Tensions grow between Tony and Ralphie.
Meadow is smitten with Jackie Jr. while Tony grows
interested in a Mercedes Benz saleswoman.
Episode 34 – Originally Aired April 15, 2001
Written by Robin Green, Mitch Burgess and Todd Kessler
Directed by Allen Coulter
___________________________________
“He is risen,” says Aaron Arkaway, Janice’s new Christian boyfriend, during Thanksgiving dinner at the Soprano home. This is an adage commonly heard on Easter, the day that Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The joke here comes from the fact that this episode originally aired on Easter Sunday, 2001.
In the previous episode, Dr. Krakower made an implicit critique of Catholicism because the faith required Carmela to turn a blind eye to her husband’s criminality. “He is Risen” may be continuing a criticism of Christianity: Aaron Arkaway does worse than turn a blind eye to his dinner host, he can’t even keep his eyes open. Narcoleptic Arkaway is perhaps a good representative of the Christian Right that was surging to power in the early 21st century: well-intentioned, good-hearted, earnestly faithful, but also, a bit clueless. George W. Bush took office only months before this episode aired, winning the White House with the support of Evangelicals. If Arkaway is meant to embody the Christian Right (and I’m not certain that he is, at least as he appears in this season), it is understandable that Chase would play the character for laughs as the far Right had not yet fully exhibited its darker side. (Actor/comedian Turk Pipkin injects the perfect amount of goofiness into the character.) When this episode first aired in pre-9/11 2001, many moderate Americans were not taking the Right seriously enough to recognize the major influence that neo-conservatives would soon have on American culture. (The neo-conservatives’ tabloid interest in Bill Clinton’s sex life just a few years earlier and then the Legislature’s circus-like proceedings to impeach the President squandered much of the Right’s reputation for sobriety and serious-mindedness.) However, when Aaron Arkaway reappeared in Season 6, which ran during Bush’s second term, there is little doubt that he was meant to embody the Christian Right—and he was not played for laughs this time. There was nothing funny in 2006 about the far Right’s homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, anti-environmentalism, “creationism,” imperialism, Machiavellianism, and unilateral militarism. Dick Cheney sucked too.
TONY IS RISEN
This episode is not about the risen Christ, but about the rise of various characters in SopranoWorld. We can start with Tony, who is taking a more active role as Boss while Corrado fights cancer. Like many real-world, legitimate business executives, Tony is reading The Art of War. (I don’t know why Melfi would recommend Sun Tzu’s book to him—does she want him to be a more effective mobster?) Tony prefers this work to Machiavelli’s The Prince (which he mangles, in the greatest malapropism of the season, into “Prince Matchabelli”). Tony is interested in this literature because his issues with Ralph are putting his leadership skills to the test. Ralph is reluctant to pay Tony the respect that he is due when they see each other at a gambling den. We might note that the old cowboy song “(Ghost)Riders in the Sky” plays in the background here, giving the scene the vibe of an Old West showdown:
Consigliere Silvio suggests to Tony that he must apologize to Ralph. Tracee was not Tony’s goomar nor his blood-relative, he therefore had no right to smack Ralphie after the woman’s murder. The idea of apologizing to Ralph Cifaretto doesn’t sit well with Tony. And on top of everything else, Ralph’s continual disrespect to capo Gigi might lead to a full-scale mutiny in Gigi’s crew. Tony goes to Corrado for advice. The wily old goat has some wise counsel for his nephew:
Tony: So what’s the fuckin’ answer?
Corrado: Who says there is one? That’s what being a boss is. You steer the ship the best way you know. Sometimes it’s smooth, sometimes it’s rough. In the meantime, you find your pleasures where you can.
Sage advice, particularly because his words reflect one of the most fundamental characteristics of the series: uncertainty. Corrado almost functions as the mouthpiece for David Chase here. As the “boss” of The Sopranos, Chase fashioned SopranoWorld to be a place where cut-and-dry answers are not always available.
RALPH IS RISEN
Meanwhile, Ralph is being advised by old goat Johnny Sac. John had assured Tony that he would not stick his beak in New Jersey affairs, but he tries to act as a mediator between Tony and Ralph here. Ralph meets with John in his backyard as Ginny stops by on her way out to physical therapy:
In my screengrab, Ralph is completely eclipsed by overweight Ginny—you can’t even see him back there. John insinuates that it was Ginny’s vocation as a dancer when she was younger that necessitates her need for therapy now, but we (and Ralph) can guess that her obesity is the true cause of her aching joints. In later episodes, John will feel an uncontrollable rage toward Ralph because of his fat-joke about Ginny, but right now, John wants to smooth things out between Ralph and Tony. Unfortunately, John may actually be making the situation worse by giving Ralph a false picture of how Tony feels. The tension mounts between the two men, and each one is seriously thinking of killing the other.
A death does occur to relieve some of the tension—but it’s not Tony or Ralph that dies. Gigi Cestone passes away while sitting on the toilet (the most banal death imaginable—especially for a gangster). A camera-pan confirms that the other guys in Gigi’s crew (Eugene, Vito, Donny K.) are not fit to replace him, and so Tony must give the vacant spot to Ralph. Cifaretto rises to the position of Captain. But this does not mean that all is now well in SopranoLand. Tony hates that he had to promote Ralph, while Ralph is suspicious that he received a promotion not because he merited it but because Gigi “blew a gasket.”
JACKIE IS RISEN
Jackie Jr. has been hanging around the periphery of the episodes all season long, we’ve caught snippets of him here and there. Now that he and Meadow are embarking on a relationship, his arc within the overall narrative is rising. Jackie gives Meadow Ecstasy and tries to get more involved with her, but she is not very receptive, at least at first. Jackie is nothing like smarty-pants Ivy-Leaguer Noah, he’s essentially a goombah from the old neighborhood. This is probably the reason why Carmela is so put-off by the idea of her daughter having a relationship with him. Carmela has been doing all she can to give her daughter every advantage, even choosing to remain married to a criminal who can finance Meadow’s college education, but Mead may undermine all her efforts by hooking up with a wannabe mobster. (Carmela may also be worried by what happened the last time a Soprano and an Aprile got together—one of them [Richie] ended up in a garbage bag.) Jackie and Meadow are finally brought together by a car accident when she crashes his beloved Chevy Z24 and he reacts with a surprising amount of sensitivity and concern.
Chase cuts from this scene to the next scene with a graphic match, shooting the characters through their car windows:
Like Meadow and Jackie, Tony too is embarking on a new relationship. And like his daughter’s new romance, it is, ostensibly, a car that precipitates Tony’s new affair; he arrives at the Mercedes dealership seemingly interested in an SL coupe, but it is really saleswoman Gloria Trillo that he is after. Gloria oozed sexuality when he first met her in Melfi’s waiting room, her long beautiful legs flowing out from her sleek and sexy black outfit. Previously, the most dramatic shots of legs in this room were those of Melfi’s sculpture which had graphically “trapped” Tony in the first episode and then Carmela in last week’s episode:
Gloria uses those luscious legs to trap Tony in a wild, tumultuous affair. Gloria represents a trap to Carmela as well—Carm is trapped in a marriage with a chronic adulterer. In the previous episode, Carmela made the decision to stay with her criminal/philanderer husband despite Dr. Krakower’s advice to leave him. Now, just one episode later, her husband is embarking on a new infidelity. Chris Moltisanti suffered a similar irony in Season Two. In 2.07, Tony gave Chris an opportunity to leave the mob. Chris chose to stay, and in the following episode, he was shot multiple times. Like Chris, Carmela cannot escape the writers’ sense of irony.
