We’re now three episodes into the second part of the sixth and final season of The Sopranos and it seems like every new instalment wants to isolate Tony from his mob family as much as possible. In Soprano Home Movies Tony got in a scuffle with Bobby Bacala, last week his relationship with Chris hit an all-time low and in last night’s chapter matters between himself and Paulie Walnuts became dangerously fraught. Can we expect to see him and Sil fall out next, I wonder?

I had been more anxious than usual to catch up with Tony and the boys this week after the Radio Times reviewer condemned the episode as “one of the worst ever.” Could this be true? Worse than Tony’s painful journey through his subconscious when on the brink of dying from his gun shot wound? I was surprised to hear such a critical analysis, especially now that we are hitting the final stretch, and though I think the reviewer was overly harsh, I can see where they were coming from.

With the authorities sniffing around the site of one of Tony and Paulie’s dead victims, the two men decided to leave town and head for Miami. The journey proved difficult for Tony as he tired of Paulie’s nervous laugh, tendency to reveal incriminating information to strangers and general personality. Meeting up with Beansie, Tony confided in his wheelchair-bound old pal of his grumbles against Paulie, complaining that he has no legitimate business cover to protect him from the Feds. Beansie defended Paulie, but tensions between Tony and Paulie continued to escalate.

One source of irritation to both men was the question of who told Johnny Sack about the derogatory joke Ralph Cifaretto made about his wife Jinny back in season four. We, the audience, know that Paulie was responsible for this blabbed information but he has staunchly denied any involvement since. Tony used the road-trip as an excuse to push Paulie on the matter, knowing full well that he had been the one to talk and became increasingly infuriated at Paulie’s deception.

With the police blaming the discovered murder on the deceased Jackie Aprile Sr., the two men allowed themselves a fishing trip to relax. Paulie was evidently fearful of going out to sea alone with Tony, brining back nasty memories of the killing of former friend Pussy. While onboard Tony did consider killing Paulie but decided to spare his friend.

Later that night, Paulie dreamt of Pussy and asked the dead man “when my time comes, tell me – will I stand up?” Waking from his dream, he arranged to send Carmela an expensive espresso machine (to replace her broken one) almost as a thank you to Tony for letting him live. Our final shot of Paulie saw him menacingly pumping iron to help steel himself for the coming confrontation.

After weeks of wondering what’s going on with Uncle Jun, we finally caught up with him at his hospital to find that he had befriended hot-headed youngster Carter Chong. Chong clearly idolised the former mobster and together, with the help of an orderly, the men organised a prohibited poker night. After losing his patience with another patient, Jun lost his temper and assaulted the other man, an outburst that saw him placed on heavier medication which Chong encouraged him not to take for fear of becoming a zombie.

With Chong working to distract the hospital staff, Jun managed to avoid taking his medication until accidentally wetting himself alerted the doctors to his trickery. Faced with the threat of being transferred elsewhere, Jun decided to comply with the institution’s rules and much to the chagrin of Chong decided to take his medication. This reversal irked the aggressive Chong and he launched an unprovoked and violent attack on Jun during a music session. A later shot of Jun revealed his injuries, as he sedately but menacingly stroked a cat in true James Bond villain style.

Elsewhere, after annoying Phil Leotardo, Doc Santoro was killed on the street (shot through the eye – ouch.) With this rival out of the way, Phil’s place as head of the Lupertazzi family could be secured once and for all.

Definitely not the worst Sopranos episode I’ve ever sat through, but the structure of only allowing one or two storylines with only a handful of characters seems to ignore the wide community of interesting faces the show has introduced. Hopefully as the number of episodes left dwindles, more and more of our favourite characters will enter the action and the increasing tensions will come to a head.