My heart was breaking for Dev this season, love can be hard, but you gotta admit he was being kind of a dick to her at the end right here. He clearly did not appreciate how hard is it for her to abandon something that was a part of her life for 10 years, he was being selfish and unfair in saying that she used him, since he was aware of her situation and could have refused or stopped at any moment like he stopped with Rachel.
This is what I hate the most about american love stories, I mean... okay, he loves her, she loves him, what about Pino? is it fair that he loses his 10 years partner just because he got too busy for a few months? does that undo those 10 years?
I dunno, I feel that ending was too easy and unearned, and clearly a too simple resolution to a very complicated issue.
I don't usually care for this kinda shit usually, it always felt to me that caring about fictional characters relationships is a very silly thing to do but this show was obviously too real and there's a part of me that related to that experience, which made me write this.
Anyhoo, this was quite the season, I wasn't so sure at first but it won me after a few episodes, the writing was fine until that last scene, hopefully Aziz will be back with more in a few years.
A lot of plot movement condensed to a single episode. Not really sure what I make of it.
First there's the Melfi storyline, and the way that it's enough to finally convince her that she's not helping Tony. I don't know that I buy it. I mean, it seems to be the thesis of the show more or less -- that this therapy is enabling Tony more than it's actually prompting him to improve himself, but I don't know if I agree. Is Tony ever going to become a kind and gentle soul? Certainly not. Is he, or can he become a little better, a little more understanding of people and situations around him? I think the series has shown that he has, from his feelings about Vito to his mixed up feelings for his own son. The fact that after the confrontation with Melfi, Tony initially tries to be sensitive to his son when telling him that they need to hole up, only then to boil off and drag him to the closet, speaks to the sense that Melfi's had an effect, and that without some reinforcement it's easy for him to fall back on old habits. It felt very sudden somehow.
But on the other hand, part of the thrust of the episode seems to be that these people don't care about others. The random guy who has to break the news to the New York mobsters gets beaten up for his troubles. The guys who take out Silvio cause the death of a motorcyclist without any regard for the value of other lives. Phil's comare and her father are killed without anyone noticing or taking the time to check whether they got the right guy. There's a persistent sense that people are suffering for these mobster's largesse and they're entirely unaffected by that thought.
I don't know, man. A lot of it is interesting, but it didn't do as much for me as I might have hope given how long the build to the NJ/NY war was. Bobby's murder was beautifully shot and edited, but felt almost gratuitous. The image of Tony falling asleep with the assault rifle Bobby gave him is a powerful one, but still. Was it too much all of a sudden? Is the AJ stuff dragging on too long? I don't know. Something didn't quite work for me despite the ratcheted up tension.
To be frank, maybe I'm just burned out. I didn't binge watch the show exactly. Instead, I parceled out 1-2 episodes an evening. But even then, it may have been a bad idea to try to watch the whole show in the span of a couple of months. Sure, it lets me draw connections and themes between episodes that might have been jumbled or forgotten otherwise, but you also hit a point of exhaustion with a fictional world and the characters within it, even one that you're terribly compelled by. It feels like the show has been building to the moments in this episode for so long, and yet, when they arrive, I just don't feel what it seems like I should toward them. A recommendation to savor, I suppose.
This is an episode about selfishness, or at least self-centeredness. Everyone in the episode is focused on themselves and their people and their situation at the expense of any other. Ralphie asks what's in it for him to support Rosalee. Rather than providing the "honesty and compassion that [she's] known for", Janice breaks up with Ralphie by yelling at him for not taking off his shoes and knocking him down the stairs. The Casino head only welcomes Tony and his crew to his casino in order to get them to try to book Frankie Valli for him. Junior is only worried about his widower helper driving him to his trial.
The same is true of the "who was oppressed the most" contest that everyone is having. The Italians disregard the Native Americans, Hesh is sympathetic to them until his Cuban friend claims his people's suffering under Columbus is akin to the Jews' suffering under Hitler. Everyone is focused on their own problems and grievances at the expense of the slightest bit of empathy for anyone else's.
The lone holdout is Bobby Bacala, who, despite having no hand in his wife's death, is constantly brought to tears by the thought that he wasn't there for his wife when he might have been. It's a hell of a contrast, and highlights how so many people with every reason to be considerate or empathetic only think about themselves, and how Bobby, who has every reason to let himself off the hook, is racked with guilt.
