The Sopranos 2x09 Reaction

They have finally reached this point, welcome to the Church of Paulie hahaha. Definitely my favorite character in the crew. He's hilarious.

I appreciate seeing Paulie be good to his girlfriend's(?) two kids when he woke them both up at 3am

If anyone wants a bit better understanding of what Tony and Melfi mean by poor Italian immigrants, I'd highly recommend watching The Godfather 2. It depicts what life was like in the late 1910s, New York City, with a focus on the hardships of poor immigrants, and of taking the justice into your own hands because absolutley no one else will...which is something I don't think Tony can say when he defends himself with certain historical injustices or when he alludes to himself taking justice into his own hands.

what do you mean, "when your kng comes?"

I wish there was a scene with Adriana and Chris, but we already know Adriana loves him as long as he's not acting insane and she'll be on his side with whatever he wants to do - whether he starts his scripture studies with Father Tintola, writes movies, or stays mobbed up. It's interesting that we get the same sentiment at the end of the episode when Carmela says she just wants Tony. In my opinion, it shows that Carmela's deepest alligence is to Tony, then the family, then her religious faiths comes after.

here's a philosophical exercise- if a man kills an innocent man with no justifiable reason and gets away with it his whole life, if murder is inherently bad (it either is or isn't), for it to be bad it would mean that there is a standard upon actions for human beings because we are conscious of our decisions for most mentally capable people. So if this man gets away with it in this life, and its inherently wrong, then there would be some sort of existence in the after life in order to receive punishment for his wrong. The whole premise of Christianity is that the Christ the Son is the interceder for that punishment that the guilty would be set to receive from God the Father, for those that believe upon the Son as their savior. In Catholicism there's a bit more to it, and so Paulie goes to the priest because they see priest as a sort of sub-mediator to Christ, and he is upset because he did not receive the "protection" he felt due, by way of financial donation.

One of the best season 2 episodes, and there will be more to come as well. Michael Imperioli (Christopher) wrote this episode, and I find it funny that Imperioli is basically the polar opposite of Christopher in personality and writing talent in real life, ha. "Male heir" is definitely one of the worst thing to say to your son, and along with Tony's slight dismissal of him going to college, this will affect AJ's future character arc in a big way. You girls alluded to the fact that Tony's apology, despite being better than we thought, is ultimately hollow. We can infer that Tony has a favorite child, and deep down AJ probably knew it wasn't him. That male heir comment probably confirmed it so. Thematically, this episode is actually more significant than I thought after re-visiting it. You two discussed the significance of "three o'clock" in the discussion and I'm not gonna say much, but do look out for it in the coming episodes. I'm just gonna say this since you've already watched it. In the previous episode's therapy session, Tony revealed to us that his weekly appointment with Melfi were Tuesdays at 3:00.

Even though Tony kills people and torture them I think that male heir line is one of the worst things he’s done. It’s just so cruel to your own son.

Tony’s family didn’t arrive in America 200 years ago, I believe it was his grandfather who came to America in the early 1900’s. So while the point still stands that he is removed from the immigration directly, he still isn’t that far removed. If his grandfather was alive when he was young he easily could have heard directly from him what it was like. Tony and his family represent how values and culture change starting from immigration to present day. It’s a pretty huge theme in the Sopranos.

This episode has a lot of Tony behaving like his mother, whether it be hurting his children like the interaction with AJ or espousing her Nihilism when he’s talking to Paulie about how he doesn’t truly believe in anything, his line ‘none of this shit means a goddamn thing’ is almost bar for bar Livia telling AJ that ‘it’s all a big nothing.’ Tony often likes to act like Meadow is similar to him, because he wishes to take credit for all of her good qualities, but he’s far more like AJ which I think makes him uncomfortable- he even had AJ’s existential awakening earlier in the season to give him even more of a foreboding of who is taking after him.

The actor who plays Christopher actually wrote this episode.

The sun shines on the righteous

This is the right episode to mention it. Over the years the fans have debated whether Catholicism is "real" in the Soprano Universe. It never becomes a central topic but it's always there under the surface. Did God intervene for Christopher or was it a coincidence? This isn't the only time this gray area shows up in the show.

Tony dismissed AJ’s college comment but he also said exactly: “if you want to get in a college like that you gotta crack the books” right after. It wasn’t really dismissive with that extra context.

I don't know why but the scene where Tony shoots Matthew while he's crying for his mother made me think of that interaction Tony had with Carmella back in season one, that gut wrenching line "I didn't hurt nobody". I feel like Tony really loses a piece of himself after killing that poor dumb kid the way he did.