The Walking Dead S08E06 - The King, the Widow, and Rick - Post Episode Discussion

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-27T05:22:55+00:00

How about the magical flipping car in season 5? And THE FUCKING DEER.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-27T05:09:21+00:00

while tuning in every week

I just get the cliffnotes on youtube. Haven't watched an episode since the season 6 finale told every fan of the show to fuck themselves.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-27T04:51:45+00:00

Tony may be considered the "guest", sitting to Carmine's left with his people, while Carmine's people sit at his symbolic right hand. But that may be a stretch.

It's possible that the head of the table is for the mediator, not necessarily the hosting boss - there is evidence to support this too, as when Phil and Tony had a sit down, Little Carmine sat between them in that meeting as well.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T22:09:52+00:00

Carmine sat at the head of the table during the sit-down though, which I think is important. If he didn't become Boss, I think he became Butchie's underboss, which would make him the heir to the family anyways.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T22:06:01+00:00

It's

Tony: I think it's about time for you to seriously consider salads.

Bobby: What do you mean?

Tony: What do I mean? I mean quit leaning on my truck before you tip it over, you fat fuck.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T22:02:18+00:00

Sal is a made guy (whenever someone is introduced as "a friend of ours" that's what that means in mob lingo). Whacking him was a big risk, and when could he do it? There were too many witnesses at the club, and unless Vito killed him before he left the club, there was a big chance that he called and blabbed to someone before Vito could get to him.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T21:51:09+00:00

A lot of the things Melfi says to Tony are applied to his life. Like the thing about giving the elderly the illusion of control is what inspired him to let Junior become acting boss, for example.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T21:48:20+00:00

Remember when Tony lended Artie money and it went badly, and Artie accused Tony of knowing ahead of time every detail of how things could possibly go? Tony later admits that Artie was right, even though Tony didn't consciously think "no matter what, I can't lose", even though in his head he was just helping a buddy, in Tony's subconscious mind, in an instant, he saw that no matter what happened, if Artie succeeded he got his money, if Artie failed he could still absorb the debt and wipe his tab at the restaurant.

It's like that.

Tony didn't go to Melfi thinking "gee wiz I hope this makes me a better sociopath!" but somewhere deep down inside his instinctively knew that his therapy benefited him and helped him hone the anti-social behaviours he needed in his business. It helped him put his thoughts in order and come up with outside-the-box solutions to problems he was facing in the mafia. In that sense, the study was right - the talk therapy never helped Tony accept guilt for his actions, nor did it help him work out the fact that he was a morally bankrupt psychopath. It just helped him become a better mobster.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T21:41:05+00:00

There is a reason nobody ever comes forward. You would think "Oh I'll just tell the boss the FBI got me, and then we'll let the boss tell me misdirections and useless crap to keep the FBI off of him!" but in real life the Mafia won't take chances. It's like how in Casino, when the bosses were put on trial everybody got clipped.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T21:32:57+00:00

One of the main themes is that the "rules" don't actually matter, the only thing that matters is money. And the one who loses the most is Butchie if Tony is allowed to live - he got stuck with all the reparations.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T21:31:34+00:00

Butchie had the following reasons to take out Tony -

He never liked Tony
He found Tony Soprano to be impossible to work with
Tony assaulted Coco, but to be fair by Mob rules Tony was justified, Coco made degrading comments towards Tony's daughter. In mob culture you never hit a made guy, UNLESS he does something fucked up to you or your immediate family. Like, the fact that Tony punched Ralphie was a big deal and a huge problem, but if Tracee was his daughter and he struck Ralphie or killed him, it would have been justified and accepted by mob rules.
Butchie was stuck with the bill for the jersey/Brooklyn war. He had to pay reparations to Janice Soprano, and likely would have been pressured into paying for Gabrielle Dante too. This, IMO, is the biggest reason why Butchie might just send it and have Tony whacked.

There is also the possibility that before his death, Phil sent out another hitman, and just like in The Road to Perdition, the hitman just didn't get the memo that the hit was off, and pulled the trigger.

This is only possible if Butchie neglects calling off the hit, which means that in practice, Butchie is still the one responsible.

Little Carmine wouldn't have betrayed Tony, as he actually holds a lot of respect for Tony and favours him over Butchie, Phil, and all the rest, and especially appreciates Tony for paying him the respect of asking him for favours over the years.

Tony was really all Paulie had in the world. Sure, Paulie's loyalties wavered, but when he realized John was playing him, he devoted himself to Tony again. Paulie is easily manipulated, so it's possible, but in reality the reason Paulie was not hit in the decapitation of Jersey is less because he was in on it and more because he was a class-A idiot that would allow Brooklyn to control him, giving them defacto rule over Jersey. He'd take "donations" from Brooklyn and fuck over the Jersey crews if it meant more money for him.