DOUBLE-SCHEDULED
In The Psychology of The Sopranos, psychiatrist Glen Gabbard wonders if it is more than a coincidence that Tony and Gloria Trillo meet each other at Dr. Melfi’s office:
Double-scheduling patients is relatively rare for therapists who are reasonably organized. Placing Mr. Womanizer and Ms. Slutola in the same waiting room at precisely the same moment could hardly be an accident. How do we understand this “scheduling error”? What is Jennifer up to?…Might Jennifer be acting out her own sexual wishes through her patient?
Dr. Gabbard points out that Jennifer Melfi might still be in a fragile state after being raped a few weeks ago and might still long for Tony to be her big, strong protector. Rather than cross a professional boundary directly, she is (subconsciously) using Gloria Trillo to fulfill her own wishes. Dr. Gabbard may be on to something, or he may be reading way too much into a simple scheduling mistake. (But who am I to criticize someone for reading way too much into The Sopranos?)
___________________________________
THE CAPTAIN
The final shot of the episode is one of the most impressive of the season:
This final shot, scored to Kasey Chambers’ “The Captain,” pulls together several of the hour’s storylines. The phallically named boat (The Stugots) and the sleek, sexy black coupe, so neatly aligned with one another, seem to somehow represent Tony and Gloria in their new relationship. The image of the boat, aboard which Tony has taken control of this new romance, recalls Corrado’s earlier advice to “steer the ship” and “find your pleasures where you can.” Chambers’ song is most obviously used to refer to Ralph’s rise to Captain, but it also reinforces the idea of Tony as a “Captain” who is gaining control of his life both on and off his yacht. The song lyrics also sound like they could be sung by Gloria Trillo, particularly its chorus: “You be the Captain, and I’ll be no one.” Despite her nicely assembled exterior, Gloria suffers from a profound emptiness and lack of identity at her core. Tony will discover later that a philosophy of nothingness rules her life.
___________________________________
ADDITIONAL POINTS:
- Aaron Arkaway sleeps through most of his scenes in this episode, but in real life, actor Turk Pipkin is a very active guy; he’s a TV writer, author, filmmaker, activist and comedian.
- Chase is an equal-opportunity offender. Aaron Arkaway may represent Chase’s criticism of the Right, but in the previous episode, Chase seemed to utilize Dr. Krakower to criticize the feel-good psychology and relativist ethics so often found on the Left.
- Actor John Fiore (“Gigi Cestone”) hosted a corny documentary called The Sopranos Unauthorized. He says of his character’s death on the toilet, “Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.“
- Silvio says that “Don ‘Something,’ producer of The Simpsons” died on the toilet too. He’s thinking of Don Simpson, producer of several hit movies including Top Gun and Flashdance.
- Christ may have risen 2000 years ago but he hasn’t appeared since. I guess Reverend James (who we saw previously in 2.02 and 3.02) has gotten tired of waiting and turns to Tony instead of the Lord to provide: he shows up at the Bing now to get a share of stolen turkeys.
-
Emily VanDerWerff provides a very thoughtful, almost poetic, write-up for this episode over at avclub.com. I won’t get into it here other than to note her observation that when Tony and Gloria exit Globe Motors, they drive against the road sign. Right from its inception, this relationship is headed in the wrong direction:
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Sopranos Autopsy 
I also found it interesting, that when Jackie Jr came into the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of cereal and begins talking with Ralpie. The cereal he is partaking in is clearly shown to be Trix. First thing that came to my mind seeing that was the cereals slogan “…Trix are for kids” Take from that what you will haha
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I thought Ja-Ju was an utter creep in this episode. Sure, he managed to stop himself from raping Meadow while she was asleep, but he seemed perfectly happy to do it while she was drunk, high, and protesting! And that scene towards the end where he was suddenly concerned about Meadow seemed to me like he was just trying to put on a show of the big protector to get in her good books (and possibly Tony’s, too, if he can pin the X on someone else). Maybe, like the people who thought Carm was faking depression in the last episode, this interpretation says more about the one making it than the actual characters.
I got ‘hoofer’ confused with ‘heifer’, so that Johnny Sac line had me thinking that his wife used to be even larger, and was making a conscious effort to loose weight (which would make Ralph’s later infamous Joke even more cruel).
Was Dr Melfi closing the door on Tony a cute Godfather nod, or am I rethinking it?
As for the politics – good on you, Ron! It’s hardly like the show is apolitical, and I don’t see why people should be cowed from putting their views out in public for fear of offending people who seem more than happy to declare that some people are going to be tortured by God forever and therefore shouldn’t be allowed civil rights or public recognition.
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Oh! And I was convinced that the meeting with Gloria was a dream. I mean, come on – fishnets? Really? Even I’ve never worn fishnets, and my wardrobe was recently listed as an historical landmark of terrible sartorial choices.
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😆
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She’s dressed sexy to make the sales. My sister used to work for a car dealer, and if she was dressed provocatively, she made more money. It’s common when you work on commission or for tips. No shame in that.
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how can there be no shame when people are ashamed of it
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cows and pigs have hoofs
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Dylan – And so do horses.
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Absolutely! I love that Ron isn’t afraid to analyze the show thru politics, considering, as you said, the show was hardly apolitical… I don’t know how anyone with a firm grasp of the series, who’s lived thru the last 5 years especially – but really since the show started in ’99 – who couldn’t see its MAJOR relevance to America today. I’d venture to say, no other work of pop culture the last two decades has as much to say about America in our time, from the so-called “War On Terror” to the disgraceful, appalling stain on our nation that is Donald Trump and his MAGA cult.
Unfortunately, it only becomes more relevant as time passes…
I’m not surprised at all that one phenomenon of the pandemic was a ton of people watching the show for the first time. It only seems appropriate, as it helps to explain how we got here…
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He did however, take a character who was on screen for about two and a half minutes and assign him a vast and meandering political meaning over the course of some 400 words. Ron’s excellent in most of his analysis but perhaps he should get a little counseling from Dr. Melli for his apophenia on this one
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I had a lot to say about Kennedy and Heidi and they were onscreen for less than 10 seconds
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Well Ron did mention that the Arkaway character is on screen much longer in a later season where his politics become clearer than is presented during the audience’s initial peek. So I assume he’s reading backwards Chase’s initial intentions based on later knowledge. And it’s not the first time he’s done so in these reviews (he does it with Gloria too) and I don’t see anything wrong with that. Most people here now are seeing the show for at least the 2nd time and so are not concerned about spoilers from future episodes.
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I also love the song choice of the captain, I wrote an essay chronicling my admiration for the song. I hope you like it.
http://markmanson.net/forum/Thread-The-Captain?highlight=Captain
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Dick Cheney for President.. of the fuckin Universe
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Spare us the politics, man. “Dick Cheney sucked” isn’t criticism.
