3
by sopranology
“perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.” – John Donne
Tony sits on the dock, and mopes, a bell tolls twice nearby. After the fight, he’s coming to grips with his limitations, feeling old at age 47. “His body suffered a trauma from which he probably will never fully recover.” He’s still brooding a little while later as we hear his young niece Nica, singing with her nanny, "four little ducks went off one day, over the hills and far away..." which bring us back full circle to the very first Sopranos episode with the ducks in his pool.
Carmella disingenuously defends Tony as not being a vindictive man, but Janice knows differently. That fight was a big mistake on Bobby’s part and Janice knew it.
“Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” – John Donne
Bobby had never killed a man. His father was the “terminator,” who never wanted “the life” for his son. Tony knew this was of great importantance to Bobby. He doesn’t “lie out in the weeds for days, years waiting” to gets his revenge, like Livia. Instead, he gives Bobby the task of killing a man, just to lower the price on a deal with some French-Canadians. “No bows and arrows, now,” he instructs Bobby, with a knowing smirk on his face. Bobby regrettably “pops his cherry.” With a sad, nearly tearful, look on his face he looks a young man in the eyes and shoots him in the forehead, point blank. Bobby returns to his family life, holds his young daughter, and stares ahead at the peaceful lake, forever changed by the experience.
“Sopranos.
You go too far.”
