Family Events:Anthony fights in school, Carmela presses for more details. Tony brings Livia macaroons from her favorite bakery but she reacts very negatively despite initially being pleased. Tony meets with Lieutenant Vin Makazian, a detective he hires to check on Melfi. Makazian ends up assaulting Melfi's date on a traffic stop. AJ demands money from Jeremy, the kid he fought with, and the two again scuffle and make plans to fight after school. Instead of fighting, Jeremy pays AJ the money owed for the shirt and exits. AJ speaks with Meadow about why Jeremy was scared to fight him and Meadow explains what Tony does for a living.
Mafia Events:Christopher gets released from the hospital and finds Brendan dead in his apartment. Tony has a near miss with Silvio in the hall at the medical office. The crew visits a declining Jackie, and Chris plans to seek revenge on Mikey for killing Brendan. Tony prevents Chris from acting but assaults Mikey with a staple gun and confronts Junior himself. Junior refuses to cooperate and sends Tony away. The council of captains discusses how best to deal with the situation with Junior and want Tony promoted to acting boss while Jackie is sick. Chris assaults an employee after Junior's crew took his cut of drug money while he was in the hospital. At the Bing, the crew gets news that Jackie Apriel has died, and Chris shares the news that Junior is moving in on their turf. Tony confronts Junior again and surprises him in offering him Jackie's position as boss.
Mental Health Events:Tony dreams of seeing all his friends in the therapy waiting room; when Melfi turns around, in her chair is Livia in disguise. After a mild panic attack, Tony receives Xanax from Melfi to get him through the stressful week. When Tony tells Melfi about his frustrations in dealing with Junior and Livia, she suggests Tony give them illusion of still being in control, to handle them like children. Melfi admits to Tony she's upset by the assault on her date.
Significant Ideology:Roles change in this episode: AJ, the only remaining family member ignorant of Tony's true occupation, learns the truth and like everyone else becomes an accomplice to it. Tony becomes acting boss of not only Junior but presumably Livia as well (though we have yet to see how this plays out) after Melfi's suggestion and book recommendation. Even before this though, Tony had unique insight into his business dealings that Junior and Chris lack, neither being fathers. Junior is angry at the perceived disrespect Chris has shown toward him but also at Tony's refusal to hand out punishment. Chris expects immediate action and retaliation for Junior's murder of Brendan (which Mikey goaded Junior into committing by playing up the disrespect factor) and twice has to be restrained from acting impulsively. In the first case, Tony acts himself, taking the staple gun to Mikey, and in the second case, having just heard the news about Jackie's passing, Tony admonishes Chris and bullies him physically into standing down so he can approach Junior with the plotted offer of boss.
Tony has also learned to pick his battles with Livia, which lessens her power over him. "You could be happy here, if you wanted to," he tells her before leaving with the macaroons she rejected. It's almost as if since having his panic attacks under control he's able to think two steps ahead of everyone else's actions instead of simply reacting with aggression. Despite this, his need for control remains, evident in his need to know intimate details about Dr. Melfi and in employing Makazian to spy on her.
Italian Language:
Cialtrone = rascal/scoundrel (Junior tells Tony, "You crazy cialtrone, you had me worried, there.")
Family Events:Meadow feels the stress of studying for SATs; Tony and Carmela visit Artie and Charmaine Bucco in their new house. To help the Buccos, Carmela hires them to cater a pediatric hospital fundraiser at the house. Charmaine is receptive to the honest work until Carmela gestures to her as she had done earlier with her housekeeper. As they box up the effects after the party, Charmaine admits to Carmela that she slept with Tony back in high school and that she's fine with her life decisions. Meadow asks Christopher and Brendan to score her some crystal to help study for exams, which he does. Tony joins Carmela for Meadow's choir concert and is moved to tears by his daughter's singing.
At Green Grove Junior floats the idea of punishing Christopher to Livia but is surprised to hear Livia profess her love for Chris ("he put up my storm windows for me one year,"). Suggesting that Chris could rather use a talking-to but shrugging an implication of something more severe for Brendan, sly Livia colludes with Junior to hurt Tony. Junior arranges to have Christopher roughed up by Russians but sends his own man, Mikey Palmice to shoot Brendan.
