It shows what type of snake Tony is. In season 1 he claims to "love and respect" Junior yet he was setting him up to get arrested even before Junior decided to put a hit on him. Tony always wanted to be the boss
"We all agreed...Let [Junior] be the lightning rod, that when lightning strikes, God forbid, it's not a young man with a family."
Such love. Junior had every right to whack Tony, and he knew it, and that's why he forgave him. I can think of no greater act of disrespect, or no greater lack of love, than setting your uncle, who was like a father to you, up to take the hits from the Feds.
If Tony had said, "Fuck it. Let Junior have the chair. He's old. Let 'em have it" to the other Capos, they would've listened. And if he didn't go trying to run things behind Junior's back, he would've never had a beef with Junior. Would've saved a lot of bad blood and kept a few interesting characters alive. It was inevitable given that Junior was 70 he'd either die or end up in jail, so why not let the old guy have his day?