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Jackie Jr. peaking down Meadow’s blouse when passed out makes me think of season 2 when Tony brings up to Richie the antics he’d pulled on Janice when they were teenagers. Those Apriles. Jackie Jr. and the Jewish friend slinging ecstasy at the party makes me think of Tony and Hesh in the wonder years.
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Also as part of Chase’s more direct criticism of the Christian Right in season 6, as someone pointed out at the Sopranos usenet group years ago, he has Aaron Arkaway wearing a shirt that says “You Go Girl” when visiting Tony at the hospital, a reference to Terri Schiavo. Arkaway was at the hospital as part of a protest over the termination of a pharmacist for refusing to fill a birth control order. Yes, by this point in the Bush presidency, the Christian Right renaissance was well beyond spreading the mere “good news” that Christ has risen.
Speaking of Tony botching “Matchabelli”, how about that he also tells Melfi he had Carmela get him the book’s Cliffnotes?
The bright neon colors of the frat party with the rave techno music that opened the episode cuts to the dark, mid 20th century decor of an underground mob casino, scored with Frankie Valli’s “Rag Doll”
“Dr. Gabbard points out that Jennifer Melfi might still be in a fragile state after being raped a few weeks ago and might still long for Tony to be her big, strong protector. Rather than cross a professional boundary directly, she is (subconsciously) using Gloria Trillo to fulfill her own wishes. Dr. Gabbard may be on to something, or he may be reading way too much into a simple scheduling mistake. (But who am I to criticize someone for reading way too much into The Sopranos?)”
Somewhat disturbing, yet somehow titillating at the same time. One of the trademarks of this show.
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I am from Australia and I actually played Australian Rules Football with the guy who the song was written about (he was Captain of a team in Alice Springs and was Chambers boyfriend when she wrote it). It’s a great song but unfortunately I crack up everytime I hear it now.
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As I watched this episode today, it seemed like Melfi’s reaction to Tony talking about Ralph was far more casual than it should have been. Tony says, “normally, I’d put him out to pasture” – clearly a euphemism for murder, and Melfi listens as if he’s just describing another dysfunctional family issue. Tony also says that Ralph “caused an early retirement” – also an obvious reference to murder. To her credit, Melfi does stop to ask if Tony is in any danger, but she refrains from commenting critically on Tony’s actions. If I remember correctly, Melfi was a lot more cautious in the first two seasons. In this episode she seems more passive. Now normally I just skip “Employee of the Month” because it’s such a brutal episode, so I’m not exactly caught up on how that dynamic plays out in further episodes. I wonder if she’s too shocked to notice Tony’s brutality anymore. She also explicitly tells Kupferberg that she views Tony as a protector.
One of my favorite aspects of the show is how Tony and Melfi influence each other – taking on each others’ language or behavior from time to time.
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Yeah I love how Tony and Melfi “recycle” each others words. In “46 Long,” Melfi mentions Cap d’Antibes and Tony later tells his mother about a “Captain Teebs…”
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Ron – And he also tells her that she can be inspiring (or something to that effect).
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I think Melfi is still recovering from her rape. That is why she botched the scheduling. I dislike trying to guess what they are thinking . When you hear what people are actually thinking and feeling it ccan be surprising how banal and simple they are. It’s very easy to see how drinking, the trauma of the rape, her fear of Tony can cloud Melfi’s judgement
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Yes that’s possible
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I agree. Occam’s razor can often apply to tv shows although that can be a function of the style of the show runner. It wouldn’t work well with David Lynch, for example. Speaking of William of Occam, Umberto Eco discusses our modern struggles with “Interpretation and Overinterpretation” in his Tanner lectures.
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Maybe you should start another blog for your worthless political whining and fedora tipping. Otherwise you might want to send your daughter and your wife’s son to volunteer at a refugee camp instead.
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“Chase is an equal-opportunity offender. Aaron Arkaway may represent Chase’s criticism of the Right, but in the previous episode, Chase seemed to utilize Dr. Krakower to criticize the feel-good psychology and relativist ethics so often found on the Left.”
I guess you didn’t make it past the second paragraph…
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Don’t even indulge them. I feel bad for true conservatives because they are lumped in with racists and bigots most of the time.
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Jesus, got enough -isms there Rob? You write like this is your first Psych 101 paper.
I think you forgot to add racist, too.
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I’ll assume you’re addressing me because I don’t see any “Rob” here. I could have added “racism” but that’s sort of covered already by “xenophobia.”
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My my, It’s kinda like Tony confusing Melfi’s names and descriptions…twice, Rob! 😏😉
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hahaha
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One moment I found interesting in the episode was one of colors and framing:go to about the 20 minute mark of the episode. Tony gets up from the couch, uninterested in the game. He walks in front of the dining room table. He is wearing black, and there is a paper turkey decoration in orange. It’s eye catching and round. Cut to Tony’s POV: Carmela with the turkey, moves aside revealing Meadow, wearing another eye-catching orange, and showing off her own rounded curves. Combined with Meadow’s preparing of some kind of bread, Tony is cued in to a memory of Tracee. As already established in “University”, Tony associates Tracee with Meadow in a way that Tony now becomes entirely conscious of. He has that moment when, as a father, he realizes that his daughter is now a woman; he realizes she is vulnerable to the same sorts of predator that destroyed Tracee. Like a turkey, she would be nothing but a piece of meat to a man like Ralphie.
And the episode actually plays with our expectations about Jackie as well – living in Ralphie’s shadow, we are made to wonder in this episode if he harbors the same capacity for brutality to women. Early in the episode, Jackie is clearly tempted to go too far with a helpless Meadow in a defenseless stupor. He creepily ogles her body, then clearly thinks better of it and leaves her in peace. We can’t tell in that moment whether it’s because he truly respects her, or if he’s merely afraid of retribution by her father if he were to rape her. Several other scenes with Jackie in the episode add to our uncertainty: his ecstasy connection to Ralphie (X being the drug that rendered Meadow defenseless, and Ralphie being a misogynistic killer; the links are clear), and his second attempt to get fresh with her in his car, which (unlike Tony’s automotive dalliance) goes nowhere to his frustration. All this is set up for the final scene with her wrecking Jackie’s car: we are primed to expect Jackie to emulate Ralphie. Indeed, if a woman had defied Ralphie, refused him repeatedly, and then stolen AND wrecked his car, we can guess what Ralphie would do. And it would not be to display tender concern for her well-being. Ralphie would probably have beaten her up, boss’s daughter or no. By responding differently, Jackie defies the expectation that the entire episode has been building in us and shows that he’s not under Ralphie’s influence.
The links between cars and romance, or lust, in this episode are interesting to me as well. While Jackie’s car is intact, he seems more interested in Meadow’s body. He sighs with frustration when she makes him stop, and offensively chides her for having gone farther with a black guy than with him. Later, when his car is wrecked, he finally shows all the concern for her that was absent in the earlier scene. Conversely, Tony’s interest in Gloria Trillo is unapologetically shallow and is returned enthusiastically in kind. The sparks fly the moment their eyes meet in the waiting room and it is clear she is receptive. Later, when he sees the Mercedes ad on TV, it’s seconds after Carm trudges into the bedroom in a frumpy bathrobe; the advertisement is glitzy, full of CGI and special effects, the sort of ad that whispers to men around middle age that a new, sexy car will revitalize their flagging vitality. Tony’s decision to “get a new car” is of course a front from the start. Right there in the bedroom is the moment when he has already decided to make Gloria his new mistress. And unlike Jackie his doesn’t get wrecked, so the fling is consummated. In the motel room with Gloria, Tony is like a kid in a candy shop, grinning and jumping on the bed. Compare this to his glum and morose expressions throughout the episode. His scenes with Gloria are some of the only truly sincere smiles we see on him all episode.
