Tony falls ill and dreams of a talking fish who
reveals Big Pussy’s big secret.
Tony is arrested for possession of stolen airline tickets
but returns home in time for Meadow’s graduation party.
Episode 26 – Originally Aired April 9, 2000
Written by David Chase and Todd Kessler
Directed by John Patterson
___________________________________
We spend a portion of this episode within the “funhouse” of Tony’s mind—we are placed right into his dreams. There are six dream sequences that play out over the first half of the episode, ranging from 10 seconds to 3.5 minutes. They comprise only about 1/5 of the episode’s running time, yet they are some of the most memorable and talked about scenes of the entire series.
Dream sequences on The Sopranos are sometimes quite challenging to understand (and can really test the patience of those viewers who are not fans of the sequences). David Chase acknowledges the disapproval of some viewers in an interview with Martha Nochimson (see the appendix of her book Dying to Belong) but explains why he included the dream sequences in this particular episode:
…people say “What the fuck are these dreams doing in my gangster movie?” Well, from the get-go, this is a story about psychology…so much of psychotherapy has to do with dreams. But because it’s a psychological show, the dreams often have to be interpreted. Because they have to carry a point. And so: “Funhouse.” That came about because I couldn’t bear the fact that we were going to have to do some kind of procedural in which Tony found out Pussy was a rat. Like he was going to have to call up some cop, or some guy would come to him and then he’d follow up on the lead. And they’d stake out Pussy’s house. And they’d follow him to the FBI. Blah, blah. I fucking would have wanted to kill somebody. So I thought, “How can he just know it?” Can’t we skip all that crap?
Although the dreams are strange and nebulous and defy formal interpretation, Prof. Maurice Yacowar has done well to look at how the dreams bring Tony to the point of revelation about Big Puss. I’m adding a couple of my own observations to his analysis:
- Dream #1: Tony has been diagnosed with a terminal disease and decides to immolate himself. (It’s as though Pussy’s betrayal is something cancerous, and an enormous sacrifice is necessary to get rid of it.) Just before he sets fire to himself, Tony asks, “Where’s Pussy?”
- Dream #2: Silvio repeats the Godfather line: “Our true enemy has yet to reveal himself.” A minute later, Tony shoots Paulie. (The true enemy is still hidden—Tony shoots the wrong guy.) Tony—still dreaming—heads to Dr. Melfi’s office where she and Italian beauty Annalisa (two women whom Tony finds attractive) merge into one.
- Dream #3: Tony asks Chris, Adriana and Furio where Pussy is. They drive off in a tiny car, perhaps to look for him.
- Dream #4: Back in Melfi’s office, references to Pussy and pussy merge together. When Tony says, “I got Pussy on the brain, I always do,” we can’t be sure which “pussy” he’s referring to.
- Dream #5: Full revelation finally comes when Pussy appears as a fish and confesses that he has been working for the FBI.
- Dream #6: In a 10-second sequence, Tony and his family sit down at the dinner table and celebrate his purchase of a boat and Meadow’s decision to go to Columbia University. (Now that he has rooted out and squashed Pussy’s betrayal, his family and his lifestyle are safe once again. So safe, in fact, that the scene looks and sounds like something out of Leave it to Beaver rather than the typical Soprano dinner marked by sarcasm and backbiting.)
Chase possesses a high degree of alchemy, he transforms an episode that should have been a simple procedural into a magical and surreal funhouse. It is a very evocative episode. As always, Chase uses subtle connections and associations, both internal and external to the episode, to evoke our thoughts and emotions. One of the most notable external connections is to The Godfather: Big Pussy’s appearance here as a fish may very well be a reference to the famous “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes” scene. We might remember that Chase made another permuted reference to this same Godfather scene in last year’s season finale, when Chucky Signore was sent to sleep with the fishes with a gun pulled out of a fish:
An internal connection between “Big Pussy” and “fish” is made at the Indian restaurant when the moving camera captures both man and fish in the same scene:
It is during this scene that we first hear the Rolling Stones’ powerful “Thru and Thru.” The use of scored, non-diegetic music like this is very rare on the series, it violates the usual realism of The Sopranos. But in this surreal and dreamlike episode, the violation works. This scene also introduces Indian food into the story, which is seemingly what sickens Tony and precipitates his hallucinatory dreams. But is it really the food? We become less sure when Tony awakens in the night with dark thoughts on his mind:
Tony: It’s all a big nothing.
Carm: What is?
Tony: Life.
Carm: That’s your mother talking.
Carmela is 100 percent correct (though she has no way of knowing it)—Livia uttered those exact same words to her grandson in “D-Girl.” At first, Tony believes that his sickness is purely physical. “It’s not my fucking head, it’s my stomach,” he says while running to the toilet. Carmela gives Tony Coca-Cola to calm his stomach. (Michael Grnybaum notes that Coke is “a quintessentially American consumer food product that represents a return to the familiar” after Tony indulges in the unfamiliar Indian food.) But it is not food poisoning that actually antagonizes Tony. The feelings of meaninglessness that continuously lurk in Tony’s psyche are now ignited by his subconscious knowledge of Pussy’s betrayal. In the Nochimson interview I excerpted above, David Chase talks of this subconscious awareness needing to be vomited out. Tony must purge it in order to be healthy again.
Pussy Bonpensiero also needs to be purged from the Mob in order for the north Jersey famiglia to be healthy again. His final scene of the series is a heartbreaking one. We have become fond of Pussy, he is sort of the mob version of Santa Claus: jolly, likable, big-boned and big-hearted. There was a light-heartedness about him which dissipated as the pressure of being a mob informant built up. But his light-heartedness appears once again aboard the boat where he spends his final moments. Although he knows the jig is up, he manages to joke with the guys as they knock back some good tequila. (Some bullshit sugarless soda will not be Pussy’s final drink as it was for Matt Bevilaqua.) We hope that Puss will somehow get a pass, but of course he doesn’t. Pussy is killed by his friends and his body is unceremoniously dumped into the ocean. If we didn’t know it before, we certainly have learned a rule of SopranoWorld now: Anyone Can Die.
