Okay, I’ll admit it. This is the one that really hooked me. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far, but this episode struck a chord and it sang.

I talked to Dad about how compelling a character Uncle Junior is. He’s certainly an antagonist to Tony, but it’s difficult not to root for him sometimes. On more than one occasion, I’ve called Christopher an idiot. To hear that Junior bought him a $400 surfboard, it only adds to my dislike for the guy. While the stakes are serious in the world of the Sopranos, Dad was quick to remind me that the show is also, “a story about a family.” When I was young and misbehaved, I was sent to my room. Christopher is young in this business, but when he messes up, he’s threatened at gunpoint. This is the kind of lesson he faces. What all he learns from this exchange is unclear, though more on Christopher later.

Each episode so far, there’s been at least a couple of words I’ve had to ask my father, “What are these guys even saying?” This time Dad offered up some knowledge, not without chuckling, “Did you hear the brasciole line?” Brasciole is a type of pork with string around it that Dad’s mom used to put in their pasta.

Dad: When she made dinner, she made the gravy from scratch and usually put some meat in it.
Me, a vegetarian: Any good?
Dad: Oh, delicious!
Me: Was it a regular thing or something more for special occasions?
Dad: No! We weren’t having it every night! Very very good though.

In the same scene with the brasciole, Tony asks his friend Jackie if the nurses have put Grappa in his IV. Dad didn’t know that one. He’s not a brandy guy.

There’s a lot about this episode I loved. A lot of it comes down to the camera work. Paulie says “Nothing” to the Orthodox Jew who won’t get a divorce by repeatedly bashing his head with a help desk bell. We can see what he’s going to do before he does it, but it’s still just as satisfying to see the bell held upside down, perfectly parallel with the lens and then see it fall again and again on this very stubborn man’s head. Later, the same man is thrown in the trunk of a car by Silvio and Paulie. This time, the camera is in the trunk. In one scene, you’re Paulie, roughing someone up. In another, Paulie’s roughing you up.

Twice, we see Carmela beckon women she sees as lesser than her. Her freshly done up nails taking up the center of the frame and shoved right in your face.

Now, instead of rooting for her, you’d be much happier if someone put her in her place. Mrs. Buco does just that, and then you can’t help but pity Carmella. I told dad about this, how I have the most complex feelings about Edie Falco’s character. He reminded me, Carmela is strong. She’s one to watch.

We watch Tony agonize over “fancy Harvard paintings.” He denounces that any meaning should be derived from them, then derives meaning from them in ways that deeply upset him. While cheating on his wife, not the first nor the last time, he’s called away to deal with the Jew who won’t divorce, but not before a staring contest with a painting on the wall above the bed – a shot-reverse-shot sequence so noticeable you might think Tony’s having a silent conversation with it. “What’s that painting mean to you?” he asks his girl. “Nothing, it just reminds me of David Hockey,” she says through a Russian accent. Look up David Hockney, and you’ll find paintings like the one that upsets Tony.

The last scene plays out with sequences of Christopher, Brenden and Junior, and Tony and Carmela while Meadow and her school choir voice string them together, non diegetic for Junior and Christopher’s scenes. Following Livia’s vague advice, Junior take it upon himself to kill Brenden in his bathtub and scare Christopher, who thinks he’s being killed for giving Tony’s daughter methamphetamine. Now that this information’s been made available to Junior’s goons, Christopher should probably wish he was dead. What if Tony finds out for real? Is it a matter of if or a matter of when?

What an episode ending though. It reminds me of the baptism scene from The Godfather. I couldn’t even mention all the things I loved about this episode, here. It’ll be one I think about for a long time. I can’t believe this didn’t make the top ten list of episodes my dad sent me. I guess this means the best is yet to come.

You can recognize a joke even without the laugh. This is how much of the humor plays out in the second episode of season 1 of the Sopranos, and I imagine this will continue. “Your sister’s ass,” someone replies, I can’t remember who or in response to what. No one laughs, but all the guys in the show and you watching know it’s funny.

Later, Tony says something objectively funny to his wife, Carmela. “Laugh. I thought I’d pee my pants,” she replies, deadpan. What is said versus what is communicated are rarely the same thing in Tony’s world. Everyone’s words are often surrogates for other sentiments. Perhaps the only counterexample to this thus far is Livia Soprano, the “piece of work” mother to Tony Soprano. She’ll say whatever she very well pleases and she expects that those who listen will either fall in line or get out of her way. This creates a significant dilemma for Tony, who explains to his therapist again and again, that he loves his mother, that she deserves the world, that he owes her everything. The things we’ll do for a parent’s love and pride.

Tony best holds his tongue when speaking to his mother, but he reaches a breaking point this episode and informs her very explicitly that she’s being put in a nursing home. Livia replies asking that he stab her in the heart. That would hurt less than what he’s said. Again, there are no laughs. Tony sits with his anger and in the culmination of the episode, we see it released when he beats the bartender with the phone that he just can’t seem to get right.

How come no one does anything right? How come no one sees things from Tony’s eyes? Except, he’s wrong. His therapist does, but now Tony finds himself on the other side of the table, sitting opposite something he should recognize but he refuses to open his eyes. I wonder if Tony and his therapist will become romantically involved. I wonder if Carmela will, “Laugh.” I wonder if she’ll speak her screams, too.

My favorite moment and one Dad agrees with is when Carmela finds out her son’s science teacher’s car has been stolen. She asks Tony to help the poor man. He asks his son what grade he’s getting in science. “D.” Tony agrees. The things we’ll do for our children.

Didn’t you know the Italians invented the cappuccino?