Tony and Paulie head to sunny south Florida
when things get too hot for them in New Jersey.
Corrado tries to recapture some of his old glory.
Phil Leotardo makes a power-play in New York.
Episode 80 – Originally aired April 22, 2007
Written by Terence “The Wolf of Wall Street” Winter
Directed by Phil Abraham
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When this episode originally aired in April of 2007, there were only six weeks left before The Sopranos would close up shop for good. Many of us were in a nostalgic mood as our favorite series was winding down, so it was kind of fitting that Chase would provide us with an episode about nostalgia. In hindsight, some viewers have tended to lump the relatively understated “Remember When” together with the following episode “Chasing It” (an hour that many found problematic), so that episodes 6.15 and 6.16 together form an exasperating lull (they would argue) in an otherwise exciting and dynamic final season. There may be some validity to this perception, but “Remember When” is nevertheless a solid, clever episode, one that sets up the endgame of The Sopranos while also giving Dominic Chianese a final chance to shine.
The episode begins with Paulie coming over to the Soprano home early one morning. (Note that his first line to Tony is, “Hey, sorry for the ambush”—a sentence that prefigures the later tension between the two men.) Paulie has arrived with disturbing news: Larry Barese (who we saw get arrested last episode at the Cleaver premiere) has been talking to the Feds about Willie Overalls, Tony’s first murder victim. With this plot development, Chase is once again invoking the idea of karmic justice as he has done throughout this season—Tony’s past may finally be catching up to him. After watching investigators dig around the area where Willie’s body is buried, Tony and Paulie decide it would be in their best interests to leave town.
Tony and Paulie’s trip down to Miami give them plenty of time to reminisce. Over dinner, the two men cast their memories back, fondly recollecting Johnny Boy Soprano and the good ol’ days. Tony doesn’t mind a little bit of reminiscing, but he gets annoyed at Paulie’s willingness to share extended stories with anyone who is willing to listen. After Paul gives too many details of their itinerary to a fellow hotel guest, Tony bitches him out for his loose lips. (Ashamed, Paulie instinctively reaches for comfort-food, stocking up on the hotel’s free Danish.) But Paulie Walnuts just can’t stop talking—he yaps too much during dinner with Beansie and some attractive young ladies. After observing Paulie’s non-stop yammering, Tony’s suspicion that it was he who revealed Ralph’s Ginny-joke to Johnny Sac so many years ago gets strengthened. A capo with a big mouth is not what Tony needs in his famiglia. It just might be too much of an occupational hazard to keep Paulie Gaultieri around.
It is fairly routine in the gangster-genre for one character to liquidate another character if that is what it takes to maintain his freedom and/or lifestyle. And this has certainly happened plenty of times on The Sopranos, as the deaths of Big Pussy, Adriana, and Tony Blundetto—to name a few—can attest. But the regularness of life also has much influence on how characters behave in SopranoWorld, and I think at least part of the reason why Tony thinks about getting rid of Paulie is quite mundane: Paulie Walnuts can be so damn annoying. Over the course of their long relationship, Tony has spent a dreadful amount of time feeling irritated and bored by Paulie. (Tony even went into tachycardia during his hospital stay last year while hearing Paulie tell one of his interminable tales.) Most of us have experienced those tiresome moments that inevitably crop up in long-term relationships. Many of us may have even momentarily fantasized, during some tedious moment, about wrapping our hands around the neck of a spouse, friend, parent, boss or coworker. The difference between us and Tony Soprano, however, is that Tony might actually turn to violence to escape the tedium.
Tony gets great news—he is cleared of Willie’s death when Larry Barese pins the murder on Jackie Aprile (who is well beyond the reach of the law). Tony is relieved, but his mood darkens when he spies Paulie in the next room, chortling at an episode of Three’s Company. (I’ve never felt closer to old Paulie Walnuts than at this moment—I can “remember when” Jack Tripper and company were my favorite thing to watch on TV.) Tony seems to reach a breaking point as he listens to Paulie’s annoying laughter.
Chase uses a couple of methods to raise the dramatic tension and get us to believe that the current episode may be Paulie’s last. For example, Chase’s camera clearly lingers on Paulie’s white shoes at one point. (Many viewers came to equate “white shoes” with “death,” particularly after a prolonged shot of white shoes in the previous episode just as Johnny Sac was dying.) As Paulie and Tony board a boat, Paulie flashes back to the time years ago when they killed Big Pussy aboard a similar-looking boat (“Funhouse,” season 2). As they have lunch on the cruiser, Tony—after taking note of an axe hanging on the bulkhead—starts cross-examining Paulie about the Ginny-joke. Old Walnuts senses that he might be in some real trouble now. (The flashback to “Funhouse” may also add to the growing tension because it was in that previous hour that Tony gave some thought—at least subconsciously—to killing Paulie: he shot Gaultieri in one of his dreams in that episode.)
The camerawork and editing of this sequence aboard the boat are noteworthy. Chase utilizes the up-and-down wave action of the water to highlight the up-and-down tension between the two men. We’ve often seen how Chase uses high- or low-camera angles on The Sopranos to either amplify or diminish a character; here, the camera angle remains fairly constant, but the rocking motion of the boat in effect moves the camera into “high” and “low” viewpoints. As each of the men alternate between a higher and lower physical position, it underscores our question: Which one of the men will get the upper hand? Tony seems to be in full control of the situation when he is juxtaposed against the blue sky, but moments later, he is diminished as he falls below the line of the horizon:
Paulie looks quite intimidating when his side of the boat is lifted skyward, but more vulnerable when his starboard side dips down:
The constant shifting of the horizon line, which is rarely at a 90-degree right-angle to the picture frame, destabilizes the composition and adds to the feeling that things just ain’t right. Tony makes his way over to the axe and we really begin to think that it’s Bye Bye Time for Paulie. Tony weighs his options for a moment, and then decides to grab a root beer instead of a weapon. Danger averted.
