Artie yes for sure, friend from school

Sil yes i believe, think it's mentioned that there were crew together as kids (in the executive game ep, for example), with Jackie Sr

Pussy is a little older? thought they kind of alluded to him being a slightly older mentor of sorts after the Bevilaqua hit
like Paulie, but not as old
but they also go on about what great friends they are, so who knows

That is true. I may have been thinking of Jackie.

It was pilot episode
They changed it a lot from that

Even the first season, then they saw what they had

Very nice.

Oh, wait a minute! They killed Vito with pool cues, didn't they?

So much for my bat foreshadow.

They shoved a pool cue up his ass, but don't think you could beat someone to death with a pool cue. They probably used a bat

I always thought they beat him to death with baseball bat as the scene is mostly dark and the action comes down fast but I checked again and it appears to be some kind of hard piping?

You can beat someone to death without a pool cue. Can't imagine it would reduce your ability to beat someone to death.

Just watched that one. It's even funnier when you consider it's a poster of a girl's ass.

in the episode where Carmela goes to Paris, she spends an entire day sightseeing without taking a single picture, and decides to take her first picture of the trip of a neon lights pig.

Nice one.

I'm watching final season now. In Walk Like A Man, Tony is walking around his house singing Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. In the next episode, Kennedy and Heidi, that song is playing when Chris flips the car.

Same ep, there's a nice sequence, cutting back and forth between AJ (who has been crippled by depression since Blanca dumped him) and Tony (who seems resentful that he's not getting enough sympathy for losing Christopher, because it's all going to the other Drama Queens: Chris' mother, his young widow, even "Miss 1-3, 7-9", whatever her name was, who never misses a wake).

In this sequence, AJ is just starting in therapy and on antidepressants, and improves instantly. He's going to class (and actually interested in the class, not clowning around with his phone like he was in the season opener), partying with his new friends (Patsy's and Carlo's boys).

Meanwhile, Tony has fled to Vegas for some alone time.He eats alone in a nice restaurant, he gambles alone, sits in his room, sits by the pool...and whenever someone back home tries to call (Phil, or the Where Should I Dump This Asbestos? guy), Tony can't wait to hang up on them.

They kept cutting back and forth between these two.

After moping for days, AJ was startlingly ENGAGED.
While Tony DIS-engaged.

Chris didn't play the Pink Floyd version in the car. He popped in a CD of the soundtrack to The DEPARTED. He said loved this CD, said it's KILLER.

Get it?

Pulled up the Sepinwall reviews of these last few eps, he points out a few things:

--at Chrissy's cookout, Chris is grilling while Tony chats with Bobby, illustrating that Bobby has moved up, and Chris is no longer in the inner circle (a theme in recent episodes, as he stays away from the life to avoid drug/alcohol temptations). Tony comes over to the grill to chat, but they only squabble more. At one point, Tony advises Chris to take a piece of steak off the flame. "It's done." Doesn't look done to Chris. Tony assures him that it doesn't need the flame, it will keep cooking in its own juices...kinda like Chrissy has been simmering since Ade's murder (the flame). He and Tony are "done".

--The episode where Tony tries get his son to "snap out of it!" (depression), and tries to get Chris to resist those temptations rather than avoid them, is titled Walk Like A Man. At least, walk like Tony's idea of what a man is.

--Tony and Carmine Jr are turned away from Phil's house, and Phil yells at them, unseen, from an upstairs window. Sepinwall points out the windows resemble a castle's turret, foreshadowing battle.

When Vito, Eugene, Patsy, Benny and Little Paulie are working no work jobs on the Esplanade Little Paulie and Gene are breaking each others balls and Gene says "that skank i saw you with it must have been like kissing a fireman" or smth and it hints to Vito and Johnny Cakes love story. Another subtle Vito hit was when his brother Bryan was in a coma Vito said to Tony "I want this c0.c.ksucker to bleed from his ass", the same punishment Vito recieved himself for being a c0.c.ksucker when he had a pool cue stuck up his ass. Also imo its hinted that Phil had atleast one boyfriend in prison and his guilt is why he hates gays on a personal level.

We discussed trees before, right? As a portend of death? There was a shot looking up at the treetops right before Adrianna got wacked. Same with Tony B. And some guy Phil wacked after rear-ending him. And a few others I can't recall just now. We talked about this, right?

Watched the finals episode last night. We got the exact same shot of the treetops, when Carmela went out in the back yard to tell Tony dinner would be at Holsten's. This was the third-last scene, followed by Tony visiting Junior in the penultimate scene, then the last scene at Holstens.

BTW, it was so cool to see my gf on the edge of her seat during that last scene.

I have a Comfortably Numb Chris's death observation. Tony is trying to talk strategy wrt Leotardo and for the 1000th time in the series, Chris is just not interested in strategizing (this time preferring to play with the radio and talk about his daughter). Their conversation just ends and Tony sits there looking at Chris in silence as the line "I turned to look but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it now. The child has grown; the dream is gone." The camera cuts back and forth a couple of times during this line, from Tony looking directly at Chris to Chris looking straight ahead. Tony's hopes were once so high; he was going to run the family through Chris. Now he realizes Chris is an idiot, Tony has little to no use left for him.

I don't think that's at all what has Tony upset. It's a combination of guilt plus the fact that he's not hurting makes him interpret their shows of anguish as attention whoring. He definitely doesn't want more attention.

Tony makes excuses and never visits Sil in hospital. When he finally does, there's a commercial on the TV in the room, showing a little girl letting out an ear-shattering scream and running out of the room.

Man I love how he uses what's on the TV
Suprised more shows haven't copied that

This is the best thing I've ever read in this thread.

The "managing people" part of the show is my favorite.

I'm a little bit curious about the Phil Leotardo hit. Why were so many people involved? Tony gives the job to Bobby, who delegates to Phil, who has Patsy coordinate with the Italians. Was this a plan to put blood on everyone's hands so they couldn't switch sides to New York?

I think it was just another Paulie screw-up.

Paulie didn't want to be involved in case NY won the war he could join them

(Agitated) No! That's dumb....

(Calms down) ...or is it?

Paulie always played both sides of the street in NY vs NJ