I think I tend to agree with the theory that Dr. Melfi may have, at least unconsciously, set the two of them up. But the immediate result, at least in the short term, is to put a big smile on Tony’s face. Perhaps this was a self-protective move on Melfi’s part? She spoke to her own psychiatrist about how she is having difficulty bearing up under the stress of coping with her own trauma in addition to her patients’ problems. Could she be throwing Gloria into Tony’s lap as a way of making Tony’s stress and depression easier, not for him, but for Melfi herself to bear dealing with?
Final thought on the episode: I can’t get over Tony’s stupidity in continuing to antagonize Ralphie to no purpose. Of course, Ralphie is a shit and I can’t imagine any viewer not wanting him dead after “University”. But as we have seen time and again, Tony stays on top because he remembers *this is business*. For Pete’s sake, he personally killed Big Pussy, who was “like a brother to [him]”. It wouldn’t kill him to swallow his feelings and have a polite drink with a new capo. But instead he throws yet another insult in Ralphie’s face, to no purpose. Despite all his boasting about the strategies of Sun Tzu, this is one of those moments when Tony allows his pride and ego to lead him into a boneheaded move. It’s doubtful whether he could truly have made an ally of Ralphie no matter what he did, but this final insult guaranteed that the beef with Ralphie would continue to simmer. Tony makes his own unhappiness; in fact, I think he’s one of those depressives who unconsciously behave in self-destructive ways. By undermining his own working relationship with a new capo, Tony is setting himself up for failure.
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Although I agree with your observation that Tony often exhibits self-destructive behaviors, I disagree with your opinion that he is being “boneheaded” or that his ego drives his decision to continue to treat Ralphie with disdain. I believe that, even for some mobsters (like Tony), what Ralphie did is simply too much to stomach. Shooting a FBI informant, best friend or no, can be viewed as “business”. Being chummy and having a friendly drink with a guy who literally bashed a young woman’s head in until she died- who was also pregnant with his child- goes way beyond what Tony can shrug off & set aside for the sake of “business”. It’s not his ego. It’s not pride. It’s certainly not stupidity. It is the part of Tony Soprano that makes a part of us love him: his humanity.
And quite frankly, I think there is something intrinsically wrong with a person who cannot grasp the utter disgust Tony feels & his near incapacity to even look at Ralphie without punching him again. I can’t believe you tried to compare Ralphie’s actions with Pussy’s.
Seriously?
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I agree with your interpretation of Tony, HappyMask. But you went to far with the “intrinsically wrong” comment.
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Watched the episode again last night – just realised it’s Thanksgiving week 🙂 Another great episode, and Gigi’s ‘Shpackle in my bowels’ line is one of my favourites in the series.
Of course Gigi’s untimely demise is one of those moments of fate that works nicely in Tony’s favour. Without that, it would have been interesting to see how the Ralphie situation would have ended up. And we know Tony can be petty so it’s not surprising how he behaves (of course once Ralphie is made captain and offers Tony a drink, as one final FU Tony just gets up and leaves).
Have to admit the idea of Melfi setting up Tony and Gloria together never occurred to me, that is an interesting one!
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Happy – Amen! You’re right – Tony was absolutely disgusted with Ralph, not only for brutally beating Tracee to death, but also for bombing garbage trucks and usurping Tony (ignoring ‘orders’, etc.). I loved the way the camera panned across the faces of the ‘losers crew’ (Eugene, etc.); looks like Tony had no choice but to promote Ralph. Of course, ‘carrot top’ does get his comeuppance (in all of its gloriously gory detail)! 😉
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I don’t believe Melfi made a mistake with apointment schedule. Gloria knew Tony would be there all along. Tony mentions her to his uncle and their grandfather’s knew each other back in the day and did business. When they’re at the zoo it cut’s to Tony and Paulie talking about snakes and theirs mention of Eve and the apple. Whether she knew it or not, Gloria gravitates towards what’s destructive. When she tells Tony at the zoo, “poor you” he falters and his expression changes to utter dread, she probably reminded him of Livia. He compares her to Livia in Pine Barrens. So, no…I think Gloria showed up at Tonys appointment to meet him, the revealing sexy legs and the way she turns around after he gives her the gift, she looks cunning. She’s a snake that wants to consume and be consumed. Notice how Tony mistakes Elton John’s concert for, “he eats her” and Paulies talk about snakes fucking themselves. Later in Pine Barrens she says to Tony whiles he’s choking her, “kill me kill me….” I think she’s one of the most tragic figures on the show
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Halfway through this one- Just thinking about the scheduling mistake (having never really thought about it before). In terms of psychoanalysis, there isn’t really a question of either reading too much into something and there is (generally) always a reason behind every ‘accident’. The read on the scheduling ‘error’ is really interesting.
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Tom – I, too, question why Tony and Gloria showed up for their appointments on the same day/time. At first, I thought Dr. Melfi made a mistake. However, previous close-ups of her appointment book always show Tony’s name written in large initials ‘T.S.’, and there’s no room for someone else’s name for that time slot. So, two possibilities; Melfi either forgot to write down Tony’s name OR she deliberately ‘set up’ Gloria and Tony to meet each other. If it was the latter case, perhaps she was setting them up to physically or psychologically harm one another OR she, herself, temporarily went psychotic due to her trauma (rape), unresolved issues (frustration) with Tony, and/or increasingly heavy alcohol intake.
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Ron — this is an absolutely brilliant “post mortem” of an absolutely brilliant show. I have also been so impressed by the quality of the writebacks. Unfortunately, it is diminished by your rather gratuitous political screed at the top, so lacking in your typical nuance. It is very difficult in contemporary America to escape this stuff, and heretofore I thought I had found it in your site. I write this as a conservative who thought AT THE TIME, contrary to the daily beating of the war drums by the New York Times, that invading Iraq was possibly the dumbest, most un-conservative thing this country has ever done. My advice: Stick to what you do best. Respectfully.
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Agreed, respectfully
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Ok, perhaps I can be a bit more nuanced in how I draw out the political issues that I think are in The Sopranos, but then there is this: yesterday, Dictionary.com chose “complicit” as their 2017 word of the year. Their rationale: “The word complicit has sprung up in conversations this year about those who speak out against powerful figures and institutions and about those who stay silent.” We all understand that the subtext here is the Trump presidency, a presidency that exists mainly because we didn’t protest loud enough over the last 20 years against some of the more repugnant elements of the Far Right that rose to power and influence. Yeah, maybe I can be more nuanced…but I would rather go too far than risk being complicit by not going far enough.
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Forgive me, Ron, but I wasn’t aware this was a political protest site masquerading as a Sopranos deconstruction site. Nota bene.