I suppose there are several reasons why Tony decided not to “lose” his friend at sea, and one may have been the recognition that Paulie’s assets still outweigh his liabilities. Earlier, when they met with some young Miami bad guys at a boatyard, Paulie showed that he’s still got some balls: though the younger men outnumbered him, Paulie didn’t hesitate to get right in their faces. The Cubans, and Tony too, must have been impressed by the old man’s grit.
I find the visuals and staging of this scene in the Miami boatyard to be very interesting. I think that Chase may have used the scene to make a purposeful contrast between the Miami baddies and our New Jersey Mafiosi. The Miami guys look so slick, stepping out of a luxury car in their fine clothes. The characters and location look like something that could have been shot for Miami Vice:
The Miami crew’s leader is named Esteban, perhaps a call-back to “Esteban Calderone,” the primary villain in Season 1 of Miami Vice. Michael Mann’s TV series broke new ground in the 1980s with its stylized visuals and thumping musical scores. It was a very contemporary show but still displayed many of the characteristics of classic film noir: seedy characters, dark themes, damaged heroes, unhappy endings. The style and tragic tone of Miami Vice were clearly a part of Mann’s signature philosophy of creating an on-screen world that is “larger than life.” (Mann doesn’t hesitate to go over-the-top in order to create his dramatic worlds… I mean really, how many Vice cops actually use a convertible Ferrari as their daily driver?) Chase’s TV series is groundbreaking too, but for the opposite reason—it puts an emphasis on “the fuckin’ regularness of life.” The Sopranos doesn’t try to be larger-than-life, it tries to be true-to-life. Tony doesn’t strike a million-dollar cocaine deal with the Miami guys now but a rather more mundane agreement involving pool toys and shampoo. And Tony and Paulie don’t look anything like the always-stylish Crockett and Tubbs here—they could pass for a pair of regular guys out for a night of bowling:
We’re only three episodes into this mini-season, yet Tony has already come close twice to killing members of his inner circle. Of course, Tony has already killed people that were close to him in previous seasons, but their murders were, in a broad sense, “justified” by the seriousness of the circumstances that Tony found himself in. (Again, just look at the deaths of Big Pussy and Adriana and Tony Blundetto.) But in Season 6B, Tony’s hand is not being forced by dire circumstances. He seems to be entertaining these murderous thoughts almost on a lark: two episodes ago, it was Bobby, for out-fighting him during a tussle, and now Paulie, for…well, for nothing in particular. Tony’s humanity is getting stamped out as time passes, he is turning into something truly monstrous. Bobby and Paulie are able to escape Tony’s homicidal impulses, but another member of T’s inner circle will not be so lucky three episodes from now.
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“Remember When” functions as a final chance for Dominic Chianese to showcase his talent, and he makes the most of the opportunity. While Paulie Gaultieri keeps reminiscing about the “good ol’ days,” Corrado actually tries to recapture them now. Although old age and dementia are catching up to Corrado during his incarceration, some of the impulses and characteristics that propelled him to the top of the New Jersey famiglia are still strong within him. He still has a thirst for power, intimidating other inmates and taking a leadership role among them. He has figured out which wheels he needs to grease in order to operate various unsanctioned activities at the institution. He has got a couple of different money-making schemes going on. He’s got a level of spunk and spitfire that we haven’t seen in him in a long time. There’s a gleam in his eye as he talks shit to one of the orderlies: “I saw your girl earlier today at pet therapy. How does she keep her coat so shiny?” Things are going so well for Corrado that when Pat Blundetto calls to hatch an escape plan, he quickly nixes the idea. (He hangs up on Pat and goes back to watching an infomercial, which—perhaps notably—ends with a man saying “I decided I wanted something where I was my own boss.”) Corrado is enjoying his current life which has a bit of a resemblance to his old life as the NJ Boss. Of course, it’s a bit sad that the “executive” poker game he now runs is populated by mental patients rather than celebrities and high rollers. (One of the players, suffering from Alzheimer’s, doesn’t even know what hand he’s holding—but ends up winning the pot anyway.) And it’s a bit sad that Corrado is transacting his affairs with Kit Kat bars and big red buttons instead of stacks of $100 bills as he once did. Nevertheless, it is quite impressive that Corrado still has the strength of personality to shape his environment as he wants, despite the dementia encroaching upon him.
“Boss” Corrado is able to play out his scaled-back mob-land fantasies inside the institution only because he has the help of a young Asian-American man named Carter (who, in analogous terms, is operating as his capo). But Carter is a volcano ready to erupt, and Chase seems to give us a hint of this in an early scene: Carter walks into Corrado’s room just after a TV reporter for the Weather Channel says “They can be unexpected, frightening events, but here at Crater Lake National Park, they’re just part of the scenery.” The reporter is talking about some type of extreme weather event, like a tornado, at Crater Lake but his words seem to foreshadow Carter’s violent outburst later in the hour. (And “Crater” even manages to function as an anagram of “Carter.”)
Critic Matt Zoller Seitz notes this episode has a strong “mirroring” between its two major storylines much like those acclaimed episodes “College” and “University” previously had. In one storyline here, Chase explores Tony and Paulie’s father-son type relationship. (Tony’s lady-friend even says she thought at first that Paulie was Tony’s dad, to which Tony replies, “There was a time when I wished he was.”) Congruently, Corrado and Carter have developed something of a father-son type of relationship.
