The Sopranos - Final Episodes

[PosTMOd]

you read it for us and tell us what it says.

Basically a bunch of bullshit.

Samenow tends to believe in a "criminal personality" that exists in a person from pretty well birth, kind of old-school (like >100 years ago) thinking, though he does make some interesting observations. Samenow's theory is probably well-liked by police and other law enforcement simpletons (as well as the ordinary simpletons sans badge and gun), since it is simple, black/white, reductionist pop psychology with no real science to back it up. He comes up with a list of features of personality, and a way to "treat" criminals that he calls habilitation (as opposed to re-habilitation since he says you can't re-habilitate if it ain't habilitated in the first place!), and his proof of his theory is that most criminals that were taking the "therapy" dropped out, with 4 out of >200 actually changing... this is odd, since I cannot consider this 'proof' by any stretch of my imagination... in fact, this is proof that his theory is totally wrong.

 

[PosTMOd]

What's strange about these theories about criminal psychopaths is that they all indicate that the person lacks empathy, yet they consistently manipulate people...

My question is, How can someone with little to no empathy manipulate? That is to say, if they cannot imagine what it is to be like someone else, how can they know what to do to manipulate them?

 

[PosTMOd]

Short to-the-point criticism of Samenow:

http://globalcircle.net/samenowfraud.htm

 

[xtollo]

Yeah, I loved how Melfi/Tony storyline concluded. Not only was it a waste of time for Tony but it actually absolved him of his crimes, awesome.

Note: when Melfi finally came to said deduction she was reading notes about the criminal patient having an affection to "baby's and pets". (pets: like the ducks he took care of in the pool in the very first episode ever, amazing writing folks)

Can someone please explain to me how the fuck the Italian hit men fucked up the hit on Phil??!?~ That doesn't make any sense to me at all. Who's house was it? How did they have a target on Phil!??! Morons.

And what about Silvio, not having a gun near by. Honestly, what was he thinking?! Especially if it was post-Bobby biting it big time in the toy train store. lol

p.s that picture of Carm & Rosalie in Paris, was that Marie-Atoinette? (a la revolution?)

 

[PosTMOd]

Note: when Melfi finally came to said deduction she was reading notes about the criminal patient having an affection to "baby's and pets". (pets: like the ducks he took care of in the pool in the very first episode ever, amazing writing folks)

That's true of psychopaths... they have high "regard" for animals (other than humans)... perhaps due to the empathy deficit they can actually relate better to animals that do not have empathy like them. Tony also talked about how he loved his dog when he was young, and he certainly loved his horse, killing Ralphie because of it.

 

[TribeLurkerGrrl]

Wow.... Just watched the latest ep last night. Is Tony gonna make it through this?

 

[xtollo]

perhaps due to the empathy deficit they can actually relate better to animals that do not have empathy like them.

Great insight, thanks.

Ah yes, the horse, how could I forget. I have always noticed the animal connection in the show, but I always thought it was meant to symbolize the natural world, or the natural order/ hierarchy in life. (chain of command in mob, or just how life can be brutaly natural, such as animal life)

The one season where a Bear was terrorizing their backyard, I thought that meant to symbolize "trouble on the horizon", or "big things brewing", whatever.

 

[smack]

Why do I get a bad feeling that Paulie will betray Tony in the end? I remember there was an episode last season or the one before where Paulie was suspiciously hanging around Johnny Sack and the New York crew. I think they wanted Paulie to join them. And why wasn't there a hit put on Paulie last episode? And remember Tony's mothers famous line "In the end your family and your friends let you down."

I hope this isn't the case.

 

[xtollo]

Why do I get a bad feeling that Paulie will betray Tony in the end?

That would also give more weight to that strange episode (this season) with Tony/ Paulie in Miami, where Tony has his doubts about Paulie...

 

[PosTMOd]

Can someone please explain to me how the fuck the Italian hit men fucked up the hit on Phil??!?~ That doesn't make any sense to me at all. Who's house was it? How did they have a target on Phil!??! Morons.

Paulie was in charge of it... gave them the address of some guy with white hair hair that looked enough like Phil that the zips screwed it up.

Looks like he is definitely going against Tony... that is also why he didn't get a hit put on him.

 

[coleridge]

So here's a wild idea, but it would be entertaining.

How about Janice going off the deep end when she finds out that Leotardo is responsible for Bobby's death and she hunts him down herself. It would be easy to if she tapped into the network of wives.

also...

store surveillance cameras pick up the images of the guys who killed Bobby, as well all the witnesses are able identify the guys who shot Silvio. This tracks the police/feds to Leotardo's crew.

