I'm always talking about the newsgroups.
 This is from the Sopranos newsgroup, alt.tv.sopranos.
 It's just two people talking intelligently about the best show on TV.
 
 

> 1. Did anyone think that AJ's reaction to the bear was a little bit wimpy?
> Granted, if I had encountered a black bear in those circumstances, I would
> have been shocked, alarmed, and frightened.  I just don't think I'd start
> yelling, "Mommy!!"

I think it was very whimpy...and perfectly in keeping with AJ. He's a very
spoiled, over protected mama's boy. Unlike Tony, who witnessed his old man
chopping off a local guy's finger when he was age 6, AJ has been extremely
sheltered all his life. It's like he can't even dream up anything bad
happening to him, ever. I think the whimpering for mommy was a very pointed
statement of this by the scene's writer.

> 2.  Is an indicator of an impending stroke sometimes an olfactory
> hallucination (i.e. Carmine complaining about smelling burning hair)?

That's how I took it. When he mentioned what he smelled and Johnny said all
he smelled was fresh mowed grass, it was obvious Carmine was getting
extremely sick and something major was going down w/ his body. I even think
it could be a known factor in strokes. I do know olfactory hyper-sensitivity
or hallucination is sometimes an early symptom of migraines --- a disease of
the brain's vascular system, as is a stroke. So I think it could be quite possible.

I thought it was a nice, quirky touch.

> 3.  Returning to the bear, I wonder if it is a symbol for Tony.  Tony is,
> after all, a "bear" in his build, and you could argue that he's like a bear
> in the way that he deals with people.  Then, there was also the scene where
> he came into the house and Carmela was looking at him and he was just a big
> black shadow for a moment.

I'd say that's a likely guess. A big, lurking, hulky, hairy ominous figure,
known to be aggressive and ferocious, rummaging for free food (Tony helping
himself to OJ out o the fridge and drinking right out of the container, then
returning it) skulking around the pool and drawn to the bin where the duck
seed is stored? Pretty obvious association

I remember reading a comment of David Chase's about the scene w/ Tony and
Gloria at the zoo, stopping at the silverback gorrilla habitat. One of the
location scouts complained about what they went through (and spent) to film
the scene at a zoo that had gorrillas (Bronx Zoo refused them, saying
they're a family institution and don't wish to be associated with a show
about organized crime). He said they tried reasoning with Chase to see if he
would give up the 5-second gorrilla shot, but he held firm, saying the scene
needed to be there because Tony is like a big gorrilla himself and Chase
wanted the symbolism made explicit.

> 4.  I wonder if the Russian that Paulie and Christopher had the run-in with
> is going to be Paulie's "comeuppance" some day?

LOL! I very much doubt it. I think the scene was a morsel offering to fans
complaining relentlessly about the Pine Barrens Russian never being
accounted for or the mystery of his disappearance ever resolved. Just them
recalling the event is acknowledgement it happened, but I don't think for a
minute they'll ever be more than that.

I did love the line, though, of the mobster who tried reasoning fervently
with Paulie after he and Chris quarrelled bitterly over the retelling of the
lost Russian "It was a good fucking story!" -- the implication being that
Paulie's squabbling ruined the enjoyment for everyone hearing the account.
Very humorous.

> 5.  Was Tony's goomar (spelling?) the woman who he had hooked up with last
> season (Ralphie's girlfriend)?  She looked the same, but it's been fifteen
> months, and I don't really remember.

I couldn't tell either. I assumed so, but like you, it's been too long to
remember w/ clarity. Did you hear her line about the "olive loaf sandwich?"
Ugh! I think this was after he came from Janice's for Sunday dinner. Poor
guy...I hope he brought Alka Seltzer plus. Also funny (IMO) was Janice's
disappointment (verging on ire) that Carmela didn't send anything for
dinner. She knew it was the only chance there'd be one edible entree at the meal.

> 6.  Speaking of the 15 months, does anyone know why it takes so very long
> between seasons that are significantly shorter than network TV shows?  I
> apologize if this question has been discussed, answered, and debated (I
> haven't been on this NG for over a year).  It seems like a good way to allow
> interest in the show to erode.

LOL! It does indeed!

If you ever find out the answer, please be sure to post w/ it!  ; )

> 8.  I wonder where the "courtship of Melfi" is going to go.  Given the fact
> that she's having erotic dreams about him, I don't totally buy the notion
> that she's not very attracted to him.  She seemed rather pleased to see him
> right after the group therapy session.

I think it's clear she has repressed attraction to him. She admitted as much
to Elliot (her shrink) but made it sound as though she quickly got control
of that as she recognized what a frightening sociopath he is. But I wasn't
buying it. Yes, she knows that and it does repel her on a surface level.
That doesn't change the reality that there's a primal animal magnetism going
on at a much deeper level -- as much as she's repulsed by his murderous and
larcenous behavior and life, she's also morbidly fascinated by it, as well
as his obvious power. It's why she's never been able to cut off the
relationship, no matter how often she's threatened to, even tried to -- and
how many times she's been heatedly advised by her own shrink to do so. I
think too that Tony has such an overt, raw sexualtiy about him, it resonates
a hidden cord deep within her as a woman and a sexual being herself.