Like most Americans, I too was shocked that Trump was elected president, and I too have been appalled by many of his utterances both on the campaign trail and as president. That said, you assert that Trump is president because of a lack of protest from the Left? I would say exactly the opposite: the Trump election itself WAS a populist protest. Not of Right or Left, but a protest of the entire Establishment/”political class” that has gotten us into this mess. And nobody better exemplifies this than Hillary Clinton. Trump is by no means doctrinaire “Right”. Perhaps the most memorable “policy” aspects of his campaign was immigration, an issue in which both the corrupt Right (business wants low wages) and corrupt Left (Democrats want voters) have conspired against the American people for decades.
And then you lament the “power and influence” of the “Far Right”? Sorry to cut and paste from my earlier writeback, but…how so, exactly? Size of government? The federal debt doubled in the Obama years, and eventually will exceed GDP. Including “off balance sheet” obligations, the real debt is now an estimated $100 trillion. Foreign policy? We have been liberal internationalists/interventionists at least since the Cold War years. The conservative for pol spectrum ranges from realpolitik to isolationism. “Neoconservatives”, as you probably know, are anything but. Social issues? Not to worry, there will still be millions of abortions next year. And we just had an African-American president for eight years who was the most liberal in the history of the office. Health care, almost 20% of the US economy, is on a slow march toward single payor. Conservatives only speak on campuses these days at risk of life and limb. Fed policy has been extremely accommodative (thankfully). The top 1% pay 44% of federal taxes, the top 20% pay 87%, and the bottom 45% pay nothing. In spite of the highest marginal rates dropping, net taxation has become MORE progressive in recent decades, not less. I could go on and on. To sum up: Contrary to your assertion, we have become demonstrably LESS conservative in recent decades in most every way that matters. And we are in a huge mess. I am always wary of post hoc ergo propter hoc, but I must say it is tempting here.
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Iowa, I’ve never asserted that we’ve become more conservative over the decades, I know that we’ve become more progressive. That’s the way of the world, virtually every culture and society in history has become more liberal and progressive over time. (Brace yourself for what the U.S. will look like in 20 years.) When I say power and influence, I’m talking about the undue influence of people like Alex Jones, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Orly Taitz, Bryan Fischer and many others on the Far Right and Alt-Right. Trump’s ugly statements would not be so acceptable to so many Americans if these influential people hadn’t undermined the standard of decency in our country first.
I also did not assert that Trump’s presidency is due to a lack of political protest on the Left – I was very careful to use the word “we” which refers to all of us, people on the Left and the Right and the Middle. Many on the Right including Bill Kristol, George Will, Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham are now protesting what is happening to the Republican Party – but where were their voices 10 years ago, when the rise of nincompoops like Sarah Palin and Steve Bannon made it clear that the party was being hijacked? I would love to see a more conservative—truly conservative—GOP, rather than the counterfeit, wet-cardboard mess that passes for GOP conservatism today. At least then we can have an honest debate over the issues. Don’t you feel any responsibility for allowing Neoconservatives (who are “anything but”) to change the debate from one about issues to one about identity? We should all feel some responsibility for that.
I don’t think it’s fair to characterize Sopranos Autopsy as a political protest site. The vast majority of my political commentary has been down here in the comments sections. I only bring up politics in a write-up if I think that it is something that Chase was getting at in an episode. And in this write-up, I acknowledge that I’m not sure that Chase was getting at Aaron Arkaway’s politics here, but I bring it up nevertheless because it connects to Arkaway’s politics which Chase does get at in episode 6.04. (It’s not very different from me bringing attention to the opening scene of 2.11 because I think it connects to something that will appear later in 6.18.) Nota Bene: I do get more political in Season 6 because I think Chase gets more political in Season 6, but I also do try to remain vigilant against the urge to hijack his series into serving my political outlook…
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Ron, thanks for the civil response.
When you assert that “virtually every culture and society in history has become more liberal and progressive over time”, I’m not quite sure it’s that simple. I would say that in the endeavors of government and economics our greatest “progress” came from ideas that we now call “conservative”. In human economic history, for instance, there has never been a greater force for good than capitalism, in terms of lifting billions of souls out of bondage and serfdom and creating the wealth that allows for so much other “progress”. In government we had a revolution here almost 250 years ago that created the first republic since Rome before the Caesars. The Constitution did not assume “progress” through man’s perfection or even goodness. Rather, it protected man from his own worst impulses. Not all our Founding Fathers believed the same things, of course, but even “liberal” Jefferson said things like “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” Which sounds pretty conservative to my modern ears. Our Founding Fathers, though Radicals, were essentially conservative. What are the greatest “progressive” contributions in the spheres of government and economics, and how do they compare? The New Deal? Great Society? Keynesianism? Single Payor Health Care?
Yes, I have been bracing myself, and undoubtedly will have to continue to do so as we throw away what we have inherited. We debate transgender or service animal bathrooms, and Chinese GDP grows at 3x our rate. We had a Secretary of State who sold foreign policy masquerading as philanthropy. The IRS used its awesome power to harass ideological opponents. But this is not exclusively a partisan issue, it is a “leadership class” issue. Pensioners who worked their whole lives can’t retire on their savings because rates are so low, because the Fed had to save the economy, because of…well, that is a long story. And nobody is ever held accountable. Insanity. Even the Great Unwashed see this. Though I didn’t vote for him, this is why Trump was elected. Whether he can help to stem our decline, and corruption, or actually contribute to it, remains to be seen.
While I am aware they are among the favorite bogeymen of the Left, I do not get your fixation on the “Far Right celebrities” you mention. I am reasonably fluent in this stuff, and have never even heard of Taitz and Fischer. Regarding Alex Jones, whom I would call a minor fringe figure, let’s ask ourselves how a market for him developed in the first place? When people are consistently lied to by their own government, something with which the Fourth Estate is complicit (there’s that word again), demand builds for an alternative. That’s also why Fox News is #1. (As an aside, can you think of a single piece of major legislation in recent years whose Orwellian name did not suggest the opposite of the intent of the law? Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? Taxpayer Relief Act? Patriot Bill? Are you serious?) Shall we consider such figures on the Left as well? Didn’t Maxine Waters, two decades ago, claim that the CIA foisted crack on inner city Blacks? And this is a sitting Congresswoman with far greater status, influence and even faux respectability than any of these “Right” folks.
As much wringing of hands as there is regarding the miniscule White Nationalist population or even more broadly the “alt Right”, I have seen (and even experienced) far more violence and vandalism from the “antifa” people than any of the “alt Right”. For me a snarling teenage girl with a “Smash Facists” [sic] placard, who threatened to smash my car window when I laughed at her inanity, told me all I needed to know about the group. I agree a standard of decency has eroded, but I suppose we will disagree about who started it. There always have been, and always will be, nuts on every side. Furthermore, the decline in civility and even decency is obviously much broader than politics.
The Republican party, like the Democratic party, represents a coalition. Always changing, and sometimes a fragile and self contradictory one. Its purpose is to achieve and hold power, not to be consistent or ideologically pure. When parties nominate ideologically pure candidates, they tend to lose. In a perfect world I would also love to see an actual conservative GOP, but of course it would lose. Big time. Someone like Reagan, who was a very specific personality and who arrived on the scene at a very specific time in 1981, was very much an anomaly. IMHO “neocons” (the most prominent of whom mostly came originally from the Far Left) destroyed the GOP. In this case the contradictions simply could not be overcome, especially on such important issues as Iraq in particular and “Nation building” in general.
