casualities of war

This weeks Soprano starts of with Tony having to lam it to Miami after one of his first kills was dug up by the FBI. It was a bookie that he and Paulie had taken out back in 1982. Carmela makes an interesting comment that, "It's just, this is what life is still like, at our age?"

During the trip Tony becomes increasingly annoyed with Paulie who is a chatterbox and tends to talk a little to loosely about his business as Tony yells at him to keep quiet after he tells a random person at the hotel he was going to Miami. Tony reminds him they are supposed to be laying low right now. Also we find out that Tony used to look up to Paulie growing up because he was such a tough bastard and used to work with his father, johnny boy.


This trip also brought out Tony's suspicion that it was Paulie who told jonny Sac about the Ginny fat joke a few seasons ago that Ralphie said. Tony is relentless in trying to pry it out of Paulie that it was in fact him who said it but Paulie denies it was him over and over again. When they go on the boat trip we even sense that Tony was debating about whether or not to wack Paulie there and these suspicions are felt by Paulie who is a little worried about first getting on the boat which brought back memories of how they killed big pussy. Tony is almost reminding me of a less crazy and paranoid deniro at the end of goodfellas when he started to kill all the people connected to him for the big heist. It seems Tony is stuck between being able to finally enjoy all that he has worked for and the reality that if he slips once everything he has will be taken from him either by the cops or the game. Luckily for both of them the snitch told the cops that jackie aprile who did the murder so they are safe.


In NY the game done changed as Phil decided he had indeed paid the cost to be the boss and took out Doc and had his gunmen shoot him in the eye Moe Green style. This changes everything because we can't forget Phil still has longstanding animosity towards tony because of his cousin killing his brother. He was willing to let it go for Johnny sac's sake but now that he is in sole power of NY there is no way I can see him letting this go(especially after the bar speech last episode) and I think this will have a real impact on the power struggle between NY and NJ. Their beef was just starting up before Phil had his heart attack and think there issues will rise again as the series comes to a close.

Junior's last rise and fall was also witnessed in this episode as he was feeling good on his meds and started running poker games in the mental ward with the help of an Carter Chong, a fellow patient. Junior then flips out on this professor there and beats the shit out of him. In response to this the doctors raise his pills so high he can't function cause he is so tired. Carter realizes they are trying to numb him out so they devise a scheme so he doesn't have to take his pills anymore. After Junior pisses his pants while telling a joke, "Guy comes home with a bouquet of flowers for his wife. 'I guess I'll have to spread my legs now,' she says. 'Why?' he asks. Don't you have a vase?"

The doctors realize he is not taking his pills because his meds stop him from pissing his pants. They give him an ultimatum and in response Junior starts taking his pills and loses all his vitality. This pisses of Carter to no end who looked up to Junior, and finally flips out and beats the shit out of Junior, who in return ends up even more numbed out with a broken arm, and petting a cat at the end of the episode.