In Season 2, Sil is promoted to Consigliere. Paulie to Capo. Now it's pretty easy to see, from seasons 2-5, Paulie is the "de facto" Underboss. In other words, the position isn't filled, but it's pretty easy to see that he's settled into that role. In Season 4, Paulie has a falling out with Jersey, but by the end of it all, regains his old spot as Tony's #2.

Season 6 is where it gets confusing. The problem with season 6 is that narratively, many events are left to speculation. By the beginning of season 6, according to official sources, Paulie has been officially bumped up to Underboss. That's why, by "Members Only", Chris has his own crew. He took over the Gualtieri Crew. Meanwhile, Bobby stepped up to the plate and proved that even in the time of Tony's crisis, he wouldn't skimp on earning. And Bobby is now family, and Tony likes to keep his family close. So now Tony's top guys are Sil, Bobby, and Paulie. Bobby is still a capo, Paulie is still the underboss.

So far, so good, everything is completely clear. But by the time Season 6B came around? Things got real confusing. In "Sopranos Home Movies", Tony recruits Bobby to do a hit, and from then on, he's seen attending high level meetings, with Sil and Tony. Like Paulie should be doing. Paulie is even shown to be quite jealous, putting Bobby down in front of Sil. In fact, when New York questions Jersey's top 3, they pick Bobby, Tony, and Sil. One of them even says, "What about Paulie Walnuts?" That's a good question! According to HBO and all the other sites, Bobby is now the Acting Underboss!

So what we see now is, throughout almost the ENTIRE SERIES, Paulie has filled in as Tony's underboss. But within the year time span between 6A and 6B, Bobby has now usurped Paulie completely. The only reasoning I uncovered for this was, "Bobby filled in while Paulie recovered from cancer". But even this seems a little off...Also in the final ep, Tony picks Paulie to take over the Aprile/Moltisanti crew I think. So here are the questions.

1. Why would Tony phase out Paulie
2. When did Tony phase out Paulie.
3. If Bobby was "acting", where did Paulie get bumped down to
3. When Paulie took over the empty crews, did he become a capo? or did he resume Underboss.