Strengthening the congruence: neither Paulie nor Corrado ever had kids of their own. The closest thing Corrado had to a son was his nephew Tony, and so it is not very surprising that he refers to his pseudo-son Carter as “Anthony” at one point. For his part, Carter equates Corrado with his father—but this is not exactly a good thing for Corrado because the young man clearly has some pent-up daddy issues. Carter has an alarming fit while recounting his father’s disappointment at his 96% score on a spelling test. (I’m guessing that this character was written as an Asian-American in order to play into the intense pressure that many Asian-American youth are under in real life, to always excel and out-perform and live up to the so-called “model minority” label. Carter’s mother here even seems a bit like one of those tiger-moms that Amy Chua has written about.)
Corrado’s fantasy of being back in the mob goes to his head and he beats the crap out of a Rutgers professor whom he has a beef with. The facility administrators, who have the full weight of the State behind them, press Corrado to submit to their rules and regimen. So he submits—and seriously disappoints Carter in the process. During a “Country Roads” sing-along, Corrado makes a reprimanding gesture at Carter’s bad behavior. Angry, frustrated and totally unable to cope, Carter rushes his father-figure and unleashes a furious attack. In the aftermath, Corrado’s eyeglasses—which we’ve come to associate with him like a totem—lay broken on the institution floor.
In the final shot of the episode, we see a bruised Corrado—iconic glasses held together with tape—sitting outside, taking part in a pet therapy class. Earlier in the hour, Corrado had flung an insult at one of the orderlies which both zinged the man’s girlfriend and mocked the pet therapy class. Now, all his pluck and spunk gone, he is participating in pet therapy himself alongside the rest of the “drooling chadrools.” The increased medication dosages, the attack by his surrogate son, the snowballing dementia, and the simple passing into old age—they have all severely diminished Corrado. As we watch the image slowly fade out, we sense that Corrado will fade out of the remainder of the Sopranos narrative just as he is fading away from being the man and Boss he once was.
I think this final shot of the hour may be one of the most incredible shots of the entire series because it might be evoking both the opening shot of The Godfather Part I and the closing shot of The Godfather Part II. In the first scene of The Godfather Pt. I, Vito Corleone stroked his cat much like Corrado strokes a cat now:
In the closing shot of The Godfather Pt. II, Michael Corleone sat outdoors and reflected upon those long gone days when his family was all together and everything was good, just as Corrado seems to be doing now:
Francis Ford Coppola’s G1 and G2 taken together are considered by many to be the greatest achievement in American film history. The opening and closing scenes that bracket Coppola’s awesome achievement are perhaps being referenced by Chase’s final shot of this hour. The Godfather films are the chronicle of a proud and powerful mobster family. “Remember When” is Chase’s final chronicle of the once proud and powerful Corrado Soprano.
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This episode is something of a stand-alone hour; Tony and Paulie’s visit to Miami and our visit to Corrado’s detention center aren’t very connected to the overall arc of Season 6B. In a sense, though, there hasn’t been much of an overall arc to the season so far. Of course, there is a power struggle going on in New York, one which is starting to give some general shape and thrust to the season. But that storyline almost seems like a minor affair. (Todd VanDerWerff admires how Chase doesn’t shine a spotlight on the game of thrones going on in NY: “Can I say how much I love the way the show plays out its major, series-ending story arc in the background of all of these weird little short stories about Tony and his guys?”) Though it occurs a little bit in the background, I need to get some of the goings-on in New York on the record because they do become consequential over time. After Phil Leotardo gives Doc Santoro his “taste” (i.e. money) at a restaurant, Doc helps himself to a taste literally—he forks a morsel out of Leotardo’s plate. This cannot abide, it will not do. Doc Santoro later gets whacked by Leotardo’s men as he walks out of a massage parlor. The road is now clear for Phil Leotardo to assume the crown in New York.
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TITLE SIGNIFICANCE
The title of the episode is an immediate giveaway that this hour is about the past, and that is a troublesome thing for Sopranos’ characters because their pasts are so full of evil. The notion of karma, or at least a sort of karmic justice for past misdeeds, was on the minds of many viewers in 2007 as the series was coming to a close. “Remember When” completely plays into this concern. William Faulkner once wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” We clearly see in this hour that Tony’s past is still with him, as he essentially has to go on the lam for a murder he committed many years ago. He tells Carmela that he is facing some minor gambling charge rather than tell her the truth about the potential murder rap, but she still worries that they can’t outrun their past: “This is what life is still like? At our age??” With her typical self-blindness, Carmela doesn’t realize that the reason why their lives haven’t changed is because they haven’t changed. Matt Zoller Seitz writes that this episode shows us that “the consequences of a past bad choice wouldn’t be so bad if they caught up to a changed person.” The troubling thing about people, though, is that they don’t usually change very much. This is mostly true in the real world, and it’s almost absolutely true in SopranoWorld.
