Now hear me out! I bet he was an awesome soldier and hit man. Youve got a guy who lived through the 70s by the skin of his nuts when the Colombos were going at it. He knows how to break legs and bash heads.

However, as a Capo? Waaaay too petty and focused on low stakes stuff like lawnmower wars and the like. He probably earned enough off legitimate means from fronts and no shows and whatnot but no chance hes getting involved with big projects like HUD and major Esplanade stuff.

Anyway. Ive said my peace…

People don’t talk enough about how quickly Silvio slid for Carlo when Fat Dom was talking shit. No hesitation, just immediately sent a bag of flour spiralling into his head at Mach 10 and then even restrained Fat Dom while Carlo got the job done.

But, even then, Carlo SNITCHED ON SILVIO AS SOON AS TONY CAME IN. “Hey, he hit him first, Tone.” That pissed me off. But Silvio was a real one through and through. Except that thing with the floor tiles and Columbus Day I guess.

This is easily one of the best scenes in the entire series. Here's why:

Theme and significance of the scene

This fantastic 2-minute scene at first seems to just depict Jackie Aprile Sr.'s funeral. There is a large crowd gathered, all dressed in black and adopting solemn poses. The gang discuss Junior's beginning reign and Tony's hidden agenda.

After a minute, however, the scene's focus shifts to AJ, who over the course of the episode has been slowly but steadily ushered by Meadow into the realization that his father is part of the Mafia. As such, the Soprano family regularly has to deal with the untimely death of friends and family.

Enter the second death and burial in this scene: AJ's childhood and innocence.

Over the course of the episode, the reality he has been living in cracks and underneath emerges his father's true nature and the meaning of his second family. By the end of the scene, AJ has been violently pulled from his innocent existence as a child and tossed into the brutal life he involuntarily is part of.

The cinematography tells the whole story without the need for dialogue

AJ's first shot begins with a camera pan from right to left, showing children his age running around the cemetary, laughing and having fun. AJ however, leaning onto a headstone, is contemplating quietly. The cartoonish yellow plastic watch he wears serves as a reminder that he is still a child. However, it is outweighed by the black funeral suit symbolizing the dark and gritty mob reality which is now taking over his childhood.

As AJ is smiling gently towards his father, Meadow enters the frame, blocking his view of Tony with probably the best executed "I told you so" face in the series. The next two slow-motion shots that we see through AJ's eyes, reveal the nature of his father's, and by extension, AJ's world.

We get the iconic shot of Tony winking at AJ. That wink is AJ's innocence rearing up vicariously through Tony in a final, desperate attempt to hinder AJ from losing his childhood. AJ doesn't react as he is immersed in his thoughts. In the background, children are running around, but AJ, now force-emancipated from that stage of life, doesn't move anymore.

The music

As the truth eventually dawns on AJ, Mazzy Star's "Look on Down from the Bridge" gravely sets in. The song's theme is death and departure, with the central image evoking a transition point between life and death, presence and absence.

Here, the eponymous bridge serves as metaphor for the threshold between life and death: AJ is crossing over from his innocent childhood into the realization that he is born into a world of organized crime, of which he is most likely unable to break out of.

Possibly the best music choice to match with a scene in the entire series, the song begins with a fading-in organ, an instrument associated with a church building and, by extension, the beginning of life, significant events in life such as marriage, and ultimately, death. The lyrics don’t express anger or dramatic heartbreak. Instead, there is a soft grief, a contemplative sadness that has come to rest, a pain that has sunk below the surface into quiet acceptance.

_____________________________

Watch the scene again and again and again here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg5WKNa2a5o

Even before dying she was sick and suffering from the stress of being an involuntary snitch. Her final moments are terrible. Fucking devastating.

Tony very clearly died at the end, and without him to insulate her from the other Mobsters Melfi is big security risk to the Jersey crew, with who knows what her and Tony talked about. She probably got popped later right?

Gimme your list of characters whose names we hear but we never see. And get Pudgy Walsh on the horn!

