[mermaidgirl13]

I think we're definitely supposed to wonder if he had anything to do with her death but the only motive would be simple spite and revenge, which isn't productive and won't get him out of his debt to Heche.

(I'm from north NJ too, but too far north to be super-familiar with anything Sopranos.)

[kari]

nickclick, I wondered about that myself...Tony & Hesh's wife. I don't think he had anything to do with it. I just don't see when he would have had the chance.

Re: AJ. My take was that she just felt he was too immature.

The fight btw Tony and Carm was brutal.

[nickclick]

yep , i grew up down the shore and now i live in north jersey, pretty close to sopranos land. parts of the area are a lot nicer than they depict, although i kind of like that toughness about it too.

i hate that the opening sequence shows the turnpike out of order. he comes outta the lincoln tunnel, then he's too far south in elizabeth, then he goes north up towards jersey city.... something like that. either way, it's a long roundabout way into kearny to the pork store and to his house in one of the caldwells.

seems like there were hints in the last few episodes about tony's gambling, i can't remember specifically, but yeah now it's the focus.

when he was yelling at carmella, i thought - old tony is back. last season when he almost died he kinda softened, especially with carm, but all around.

did anyone else think tony had something to do with hesh's wife's death? probably not, but that was my first reaction.

[mermaidgirl13]

NickClick, you're in NJ?
I'm from NJ (and wish I still lived there). My mom often sends me the Ledger.

I could buy the theory that the girlfriend wished AJ was in the biz for the money, but I never really settled on exactly what her problem was. Maybe she didn't like him anymore. Although, that's way too simple an explanation for Sopranos-world.

That fight between him and Carmella was severely venonmous. I love that he never forgot the birdfeeder.

Also, has his gambling always been out of control or is it only recently?Or have they just decided to focus on it now?

[nickclick]

sorry to double post, but this is cool. the star-ledger, my local paper (that tony has only recently stopped picking up at the end of his driveway) has a sopranos page on their site. family tree is especially cool.

still on the theory that aj's gonna step up, now that his girlfriend left because he's not living the rich life of his father.

[nickclick]

paulie cracks me up too.

the guy who got shot was the new NY boss. so i guess that means phil leotardo is NY boss now. remember last week he was whining about being too weak?

i guess the scenes with uncle junior, besides being pretty funny, were to close that story, not make us think junior's gonna ever get out of there.

[mermaidgirl13]

Paulie always cracks me up. If Tony had whacked him, it would have been pretty unwarranted. Well, it may have been warranted, but it would have been too rash a decision. Maybe Tony's going to sit on it for a while.

I loved the Uncle Junior parts. I'm not sure what it has to do with anything else, but it was fun.

Who's the guy who was shot at the end?

[kari]

Nickclick, yeah, you could tell that Tony really wanted to do it to Paulie. I am not sure he felt it was 100% justified though.

Junior...that guy is such bad news. And his young friend was really creepy.

I thought this was a really good episode, it reminded me of old Sopranos.

[nickclick]

sorry for the double-post, but BUMP!

who else thought paulie walnuts was going to sleep with the fishes? tony kept asking him about the ginny sac thing, trying to find a reason.

paulie's a big connection to his past. why is he trying so hard to get away from it? i wonder how the show will end, either with tony getting out of the business, going to jail, or someone whacking him, at which each episode seems to be setting up a potential enemy - paulie, christopher, phil leotardo, bobby b.

[nickclick]

i think it was just another hint that he's getting older, which seems to be the theme this season, between tony and carmella and even phil leotardo.

my mom has a theory about why a.j.'s girlfriend was so pissy. she sees a.j. could be earning lots of money and living the mafia lifestyle, but instead works construction and lives like a normal person. maybe she's going to push him into the family more, and tony will be more accepting since he thinks he's losing christopher as his 'adopted' son, and then in which case a.j. will promptly screw up something.

[mermaidgirl13]

That's right -- not only was Finn's absence brushed over but so was the real estate woman. I guess we ended last season with Christopher and her using drugs and now we can in infer that he/they cleaned up and aren't seeing each other anymore. As for Meadow, just the fact that she's in NJ means the relationship died and they are just sparing us the tedious details of exactly how. I don't mind missing out on the inbetween parts, but the Finn comment from Meadow was a little jarring.

