Meadow cleaning the house

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After Livia's house was trashed during the party, Carmela and Tony are unsure what punishment to give. Meadow unprompted suggests she should be punished and her Discover card taken away for a few weeks. They agree. As she walks off you see a smile on Meadow's face like she manipulatively got what she wanted.

After Janice comes back from the house she is ranting about the state of it and the lack of punishment. This leads to arguments between Janice, Tony and Carmela. Janice suggests she should move out, although later Carmela tells her she shouldn't. Meadow is standing on the stairs listening silently.

At the end of the episode Meadow is at the house cleaning it and Tony arrives, sees her and looks surprised. There is no indication somebody told her to. Carmela told Janice to 'mind her business' and 'keep her mouth shut' when it comes to her kids, which could point away from Janice. Carmela told Janice that Meadow had already been punished, which could point away from Carmela.

Is this an indication that Meadow felt guilty about the situation and fall out, that indicates to us that although she is capable of manipulation, she has a conscience that other characters clearly lack? Perhaps then that, as with her education, Meadow is the one family member who will not follow in their footsteps and will go down a different path. As we know, she was not in the diner in the final scene of the last episode.

Re: Meadow cleaning the house

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Hi Jacket,

Notice you have been posting a lot lately. Sorry there isn't more activity here to support you. I barely have time to skim by the forum just to make sure there are no issues and read the few posts that occasionally pop up. So sorry I can't offer more dialog for you,

Briefly, my recall of that episode was that Carmela legitimately didn't want Janice meddling in how she and Tony parented and how they chose to punish their children. Of course this was the culmination of several things that would have irked Carmela about Janice but (by far) the one I think she took most seriously. I thought Carmela probably thought the punishment issued was enough, no matter what Meadow thought.

I absolutely agree that Meadow went back to clean up the house on her own because she felt guilty for the rift between Carmela and Janice. And part of that guilt was probably bound up with respect for Carmela for taking up for her. No matter how much Carmela and Meadow battled each other over the years, most notably in No Show and Eloise, she always knew her parents cared enough about her to be involved and concerned about the details of her life (a point made in Army of One.) And I think Meadow appreciated, beneath all the cynicism and judgment, her parents loved her and were trying their best to do right by her.
Tony, his spirits crushed after b-lining to the fridge first thing in the morning: "Who ate the last piece of cake?"
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