OMG this episode was very interesting.

at first i was like "who the heck is that adriana knock off?" didnt even realize it was her!

also, i too noticed meadow has seriously shed some fat and i think she made them put her in no clothes to show off. haha.

tony cant die, but it will be interesting to see if he believes uncle junior subconciously did it since he faield to kill him the first time around when uncle and his mother were in cahoots.

Who was the chick Carmela was having dinner with when she showed off the new Porshe and the other women had a 'Vette? Was that Artie Bucco's wife? After such a long hiatus my knowledge of the secondary characters has gotten very fuzzy. First episode was definitely worth the wait. Bobby and Janice and definitely worthy of their own network sitcom when the Sopranos ends. Mafia tough guy by day, p-whipped husband by night.

I believe that was Angie Bonpensiero (Big Pussy's widow). You might remember her from Season 5 episode running Pussy's old body shop.

Uh, DAMN!!!! I was totally not prepared for toothless Un cle June to be so out of it. I think the woman Carmela was dining with was "Aunt Ro" wife of the leader of the family who died in the first season, and whose son got whacked by Ralphie. This is shaping up to be one hell of a goodbye season! Altho, I did find myself having a rather graphic dream about Tony after watching this....but maybe that's just me......

Nope, GregChttm is right, that is Pussy's widow...sorry

I was wondering if they were going to work Vito doing Celebrity Fit Club in there somehow, him taking just the weiner out of the hotdog was a nice touch.

This show just keeps getting better. They just CAN'T end it this season.

I think that was Angie, Pussy's widow, with Carmela. And, you're right, Meadow is hot. Did she do a Brittney Spears and divorce the guy she married not long ago?

I miss Adrienne. She was a great character. Showed Chris for the wuss he really is when he doesn't have a gun or one of his goombahs to back him up.

Bobby's hobby is lame. And where are his fat kids? Leotardo's a pig, but he's headed for a great comeuppance when Tony gets his strategy down. It's gonna be ugly.

My God, Jeannie Sack's as big as a mountain now! Guss Johnny won't have to worry about someone banging her while he's away.

The Gene story was done with too quickly. Should have been dragged out for another episode.

All in all, though, the show managed to set up a whole bunch of stories for the next 11 episodes, to be followed by 8 more. And then, nothing?

ABC better enjoy the ride for now, 'cuz "Deadwood"'s a-comin' and it's gonna be a great ride. HBO and F/X have the best series anywhere on TV.

I still can't figure out who Frankie Valli is, besides being one of those characters they dropped in in Season 5 who no one cared about and got knocked off anyway -- like the gratuitously nude Patti D'Arbanville.

I dug 1) the use of William Burroughs.
2) Junior shooting Tony sans his teeth. And 3) The line about the parasite eating out the FBI agent's ass.

Good to have 'em back. I missed you and your hair, Silvio.

thats the problem with the LOOOONG hiatus--i have forgotten who many of the secondary and tertiary characters were!

Nice short & early recap to allow us to comment. I wish the LOST guy would have done it for the last new episode!

I know this is television-world, but Tony's injury (gut shot) is not minor and he's bleeding like a pig. I know it's only a cliffhanger and 'someone" will happen along (I predict Bobby) to save the day.

Meadow did look hot (yes, she (actress) divorced her older husband awhile ago) but give me Adrianna ANY day. I 99% knew it was a Carmella dream when they were talking but my head was still spinning with the scenerios for her to be alive.

Gene being a snitch threw me off completely. That's 4+ in this "family" and the FBI is still flailing. I thought the blood on the map would jam him up (it still might) but didn't see the suicide coming.

Jash -- The whole New York Family confuses me, especially since the guy who just ratted on Tony and died looked just like Carmine who died centuries ago. I can deal with Phil since he's one of the dozens they just stole from Scorsese films. The worst was Patsy and his twin brother. Yikes, am I that drunk that I don't remember this guy being killed?

I hope they got rid of Feech -- just annoying and pointless.

P.S. What did y'all think of Lillo Brancato's real-life arrest as accesory to murder in a botched burglary in NYC? (He was the kid who got shot at the housing project, supposedly by drug dealers -- Bevilacqua. He was also great in "A Bronx Tale").

P.P.S. Correction: He got shot by Tony in a park after an orange soda and screamed out "Mommy."

ToddHzlqst (#10), on most modern 911 systems the operator automatically has your address and can send help upon receipt of the call even if the caller can't give any info, so by Tony completing the 911 call we should expect that an ambulance will be dispatched.

The writer(s) spent an awful lot of time on sushi for it not to be significant. Maybe some of the sushi Tony ate pre-shooting has some curative properties.

Ya gotta love how spot-on they are with portraying the kind of children Tony and Carmella raised. A.J. is so perfectly incidental and so NOT being groomed for the business.

