We might also see what sort of lies she tells herself to reconcile her self-image as a good mother and good Catholic with the reality of being a mob wife. (Melfi will probably call her an enabler.) At the very least, the show might benefit from the dramatic jolt of locking Tony in a room with two women who simultaneously are attracted to him and want to kick him in the teeth.

Our own love/hate feelings were tested last season when Tony became truly blackhearted, murdering both Pussy and a scared kid who bungled his way into trouble with the Soprano crew. In the season finale, Chase had Tony stricken with a severe case of food poisoning as a metaphor for his internal rot. And maybe these disturbing glimpses of bad Tony are what sent Emmy and Golden Globe voters scampering to the more traditional "West Wing," with its unambiguous heroes.

In the second hour of the premiere on Sunday, Chase wisely brings back bad Tony, forcing us to confront our ability to keep rooting for the guy. The episode is laced with scenes of Tony watching the classic gangster movie "The Public Enemy." He gives deep chuckles of approval when James Cagney's vicious Tommy Powers smashes half a grapefruit in his girlfriend's face, slaps around his upstanding brother and sneers the immortal insight, "I ain't so tough!" before collapsing in a gutter from gunshot wounds. Just like us, Tony identifies with the bad guy.

But at the same time, Chase surrounds Tony with ghosts of the past and reminders of the consequences of his actions. There's a growing list of characters who harbor smoldering resentments against Tony: family members like Uncle Junior and Janice; Ralph Cifaretto (Tony brings him in to run the late Richie Aprile's garbage business, but he refuses to make him a captain); Artie Bucco (John Ventimiglia), who is still stewing over Tony's torching of his restaurant; and new crew member Patsy Parisi (Dan Grimaldi), who correctly suspects that Tony had his twin brother whacked. Any one of these characters might snap and threaten Tony's little kingdom.

Near the end of the second episode, after Livia's funeral and the emotional blowout sparked by Carmela's outburst, Tony returns to his "Public Enemy" video. But all of a sudden, he doesn't seem to think that Tommy Powers is so cool anymore. Tony's eyes well up with tears while watching the scene in which Powers' childlike mother puffs up with joy at the news that her "baby," the wounded gangster, is coming home from the hospital. She doesn't know that Tommy's enemies are about to deliver him to her doorstep, dead.

Earlier, we saw Tony telling Dr. Melfi about his guilt over feeling relief at Livia's death, calling himself a "bad son." Is that why he's crying now, at the end of "The Public Enemy" -- because he has been a bad son? Is he crying because he realizes that Livia must have loved him once as much as Tommy's mother loved him? Or is he crying because he fears that she never did?

Or, maybe, Tony's only crying for himself, because he knows he's going to get the ignominious, meaningless death he deserves -- just like Tommy. Whatever the reason, these tears suggest a new, self-aware Tony Soprano. And he ain't so tough.

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