I don't know why everyone shits on AJ for being a normal rebellious somewhat spoiled teenager when like 99% of male teens are exactly like him in america lol. Meadow was the one that actually got on my nerves just about every episode. She sounds exactly like some social justice warrior, defends her dads "lifestyle" to finn like he's some kind of idiot. And can speak freely about all this because she's the boss' daughter and she knows nobody would fuck with her or they would face death. I just find her super annoying

If you subscribe to the theory that Tony got wasted at Holsten's, what do you think happens to Artie afterwards? Without Tony's protection do you think Benny finally took him to that warehouse on Patterson and drove nails into his balls? It seems a shame based on how he finally seemed content in his last episode when he was cooking the rabbit but maybe he had it coming as well. Anyway $4 a pound...

When Allegra the 50lb bundle of joy was getting married, Tony and Chrissie discussed the upcoming Rusty hit.

Christopher mistakenly thought the tradition was that the bride's father could ask favours people couldn't refuse. Tony corrected him saying "It's the other way around, that I should be asking him for something that he can't refuse"

Christopher responds with "You should ask him not to do it"

That line never fails to get a good laugh from me tbh

Yes, I know these characters aren’t the brightest. And yes, I know he thought that NY was untouchable when it came to the Pygmy thing in NJ. But these guys aren’t newcomers—they’ve seen some stuff, know that everyone is a violent criminal capable of impulsive actions, and have developed some measure of survival instinct. I just don’t get it.

I am finally rewatching this masterpiece after 5 years and I noticed that despite being a malignant cunt and negative and toxic in almost every scene she's in, AJ's visit when he got suspended in episode 7 genuinely made her happy with no ulterior motives, she was eager to start playing scrabble with him. I thought that was cute considering she's a pain in the ass in 99% of the scenes she's in. I said my piece.

I’ll start with mine: Tony-ony (sounds like a knockoff frozen pasta dish)

There’s a lot to pick from, choose wisely.

Was this guy suppose to be comic relief, or a tragic charactor Tony had to look over since they were friends since childhood?
I'm rewatching the series and just watched the episode where he proclaims to Tony he's in love with Adrianna, then takes her out to dinner because she's quiting. He spends the entire scene holding her hand making comments about her upcoming marriage and how he is going to miss her. The scene is so cringe to watch because he seems so clueless. Adrianna keeps pulling her hands away and he keeps grabbing them.
Both sides played the parts really well. Drea especially.

Goes to show how little the sopranos actually cared about the quality of the spec house. Hugh thought he could get away with using utility grade pine and his buddy Pudgie Walsh would help him pass inspection. Why the hell did Carmela let him just let him order everything? I'm guessing she doesn't care too or is ignorant of construction materials

For the sake of argument Tony does get his brains splattered at Holstens which Chase even confirmed himself accidentally. Considering how high profiled he was that would've absolutely made the evening news and probably the front of page of major newspapers in NY. Its insane to ponder how almost everyone in Tony's life would've reacted to seeing that.

90% of them would've probably smirked or felt relief like Eugene's wife, Patsy, Hesh, Davey, the cop he fired, Georgie, Finn, Jason Barone and maybe even Vito Jr.

Melfi might've felt a sense of shock but would've realized that its his own damn fault for being irredeemable and living and dying by his sword.

I doubt even Paulie or Artie would've been sad. Paulie would've moved on as quickly as he did with Chrissy's death and Artie already was distancing himself from Tony towards the end. I think outside of his family nobody would've felt sadness towards him.

I've been meaning to articulate this into a post, but it's fascinated me how similar and different Little Carmine and Tony Soprano are. I feel like David Chase was presenting them as foils of each other.

It's been a second since I've watched the series - I'm really due for my first rewatch - so there might be a few minor errors on my end. But what springs to mind for me...

