Tony is not the only draw of the show for me. I understand it's all very deep, etc. You are probably much smarter than me, I am not being sarcastic, I just hated the episode. Maybe I need to think about it. Carmella came off as phony to me, all the dramatics, etc. I'm sure many more interesting episodes to follow. Tonight was not one of them for me.
"Carmella came off as phony to me, all the dramatics, etc"
Yeah, but I think that the character *is* a phony, so it just fit into her path. Carmella is a polarizing character, because she embodies some of the most annoying traits in human nature. Which is probably the point. She's a phony, but she doesn't know it, and there are moments of clarity that ellicit some sympathy in the audience which prevents us from genuinely hating her--such as the moment in the Jewish shrink's office, when he gives her an ultimatum to leave her husband, because she has taken part in Tony's crimes just by tolerating them, or the time she broke down in tears when she was eating lunch with Meadow at the start of the fifth season. She's a woman who compromised her conscience for prosperity and a better life for her children, and she'll have to live (and suffer) those consequences in the final season. She won't have a happy ending, and as Aristotle said (paraphrasing), tragedy works best when its the result of a fatal flaw in the character. Carmella's just human enough to ellicit sympathy, but obviously her hypocrisy is going to destroy her and she'll get her just deserts. Which is why tragedy is so powerful.
I used to hate Carmella, but after rewatching the entire series twice (thanks to Netflix and later, ebay), she's become one of the more interesting characters. Probably more due to Edie Falco's acting, much in the same way Drea De Matteo turned a rather dim-witted and whiny Jersey girl into one of the more sympathetic (and thus tragic) characters in recent television series--just by conveying guilt and fear so effectively.