I don't know if Tony's speech at the end is supposed to be the author's avatar. It seems a little more direct in enunciating the point than the show tends to be, but it feels like the writers talking through the character. It's interesting, because in one way, it's a rejection of the cultural oppression pissing matches that consumed so many individuals in the episode--Tony argues that folks like Gary Cooper didn't complain about that sort of thing and that people rise above them-- but it's also another form of self-centeredness because it credits all of their success to their own ingenuity and wherewithal, seemingly ignoring the fact that they stood on the shoulders of giants and by the nature of their business, had many things handed to them that others would not have been able to wrangle. Interesting stuff, to be sure.
It's hard to put a beat on this episode. There's a lot of interesting parallels. Both Carmella and Matt & Sean feel like they're sick of having tried to do things straight and not gotten as far as they wanted to. Both decide they need to get their hands dirty to get what they want, whether it's Meadow getting into Georgetown or Matt & Sean moving up in the organization. Both manage to hurt someone more deserving, literally in the case of Chris who's paid more of his dues or figuratively in the underprivileged boy whose letter of recommendation has less meaning.
And then there's a contrast drawn between people who think they're "hard" or assertive or imposing who are then shut down by someone else. Jean Cusamano's sister fancies herself steely but then eventually caves when Carmella cracks her knuckles loudly enough. Matt & Sean think the same of themselves until they get shaken down and intimidated by Furio and another grunt from the other side. Even Tony, who has been shown to be downright cruel in some moments of the show so far is one-upped by Richie, who's heartless enough to threaten a man in a wheelchair.
Then there's Richie's jacket. Maybe a cigar is just a cigar. Maybe the point is just to spark more tension between Richie and Tony and Tony giving the jacket his housecleaner's husband is an easy way to do it. But I think it connects to the other themes in the episode, at least a little. Richie got the jacket in a fight with a bigger man; it's a sign of his toughness, of the old way of doing things, and it means something to Richie. When he gives it to Tony, it's both a token and a reminder; it's meant to be a peace offering, something to bring them closer together, but it's also meant to be a subtle call to Tony about the harshness their business is founded on, and Tony giving it away is like spitting in his face to Richie.
Tony, meanwhile, is worried about making amends to Beansie and not getting wiretapped and helping his daughter to fly and maybe even appreciate him on the same terms as a business man respected in the community. His jealously is palpable. Davey is a man who's sterling on the outside, but unbeknownst to the world has severely hurt his family with his private irresponsibility. Meannwhile Tony, who's public reputation is either a freakshow curiosity or scary and impolitic for good society on the outside, is the one who uses his position to try to provide for his family's security and his daughter's education. At the beginning of his therapy session with Melfi, he seems happy for once, and then he asks "how could this happen." Every time he thinks he's got things under control, there's another complication.
Some people really couldn't get over Frank's loss, right? This season wasn't the best it could have been, more 5 episodes could have rounded it up a bit better, but circunstances were as they were and the show did its best to handle in 8 episodes a sudden and enormous plot change, create another one and do it with grace - The whole "Saving the legacy from the man" thing was very clear pointed out to Spacey itself and it felt... important and meaningful to the series - the whole season was about everyone plotting against Claire and her ability to be ruthless in order to overcome them and secure her power as commander in chief - be it for good or for bad, she alienated everyone around her to have pure, unrestrained power and didn't care abou any of the consequences - she was stone cold even more than Frank was, a manipulative, calculated sociopath and a great character alltogether. Killing Doug in the Oval Office wasn't the best ending at all, but I felt it was a rather symbolic one, more than logic itself. Good ending to a great show - could have been more, but it was fair enough.
Pros
+Jon and Sansa along with the "Bastard" letter
+Drogo pyre re-enactment
+I'm excited to see how Jaime and Cersei's plan is going to work out, there's definitely going to be some unexpected twist that happens
Neutral
*Theon and Asha (Yara) reunion, wasn't bad and Theon's actor did great but I was not blown away by it. Still, it should make the Kingsmoot a little more shocking. It's going to need as much help as it can get since Damphair and Victarion probably won't be telling us why Euron needs to be prevented from getting the Throne like they do in the books.
Cons
-Ramsay killing Osha seemed a little out of place. I think it made sense but it was weird that he just has that one small scene and then nothing else. Just a nitpick really.
Danaerys finally had her first good episode in 1 and a half seasons, even though those buff ass dudes would've definitely killed her as soon as they realized how screwed they were, and if not them then the falling rafters probably would've gotten her. Also not convinced that the Dothraki would immediately back her after seeing their leaders burned alive and they obviously didn't give too much of a shit when she walked out of the first fire with her dragons. An argument could be made for them seeing it happen and having literally no leaders left but this is an ultra male-centric society and it's hard to think they'd change their minds after living their entire life in that way especially considering how much they despise magic. Still, it was a cool Odysseus like massacre and the parts before and after were all solid.