___________________________________
ASBURY PARK, NJ
The decision to shoot the dream sequences in Asbury Park was an inspired one. The deserted boardwalk and rundown buildings beneath skies of gray give the scenes a fittingly desolate quality. The proximity of the ocean ties into Pussy’s watery grave (as well as his appearance as a fish). The strange murals and buildings of the amusement area heighten the wacky, surreal tone of the dreams. The episode ostensibly gets its title from the famous Palace Amusements, an indoor amusement park (funhouse) which was one of the most well-known buildings on the Jersey shore. We get a view of it and its renowned “Tillie” mural behind Tony:
Palace Amusements operated for 100 years. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places, but was still somehow demolished in 2004. (The Tillie murals seem to have survived but several dozen other historical artifacts were destroyed either in the demolition or in subsequent years.) The Asbury Park boardwalk today has the feeling of a place that is past its prime. It has seen its heyday. Once upon a time, this town was a rock-n-roll mecca. In fact, Springsteen’s first album was named Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Here is The Boss himself on the boardwalk (you can see Palace Amusements in the background):
Back in those days, Springsteen was the poet of a tough, blue-collar, workhorse ethic that New Jersey personified and the country admired. But he’s an old man now. The qualities that he celebrated are qualities that we are no longer very proud of, as white-collar jobs squeeze out more and more blue-collar workers. The decline of Asbury Park seems to mirror the decline of New Jersey. NJ was once the proudly quintessential blue-collar state, its industrial and manufacturing base acting as a lifeline to the nearby mega-cities of Philadelphia and New York. In our cultural psyche, New Jersey supplied a brawny, working-class toughness to the entire northeastern region of the country, without which the Northeast is somewhat emasculated in comparison to the defiant South, the pioneering West and the self-sufficient Midwest. But now, as our middle class shrinks, so does our respect for working class values. In our cultural imagination, NJ has become little more than “the armpit of America.” The decline of New Jersey feels representative of something that has been diminishing in the U.S as a whole. All of this subtext ties into the angst that Tony voiced in the Pilot—the feeling that he has come in at the end of something. Our best days are behind us. The shooting locations in Asbury Park effectively add these poignant undertones to this brooding, sorrowful episode.
Like many episodes, “Funhouse” shows both the ups and downs of Tony’s life. Some of the ups: Tony gets back into Carmela’s good graces after last episode’s dustup by buying her a sable coat; and Tony grins like any proud father would when his daughter receives her high school diploma. Some of the downs: Tony gets the usual agitation from Livia; and Tony is arrested (in front of Meadow and her friends) for possessing stolen airline tickets. But in Melfi’s office, the doctor recognizes that there is more going on in Tony’s life than the usual ebb-and-flow. She senses an immense sadness hidden behind Tony’s buoyant façade. He refuses to talk about his profound sorrow, acting like a buffoon instead, laughing, singing and joking.
In the final scene, at Meadow’s graduation party, the camera pans through the party crowd. All of Tony’s loved ones are there—all, obviously, except for one. (Angie Bonpensiero, unaware that her husband lies at the bottom of the sea, criticizes him for being absent.) The party scene is intercut with several shots of criminal activity and vice taking place around New Jersey. It’s all just business as usual. Meadow enjoys her party, Tony smokes his cigar, and Pussy is permanently submerged but the mob’s multiple enterprises continue unabated. Sadness accrues but life goes on. The season closes on an image of the ocean, Pussy’s final resting place. The tide rolls in and the tide rolls out—it too continues unabated. The ocean-imagery harkens back to the earlier seaside shots in Asbury Park, that place once associated with vibrant music and entertainment but now conjures thoughts of aging and decay. The Stones’ “Thru and Thru,” with Keith Richard’s lonesome voice and sparse guitar, plays like a mourning dirge. The song is both a lament for the recently dead and an elegy for something that is lost in America, something that may never be regained.
___________________________________
R.I.P. JAMES GANDOLFINI
In 2013, I decided I needed to watch The Sopranos again as I was getting ready to start “Sopranos Autopsy.” I had just finished watching “Funhouse” and was gathering my thoughts, notes and quotes for the episode when a friend contacted me with the news: James Gandolfini had died of a heart attack in Rome earlier in the day. I was shocked and saddened like every other Sopranos fan across the globe. Gandolfini managed to stand-out in the Sopranos’ impossibly stellar cast. He breathed life into the most complex character in the history of television. I don’t know if anyone else on earth could have brought Tony Soprano to life the way that he did. Tributes to Jim—the man and the actor—poured in from all directions. Gov. Chris Christie ordered New Jersey public buildings to lower their flags to half-staff. David Chase released a statement:
He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. I remember telling him many times, “You don’t get it. You’re like Mozart.” There would be silence at the other end of the phone. For [wife] Deborah and [children] Michael and Liliana, this is crushing. And it’s bad for the rest of the world. He wasn’t easy sometimes. But he was my partner, he was my brother in ways I can’t explain and never will be able to explain.
It’s a strange experience to watch your favorite movies and TV shows again. When I first saw “Funhouse,” I think I was too mesmerized by the cleverness of the dream sequences to fully feel the melancholy that fills the episode. The cleverness lost its novelty with each subsequent viewing, however, allowing the melancholia to come through stronger and stronger. And now I will forever associate “Funhouse” with Jim’s passing, and I think it will be a long time before I can watch it again.
______________________________
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- Douglas Howard, in his essay “No Justice For All,” believes this episode supplies an important clue in understanding the final cut-to-black at Holsten’s Diner. The montage that closes “Funhouse,” he writes, “is Chase’s truer statement of the future of the Sopranos and organized crime.” The montage shows that despite anything else, life always goes on: parties are held, people pursue their vices, criminal enterprises are initiated or abandoned, the mob finds ways to profit. “Regardless of what happened to Tony that night in the restaurant,” Howard continues, “this is the truth that, in the larger scheme of things, remains beyond the darkness, and this is the truth that, on an aesthetic and thematic level, does The Sopranos the most justice.”
- The Ups and Downs of mob life: In one dream sequence, Pussy-the-fish tells Tony that he was upset he got “passed over.” (We might remember that Paulie was promoted over Puss in episode 2.05.) In contrast, Chris now gets the good news that he’s being promoted—he will finally be a made man.
- The episode’s Asbury Park scenes perhaps make this the right time to mention an important note about Steven Van Zandt. He had the good fortune to be closely involved with two of the greatest contributions that New Jersey has made to American art: The Sopranos and the music of Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band. Van Zandt made his bones in the Jersey shore music scene, and was a founding member of The Asbury Jukes. He had no acting experience prior to playing “Silvio.” David Chase was impressed by Van Zandt’s screen presence as he inducted The Rascals into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and asked him to join the cast. Van Zandt agreed to play a part on The Sopranos, but only if a new role was created expressly for him—he did not want to take a job away from the working actors who were auditioning for Sopranos roles.
