Sopranos Season 6B Episode 4: "Chasing It"

Kate: “Chasing It” (what great name for an episode! It also created a new phrase I will use when I do things that show that I have zero faith in humanity a la David Chase) flirts with my theory that Tony is not going to end up dead or in jail (i.e. avec le bang), but rather powerless, which is seems to be the worst fate of all (as shown last week via Uncle Jr.). I would assume that when it comes to the life of the Mafia, money = power and Tony is losing it in spades.

I love the Tony is “gambling and losing” storyline. Doesn’t being in the Mafia itself mean making gambling a way of life? It’s making money you didn’t earn, quickly and with great risk. Tony answers Melfi’s question, “What are you chasing?” with “It’s a big part of my life.” This conversation isn’t about Tony’s gambling problem at Atlantic city, but rather his gambling problem with his (and his family’s - as Carmella points out about twice a season) life. The fact that Tony is losing his luck at cards is also describing Tony losing his luck within the ‘family’. The story line also brings back images of ‘the guy who owned the sports store’ and JD – gambling pathetic fools who Tony (and Christopher) used to prey on. How did Tony get so low?

I really think Tony wants out of the Mafia and is discovering - just like Vito and Eugene in season 6a (finally an answer to the madness?)- that there is no escaping because ‘it’s a big part of [his] life.” I found his conversation with Carmella (and side note: how AMAZING was that Whitecaps-esque fight scene half way through the episode? I know/hope that isn’t the last we’ll see of the Carmella/Tony fire) about how ‘big picture-wise, I’m up, way up!” heartbreaking because the episode’s tone and Tony’s actions would greatly suggest otherwise.

Tony specified that all his friends were murderers, which brought me back to the whacking by Bobby in “Soprano Home Movies.” Did you notice how much Bobby’s presence has changed since “Sopranos Home Movies”? He tells Tony to “let it go” (ballsy) in regards to Tony saying he’ll never forgive the way that Phil treated the little V situation, he gives Tony advice (“tell Hesch to go fuck himself”) and his whole presence is stronger- a bit more like the way Tony used to be.

If Janice= the new Livia, than Bobby = trouble.

This whole episode was full of inklings and red herrings regarding the end of the Sopranos (which makes it so fun to watch, no?) i.e. Tony driving by the Mosque seeing the guys who used to hang out at the Bing (how many times can they allude to terrorism before I start believing them?), Hesch’s girlfriend biting the dust (foreshadowing Carmella’s end?), and Tony’s zero interaction with Christopher and the audiences lack of insight into Christopher’s home/personal life (do I smell a rat?-it’s a long shot, but still, it has been a long “no-Chrissy” stretch.)

And- I’ll leave the little Vito shower shitting to you my friend. Cheers.


Spencer: Let me start by pondering an unintentional side-effect of this blog. I'll admit that with the prospect of our little write-ups in my head, I tend to watch this season's episodes with a particularly critical eye. I'm essentially looking for things to write about, and though I forget the appropriate expression, sometimes it's easier to criticize than it is to compliment.

Still, I'd argue that the new level of attentiveness I give the show should enhance its stronger moments while emphasizing the weaker ones. Though I suspect you might not believe me, I don't think I'm taking a particularly harsh view of this season because of the blog, but hopefully just getting more out of the show than I did in years past.

All that said, as you might suspect from my little disclaimer, I found this episode interminably dull and irritating.

I've always found one of the strengths of the Sopranos' structure, or the way it refuses to be structured, is the freedom it allows an individual episodes' director/writer to take show places it has never been before. The show's rules, or lack thereof, have allowed for unexpected flashbacks, dream sequences, etc., and the show is such that it expects its audience to accept the devices as means towards a greater end of enhancing the meaning of the show.

"Employee of the Month" and this year's "Soprano Home Movies" are two examples of this done well. In both cases, we are presented with a show that is largely not the show we expected to watch, focusing on characters and locales unexpected, and in the case of SHM, even the aesthetics of the show were notably different (Tony/Carm's outfits, the small cozy nature of the lake home, etc). Yet despite their departures from a traditional Sopranos show, both shows not only enhanced our understanding of our central characters, but further did not shortcut or manipulate those characters as a means to an end. Melfi's dilemma (and decision) at the end of EOM not only fits her own character, but also prompts us to consider Tony's potential "value" in society as a force outside the law, willing to dole out revenge in cases where the law can't. That's a valuable episode in our understanding of Melfi, but it really does come back to Tony, even though his actual screentime is limited.

This season, more than ever, other than SHM, I've felt like Chase and Co. have really been moving these characters around a chessboard, and pushing them into places that they do not belong, for the purpose of the episode's "point". In "Chasing it", we're faced with Tony's gambling addiction, as a means to exploring happiness and fulfillment. Not only has there been much indication that Tony has been an addicted gambler in past episodes, but he's actually been the smarter/prevailing head in similar situations, both with "guy from the sports store" and Artie. I think that's largely what Chase is getting at (Tony's unhappy with his position, can't get out as you suggest, and is sort of acting below his capabilities and thus things he used to be above (gambling addictions), he's now not), and that's fine, but as further insult, it simply hasn't made for compelling television. The past two weeks of the Sopranos has been two of the dullest episodes I can remember and not because "nothing happens" but because the things that are happening have been solely serving their individual little episodes thematic points, and have used the characters solely as a means for getting there, without respecting the six seasons of history the show has put behind them.

