Holy crap, just when I thought everything was going wrong for Angelo, he somehow managed to make the best possible decision given the circumstances. Un-fucking-believable.
Lemme open with how this chain of events went down. First we have Don Vanetti who's already in a really poor state, infact, Angelo is 100% aware of this as he was present during the discussion. Almost everyone there was aware that Don Vanetti was coughing up blood. It's pretty clear he's on borrowed time, and pretty soon that time will expire.
Skipping to the next scene, we have Ganzo and Angelo discussing the plans at the opera house for the following day. Now, something worth noting here is how Angelo phrases everything. He asks Ganzo to write his name on the letter, which is an obvious ploy to trick Ganzo into thinking that he has the upper-hand. Ganzo now knows with absolute certainty that Angelo is after his head, but because of the incident with Corteo Ganzo makes the most rational assumption, which will ultimately lead to his death. This assumption was "Angelo is solely living for revenge, after he deals with the ex-Don and Nero, he'll come after me". However, what he failed to realize is that during their exchange of words, Angelo was 100% aware that he was being spied on. Yep, that's right, he knew without a doubt that Ganzo had prepared counter measures with the Galassias to dispose of him.
Then we make it to the "fated day". This time around what we see here is that everything is going as Ganzo expects, Angelo scopes out the area, and deals with Del Toro (who, btw, is a pretty beast bodyguard, being able to take out two armed assailants who stabbed him in three places) while having Barbero tail him. Barbero then tries to get the truth out of Angelo by torturing him, and Angelo says the words we were all expecting to hear: "On this is the name of the person who sent me to commit these acts". The initial "problem" that we as the viewers grasp here is that Barbero doesn't believe a word Angelo says. He simply reads the contents of the letter and then thinks "Oh shit, he's after our family, we need to tell someone!" and calls Ganzo. From Barbero's perspective, he has no reason to trust Angelo at all, and the letter itself is like evidence AGAINST Angelo. In his position, it doesn't make any sense to reveal this information to Barbero, because Barbero wouldn't believe Angelo anyway. Barbero is fixated on Nero and his devotion to the family and Nero, afterall they grew up together. I'd say that Barbero is about as loyal to Nero as Corteo was to Angelo. This parallel in the strength of bonds is what ultimately ends up killing Barbero. Afterall, he invited the person who was responsible for sending Angelo on the mission in the first place. Also, Ganzo doesn't want to get his hands dirty, so it's better to just let his chosen 'scapegoat' do the work for him.
Then we get an injured Angelo come all the way to the Vanetti's balcony, and use the trust of the 'easy-going' Don Galassias to get access. After revealing his true identity and purpose, Angelo then says the words which pretty much sum up this entire episode, and perhaps the entire series itself: "I will take everything away".
Then he does just what the viewer would least expect in the situation, he killed off Don Galassias. Strega, the nephew, obviously witnesses this and instantly just kills off Ganzo. I can't even put into words how satisfying it was to see Ganzo killed off the way he was. The bitch sold out his own family, his friends, and his been plotting for 7 years to takeover and just become a bitch for the Galassias. Well, he definitely suffered a fitting death appropriate for scum like him.
Now, the best part of this episode was the storyboarding and directing. We were led to believe that Angelo had no plan or method of dealing with what was occuring, and we were led to believe that since he was gone off the deep end, he was solely focused only on killing those in the letter. This ended up only being half correct. He was so focused on killing those in the letter, that he didn't really care about the methods any more, as long as he, without a doubt, kills them.
Oh and to add to this, we were also shown a glimpse of the mind of Don Vanetti. He was feeling guilty about the murder this entire time. All Don Vanetti wanted was independence from the Galassias, and thats why he killed his best friend Testa Legusa. In the end...he's forced to be absorbed by the Galassias anyway, so it was as if Testa's death was in vain. The only strands of hope left for Don Vanetti to cling to were preserving the existence of the Vanetti Family. Even though he still got stuck being absorbed into the Galassias, in the end he thought it was all for the best as long as his family survived. The shock of knowing the result of what Angelo did is what finally killed the Don: Angelo's murder of Don Galassias would trigger the extermination of the entire Vanetti family, the one thing that Don Vanetti gave up his best friend. livelihood and pride to protect.
Since Angelo was aware of Don Vanetti's condition, he figured that he'd be able to produce some sort of mental shock that might be enough to end his life then and there. On top of that, since he was aware that he was spied on the previous night, if he could convince the Galassias that their lap-dog Ganzo betrayed them, then they'd just as easily kill him off. I mean, that was their initial plan to begin with, to either absorb or exterminate the Vanettis. All that was left was Nero, who, judging by the ending scene after the credits, was going to be killed off by the Galassias inside the opera house. Unfortunately, it seems like Angelo is wrong here, and they have other plans for him.
I don't know how they plan on outdoing this episode, as this was as hyped as a finale for me. I won't hold my breath or expect something better than this, but the finale is gonna hold a ton of feels that's for sure. I can't even fathom what Nero must be going through now, and I'm hoping for a bloody conclusion in the end...with hopefully a dead Strega too.
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