I watched last week's and last night's one after the other, so let me take a moment to separate the two in my head.

Right. Yes. That was sharp and compelling. And the end completely took me by surprise but seemed almost inevitable once it had happened.

And damn, I don't know what when down last night, but last week's Sopranos was about the most tightly constructed episode I can recall.

That was some dark shit. Did anybody else expect Homer's coyote spirit guide with the voice of Johnny Cash to appear for Tony?

I'm trying to think of the Maximum Pain Exit Strategy at this point. Maybe Meadow dying in Tony's arms on the opera house steps while the camera cranes back. Tony throwing a knife through Carm's throat? Antony ambushed at a toll plaza? Piano wire around Paulie's throat from behind in the car?

I'm trying to think of the Maximum Pain Exit Strategy at this point.

Tony gets nibbled to death by ducks. Poetic closure that would be.

Did anybody else expect Homer's coyote spirit guide with the voice of Johnny Cash to appear for Tony?

Totally.

Caught up on the Sopranos. Whoa.

Caught up on the Sopranos. Whoa.

And you gotta figure that's just a prelude to the end. That it's ramping up rather than that's the whole emotional payoff.

But man, that was a dead shark eye look in Tony's face when he did the nose pinch.

I'm three eps behind and it's driving me maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. (I'm completely spoiled, of course, but still!)

It just occurred to me yesterday what a great PSA for wearing your seatbelt you could make from that episode.

AJ's arc has gotten really interesting, too. He was so comfortable and at home with the acid on the gambling debt kid, no remorse. Then he joined in on the Somali bike guy beatdown but broke down later. I think this might be the first time I've wanted to know what was going on in his head.

Unspoiled speculation:

Since AJ is actually just like Tony was in his flashbacks (and it's interesting that Tony thinks he was a tough kid, but always remembers himself as a sensitive noodle), I'm guessing that Phil Leotardo is going to accidentally on purpose kill AJ in one of the standard robbery-gone-wrong stunts that every kid on the show has gotten killed for pulling. Rather than a war of retribution, Tony will end up talking to Agent Harris ('cause they're the Sopranos because they sing, right?) about Leotardo, and will end up killed by someone in his own crew a la Big Pussy. I realize that just saying these things means that they will never come to pass, but this is where I am right now.

Interesting. I see AJ being just like Tony, but he was around for the Aprile business, I don't want to see the same thing go down again. Boring. I think he might start showing a little more leadership, shift the college mafia into using their thuggery and goonishness in the service of business but cutting out the random violence, or at least squelching it a little. Killing him off in some way would fit with what seems to be going on with Tony - losing the shine off of his old role models and just losing everyone else.

Tony's advice to AJ to get a blowjob? Weirdly touching.

When he was sleeping with the girl in Florida, that was the first time he's been unfaithful to Carmela since he was shot, right? And the floodgates are open there, now. I'm starting to think he doesn't care anymore, that his big revelation that surviving the gunshpot means he's "ahead" means that he's without any sort of moral checks.

Two references to Comfortably Numb in the last two eps. I don't know what it means, numb doesn't seem to describe Tony, but maybe it does.