The Sopranos 2.13

Funhouse

Tony has a bad experience with some food he ate. He wakes up sick. He goes back to bed. This happens several times. In between, while he sleeps, he dreams. He has lots of crazy dreams. In one he set himself on fire, on the boardwalk, in front of  a bunch of friends and associates. In the second one he watched from afar as he killed Paulie over a game of checkers. In another dream he went to see Dr. Melfi. One minute everything was normal and the next she had become Annalisa from 2.04 (Commendatori).

The dreams filled the better part of the first half of the episode. In another dream he was in what looked like a tiny car with Christopher and Furio. Adriana was behind the wheel. In the next dream Tony was back in Dr. Melfi's office. He walked in with an erection pushing out the front of his pants. This dream ended with he and Dr. Melfi having sex on her desk. In the final dream Tony has a talk with a fish that speaks with Pussy's voice. The fish (Pussy) tells Tony that he's been informing on them, telling the FBI what they've been up to.

Artie's restaurant is one of the places where Tony ate the night before. The other one was an Indian restaurant. Tony blames his condition on the mussels that he had at Artie's place. Artie tries to convince Tony that it must have been the Indian food. Tony also gets a visit from Dr. Cusamano who does what he can for him.

Once Tony starts to feel better he goes to see Pussy. He brings Silvio with him. He fakes nauseousness and gets a few moments to search Pussy's bedroom. He finds Pussy's recording device. He doesn't say anything right away. The three men go to look at a boat that Tony is thinking about buying. Paulie meets them at the dock. They take the boat out for a spin. Tony confronts Pussy once they are a ways from shore, out of sight of land. Pussy tries talking his way out of it but in the end the three men shoot and kill him. They weigh down his body and dump it overboard.

Livia, Tony's mother, gets stopped at the airport. He gave her a couple airline tickets, stolen tickets, in the hopes that it would get him out of his life. She gets stopped at the airport. The tickets have been flagged. She calls him at home. He doesn't want to have anything to do with her. There's a knock at the door. The FBI are there and want to search the house and his vehicles. They've already found some stolen tickets in his SUV. They take him away in handcuffs just as Meadow walks in with her friends. She's horrified. She's graduating the next day.

Tony gets out on bail. His lawyer tells him not to worry about it. He goes to see Dr. Melfi. He tells her about the dream and then leaves before their session is over. He makes it to Meadow's graduation. He sees David Scatino after the ceremony. Scatino and his wife split up. He's moving out west. Tony and Carmela have a party for Meadow afterwards. He tells Christopher at the party that he's going to be promoted, become a made man. The episode ends with a montage of scenes that lasts several minutes which is accompanied by Thru and Thru by the Rolling Stones.

Thoughts

This episode was a bit anticlimactic. It felt like it could be the final episode for the series. Somethings are left hanging but it also felt like an end of sorts. The death of Pussy was intense but it was also a bit odd to pair it in an episode with all the strange dream sequences. I couldn't help but think of Twin Peaks as I watched the dreams unfold. They were truly strange. I'm not sure what to expect going forward from here although I do remember certain other things that happen.

This was not my favorite episode from this season but I really enjoyed the season as a whole. I do plan to come back for season 3, some where down the road. My feelings about the show haven't really changed much. I never really rooted for Tony. He's a disgusting human being in more ways than one. Tony's life is a slow moving train wreck that I love to watch, in large part because the actors, writers, directors, and everyone else associated with the production of the show do such a great job putting it together.