I'm undoubtedly contradicting myself -- wouldn't be the first time -- but the one scenario I could envision in which Tony has his "breakthrough" or shows "meaningful change" is if he thinks by doing so, he could save his children, most notably A.J., although I've still got a feeling that they're saving Meadow for something big along this line.FlyOnMelfisWall wrote:The fact that Chase has kept alive this Gary Cooper ideal in Tony, as recently as last night, makes me think he is preserving the chance that Tony, of all people, will be the one to really, meaningfully change. If nothing of any further import is to come out of his visits to Melfi's office, I think it would have ended for good last night.
What I think will happen -- and I don't have the slightest idea how they'll pull us off -- is that they'll leave us debating and discussing whether Tony really had a breakthrough and demonstrated meaningful change. It won't be clear, I'm guessing.
Watching again last night, I was struck by Tony's tone of disgust when he described the "putrid" genes that he had passed along to A.J. -- his "gift" to his son. There was so much self-loathing in those remarks, but also, when you think about it, some recognition that those "putrid" genes had been passed along from his father to him.
If Melfi can somehow convince him that it wasn't inevitable -- that it's a choice, not DNA -- then we'll be left with two questions: Can Tony forgive his father? Can Tony forgive himself? (I'm still sort of hoping that at some point Tony ends up at that old church that the Italians built when they first came over. He has shown both A.J. and Meadow that church, I believe. Both were bored out of their minds.)
If it means saving his son, or daughter, I think it's possible. (It also invests the Bad Guy with something universal and noble -- the willingness to sacrifice himself for his children. Tony essentially brings that up when he talks about wanting to take their place when they were children and sick.) But it's going to be an extraordinary feat for them to pull this off and make it seem real after all this time of having Tony dip his big toe in the waters of change and self-knowledge, then quickly back away. We've seen that so often that I, frankly, am getting tired of the repetition.
Why does Melfi seem to again be walking on eggshells -- hey, eggs! -- around Tony right now? At the end of 6A, she was basically provoking him ("We've danced around this for too long," or something like that), then last week she laid down the law in terms of his showing up for sessions. In this episode, she seems almost meek and fragile.....does SHE sense he's close to something, good or bad?