The Sopranos 1x13 Reaction

tony's boat is called stugots that is americanized word for 'sto cazzo' which litterally meand this dick in italian, and its like an answer to a question to make people mad

Marta Renzetti

Thank you for this reaction... I think The Sopranos is good but not one of the best like everyone else... That said, I forgot how insane this finale is, so much happened. Good shit.

Karabo

when does 2x1 drop?

Ketheric

It’s difficult to convey just how excited I am for you to start this next season.

cheech

I just finished the show myself today after binging it when yall started. coming back to watch this episode after was perfect.

JustPuf

To take into account: Melfi is right, in principle everything Tony says to her is confidential and she can't speak about it with anyone, including law enforcement. Even if Tony admitted to a crime of the past, she couldn't do anything, only if Tony told her that he will commit a crime in the future she could report it to the police. THAT BEING SAID, she could break confidentiality in case she had a good reason to think her life is in danger as a result of her professional relationship with a client (It's what happened with the therapist of the Menendez brothers, he was threatened by them so he just reported everything to the police) . In this case, not only she decided not to go to the police and hide, but she also decided to risk her life by meeting him extra officially knowing it could be dangerous for both of them. I'm not going as far as to say Melfi is in love with Tony or anything, but it's clear to me at the very least she feels some type of attraction to him, and definitely doesn't treat him as just any other patient. Any other therapist would've thrown Tony under the bus in a minute, or at the very least stop treating him.

Gaboxxy

yeah, I wish nobody knew what a gun was

Ben G

Probably just Lola remembered wrongly first and Milena followed suit, it had been a week since watching apparently

Darrach

This episode reminded me of a Breaking Bad episode in terms of how crazy and action packed it gets. I know Sopranos came first, I just watched BB first. It also made me think of the quote at the college, about a man wearing two faces and not being able to tell the difference. Tony's mafia life and his regular life clashed with Melfi and Artie. Threatening Melfi was him losing his grip on which 'face' he should be wearing.

Mark M

Very cute that both girls thought Artie was holding a shotgun...god bless you both

Ben G

I wish that last scene went for longer ;(

Ben G

In regards to artie's dilemma in this ep: it was more about the absolute moral act, not necessarily preserving his business. His wife is a moral absolutist and the priest was also coming from this angle. If artie knows it was arson, just from the basic moral and legal standpoint, he should report it. He of course doesn't want to because it can jeopardize his restaurant (and obviously introduce a whole bunch of other messiness with tony) and in the end he chooses to not go off livia's words. Some other interesting notes: - in relation above, the show did a great thing of making the priest not likeable and easy for people to dismiss but there's a parallel between carmela and artie both dismissing him for personal reasons, but really consider what he was trying to bring up, in regards to carmella, him asking if tony is changing and she dismisses it and artie just wanting to keep his business and not pursuing really knowing the truth about his old restaurant. - there is a parallel in the framing between how tony towered over melfi and his mother at the end when he was lashing out at them. - you guys mentioned it and someone else in the comment did as well, but the pillow is a call back and possibly a subconscious choice by tony to kill his mother because of what she exactly said during the flashback we saw. - artie's scene where he points a gun at tony was possibly foreshadowed in the first episode. after melfi asked tony what exactly he's afraid of in regards to the dread he feels about possibly losing his family and all he said was "i don't know" and immediately it jumps to the scene with artie venting about his restaurant and even a couple of scenes after that there was junior and livia in the car talking about dealing with tony.

Veya

sopranos is my favorite. second entourage, then barry, then silicon valley as far as hbo shows go

Robert

Yeah this season felt more like it's own special unit because it was basically Chase's idea for a movie that he made into a tv show. The rest of the series expands beyond the initial scope and as you've said, found more of it's voice. That being said there are a LOT of moments in the first season that impacts the future and a lot of call backs to moments in it, big and small, especially during the last few seasons of the show.

Veya

omg I just remembered that you guys already met Janice and Barbara, I honestly can't wait for the next episode

ashton

I understood when you two did not want to turn to The Sopranos immediately after watching The Wire, especially with how it appears from the outside looking in, with its aesthetic as a mob show about bad people. With such a large fanbase, it makes sense to worry that the comments might be filled with people who find these characters aspirational figures, not even mentioning the pressures of reacting to something held in such high regard. However, I am so happy you are enjoying the show! To this day, it is still probably my favorite, and I am excited to listen and learn from your analysis. I could nerd out on some of the dynamics and what I think the show is ultimately a commentary on, but I will save it until the end so that I do not cloud your viewing. Also, yes, you are correct…BPD does not preclude people from experiencing or exhibiting empathy lmao. You will definitely notice some relics from the early 2000s in that department lol.

