I disagree...I thought tonight's episode was brilliant and thought provoking....excellent performances by every character.
I think AJ is a waste and not credible as a threat to go into the mob. I could see Carmella's denial about everything rear its head and while I do consider Edie Falco a great actress, making the focus about her is boring.
I thought it had one of the better dream sequences, given that I usually can't stand them and find them pretentious. This one was interesting, with Tony basically in purgatory, "it's dead out here", w/ heaven and hell both just around the corner (the scene on the television in the bar, of the wildfire = hell). The "Karma slap" from the Buddhists, the different voices, the question of identity (both his own, but didn't he say he voiced as a bio-optical recognition engineer, or something?), the phone at the end--calling back to his old life, or calling God to take him up for judgement?
I agree completely! I thought tonights ep was great. I loved the helicopter flying overhead and you could see the doctor flashina pin light down. Really good stuff. This also sets up lots of storylines and people begin to position themselves for taking over for Tony and for AJ to maybe get into the "business".