The episode title most obviously comes from Tony’s memorable and quotable line: “‘Remember When’ is the lowest form of conversation.” He is right, of course—one doesn’t need to be a very skilled or knowledgeable conversationalist to reminisce about the past. But I want to take a moment to defend reminiscing. Some of the warmest, most cheerful conversations that we ever have are the ones with our friends and family where we recall some past event or shared memory. Reminiscing is an important way of connecting with each other and with our collective past. I understand that Tony dismisses reminiscing as “the lowest form of conversation” mainly because he is trying to get Paulie to shut the hell up, stop sharing so many details with so many people. But I wonder if there is more to Tony’s statement…
Tony is not a very nostalgic man by nature. True, he does hark back upon his life sometimes in Dr. Melfi’s office—but usually only at her prodding. In general, he situates his thoughts in the present moment and not in the past. We might even note that Tony’s first words of Season 6B were “Alright, let’s not go backwards, huh?” (He was speaking to Johnny Sac, who is more of a sentimental and emotional man, often finding it difficult to get past his various grudges.) We might also remember that Tony hated Feech LaManna’s nostalgic trips down memory lane so much that they seemed to have factored into his decision to have Feech sent back to the slammer. Tony has always been vulnerable to the philosophy of disconnection and isolation that was practiced by his mother. If reminiscing is a way of reiterating bonds and connections as I’m suggesting it is, then Tony’s disgust at such retrospection is something that could be isolating him even further. Tony’s bonds with others certainly seem to be fraying in this final season, and more reminiscing might have been a way of repairing those relationships. But I guess if your memories are as treacherous as Tony’s are, you probably wouldn’t want to look back either. Who would want to think back upon the time their father asked them to commit their first murder while their wife was at home pregnant with their first child?
I think one more point to make about the episode title is that there is something wistful, almost tragic, in how it relates to Corrado’s storyline here. Corrado is falling into dementia and losing his memory, so he is losing his ability to reminisce and do the whole “remember when” thing. Corrado’s mental decline has been the source of some humor over the last few seasons, but Chase closes this episode with an ultimately poignant approach to the man’s slow and agonizing descent into old age. Of all the various aspects to “the fuckin’ regularness of life,” there is perhaps nothing more wistful and heartbreaking than the fucking regularness of getting old.
(Ironically, there may be a benefit to Corrado’s growing senility in that it could spare him from the kind of karmic justice that we expect for an aging Mafioso: he most probably will never get whacked and he will not be sentenced to hard time in a maximum-security prison. There is, nevertheless, a kind of karmic retribution in the savage beating he gets from Carter, especially when we consider that Carter functions as a sort of surrogate for Tony Soprano. It’s almost as if this Tony-surrogate is getting vengeance on Corrado for trying to kill Tony in Season 1 and then shooting Tony in Season 6.)
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STAND-UP GUYS
It is very important within the value-system of these mobsters to be “stand-up guys.” During dinner together, Paulie shows his respect for Beansie by calling him “a stand-up guy” (before immediately realizing he made a faux pas toward his wheelchair-bound friend). Beansie has a mutual respect for Paulie. But Tony has suspicions about their silver-winged colleague:
Beansie: All I know is Paulie Gaultieri is a stand-up guy.
Tony: Has he ever really been put to the test?
Paulie himself seems not to be so sure how he would perform if he were put to that test. During a dream, he asks Pussy Bonpensiero, “When my time comes, tell me, will I stand up?” Big Pussy may have been a stand-up guy at one time, but he wasn’t towards the end of his life, and this was underscored in his last scene—Pussy’s final words were: “I gotta sit down. I feel like I can’t stand. Is that ok, Tony? That I sit?”
(Tony answered by firing a bullet into Pussy’s chest.) Paulie is startled out of his dream. He grabs some dumbbells and furiously starts doing curls. He has always been proud of his biceps, which figured so prominently in one of Beansie’s old photographs:
Paulie can remember when being a stand-up guy came so naturally and easily for him, back when he was a young man. He tries desperately now to recapture that time and that mindset. But doubts about his own loyalty weigh heavily upon him—they even plague his sleep. And no amount of weight-lifting may be able to lift that burden.
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PEE
There were references to peeing in the two previous episodes of this season (Carm and Bobby Bacala each had to take a piss in the season opener and Kelli Moltisanti needed to go in the last episode). Chase’s urinary interest continues here, as Beansie excuses himself to go empty his colostomy bag and also as Corrado pisses his pants at the detention center. I think all the pee references are part of Chase’s commitment to portraying “the regularness of life.” In the case of Corrado now, it may also play into the idea of karmic justice: here is a formerly strong and violent mafia don who once controlled all of north Jersey, but now is so weak and compromised that he can’t even control his own bladder.
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DICK
The reference here to Dick Cheney accidently shooting an acquaintance in the face provides some comedy, but it may also be another example of Chase’s increased criticism of the Administration that was in power at the time. The accidental shooting was great fodder for comedians and late-night shows, but more seriously, the accident seemed to be an almost perfect symbol of the bloody and bungled messes that often resulted from the Administration’s heedless, gun-happy policies. Chase sharpens his criticism later in the hour when Corrado says that it may be easier to reach Cheney “at his outfit” Halliburton. (The Vice President’s “outfit” should be the Federal Government of the United States, not a multinational corporation.) Somewhat strangely, Carter responds to this statement by saying that his father owned Grumman stock. Carter’s response almost sounds like a non-sequitur, but I think there may be a logical reason why David Chase put the line in there. By including a reference to the prominent oil services company (Halliburton) and then immediately a reference to the prominent weapons/aerospace company (Grumman) in this conversation about Cheney, Chase could have been suggesting that oil and war were among the defining priorities of the Bush Administration.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- This is the only Sopranos episode that Phil Abraham directed. He worked on the series for six years, first as a camera operator and then as cinematographer. I think his cinematographer’s eye is apparent throughout the hour, particularly the scenes on the boat and in the boatyard. Abraham went on to direct episodes of other premium TV shows including Mad Men.
- A Godfather reference? Tony mentions that his backyard tomato crop is coming in. We all remember, of course, that Vito Corleone died among the pomodoro in his backyard. Is Chase hinting that Tony’s end is coming soon?
- Corrado mistakenly keeps referring to Jameel, the rogue orderly that he has made certain arrangements with, as “Hormel.” I think this error is a sign of his callousness and racism more than it is of his mental deterioration.
