Well, come on!!! Episode seven, if you please!!!

[Hilary the Touched]

Okay, another aspect of Brotherhood that Sopranos never imagined: just like Blake Masters promised us, Providence is a character. This show is firmly embedded in a time and a place, and the circumstances are far too familiar for many of us--Rose's lay-off, the mill work going off-shore, her new co-workers' fearful caution about uttering the word "union", the tragic, tragic I tell ya!! death of the theatre...You really feel and empathize with the character's bewilderment, frustration and helpless rage at the way their lives are changing, and their powerlessness to prevent it. Even Rep. Thomas Caffee can't hold back the deluge.

[Gillian]

Sad, isn't it? I wish we had theatres like that.

Cambridge is presently undergoing a mini-Rennaisance of sorts. We've got the old Tiger Brand Knitting Mill that's recently been converted into the Univeristy of Waterloo's School of Architecture, and lots of old lovely limestone buildings that are being converted into restaurants, lofts, offices, shopping outlets and various boutiques. Does my heart good to see them being put to use rather than falling under the wrecking ball.

Back on topic ... I'm really starting to empathize with Pete. There's a war going on inside of him and Micheal can't see that he's the one responsible for upsetting the sobriety cart. And poor misguided Pete. He was more upset with Michael's disappointment than being threatened with murder. Talk about your screwy relationships.

Michael's polarity continues to amaze. Ruthless one moment and sentimental the next, though I think Hilary's right. He's always mindful of circumstances and is continually manipulating them. I would not be at all surprised to find he was in on the theft.

And how long do you think Rose is gonna last at her new job?

[Malfoy Grandma]

Having known some folks with Pete's problems, I would say he is lucky that Michael did not just shoot him this time, because he will NOT reform! Not that Pete is bad, (not referring to the actor who is superb) but he seems to not have any humans to whom to relate. We will not count JI, whose character is a real sociopath! Badness is sort of relative, and poor Michael is typical !. What I want, I deserve to have. 2. The ends justify the means. 3. No one has a right to deny me or stand in my way. There you go! But it seems to me that Tommy is actually just as sociopathic as Michael. We really need to see their Daddy! And I am just hooked on the excellent scripts/music/acting of this whole thing! I am going to write a thank-you note to the mayor of Providence!

[Hilary the Touched]

I would not be at all surprised to find he was in on the theft.

Maybe Michael just has me suckered in, but I didn't see it that way--I thought Michael was genuinely fighting to preserve some portion of his world the way he remembered it from "the good old days". We saw his reaction to Surly College Girl's jibe about his age--he seems (like many!) to be struggling with the passage of time and change, not embracing them.
And as somebody else pointed out, Michael had a significant financial interest in keeping the theatre going--I honestly believe he was delighted at having orchestrated this entire arrangement, which Freddie Cork just steam-rolled.

Having known some folks with Pete's problems, I would say he is lucky that Michael did not just shoot him this time, because he will NOT reform!

It was to Michael's advantage to have Pete be fragile and dependent--as LilyWhite said on the IMDb board, "People who use are easy to make use of", but if Pete succumbs completely, Michael will be pretty well hosed: Pete is his army now (his attempts to rope in various other cronies being rudely rebuffed), and without him, Michael really seems to have no option but to knuckle under to Freddie and go back to being just another sap.

[sheerin]

I have to change me point of view about Eileen. She is a very poor person. She has no one to talk to. Her sister-in-law don't want to know anything about Eileen's problems.

And Pete. I think he should be glad to have a friends like MC. He didn't let him down. He helps him out.

Tommy. I don't know what to say. I think he is doing the wrong thing in politics. He wants to get the power. In any case. He will be doing everything to get what he wants. He is very dangerous. Everyone saw the good and nice guy from the neighbourhood. That's their fault. I think Tommy is becoming a very dangerous man. If he has a benefit, he sell's his own grandmother.

Greetings
Sheerin

[Hilary the Touched]

I feel great empathy for Eileen, though obviously many of her actions are simply despicable.

I suspect that Eileen was married at a fairly early age, and has never had the opportunity to explore her own character and personality. I believe that she loves Tommy very deeply, but he has far more confidence, both in himself and in her and their relationship, than she does.
I think probably a lot of women in her situation kind of wake up one morning and go, like the Talking Heads song, "well, how did I get here?" No matter how stimulating you try and make your days, there is simply an element of kind of suspended animation when you're home with little kids, and it can be easy to feel like your life is passing you by, that you, as an individual, have just become sort of invisible--you meet new people, and they ask, so what do you do? and you come up with a blank.
Tommy heads out every day and encounters new people and challenges, and when he rolls in, he treasures the predictability of his home life--I'd bet Eileen hasn't changed her hairstyle since she was a high school senior, for example. But while this is very comforting for him, it probably stifles Eileen.

Then she's got that crazy harridan Rose to contend with, and children who, after sucking the life from her, are already becoming scornful and contemptuous. I suspect that she did always find Michael attractive, and she's angry at him about that; unlike Carl, Michael is in a position to do serious harm if she ever acted on her feelings toward Michael, not to mention the threat having him around is to Tommy's career, which is the focus of Tommy's life.

*phew*!
So yeah, while I wanna grab her and smack the shit out of her, I can still kinda see where she's coming from, and Mary Kate's frigid response to her babbled confession was hardly likely to comfort.

[Minuet]

Better late than never with my comments:

Episode 7 was interesting. I loved the scene in which former union steward Rose is shopping in the big box mega-store and complaining about the prices in the neighborhood shops on the Hill. She's exactly the kind of person who is responsible for the loss of union jobs and small businesses all across America, but she's so obliviously self-involved that she doesn't recognize the fact, even while she's complaining about her own loss of benefits. I hope there's more to this storyline. I would love to see Rose go all Norma Rae on the Faux-Walmart.

The theater fundraiser? Meh. Although I have to give Michael props for his mad Machiavellian skillz. Get your legislator brother to promote the renovation of a failing theater, so that the owner can start making money again and pay off his son's debts. Nicely done, except for the double-cross at the end.

I loved Decco's wife. At first, I thought she was something of a flake, but now she seems really down to earth and reasonable, and I think they genuinely love each other.

And lookit that...Mary Kate got a little bit of the Caffee strength, after all. I loved the way she went all steely-eyed and pragmatic on Eileen in the kitchen. Kerry O'Malley is such a fine actress. She makes the most of every little bit of screen time that she gets.