Peter

MRIs or other tests aren't actually a 100% definitive dementia detectors. There are multiple tests that can be done together to determine it so that's why tony wanted to retest and yeah you can pretend to have it (of course you need to be able to act and be convincing and livia is old so she already had that going for her). The same with a stroke in the initial phases. No one is gonna dismiss an old lady who says or pretends she has the symptoms of a stroke. Medical staff is gonna take it seriously regardless of what future tests reveal.

Veya

For me Livia Soprano is one of the best characters in TV show history. Not only the writing of her character is fantastic but Nancy Merchand's brilliant portrayal is even more phenomenal. It's so realistic, like the girls said I actually know people like her (ie my grandma too, except the trying to have your son killed stuff of course lol). Not to mention she's hilarious, whenever she's on screen I have a blast

enchantertim

Before getting into everything else, I love that you two understand and respect Charmaine Bucco. You would not BELIEVE the hate that she gets from so many people who call her a nasty shrew and nagging wife for the way she tries to keep Artie uninvolved in the Mafia lifestyle. I've always loved her because she is RIGHT. I may enjoy this show and the story, but if you live in the same world as Tony Soprano you really don't want to get involved. Livia wandering to the Soprano household is actually what convinced me that she DOESN'T have dementia. When you have dementia you don't walk 10 miles through the woods and wind up at the right place. Believe it or not, my family has had multiple patients from mental hospitals escape from their care and wind up walking to our houses (We have no idea why. It's happened to my immediate family and also my uncle and his kids). In all cases they never had any connections to us or to the houses themselves. They THOUGHT they did, but they were confused and lost. Since Livia didn't wind up aimlessly wandering the streets of West Orange, she must have known where she was going. Regarding "the rules": Families are supposed to not be touched, unless they are involved on their own. So theoretically the wives and children are safe from any retribution if a member is found to be an informant. But that only holds if everybody follows the rules. Remember, practically from the beginning Tony has been planning to maneuver around the Boss of the family, whereas obedience to the Boss is also one of the fundamental parts of their society. So if he broke that rule -- and everybody KNOWS he broke that rule -- who's to say he won't break the other rules? At this point Paulie is 'only' a Made Man, so he's not in any position to elevate himself to Boss. He'd have to become a Capo first to even be in the running. So he probably isn't planning to try and take over for himself right now. But if he sees somebody else that is already a Capo, and he thinks that guy might treat him better than Tony does...well, then he'd have to make some decisions...

JBK405

I love the fact that the title of the episode (not just an episode, the season finale) is called "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano" and the context is well, ya know, a sex dream (again) lmao. It sounds like such a random ass title, and knowing the context behind the title it's actually hilarious. But I think there's a little bit of relevancy here because Melfi mentioned something like Tony feeling worthless and I think she deducted that after Tony mentioned how big Jeannie's ass was in his dream, even though she's slender in real life. The Sopranos is such an out-there show man, especially back in 1999 the show must have felt so crazy

enchantertim

Don't forget about the invention of the telephone

Mike

I hope we're not overhyping you but this is like the worst season finale of the show for me and its still really good 😭

Nazım Metin

I don't think severance really compares on a character/thematic depth level but it is more streamlined (most modern shows are) and has more plot intrigue. And do you mean peak TV era has ended or that it's continuing, cause severance is still ongoing even if new seasons of shows takes ages to come out now.

Veya

Tony flatly lying to Artie's face also reminds me of... a certain scene in The Godfather. And I assume you mean that Beansie it the real main character, yes?

Mike

It's interesting, this episode (and the season and a whole) ends with Tony telling his kids to remember the little moments when things are good -- in stark contrast to Tony's complete inability to recall any moments of genuine happiness from his own childhood. Maybe psychiatry can help him after all? This is a really terrific first season, though I agree with most here that things only get better from here on out. Heck, I might even say the final half-season is the peak of the show. The series was definitely finding its voice during the season, as it drifted away from being a fun Goodfellas copycat and towards becoming a more impressionistic, ambiguous examination of Tony's psychology. (Tony pulling a gun out a dead fish in this episode is a bizarrely broad moment compared to the show it has already mostly become.) But man, it's still fun to go back and re-visit this season, even with (most of) the stuff that makes The Sopranos a HOF series still to come.