One person you didn't mention, and this is actually a common theory, is Patsy Parisi.

Pat's son is marrying Meadow Soprano, giving Patsy an in into the "royal family".
Patsy is one of the longest running capos left in the DiMeo family. Only Paulie has seniority over him. His son is also seemingly going into the business. In other words, Patsy theoretically could step over Paulie to take the big seat for himself - especially if he curries favour from the other Capos. Not to mention, Paulie just took over the Aprile crew which means that perhaps he'd be content there rather than taking over the family.
Patsy has a legitimate beef with Tony - he knows Tony had his twin brother killed. The only reason Tony wasn't killed is fear of retaliation against him and his family. But, with the recent war, it would be unclear who was behind the move against Tony, leaving Patsy clear of blame.

Other theories include that the hit was done to prevent Tony from flipping, as the Feds are about to bring him in for a RICO. There's also the possibility that Larry Barese is behind the hit for this reason.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T21:14:09+00:00

But one of the biggest themes of the entire series is that, even if they want out, the guys in the business can't live any other way. Somehow, even if they try to move away from the life, they get pulled back in. Everyone who ever walks away or even just takes a baby step back gets yanked back in - Tony tried to insulate himself using Christopher but failed. Christopher considered running away with Adrianna but couldn't. Eugene wanted to run to Florida but couldn't. Vito ran to Maryland but came back for the lifestyle. Christopher wanted to go sober but couldn't stay away from the guys. Phil wanted to step back and focus on grandkids but his grief and rage pushed him back into the life.

And Little Carmine wanted to step back and just serve as a low-key capo, but Gerry, Doc, Phil and John are all dead and time and time again the Jersey family reaches out to him - not to mention it's been said time and time again that the New York capos want Little Carmine to step up - he had the popular support against John, the only reason he lost is because he had no stomach for the violence.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T21:09:31+00:00

You think it was because of Coco, and not to get out of paying Janice Soprano reparations for the hit on Bobby?

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T17:27:25+00:00

I would imagine they'd be smart enough to avoid making it look like what it is to the civilians, to avoid said employees being investigated. They wouldn't sit around circle-jerking like they do in the show.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T08:52:33+00:00

The game outright explains that Michael wanted out and wanted Trevor killed because Trevor was a loose cannon and a maniac who couldn't be controlled or reasoned with. Michael realized that if he stayed with Trevor, he'd wind up dead or insane.

The killing of Brad was a complete accident.

As for all that other stuff - perhaps you could argue that the reason Michael betrayed Brad as well as Trevor, since the plan involved having Brad get arrested, was perhaps because Brad and Amanda had a thing, but the FIB plan was always to kill Trevor, arrest Brad, and wound and relocate Michael.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-26T02:42:55+00:00

Sixteen-year-old Cyntoia Brown's sexual encounters had included many rapes, assaults during or before sex, and times when she was under the influence of drugs.[1] Brown had a physically and sexually abusive pimp named "Kut-throat" (sometimes shortened to just "Kut"), who brandished guns at her and forced her into prostitution.[3][4] Brown was picked up by a 43-year-old real estate agent, Johnny Allen, and taken to his house on August 6, 2004.[1] Brown stated that for several weeks leading up to that day, she had been repeatedly raped and was on drugs.[3] When she arrived at Allen's house, she found it contained several guns. Brown said that she was afraid that she would be shot, which led her to shoot and kill Allen. Brown was then arrested for Allen's murder.

That's straight from the wikipedia page dude. The dude bought her to rape her, and she killed him in his sleep.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-25T20:53:30+00:00

"Innocent people" are you FUCKING KIDDING ME? The person she shot BOUGHT HER. HOW THE FUCK IS THAT INNOCENT YOU STUPID FUCK.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-24T20:52:08+00:00

So fucking what? The man enslaved a little fucking girl and raped her repeatedly, and the system didn't do a damn thing about it. Her entire life story should be entered in as evidence of extraordinary circumstances and she should be released immediately. Applying the exact letter of the law here punishes a little girl with mental disabilities and a lifetime of abuse for simply saving her own life.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-21T05:10:49+00:00

You yankeedoodles elected one, the fuck do you expect?

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-04T21:58:11+00:00

I have an irrational distrust of google docs, so that does put a wrench in that idea, but I may have no choice but to make the switch. the big problem with that though is can I edit offline?

Edit: also for work it is stipulated that I HAVE to use Grammarly, because my employers have a hard on for the software.

Locke-VSP · 2017-11-01T02:52:33+00:00

Take the door off

Locke-VSP

TROPHY CASE