- It looks like Beansie is thriving down in south Florida. It’s great to see that the vicious attack by Richie which left him disabled didn’t turn him into an angry and bitter man. (A lot of the credit for that probably belongs to his wife.)
- At one point, Beansie mentions that the Cubans in Miami jacked an American Standard truck that was filled with plumbing and bathroom fixtures. American Standard is a real-world plumbing manufacturer, and the reference to it here seems to be part of a Sopranos tradition of using companies with the word “American” in their names. (American Biotics and American Express were previous examples. There is another example coming up in a later episode, and it’s a doozy…)
- (Soon-to-be) Famous Face: Tony and Paulie search for the Havenaire Hotel during their road-trip but find a generic chain hotel in its place, with Lin-Manuel Miranda playing one of its bellboys.
- Actor Ken Leung (‘Carter’) would later gain much recognition playing ‘Miles’ on Lost.
- Six days before this episode originally aired, a Korean-American man went on a shooting spree at Virginia Tech in what became the deadliest campus shooting in American history. Many Sopranos fans at the time couldn’t help but see some parallel between the school-shooter and Carter in this hour.
- Tony asks his friend Hesh for a $200,000 loan in this hour which helps set up the storyline of the next episode, “Chasing It,” an episode that many viewers (including myself) found faulty, but one that does improve with a closer look.
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Sopranos Autopsy 
I love when they use real pictures of the characters when they are younger. I still wonder if the photo that Chris looks at in his mothers kitchen is his real father. It looks like Michael Imperioli but somehow different. I agree with everything in this write-up. I believe it’s painful for Tony to think about his past. He has to look forward because looking back makes him feel regretful. Paulie is not a deep thinker, and looking back to him is like reliving a great ride…he has no regrets. It’s all good times, ie: “16 year old Hillbilly Whores”. Also, Tony has to look to the future which is rapidly catching up with him. He has no time to look back. Carmela only reminisces wistfully when Tony is in the hospital, talking about when they were young. The next time, she is criticizing him because he seemed to be a “Rapscallion” in school, not a depressive. A lot of sensitive people use humor to hide how they really feel. Sometimes it’s all you can do is to see humor in terrible things so you can get through the day. Also, I wish she would take her head out of her ass, and just accept who they are and what they do…it’s so annoying.
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Oh man, I’ve seen Tony and Paulie do and say some horrific things, but that fond recollection of SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRLS truly disgusted me…
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Sixteen is the age of consent in most states. Repulsive as it is, the only illegal part was the prostitution. Still, adding the age was intentional on Chase’s part. Maybe to intensify the repulsion or maybe to play on the stereotype of the ignorant Southerners, although the age of consent is 16 in Jersey.
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But I think my repulsion also had to do with the age difference. They would have been much closer in age (well, Tony anyway) to the girls back then, but still…
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I think he just liked the line “Hillbilly Huwahs.” Very alliterative.
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Haha true
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18 is the age of consent in VA
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That photo is of a young Michael Imperioli and his older brother.
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Really??? Thanks for the info!! How were you able to find out if you don’t mind my asking?
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I saw it on one of the Sopranos Twitter accounts I follow, and it had a link to Michael confirming it.
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Orange – I agree. But if everyone took their heads out of their asses and accepted who they are/what they do, there would be no show – no Sopranos! Also remember that sometimes it’s too difficult and painful for people to accept who/what they are, even when they seek treatment.
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IMO one of the sadder moments in this episode comes when Paulie is reminiscing about how much Johnny Boy loved Tony, then uses the Willie Overalls hit as an example of how much JB trusted him. Throughout 6B Tony is reflecting on his father and slowly beginning to question everything he thought he believed about him, a process that (arguably) began in the season 5 Fran Feldstein episode. The facade of sainthood he constructed around his father’s memory is crumbling and he’s starting to see “remember when” through a different lens.
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Yes, I’ve never been able to figure out exactly how Tony feels when Paulie brings up Johnny Boy’s “trust.” Is Tony happy that his dad trusted him to do the Overalls hit? Or is T more angry and disappointed that his father pushed him irrevocably into mobsterhood by giving him the hit? Tony’s feelings toward his own son probably complicate the issue: Tony cares about AJ too much to ever want him to become a mobster, but at the same time, he may feel a little disappointed that AJ isn’t tough or capable enough to make a good wiseguy…
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Just my take but IMO Paulie’s well-intentioned-yet-completely tactless and meat-headed remark fuels the growing anger and hatred Tony exhibits toward Paulie for the rest of the episode. Tony wasn’t wondering “where he stood” with Johnny Boy as a budding mobster but as a son. Paulie, who doesn’t know anything else, sees JB’s “trust” as a loving gesture but Tony knows better than that. We’ll see Tony’s growing disillusionment with his father manifest itself in the next episode and we’ll also see his lack of a genuine caring father figure manifest itself later re: AJ.
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This reminds me of a really important aspect that I picked up on rewatch. When Tony has the dream about his coach, it seems like it was known that that was his ambition, even though it’s never mentioned. This is key to me because Tony had the makings of the best coach ever (if Not a varsity athlete). I got the feeling that T maybe thought that the overall killing also killed whatever dream he may have had of being a coach.
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Yeah interesting pun in the victim’s name—by killing Willie Overall, Tony’s killed his overall chance at ever having a normal life…
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Or his chances at a normal life were all over.
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Tony’s speech at the end of “Christopher” (an unfairly maligned episode) is one of the greatest scenes of the entire series, it really highlights that had Tony not gone into a life of crime, he really could have done great things.
