Tony gets invited to Hugh’s 75th birthday party.
Blundetto puts himself square in the middle
of the feud going on in New York.
Episode 60 – Originally aired April 25, 2004
Written by Michael Imperioli
Directed by John Patterson
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Viewer opinion was divided over this hour, although it was not as polarized as it was for previous episode “In Camelot.” Many viewers wanted David Chase to focus more on the power struggle going on in New York between Johnny Sac and Lil Carmine, and they were happy to find that “Marco Polo” turned back towards that storyline—at least to some degree. The hour begins with a radio call sign (“New York’s only classic rock station, Q104.3”), immediately establishing that we are in NY now. (Chase likes to use radio IDs to establish location, he also did it a couple of episodes ago in “Where’s Johnny?”) Lil Carmine has moved to New York, moving from Miami to a recently purchased waterfront estate up in West Hempstead. He must be feeling very confident that he will come out on top of the NY power crisis if he is willing to spend so much money on such a luxurious property. But Johnny Sac has something to say about this: he sends his guys to scuttle Carmine’s yacht which is docked behind the house.
Confident that he’s gonna come out on top, Johnny Sac makes a pretty big purchase himself—a brand new Maserati. Johnny takes his buddy Tony out for a drive in the new sports car. Poor Sal Vitro watches them from the yard, and we might note that he favors his left arm when moving his landscaping equipment. (It was his right arm that was broken by Feech LaManna.)
Phil Leotardo is another New York mobster to get featured in this episode. Tony is obligated to help Phil get his Lincoln repaired, so he sends him to Angie Bonpensiero’s body shop. Tony takes a cold-hearted enjoyment in hearing how Philly tries to chisel Angie, probably because he is still bitter about how her husband Pussy betrayed him. The fact that Angie is a good friend of his scorned wife Carmela combined with the fact that Angie hit him up for money last year don’t exactly serve to warm the cockles of his heart towards her either.
But this episode is only marginally about New York mobsters. The great bulk of this hour is devoted to Tony’s domestic issues. Carm comes over to Tony’s place and politely dis-invites him to her father’s surprise birthday party, figuring that his presence at the party would be awkward given their separation. Tony accepts her decision graciously, pretending that he had decided not to attend anyway. There is, however, still a lot of anger between them. By the time Carmela leaves, the two are screaming at each other.
A cynical move by Corrado, interestingly, changes the course of Tony and Carmela’s relationship. Bitter about a multitude of things—his house arrest, not being invited to Hugh’s party, a confusing Italian film (La Dolce Vita), and the generally poor state of his affairs—Corrado makes a cynical phone call to Hugh and ruins the surprise. Old-timer Hugh has some old-timey notions about “the man of the house”—he refuses to attend his own party if man-of-the-house Tony is not there. And so begins a sequence of events that brings Tony and Carmela together by the end of the hour.
Hugh’s party is the primary reason why “Marco Polo” is one of my favorite episodes of the series. David Chase does a wondrous job conjuring up the atmosphere of a pool party and backyard barbecue. I almost had a sense of deja vu watching it, it felt so familiar. We feel the tone of the party shift over the course of the day (as often happens at parties): it starts out somewhat stiff but becomes more and more boisterous as the guests loosen up, then drifts through dusk like a wistful dream, and finally distills into something clear, quiet and cozy under the light of the moon.
I’ve argued in my last few write-ups that Season 5 seems to be revisiting earlier themes and ideas but in a more mature and subtle way. Notions of Italian pride (as well as Italian self-hatred) are investigated throughout the series, and “Marco Polo” continues the investigation. I’m not well-versed in the “Northern Italian vs. Southern Italian” dynamic that informs this episode, but it clearly plays into the “high-culture vs. low culture” tensions that crop up at Hugh’s party. Carmela’s mother Mary is obviously embarrassed as Tony arrives at the party singing an Italian parody and twirling Italian sausages. Tony makes a comment to Dr. Russ Fegoli that is worthy of Homer Simpson: “So you’re a doctor like Kissinger’s a doctor”—and follows this up with a dumb (but funny) joke about Dr. Fegoli’s meeting four popes. Snooty Fegoli does not seem very impressed by his host. Tony excuses himself, saying “I’d love to stay and chat but I’ve got a fire to start” and Chase cuts to a shot of the fired-up grill. (Tony’s line could also be taken more metaphorically—it seems to foreshadow the “fire” he rekindles in Carmela.) Tony’s grill almost has a supernatural aura on the series, it is so loaded with history and meaning. We first saw Tony cooking on it for AJ’s birthday party all the way back in the Pilot episode (and in that initial hour we saw the grill flare-up as Tony fainted after seeing the ducks fly out of the swimming pool). The grill has appeared in several episodes since, perhaps most notably in this season’s opener “Two Tonys,” when its dormant condition indicated to us that Tony is no longer living here at the house. Its present condition—burning hot and loaded with meat—unmistakably signifies that Tony is home again (at least for today).
Most of us have been expecting Carmela to reunite with Tony at some point this season. Although Carmela and Tony don’t fully reconcile now, they do take a major step towards reconciliation. Right from the beginning of the hour, Chase builds a path that inevitably leads to Carm and Tony’s romantic interlude in the swimming pool:
- Hugh has been Mr. Fix-it lately, acting as a pseudo-man-of-the-house in Tony’s absence. When he falls off the roof, it signals that he is getting too old to play this role. (And AJ playing the drums as his grandpa falls underscores that he is just a kid, a teenage boy going through the obligatory “drums” phase; he can’t replace Tony as Carmela’s man of the house either.)
