Whack-a-jinx

SOPRANOS SPOILERS BELOW. PLEASE STOP READING NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT SO I DON'T GET BLAMED FOR RUINING ANYTHING.

Tony's got this thing where he needs to be right all the time, and he's good at finding a reason to believe that he is, even when he isn't. He's a bad guy, and he needs to be able to prove to himself somehow that he isn't.

And Sunday night's decision will probably be the hardest he'll have to live with over the span of the show, and still he's found a way to justify the murder of his surrogate son, his protege. Oh, I tried so hard, he sobs... I did everything I could, he mumbles... he was a @%$^ druggie, he insists... the car seat was destroyed, he declares angrily. Tony was never sad, not even for a second. He was angry and then relieved that his "biggest failure," is gone. Determining that Chris was a jinx is just another way to justify the killing to himself.

The rest of us, I think were shocked. Previous high-profile-character whackings were all reasonably telegraphed (Big Pussy, Tony B., Ralphie), but this one came from almost nowhere and the only reasoning we're given is Tony's psychotic babbling.

As far as AJ goes, I thought he'd become a respectable dirtbag last week... not to be. He goes from budding mobster to sniveling wuss in a span of one day. Not that I condone the budding mobster bit, but the sniveling wuss may actually be worse. He's very much like his dad.

And, seriously, poor Paulie. His small storyline is the most telling of the episode. His mom dies, a good person, and everyone else is at the scuzzy, druggie, criminal's wake. He knows that deep down, and as bad as he feels for never backing up Chris and never being his friend.