 

[Hal-9000]

Paulie was in charge of it... gave them the address of some guy with white hair hair that looked enough like Phil that the zips screwed it up.

That wasnt supposed to be Phils' house though, was it?

I though that was Phil's goomar, but instead of Phil being there as he usually is, her old man was at the door.

 

[PosTMOd]

They knew (Bacala said so) that Leotardo was at his goomar's house every Friday.

Presumably this would mean that the goomar's father would not go over on Friday nights (say, for instance, even if Phil phoned her and said,"Hey, I ain't comin' over tonight")... which is why I'm guessing that Paulie gave the address of someone who looked vaguely like Phil...

Right at the beginning of the episode, Sil kills someone for "playing both sides of the fence", and he said something about them trying to get him to go over to the other side as well. Presumably, Paulie would have been enticed over, seeing as how he almost went over previously; he is playing both sides of the fence... not wanting to or able to warn Phil completely (that would give him away to Tony), he instead gives the wrong address, saving Phil's life while at the same time not giving himself away to Tony.

 

[Hal-9000]

Yeah that make sense. Paulie didnt look to pleased to be taking instructions from Baccala either.

And why'd he get the junkie to be the go-between?

 

[Aphrodite]

amazing episode.. very violent. and what a satisfying ending to the Jennifer - Tony relationaship. I don't want it to end but they're doing a great job ending it.

wow the editing during the toy train store was fantastic.

 

[voytek]

speaking of wild ideas: my favourite episode/the only source of beef with the series was Pine Barrens. I must have seen it 10 times. I didn't like the Russian theme abandoned. Simple solution: have Paulie betray Tony and get clipped by the Russian they lost that time, triumphantly coming back at the end of the show out of nowhere.

 

[xtollo]

bahahha could you imagine!

(ps. Pine Barrens is on tomorrow on A&E)

 

[PosTMOd]

speaking of wild ideas: my favourite episode/the only source of beef with the series was Pine Barrens. I must have seen it 10 times. I didn't like the Russian theme abandoned. Simple solution: have Paulie betray Tony and get clipped by the Russian they lost that time, triumphantly coming back at the end of the show out of nowhere.

And setting HBO up to come out with The Sopranovenkovs...?

 

[coleridge]

I don't see Paulie purposely betraying Tony like that. At the end of the day he's a soldier and I think he's pretty loyal. I don't think his character can handle too much deception, what you see is what you get with Paulie. As mentioned in the Paulie-centric episode earlier this season, his only family are those guys. I think he'd turn on Tony only when Tony was dead.

 

[coleridge]

It's great reading back in this thread at all the predictions. Hardly anybody got anything right.

 

[Snuffalupagus]

I dont think the failed hit on Leotaro was a set up. An unfortunate timing error on the goomars father coming for a visit is all. Right after the failure it was said that nobody had seen Phil for 4 days. So it's quite plausible that he wasn't going to be at his friday night finger bang session anyways. So the girls has dinner with her father.

I will be surprised if Paulie turns on Tony now after all the other opportunities he has had and not taken.

 

[alexd]

I am sad that it is ending but on the upside... Only one more weak till I cut back on my Rogers cable services! Yay!

 

[acheron]

I am sad that it is ending but on the upside... Only one more weak till I cut back on my Rogers cable services! Yay!

You and a whole bunch of other Sopranos subscribers.. I recall doing a focus group when they were testing the idea of splitting TMN into the different genre/styles they have currently and it came out that TMN (and consequently the satellite/cable carriers) see a significant jump-on, jump-off effect during Sopranos season. Now that it's gone, and they don't even have Six Feet Under to fall back on, it's going to be tough for TMN to maintain its numbers. HBO sees the same situation in the States.

 

[Confused]

what ever happened to the Arabs guys?

 

[deep]

Just saw the episode now. I like how they closed up the Melfi-Soprano relationship - it puts Christopher's murder into context. Great tension when Bobby got hit.

And why'd he get the junkie to be the go-between?

That guy's handled picking up italian hit men before because he speaks italian - he explained that to Chris in a past episode.

The Paulie as a traitor thing makes sense given the hit got fucked up up. Gizmo was saying that the focus on the white shoes of the guy who got garroted could be some foreshadowing as Paulie had piles of the same kicks. Syl was polishing some white shoes at the club though. So maybe that's an outside track.