I’m not sure exactly what you mean when you mention “identity”, but as you know the poisonous contemporary identity politics is all of the Left. The Right mostly wants to treat everyone equally, as individuals, which not too long ago was the radical notion espoused by MLK.
The remark about “political protest site” was sarcasm based on your earlier statement that “I would rather go too far than risk being complicit by not going far enough”.
I appreciate your open mind. Keep up the good work on the Sopranos.
SOI
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Thanks SOI, that’s a well-reasoned response. I’m not someone who always has to have the last word but there are a coupla three things that I want to respond to. I’m definitely not fixated on far-right celebrities. I mention them because I believe they’re the ones most responsible for tanking our level of civil discourse, which inevitably leads to uncivil policies. Bryan Fischer was a Director at the American Family Association before he was ousted for making nasty and uninformed statements about several minority groups. His ugly influence on the GOP during the 2012 presidential elections was documented by The New Yorker magazine.
When I say that the world generally grows more progressive as time passes, I simply mean that my grandpa opposed interracial marriage but my grandson will not. You say that the Right generally views individuals as individuals the same way that MLK did – maybe that argument would be more believable if you weren’t making it so soon after Thanksgiving. I was reminded yet again (as I’m sure millions of other Americans were) at dinner with the extended family that in general the further Right you are, the more likely you are to see people as members of a tribe and less as individuals.
Finally, I know I opened myself to criticism by saying “I would rather go too far…” But I insist as always that I do make a good-faith effort to find a reasonable balance between editorial and exposition on this site.
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Thanks, Ron, again for the civil discourse. This is the only way we can learn from one another.
With respect to tribalism and our increasingly balkanized culture, I think we need to make a distinction between the actions and attitudes of individuals, and the general philosophy espoused by a group of like-minded people. Would it surprise you to know that I have an “interracial marriage” (my wife would actually say “interspecial”)? Something to which, frankly, I have given very little thought. At my family’s Thanksgiving, for instance, I had extensive conversations with both my uncle, who is a bigot and a conservative, and with my cousin’s husband, who is progressive and ill-informed. But I don’t walk away concluding that “progressives are stupid” (although I obviously disagree with the basic tenets) any more than “conservatives are racist”. Similarly, even though the vast majority of recently outed sexual predators are liberals, I suspect sexual predation is quite independent of political orientation. (Although loudly proclaiming one’s progressivism does indeed provide nice cover for predators.) Rather, the “me too” folks have worked mostly in cultures (media/entertainment) that are predominantly liberal. A generation ago Wall Street, not quite so populated with progressives, went through a similar period with the “boom boom rooms” at Smith Barney and such, and today the Wall Street culture is quite different.
But as to which philosophy is more inclined to espouse and exacerbate tribalism, I think there is no question. Is it conservatives who teach gender, race, ethnic or queer studies in universities? Do conservatives favor “hate laws” that make arbitrary distinctions among victims, based on race, creed and orientation? Do conservatives favor racial/gender preferences/mandates in hiring/school admissions/etc., or generally worship at the altar of our cult of diversity? (A cult which defines diversity in only the most superficial, box-checking terms, and which in fact discourages the only kind of diversity that really matters: intellectual diversity.) If I am masochistic enough to open up the New York Times, the progressive daily newspaper of record, on any given day, literally every single section is infused with balkanizing, divisive articles that hone in on these totemic issues of gender, race, religion, orientation, disability, class, etc. And the list of aggrieved groups just keeps growing: transgendered people, fat people, and now even animals. The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, generally representing “the Right”, mostly avoids this stuff. I am not suggesting these people are unworthy of news stories, only that an obsession with all these different “identities”, constantly pitting “groups” against one another, is extremely unhealthy for our country. Ultimately we are not really so different, and we are all in this together.
Speaking of unhealthy obsessions, can we go back to Gloria?
SOI
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It’s so much worse since you wrote this. About as bad as anyone could possibly have predicted in 2017.
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Bea – I hear you and agree with you. It’s like we’re living in the bowel of hell.
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Carmela isn’t really upset about Tony’s infidelity. She doesn’t like it when they call the house because then she feels like a fool. Like all the other things he does that she knows about but doesn’t see first hand, it only bothers her when it touches her life. As long as she doesn’t know about it, its OK. Even when he gives her a gift for no reason, she knows he’s been with another women. They both know the score, he has to give her presents to make her happy and contented, and she gets to be “The Wife” who profits from his criminality. She can make believe its not happening…just like she thinks she can get have any meaningful relationship with Furio….so ridiculous. Not only that, she feels neglected, but does she really think that Furio will treat her any differently? He’s a killer too, and he is violent towards women as well. Plus, she puts his life in danger by telling Tony..knowing full well he will try to have him killed. He left her so the hell with him…shes really not a nice person.
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A semi-interesting tidbit about the phone calls to the house that you mention: the two times that Irina calls (that I can remember), Carm is in a sensitive state because each time she is dealing with her own extra-marital impulses; in 2.12 she had a crush on Wallpaper Man Vic Musto, and in 4.13 she’s trying to get over her lost opportunity with Furio…
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Meeting Gloria in the therapists office is just a great story line. It makes it interesting because Melfi knows how disturbed Gloria is, and so its like a train wreck. Tony lies and says he there to quit smoking..but it’s very telling that Gloria admits she killed 7 relationships. Red flag ignored.
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Regarding the last shot, no mention of the ducks swimming next to Tony’s boat?
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I thoroughly enjoyed your analysis and the “political debate” which took place in the comments section. Not being a very political show, Chase does at times bring some things to light if we look deeper, or even notice. I for one, being in my early teens to 20s during the airing did not take much notice to politics at that point of my life. Being independent I think both you and iowa brought up some excellent points. I can for one say I absolutely hate the far left and right. As Paulie would say “fuck the two of yas!” I suppose for further reading when Chase touches on politics we can assume we will see more debate! As far as the episode goes, Arkaway is a complete mess! I laugh just thinking of the sight of the guy. I suppose Janice’s new faith in the lord wasn’t bullshit after all. Another complete mess is Jackie Jr. He reminds me of Sean and Matt from season 2. He does have a bit of a conscience when we see him NOT violate Meadow. But was it out of fear- we will never know. I think overall he is influenced by Ralph and as the season goes on its evident through his actions. The regularness of life brings us to an unexpected funeral of Gigi where Tony must make Ralph captain. I completely bought into Melfi double booking Tony and Gloria; since the rape she has been a complete mess and very much not herself. After reading here now I am not so sure. By extension if Melfi intentionally did double book then she is partly responsible for Gloria’s suicide. Interesting. The Gloria character to me was the missing piece when Livia was missing from the show. I enjoy this part of season 3 it really picks up momentum.
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You sure do bash the right a lot. I enjoy your analyses in general, but a few of these write-ups have included long anti-right paragraphs before you even get started on the show. I agree that Chase is probably commentating on the state of the right in this episode, so some commentary is welcome, but did you need to start off this analysis with a giant paragraph bashing the right? By the time I got through that, I was much less interested in hearing what you had to say about the Sopranos. Whether you’re bashing the left or the right, I don’t think it has a place on this blog. Of course, you can say whatever you want on your blog, and that’s why I’ll not be returning for updates. I waited months to read your Fleshy Part of the Thigh analysis and had the same problem with that one. Sure, creationism vs evolution was in the episode so it’s natural you’d want to talk about it, but you went down an anti-right rabbit hole.
