On the 'cycle' again after being on a much needed sabbatical and already into Season 3 (and, yes, successfully ranking each episode as I go), I feel I must take pause to state just how much I forgot what a remarkable episode Proshai, Livushka indeed is! After finishing the rest of the disc last night by watching Fortunate Son & Employee of the Month, I decided to go back to PL and watch yet another time before continuing on the journey. Of course you got the ghost of Livia who AJ calls out to in the hallway and the also creepily intriguing Pussy in the mirror shot, but I mainly had to take another look at that man in the background behind Tony wearing glasses leaning over the stair railing before going back upstairs. Was he the same guy in the old derby and glasses standing behind Tony in that brief shot at the funeral? The one who sort of looked like the younger (circa 1960s) Uncle Junior as seen in both Down Neck and the very episode that comes next, Fortunate Son. Don't know about the one standing behind Tony at the funeral but I say the one at the stairs is the ghost of Johnny Boy (in glasses) looking like he'd look if he were still alive. I don't buy the 'extra' who 'by mistake' walked into the scene then retreated. Correct me if I'm wrong but by Season 3 all Soprano house interiors were shot on a set and not in an actual house so why would anyone be upstairs in the first place if the stairs didn't really lead anywhere? Plus, this is David Chase we're talking about here. Who knows? Maybe that's Johnny Boy in derby and glasses (the '60s version) standing behind him at the funeral as well. Like many Sopranos episodes that you see for the first time in awhile, you think you're getting one thing (Livia's death) but then realize that other things are in this episode as well that you thought were in other episodes instead such as Tony meeting/slurring Noah and we seeing Ralphie for the first time. But the main plot line, however, was the mourning (real, fake, or lack of) of Livia by everyone. Masterfully written and without compromising it of humor (Janice putting Hesh on the spot - "she didn't mince words..."). For whatever reason I liked that brief scene of Tony outside moving the water sprinkler then smoking a cigar with a smile. No intended symbolism, I suppose, but just a neat little way (without having to actually show us the phone call Carm gets followed by her gathering up the kids) to bridge Meadow being mad at him in the living room to he coming back inside to a completely different climate - finding out about his mother and Meadow being sympathetic toward him, if only briefly before going back to not talking to him again. Nancy Merchand's passing did indeed change the intended course of Season 3 hence the tone for the entire series for Season 3 was supposed to be about Tony trying to get his mother to not cooperate with the Feds. Sopranos may have ended up being a completely different series though still the same in high quality, especially with Chase and his also-brilliant staff at the helm. Well anyways, time to get back on course with two more amazing episodes in front of me: Another Toothpick & University!

"Living on a thin line-living on a thin line-ooohooh, tell me now what are we supposed to do??"