Pax Soprana

Pax Soprana is a damn fine episode, and makes for an entertaining and intriguing 50 minutes or so. Its title is derived from Pax Romana, a political but peaceful move made by the Emperor Augustus that managed to hold the Roman Empire together for over a hundred years. Comparatively, Tony must plot and move in order to keep Junior, who's not really fit to be the Boss, from disrupting the family. Now that Junior has finally gotten what he wanted the most, the man thinks he can start taxing and bumping off anyone who he sees fit (and that drug dealer getting thrown off a bridge was pretty disturbing). So naturally, the mob comes to an already stressed out Tony who previously named Uncle Junior as the Boss of New Jersey to keep head off of himself whilst secretly running things. It seemed for a while that plan backfired, until Tony manages to get his points across to Junior over a duo of conversations to ease down the activities. Things aren't faring much better on the domestic side either as Carmela, in addition to discovering Dr Melfi is a woman, now has to deal with Tony being temporary impotent, apparently due to his Prozac medication. She's quite funny in this episodes, coming out with witty remarks to offend Tony at their anniversary dinner and waking up in the night to Tony quipping "You want sex?" excitedly. After an insightful talk with the priest, Carmela wants to do her best to be THE woman in Tony's life, something that she makes very clear to him as they relax in the garden. It's a touching moment, only to be made ironic by the fact that Tony is trying (and failing) to get it on with his Russian lover and is now having sexual fantasies in his dreams about Dr Melfi. Poor guy. I could see this coming, but I didn't anticipate Tony telling Melfi straight up that he loves her and makes an advance towards her. Professionally, she keeps her cool and upsets Tony by telling him this feeling is a by- product of the success they are having as psychiatrist and patient. It'll be interesting to see their relationship develop now that Tony's got his feelings for her out in the open. Amid his envy of horses and personal problems, it's the business that matters in Pax Soprana. Gandolfini is unusually calm calculating, choosing his words carefully so that he can get sympathy whilst Uncle J side-lines the violent ex-thug we've seen in previous episodes. He almost looks the part as the boss but is clearly gonna mess things up. Junior finally gets his big moment in the end of the episode, which happens to be my favourite scene of the series so far. An FBI agent is present as Junior gets crowned amongst the salutes… as is a killer beat. We are then taken to the FBI headquarters, where an agent is sorting out the order of the mob on a wall. We see all of the six big hitters. As Junior's photo is pinned above the rest and word 'Capo' is crossed out from his name and replaced with 'Boss', thus proving Tony's plan has worked, the camera focuses on Tony before panning upwards at the new head of the New Jersey family, before fading out with the beat intact. What a great ending. It really makes me wonder what more is to come from the due of Tony and Junior.

Junior asserts himself as new boss of the family whilst Tony tries to keep him grounded.

'Pax Soprana' is another strong episode with much lauded psychological themes and historical context.

It is an entertaining and compelling character study of Tony dealing with conflict involving Junior in his mafia life and Carmela at home. These plots mirror each other well and make a solid story in its own right. However, the links to previous and future episodes are strong.

The psychological interpretations of Tony's behaviour are heavily in focus and explained in quite simple terms by Dr Melfi and visually in good dream sequences. Little touches like Irina exhibiting the same dismissive, hand waving gesture as Livia when she's upset with Tony is a brilliant touch.

His reference to Augustus is interesting at this early point in Tony's overall character arc that shows his intentions are peaceful wherever possible. This is clever writing that places my sympathy with Tony, particularly when the writers know he will need to go in a more aggressive direction at later points in the show.

That being said, a large amount of Tony's issues here are dealt with through deception of others. He lies to a number of people to achieve a desired outcome, and once more you have to applaud the writers and James Gandolfini for keeping the character likeable.

As ever there are numerous enjoyable sequences of dialogue between characters. Gandolfini has great exchanges with Nancy Marchand, Dominic Chianese, and Lorraine Bracco. These for me are the highlights of many episodes.

Visually it is another cracker, with superb cinematography and editing. Some of the transitions are excellent and so subtle I missed them on my first few viewings of the episode over the years.

I think it has one of the best endings to any episode of The Sopranos. We have been wondering about this perspective on events for six episodes and we finally get a glimpse that is quite impactful.

This was definitely one of the best episodes I have watched in this series so far. Not my favorite, but a very good one. Anyways, my favorite characters in this episode were Tony, Uncle Junior, and Dr. Melfi. My favorite things about this episode were the storyline, the acting, and the ending. This is starting to really become close to being a top 10 show for me, because this is absolutely amazing so far. I literally think anyone should watch this, including my future kids and future wife. In conclusion, I am really loving this show so far, even though I watched only about six episodes so far.

Tony has always had two types of women in his life - his wife, Carmella, who he basically grew up with, and his various mistresses who he basically keeps around for sexual recreation. He would never leave his wife for any of his mistresses or for any woman for that matter.

So with his psychiatrist Dr. Melfi, a woman to whom he only talks, who is insightful, and who is helpful and is completely focused on Tony's needs during their one hour a week, Tony is confused. He starts having erotic dreams about Dr. Melfi, and mistakes his growing feelings for love.

Meanwhile, Carmella has discovered that Tony lied when he said that his psychiatrist was a man. Now Tony did lie to her because he correctly thought with his known history of cheating Carmella would be jealous. But when she discovers him in that lie she is right for all the wrong reasons - for the first time she is actually jealous of another woman whom she thinks might supplant her.

On the mob/business side of things Tony is showing supreme shrewdness, playing his uncle like a harp. It really contrasts with how immature and stunted he is romantically and emotionally.

After scaring the crap out of Chris Moltisanti and having Brendan Filone killed in Episode 3, Corrado "Junior" Soprano finally steps into the spotlight, quietly dominating the events of Pax Soprana.

The title originates from Pax Romana, a political move by Emperor Augustus (a constant reference point in The Sopranos - see the name Livia) that kept the Roman Empire together without useless bloodshed for over a century. The similarities are obvious: Tony must prevent his uncle from disrupting the Family, and therefore agrees with the other captains to name Junior new boss of the NJ branch, while secretly pulling the strings behind the "capo" 's back. This is a smart move, as the FBI will focus on Corrado instead of Tony, but the plan comes close to backfiring when Junior sends his henchman Mikey Palmice (Al Sapienza) out to whack "uncomfortable" individuals. Things don't fare much better on the domestic front, either: not only is Carmela angered by the discovery that her husband's shrink is a woman, she also has to deal with the slight trouble of Tony being temporarily impotent because of his medication. On top of that, she demands he rely on her for emotional support rather than Dr. Melfi. In other words: be it one family or the other, they will both bite you in the ass at some point.

In the end, though, despite all the attention that's given to personal problems, it's the business aspect that matters the most in this episode, all thanks to the sublime double act between Gandolfini and Chianese: the former, normally a package of volatile primal energy, is very subdued and calm, pacing his words slowly in order to win sympathy and exposing the more calculating side of his character; the latter, a veteran of gangster epics (he played Johnny Ola in The Godfather: Part II), sidelines the hotheaded ex-thug seen in previous episodes, revealing a more ambitious, authoritarian figure, one that looks suited to be boss but will inevitably screw things up due to his old-fashioned view of the world. He is Vito Corleone to Gandolfini's Michael: a respectable but ultimately inadequate leader who no longer understands the dynamics of Family affairs. He is frightening as hell, too. How he never got an Emmy for his work on the show remains a frustrating mystery.