I agree with Tony A. -Gene's story got a little contrived in its condensation. Seemed extreme to justify the title of the epi.

Gotsada Malanga!

Yes! They're back baby! I agree with alot of what everyone else has said. When I saw Adrianna w/ Carm, I too was brainstorming...maybe she got away???

I wonder how many episodes until Janice takes a baseball bat to that trainset. Poor Bobby.

OK, J-Unit. Your turnaround is way too fast! Didn't watch the show and I load TVGasm to see a fat faced Edgar look-a-like playing dead on your main page.

After successfully avoiding TV tabloids, radio shows, Regis & Kelly and any other medium that talks about the Sopranos I hope that picture doesn't spoil it for me. damn...damn...damn

and what is up with gene's wife?

like she didnt know their moving to florida would never happen because he's in the family now. she knew that when she married him (i'm guessing).

and hey, gregchttm--such a cleverly disguised name!

Plexitoes: Adriana croaked and went to "Joey," which is worse than mere death. I have faith in Sil to do a good whacking.

Gene's croaking has got to make (newly svelt) Vito seek vengence against Tony.

That was a good hanging, by the way.

I too am perplexed by the sushi.

I almost had a heart attack when I saw Ade in the spec house...I thought we were headed for the Dallas "dream season"

That wasn't Carmine who died in this ep (he died last season), it was Ray Curto.

Holyterror, you are right. Although, I was hoping she went to heaven to be with her little doggie (Didn't Christopher squish him?) But alas...she sank to the depths of Hell that is "Joey".

I also loved the part where Tony de-pants'd to weigh himself. hehe.

feech is back in the joint; tony set him up to get popped for a parole violation because he was stepping on too many toes. feech was a pain in the ass, but i love robert loggia, one of the five best crusty-old-italian-dude actors of all time.

you could see gene's date with the noose coming from pretty much the moment he brought up his inheritance. everybody knows there's no retiring from the family, and tony's running a little short on muscle after he whacked tony b. and carmela scared furio back across the atlantic. normally, i'd think gene's fate was a little manipulative, but knowing this show, that little subplot will likely come back into play at some point.

meadow looked great, and AJ looked a LOT older than when we last saw him, which got me wondering: how much time is supposed to have passed between the last season's finale and the present action? how long did carm say adriana had been missing? also, do we know how long johnny sack's stretch is supposed to be?

obviously, tony is going to survive, but philly leotardo might not be able to resist a power move against the jersey family with tony in the hospital and uncle june in dementia-ville. who would be the acting boss? silvio? vito? (loved vito's grab for the naked weiner, by the way.)

thanks, holyterror, for i.d.'ing that weird soundtrack as burroughs. i thought i recognized old bull lee's voice, but wasn't certain.

Carmela said that Adriana had been missing for a year, which would make sense since that would have been long enough for Janice to have gotten pregnant and had the baby.

It was even better than I had hoped for and I have abolutely no idea what is going to happen.
I wonder if Uncle Junior will be locked up in the Nut Hut now rather than going to jail. His dementia was scary.
I knew that that was a dream with Adriana- I am sure Syl made sure she was dead when he killed her (although I do know some people who think she may still be alive).
Yes, Meadow turned into a little hottie and poor Ginny Sacks gained a lot of weight.
I, too didn't recognize Pussy's wife- Carmella seemed impressed with her cash flow. Where is she getting that money, I wonder? Wasn't she like a food sample lady at the grocery store a few seasons ago?
Man, I really missed this show-

Gene killed himself to set his family free. No one would work with him so he had to eliminate himself as the anchor. Now his wife can take the money and their son and move to Florida in peace. You know the rules: blood in, blood out.

The gunshot was a complete shock. 911 automatically dispatches emergency personnel when they get a call and no one speaks. I see why Tony doesn't want Uncle Junior in assisted living, but something has got to be done. At least remove all the weapons from his house.

This is the most overated show in television. Any intelligent person who has watched this show in its entirety could tell you that. The story line is pathetic each season it gets dumber and dumber. They never tie up any loose ends in this series because its as if they make up the story line as they go along, which they probably do since the actors want so much money there probably wont be another season, not to mention others quit for "better" show(Joey-a joke). The cinematography in this series is terrible they make countless mistakes that are hard to miss. The only reason people like it is because suburban America thinks gangsters are cool and try to relate to something with power. When in actuality everyone in the gang would have probably been arrested by now. The FBI tries to build murder cases by testimony when the murders could be solved by a little forensic evidence. These killers are so sloppy. (Ever heard of luminall, not to mention dna analysis)Everything the director does is either bitten from martin scorsceise or francis ford copola, but only intelligent people would see that. The only thing the show has going for itself is great acting, not good but great. However the best series on HBO has to be The Wire probably one of the most underated

This is just a wild guess but I thought the sushi story line was meant to illustrate Tony and Carmella's new common ground and attempts to bond again after their separation. This was shown when Carmella did her passive-agressive bit after Tony went to the sushi place without her, saying that she thought it was "their" thing, something they could share together. Now why she thought that someone who weighs 280 lbs would put 'share' and 'food' together as a concept, I don't know. The sushi storyline also showed that Tony was now flush with cash, like when he was talking about their order costing $40. After all his gripes about money in Season 5, I think the writers were showing that the financial hard times were in the past.