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It has nothing to do with how he feels towards Paulie. He remembers the moment we saw in the flashback, when he had to lie to Livia just after she lost the baby. The word “trust” is what triggers him, not Paulie. Johnny betrayed his trust, and made him lie to Livia, the moment of no return that he suppressed with all the Johnny charisma and cool-dad facade.
Coincidentally, I’ve experienced a similar scenario with my father: he didn’t give me a heads up and expected me to lie to a stranger about having a ski-pass when we were skiing (we had them, but they expired a day earlier). You never, ever forget a thing like that, because you have to make a fast decision based on your trust towards your father, not based on the facts or your upbringing. That was the moment after which a never lied again, excluding some irrelevant white lies. Was 10 years old. Dad told me how proud he was of me for “getting it” right away when he asked me “your pass is in your pocket, right?” in front of the security guy, and used the fact that I was a small kid to get us through, knowing the security won’t make too much of a scene. They did, started yelling, he started laughing, and I was repulsed.
Trust is this episode main theme, not remembrance: the long conversation with Beansie is not about nostalgia. It’s about trust. And the sole reason that saved Paulie was not history, but trust. He wouldn’t break with the Ginny’s mole interrogation, so he gets to see another day.
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The scene with the expensive espresso machine and lifting weights, and Paulie’s dream of Pussy is about when the shit hit’s the fan, can I even trust myself to do what is right? This is a continuation of the Paulie’s arc with his mother: he trusted the wrong person, so how can he trust himself now? The constant reminding that Paulie has no wife and children in this episode is used to further accentuate his lack of trust, and at the same time, misplaced trust: he keeps telling very inappropriate stuff to complete strangers, trusting them completely, which Tony loathes, because Paulie doesn’t understand what trust is and how it works. The same theme continues in the next couple of episodes with Chirstopher: the reason he shot JT Dolan was based on the lack of trust. Now, go back to the scene with Tony: the most incompetent person to talk about trust tells you “your father trusted you”; wouldn’t you get upset? And this is why he becomes the Judas. Judas didn’t trust Jesus, when he should have. He ends up betraying Tony’s trust, and Tony ends up dead because of it. Tony watching Paulie laugh at the TV show in his room is Tony’s Asberger’s again: a person this childish I can trust, right? Wrong.
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Superstition is the ultimate form of misplaced trust.
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Idk if this has been referenced but Paulies real name is Peter and Paulie denies telling John the joke 3 times on the boat. In the Bible the apostle Peter denies knowing Jesus 3 times
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You know, I think a lot of Paulie’s storyline here comes down to his anxieties, worries, and obsessing. Paulie is an awful person, but the show sometimes shows that he’s correct. He worries about cancer and his PSA test (get that testing done, fellas). Though the test is a precaution, Tony tries to reassure him it’ll be no big deal. Paulie later ends up getting treated for prostate cancer.
– Initially, when Paulie gets on the boat in this episode with Tony, we see his flashback to Pussy’s execution. Though I originally thought it was a spoon-fed flashback for the viewer, we’re seeing the images of Pussy’s death through Paulie’s eyes, which is why he sees Pussy later in the kitchen. Paulie survives the boat trip with Tony for a few reasons: One, he was obsessed with the possibility Tony was going to kill him, and stuck to his lie that he never told Johnny the Ginny joke. Tony also spares Paulie out of his sliver of doubt, and because Paulie presented himself as the tough guy Tony recalls from his youth. Tony idolized Paulie, and likely keeps him around because of the memories of that tough guy, because he seems certain Paulie doesn’t really earn. Paulie doesn’t realize it, but he was correct to worry.
– Back home, Paulie sends Carmela the espresso maker out of anxiety and worry. He thinks Tony is still upset over the Ginny joke, and likely has no idea about the (financial) trouble he caused; he likely believes that Tony feels Paulie’s loose lips dishonored Ginny. Thus, he gifts Tony’s wife, Carmela. He works out with his weights, because that’s all he really has – his toughness. He was right around his late 50s and early 60s during the filming of Sopranos; that he could be imposing and physically involved is impressive.
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But he doesn’t see Pussy cooking….he sees pussys head on Tony’s body….he’s questioning Tony’s loyalty and his own in his mind. When he wakes up, he pumps iron….he’s getting ready for war.
When I finally make my video, you’ll understand the parallel as to why he sees it that way (pussy head, Tony body). Cheers!
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The hint is that, at the opening, Tony smiles when he sees Paulie pull up; the smile fades quickly.
As Tony and Paulie are on the road, things start out well enough, but Paulie eventually falls asleep, and Tony, left to himself, becomes drowsy. Paulie, the non-stop chatterbox, couldn’t keep Tony engaged or awake. They decide to go back to a hotel they remember for steaks; however, the hotel has since changed. A rosy memory turns out to be a letdown.
Instead of steak, Tony and Paulie share nachos; Tony is looking forward to reliving memories over a rich meal, but it’s not to be – in more ways than one. Tony poses a big question to Paulie, but I think the question is less about getting a real answer from Paulie, and more about hearing about how much Johnny loved Tony. Paulie’s response is succinct, and comes with little weight. Deflated, Tony leaves a large tip and wordlessly leaves.
Tony’s mood darkens throughout the episode. He has gladly accepted years of ass-kissing and laughing uproariously at bad jokes, without accepting that his circle is largely sycophantic. Now, he sees Paulie provide more conversation to complete strangers than to him. Tony suffered by giving people like Tony Blundetto and Vito too much slack, when they freely threw Tony Soprano under the bus. Tony, by process of elimination, realizes Paulie told Johnny Sack about Ralphie’s joke, doing just as much damage to the crew’s livelihood as either issue with Phil.