Mafia Events:Chris and Brendan return the jacked truck to Comley; Junior is not placated. Tony and the crew visit boss Jackie Apriel in the hospital and discuss getting involved with Teittleman, a Hasidic Jew, who wants a divorce for his daughter. Tony gifts Jackie an escort and booze in his hospital room while Paulie and Silvio assault Teittleman's son-in-law, Ariel. After Ariel finally agrees to give them what they want, Teittleman tries to get out of paying Tony the agreed-upon sum. Tony tries to relay the drama to Jackie back in the hospital, but Jackie is preoccupied with his temperature.
Mental Health Events: Tony accuses Melfi of hanging a depressing painting of a barn outside her office to trick him but then admits he's worried about his friend Jackie, who has cancer. Later Tony asks Melfi for her medical thoughts on Jackie's cancer but becomes immediately defensive when she tells him her honest opinion and stomps out, again mentioning the painting of the barn. Later with his Russian mistress, Irina, Tony asks her what a poolside painting above her bed means to her.
Tony eventually comes clean with Melfi about mourning Jackie but insists he's not afraid to die for a reason.
Significant Ideology: Faced with the devotion of the Hasid, Tony comes to terms with the fact that some deaths have more meaning than others. He realizes Jackie's death is imminent and will be a cancer casualty, and will not reflect the strength of the man he once was. Tony references Jackie's appearance and formerly harsh attitude as if to reinforce that the gangster inside Jackie still exists and brings him a Bada Bing employee to enjoy (Jackie may be sick but he can still bang). The full masculine power of the mafia is in focus during this episode, so it's no surprise that the final threat to Ariel is to remove his manhood, what could possibly be worse than that?
However, Tony seems to be learning in therapy. After Melfi explains how the ducks and the barn painting "took on another meaning" for him because of his inner feelings, Tony asks Irina what she thinks of her painting. Teittleman calls him a golem, a Frankenstein, but Tony all but sheds tears for Jackie in Melfi's office and also during Meadow's choir concert.
Family Events:AJ's teacher's Saturn is stolen, Carmela suggests Tony help find the car. When Tony calls Livia to check in on her she neglects a pan of mushrooms on the stove and starts her kitchen on fire. After the fire department leaves the house, Carmela tries to reason with Livia, suggesting she get someone in to help her, but Livia refuses. Eventually Perrilyn, a Trinidadian housekeeper, is hired to help but Livia sabotages the relationship almost immediately. Later Livia accidentally injures herself and a friend with her vehicle and Tony insists she live at Green Grove Retirement Community. When clearing out his mother's house, Tony becomes emotional over old pictures of Livia smiling.
Mafia Events:
As Tony and the gang count money they watch a former wiseguy turned informant discuss the overall decline of organized crime. Unwillingness to do hard time for drug charges is what has brought the mafia down, the man explains. Later, Christopher and friend Brendan Filone hijack a semi full of DVD players and distribute the goods to the crew. The truck belongs Comley, one of Junior's legitimate business partnerships, and after a sit down between Tony, Junior, and boss Jackie Apriel, the two are made to pay restitution to Junior. Feeling unappreciated and ignored, Chris and Brendan plan to jack another Comley truck in defiance, this one full of Italian suits, but Chris backs out at the last minute. Tony and the crew keep some of the suits but chastise Chris for not stopping Brendan.
Mental Health Events: Tony speaks with Dr. Melfi about his guilt over Livia's living situation; Melfi tries to gently draw attention to Livia's parental shortcomings but Tony becomes defensive. Tony later relays his near panic attack during the cleaning out of Livia's house and Melfi points out that he's made progress in having awareness of his sadness but that he needs to acknowledge his anger before it seeps out to other outlets. Tony scoffs at this idea but then randomly beats Bada Bing bouncer Georgie for not being able to manage the telephone.
Significant Ideology: It's interesting that this episode begins with a mafia informer telling the audience that long prison time (hard consequences of criminal acts) led to the demise of organized crime as the crew looks on in agreement while counting piles of cash, presumably earned from the same actions described, still ongoing within the business. They acknowledge the truth but refuse to make changes that may help them avoid the very outcome being discussed. They don't listen. Or if they do listen and understand it doesn't matter because they don't change their behavior.