I always enjoy the acting between JG/EF, but the fight scene you referred to was just so lazy to me. In season 4, those scenes are earned. We've got a season of Carmella grasping at her feelings for Furio as well as her financial ties to Tony; Whitecaps was so special because it felt like an appropriate culmination; we'd never seen it before, but we believed it because it had been appropriately foreshadowed and developed. Here, the fight came out of virtually nowhere, seemed vastly out of Tony's character (much like the whole episode), and further, although Tony said just about the nastiest thing he has ever said to Carmela, all she does is sulk and stay quiet at the end of the episode? Why? Because this wasn't meant to drive the plot forward, it wasn't meant to make us understand anything about how Carmela has changed, or how their relationship has changed - Carm doesn't leave Tony again (as I suspect she would have) based on his little outburst because the outburst is serving the episode, not the series.

Perhaps, as you suggest with regards to Bobby, we're seeing small strands of plot lines that will play out over the coming 5 episodes. But the show really needs to stand up on its own before the benefit of later episodes, and so far, I don't think it has.

Kate: Sigh, were we watching the same show?

I don’t feel like “Chasing it” is a self serving episode at all- in fact, my entire write up was about how many references and clues it had to the past and future shows. I understand that you think that Tony’s gambling problem came out of left field (and thus Chase is pushing that Chess piece to a place he is not supposed to go…nice metaphor, albeit a little confusing. Do you mean that Chase is making his knights move diagonally, or his pawns move backwards or simply putting his characters in ‘danger’ positions?) but did it really? Tony has always gambled and not only with his money, but with his family, his friends, and his own life- it’s just that now he is losing and thus suddenly looks like a problem.

The Edie/James scene in this particular episode stems from Tony feeling powerless and taking it out on both the weak (Bracco’s sister- is there a nicer character in the series? She has been dealt a horrible hand the poor thing) and the stable to make himself feel like ‘Mr. boss man’ (pour vous Madame Sinatra) again. There is a huge imbalance of power for a man like Tony when his wife has more money then he does (remember when Hesh tells his son that minus assets Tony is only worth 600,000 which is the same amount of money Carm get’s for her Spec house?.) It terrifies him and makes him crazy. This is something that has been building for… seasons. Why else wouldn’t he lean on the building inspector? Why else would he not let her play the stock market? Why else would he not want her to take the Real Estate courses? He likes Carmella home, cooking him dinner, and caring for his children. This could be seen as another Mafia way of life that is becoming impossible to keep in a modern time.

It’s not “virtually out of no where” or out character for Tony.

I also feel that Carmella understands why he is angry, which is why she doesn’t leave. All and all Carmella is a perfect wife for Tony because she both challenges him, but also understands (to a point) her ‘role.’ I love the idea that there is this fire bubbling right underneath both of their skins; a fire that had been controlled since Tony got shot. Perhaps this is also symbolizing that the whole “everyday is a gift’ Tony is coming to an end?

All and all I’m sorry you are so disappointed with the way this season (series?) is turning out. I’m sorry that you find it is both dull and irritating when I’m here giddy with excitement for the next episode. Do you feel your disappointment is similar, on par with, or less then your disappointment in season 6b?

Spencer: It's funny that you mention the "giddy with excitement" feeling; that's exactly what I used to get from the Sopranos and haven't been experiencing at all this season. I think, like many, I'm anticipating a anti-climactic wind down to the series, and with the depressing way things are going for Tony and co., I think it's going to be a dark and bleak ending for these characters, albeit in a quiet pathetic way (think Junior) rather than in an explosive blaze of glory.

It's interesting to think about Season 6a in the Season 6b context because aside from the content of the show, the whole a/b season thing seemed more like an HBO marketing issue than the season actually being one complete whole. Indeed, "Kaisha", however anti-climactic, did at least feel like a finale, and as a whole Season 6b has set off on new plot threads.

Still, the thematic aspects have remained largely the same, including the "when you're in, you're in for life", along with the slow spiral to irrelevance of the mob in general. I have been interested by this season's sense that Tony no longer wants to be in the mob - he looks at Carmine and Phil's desire to stay out of the mob (albeit, that was short-lived), and he wants to get out too. These last few episodes have emphasized the flaw in the "money is all" priorities of the characters while revealing how emotionally bankrupt their relationships are.

I didn't find Tony's fight with Carm "out of nowhere" in the sense that I never believed his character would never act the way he did, or that the tension with the spec house or Carm's other extra-curricular activities hadn't been explored in prior seasons. I did find it out of nowhere in the context of the episode and of Season 6b where they haven't been prominent issues. I've just found the writing this season to be lazy in its willingness to sacrifice all for its thematic purposes, while pushing plot and character development to the side. Tony becoming a degenerate gambler isn't totally out of line with his character, I just didn't feel they'd appropriately brought his character to that moment - they just placed him there, similar to the way that AJ has magically transformed into some sort of adult.

I think to some extent the tone of this season has really beaten out most of my liking for the characters, which has been critical to the show's success all along. Even when Tony was a monster, he was still appealing and compelling; the downward spiral has been far less fun to watch.