- Hugh finds out about the surprise party from Corrado, and insists that Tony must be present.
- The presence of pompous, condescending Fegoli—who slights the beautiful Beretta that Tony gives to Hugh—at the party serves to highlight Tony’s lack of pretention, which endears him to Carmela. (We may remember that Carmela’s own unpretentiousness was one of the things Wegler found so attractive about her in “Sentimental Education.”)
- Carmela’s mother Mary isn’t impressed by Tony’s lack of pretention, she finds him completely boorish in comparison to the more cultured Dr. Fegoli. Carm is outraged that her mother could act so uppity and this strengthens Carm’s feelings of solidarity with her husband.
- Carmela watches Tony horse around with Meadow and recognizes what a warm and loving man he can be.
And voila, just like that, the stage is set for a rendezvous in the swimming pool. This pool scene reminded many viewers of Jaws, as Chase used underwater and handheld cameras to shoot the action. Tony Soprano can aptly be compared to a dangerous shark. But Carmela doesn’t think of Tony as some sort of menacing shark here; she offers only half-hearted resistance to his pursuit before surrendering herself. Prof. Maurice Yacowar writes that “the underwater shots imply that both of their subconscious impulses take control.” While it may very well be true that the pool setting is meant to underscore Carmela and Tony’s submerged desires, I’m more interested in how the imagery plays in our subconscious. Chase has led his viewers to equate the Soprano swimming pool with notions of home and family right from the Pilot episode. Pool imagery has appeared at various key moments when the security and tranquility of the Soprano family was threatened (such as when troublemaker Janice was first introduced to us in Season 2). And just as it was with the shot of the grill (another object associated with home and family), the shot of the covered swimming pool in the early moments of the Season 5 opener signaled to us that Tony and Carmela’s relationship was dormant:
Tony and Carm still have a few episodes to go (and a couple of hiccups along the way) before their marriage and household are fully reassembled, but it is very fitting that the first steps take place here in their backyard swimming pool.
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FOOD, FAITH & FIREARMS
Food, faith and firearms intertwine with each other in a variety of ways as this episode progresses…
Food & Faith
The presence of the food-loving priest Phil Intintola at Hugh’s party supplies a subtle link between food and faith. A more obvious connection between food and faith is provided by Hugh’s birthday cake, decorated with the logo of the Knights of Columbus (the world’s largest Catholic fraternity).
Faith & Firearms
Chase possibly makes a connection between faith and firearms through the use of the word “jubilee.” (I don’t want to make too much out of this because I don’t think it is strongly warranted, but I’ll throw it out there anyway.) We hear the word mentioned twice in the exchange between Corrado and Hugh:
Corrado: I wanted to be at your jubilee—
Hugh: Jubilee?
Corrado: But the federal government says I can’t leave the house.
Later, at the party, Tony gives Hugh a Beretta Giubileo (which happens to be the Italian word for “Jubilee”). Now, as many good Catholics know, “Jubilee years” are those particular periods, proclaimed by the Pope, in which remissions and indulgences for sins are set to occur. (I’m not a good Catholic, so don’t ask me what this means exactly.) The most recent Jubilee year occurred not long—relatively speaking—before this episode aired: Pope John Paul II set the year 2000 to be the Great Jubilee. The possible relevance of the Catholic concept of Jubilee to “Marco Polo” might be that it is in this episode that Carmela gives Tony an indulgence—she begins to forgive his sins. I know that this is a bit of a reach; I don’t necessarily believe that the mentions of both “jubilee” and “Giubileo” are meant to evoke the Catholic notion of Jubilee. But it’s interesting to think that this may have been somewhere in the back of David Chase’s mind.
Food & Firearms
Blundetto is not satisfied with the way his stolen airbag gig is going—he wants more money, more responsibility and more respect. He shows up at the Bing and airs his grievances to Tony. (Nota bena: The Faces’ “Bad ‘n’ Ruin” is playing in the background as he makes his complaint.) Tony tries to slow his cousin down, he tells Blundetto, “Just eat what’s on your plate right now.”
But what is on his plate is not very appetizing or very filling. He meets NY wiseguys Rusty Millio and Angelo Garepe at a restaurant (of course) where they offer him something more appetizing and substantial: Blundetto can make a nice payday if he whacks “a friend of a friend, not a friend of ours” in Johnny Sac’s crew. It’s all part of the power struggle going on in New York, but this particular whacking is specifically meant to be payback for Lorraine Colluzzo’s murder. Blundetto declines out of deference to Tony Soprano’s wishes that his famiglia not get involved in New York affairs, but he does agree to give some more thought to their offer.
Blundetto’s dissatisfactions get stoked at Hugh’s birthday party. He resents being treated like a “slave,” feels envious of Soprano’s wealth, and is heartbroken over his disconnection from daughter Kelli. If it had been Tony Uncle Johnny that got locked up instead up Tony Uncle Al, perhaps their current situations would be completely flipped. (Todd VanDerWerff notes that if The Sopranos was science-fiction, Blundetto could function as the alternate-universe version of Soprano, and the name “Tony B” would be the perfect sci-fi designation for the alt-universe variant of Tony Soprano.) Bitter Blundetto irreverently videotapes Tony’s big belly and Carmela’s bent-over butt. He wistfully gazes at Meadow, probably wondering what has happened to his own daughter. As Tony clowns with Mead, Blundetto is again reminded that he has lost his own little girl:
It is an interesting and highly loaded moment: Carmela watches this moment between father and daughter and it pulls her toward Tony, but Blundetto watches and it pushes him away from Tony—the pain he feels over losing Kelli is one more thing that pushes him to ignore Tony’s wishes to stay out of New York affairs.