I kept hearing about a twist in this first episode but WOW!!! Uncle Junior shooting Tony was deep on so many levels, it will probably keep Tony in therapy for another six seasons. I like how the writers reached back to the first season for one of the show's first conflicts (Uncle Junior wanting to kill Pussy Malanga at Artie's restaurant and Tony interfering by having the restaurant burned down) to start the last season. It's almost like they are attempting to come full circle. I really can't wait to see how the rest of the season turns out.

i will mess this show
i dont understand why it has to go off.

A question..
Holyterror: Why do you say Vito will be upset with Tony about Gene's murder?

Derder: "The Nut Hut" HaHahahahahaha...I work in a psychologists office, so that was great, I'll have to remember that one.

Aries -- loved your comment on "share" and "food". Also, did you notice that when Melfi called Greengrove a "retirement community", Tony screamed "its a nursing home" in the exact same tone of voice he always used to tell his mother that it was a "retirement community"?

Fortunately HBO2 replayed every Sopranos episode in the last 3 months, so I could pick up on stuff like that.

Great episode but I too could not remember who any of the secondary characters were. Was Gene on the show before? Is there a site that has each character (with a photo) and their back story? Was Eli (Hersh's son in law) on the show before?

Gene was a minor character who showed up pretty regularly. He was one of the "no work" guys at the construction site, and smashed a bottle into Little Paulie's face.

I've never seen Eli before.

Hardly@work #30: I believe Gene was technically under Vito and a good operative, and since Gene killed himself because Tony wouldn't let him leave, I thought it might lead to a rift between Tony and Vito. They made such a point of the story and his death, I'm sure they're going to use it somehow and not just have it be an isolated plot.

I could be wrong but regarding the 911 operator, and automatically dispatching - I believe the operator said, "911 where is your emergency?" If she didn't say that I'd have no doubt that he's surviving but I thought that might leave it open. ??

Nothing makes me gasp out loud when watching a show but that shot did!! Huge fan!! Can't wait to find out what happens!

Someone up there said Sopranos was one of the worst shows ever up there, need to stop watching it and move on to better TV... perhaps MTV for your view pleasure so you won't have to flex any brain muscles.

Sopranos is the best show, hands down.

Now with that out of the way, onto the episode. I didn't really get the whole sushi/japanese either. What is funny is I was recently watching Season 2 again and the episode when Janice is introduced... she was drinking Miso Soup and Tony was busting her balls for eating it and didn't know what is was. I was wondering, "Huh? The Soprano's dont eat Japanese food?".

I was laughing really hard when Ray Curto the cheap bastard snitch died in the car with the Feds. I label him as cheap because he would always try to write off everything to a stained shirt or broken pen onto the Feds. And seriously, Tony is the luckiest m0f0 there is. 2 of his snitches/rats died... a longer life for him w/o RICO. But I don't know about his longevity as boss as it seems like everyone's vying for the top spot now that WW3 is about to come on w/ New York.

AND CAN SOMEONE VOUCHE FOR ME ON THIS: Gene's son... obviously he's in some kind of trouble. I swear I saw his face on my Tivo when Hesh + son in law were being attacked by Phil's people. So is Gene's son working for New York/Phil??

GREAT SHOW.

Big Max, I too caught up on all the Sopranos eps via the HBO on demand. Except I didn't pick up on Tony's tone in Melfi's office. It seems like he's always yelling or pouting during his sessions, so his behavior in this episode seemed like it was par for the course.

Anyone have a guess as to how Christopher leapfrogged Gene to captain when they were made at the same time? And how did Christopher, with his on/off sobriety, become a captain anyway?

Wonderful question erms, I was reading this whole thing wondering about this:

AND CAN SOMEONE VOUCHE FOR ME ON THIS: Gene's son... obviously he's in some kind of trouble. I swear I saw his face on my Tivo when Hesh + son in law were being attacked by Phil's people. So is Gene's son working for New York/Phil??

I said it to my hubby and he didn't catch it either, but it was his son, I am almost 100% sure.

What I find hard to swallow.... is that Carmella has NO CLUE that Adianna's disappearance is the result of 'foul play'. She really thinks that Aide just up and ran away with some other dude???

Aries: I think Christopher passed Gene in captain probably because of the whole Adrianna fiasco. I was surprised as hell too.

