I liked how the winds at the end of the episode - one in the trees in Tony's backyard that he sees as good and peaceful, and one over the scene where Paulie beats the crap out of the Barone kid - illustrated what Hal Holbrook was talking about in the hospital room about the two tornadoes that you think are separate but are actually the same force.

I also have to think that Paulie's going after the Barone kid after Tony promised his mother that the kid would have immunity is an unforgivable sin on Paulie's part. Tony cannot run a family with that kind of discipline breach. Paulie is not going to survive this.


"Pain is the cleanser!" - Ned Flanders </p>

What I thought of when Hal Holbrook was talking about the two tornadoes being separate, I was thinking about the tornado that is Tony's mob family and the other tornado which is his blood family. He thinks their separate but in reality they are always connected and that is becoming even more apparent lately (carm's comments about vito, the paramedic being threatened almost in front of carm, AJ's issues, etc.).

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bacala wrote:
<blockquote>Quote:<hr>What I thought of when Hal Holbrook was talking about the two tornadoes being separate, I was thinking about the tornado that is Tony's mob family and the other tornado which is his blood family. He thinks their separate but in reality they are always connected and that is becoming even more apparent lately (carm's comments about vito, the paramedic being threatened almost in front of carm, AJ's issues, etc.).<hr></blockquote>
Great analogy. I was wondering where that "fight thing" was going.

Yes, I believe Tony will have many upcoming issues with the conflicts between his two families. Particularly in light of the fact that he now has a sense of being reborn. Another thing I think we will see more of is the relationship between Coma Tony and Live Tony. It started yesterday with the wallet. Lost his wallet in the coma, had his wallet "biopsied" in real life.

--
BobbyBuz</p>

Lots of stuff in this episode. I'll see what I can remember after just one viewing over 12 hours ago...

1) The rappers. They weren't just comic relief, though the whole thing was pretty funny. The rapper's mirrored Tony's mob world, in many ways. Just after we have the insurance lady come in to size up Tony, with no regard to the pain he is in, we see the scene of Tony sitting outside the shot rapper's room. And while his agent keeps talking about how good for record sales it will be, the rapper it just crying "but it really hurts".

We also see, in the scene with Bobby and the other rapper, that he is surrounded by people that are don't care about his pain, only what it means to them. That second rapper is pissed, because now he isn't going to have his record produced this year. He could care less about his "friend" that got shot 7 times.

2) It seems pretty clear that Tony did take something spiritual out of that coma. However, I think that episode showed that maybe the Monks meant a whole lot more in the coma than any of the other religuous symoblism.

It was the monks that tell Tony how everything and everybody is connected. How there is no difference between Tony, Finnerty, the Monks or a tree.

Tony's old friend then tells him the same thing while watching the Fight. Even the rapper accepts it "Everything is everything, I can dig that". Tony seems to like that idea, and the pretty much everything that old guy tells him.

3) On the contrary, we have the Born Again, Pastor. He seems to maybe have an opening at first, but by the end of each meeting with Tony, he has done something to piss him off. He made himself sound foolish with the evolution talk, and then went overboard by telling Tony that his scientist friend was basically going to hell.

I think we'll see Tony explore some Eastern Philosophies/Indian Spirituality.


With all that said, I don't see this being a permanent change in Tony. I think this is just going to be some exploration for a few episodes. Tony may try to turn a new leaf, but he's going to find that his world doesn't really allow it.

If spirituality was going to be Tony's way out, or even lead to Tony's way out of the life, I think this would have happened a lot closer to the final episode. After seeing this episode play out, I believe this is just going to be a diversion for a time. It will give Melfi some things to talk about, but ultimately Tony will revert, like usual.



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<blockquote>Quote:<hr>My only complaint is Bobby's storyline. Funny dialogue, but overall it seemed a little heavy handed. We already had the crying rapper,which I found hilarious. I'm guessing this is setting up Bobby and his need for more cash flow<hr></blockquote>
I wonder if the shooting will come back to bite him "in the butt," so to speak. He tells the rapper that he's a marksman, that he will shoot him in the fleshy part of the thigh. But he shoots the guy in the ass. Reminds me of the Everybody Loves Raymond ep where Robert is gored in the ass by a bull. Everyone laughs at him, even though he keeps insisting that it's his THIGH that's wounded. Anyway, I wonder if getting shot in the butt isn't really good for street cred, and if the rapper will try to get revenge on Bobby for missing the mark.

