Whitecaps

Tony and Carm have done the job so well, very good acting as well, the conversations between them are so tight, really the episode deserves The Emmy for writing, on the other side am glade to see Chris again, and i laughed so much at the closing , a good last sceen for a good episode.

... wedged between the story arcs of seasons 1-3 and seasons 5-6. Some of that may have been the long delay between seasons three and four, and some of it may have been the show trying to find itself in the wake of September 11 since the setting is in such close proximity to the tragedy. In true Sopranos style, however, Season Four went out with a bang.

Everything that's been simmering in the Soprano marriage for four seasons comes out in this one. Carmela's resentment of Tony's cheating and her loneliness. Tony's resentment of Carmela's materialism. This is excellent acting by James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. And when you are so busy processing the raw emotions of the disintegration of a marriage that you don't notice the director is even there, that is a sure sign of said director's success. And just because you are grown - Meadow - or almost grown - AJ - doesn't mean that your parents splitting up doesn't shake you to the core, eliminating something that you thought you could count on. That is realistically stressed here.

But even this episode has its light side. Tony Soprano wants out of a real estate deal and you think you are just going to keep his deposit? And threaten him with legal action? Seriously? Apparently Tony did go to college for a semester and a half - or maybe he just really understands what makes people tick - because he obviously does understand psychology.

That Joe Pantoliano would win an Emmy for his work on this show's fourth season was pretty much a given from the start, and anyone doubting James Gandolfini and Edie Falco's potential will probably have changed their mind after seeing the superb season finale, Whitecaps.

Named after the place where Tony considers buying a beach house, the episode is essentially one long climax of the main tension that has been there for four years: the Sopranos' stressful marriage. It's all kick-started by a phone call from Irina, Tony's resentful former lover, who mercilessly taunts Carmela by revealing Tony has been sleeping with her one-legged cousin. This causes Mrs. Soprano to project all her repressed rage on her unlucky husband, who eventually accepts to leave the house. Therefore, two wars begin for Tony (the other is against Johnny Sack, who doesn't approve of the Jersey boss's decision not to go through with a hit on Carmine Lupertazzi), whereas another one ends for Uncle Junior: thanks to a threatened juror, his trial reaches the conclusion he was expecting.

While the Johnny and Junior situations are given very little room, saving material for the fifth series, the Tony/Carmela battle occupies 90% of Whitecaps: it's as if the writers (Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess and David Chase) had taken a regular fight between the two, which usually lasts a couple of minutes, and extended it to make it the subject of an entire episode. But rather than having a soap opera kind of quarrel, which gets boring after thirty seconds, the Soprano family breakdown is a 40-minute metaphorical fistfight between two of American television's finest actors, Gandolfini and Falco spitting bile at each other with neither of them pausing for breath. The Season 4 conclusion is an unstoppable container of acerbic, adult drama, so strong it's hard to believe anything could top The Sopranos at the Emmys in the Outstanding Drama Series category (The West Wing did, for three years; The Practice beat the first season). Unmissable.

At a pivotal moment in the series she completely steals the show showing emotional range and ability. Will give you goosebumps. This is the episode to watch if you question that Edie Falco is not an A+ actress.

While most fans consider "Pine Barrens" to be the best episode of the series, I disagree and have a different favorite. That was the turning point for me when the show got significantly better. Every actor and actress has been phenomenal this season, especially Joey Pants, Gandolfini and Falco.

Falco and Gandolfini put on a show in this episode. Acting like this in a TV show is rare, and we have seen nothing like it since. Certain episodes from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have accomplished similar results, but the Sopranos started it all.

It's a shame that I never saw this show when it was on TV. Weekly release is king. A slow-burner like Sopranos will not be fully appreciated when binge-watching. It can be a chore to get up to date and it can be difficult to appreciate how delicately created every episode is. Without time to reflect and digest it's hard to notice these things.