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I’m genuinely sorry to hear that you’ve lost interest in my site, but I want to address your comment as well as admit a mistake that I’ve made. I approached the creationism vs evolution debate in my “Fleshy Part of the Thigh” write-up not primarily as a political issue but as it relates to a philosophy of connectivity. (The theory of evolution doesn’t even have an inherent political component, other than what some on the Right saddle it with.) Regardless of that, Chase did not only posit creationism vs evolution in “Fleshy Part,” he also referenced Charles Colson, evangelical insularism and divisive political issues like abortion and the Terry Schiavo case – I think the political aspect of my commentary for that episode is justified.
I did make a mistake in my write-up above when I suggested that Chase used Aaron Arkaway in season 6 to represent the dark side of the Far Right. Now that I’ve re-watched “Fleshy Part” (which I hadn’t seen in years) and I’ve written my take on it, I see that Chase actually keeps Aaron Arkaway’s basic sweetness and innocence intact in season 6. Aaron certainly represents the Right but there is nothing dark or evil about him – and by extension, Chase’s critique of the Right in “Fleshy Part” is not as pointed as I had originally thought. I still do believe Chase goes after the Right (and Dick Cheney) in later episodes, but I misremembered the details and tone of Aaron’s re-appearance. I’m not going to change the above write-up though, because I think it is an egregious violation of blogging etiquette to edit a piece once people have commented on it. I just have to hope that this correction down here suffices…
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Thank you for updating your analysis of Chase and the Aaron Arkaway character.
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Wow. Those comments though! I just like to add my two cents after the fact, as you know. Two things: First, I, too, enjoy Tony and Melfi echoing one another’s phrases and I wanted to add one that always makes me laugh, “vis a vis.” Second, Melfi delivers the line about the appointment mix up rather unconvincingly. “I DID???” Which lends credence to your theory that she is living vicariously through Gloria, although I do think she did it subconsciously.
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“vis a vis” 😉
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The “gratuitous political screeds” in these comments are tenfold that of Ron’s quick political analysis of this episode. Just wanted to throw that in. I commend you for having the patience to explain yourself repeatedly to these guys, Ron. The kind gesture was more than they deserved, considering their tack wasn’t nearly as civil. Someone has to do the babysitting, I suppose.
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Wonderful blog, greetings from Ecuador from a fan who thinks that the sopranos is the only and true GOAT of the tv.
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Thanks
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Another excellent analysis, thank you!
Regarding Tony reading Sun Tzu, iirc Melfi mentioned the book to Tony sarcastically in a past episode. Something like “if you just want to be a better monster read Sun Tzu”.
We really see the complexity of Tony’s character in this episode. As far as I can tell, the only reason Tony cannot forgive Ralph is Tony just can’t get past the fact that Tracee was a 20 year old pregnant girl. Tony seems to be the only monster who knows this is just not right. He does seem to have a sense of right and wrong that escapes many of the others. Yes we know Tony still commits many heinous acts himself.
Was the scheduling error an accident or a subconscious manipulation by melfi? I guess anything is possible, but I can’t see it being anything but an accident. That said, as good as Tony is at reading people, his subconscious has most definitely created a blind spot in him when it comes to what he looks for in goomars. This one is in therapy and jokes/admits to killing 7 relationships. Red flags galore, yet Tony treats those flags like he is a bull.
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I think this might be the first episode in which Johnny Sack gets really involved in things. Up to this point, he was a minor character. His first appearance, in Season 1, was brief. The move to New Jersey signaled that he would be showing up more, and his appearances earlier in Season 3 were building the foundation for him to become more of a player in terms of the plot, but they were sort of peripheral. I think here is where he starts moving more to the center. Big shout-out to Vincent Curatola, who almost didn’t get the part. According to some of his interviews, he wasn’t that keen on what the series sounded like, so he went to the audition reluctantly and was so late that only one of the casting people was still there and she was about to leave. But on the strength of his physical appearance, he got a quickie audition then and there, followed by a callback (among a few dozen other actors) to read for David Chase, and Curatola must have nailed it (he says that after hearing other actors shouting during their audition, he decided to go the other way and whisper, and he thinks that made an impression). Johnny Sack was one of those characters who, like Adriana, was originally going to be a one-off, but like Drea de Matteo, Curatola seems to have inhabited the part so well that he was given more and more to do. He was finally listed in the opening credits in Season 4. (By contrast, the actor who played Furio made the opening credits in Season 3.) Curatola was a fairly novice actor when he first appeared in The Sopranos, having started taking acting classes at the age of 39 at his wife’s urging. He’d had only a few small parts on TV before getting the role of Johnny Sack, but he ended up being nominated in 2002 and 2004 for Screen Actors Guild awards for his work on The Sopranos. It’s more interesting to watch Johnny Sack, now that I know more about Vincent Curatola. Even in his early episodes, he’s pretty good, and he gets better as the series goes on.
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You shouldn’t rag on people for being interested in Clinton’s sex life, given that he went on 26 flights to Epstein’s pedophile island.
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The Clinton-Epstein conspiracy theories notwithstanding, the connection between the two men may credibly merit some investigation. But in ’98, he was impeached for, essentially, cheating on his wife. He probably wasn’t the first or last President to stray, but the only one to be impeached for it.
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Ron, he wasn’t impeached for cheating on his wife, he lied to the Grand Jury which is a felony.
Article I charged that Clinton lied to the grand jury concerning
the nature and details of his relationship with Lewinsky
prior false statements he made in the Jones deposition
prior false statements he allowed his lawyer to make characterizing Lewinsky’s affidavit
his attempts to tamper with witnesses
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Of course you’re right, but he was basically lying to cover up the affair. That’s why I wrote he was impeached for “essentially” cheating on his wife.
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After watching this show for many years over and over, I love catching on to things I haven’t noticed before. In this episode right after Jackie speeds away from dropping off Meadow to Hunters, Tony is flipping through the channels and I notice a channel of a western theme with mountains and music playing. The same music is playing later on when Tony is dreaming and is walking through a restaurant where he meets with a group of people with Annette Benning, Finn, Meadow, etc. this is why I love the show!
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hmm interesting
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Might be a silly observation but I couldn’t help but to laugh at this…
(Gigi constipated on the toilet looking at a nude magazine)..
Next scene, Junior in regard to eating: “Everything goes through me”…
Junior in regard to being boss: You steer the ship the best way you know. Sometimes it’s smooth(junior), sometimes it’s rough(gigi). In the meantime, you find your pleasures where you can(nude magazine)
….
Since you brought up the two different scenes of both Tony & Carm in Dr. Melfis waiting room staring at the statue, I wanted to comment on the disappearance of the trees in the windows of both the waiting room and Melfis office. I don’t know the exact episode but its early in the first season when they’re replaced by white light for the rest of the series.
It was episode 3, “Denial, Anger, Acceptance”, when Tony sees the “rotted” tree.. so perhaps the removal of the tranquil looking trees is also the removal of any hope for a fresh perspective on life for Tony. The “rotted” tree in the painting is what remains. And perhaps the white light is related to the “endless white, endless nothing”.