The same thing happens with Chris and the Comley trucks. He listens, nods, agrees, but does little to show Tony he understands the problem in his rogue act and what it means for the organization, not to mention Tony's relationship with Junior. When Melfi tries to make Tony aware of the anger he's stifling, he listens to a point but then stomps out of the office, unwilling to admit she's right. He is so angry about his mother's treatment of him that he releases physical violence on an innocent colleague.
Tony and crew have shown they have the ability to think critically about topics such as cloning or cultural appropriation (ala Starbucks), they also have advanced capacity for strategy: the Mahaffey scam, playing Chris and Brendon's misdeed for an ultimate financial/material gain, obtaining the science teacher's stolen car for leverage with AJ's grade, and so on. The fact that a hard warning waved in their faces does not deter the actions of any of these men suggests a very primitive way of thinking and behaving. Are they defiant (if you try to tell me what to do I'll do the exact opposite) or simply impulsively selfish (I want this thing so badly and so immediately that I cannot think logically and must have immediate gratification in getting it)?
Italian Language:
Indifendibile = indefensible (Paulie shouts this or something like it to the tv)
Chiaccherone = chatty (Paulie refers to the informant on tv)
pastin = "pastina" or little pasta (Carmela offers to make Livia some pastin to get something in her stomach after the mushroom fire incident)
O trippa di zia = or aunt's tripe (Pussy laments this after going through the paperwork at the body shop after having been away for six months).
Marone = Madonna or Madon, used similarly to 'dammit.' (Paulie laments this in frustration at the many options at what is meant to be Starbucks).
Puzzi = stink (Paulie explains Americans ate "puzzi" before Italian cuisine became available).
Fiori = flowers
(il tempo e la pazienza) cambiano la foglia di gelso in seta = Time and patience change the mulberry leaf to silk (Bonnie DiCaprio at Green Grove says this to Livia).
Family Events:Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) has a lot going on in his life.Son Anthony, Junior (Robert Iler) turns thirteen, daughter Meadow (Jamie Lynn Siegler) rebels against wife Carmela (Edie Falco). Mother Livia (Nancy Marchand) resists the idea of assisted living and is generally unpleasant. Tony cheats on Carmela; Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) resents Tony's being in charge. Tony admits being in therapy to Carmela but does not disclose the fact that his therapist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) is a woman.
Mafia Events:Mahaffey is assaulted by Tony's nephew Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) and Tony for defaulting on gambling debts, Christopher shows initiative by executing the son of one of Tony's waste management rivals. Hesh (Jerry Adler), a former colleague of Tony's father, helps Tony with a plan to extract the money owed by Mahaffey. Silvio Dante (Stevie van Zandt) informs Tony that Junior plans to kill rival Pussy Malanga inside childhood friend Artie Bucco's restaurant; Tony tries to get Artie (John Ventimiglia) to leave town but ends up destroying the restaurant in an explosion. Christopher feels unappreciated in his work and mentions writing a screenplay.
Mental Health Events: Tony meets Dr. Jennifer Melfi for therapy after panic attacks, storms out of first session when asked if he felt depressed. Returns for second session after collapsing at Green Grove Retirement Community with mother Livia. Tony describes mixed feelings about family of ducks in his pool. Melfi prescribes Prozac, which Tony takes. Tony skips a therapy appointment, begins to feel better, and assumes he won't need to return; Melfi suggests that talking about his thoughts and feelings is what is helping. Tony becomes tearful in a discussion over the ducks and realizes he is afraid of losing his family.