-
Director John Patterson and David Chase met each other at Stanford’s film school in the early 1970s. They were close friends and Patterson felt that he knew Chase’s mind very well. Perhaps that is why Chase tapped him to direct every season finale until his death in 2005.
===============================================================
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Sopranos Autopsy 
I wanted to ask for your opinion, since you speak of Jim Gandolfini the actor in this synopsis. Respectfully, do you think that he became so closely associated with with his character(TS) that in-turn it was all consuming and thus precipitated his early passing? I seem to remember reading an article after his passing that during production he would sometimes disappear for days from the production but then resurface to resume filming the Sopranos(might have been in People magazine). I surmise that his appetites might have gotten the best of him. I know people say he was a gentle man when out of character, however, it seems that he played a preponderance of “badies” or tough characters in his movies(at least before and even during the years of Sopranos). My personal opinion is that people act best when they are portraying their true nature. I know that one of his earliest jobs was bartender/bouncer in NY clubs, you have to have a certain amount of angst to fill that job title. I know actors often get type-cast and have a hard time “breaking the mold”.
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I think it’s very possible that Jim’s appetites may have contributed to his early death, but I also think its often very difficult—or impossible—to pinpoint a precise cause of death. Although Jim channeled his own well-documented angst (and toughness and gentleness and slyness and easy-goingness) into Tony Soprano, we just can’t know the extent to which Jim did or did not identify with Tony off-camera. Soon after his death, the NY Post painted a picture of Jim’s last day as one that Tony would be proud of, a day spent consuming copious amounts of food and alcohol. But Dan Bischoff (in his biography of Jim) points out that the Post article may not have been well-sourced and that the Gandolfini family has refuted the Post’s description of Jim’s final day. Sure, Jim may have identified with Tony a little too much for his own good – but it’s even more likely that we are the ones that can’t stop identifying Jim with Tony.
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After Jim’s death at 51, Chris’s line toward Tony “The way you fuckin’ eat, you’ll have a heart attack by the time you’re fifty” said during Cristofer’s drug intervention became fateful. I’m sad.
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Also not the last time chris had said similar things. Season 5 episode 10 Cold Cuts Chris and Cousin Tony B are digging when Tony B says “then let him come dig him up then, Chris Replied= please he’s a heart attack waiting to happen”
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Some actors who play predatory people are predatory James Galdofini always seemed to be a decent man. It’s odd being a decent human being is such a low bar in that it should be the default behaviour everyone is striving to grow towards because why else are we here if not to relate and connect to each other. It takes work to figure that stuff out . we find people like Tony, Janice, Richie easy to watch because deep inside we know they are not right as humans we keep trying to make sense of a universe that does not seem right because of death, and how unimportant and unknown we are to other people so we keep coming back to these things in art like the soprano. James Galodfini seemed go be mostly harmless in personal life. Despite how he might be perceived.
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“why else are we here if not to relate and connect to each other.”
I can think of a few other reasons…
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Probably. I read that he had a bad cocaine and alcohol problem, along with becoming increasingly crazed as far as his acting. Like he’d hit himself in the head for messing up a line. It’s sad that great genius often goes hand in hand with mental illness…
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Anonymous – You’re right about Gandolfini. I believe he eventually took on Tony’s persona, essentially becoming the character he portrayed for 7 years. What a price to pay for fame and ego. 😣
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As a trivial aside to your excellent article I think diet coke was the last thing matt has to drink before tony and puss shot him, so Tony’s fever is linked to death ( of pussy) which is linked to diet coke and back to pussy again……the cruel irony.
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Matthew Bevilaqua’s last drink was a diet Fanta. (although Fanta was created by Coca-Cola company)
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It actually was a diet Coke – Pussy asks if he wants “a Fanta or something” but the can Matt drinks from is diet Coke.
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With Cola I think you guys digging to much – The one thing I don’t like on Sopranos is tons of Coca-Cola product placement. (Have you ever seen Pepsi on the series?) Also it’s a lot of Snapple and Tropicana juice (which I don’t mind because of masterpiece scene where Tony doesn’t like this much pulp and Carmela throws a phone at him).
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A lot of people have noticed that about the Coca-Cola. But I dunno, it may just be a realistic reflection of how actual households are — in my house you’ll find Coke but never any Pepsi..
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“pussy” is also stereotypically said to smell like fish – another connection between Pussy and fish
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Can’t believe that one went past me. Good catch. This show really is a cornucopia of layers and meaning.
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“Well, from the get-go, this is a story about psychology…so much of psychotherapy has to do with dreams. ”
I have to call BS on Chase here. I’ve been in therapy for years, with several different therapists (as I’ve moved across country several times). Dreams have never been a factor in my sessions. These days dream interpretation is only a part of psychotherapy in the movies and TV. But they serve a need in film by allowing the story to convey information visually.
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boradis – In my experience with therapy, dreams played an important role. I wrote down my dreams (and occasionally drew pictures of things I remembered), and my therapist helped me interpret them. I believe that dream interpretation can definitely be beneficial in therapy.
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The whole show is about psychology – it’s far more about psychology than it is about gangsters in my opinion. That’s part of the genius of it all.
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Good points about Jersey’s working class culture giving the Northeast a masculine image. Here in Northern California, we had Oakland. But now everyone just mocks Oakland’s poverty and the obvious racial makeup of the city, even though Oakland still breeds tough people with blue collar attitudes. Since the 80s we’ve been brainwashed to view anything that’s not upper middle class, white collar (or better) as failure.
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I’ve had dreams that turned out to be true, too. It’s coincidental, I’m sure. I’m not a big believer in supernatural things. Aren’t most of our dreams based on things we’re already stressed out about? Tony knew Pussy was a snitch at the end of season 1. He just didn’t want to believe it. He knew the FBI could easily put together the alibi of Pussy’s whereabouts, even put together a record of Pussy having been at these places so when someone like Paulie checks up on it, it all checks out. Tony also knew that any wiseguy that rats will also ride the fence and still commit gangster acts that he’s not supposed to, right up to gunning down Matthew Bevilaqua. He knew about Pussy. Knew it all along. He was just in denial of it because it hurt him so much. With Richie Aprile out of the picture, the suspicions of Pussy came back to the forefront of his thoughts, and the dreams were a psychological reaction.
