The Chase Lounge

This episode was the first one i saw and my absolute favorite episode. it is what got me to watch the sopranos all the way through and become the sopranos fan i am today.

I watched "Marco Polo" the other night and something jumped right out at me. The beauty of watching with hindsight I suppose. I'm referring to the scene in the hospital after Hugh fell from the roof. Carm and her mother are despairing over Hugh's birthday party, if he'll be well enough etc. While they are talking a guy in the A & E with them is screaming in agony, holding his stomach. The camera cuts to him twice but nothing comes of it. It suddenly occurred to me that the next time Carmela will be in the hospital it will be with Tony, with a gunshot wound to his stomach. If you look at the scene with this in mind it's eerie. Not only that, when the physician comes out to talk to them he says "the hedges broke his fall" which is very reminiscent of the "bushes" in the coma, from where Meadow's voice pulls Tony back from death. He also says things very similar to the physician in the coma about Tony maybe having alzheimer's. The whole , short scene has the effect of foreshadowing the nightmare hospital visit that is to befall Carmela in the near future.

P.S. Not to reply to my own post but something I forgot to mention. Carmela's mother, referring to the guy with the stomach trouble, exclaims, quite pointedly IMO, "Why can't someone help this man"? In an abstract way it's as if this is referring to TONY, knowing what we know happens later on. Taken in isolation this line clearly is the narrative referring to the plight of Tony.

Brilliant catch dsweeney. I remember now that I never knew what to think of the young man in agony, I just thought it was fairly random. Hindsight can be a great thing.

How about this for hindsight ? I watched "Unidentified black males" last night. This is where Finn starts working with the guys at the construction site. Eugene and Paulie Jr. are bustin' balls about their goomahs and Eugene says "that scank I saw you with ? With that moustache ? It must have been like kissin' a fireman". Vito is sitting right beside him. Johnny cakes anyone ?

I just watched Marco Polo the other night. It is a great episode, a lot better than I'd remembered. The family barbecues are always nice, and the body shop sidestory wasn't bad either (I hadn't realised the "Shah of Iran" nickname went back this far ).

dsweeney wrote:... It suddenly occurred to me that the next time Carmela will be in the hospital it will be with Tony, with a gunshot wound to his stomach. If you look at the scene with this in mind it's eerie...

Nice catch indeed. Interestingly enough, later on in the ep, when Tony and Carm are left alone in the pool, Tony says of the sleeping Artie: "he's comatose"...

Speaking of foreshadowing, note how right after we see Tony give Hugh a shotgun it cuts to Tony B.