After Blundetto recognizes how deprived his twin sons Justin and Jason have been, especially in comparison to crown prince AJ Soprano, he thinks about taking Rusty and Angelo up on their offer. There is a short scene, filled with food imagery, in which we see Blundetto make his decision to commit violence:
Blundetto’s mother eats breakfast while watching Julia Child tenderize a piece of meat. The sound of the food being pounded almost seems to echo the pounding that must be going on in Blundetto’s head. Just as chef Julia stops her pounding, Blundetto reaches his decision. He calls the New York guys and tells them “I’m in.” This means that Joey Peeps will be going down.
Joey Peeps has sampled some of the merchandise at the cathouse where he has come to pick up a payment. We catch a glimpse, very fittingly, of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon on the far wall behind hooker Heather. And as manager Muzz barks orders to another prostitute, we see a print behind him which also comments on the lives of these women—a black & white photo of a woman seemingly confined behind a chain-link fence:
Rewatching these episodes now, it’s very clear in my head exactly who is on Lil Carmine’s side and who is with John Sacrimoni. But during the original run, I was in a bit of a muddle keeping all the characters straight. Chase does provide a bit of dialogue here, though, which helps us to recognize which faction Mr. Peeps is part of:
Joey Peeps: (receiving a payment from Muzz) Thanks. Phil will be very happy.
Muzz: Send him and John my best.
By killing Joey Peeps at the bidding of Lil Carmine, Blundetto is essentially seating himself at the opposite end of the table from Tony. (Although Tony tries to be neutral, he is clearly closer to Johnny Sac than he is to Lil Carmine, a fact that we were reminded of as the two buddies went zooming around in Johnny’s new Maserati earlier.) After blasting his victims, Blundetto’s foot gets run over by Joey’s car and he has to limp away. (Poor demoiselle Heather—she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is a nasty irony to her death: Joey Peeps was targeted in retaliation for the murder of a woman, Lorraine Colluzzo, and now Blundetto has himself killed a woman carrying out this assignment.)
The songs selected to close out the episodes are always inspired choices, but some viewers found The Faces’ “Bad ‘n’ Ruin” to be too perfect, landing a little too squarely on the button. It may lack subtlety, but what I find so interesting is how Chase uses the song to evoke subtle, almost subconscious associations in the minds of his viewers. A first-time viewer might not consciously recognize that we first heard this song earlier at the Bing just as Tony was denying Blundetto’s request for greater opportunities, and that this denial must certainly have contributed to Blundetto’s decision to murder Peeps—a murder which Chase now scores with the song. Like a hypnotist snapping his fingers, Chase uses his imagery (grill or swimming pool, for example) and his musical selections (like “Bad ‘n’ Ruin”) to summon previously planted thoughts, ideas and emotions into the consciousness of his enraptured viewers.
FUCKIN’ REGULARNESS
Not all viewers, however, are so enraptured by The Sopranos. Superstar defense attorney Gerald Shargel (who has defended several mobsters including John Gotti) sat in on the Slate.com forum the week that this episode originally aired. In a piece titled “Has The Sopranos become boring?” he lays out his argument why “Marco Polo” and the two episodes that preceded it were “just plain boring”:
I thought that Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and George would be at Hugo’s barbeque birthday party, because, man, that was a story about nothing. Nothing happened and there was no plot. Now I know why reality television is so popular. If you rolled the cameras into a barbeque at my house this summer, I promise there would be a better story line. Seriously, the success of The Sopranos was due to the plot—great and memorable stories, like the killing in the frozen woods. Now it is mostly character-driven, as in the As the World Turns genre.
I think Mr. Shargel’s complaint stems from a deep-seated longing that all of us share: the desire to live our lives on a less tedious plane than the one that our daily life actually unfolds on. We want excitement. Characters on The Sopranos certainly share this desire. Lil Carmine’s new mansion, Johnny’s new Maserati, Hugh’s excitement over his new Beretta, Mary’s aspirations to be a “cultured” Italian, Carmela’s seduction by her exciting alpha-male husband, Blundetto’s attempt to move up in the world, his twins’ desire for fancier toys—they all reflect a wish to escape the fuckin’ regularness of life. Many television viewers, understandably, tune in to their favorites shows hoping that the programs can—at least for an hour or so—transport them into a new and exciting dimension. These viewers could certainly get disheartened when they bump up against a fact about The Sopranos: Chase’s series does not give us escapism, but instead demands its opposite—engagement. We are required to expend some effort and become engaged if we want to fully appreciate The Sopranos.
In some sense, Shargel doesn’t go far enough in his criticism, because The Sopranos is sometimes even less plot-driven than the reality shows and soap operas that he compares it to. Reality TV and soaps resort to all sorts of tricks to generate plot and action, but Chase is not willing to sacrifice verisimilitude by using tricks or gimmicks—even if that means forsaking constant plot-generation and forward-action. (As is the case with our real lives in the real world, the lives of characters in SopranoWorld are not constantly rocked by shocking twists-and-turns; The Sopranos could accurately be renamed As The World ACTUALLY Turns.) Reality shows and soaps may have some tricks and gimmicks, but what they don’t have is the high-quality writing, acting, casting, directing, set design, sound design, music, photography, film editing, story editing, costuming, lighting, location shooting, night shooting, high production value and overall artistic excellence of The Sopranos. But yeah, Shargel, other than that, you’ve got a point.