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Great take RTF..
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Also Vin Makazian straight up told him; any attempt to discredit Vin on the issue felt contrived, but of course they strongly wanted not to believe it.
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Very true! I think dream interpretation has been debunked entirely.
The only meaning I can think of relating to dreams is if you are going through a phase of bad dreams, particularly dreaming of being chased, then you are stressed in your daily life.
Other than that, there is no “symbolism” to real life dreams! There is no deeper or hidden meaning.
But they are great conduits for expressing themes or a character’s psyche in tv series’/films!
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Ever since this aired, I’ve for some reason felt like this was the last episode. Utterly no logic to that.
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Hey! Excellent analysis as always. I hope one day you complete your writing about the series and publish it! Just wanted to highlight that Tony mentions a six-armed goddess during his bout with food poisoning which could be Kali, “the black one,” who destroys evil forces…
(cut to black).
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I want your opinion. Do you think there is a connection between this episode and the last episode?
I know it’s crazy, but I noticed the phrase “Drive safely” in the opening,(00:00:45″)(Tony is driving in a freeway). It always stuck in my mind. in the graduation scene, tony has a little chat with David, who wants to go to work in a ranch. and it’s the last thing that says to him: ” Drive safe”.
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Maybe the writers made a connection but I think the phrase is so common that its probably a coincidence.
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We don’t know it at the time (it might have been cut from the dialogue), David is actually driving to Utah as we see at the end of this episode he is packing luggage on the roof of his car.
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After the Melfi dream sequence, someone asks why is he smiling, and though we are privy to why he’s smiling i thinks chase gives us another answer to that it’d being “pussy” that is on his mind which is when Tony awakes first person he sees is his neighbor Cusamano aka “Cooz” the other term for “pussy”.
am i reading in to it to much ?
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I love this. Great catch!
Haha yes I am constantly asking myself the same thing 🙂
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There’s a theory on the Internet that Paulie was another member of Tony’s mob who was an informer. This episode somewhat (although probably inadvertently) supports this theory, in that the idea is again put forward that “Our true enemy has yet to reveal himself”, and given that Tony already suspected Pussy by this point, the quote could mean there was still another mobster (Paulie) who was an enemy. Perhaps significantly, when the line is repeated in this episode, it’s followed by Tony, in his dream, shooting Paulie. I also noted that in this episode when Pussy is definitively identified as the rat, he’s wearing white sneakers (and I believe he wears them on previous episodes as well), and towards the end of the series Paulie is also shown several times wearing white sneakers. Probably none of this means anything, and is just coincidental, like a contemporary “Paul is dead” theory, and the actor who played Paulie (and was himself an actual member of the mob before accepting this role) stipulated he’d accept the part only if his character never became a rat on the series, but it is worth mentioning.
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The only thing that supports this is Tony shooting Paulie in a dream. If Paulie was an informant, he wouldn’t have spent 4 months in a Youngstown jail.
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Ron – I know you are (masterfully) taking your time before releasing your “Made in America” interpretation. However, there is an almost identical scene, with a seated T. and Paulie, in the last episode that mimics the two of them playing cards in “Funhouse”.
I can’t help but think Paulie, in some fashion, contributed to T’s death (yes, friends, T. died) in Holsten’s.
Paulie liked to “simulcast” conversations to NY, and I can’t help but see a strong resemblance with these two scenes.
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He was an informant in the sense that he talked to NY behind Tony’s back and caused a bit of havoc doing so and could be seen as a betrayal
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I really doubt that theory because of Soprano crew was investigated by one big group of FBI agents. We see many scenes them working with Pussy, Adriana, Ray Curto, etc, and Paulie was never even mentioned.
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“Paulie is dead.” Tony Sirico died in a car accident before season 2 and was replaced by the actor who used to play “Eddie Munster.” Most people never noticed. The truth is out there…
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Ron – Sorry, but you’re incorrect. Butch Patrick (born Patrick Lilley) was not on the Sopranos. Robert Patrick played Davey! Just out of curiosity, were you serious about this? 🙄
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Not at all serious..
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Grrr… Whateverrrr. 🤡
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Re-watched the Pilot the other day, and noticed that it is Pussy that corrects Chris’s mis-pronouncing of Luca Brasi, and says the iconic quote “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.”
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Hmmm interesting… that’s probably a coincidence considering Chase wrote that Pilot years before he had an idea what Season 2 would look like, but its always possible he was thinking of that when he decided to have Pussy sleep with the fishes…
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You may have just narrowly missed this, but when you captioned Bruce’s photo “Here is The Boss himself on the boardwalk”
I thought to myself, that Chase is too much! In these dream sequences, HERE is the Boss (Tony) on the boardwalk.
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Hahaha I didn’t think of that connection here, but you’ll see that I do connect Boss Springsteen and Boss Soprano in the 6.03 write-up (I’ll be posting it in a day or two). I wouldn’t be surprised if Chase was indeed referencing Bruce on the boardwalk, especially considering his deep knowledge of rock-n-roll history…
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I know you are a fan of Whitecaps, but I think this finale is the best of the entire series. Perhaps “All Due Respect” is close. The use of music was awesome. I enjoyed the overall melancholy tone of this episode. Excellent, creative dream sequences. Hearing this on full surround sound you hear some interesting things in the background. I felt the same way after Jimmy passed, I didn’t watch this show for at least 2 and a half years after. Watching these episodes years later makes me appreciate Jim’s acting so much more. He definitely made this show what it is, no doubt. I think this season overall is the best the show had to offer and is my favorite season of the series. The show was not hugely popular yet. I do feel season 5 may have been better, but I find myself watching these episodes more. As you stated, the show begins to take a turn as the seasons progress. I wont say a good or bad turn, just a turn and the show become a bit “different.” I enjoyed the 2 seasons of the Pussy character, but he had to go..:-( Great Analysis.
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“The use of non-diegetic music like this is very rare on the series, it violates the usual realism of The Sopranos.”