Significant Ideology:Tony's infidelities are referenced and later shown; he is a powerful, desirable man who has significant appetites in both women and lifestyle. His house is enormous, he dines in fancy restaurants, he plays golf. Yet the first thing he mentions to Dr. Melfi is that despite having "reached the heights," he still feels unsatisfied. Why? He's the boss, he's in charge, he has a family that loves him, what is the reason for his unhappiness? Spoiler alert: IT'S PROBABLY HIS MOTHER, but could it also have been his having bought into the the capitalist myth that money buys happiness? Material excess and extravagant lifestyle are indeed popular glamours of the mafia genre, the mob boss synonymous with unrestricted wealth and greed, but always at a price. Mafia films were once regulated by the Hays code (you could make a film about a criminal but he had to meet a violent end, because morals), so we're used to seeing consequences of negative or violent actions be realized, but what consequences can we expect in Anthony Soprano's story? Will therapy help, or is he better off not knowing what's at the heart of his anxiety and depression?
Italian Language:
Sfogliatelle = Italian dessert pastry ("Hey girls, you want some of last night's sfogliatelle?").
Se dici = "If you say," (Junior yells this or something like it to Tony after he tells him not to get Anthony Junior anything big for his birthday).
Goomara = Mafia mistress. ("Well, havin' that goomara on the side helps," Carmela responds when Tony states that no marriage is perfect).
vaffancul' = vaffanculo = F--- You ("Then it's dysfunction this, and dysfunction that, and dysfunction VAFFANCUL'!" Tony, to Dr. Melfi, describing Gary Cooper getting in touch with his feelings).
Stugots = sto cazzo = personal possessive of male sex organ (Tony's boat is named "Stugots").
Buenosera = Good Evening (in restaurant).
da queste parte = around here (in restaurant).
Agita = shake ("I'm all agita all the time!" Junior, in solidarity with Livia's being very upset about the state of the world).
On-Island Events: Charlie brings Eko the hidden dynamite, which Eko brings to the hatch. Eko pleads with Locke to let him into the computer room; Locke refuses and Desmond assures him the blast doors are strong enough to withstand a dynamite blast. Eko eventually lights the fuse but the blast doors do not open. Desmond talks with Locke about his beliefs; Locke tells Desmond about the night he found the hatch in the jungle just after Boone's death. In explaining what he found in the Pearl Station, Locke inadvertently causes Desmond to reevaluate his position on not pushing the button. Desmond looks through the sheets of entered numbers printed out from the Pearl Station and determines that one of his late entries resulting in a "system failure" warning may have also caused Oceanic Flight 815 to crash.
Desmond demands that the button be pushed; Locke seizes the computer and throws it on the floor, ruining it. Desmond opens the blast doors, finds Inman's key and attempts to execute the failsafe procedure as the numbers count down. Desmond tells Locke his pounding outside the hatch after Boone's death saved his life so that Desmond could save Locke's. The numbers count down to zero, the hieroglyphics seen before in red and black flip down, and the metal objects inside the hatch begin flying toward the hatch walls. Eko helps move Charlie out of the hatch but refuses to leave without Locke, who is terrified but admits he was wrong. Desmond, remembering the words of Penelope's letter, flips the key inside the Dharma octagonal switchpiece marked "System Termination."
Jack, Hugo, Kate, Sawyer, and Michael see Sayid's smoke signal a few miles inland and begin to argue about where Michael has been leading them but are taken down by tranquilizer darts and transported to a dock near the shore. The bearded man appears with several others; Kate tells him she knows his beard is fake and he removes it. "Henry" pulls up to the dock in a boat, and just as he begins to talk to Michael, a loud buzzing occurs and the sky becomes purple. "Henry" explains Michael can take the boat following a compass bearing of 325 and he will be able to find rescue with his son. He adds that once Michael leaves, he'll never be able to get back to the island. Michael finds Walt inside the boat, the two embrace and depart. Miss Klugh tells Hugo to return to camp and to tell the rest of the survivors they can never come to this area. Hugo asks about his friends; "Henry" announces they are coming home with them. As the others put a cloth bag over Sawyer's face Kate looks worriedly at Jack, who tries to smile back at her.
Flashbacks: Desmond watches Inman augment the map on the blast door, which he explains was started by a man named Radzinsky. When Desmond asks what became of Radzinsky, Inman shows him a mark on the ceiling, a stain from Radzinsky's suicide. Desmond begs Inman to allow him out of the hatch, stating he's been locked inside for two years, but Inman refuses. Later, Desmond finds Inman drunk, hiding a Dharma Initiative key which he says is a "failsafe," which fits into an octagonal switchpiece. He further explains that pushing the button releases a buildup of electromagnetic energy that has been leaking out of the area under the hatch, which is why someone always needs to be there, "saving the world."