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CLEVER CUTS
“Marco Polo” is filled with intelligent juxtapositions and transitions but one in particular caught my eye:
There’s obviously a visual pun here—Chase cuts from Carmela “mooning” the camera to a shot of the full moon. The visual, almost crass, joke demonstrates once again that although The Sopranos is a high-caliber work, it always manages to be playful, funny, and self-deprecating. It is—in a word—unpretentious. Carmela is drawn back to Tony for his lack of pretention, and we are drawn to the series for the same reason.
MARCO POLO
Growing up in Miami, where everyone has easy access to a swimming pool, playing “Marco Polo” was a completely essential part of my childhood. Similarly, the game of Marco Polo in the Soprano pool has a very essential role in Carmela’s storyline this hour. She initially resists joining the game after Tony and AJ toss her into the water, but when she eventually calls out “Marco,” we understand that she has caved, she has acquiesced. The expression on her face says, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” From this point on, it becomes inevitable that she will acquiesce to a full reconciliation with her husband.
VIRGINIA MAYO
As he is being stuffed into the car, a drunk Hugh sees Carmela holding his new Beretta and calls her “Virginia Mayo.” He is surely associating gun-holding Carmela with Mayo because the actress famously played a gangster’s moll in the 1949 film White Heat, opposite tough guy James Cagney. It is a telling reference—with this episode, Carmela begins the process of becoming a gangster’s woman again.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- We haven’t seen AJ’s girlfriend Devin all season long, but she appears now in this hour. (Perhaps the character’s absence was due to actress Jessica Dunphy’s concurrent commitment at the time—no joke—to As The World Turns.)
- We haven’t seen much of Meadow’s boyfriend Finn very much either but his appearance here reintroduces him prior to next week’s Finn-heavy “Unidentified Black Males.”
- Marco Polo: the episode title recalls the famed Venetian explorer, perhaps accenting the “Northern vs. Southern” undertow in this hour. Venice (birthplace of Marco Polo) is about as far north as you can get in Italy, while Sicily (birthplace of the La Cosa Nostra) is about as far south.
- Many viewers have wondered about the presence of a man whimpering in the hospital waiting room. I think it’s probably just an added touch of realism. If I had to venture a guess about any larger significance, I’d say Chase may have included it as a way to further push Carm towards Tony. Like Dr. Fegoli, the groaning man may serve as a foil to Tony; it’s hard to imagine tough-guy Tony whining (especially in public) as this young man does, no matter how much pain he was in.
- Michael Imperioli wrote this episode but I don’t remember Moltisanti having a single line here.
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Sopranos Autopsy 
This has been one of my favorite episodes since it originally aired, and I agree that it did a wonderful job of capturing the type of large summer backyard BBQ parties I remember from growing up in the Northeast. I have to disagree with Mr. Shargel’s opinion that this episode could be considered ‘boring.’ One detail I always enjoyed is the style of the shots through Tony B’s camcorder. I found them to be very reminiscent of Alfonso Cuaron’s work.
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I’ve seen some of Cuaron’s movies but I don’t remember any ‘cinema verite’ type of stuff, if that’s what you meant by the style of shots. Maybe there was in Y tu mama tambien, but it’s been a long time since I watched that…
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Sorry, just saw your reply now. I haven’t seen it in a while, but I remember thinking that it reminded me of many of Cuaron’s shots (especially transitions) in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I don’t remember associating it with Y Tu Mama Tambien as much, but I too haven’t seen that one in a while. It’s probably due a rewatch soon, actually.
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I’ve been looking forward to your take on this episode for a long time. Suffice to say it did not disappoint. For a supposedly “boring” episode, there is so much going on here, which you have expertly detailed. Excellent work, as always.
I can’t wait until you get to “All Due Respect” and the masterful Season 6. The Season 5 finale up through “Made In America” is my favorite stretch of episodes–even the Vito storyline, which I know some fans wish would have been condensed.
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Yeah I never really got why so many people disliked the Vito storyline…
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Ottimo lavoro, come sempre, Ron.
Questo episodio è fondamentale nella struttura narrativa de I Soprano. È l’omicidio di Joe Peeps a innescare le terribili ritorsioni che condurrano alla faida dell’ultima stagione. Questo è un fatto importantissimo, in quanto la vendetta dell’underboss (almeno, in quel momento) Phil Leotardo su Angelo Garepe delinea il contraccolpo finale di Tony B.: egli ucciderà Bill Leotardo e dovrà darsi alla macchia, questa è la vera ragione della guerra tra New York e New Jersey, Phil Leotardo e Tony Soprano. Ovviamente, il precedente sarebbe l’uccisione di Lorraine Calluzzo, ma è altrettanto ovvio che poteva essere “pareggiata” in ben altro modo.
Grande episodio!
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Grande indeed!
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OK. I can read and speak Italian, but am not as fluent as I was many years ago. I’d appreciate it if you could translate Ivo’s comments!
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Lol I wish I could!
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Translation:
Great job, as always, Ron.