Is that really the case? I feel like there’s plenty of examples where non-diegetic music is used, like the opening scene a few episodes prior with Christopher in the hospital, or season 3 premiere with the Peter Gunn/Every Breath You Take mashup, or the FBI cork board montage that closes S01E06, or that strange music that begins when Christopher is telling the D-girl and Jon Favreau his story about the woman having acid splashed on her. I’m sure there’s more.
In your travels (thank you for the site by the way), have you been keeping track of all of the musical references throughout the show? And if so when you finish your compendium can you publish a list so we may bifurcate it into diegetic and non-diegetic uses?
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It’s true that Chase uses very memorable songs from time to time, including those examples you mentioned. But The Sopranos has very little non-diegetic musical scoring compared to many TV shows. (I can’t listen to the incessant background music of The Walking Dead without wanting to punch my TV.) I believe The Sopranos has zero original non-diegetic music, with the exception of “Return to Me” in 3.12, which Bob Dylan recorded specifically for the show. This website probably has the best listing of music on the series, although it doesn’t divide it into diegetic vs. non-diegetic:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080915103650/http://www.sopranomusicguide.com:80/
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Have you noticed the weird, squeaking sounds in the background in Funhouse and throughout the entire series, whenever Tony is dreaming something creepy? My closed captioning says it’s, “ducks quacking” but I don’t know…
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Haha ducks would somehow be fitting but I don’t think so either.. I thought the sound was meant to evoke creaking piers or the boardwalk but it definitely adds a creepy dimension. The other notable example is in episode 4.06 when the creaks within Tony’s dream evoke the sound of a ceiling creaking from the weight of a hanging suicide…
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You can hear those same creaking sounds when Tony and the others kill Pussy on the boat. I think this creaking sound is part of the connectiveness you mention repeatedly. Or maybe even that Tony knows, while dreaming, that he is going to have to kill Pussy. And he already has the idea that he is going to do it on the boat. So his dreams are permeated with this kind of disturbing sound that represents the fact that he has to kill Pussy.
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I recently heard Vic at Podabing also put out this ‘creaking boat’ idea. I think that’s a really good take on it…
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Squeaking in his dreams was just how his brain was interpreting the fart noises.
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One little point just occurred to me… on the boat when Pussy is talking about the acupuncturist in Puerto Rico, he says, “I’d eat her out.” In Boca, the whole story was about how mobsters DON’T do that…
It seems Pussy was just breaking all the rules!! 😉
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This is one of the best or the best episode yet in the series. I really liked Pussy’s character and even though he was an informant you feel bad for the guy trying to pay for his kids college, etc. Chase does a masterful job creating such a character where you actually feel bad for the guy. I think Pussy was suspicious when they were getting on the boat, why would Paulie be there also to test out a boat??? With Syl and Tony? Didn’t Pussy’s wife know where they were going (they were having coffee why Tony was looking for the wire)? Wouldn’t she be suspicious he never came home?
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Yes, I really felt like this was the best episode I had seen when it came out during the original airing..
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Did anyone notice Tony singing after Cusamano leaves the scene he is singing the theme to Gilligan’s Island, maybe a reference to TV show from similar era I dream of Jeannie (I dream of Jeannie Cusamano)?
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Perhaps Tony is thinking of the boat he will bring Pussy to? At least that’s what I thought upon watching for the 2nd time.
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So did I! “A three-hour cruise …”
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Stolen airline tickets from the Scatino bust out are relevant in both this episode and the previous one. When Pussy presents one to Agent Lapari as evidence, Lapari explains that it would be difficult to tie the tickets to Tony because he’s too smart to use them himself. Tony chooses to send Janice back to Seattle on a Greyhound bus instead of using one of the tickets, but in a fit of rage and frustration, gives 2 to his mother for her and that other “ miserab” aunt to fly to Arizona. ( Where Pussy requested to live after his assignment was over). Of course this is the catalyst for his arrest, albeit a short one.
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So, have you been able to re-watch this episode yet Ron?
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It’s been years since I’ve watched it beginning to end, but I’m sure I could now 👍🏼
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Correct me if I am mistaken but doesn’t this episode also mark Patsy Parisi’s first appearance on the show? If so, he deserves an honorable mention at least.
First, Patsy provides Tony with the sable coat, thereby allowing him to indulge in some sexual role play with Carmela prior the dream sequence. Note that Tony playing out his fantasy of Carmela as a “Venus in Furs” suggests that he, just like Ralph Cifaretto later, may have a masochistic character trait (the “Venus in Furs” is the best-known book by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the archetypal masochist). This is not too far-fetched an idea if you think about Tony’s lifelong desire to please an overbearing mother, something that his therapist Melfi never tires to point out. Melfi, incidentally, is also the one to put a name on Ralphie’s “weird” behaviour. She calls him “a classical masochist”, if I remember correctly.
Second, in his first dream Tony mixes up Patsy, whom he just met at the restaurant, with his identical twin brother, Philly. Indeed, Patsy/Philly takes us back right to the beginning of the season when Philly was killed for spreading rumours. It’s almost as if the appearance of the twins closed a bracket around a season marked by treason on so many levels, starting with Philly via Richie and leading up to Pussy, the police informant who was “like a brother” to Tony and his crew. If you were adventurous you could even argue that Patsy, the resuscitated Philly, is a zombie-like character who represents the return of the repressed for Tony. The repressed in this case would be his knowledge of Pussy’s betrayal which has lain dormant since the end of Season 1. But this might also be taking the psychoanalysis too far …
Patsy is a great character who rarely gets the attention he deserves. He knows exactly what is appropriate, when to talk and when to stay quiet. Plus, he never inflicts unnecessary violence, all of which contrasts nicely with the behaviour of some of the more impulsive characters in the mob. Even though the twin twist was not the most original of Chase’s ideas, I was glad to see Philly/Patsy survive Season 2.
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You’re right that this is Patsy’s first appearance. He will show up with the coat again in the the next episode (first episode of Season 3), having arranged for some tailoring to be done. I always chuckle at his line about having the hem reinforced and “it shouldn’t have torn like that.” I suspect the hem was torn during the fur coat sex in “Funhouse.”
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lol I hadn’t thought of that. Connectivity even through a hem…
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I always thought having sex in a brand new fur coat was playing with fire. Especially if Tony and Carm are good, rhythm-method practising Catholics. How are you going to explain *that* stain to the dry cleaner?
