Welcome back, Mr. S

SPOILER ALERT (Come on, you really need to watch the Sopranos on Sunday night!)

In a development that will shock virtually no one (even George Will predicted it last week ), Tony Soprano lives. But I for one greatly enjoyed the dream sequence over the past two weeks. Seeing Tony B and briefly seeing (we suppose) Livia were great, but I would have loved to have also had Big Pussy at the Oaks (I can't imagine Vincent Pastore has nothing better to do). While it played off the traditional "going to the light" (brilliantly spoofed in There's Something About Mary with Oscar nominated actor Matt Dillon (until June, he will not be referred to as Johnny Drama's brother) telling the dog not to go to the light), it really played off the identity issue on so many levels. At a minimum, I would love to know who did the voice of "Mrs. Soprano." And nice touch with Orange County as Purgatory--perhaps Tony could have hit on Mischa Barton.

Back to the "real" world. With the Skip back (albeit weak), he is going to have even more on his plate than usual:

• AJ's failing out of school and possibly still looking to avenge Tony ("If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone." --Michael Corleone)
• Christopher deciding to get back into filmmaking. And who doesn't love the return of Tim Daley in this role. And the meeting with the investors was one of the funnest moments ever on the Sopranos.
• Vito's life on the down low, which is certainly going to end badly for him (although who knows how badly Finn will turn out in all of this.
• Sil's own stress problems--Tony has panic attacks; Sil gets asthma attacks. Perhaps Sil is suited to be the next Skip. (Great performance by the real Mrs. Van Zandt last night--rare to see so much of her)
• Most of all Carmela's catching sight of that coupon clipper Paulie Walnuts and Vito looking none too happy about having to share their haul from the Colombians. Paulie has been upset for years about not getting the respect he deserves and at some point, this is going to explode.

While not in the pantheon of episodes, last night moved the story along while setting up a number of plots that we will likely be seeing for the remainder of the show's life. Only 6 days until Sunday.