This episode is fundamental in the narrative structure of The Sopranos. It is the murder of Joe Peeps that triggers the terrible retaliation that will lead to the feud of the last season. This is a very important fact, as the revenge of the underboss (at least, at that moment) Phil Leotardo on Angelo Garepe outlines the final backlash of Tony B.: he will kill Bill Leotardo and will have to give himself to the stain, this is the real reason for the war between New York and New Jersey, Phil Leotardo and Tony Soprano. Obviously, the precedent would be the killing of Lorraine Calluzzo, but it is equally obvious that it could have been “equalized” in a very different way.
Great episode!
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One of my favorite “understated” Sopranos episodes. I love Tony B’s slow burn over what might have been and Carm’s mom’s slow burn over what she wishes was. They both resent Tony and his “lifestyle” and they both took measures based on that resentment that backfired. Mary apologizing to her snooty friends and expressing embarrassment re: Tony sends her daughter right back into his arms and, well, you know what happens with Tony B.’s bad decision.
Amazing how Tony B.’s natural ineptitude (getting his foot run over) ends up triggering a sequence of events that resonates throughout the rest of the series. It’s also interesting how petty both Tony B and Mary are, as Tony had up to that point helped his cousin out as best as he could and had played host to Mary and Hugh many times in the past. Then he has Tony B get all pissy about being asked to help (after ditching his twin sons there earlier in the day, mind you) and has his mother-in-law’s snooty friend dump all over his heartfelt gift to Hugh. It was in such harsh contrast to how downright “warm and convivial” Tony was as the host. I always enjoyed his relationship with Hugh and how genuine it seemed.
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Yeah interesting parallel between Mary and Tony B…
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Thank you. I am rewatching sopranos also, and love the insight
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👍🏼
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I’ve always wondered about the Hugh-Tony relationship – I mean how did Hugh really feel about his daughter marrying a man who was a high-ranking mobster? I do recall one scene where Mary berates her daughter for her choice of husband (and suggested one other boyfriend with some amusing regular day job) but throughout the series there is mainly an acceptance of Tony as a regular son-in-law despite all the terrible things he does. A shame that Chase didn’t get to explore the in-laws theme further.
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The two seemed to have a fairly mutual respect for each other, but yeah, Chase didn’t really explore that relationship much
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great write-up Ron. I’ve been thinking about this episode recently and i wondered if anyone else saw how Tony and Hugh’s relationship resembled an affectionate surrogate father-son relationship. i think in many ways Hugh is the stable father figure that Tony never had, contrasting heavily with the selfish narcissist that Johnny Soprano is shown to be, particularly in this season. I think if tony did have a yearning for a stable father figure however it would be a very subconscious desire and not something he would have complete awareness of. If not saying it outright I think it must at least be chases’ intention to have us think about this as he has placed this milestone birthday party in a season that is particularly laced with ideas of father figures both good and bad.
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This comment becomes even more interesting now, following Ron’s most recent autopsy (Remember When).
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I can think of one line Christopher has in this episode – only one – and it’s awesome. He growls “Goddammit!” while hustling his blitzed mother out of the party, while she yells at him she didn’t have a drop. Great scene.
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Melfi compared Tony to a shark in “House arrest”, another connection with pool scene and jaws.
A fan from Iran.
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Yes, I hadn’t thought of that..
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“You know that fat cocksucker says I look like the Shah of Iran?”
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The scene of Carmela ‘mooning’ the camera, rhymes with the last time we saw her ‘moon’:
the bedroom scene with Wegler, which foreshadows her return to her partner.
When Hugh fell off the roof, it rhymed with when Barbara’s father-in-law was blown off
the roof to his death – ‘Whish’.
I thought the young man in agony at the hospital was a consequence of Hugh cutting in
front of him in line, due to some influence of Tony’s. Mary yelling of ‘Can someone help this man!’,
shows her failing to connect the dots to the consequences of her & Hugh’s unearned privilege, all
courtesy of Tony. Reminds me of Meadow getting to sing a solo, and Carmella saying
“…that’s lucky, I wonder what happened?”.
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Always look at your mother in law if you want to see your future.Fat Tony should have gone fishing.
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I loved this barbecue! The background music, the frantic cooking. Carmela’s mother overreacting to the fact that her friend can’t eat tomatoes. That fantastic cake…and Hugh saying Tony has to come or he’s not. Its just so real. You get a sense of Tony as a family man, that he’s good-hearted and really full of life, in spite of his depression. I wonder if Carmela’s mother discouraged her from marrying Tony even though she benefits from the fruits of his crime. Also, her husband as a contractor was not exactly “inside the law” with the cheap wood and the shortcuts to save money. Carmela’s mother was great as Karen Hills mother in “Goodfella’s” as well. She makes the most of a small part, but we couldn’t do without her.
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Isn’t it strange that Tony seems to to be able to have a good time even though he has a lot of pressures and is a criminal and a murderer? Maybe because he’s a sociopath and accepts himself for the most part, but he is way more fun than Carmela…when she was calling him to come over because of her father, she was already complaining about doing all the cooking…but Tony offered to help her out with the cost of the party and she said no. Carmela is not a happy person and is always playing the martyr…and Tony with all his bullshit has many more moments of happiness than her. Also, we hear about Carmela’s sister, but it’s never explored..we never meet her. Disapproval maybe? Why wouldn’t she come to the fathers 75th birthday? I’ve always wondered. Random thoughts…:)
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Hmm Carm’s sister never made it to my radar, we never even learn her name, do we?
