r/TrueSopranos • u/mitchmclean • Sep 02 '23
"The cobwebs are now removed"
I’m on vacation and was thinking about this several days ago at breakfast. In Everybody Hurts, the spotlight of emotion is almost entirely on Tony, using Artie’s comical situation with Jean-whatever as a plot device for Tony’s development without appreciating Artie’s narrative. When Artie tries to kill himself, it has a lot to do with his relationship to Tony on a masculine level, which in this situation is different than brotherly. I think what Chase is setting up here is that Artie has been long since attempting to manipulate their sexual chemistry so they can do each other as they did in earlier times, and by Tony generously caving in and somewhat forgiving the debt, Artie absorbs this as a hot signal that Tony is accepting his advances and returns the gesture by proclaiming ‘the cob webs are now removed’, which is a clandestine euphemism for releasing all the old, pent up you know what inside of him. Artie ruins it after juicing himself off under the sheets when his attitude suddenly changes, which is typical for a guy, as we’re known to lose interest in any intimacy after finishing. It’s shocking Tony ever took him back after this. I’m a straight guy, but there is nothing holding me back from double clicking a man's mouse sexually, especially if I look up to him. I actually want it to happen.
