Dr. Lurkowitz's office. The gang's all here again, including Hot Lips, who brings Junior and Tony back to the same exam room as last time. This time Uncle June suggests that once he's fully recovered, the two of them could make a journey to "that city called Atlantic." "Thank you, but I don't gamble," replies Hot Lips. "With me it's never a gamble," answers Junior. Heh. The man always did have a way with the ladies. Hot Lips mentions that it's her last day on the job, and Junior is crushed to learn that she's going back to school. Once alone, however, he and Tony quickly turn to business. Junior wants to promote Bobby Bacala (yay!), because Wacky Old Guy can no longer run his operations while Junior is on trial. Tony thinks it's a great idea, and calls Bobby in to deliver the good news. We get one final shot of Dr. Lurkowitz watching them, and then Tony slams the door in our faces.
And then he pours duck food all over us. Or more accurately, all over another huge pile of cash. He's stashing it in the bags he bought at the Wild Bird Center, and just barely manages to get them locked away in a storage bin before he's caught by Carmela. "A little late in the season for ducks, no?" she asks. "Well, not necessarily," he replies. "You know, the ones from upper Canada, this is the south to them." Bwah! Best line of the night. Of course, as much as it pains me to say this, hiding your cash in a bag of bird seed is probably still a better investment than buying stock in AOL Time Warner. What? Me, bitter? Never.
Hey! It's Paulie! Woo-hoo! He's in prison somewhere, and the orange jumpsuit he's wearing is making his white-walls appear even whiter than normal. Noticing the time on a nearby wall-clock, he quickly jumps up and races an inmate I'll call Notabisi to the only available phone. Paulie wins the race, and carefully dials up Johnny Sack, who's enjoying a nice cup of tea in a restaurant overlooking Manhattan. They exchange pleasantries, and Johnny Sack cleverly pretends not to know why Paulie is in jail, thus driving the wedge between Paulie and Tony even deeper, and also allowing for us in the audience to be given the necessary exposition. David Chase is nothing if not efficient. Anyway, it turns out that Paulie went down to Youngstown, Ohio to visit a friend, and ended up getting busted on a weapons charge because of a pistol that was found in their car during a trip to Dean Martin's birthplace. I went to Youngstown to visit a friend once. That whole town is worse than a prison. And oddly enough, I actually ended up attending Catholic school there for day. I even learned how to say the Lord's Prayer in French, and let me tell you, that one went over like a lead balloon during Yom Kippur services last night. Anyway, Paulie whines about his situation a bit more, but all I can focus on is the fact that his pompadour is actively defying all known laws of physics. The hair actually appears to be floating about an inch above his scalp. It's very bizarre. Paulie thanks Johnny again for taking an interest in his plight, but before he can continue, he catches sight of another inmate trying to change the station on the TV. "Leave that!" he shouts before hanging up. "Don't touch that! My program is coming on." Heh. You want to know the difference between The Sopranos and Six Feet Under? On SFU, his "show" would have been Oz.









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