Tony found it difficult to be stern and decisive with Richie; this cost him. He also gave Ralphie too much slack before finally doing him in. Despite his feelings, Tony was quick to dispose of Adriana, and took care of Feech when he realized it was another Richie-type issue. Tony has started to realize that being loyal to a fault comes with too heavy a price, and has found it easier and easier to dispose of people. As Tony has started to lose faith in Christopher, he also begins to question Paulie’s value. As more time passes, Tony considers how much of a liability any individual is.
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This has never been my fave episode, but a drab hour of the Sopranos is still better than most TV. Tony’s convo w/ Beansie might suggest that every time he mentions Gary Cooper, he’s really been thinking of Paulie. It would make sense, given his comment about wishing Paulie was his father. Even in S1, Paulie’s the senior guy in the Soprano crew, someone who’s known him for a long time. Beansie asserts that Paulie’s always been a chatterbox, but Tony doesn’t seem so sure. We’ve seen Tony deal with how unromantic his past really is before, in “Down Neck,” “In Camelot,” and “Sopranos Home Movies” in particular. Post-accident, he seems even less inclined to romanticize, seeing most people and things as little more than hindrances to his lumbering appetites and freedom. The way he toys with Paulie, like a shark, is as if all his fondness, all their history, is really that disposable. Sure, he reneges in the end, and even stands up for Paulie to Carmela, but it’s just a switch he flips on and off.
Also, Doc Santoro does a great job of seeming like a douchey schmuck, despite having very little screentime. Phil’s almost completely unlikable, but who can blame him for whacking this prick?
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I think Tony’s impatience with Paulie during the hour was barely to do with his blabbermouth, but primarily by his fondness of the past, juxtapositioned with Tony’s clear wounds inflicted by his upbringing. On some level, Tony subconsciously blames his father for morally and ethically compromising him – and Paulie’s rose-coloured glasses grates against that.
This is the only episode where we get some insight into Tony’s relationship with Johnny Boy that isn’t just bluster, where he says “I never knew where I stood with him”. It’s a bit confusing to me as the flashbacks we saw of Johnny Boy, he was never shy about saying what was on his mind.
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Maybe it’s an example of growing up in the large shadow of a powerful father, fearing him and loving him even with his faults. AJ has the same problem, trying to live with the specter of his father. He struggles with that all through his adolescence and young adult hood. Father and son relationships…difficult sometimes. Powerful fathers cast a big shadow.
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Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like no sons ever know 100% where they stand with their fathers…
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That’s very true. I see it in my own family.
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Amen! You summed it all up right there.
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Ron – It’s the same with daughters too.
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I loved Paulie’s “Barney Fife” story…that was priceless.
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Where Paulie revels in the past, Tony finds it sad. Imagine having your father instruct you kill someone, that has to stay with you. It set him on the road he’s on, criminality. He spends his present avoiding charge after charge, when we all know it will catch up with him sooner rather than later and land him in jail….which if he doesn’t die is where he will end up. If he looks back he has to face his life. This is because he is a deep complicated person full of contrary personality traits. He tries to be a better person, but ultimately he fails. He’s a product of his upbringing. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but it explains him. He lives his life doing what he wants, eating, sex, money… but ultimately it’s empty. Maybe that’s what Carmela was alluding to. Things will always be this way, and any minute the hammer will fall.
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Great observations about the framing of the boat scene and the Godfather connections to the closing shot of Corrado, Ron!
Episodes such as this one and “Remember When” make me hope that Chase doesn’t go too in-depth into the Soprano household for The Many Saints of Newark (or, yawn, simply Newark now). I like Tony as an unreliable narrator to what kind of father Johnny Boy was and I feel like the movie might just reinforce Livia as the single reason for Tony’s dysfunctional youth. It’s something that I think needs to remain at least somewhat ambiguous, like the cut to black at the end of the series.
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I totally get what you mean, but my guess is that we’re going to be learning much more about what kind of dad Johnny Boy was. But then again, the movie is supposedly about the Moltisanti family, so perhaps Johnny Boy won’t figure too much within the narrative. But then again, maybe Chase dropped “Many Saints” out of the movie name because it will not be focusing very much on the Moltisantis.
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Speaking about “Many Saints”, what do you thing about movie? It was total dissapointment to me and everyone I know.
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I liked it better the second time around. I didn’t have high expectations for it anyway…
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Thanks for doing these critiques Ron. I’ve just watched the Sopranos the whole way through for the first time (Having watched some on UK TV and some on DVD previously), and I’m interested coming to it over 10 years later at least a little wiser how rich the show is. I fear the first time round I may have been closer to one of those fans David Chase despaired of, always waiting for something gratuitous. This blog only amplifies that richness.
I wanted to leave a tip here for anyone who has asked about a book version, if you have a Kindle you can use the ‘experimental browser’ to navigate to the post and then switch to ‘article’ mode, I found it works really well. You lose the comments, but you can always switch to some other device for the conversation.
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Thanks Roper
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Chevy Chase. F*** ever happened to him?
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In Soprano Home Movies, when Tony first sees Bobby he comments, “National Lampoons Vacation”.. later in the episode when Tony & Bobby are driving back to the house, Tony sees a young woman water skiing and gives her a flirtatious wave.. A some what similar scene to the one Chevy Chase has in Lampoons Vacation.
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Man you are right
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Chevy Chase’s career went nowhere; he was only in a handful of unsuccessful movies/TV shows since leaving SNL. He reportedly comes from ‘old money’, so I’m sure he doesn’t really care about having a career. Judging from online photos, he appears to be a morbidly obese, old man.
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Oh come on, he was big in the 80s. Caddy Shack and National Lampoon’s Vacation movies were huge.