I certainly need to watch this again, but here are some random, fumbling thoughts:

I enjoyed seeing Hal Holbrook, and I enjoyed his character. I wondered about the symbolism of his having his larynx removed. Is science/reason being silenced? Is spirituality winning? Or maybe he'll see Schwinn again, and he'll use one of those electronic voice boxes to talk. So, science can NOT be silenced.

And he worked for Bell Labs. Any symbolic connection with the bells ringing at the end? A spiritual awakening? Notice that they rang for Tony outside the hospital, and they rang for Paulie after he beat up Jason. The ringing bells are like the shot of the trees for peaceful Tony and for violent Paulie, as someone here mentioned -- everything's connected, everything's everything.

Regarding Vito in this ep -- Is it my imagination, or did we never once see his face, only the back of his head?

Born again. That's Tony. I don't mind the kinder, gentler T. He's interesting no matter what he's going thru.

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<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Is science/reason being silenced? Is spirituality winning?<hr></blockquote>

That was my thought as well. We'll have to see if he's "heard from" again.

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<blockquote>Quote:<hr>So Carmella saw Vito AND Paulie in the elevator during the scene following when they gave her that huge payout... why does she only warn Tony about Vito? <hr></blockquote>

I had to make an assumption about this issue in order to make sense of it.

Going back to last week, we see Carmela pick up on Vito and Paulie's two-facedness as they get on elevator, so it is at that moment that her suspicions begin to rise.

My assumption is that, when she opens the envelope (sometime between the last ep and this one), something makes her think that Paulie has put more money in than Vito has. Perhaps each guy's contribution was wrapped differently. Think back to last week, and it looked like some of the money was wrapped in duct tape and marked with the value of the bundle. How she knows which bundle was Paulie's and which was Vito's, I don't know, unless she recognized the handwriting. It's a stretch, I know, but I have no other way to explain her comment about Vito to Tony.

In any case, I think the scene in which Carmela mentions Vito to Tony represents a significant turning point of sorts for the show, as it seems to be the first time that Carmela has taken a direct interest in Tony's business affairs. Can anyone think of another instance in which she has done anything to directly involve herself in this thing of theirs?

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<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Is science/reason being silenced? Is spirituality winning?<hr></blockquote>

My take on this was that the voice of reason, literally loses his voice as Tony is leaving the Hospital. I took this to mean that as soon as Tony enters the outside world again he will revert back to his old ways and thinking. The Voice of Reason is no longer there.


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<blockquote>Quote:<hr>My take on this was that the voice of reason, literally loses his voice as Tony is leaving the Hospital. I took this to mean that as soon as Tony enters the outside world again he will revert back to his old ways and thinking. The Voice of Reason is no longer there.<hr></blockquote>

This could very well be the case.

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This was an interesting episode, quite apart from the previous episodes in that it dealt with the various forms of spirituality.

Tony mentions to the nurse that he has not been feeling like himself, and this plays in line to him becoming Kevin Finnerty. He is more open to different belief systems, more willing to endure their cringing justifications (the scientist and his views of duality, greater consciousness, and the evangelical with his evolutionary dissent) in the face of "regular life". He even considers (though it may have been to be nice) joining the church of the Redeemer, as well as allowed them to pray with him during his physical recovery. When he see's the burn-victim, I am going to venture that he is going to question why bad things can happen to good people, which can be a self-examination of why things are what they are. I believe that the ending of the episode was an affirmation of the greater consciousness point of view than it was the other spiritual methods.

He was really out of character when he was brought out, but then again that could be because of his near death experience. Janice, the new-ager, wasn't really receptive to his overt affection. And he was pretty grateful to his family, big time.

This was a big episode for Paulie, to be sure. He is proud of his history, and was in awe of Italy when he visited back in season 2. When he saw Starbucks and gave his "rape of the culture" rant, he had a connection with his "roots". Now he finds out that he may not have that connection, that he is not who he thought he was. This is another existential crisis similar to Tony. He may not be italian, just the residue of a fling with a "hoo-ah", furthering his thoughts of self-disgust and self-loathing.

Tony is increasingly caving into New York, and I believe that it will be curtains for him, as he couldn't stomach being a mob boss (with him throwing up). He even let the EMT go with his $2000 payment.

I will even go as far as to make a prediction that the Tony we saw in the season preview wearing a white robe in the backyard, looking peaceful and complacent, could be the dead Tony who is now a part of the "great wind".

This could all be forgotten within the next episodes, which would be realistic, though he would retain the essential nuggets of Kevin Finnerty.

As to who put that Ojibwe saying there? Who knows, maybe David Chase. But my money is on Massive Attack from season 1.

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