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Yeah, the “twin” TV trope is pretty tired (though I do like the way GoT worked it with Cersei and Jamie Lannister). I believe Chase created “Patsy” because he wanted to bring back Dan Grimaldi, whose acting he admired…
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Great episode and a great analysis. And thank you for the heartfelt section on James Gandolfini. Definitely gone too soon.
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Thanks
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So here’s what I noticed this go-round. Tony has that brief conversation with David Scatino near the end of the episode.
Scatino mentions he is moving to Nevada to work on a ranch. He says Tony should “come hang out…New day.” Tony chuckles.
This echoes what Tony’s father wanted to do – move to Nevada, take on a new opportunity, maybe break free of old habits. A new day. But his wife Livia is an “albacore” hanging on his neck.
The irony of course is that he’s moving to the state famous for legalized gambling. So there is ambiguity in whether Scatino breaks free for a clean life out west, or walks right into a lion’s den. We never find out. But I guess, as this show demonstrates, you can gamble your money anywhere. The bottom line is Scatino finds the willpower to get out of his current environment, which doesn’t happen to a lot of characters on this show.
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I think not. Scatino is an addict, plain and simple. He blames everyone around him for his problems. He tries to kill himself and, failing that, leaves his wife. He’s running away from the mess he made- running willingly and knowingly headlong into the lure of Vegas gambling. Tony chuckles because he knows Davey is a degenerate gambler. Mafiosos easily recognize the type because they profit from their addiction and their subsequent weakness. He is not escaping his fate- He’s just digging himself in deeper. He’ll probably be a homeless Nevada bum inside a month.
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Hmm moving to Nevada… That’s a clever parallel you noticed between Tony and Johnny Boy
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It’s not that Davey finds the willpower to get out. It’s that he has lost everything and has to go somewhere. If that wasn’t already obvious, the visuals of him packing his car and leaving emphasize it. It’s raining, he’s got only what he can pack in his car, and his scenes are among the darkly lit scenes that contrast with the bright scenes of Tony’s family and friends living well off the profits they make from people like Davey. Also it is very clear from Davey’s behavior that he’s an addict, so I don’t think there is much ambiguity at all. If he’s going to be near Las Vegas, he’s going to gamble unless he gets serious about beating his addiction, which you don’t do by moving someplace where gambling is available pretty much everywhere. Even the airport in Las Vegas has slot machines. Tony chuckles because he (and we) can see what Davey is still trying to hide from himself. Addicts lie to themselves as much as to anyone else. I like that connection with Tony’s dad, though.
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Davey more than likely headed out to Nevada to work as a “ranch hand” with the allure of legal gambling in mind. Meadow mentions in an episode during the following season (“The Telltale Moozadell” S3E9), that Davey ended up being committed to a mental health facility out there. The implication is that Davey has sunken to even deeper depths instead of taking advantage of the “new day” he tells Tony about. Wyoming or Montana would have been much better choices had Davey honestly wanted to “put it all behind him”.
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You beat me to it! I just watched “The Telltale Moozadell” and caught that line and was going to correct my earlier comment.
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Either Ron or another commenter may have noted this somewhere on this blog, but for me, The Sopranos is the first show I remember that gets dreams right. It seemed like pre-Sopranos, dreams in TV shows and movies were these deliberate and logical plot devices, which often reflected reality a little too closely. Or, if they were supernatural (like the dead revisiting people) they were meant to explicitly motivate a character or tell the audience something important.
In The Sopranos, dreams feel like dreams. People appear and disappear or morph into others. (My favorite example: Annette Benning appearing at Vesuvio. Who hasn’t had a dream where some random famous person appeared?) Landscapes change. Weird events occur. People speak in non sequiturs, or just plain nonsense at times. Yet they seem to reflect something of our reality, or in this case the reality we’ve witnessed on the show. This being TV, they have more utility than in real life, but Chase still does a good job of filling dreams with absurdity and ambiguity.
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Well said. In this episode Chase gets utility out of the dreams through the sheer number of them, and in “The Test Dream” he gets utility out of the sheer length of it. But in most instances, the dream sequences are short and singular and to me that makes them feel even more “dreamlike,” not at all like gimmicks or plot devices…
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Different era, values, production and broadcasting standards, but the “Dick Van Dyke Show” of the early sixties featured a few fairly surreal dream sequences, in particular the “It May Look Like a Walnut” episode (no connection to Paulie). It’s still way linear compared to the Soprano dreams.
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“Chase talks of this subconscious awareness needing to be vomited out—Tony must purge it in order to be healthy again.”
This is also be present in “College”. Tony semi “confesses” to Meadow that some of his money comes from illegal gambling. Carm makes a confession to father Phil, “I have forsaken what is right for what is easy, allowing what i know is evil into my house.” Both Meadow & father Phil (who were both confessed to) vomit.
Another reference to betrayal and being sick: (Tony in College) “Rat fuck took out a lot of people, a lot of people from our outfit. My old man was sick. He never recovered when he heard the news.”
Another connection to this episode: (Tony in College) “What do you study in India? How to not get diarrhea?”
In regard to the creaky noises in the dream.. they’ve always reminded me of the dream sequence in Wild Strawberries, when the carriage gets stuck on a lamp post and begins to make an eerie high pitched creaking sound. This similar high pitched creaking noise is also in the opening dream sequence in Fellinis masterpiece, 8 1/2, when Guido is trapped in the car and is smearing his hands against the window. Also, the idea in 8 1/2 that life is a circus can be found in this episode, as you said with the ups & downs.. and the title alone, Funhouse.
Both Wild Strawberries & 8 1/2 portray a mans dreams and fantasies, much like Tony here.
I do think these sounds in Tonys dream are a reference to the boat/boardwalk, but I also like to see it has a heightened reflection of Tonys noisy stomach.
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Brilliant connection, to two of my favorite films!
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I finished watching the whole series a few months ago, and the scene that remains most moving and vivid for me is the killing of Pussy. He is a tragic character. On one hand, he is a made man, a Mafia thug, a murderer, a drug dealer, and a cruel husband; but on the other, he was not naturally made that way: he was made to be a successful small businessman, running a reliable motor repair shop; an amiable man with plenty of friends; who might occasionally go to a north Jersey massage parlour, but would still be a kind husband. Circumstances diverted, or perverted, him. Like a true tragic hero, he caused his own fall: Jackie Aprile warned him not to deal in drugs and offered to lend him money, but Pussy didn’t listen.
