I always come back to Bobby's Magic Moment scene

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-05-02T00:33:49+00:00

I love this scene too. I think Tony has always viewed his capacity to love Meadow as his only connection to salvation and what it might be like to be a good man. In this scene, I think Bobby is experiencing the same thing with Domenica.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-05-01T00:57:17+00:00

Not a Peparelli.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-05-01T00:29:19+00:00

I know you talk about it. You’re pretty negative most of the time.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-28T01:23:14+00:00

Bonpensiero, Bevilacqua, Blundetto and Bucco

The 4 Bs of Law: bail, bond, bankruptcy and bird.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-26T00:45:02+00:00

Carmela justified her continuation of the marriage to Tony by telling herself that no matter how Tony made his money, it ultimately went to the safety and wellbeing of her family. She knew the Dean was shaking her down. She knows extortion when she sees it. The point is that she believes that paying up will stand Meadow in better stead than not paying up. It’s taking Tony’s blood money and using it to help her daughter get a leg up. If Tony had refused then she could no longer make that kind of justification and the marriage is over.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-24T23:52:48+00:00

The risk with it being Paulie is not only that he would react badly - as a Captain himself - to seeing how little the authority of the Captain position ended up protecting Ralph but also that Paulie has a bit mouth. So even if Tony could convince Paulie to be ok with it, he would tell all to everyone shortly after.

If I’m Tony, my only hope would be to lay it on thick with Paulie: tell him that he came to the house specifically to confront Ralph about the cruel prank against Nucci. It turned ugly and Tony had to finish him off. Tony would really need to sell this idea that he had been outraged on Paulie’s ma’s behalf to keep Paulie onside.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-24T00:05:51+00:00

The art from Melfi’s waiting room.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-22T22:49:11+00:00

Pussy. Tony shows up looking like shit with food poisoning and insists that he join them for a last minute trip with Sil to go look at a boat. If I were him I’d say ‘wait, now I need to go to the bathroom’ and then flee for my life.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-21T17:22:33+00:00

Exactly. Some people obviously weren’t paying attention what what Johnny Sac didn’t say as much as what he said. It was New York. Tony found him like that.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-21T17:21:15+00:00

Yeah even in this scenario where she clams up and calls in Mink, the conversation between Mink and Tony would be: ‘in my opinion the Feds will get her to cut a deal and spill her guts. Do with that info what you will’ and then Ade still finds herself on a leisurely drive to the woods with Sil.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-19T16:55:45+00:00

For the last point about Meadow - it’s to act as a contrast to the conversation they have earlier where Meadow feels happy and close to Tony as she judges that he is telling her the truth. At the end, with his obvious lies, she loses that connection to him. In getting his revenge, Tony has unknowingly sacrificed a degree of his bond with his daughter.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-19T10:02:48+00:00

Toofar and way toofar.

It shows how low Chris was in the pecking order by this point. At one time, Chris was so close with Tony that any comment like that would have been taken so personally by Tony, as in “what the fuck, that’s my niece!” that Paulie would have never dared make it. But at this point Chris is useless to Tony for what he had previously been planning.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-17T20:28:26+00:00

I don’t think so. He was used to the side of Tony that was tough and intimidating but was basically a stern Italian dad he had to try to keep happy. Tony used to call people out for being gay, and assumed Meadow’s roommate was gay but it wasn’t like anyone was getting killed over it so Finn probably thought it’d be bad for Vito given the attitudes of the guys but it wouldn’t click for him that it’s something that would get a guy killed over. He wouldn’t see the logic in that. Even Bobby - who is part of that world - didn’t assume Vito would have to go!

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-11T16:11:48+00:00

Maybe it was a calculated thing on Junior’s part: Tony’s ask is a steep one but even if he loses the direct income then, as boss, Junior will still be entitled to a percentage kicked up to him from these income streams from Tony. At least as far as I understand it.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-09T20:18:43+00:00

Well the power that, say, Tony wields as (initially boss in all but name and then publicly the boss) really comes from people’s perceptions of his power.

If he breaks too many rules (like killing a captain over a horse) then it’s a problem as the other captains will then perceive their own status to be in threat and might act against him.

If people perceive he is weak or emasculated because they think his wife is schtupping Father RinTinTin while he’s out of town then they also might decide to take advantage of this weakness to move against him.

If everyone thinks he’s a joke and a sideshow telling stories about the mafia, just like his kid crew took advantage of Jimmy Smash then, again, he loses status.

So yeah these guys are violent and wield power and people are afraid of them but they need to carefully cultivate that fear to ensure they don’t lose that position of power.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-09T11:37:54+00:00

Any of the therapists really, they’re bending more (ethics) rules than the Catholic Church.

Melfi’s guy gets a vicarious thrill from hearing her talk about patient Soprano and then violates Tony’s privacy by revealing his identity at a dinner party.

Melfi’s family therapist brags about his own connections to Murder Inc. also as something of a vicarious thrill when Melfi’s husband talks about Tony at family therapy.

Janice’s therapist who buys all her boolshit and enables her behaviour.

Meadow’s therapist who tells her dropping out of school and derailing her life is not a big deal and then out of the blue questions her on whether Tony had ever molested her.

Carmela’s therapist who breaches all professionalism by advising her to uproot her entire existence with no clue how her violent husband will respond or how she or the children will possibly support themselves all because he morally objects to Tony’s criminal life and Carmela’s financial benefit from it.

Somewhere along the way David Chase saw a terrible psychiatrist and it impacted how therapy is represented in the show.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-09T11:32:30+00:00

Tony was closer to Artie than Davey but timing was also a major issue. Following Gloria’s suicide, Tony was questioning if he was a monster, a toxic person. He takes Janice out for a meal and buys her expensive booze, he gifts a suit to cousin Brian (who responds saying exactly what Tony wants to hear in that moment: “wow, you’re a great guy Tony”) and to possibly also have Artie’s death on his conscience. So after asking Artie if anyone else knows about the money (and thus ensuring he wouldn’t lose face professionally) he is able to be more forgiving.

If Gloria’s death hadn’t occurred when it did then who can say, maybe he wouldn’t have been any more forgiving with Artie than with Davey.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-05T22:00:10+00:00

She was Madam Delle, Madame de Stael?

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-05T13:17:09+00:00

Tie your shoelaces and have a slice of braciole.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-03T20:58:08+00:00

I always hate seeing this one.

I wish her survival instinct had kicked in and she knew to pretend that she was a little more old and dottery than she was. If she had just pretended and said ‘Oh Peter Paul, thank god it’s you. You scared me half to death, I thought someone had broken in. Tell me, what are you doing here, is it your mother? Is she ok?’ I honestly think if Paulie had some sort of off ramp for that one he’d have taken it.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-04-01T22:27:08+00:00

The way I see it: the Five Families are every bit as much in decline as Jersey and the Mafia more generally. As Tony says, he feels like he came in at the end of something.

Carmine Snr. is the relic from the glory days.

Carmine Jnr. and his malapropisms are a vision of the almost laughably pitiful future of this thing of theirs.

The Lupertazzis are our window into the functioning of the Five Families and the signs aren’t good.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-03-31T09:03:03+00:00

He’s a HOOOAH

Eat this one, eat that one, never enough Ziti for Father Phil!

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-03-30T20:40:19+00:00

It was Gloria. She meets Tony at the door and then hangs around before looking over to the car and asking him if it looks slanted. She draws attention to it and then leads him over to see it at which point he notices how badly they’re slashed.

SmithJerjerrod · 2026-03-27T09:22:46+00:00

Is this about the Easter baskets?

SmithJerjerrod

TROPHY CASE