Or it could have simply been a choice not related to the above.
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😂 it may silly but that’s pretty funny
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Ron, loving everything about the site so far! You missed a BIG ONE though! Please go back and watch Gigi’s death scene again. Now pay attention to Vito, his mannerisms, and the way he checks to see if Gigi is still alive (it’s the mother of ALL foreshadows).
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Thanks James. If I remember correctly, Chase didn’t think of turning Vito gay until Season 4 had ended…
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Ron – Chase’s decision to turn Vito gay was a horrible idea. I know it turned me off. What was the point? I think that Chase added idiotic blather to the series in order to create controversy rather than add real meaning and relevance to the series.
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Word!
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I was enjoying these analyses as I watch the series for the second time – until you decided to inject your own politics. I’m watching the series to avoid watching TV in a time when it’s all politics all the time.
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Gabbard calling Gloria a Slutola is rather harsh. I think that’s unfair. Sheesh!! Just because she’s sexually aware of herself doesn’t make her a slut.
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When AJ drank the sacred wine in the first season the school psychologist really wanted his parents help in getting the child on track. They ended up disparaging the counselor and walking out. I remember the look of despair in the counselor’s face that things would get worse for the child. After AJ did not get the guidance he needed for years and does something much worse the school is hands off because their power has been undermined by parents like the sopranos. So they basically tell the parents we will take your tutiton fees, your 5K in donations but when it come to actually providing an education on being human your animal is on his own. We see the teacher uses the term animal for people who destroy property.
Watching this after it was announced the prsident will pardon some well connected criminals and execute others who are not . And he will even overturn the consequences of his allies who were just convicted reminds me of how the show really does a good job of showing trends in the society through this view of the criminal family
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Dude, presidents for the last 90+ years have pardoned some criminals – Yes, even Obama did, as well as Carter, Johnson, Eisenhower… Get over it.
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Presidential pardons are common, but no Prez in the last 100 years executed more civilians than Trump did. And almost half of his executions were carried out after he lost his reelection bid.
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You should read up on the Obama drone program. I recommend you take a look at the substack page for former Rollingstone journalist Matt Taibbi. If you think only Republicans get the country into ridiculous and endless wars or that corruption starts and ends with one political party, you could really get a reality check of how dangerous this partisan thinking can be
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I have no problem with Obama or any Dem going to jail for corruption or crimes against humanity. I mentioned Trump’s pardons because presidential pardons were a topic of conversation in this thread.
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I agree with a few others on here that sometimes an action is JUST an action. Yes double booking CAN happen. Even professional musicians hit a bad note from time to time. That’s why God (or Al Gore, heh) invented digital recordings.
Also, I’m not going to go be too popular here; but I try not to find tropes and hidden existential meanings behind every shot or line of dialogue. While I am sure Chase, Speilberg and other directors have their reasons; I highly doubt either auteur has the IQ of 300 and knows every meaning behind their shots (the legs in the lobby, the shot of the barn painting, a reason for a gesture)…
I am old enough to remember AOL and remember that the thirsty and attention starved women (and some men) that would pose for pics in usenet groups and in chat rooms and would BEG people to rate them. Flash forward a few years and you have women like Gloria. Emotionally vacant, but visually stunning. They are begging for validation to create their own sense of self worth. Equate that with today’s Instagram “Stars” and no name models. Visually beautiful or sexual; but that’s all they want.
Bottom line is; in a TV show such as The Sopranos; sometimes you have to watch an episode and try NOT to be Andy Warhol in analysing EVERY SHOT and piece of dialogue.
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I know this might be a weird thing to fixate on, but this site has trained me to take notice on seemingly irrelevant things.
In this episode, at 32:28 Ralphie scratches his behind while leaving the room with Jackie Junior. Tony does the same at Ralphie at 46:44.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
What’s up with that?
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Haha is it like how yawning is contagious? One actor sees another actor scratching his ass and then unconsciously does it himself..
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The ducks in the final shot of the episode are worth mentioning. Their being between the boat and the car I take to mean that Tony’s family are in danger of being constricted by his sexual desire and Gloria. Perhaps there is a reference also to the shot of him (and later Carmela) in Melfi’s waiting room ‘constricted’ by the legs of the statue (Livia and / or his sexual desire).
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The amount of snowflakes crying to you about your comments (on *your* site no less!) about the rise of the intolerant moron faction of the Right is truly hilarious.
Maybe they need a safe space. I might recommend, oh, I don’t know, every other website on Earth.
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🤣
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Steve – Speaking about the ‘right morons’, it looks as though a few of their supporters are jumping ship. This morning, Thedispatch.com wrote an article in their paper telling readers that they are pulling out their support for FOX News due to F**ker Carlson’s horrifying series, ‘The Patriot Purge’. Although they remain staunchly conservative Republicans, it is extremely gratifying to know that they, at least, are unwilling to cross that dangerous line and over to the side that condemns the FREE thoughts and beliefs of others! Bless them for having morals and … a conscience!! 🤩
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Pingback: The Soprano Onceover: #51. “He Is Risen” (S3E8) | janiojala
The Mercedes commercial that Tony watches is voiced by Joe Mantegna, who funny enough plays mobster “Fat Tony” in the Simpsons.
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Well, it looks like Meadow has horrible taste in the opposite sex (just like her dad, but too many women to name); she either chooses men who are intellectually superior (Noah, probably Patrick), weak (Finn), or sociopathic (Ralphie Jr.). Carmela’s got the same problem too (Vic, Furio, Wegler). Is this a mob-related ‘syndrome’? LOL! 😉
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Too bad Gigi didn’t take a stool softener.
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Lol
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Your commentary on Clinton’s philandering is baffling to say the least. Your commentary on the show has repeatedly pointed out how Tony abuses women and power as a critique of American culture at large, and here you have a real life Tony soprano in Clinton, and you think the efforts to hold him accountable are silly and ruin the credibility of the people who do? I’m totally unsurprised to find you this politically ignorant. Your critique of a phantom “far right” press establishment is also laughable considering how overwhelmingly far left the press establishment in America has been for at least a century at this point.
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You may have a point about the media over the last hundred years, but Bill Clinton as the moral equivalent of Tony Soprano??
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What? Fox News runs the republican “party.” How is Bill Clinton a real Tony Soprano? I see many more “thug mafia” characteristics shown here that parallel Trump. His blatant racism, his misogyny, his threats to withhold money, aid or endorsements to those not sufficiently “loyal” TO HIM (not the country or constitution). Just these week he gave a televised interview to some right wing news outlet complaining about the evangelicals in 2023 not showing loyalty to him. Yes, there’s that word again. And out of respect to Ron, I will spare you November 2020 thru (still ongoing) attempts of Trump and his crime family to steal the (and ANY) election. Please, spare me your righteous purge. Am I the only person on this blog who saw Trump as a wannabe Tony (without the really excellent food choices [no diet coke and ketchup for this gourmand]? All his business life!! Melfi would have a field day with him. 😂 are yous all stunods? 🤌🤌🤌
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i thought it was interesting there were ducks frolicking outside the boat at the end of this episode. Didn’t Dr. Melfi suggest the ducks in Tony’s pool represented his family. Here he’s leaving his family once again while he does his own frolicking with Gloria.
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