I also thought Gene's son looked like one of the thugs that beat up Hesh's son, but then I thought I was imagining it.

One of the things I like best about this show is the juxtaposition of the strongarm tactics of Tony&crew and the FBI. Although the FBI isn't actually killing anyone, they are responsible for the deaths of both Ade and Gene. The bullied and manipulated Adriana and it led to her death. And, they refused to help out Gene and now he's dead. I really despise Agent Sanseverino.

I think Carmella has a pretty good idea of what happened to Adrianna, I mean how long has she been in/around the business? I would trhink by now she knows people don't just disappear around there for no reason. AShe asked Tony, but I don't think he really wanted the truth, but for him to continue to make it easier for her to live that lifestyle if she doesn't think about the darkside of it.

I think I might have the sushi connection....how many of these guys hits (Pussy, the guy who sold dope to Junior's tailor's grandson, bits of Ralphie, etc) have ended up in the water, as fish food? Maybe its like the circle of life. Also, it might be symbolic of the "Godfather" thing...."Luca Brazzi sleeps with the fishes..." Eh? And, yes, Tony A., with "Deadwood" and "The Sopranos", those sappy ass housewives will be sleeping with the fishes. As Al Swearengen would say, C@$*suckers!"

Interesting take, cruella (#43). To take it one step further, in one of the early seasons wasn't Tony having a series of dreams with talking fish in them?

Yes, he DID!!!! You are good!!!

jelodi -- I agree. The FBI has caused many deaths... 'just to get what they want' (ie, Johnny Sachs, Carmine, Tony, etc).

One isn't better than the other.

Someone brought up the whole sushi thing as a way to show the excessive amount of cash flow Tony is having esp. by mentioning how expensive his meal was AND going there every day. It's definitely a way to say Jersey is doing very well with John in jail. This also happend when Junior was in jail, Tony took over his collections. And so... I'm sure all of Johnny's (and there is A LOT, he bought a new car last year because he was doing so well, the Maserati that Jinnie couldn't ride because of her 'knees', HAHA) are being sought after with every capo and boss.

And to add, I think Tony is way over 280lbs!! Haha.

I loved the opener for the Sopranos. I think it was genious for Junior to shoot Tony. Think about all the possible plots it can open up: Will he say Junior did it? Will he say Gene did it and then hung himself? Will Junior be arrested? Will Tony lose "street cred" because his uncle shot him?

And what about Carmela? I loved the disparity between the car purchases and her awesome acting with her father in the spec house. She really is amazing.

Yeah, Meadow looks slamming in her new body. I know she is newly single in real life and hope she is not redeveloping her eating disorder.

How about AJ? He looks really sleazy and almost creepy. I wonder how that will turn out...

Also, what about Philly? He seems to have taken this whole Johnny Sack thing in stride. I was impressed....

Ginny Sack was scary without makeup and a hairdo. EEEEK.....

All in all, I have watched it on "On Demand" 3 times since Sunday. Yeah, I liked it. Alot.

Welcome back, Tony!

Did you notice that there was a lot of missing time between the last episode and this one? What if this weeks episode starts with...ONE YEAR EARLIER... and we don't find out what happens to Tony for the whole season? Ouch!

good point autochick(#48) that would be pretty interesting. but i was watching E! last night and they were talking about the sopranos and what happend with tony, kristin said that tony will be in a coma for a few episodes and that we will see some crazy dreams that he is having.

this was a great way to start out the season and im sad to see it go but at least it will be going out on top, i would much rather have that happen then for it to be on for 10 yrs and people lose interest in it.

I was thrilled by the all the action in this episode..not like season 4 and the first part of season 5 where it seemed like they were just marking time. One thing that bothered me though: the whole Eugene story line flew by too fast. I was hoping that it was going to play out a little longer because I like to see the minor characters take on bigger roles. Personally, I think that the whole storyline was set in place to mirror what will happen to the rest of the characters--trying to keep a balance between their families and THE "family". Obviously, this has always been the case with Tony, but I think we will see this magnified, especially with AJ. We saw Paulie crying in the preview trailer--I think it's about his Mother ("Oh Maddon..i have Blue Cross/Blue Shield, is that ok?" haha) Also, I read somewhere that Lorraine Bracco's sister will be playing Vito's wife this season so we get to see a little more about his family, which should be interesting considering all his activities. I think that having all our major players having to make choices between the families would be a great way to end the series.

It’s great to have The Sopranos back on again, but I wasn’t a big fan of this episode. It reminded me of that dream sequence/heroin trip show from last season where the writers strained mightily to prove that they were too hip for the room. Let’s hope as the season progresses that the show will return to what made it popular in the first place. Carmella’s scenes were ponderous and so annoying that I actually fast forwarded through some of them. The best thing about this episode was the appearance of Meadow’s camel toe. Please tell me that I’m not the only degenerate who Tivo-froze the image.