3
by Garth
This episode has some really great moments for me, but it also has some glaring faults. First of all, it is great to see the aftermath of Tony's actions in the Bevilaqua murder. The scene involving the lost child in the mall which ties into the "Mommy!" line is a kick in the gut. Also interesting to see Tony wanting to spend more time with AJ after failing as a father in Chris's case and REALLY failing in the Bevilaqua case.
Seeing Tony's reaction to the possibility of going to prison shows the viewer yet another facet of this amazing character. We have never seen a Tony who is anxious, nervous, and scared. I think specifically of three scenes. The first being Tony in the sporting goods store reacting with anger and yelling at Dave Scatino. The second, Tony in therapy. When he starts swearing angrily out of nowhere. This scene seems extremely realistic and is amazingly done by Gandolfini. Finally the scene where Tony goes into the bathroom after realizing that he has "dodged a bullet". All awesome scenes. And there are certainly more, such as the fight with Carmella...really the list is endless, the more I think about it.
On the negative side of things, I find it a bit hard to believe that after such a heartfelt make-up between Tony & Carm in the last episode, that Carm is ready to fall into the arms of the wall-paper guy. This seems like a fourth season Carmella, and just doesn't fit with the last episode. This isn't to say that some time hasn't passed and things haven't changed. But, as far as the plotting of the series, it is odd.
I also find the end scene to be a bit much. I wouldn't have minded Tony and AJ on the boat. The Journey song "Wheel in the Sky", is a bit much. I don't know, a little too "power ballad" for me or something. Second issue with this final scene is the knocking over of the two men in the smaller boat. The metaphor is kind of beat to death. Yeah, we get it, the smaller guy gets the shaft. Similar to how Scatino got "bust out" and similar to whole witness scenario from this episode. It was just a bit too spot-on for me. It was un-needed. All in all, not a bad episode though, and probably a bit above average. About a 7 for me.