Mike

space colon

Now that I've listened to your discussion you actually brought it up as well. Well spotted.

Andrew

We got bigger things to talk about than Jean Cusamano's ass.

Alexander

I always said that this show could work as a dark comedy sometimes lol things that shouldn’t be funny are sometimes funny in this show. It only gets better from here!

Jack SV

Nothing has brought down more gangsters than cunnilingus and psychiatry. That's a deadly duo right there!

BNJ

This is the beauty of the writing on this show: most of the time (not always, sometimes David Chase intentionally breaks that rule) we as an audience are experiencing the same thing Tony is experiencing. The perfect example of this is that we don't know for sure whether Lydia is faking it or not. There are so many subtle clues that could point to either direction both in this episode and throughout the season, but none of them are concrete enough to make us 100% confident. It also helps that Nancy Marchand's performance as Lydia is an absolute tour de force. It's been really fun revisiting the show again with you girls, and knowing that it only gets better from here on makes me even more excited for the future reactions.

Andrew

Tony going to kill Lívia the same way she threatened to kill him and his sisters when they were children in ep 7: with a pillow peak of television

ashton

Maybe the only funnier thing than that line is that it's the truth.

Oli J

I'm so impressed with these reactors. They pick up so much more than I did on my first viewing.

Marcus Cato

To expand on this, David Chase didn’t just want this to be a movie, he famously HATED writing on TV. He was a TV writer for decades on various shows and he has always felt so boxed in writing for TV, especially since during that time, it was far more network mandated and rigid. He was a film fan at heart for all of the openess and lack of boundaries that TV had. A lot of the subversive and artistic writing in The Sopranos is partially a response to how TV was written during the time when he was a writer. It’s also a huge part of how the show was able to change the medium once it had the freedom HBO gave it and essentially closed the gap between tv and cinema. He knew what to do thanks to his experience.

Veya

"Well they're not gonna feel any better about their life if you get clipped." A great example of the show's dark humor.

Damien Fenton

The show can finally start now that the real main character is abt to pop up 🙏🙏 When Chris hears Tony’s news about therapy he looks so lost. Tony has had scene after scene putting Chris down for his mistakes, punishing him for emotional outbursts or complaining. He knows how much Chris has suffered this season: from facing a mock execution, to losing his best friend, to the trauma from his first murder. Despite all of this Tony hasn’t once pushed for Chris to receive mental health support like he did for himself and he definitely hasn’t tried to encourage him to find a life outside of crime People with Borderline Personality Disorder are characterized much differently in the current DSM (DSM V, Melfi was reading from DSM IV). They’re no longer identified as people who feel no love and are actually often devastated by feelings of hyper-empathy. Livia’s profile matches a lot of Cluster B Personality Disorder traits, disorders in the same family as BPD, she definitely seems to fall in the realm of Maladaptive Narcissism . A lot of her behavior and mannerisms are based on David Chase’s own mother who was not diagnosed Tony blatantly gaslighting Archie and disguising it with affection feels very late seasons Breaking Bad, Heisenberg/Jesse

space colon

this show has no shortage of memorable one liners but “cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this” has to be near the top

Sebastian

Having now watched the final three of the season, I think LM would appreciate that they picked a great set of episodes to binge three in a day. The three work perfectly together. The previous two, while still good, were much more self contained.

Damien Fenton

It is really interesting that LM are watching The Sopranos and Severance at the same time. Two shows are at different ends of the Peak TV era, both are stylistically quite different, and both are totally gripping but for different reasons.

Damien Fenton

The actress who played Livia was also at the tail end of her life so she told David chase to just let her keep working, and he agreed and wrote more stuff for her character. She wanted to do this till her end.

Cole

im so happy it got picked up and we have so much more story to go through

LM Reactions

So I think David Chase has said that after he’d filmed the pilot, at the time he was hoping no-one would pick it up so he could make a movie instead. The movie would’ve followed the basic plot of season 1 but the climax was supposed to be Tony smothering Livia with the pillow. They felt it worked as an ending for a movie but didn’t really make sense for the show.

Jay Craig

Thumbnails like these make me wish all your classic reactions had them. Looks great! :)

Isaac