This represents a very smooth transition and change of hearts in three characters. Vito's acceptance to his own reality and realization that he has been lying to himself about his sexual orientation. AJ's reaction to revenge was very much motivated by his desire to be "cool" by his friends, ended with an attempted murder and was not charged by the police due to Tony's connections and then taking a turn in his character after this event to be the most stressing situation is when his friends talk to him about his dad to the point where he gets panic attacks.
As doctor Melfi asks a very particular question saying "deep down inside you, do you blame Karm for AJ's behavior?" And the answer to that gets clearer that Tony's reputation is actually whats distressing him.
Tony's shift of character is the smoothest of all, it has been very obvious that he has been very "accepting" after being shot, he found that a little problematic to handle when it comes to his crew, so he copes with it by acting angry in many times. In this episode he has his old habits which he tries to maintain and get rid of at the same time, a very -understandably- conflicting personality. It is obvious that he wants to change, and tries somehow, but it doesn't seem to be as easy as he thought. Overall, I think this is the turning point of his character to be a more wise and stable leader of his house and his crew.
Finally, the neighborhood is changing, with big corporates moving in, which looks to be a problem and a challenge to his crew to make money off of it as they mostly relay on small businesses by keeping them "safe" .. unless they expand to more ways to earn, they will definitely have a lot of problems.
As doctor Melfi asks a very particular question saying "deep down inside you, do you blame Karm for AJ's behavior?" And the answer to that gets clearer that Tony's reputation is actually whats distressing him.
Tony's shift of character is the smoothest of all, it has been very obvious that he has been very "accepting" after being shot, he found that a little problematic to handle when it comes to his crew, so he copes with it by acting angry in many times. In this episode he has his old habits which he tries to maintain and get rid of at the same time, a very -understandably- conflicting personality. It is obvious that he wants to change, and tries somehow, but it doesn't seem to be as easy as he thought. Overall, I think this is the turning point of his character to be a more wise and stable leader of his house and his crew.
Finally, the neighborhood is changing, with big corporates moving in, which looks to be a problem and a challenge to his crew to make money off of it as they mostly relay on small businesses by keeping them "safe" .. unless they expand to more ways to earn, they will definitely have a lot of problems.