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I don’t know that that’s a fair criticism of Carmella. I think it’s a pretty realistic depiction of being an overwhelmed wife/mother who has to run the household; these events are mainly a source of stress for her, not fun.
Look at all the people who supposedly are there to “help” in the kitchen scene: AJ, Meadow, Tony B. All her are completely useless and just add to Carmella’s stress (e.g. Meadow wants to cook an unnecessary dish and needs Carmella to find the cake pan for her).
Tony gets to stroll in with sausages and be the happy life of the party.
Notice too the pool scene at the end, everyone’s having fun whilst Carmella tries to clean up. It doesn’t occur to anyone else to clean up.
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When Fegoli made his crack about Tony’s birthday gift I always thought it would have been appropriate (and likely true) for him to smile and say something to the effect that he had connections in Italy that had made it possible for him to get a first-rate Beretta rifle for Hugh
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Definitely.. Also, we know from an upcoming episode that Tony is able to smuggle stuff from Italy like Vespa scooters through the port. Maybe high quality firearms are in that inventory too…
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My take was that Dr. Fegoli was saying the gun was illegally obtained, not that it was inferior quality IOW, he’s saying, “I know what you are an I am not impressed”. Any response by Tony to the effect that he could smuggle the gun out of Italy would only validate Fegoli’s opinion.
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Ah yes
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Glad I was not the only one who needed clarification on this interaction. My take was that the Dr all at once was expressing surprise that Tony could obtain one and implies that it could only be obtained illegally, creating the awkward moment because everyone else standing around (Artie, etc, can’t remember who else) knows exactly what Tony’s about and have moved well beyond questioning these sorts of things
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I always assumed he had to pick it up at the last minute due to the back and forth about whether he was attending the party (also explains why he turned up late) – I think Fegoli was just being a cunt, I don’t think there was any implication that he had it imported illegally
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As in, being a cunt by belittling the host and his gift to Hugh
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JRH – Actually, Dr. Fegoli said that ‘only the best’ Berettas couldn’t be exported, inferring that Tony got Hugh a ‘cheap’ rifle. A most definite put-down.
Did anyone else notice the absence of Artie and Charmaine? I’m surprised that Carmela didn’t ask them to help cook for such a large party.
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LK, If I remember correctly, Carmela tells Tony on the phone that Artie is doing only the appetizers and desserts, she is responsible for everything else, and it will be a “living hell.” Artie is there but I assume Charmaine is not because she and Artie are still on the outs.
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Anon – You’re absolutely correct. I guess Artie just seemed so inconspicuous in this episode that I blotted him out. He did tie on a good one though!
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I think Carmela’s sister is mentioned 2 times. Once when Tony mentions that she has “empty nest” and takes Wellbutrin, and then when Carmela’s mother needs a ride to the doctor.
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The Soprano family were on their was to “Aunt Patty’s” in the season one finale before they got caught in the rainstorm and had to stop at Vesuvio’s. Maybe Patty was supposed to be Carm’s sister but then the writers decided to relocate her to Florida.
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One thing that really stuck out for me in this episode was the hypocrisy that is so prevalent in the Sopranos. In this episode it showed Tony B’s hypocrisy. In one scene he is chastising his sons for stealing, and to punish them he takes their game boys and donates them to the salvation army. I actually admired Tony B’s moral compass in trying to raise his two sons right, then a couple of scenes later he shatters everyone’s opinion of him , when he kills a man, and an unintended civilian in cold blood with out seeming to care about the consequences of his actions.
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Obviously you’ve never had kidney stones, Ron. 😉
Love the writeups almost as much as the show itself, which hasn’t aged a bit, except in the sense of good food and wine. I was critical of the last three seasons of the run when they originally aired, but they deepen the story of the first half. Judge these characters at your own peril.
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lol and thanks
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Did you notice that Tony B. is driving Feech LaManna’s caddy?
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Yes, I mention it in the 5.13 write-up. It’s a sweet ride, Blundetto got lucky there..
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This is my absolute favorite epi for the very reasons critics disparaged it. I enjoyed feeling like I was an attendee at a typical backyard bbq. I loved the scene at the end when Carm is thrown in the pool and although soaking wet in her clothes, gives in and plays along. “Polo.” I love your connection to her giving into Tony and reconciling in the future. Great write up! Thanks.
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Thanks
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Laugh out loud line from Tony regarding Phil: “Pussy’s Body Shop is one of your stops, right? They’re fixing the f–king Shah of Iran’s car.”
The Shah reference comes up again in Season 6 – I’m hoping for side-by-side pics of Phil and the Shah on this blog….
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Haha the side-by-side is in the previous write-up…
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It is?? I shouldn’t drink so much wine before posting.
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Yeah you and me both lol
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Blundetto shows up very early to the party with his bratty twins who proceed to throw a lounge chair into the pool. In a previous episode, they were scolded for putting pine cones into the filter.
Tony B. informs Carm that he has to bolt and does so while she is distracted by the early arrival of her parents and informs Meadow to keep an eye on the boys. He is headed to Angie’s body shop to keep a lid on Phil, at Tony’s request, who is attempting to shake down Angie, and while there meets the man he will kill by the episode’s end, Joey Peeps. Nice way to tie the two situations together that will continue to have relevance going forward.
Additional Point:
Interesting how the literal “Jersey Boy,” Frankie Valli (Rusty Millio), is not part of the NJ crew, but with Carmine and the guys in New York.