I remember how, in ‘D-Girl’, he opens his arms and says, “Give Uncle Pussy a hug.” A.J. goes obediently to him, unaware of his torment. Later, we see him crying in the toilet. In this episode the most poignant moment (I think I remember correctly) is when Paulie goes to turn off the music. The switch is above where Pussy is sitting and as Paulie reaches over to the switch, Pusssy flinches, afraid that Paulie is going to hit him.
Of course, I’m not the only person who is moved by this episode. Thousands of people have gone to YouTube to listen to ‘Baubles, Bangles, and Beads’. One person comments that they are “all here for the Sopranos!” I suppose many went, as I did, not to hear Sinatra singing, but to hear the arrangement by Tom (Antonio Carlos) Jobim.
– – – –
A note for people interested in words. Is Pussy an ‘informant’ or an ‘informer’? The words overlap. But ‘informant’ is always neutral: it simply means a person who provides information. But if the person passes information secretly to the police or a foreign embassy, he is an ‘informer’. The word implies ‘betrayer’.
We learn from ‘The Sopranos’ that, in police jargon, an informer is a ‘cooperating witness’, abbreviated ‘CW’.
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Interesting distinction—I should have used “informer,” Pussy was actively conspiring against Tony. Et tu Brute.
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Ron – How sad it is that the FBI treats informants so cruelly! They viciously (verbally) attacked and threatened Adriana – and didn’t even bother to look for her. They (verbally) mocked Pussy – and apparently didn’t even question his wife about his disappearance. And they contemptuously told Gene that moving to Florida “isn’t gonna happen”. It looks like the FBI is as manipulative/contemptible as the mob!
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I am watching the series again for the 6th or 7th time. I LOVE this episode. Not only for the writing, acting, cinematography… but I grew up in Middlesex and Union counties and I lived in Asbury Park from 1998 to 2004 (in my twenties).
The episode is very somber.The loss of a beloved friend, the betrayal. Without getting too much into the symbolism and different theories. Watching this episode again I got shivers when AJ was filming and shot to Adriana thinking “well… she’s next.” Then there is a flash to made guys handing envelopes to Meadow. Now, I grew up a Jersey Italian so I know that you get tons of money for every little event. However, it made me think of how Meadow eventually becomes an advocate for her father and the family business and she changes majors from medicine to law. Then I thought of the episode “Commendatori” taking place in Italy where Tony asks Annalisa “A female boss?”
WOW! What I saw in this final scene, as Meadow accepts these envelopes, is the future boss of the Soprano family.
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Chase is a huge David Lynch and Twin Peaks fan. I would have loved to see that acknowledgement in this writeup as in my view that is the number one inspiration for the dreams in this episode.
Another thing not quite touched on…the way the song Thru and Thru goes through tonal shifts and how the show is right on top of it. It starts out sad and mournful and becomes big and tough. As the giant reverbed drums explode in like thunder, Tony smokes his cigar, king of all he surveys. It goes from sad to powerful. It may be the best use of a song in a tv series ever…except maybe Twin Peaks.
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In dream # 2 in Dr. Melfi’s office, Tony sees Annalisa speaking in Melfi’s voice. In the episode Commendatori in the Cave of the Sibyl, Tony reads that the oracle speaks with a different voice when she has visions.
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Love your analyses as I’m re-watching for the third time or so, Ron! Thank you for doing these! Question, do you have any thoughts on why Meadow ended up choosing to go to Columbia as opposed to Berkeley? It seemed a bit glossed over in the series in my opinion, unless I’m missing something.
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Thanks. I don’t think we ever really learn why Mead chose Columbia but it makes sense from a storytelling perspective—she’s close enough for Chase to continue incorporating her into the narrative..
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She went to a ‘local’ university rather than going to the opposite side of the country as, even though she criticises and mocks her parents and their lifestyle, ultimately she was unwilling or unable to actually break free from her background and upbringing for a liberal, west coast university where she could have established a new identity away from her family. This is confirmed at the end of the series when she reverts to being a lawyer to defend criminals and ends up with Patsy’s son, as well as on the occasions when she defends her father’s business at Jackie’s wake and to Finn etc. Ultimately, she reverted to what she knew.
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Few stray thoughts for another amazing autopsy—
Dreams/hallucinations, betrayal, sickness: Davey’s move to Nevada to start anew feels connected to Tony’s later “trip” to Vegas, where he goes to purge the Christopher curse. He takes peyote (known to make you puke) and proclaims, “I see everything!”
FWIW: In Nevada, brothels are often called bunny ranches.
The Real Thing: Don’t want to go so far as to say we’re reading too much into the Coke thing, but Coca-Cola is a tonic and an elixir. In 30+ years of migraine-induced vomiting, Coca-Cola is the only thing my stomach can stomach. No other cola matches the Real Thing. I know this is true for many other people, too, and seeing Tony drink it in that state adds a palpable sense of realism and captures the regularness of being sick to perfection.
Now this is definitely reading into it too much: Richie was Tony’s distraction from Pussy’s betrayal. Richie had his crew selling coke on their routes. Coca-Cola’s original formula contained cocaine (or is that an urban legend?). But poor Richie- you won’t be seeing him no more- is gone and so the agita over Pussy returns. Therefore, drink Coke to get over the Pussy-induced sickness, which was caused by another opiate, heroin, in the first place.
BTW: Vito Corleone called it… drugs are bad for business.
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This blog has highlighted so many things that I had hitherto been blind to. However, one thing I feel is not given enough attention is that The Sopranos constantly makes reference to is how we are all a product of our environments and it is very difficult to break free from the mould that was determined by our upbringing and other circumstances. The most obvious example is Tony himself and how his parent’s behaviour as well as the time and background of the time he grew up in, ended up determining the path of his life and the choices he is forced (or chooses) to make, in so many ways.
Even the guy in the Members Only jacket in Holstein’s who bears a resemblance to Jonny Boy Soprano – it always suggests to me that our past is inescapable and looms over us as adults, despite our other achievements and successes in life. Ultimately, Tony couldn’t escape his past – the panic attacks, the ‘life is a big nothing’ nihilism of his mother, the criminal lifestyle he was drawn to…even the guy who may have killed him in Holstein’s looked like his dad!
