I have pretty high hopes. And I still have no freakin' idea what's going to happen. What was weird about the episode was that it was pretty much the way I would have guessed things would go if I'd never watched the previous seasons, so I feel a little double-bound by my fanship.

That's exactly how I feel, Corwood, I think. The events were kind of predictable, but I'm primed not expect predictable so I was still surprised, kind of. Anyway, Bobby's execution scene was awesome, and I liked the echoes of the past - bringing in the Italians, Patsy's run up the stream from the Bing. That was Junior's house they were holed up in at the end, right?

I thought it was Tony's mom's house.

I'd buy that. I can't remember back that long.

One of the House Next Door guys emailed Terrence Winter to ask, and Winter said it was just a random safe-house we hadn't seen before. I thought it was Jun's place at first, too, but was mighty confused by the cardboard cut-out of Sil in the corner.

I'll tell you, I didn't like Bobby's execution scene. That was too over the top Scorcese-esque with the derailing trains and excruciatingly long set-up.

I didn't care for Bobby's scene either. Over done. I wasn't expecting to be as upset at Sil's being shot as I was. He's always annoyed me, but he's always been loyal to Tony. Ironic that Paulie is Tony's main man now considering that Tony was ready to off him a few eps back.

Just over the top enough, for me. The shots of the screaming models of people were what made it. I like some humor in my dramatic death scenes now and then.

That makes more sense that it's an unknown house, surely everyone would know to look at Junior's house.

The thing that struck me about Sil's death was how the motorcycle accident right after was more shocking than the gunfight, to me and, I think, to the on-lookers onscreen.

Woot! They finally have Dexter Season 1 available for pre-order. It's out August 21 (which in a bit of synchronicity, is also the day the 2-disc collector's edition of SERENITY comes out).

Delurking for The Sopranos, one of the things that's struck me about the show is the way the corruption has infected everyone. Carmella is the most glaring example, but even her father, who has a morally superior attitude when in comes to Tony's business, is not adverse to using Tony's connections to cut through red tape for his construction jobs. The assemblyman from a couple or more seasons ago is another one of my favorite examples. No one has come out of this show untouched. I think Chase has done an excellent job of showing this, without beating us over our heads with anvils.

Violence also has the same effect of effecting everyone, and the motorcycle rider is just more collateral damage. I'm loving the juxtoposition this season between the gang warfare of Tony & Phill and the Iraq war.

Hi, Fern!

I think you're exactly right about the corruption on the show in some senses. I can't think of too many innocents who've emerged unscathed. However, I don't think that Chase has that high of an opinion of the non-mob people. Consider Heidi & Kennedy, the two girls who ran Chris and Tony off the road a couple of episodes back, but declined to come back because they would have gotten into trouble. Or Saplinsky (I may not have his name right), the attorney who tried to shake Tony down for extra money in "Whitecaps." Or Artie Bucco, although he seems much happier now that he's given up the idea of being a connected tough guy.