Oh and what did you make of Tony looking like he was going to have a heart attack at the dinner table? That made me nervous. I don't want him to have more health problems.

[nickclick]

yeah, maybe no need for the spoiler stuff, you're right. i have a coworker that doesn't want to get HBO so she's watching tapes from her friend, so i can't discuss the show within her earshot until mid-week. so i'm always on spoiler alert.

yeah, that scene with silvio was awesome. and glad to see some blood this week! corny horror movie excluded.

i dunno what happened with finn and meadow. last week wasn't she talking about moving to california with him? there's gotta be a reason she's staying in jersey and on the show.

when christopher was at the diner with his sponsor the real estate woman was mentioned, but they never said what happened to her after she went to the meeting with him. i think she's gonna be back in the picture to cause more friction between christopher and tony. maybe now that carm's in the real estate game she'll run into her.

and the scenes with johnny sac and his family were really sad. a lot of time spent on his death but i like his character so i thought it was good.

[mermaidgirl13]

I really enjoyed the first episode but last night's was a little 'eh' for me. I thought it set up a lot of great possibilities, even more than the first episode did.

(Not sure how spoilers work so my thoughts are in white text below.)

I wonder what AJ's girlfriend's problem is.

Did I miss something from a previous episode about Meadow and Finn breaking up? I'm glad he's gone, I was never a big fan of their relationship, but I don't think it was addressed until they were at the dinner table in last night's episode. That'd explain why she was back. I'm glad -- I was afraid that when she moved to California with Finn, she was being written out of the show.

Cleaver was hilarious. Christopher is such an idiot. But so entertaining.

I loved the scene where the NY guy is shot at the table in front of Sil. That was an awesome way to film it with the blood hitting him in the face in slow motion before any noise or anything else. I was impressed that he was able to get up and usher the women out of there as fast as he did.

If the episode has aired, is it okay to write about in detail and not worry about spoilers?

[nickclick]

ooh, good! i totally forgot about Janice's "abandoned" son Harpo.

[chachaheels]

Oh, I think Janice and Tony are equally matched, and equally vindictive against each other. One is as badass as the other (but Janice is more badass--way, way more. I don't think Tony could stand a chance against her (and it's probably why he's so angry at her).

Here's my spoiler list:
1. Bobby killed, without knowing it, Janice's "abandoned" son Harpo.

A hit Tony arranged for him to take on after Bobby "beat him fair and square"...something Bobby should never have let happen. Naturally Tony would exact some kind of revenge for that beating.

2. When Janice finds out about his death and realizes it was the hit Tony made Bobby "go out and do" (so that Bobby would think Tony was seriously considering making him a capo), she'll retaliate: she may try to have her brother killed (which would end up killing someone else) or she may just "take an eye for an eye" and put a hit on Meadow directly. Either way, I think Meadow is going to die very soon.

3. Chris' days are numbered (ah, they were numbered in episode one, he's always been a huge threat to Tony just out of his idiocy alone).

[kari]

I watched nickclick!

I thought it opened the doors to lots of action. I agree with some of your predictions, esp the one about B. If the rest of your predictions happen, that will be absolutely wild! I am excited about the season, the first episode gave me hope.

[nickclick]

so who watched sunday? spoilers possible:

is tony still mad at christopher about sleeping with juliana marguiles? isn't is supposed to be months later? these guys really take their 'loyalty' seriously, while fucking around on their wives.

my prediction: bobby b's gonna get caught after the shitty job he did 'popping his cherry' on that hit, and janice is gonna be pissed and somehow arrange for a hit on tony or do it herself. janice is bad ass and i love her!

[mandolyn]

Plea Deal has 'Sopranos' Actor Talking to Students

now i feel bad for dissing artie. seems like his real life is spiraling downward also.

sunday nights completely suck ass now. le sigh.

[mermaidgirl13]

I felt like Season Five could have been the end. Most things were decently resolved. And now this Season opened up tons of new story lines, but they are decently resolved now too.

What will the last 8 episodes contain?

I'm more frustrated than disappointed.

[lot49]

pixiedust, we were thinking the same thing about Juliana getting whacked by accident!

and mandolyn, agreed about the Melfi sessions. Yawn.

I was thinking that at least the Dr. who mis-diagnosed Phil was gonna get it.