It's like they're Walter White walking into Tuco's place after they got robbed of meth, but they accidentally forgot to bring the explosive fake meth with them. Loved the episode!
Interesting that The Sopranos got brought up. I've been rewatching the entire show over the last couple weeks, even watched some earlier today. The thing about Tony is that he likes to try to be this idealized mafioso like in the old days. With a code of honor, in a sense, and they try not involve innocent civilians in their work. I think he mentions this to his psychiatrist at one point. He says they are more like soldiers, and everyone who is part of the 'game' knows the risks when they get involved. And so therefore, all of the violence that happens between the families or other street gangs or people who get financially involved is consensual, or part of the social contract that they all sign onto. But obviously like Nick said, you have to kind of be sociopathic to some degree to be able to be where he is. And so even though he likes to think of himself as this ideal strong-man, he slips up often because of his temper and lack of self control. He is actually insecure about his masculinity (as pretty much all of them are) and you see that they blow up easily when their manhood is brought into question in any form, to compensate. They all feel like they need to put up a strong front, but behind the scenes, they often struggle emotionally. For example, they all go down on their women, but none of them will admit it, and will go as far as violence to defend that lie because they feel it emasculates them somehow. It is a very good portrayal of the type of toxic masculinity you see in gang and prison life. Everyone is so worried about being emasculated that they overcompensate about every infringement, even when its silly or petty. All of their actions are less about what they actually feel, and more about how they think they are expected to act. Which is why Tony explodes on his therapist at first when she brings up the fact that he had a bad mother. He knew he had a bad mother, but he exploded anyways because that was what he felt was "expected" of a manly man: to defend his mother, and he almost attacked his therapist for even bringing it up. He didn't get angry because he loved his mother, he only got angry because he felt an attack on himself. Because to do nothing and let his mother be talked down to would be a sign of his weakness. And so again, he overcompensates to make certain that his façade of ideal manliness stays intact, both to the therapist, and to himself.