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Some more thoughts…
“So you’re a doctor like Kissinger’s a doctor.” Maybe Tony was being Homer Simpson-esque but it was still a great burn. An insult wrapped in a compliment of sorts – how’s the good doctor going to protest that?
I saw a parallel between Carmela treating Tony B. like a servant, and her similar treatment of Charmaine a few seasons back. (The finger beckon.) However, Charmaine’s moral compass is pointed straighter than Tony B.’s. She proves not to be seduced by the mob’s easy money. She did repay Carmela with a verbal shiv when she told her about her young and lustful fling with Tony back in high school. Nicely done, Charmaine.
On Northerners vs. Southerners and tribalism in general…one of my favorite such lines is in Cinema Paradiso, when a man from Naples wins the local lottery in the small Sicilian town in which the movie takes place. Someone exclaims, “The Neapolitan’s won the lottery!!! Let’s go see, kids!!! Northerners are always lucky!” To them a Neapolitan is a “Northerner.” In Piedmont or even Rome he’d be a Southerner.
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I really love this episode. I can’t recall if I was as enamored with it on the first viewing. Probably not. Now, it’s rich and enveloping, especially with the multitude of mini-storylines. To me, it comes off almost like a Robert Altman film. There are so many motivations, especially at Hugh’s party. Carmela is stressed out and irritated with her mother. Tony B. is jealous and put upon. Tony S. is happy to be there and, cleverly, portrayed in an incredibly sympathetic light. Hugh is overjoyed with his jubilee. Carmela’s mother, Mary, is her usual fantastically overbearing self as she frets over the prickish Fegolis and alienate her family in the process. Meadow is a delight, but self-absorbed as she makes her grandfather’s favorite dessert. There are more, many more. Such a wonderful episode.
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Absolutely. There’s a sort of Nashville vibe to this hour…
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Great comment. As this is my personal favorite epi, I’ll name a few more: Chris’ mother getting drunk, Carmela good naturedly playing after being thrown in the pool, Artie asleep in the chair all night, Fr Intintola still getting his rocks off with pomidoro
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For what it’s worth, I share your high opinion of both this episode and “In Camelot”.
This has nothing to do with the show, but since the game of Marco Polo was integral to your upbringing, I thought you might enjoy this anecdote: one afternoon, during rush hour in Times Square (the new, made-safe-for-Disney Times Square, not the old, gritty, REAL New York Times Square, so there was never any question of actual danger), a tourist had obviously become separated from her friend by a churning sea of people and was calling out, increasingly frantically, “Marco! Marco! MARCO!” From different parts of the crowd, one began to hear the replies, “Polo!”…. Polo!”…
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My new neighbors from Italy have a son named Marco who they’re constantly calling out to, and I have to resist the urge to yell out “Polo!”
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Oh go for it, Ron! 😝
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While I’m not at all familiar with Italian regional tensions besides seeing some pro-independence graffiti in Venice once, one more mundane difference between the North and the South is that Northern cuisine does not feature the tomatoes that the good dottori alla bacio-cantore was allergic to.
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There’s a strong cultural-gender commentary in this episode as Hugh constantly refers to the home as Tony’s home, despite being well-aware Tony and Carm are potentially in a run up to divorce proceedings and that it’s not (legally) clear that it’s 100% Tony’s home. Particularly when all the guests are gathered around as Hugh unwraps the Beretta, and with the entire party looking on, Hugh thanks Tony for having them to *his* home, basically while hugging Carmella – the camera shots of this interaction are no mistake imo. Imagine Carm, already under the stress of a potential divorce proceeding from a mob boss, and her own father isn’t even on her side? Did she ever really have a chance of getting out? It’s not that Hugh doesn’t love or support his daughter, but I think the Italian-Catholic conceptions of family are simply too strong that it never crosses Hugh’s mind that he might be undermining his daughter.
On a related note, and this might be more of a stretch. But when Carm gets tossed into the pool she’s wearing a conspicuous gold watch that obviously wouldn’t be waterproof. So when she got tossed in the pool it’s like she became frozen in time, because of course the pool is where she and Tony hook up for the first time since breaking up, it cements them getting back together, and it’s like she is frozen or stuck in time because there really is no way forward without Tony
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I apologize if Ron has addressed this theory, but an astute fan has postulated that Fegoli is – wait for it – none other than that father of the inimitable Paulie Walnuts!
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I posted a little about this theory in 6.04..
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Tony happily ran up to Adriana shaking sausage in her face in front of everyone
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When Tony B was taking the twin’s game boys and says, “you’re just as bad as him because you didn’t stop him!” Cue a shot of the two unhappy identical twins.
Well, I wondered if Tony B having twins is supposed to reflect his relationship with Tony S, and that they are essentially “one and the same”.
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Carmela was embarrassed and spurned by the well-educated and cultured Mr. Wegler a couple of episodes ago. She realizes that she will never get to live in that world due to her history and association as a Soprano and I think she figured divorcing Tony and latching onto Wegler was a potential way to move up the social ladder. I feel like this is the underlying current of her newly found southern Italian pride and defense of Tony – especially in the verbal confrontation with her mother as she and Hugh are leaving the party. She ends up sleeping with Tony not long after in the pool for all the reasons mentioned above.
Another random note re: Northern vs Southern Italians…I always wondered/suspected that Ralphie Cifarretto was from northern lineage. He cooks with butter (skeeved by southerners), he questions Furio in “Christopher” with a remark along the lines of “what’s wrong with the north?” Janice defends his sense of style to Tony. He was always somewhat different from the Napolitans in the Soprano family. Not sure if this is intentional or not.
