When Tony told his mother that he knew what she had done, as they were taking her off to the hospital after her stroke, she seemed to be smiling. Do you think she was? Did she purposely try to hurt her son? Was she complicit in the attempted hit on him because he had her put in the assisted living facility? Was she smiling because she derived satisfaction out of his knowing? If all of this is true, it violates the very basic nature of the mother - son relationship. What do you think?
In response to this response, the dynamic of any relationship between any two people, including a mother and son, is unique to the relationship between those two particular people. Tony and Livia were hardly your typical mother and son and their relationship can't be compared to that of any other mother and son.