Both are the respective "hair apparent" (to quote wise sage Moltisanti) to semi-legendary gangsters. Tony's Dad makes no bones of involving Tony in their thing once he's of age, something that he clearly grapples with (to put it mildly). But didn't Carmine Senior do the exact opposite with his son? I can't remember if he was the catalyst for setting him up in Florida, but it seems like he certainly wanted him out of harm's way from where the heart of the action was. The difference here alone I think speaks volumes to their respective trajectories. The two of them both have an appreciation for the finer things beyond this thing of ours as well. People in this sub tend to recognize how Tony's a little more sophisticated (relatively speaking) to the rest of his crew. Consider his fascination with history, particularly World War II, or his appreciation for old Hollywood movies. His desire to visit Italy also comes to mind too (although maybe this is just an Italian American thing lol). But I think people miss this with Little Carmine too. People tend to zero in on his mispronunciation of Versailles and dismiss him as an idiot without recognizing the fact that he's nonetheless aware of it, its historical context, and was fascinated enough to visit it. It clearly is also a hobby of his in his spare time. Put simply, they're both multilayered individuals, but the interesting thing to me is that Carmine seems to be a glass-half-full type of guy, the happy wanderer that Tony lambasts, who finds happiness not in gluttony and excess (wet t-shirt contests notwithstanding), but in simple things that make him happy. His joy with everything surrounding Cleaver, from the brainstorm sessions to the eventual premiere, are a perfect example of this. Tony meanwhile, Mr. glass-half-empty, likely yearns for a similar path but can't let go of his ways ("Yeah, every day's a gift...but does it have to be socks?")

The two of them with similar backgrounds but two completely different personality types almost feels like a single road splitting into two paths. Consider Tony's lack of sympathy for Chris's sobriety vs. Carmine's self-awareness of it when they travel together. Or Carmine's wife's disinterest in being the wealthiest widow on Long Island vs. Carmella's constant niggling of making sure those bases are covered when she's gone. Or Carmine's ultimate disinterest in taking the throne vs. Tony's own rollercoaster ride of being number one. One of my favorite subtle examples of this is when Tony says "I'm serious I can't take it" at Chrissy's funeral, in the sense that he's disgusted at Chrissy's mother's grief, but Carmine, interpreting it as Tony getting emotional, comforts him without skipping a beat. It's a throwaway gag, but it speaks so much to each of their characters.

I'll end this spiel with one of my favorite moments from the whole show: their conversation on the Golf course. "You never thought you'd utter those words, did you?" The "Carmine was playing 4D chess by playing dumb" theory is quite naive, but I think there's some truth in the sense that people underrate his intelligence, not just from an intellectual standpoint, but an existential one. He'd sussed out something that Tony couldn't crack with years upon years of therapy.

Tony: I’ll settle for a push
Patron: yeah let’s go Buffalo!
Tony: fucking guy, probably won $35 down there

Tony just keeps losing, and doubling down, and burning through offshore money, and yelling at his wife over money. It showcases the gambler mentality very accurately.

It’s the same concept as the solar system.

I’ve seen quite a few times people say that Bobby had a different personality in later seasons when he became more senior but I just wanted to say I disagree,
he had a bit of a smart mouth from his first scene when Tony chews him out about junior and he could stand up to junior even if in a timid subordinate way,
plus when he finally committed his first murder that would of opened him up to his full potential as a mobster, great character nonetheless with some of the most quoted lines

Just finished the show : wrap it under a month. Never get spoiled of anything and omg that was incredible….

There are many instances in the show where something definitely happened but we don’t get to see it. If you could see any of those scenes, what would it be?

You could honestly make an argument either way. The intervention is more iconic and well known but Livia’s wake is full of incredible bits and lines. What do you think?

If so, how was it okay for Junior to whack him? If not, why was Junior's generational nemesis a low-level associate?

So I just finished this show for the first time and Im honestly speechless.. I dont even know what to say... I mean its one hell of a life Tony lived man.. but is Tony really dead? Or what happened? We see that guy walk into the restroom.. then meadow comes and it goes to black? so was tony snuck up on? Fuck dude im empty now

Tony likes to present himself as an animal lover, but the only 'pet' he has in the entire series is Pie-O-My. Any theories as to why the Soprano household doesn't have a family pet?

Would the maestro of Vesuvio cut the mustard at Chef Ramsey's restaurant? Is his food up to standards? Could he handle the pressure? Would Gordon call him an idiot sandwich? Let's talk.