enterprise-C crew were so willing to go back to their time without much argument.
They paint the world full of shadows... and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn't true. We can prove that it isn't true. In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility, there is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it. And who has been so close to doing it as we are right now?
I found it unbelievably irritating that the older brother was blamed for something the younger one did by himself. Older brother pranking his younger brother by playing dead is in no logical way related to younger brother being an idiot and eating the fruit. Younger brother could've eaten the fruit at any time. The person who made it so easily reachable for uneducated kids is to blame, and I'm willing to bet it wasn't his older brother...
Wow. Well that sucked even more than I was expecting for a season finale, and I had low expectations in the first place with how disappointing this entire second season has been. I can maybe guess it was probably better in the LN, but all the arcs in this second season were pretty bland to begin with story-wise. I don't see how they would be that much better in the novels. I love isekai light novels but Overlord is definitely one series that I never really liked too much (even the first anime season), and I will definitely not be reading the LN any time soon.
As for the third season, I'll probably still watch it when it airs in the summer as 20 minutes a week for 13 episodes isn't that much time. Still, I'm definitely not going to invest any more time in this series than that though.
A classic episode, doing something very different from what we usually get. Data is such a great creation both on the page and as brought to life by Brent Spiner, that it's almost impossible to not be fascinated whenever he's on screen. This episode is funny and light hearted while also engaging from start to finish.
Several things are introduced to the franchise here, including the hairdresser on board the Enterprise and Data's cat Spot. We also meet Keiko for the first time; I've been surprised to read that many fans didn't really like her, as I always found her an enjoyable character. O'Brien is getting more and more to do as the show goes on, establishing him as a strong character in himself.
Gates McFadden gets to show off her skills in the wonderful dancing scenes which are fun to watch. The subplot concerning the Vulcan ambassador and the Romulans is a bit weird, especially its surprise ending. I'm not sure it was integrated into the episode all that well.
The daywatch/nightwatch schedule on the bridge is a new one. It seems a bit odd because it suggests that the senior staff would rarely all be on the bridge at the same time, but every episode up until this point tells us otherwise. It's also convenient that all matters of importance happen during the ships "day time".
