Dear Joel and Phil,
Phil suggests that the writers are tapping into the dark side of our view of motherhood. In a thoughtful essay in the April 2 issue of The Nation, Ellen Willis refers to Livia as “Tony’s heart of darkness” and “a monstrous Medea.” Indeed, there is always a tension in the therapy around whether to blame the “bad mother” or help Tony take responsibility for his actions. Dr. Melfi has had to be cautious about exploring this “heart of darkness” because Tony once became violent when she brought up his mother in an unfavorable light. Bringing in Carmela in Sunday night’s episode can be viewed as a way of deflecting some of the heat from Tony onto Carmela. She obviously felt like she was being blamed, and this led her to accuse Dr. Melfi of being ineffectual as a therapist. The attempt to cast Carmela in the role of a current-day Livia who is responsible for Tony’s problems blew up in Jennifer’s face. She may have hoped that the therapeutic alliance between her and Tony would be strengthened by having Carmela take some of the flak, but even Tony was turning against her by the end of the session. Unwittingly, Jennifer herself ended up enacting the “bad mother” role.
Glen