The next day Desmond follows Inman outside back to his sailboat, which Inman has been secretly repairing. The two struggle and Desmond accidentally kills Inman. Desperate and suicidal, Desmond finds a gun and grabs his special Dickens book, Our Mutual Friend (which as explained in Live Together, Die Alone part 1, he has saved to read just before he dies). Inside it is a letter from Penelope; Desmond reads it and cries. Moments later, Locke (who, after fleeing the caves after Boone's accident, is up above pounding on the outer hatch door) surprises Desmond. He then switches on the light that will convince Locke the island has given him a sign.
Greater Meaning: Locke is proven wrong in his thinking that none of his actions had meaning when the hatch begins to dangerously hyper-magnetize. The button indeed needing pushing, but what does its legitimacy say about the Pearl Station and the Dharma Initiative? Of course Locke was right in feeling manipulated (and we saw the field of pneumatic tubes filled with notebooks, for what, exactly?) If their experiments were to spy on whoever was in the hatch tasked with pushing the button, and if they were just going to throw away the notebooks of observations, then it does seem like it was all pointless, unless the Pearl Station itself was the subject of the experiment, NOT the hatch. Would the subjects do as they were told? Was there anything to be learned about the people in the hatch? Was it an elaborate monitoring system in case (as with Kelvin, Desmond, and eventually Locke) the button-pushers decided to mutiny or abandon their posts? Were the duties in the Pearl Station meant for some sort of punishment? Were potential members vetted there? Philosophically, the experiment seems to examine how men respond to their orders, whether or not they question them, and how they deal with unknowns.
Given what we've seen of the island's special abilities, one wonders if the Dharma Initiative factored in any policy or procedures for things like the monster (which we haven't heard from in a while), the mysterious healing properties, or any additional unknowns. Finally explained was the "Quarantine" warning on the outer hatch door; Kelvin tried to sell Desmond on it not being safe outside of the hatch but ended up admitting it was a lie when he was caught trying to leave with Desmond's boat. Kelvin and Desmond, though they both performed the same duty, are different. Kelvin stated he willingly left the armed forces to join the Dharma Initiative; Desmond (like the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815) crashed onto the island by accident. When Locke mentions the printed logs of the numbers, Desmond works out that he, by entering the numbers in late, caused the crash by verifying the time and date. Later, as Desmond prepares to kill himself, Locke pounds and shouts outside the hatch and prevents the suicide from happening. Were both men destined to save each other? Locke's importance on the island has thus been connected with his faith and appreciation for nature in contrast to Jack's skepticism and devotion to science, how is Desmond important, and where does he lie on the faith/science spectrum? If unaffiliated with either, is he the link between Locke and Jack?
Further Questions:
1. What will the others do with Sawyer, Kate, and Jack?
2. What is the reason for the costumes?
3. Will Michael and Walt make it back home?
4. What is "Henry's" real name?
5. What will become of the hatch?
6. Will Locke get his faith back now?
7. How did the explosion of the hatch affect the island?
My husband was watching this and I came in less than halfway through. I watched about thirty seconds of it and knew it was going to make me cry but of course I had to finish it. I won't spoil anything. I won't even describe any of the events that happen because it's just better to discover it your own way, uninformed (don't even google anything because the spoilers come up immediately). What I will say is, this is humanity, the way it should be.
My Octopus Teacher, 2020. d. Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed
Starring: Craig Foster
Summary: " A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world," (IMDB).
I think we all know people out there who walk around like Clint Eastwood characters, hating everything, scowling at everyone, but who are able to feel safe in showing kindness and love to animals. This film is important because Craig Foster shows us how to take that kindness and tenderness (which we may keep hidden) and take steps to share it outward, toward other humans, toward the land, and toward ourselves as well.
See others' existences. Protect the land, protect the seas. Allow yourself to feel and empathize. Take your humanity seriously and challenge yourself to do better.