I’ve discovered a couple of Soprano podcasts during this past year and have used them as an excuse to rewatch for the umpteenth time. I have always loved this site as a companion to my rewatches. Thanks for keeping it up!
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Thanks RD
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Pingback: The Soprano Onceover: #62. “Marco Polo” (S5E8) | janiojala
The Berreta gift also ties in nicely with the Bear motif of the season (Tony S. being the Black Bear): it is used to hunt deer, which black bears do. It is also used for hunting bears since prahistoric times, and defending from one. It sounds thin, but Tony could have gotten him anything, why the hunting rifle of all things? In the only season with the invading bear, non the less. Carmela’s comment “you’ve made my father’s year with that gun” can also be tied into this in various ways.
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Someone mentioned in the comments in a different thread that the 12K thrown into the bushes that Tony B. found was maybe done on purpose by someone to hasten Tony B’s path to the mob. I don’t know if that’s true, but the speeding car swerved quite a bit after the bag of money was thrown out. Then in Marco Polo, Johnny Sac takes Tony S. for a spin in his fancy car and does a similar swerve. Interesting, but I doubt Johnny Sac would hand anyone 12K.
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R.I.P. Tom Aldredge (aka Hugh DeAngelis, Carmela’s dad), 2011
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I hate to say this, BUT … When Hugh fell off the roof, I laughed my butt off. Definitely an all-too-rare funny moment on such a dark series. Then I reconsidered my unconscionable *yeah right* reaction and thought: Wait a minute! Why was that old man doing up on the roof by himself? Why wasn’t AJ up there helping him? What could have been a funnier scene than AJ falling off the roof instead of grandpa!? Heck – the kid could’ve died (!!) or ended up too injured to continue irritating us and his parents! I guess a more logical and serious question would be why didn’t Carmela call a roofer?
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Any thoughts on Little Carmine wearing shorts in the opening scene? (as Carmine Sr. noted to Tony earlier on “A Don doesn’t wear shorts”)
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That’s about what I’d expect from Lil Carmine
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I guess it’s ok for Dons to wear shorts in Florida, but maybe not so much up north, LOL! 😏
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To add to your Northern vs Southern Italian culture point…I think Meadow baking Hugh a dessert in favor of a piece of his Knights of Columbus cake shows the Soprano family to be unpretentious, too. Remember, Columbus was from’a da North (in my best Furio impression.
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First of all, Ron, let me echo the comments of others in saying that your website is sensational. Thank you.
This episode is one of my all-time favorite’s. I was not sure why until I read your blog, and you put into writing what I believe is the answer: the episode captures the evolution of a party so well. I also love scenes where large amounts of the cast are together. I have a few comments / questions:
1. Tony initially says he wasn’t planning to attend the party and had plans to go fishing with Syl. But wouldn’t Syl and Gabriella have been invited? And after he decides to go to the party, we still don’t see Syl and Gab at the party.
2. I was always bothered by the scene where Tony leaves the grill to watch Hugh open presents. The timing was unrealistic.
3. A question I’ve always had about the show in general: Tony and Carm always had the nicest house of anyone in the family even at the outset of the series when Jackie was still boss. Everyone else had far more modest housing. How can that be explained? I know there is a reference to Hugh building the house in a later episode, but the neighborhood and plot of land would have been expensive.
4. Rolling Rock is a favorite beer of mine, and on a subconscious level, I think the show as a whole — and this episode in particular — are the reasons why.
5. During the party, there are really only three people Carm can count on to help her: Tony, Artie, and Charmaine. I suppose Rosalie could be added to the list since she keeps Carm company in the kitchen, but she’s not really helping.
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Good points Steve. Rolling Rock became a favorite of mine many years ago after hearing DeNiro mention it in “The Deerhunter.”
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I agree with you about the barbecue, it always bothers me that he leaves it. I think he made up that he was going fishing with Syl to save face. We haven’t ever heard that Silvio likes to fish. I think they weren’t invited (Gab and Syl) because of the separation. Carmela did the invites and Paulie wasn’t there either. Carmela is a cry baby. She had Artie and Charmaine doing the appetizers, and refused Tony’s offer to help money wise. Plus, it was barbecuing, not really that labor intensive. She just wants to play the martyr.
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I know this is an old old website but I’m watching the series for the first time now so I’d like to leave my thoughts:
One thing that I was immediately struck with while watching but didn’t see mentioned in this autopsy came during the pool party. When A.J and Tony picked up an unwilling Carmela and heaved her horizontally into the pool, I was immediately reminded of the death of Pussy and his unwilling swim. How many other men have been thrown into the ocean by Tony and a colleague? Most of them, unlike Carmela, don’t live to tell the tale. AJ helping toss Carm also foreshadows and future life of crime for the kid.
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I am Italian and I live in the North. I confirm there’s a huge rivalry between the North and the South. Since I grew up I recall people from the North have always been considering people from southern regions inferior. Even a political party saw the light in the 90th proposing federalism and independence of the Northern regions based mostly on racist ideas.
I am rewatching the Sopranos and I find your inputs absolutely stunning. It’s so well written and detailed. Complimenti per l’ottimo lavoro!
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Thanks Erica
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Moltisanti did have at least one line: he was leaving with his mom around the time Hugh was leaving. Chris made some remark about his mom drinking
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