Still, I think she has way too much professional and personal control to
ever give in to even a moment of weakness coming from that. It would be a
betrayal of the character if they ever go that route...which I fervently
hope they won't.

The most important part of this plot development, IMO, which I haven't seen
anyone else comment on, is why it happened. I think Tony is way too smart to
believe for one second that Melfi is going to cross the line w/ him and have
anything other than a therapist-client relationship. Some people undoubtedly
will laugh at this, but I think Tony deliberately pushed the envelope
(literally -- he shoved an envelope at her) as far as he could with her,
knowing he'd be rejected ultimately and told by Melfi that she despises who
he is on a basic level -- a lowlife criminal and thug, unfit for respectable
society (like Melfi).

My theory is (re what the material is intended to communicate) that the
separation and impending divorce has set off Tony's core feelings of his
essential failure to please and be loved by a woman, as he failed to do with
the first woman in his life, i.e. his mother. Try as he might, he fails to
win the mother's love and unconditional acceptance (or that of the woman
love object in her place, i.e., his wife/goomar/ whoever) and ultimately is
rejected, shamed and harshly judged as inadequate, defective, unlovable and
repulsive. Going through that now w/ Carmela has, IMO, reawakened those old
feelings of ultimate failing tied in to his mother and is expressing itself
now in yearning for Melfi, the transfer object. Just about everyone has
heard of classic transference in the therapy relationship. It's what
happened from the start with Tony re Melfi, which he's always read as sexual
desire, plus romantic love because he's too subverted emotionally to process
such complex and powerful emotions regarding a woman as anything else.

Knowing that she's certain to reject his overtures, he plunges suicidally
for the next best thing: to re-enact the old painful pattern w/ a woman,
learned as a boy in his relationship to his mother -- that of reach out for
her love and acceptance only to be rejected, shamed and told he's not good
enough to be worthy of it. How is that a "good" think, you may ask? Well,
it's definitely dysfunctional...not good in any healthy interpretation of
the word. But it's the familiar. If it's all you've ever known and the
belief of it is deeply engrained in your psyche, there can be a twisted sort
of reassurance in finding your way back there again and again.

I think there's something else too. Knowing that Melfi will never see him
that way, he had to do something else to her to even the score, so to speak,
to some degree. This was to push her, push her, push her to do the
unthinkable --- that she had never done, by her own admission -- the
cardinal sin of a therapist --- judge him and say directly to his face that
who he is -- a criminal -- repulses her. By forcing her hand in this way, he
regains a strange measure of control over the relationship...an element that
terrifies Tony more than anything to think he doesn't have.

This isn't just my own psycho-babble I'm putting together out of whole
cloth, I don't think either.  I think David Chase is completely aware of all
of these things and it's exactly what he was going for. I don't think it
takes even much perceptiveness to see it.

> I know there are some people who think that the show would explode if Melfi
> and Tony ever got together.  I'm not sure about that one way or another.
> If they ever do, I hope that it's in the last season.

I don't see it happening because, as I stated before, it would be totally
out of character for Melfi to act on whatever deeply repressed attaction she
has for Tony. I don't think "the show would explode" but I do think it would
be a major misstep for the writers to go that route and would seriously
injure the fabric of the show and its credibility. I just think the writers
are too good and too smart to play that card.

> 10.  I wonder how many people out there think that Carmela is a bit of a
> hypocrite with her religion?  I mean she may have thrown Tony out, but she's
> still living in the house that his "blood" money bought and living off the
> "dirty" money that he provides.  And she apparently sees nothing wrong with
> having an almost certainly illegal, fully automatic rifle and a hand grenade
> as well.

I totally agree! It is hypocritical of her. The psychiatrist she consulted
once adamantly urged her to get out fast and clean and not take a dime of
blood money. She has the capability of earning a decent living for
herself...not to live in high luxury by any means, but enough to get along
w/o living in a dump somewhere, barely able to cover her bills. If she had
any real pride and self-esteem (and principle), that's what she'd do...get a
respectable job and earn her own way. She says she wants to be free of Tony,
but isn't willing to part w/ the life that went with Tony...the gorgeous
house, the maid, the clothes, the money for everything w/o working for a
dime of it...while still bitching at him at every turn to hand it over on
demand. Her thinking is badly screwed up.

She deserves a reality check and I wonder if she may have one coming this season.

> ps.  I understand that a major character is going to die by or in episode
> four.  I would guess that this would be Adriane or possibly Uncle Junior.

I read an article online this evening that says leading bookies in the
business are laying odds that it will be Johnny Sack. The article added that
they've been right every other time they've predicted (most recently with Ralphie).

I don't think Uncle June is going anywhere. Adrian maybe.

Interesting comments, Nick! Many good insights there. Your post was the best
one I read tonight. I hope you'll be around this season.

Kim

One last thing I thought was funny.
One guy on the newsgroup asked, "Is there a place I can download current Sopranos episodes?"

And a guy answered, "Yeah, it's called HBO."

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