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👍
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Those who are critics of Chase’s use of dream sequences on this series, simply don’t get it. Perhaps they’re more accustomed to clear cut, cream puff dream sequences that TV shows have used for years, and have a hard time relating to the surrealistic nature of ‘The Sopranos’ use of dream sequences (which seemed to get better with each passing season, leading to the Coma Dream). Chase’s dreams closely resemble how people dream. Dreams don’t have a linear narrative, they’re usually a play on one’s subconsciousness. The settings are atypical and characters in dreams can change or intertwine with others.
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👍
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In S1, after Chrissy kills Emil, Pussy corrects the line “Luca B sleeps with the fishes” when Chrissy malaprops it. A foreshadowing perhaps?
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Great tribute to James Gandolfini…
I can so relate! I’m autistic, have wanted to be a director since I was a little kid, and always felt closest to my favorite artists. In the past, I would often go back to a favorite musician’s or filmmaker’s work I hadn’t revisited in awhile, then hear, within minutes or hours, that they had a new project coming out, as if I’d sensed something coming. But I always chocked it up to coincidence…
After several years of not watching The Sopranos, in 2013, I decided to watch an all day marathon. A few hours in, the news of Jim’s death came thru from a friend’s phone call… I was devastated. I’d been a fan of his for almost 20 years at that point.
Then the same exact thing happened when Philip Seymour Hoffman died – I was watching “The Master”. And then, I heard about Robin Williams’ death immediately after screening “Dead Poet’s Society”(!!!!). That was all within a little over a year…
Definitely gave me chills, and made me think, when it kept happening… especially about the idea of “connectivity” you keep referring to.
I’m rewatching the series now in anticipation of “Many Saints Of Newark”, and I’m so glad to have found your episode analysis to read along as I go… very much looking forward to your breakdown of “Made In America”, one of the great hours of cinema ever!
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Thanks James
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James – Let’s hope that no one from MSON keels over or commits ‘hari-kari’! 😉
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Someone may have already mentioned this, but when Tony gives Carmella the sable coat, it’s in something very similar to a body bag. Tony jokes about not getting air in it as he unzips it. As Pussy’s body sinks down into the ocean in a a body bag, we see that there is air in the bag still.
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This is my favorite episode of the series. Great storyline, awesome photography, Tony’s food poisoning and bizarre dreams, Pussy’s death at the hands of his 3 best friends, Livia being held at airport security, Tony’s arrest, and family love. What I found absolutely heartbreaking was the final scene – the overlay of garbage men, an unknown man walking into a porn shop, thousands of dollars spilling onto a poker table, Meadow’s graduation ceremony and party, pictures and videos of people at the Sopranos’ home, Tony smoking a cigar while Carmela looks on, and a last view of the ocean’s waves crashing onshore. Excellent episode, from the beginning until the end! 😎
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Famous last words:
“I always wanted a house by the ocean. Maybe in another life”.
▪ Big Pussy
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After reading that Springsteen is now an old man and that the qualities that he celebrated are qualities that we are no longer very proud of; It reminds me that time passes on – what we once thought would last forever as foundational principles just fades and the next generation’s belief system begins to overlay the previous generation. Being a 56 year old person that came of age thru the 70s and 80s, as Tony Soprano once said – It’s good to be in a thing from the ground floor. I came too late for that – but lately I’m getting the feeling I might be in at the end.That the best is over…Today, what do we got
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Hi Ron, I’ve recently finished rewatching the Sopranos for the second time (as you can guess I’m a younger viewer — I wasn’t old enough to witness this series as it came out). But again, far-more than on my first watch, I’m left feeling something akin to grief (perhaps an exaggeration!) at leaving Sopranoworld. Nevertheless, and at risk of sounding overly sentimental, I’ll continue to treasure my memories of this incomparable series; your blog has played a key role in enriching my viewing experience, and enabling me to continue finding new pleasures in each episode. So thank you!—for all your efforts and meticulous attention to detail, in which you analyse each episode.
This is a special episode (even by the Sopranos’ standards), and as you note, made even more poignant by James Gandolfini’s passing.
Jim’s passing made me think of that great Pogues’ song, that captures a final send-off of Viking proportions: “Body of an American”. Specifically the line— “Big Jim Dwyer made his last trip to the shores where his fathers lay”—seems peculiarly fitting, particularly poetic, almost as if the Pogues wrote these lyrics with the big man in mind.
Best regards,
Michael.
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Thanks Michael 👍
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Apologies that this post isn’t about the episode being discussed. I’m doing a rewatch of the whole series at the moment. With each viewing, I see something new, something subtle I missed previously. My rewatch brought me to this blog. I’m very much enjoying it – the different interpretations, views, and insights.
Never have I been so shocked and distressed over the death of someone I didn’t know as I was over James G’s passing.
David Chase said, ” He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time… Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that”
Yes, we know it, Mr.Chase. How we do know it! The first time I saw him was in a rather small part as Virgil, the hitman in “True Romance”. I had no idea who he was but I was transfixed by him as he managed to be so jovial and so terrifying at the same time. He had a presence not often seen in that when he was on-screen, the viewer could not look away from him. He will be forever missed.
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Cool movie and a great role for Gandolfini..
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Your take on Asbury Park is backwards. In Springsteen’s heyday it was a failed city – high unemployment, racial tension (actual riots), drug hotspots, etc. Now it is well on its way to gentrification. New construction, trendy restaurants, revitalized boardwalk….
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Before “Bust Out” I had never heard of the frog and the scorpion parable Tony uses in response to Davey Scatino’s question, “Why’d you let me play?” Even after I found out what it was, it didn’t make sense in this context because in the parable the scorpion stings the frog as they make their way across the river and they both drown, whereas after letting Davey gamble his entire life away, Tony just seemed to bleed Davey’s business dry and continue on his way. But in this episode the parable plays all the way out when Tony gets busted for the illegal airline tickets.
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Haha yes
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Hi, I just finished watching this episode and for some reason I can’t forget how Tony calls Pussy with “You beached whale” for a few times in S1 (I don’t think it’s mentioned again in S2? I’m not sure). It’s pretty interesting that he’s got this allusion to fish/sea since the beginning; and when Pussy’s body was wrapped up in black and the three were pushing him over the boat’s end: he did look like a beached whale being returned to sea. This beached whale detail really made me think, I wonder if you think this is a relevant connection or maybe I’m reading into it too much? Haha.
Thank you for the wonderful write-ups by the way, I enjoy reading them and I learn a lot of new things.
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