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I think if Paulie had admitted that he told the joke, Tony would have killed him. It seemed like a test. I felt that Tony knew (or suspected beyond a reasonable doubt) that Paulie did it, but what was important was that he didn’t cave under questioning.
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Never really thought about it like that, but I agree!
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Holy crap. I never thought of that and I just rewartched it last month. That makes perfect sense! I thought he wanted Paulie to fess up. But your take makes more sense. He knew and he wanted to see if Paulie would break.
Funny how you can totally miss what’s right in front of your face…
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Thinking about this more, my take was that this joke was the detonator for all the grief that came after, with New York. Remember that Johnny Sac was very good friends Ralphie. And of course after that it all spiraled out of control. I always thought that it always bothered Tony that was said in the privacy of their dinner got out and even after that time, it festered. T was definitely a brooder. And with Paullie and his yakking, T wanted to confirm his suspicions. But the other theory that he wanted to test Paulie and see if he would break makes more sense.
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Agree. He alluded earlier with beansie that Paulie would snitch. On the boat tony is totally testing him. Just seeing if he’d fold under questioning
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Hey, Ron, that was a great analysis. I always liked how in the show Junior avoids both Jail and getting murdered, the inevitable outcome of those in the Mafia. Though I think the episode shows that in the end, we cannot escape aging and death. It always reminds me of Plato’s Republic when Socrates is talking to Cephalus and Cephalus mentions that for all the bad you do in this life when you reach old age and are on the death bed you will be tortured by all the bad you’ve done. I might be reaching, but I though Cater could have been a reference to Virginia Tech shooter which I think happened around the same time. I don’t know I was around the age of 7 so I don’t really remember that much of what was going on around that time.
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Yes, the ‘almost ripe’ tomatoes) is one of the many clues that Chase sowed in season 6B: Tony Soprano will die in ‘Made in America’ (there are still too many episodes to explain the reasons for the murder that occurred at Holsten’s).
Chase’s criticism of George W. Bush’s conservative and imperialist right is clear and leads us to ask more than one question.
We are curious to know what Chase could have said in the post-Obama era in which an affirmed rascal like Donald J. Trump (who, later, will regard Anthony Jr. and Tony very closely) is precipitating the economic negotiations of the whole world, but managed to ward off an apocalyptic war more than once. It would be nice to ask Chase what he thinks of Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize (with a massacre going on in Yemen) and the burning relations that American democrats have woven with Putin’s Russia, reports documented by WikiLeaks and National Security Archive.
It would be interesting, very interesting.
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I’m not aware of anything that Chase might have said about Obama, but he has discussed Trump a little bit in relation to Sopranos characters. I’ll touch upon it in a later write-up…
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I can’t wait for that. This next stretch of episodes culminating in the finale is the greatest TV I’ve personally watched.
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Yes, Chase knew how to construct a final season, unlike some showrunners. (I’m looking at you, Benioff and Weiss. Last night’s penultimate ep of Game of Thrones was one of the most disappointing things I’ve seen on television. I’ll touch upon this in a later write-up too…)
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Where are episodes 16-21? I always read this before and after each episode. 😦
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Coming soon
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Great writeup, Ron. Another point to add to the Godfather comparison, which, to quote another Italian-American stereotypefest, is dead-on-balls accurate – in an earlier episode, Carmela grabs a newspaper to hide from Tony that refers to Junior as “Don Squirrel-leone”, which I would argue is exactly how we see him in this final scene.
Tony’s daddy issues are front and center this season and perhaps are no more glaring than in this episode. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the memory of his father’s faith in him manifested in the Willie Overall hit stung him deeply. The only way that Tony can get back at Johnny Boy here and now (what is Tony if not a creature of the moment) is to whack his surrogate father, Paulie. In a way, not whacking Paulie is emblematic of his inability to “whack” his father within his own psyche.
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Good points
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Thank you for mentioning Hormel. I missed the significance of that.
In his commentary on this episode, Chianese says that he does not know whether Corrado is partly faking dementia, or not.
In a previous post, I mentioned that, watching The Sopranos, I am very much aware of racial, religious, and other social divisions. That is very strongly confirmed in this episode. When they are arguing about payment, Jameel calls Corrado “nigger”, showing clearly who has the upper hand. Here are the exact words:
Corrado: Fucking stick-up artist. I already gave you my watch.
Jameel: Don’t count my money, nigger. You’re making 500% on these mother-fuckers.
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I haven’t read this “autopsy” yet but I did a few keyword searches to see if you’d mention this reference. Corrado’s arrangement of the poker game in the home, including paying off the orderly, always reminds me of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. In fact there is a parallel between the characters in Junior’s setting and in that movie: Junior as R.P. McMurphy, Carter as Billy Bibbit, and the tattletale who gets the orderly to break up the game is similar to the Harding character. I haven’t re-watched the whole episode yet – paused it to write this – so I’ll be looking out for Nurse Ratched. But I do remember that Junior is subdued by the episode’s end, much like McMurphy.
As if to drive the point home, the following scene shows Junior’s TV as he watches that bit about Crater Lake; it shows a map of the state of Oregon. That’s where author Ken Kesey grew up, lived, and died.
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Haha that’s interesting. I wonder if we can compare the complicit orderly Jameel to the Scatman Crothers character… Its been a while since I’ve seen it but didn’t he allow that wild party to take place?
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I believe so!
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Terre – Excellent observation! Yes, this episode also reminded me of ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ – one of the best films ever made (in my opinion). The only person who I could compare to Nurse R is Janice, but she had nothing to do with Corrado in this episode.
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The Nurse Ratched role is played by the Doctor who changes his medication and threatens him with transfer of he doesn’t take it. Not as awful as Nurse R, but playing the parallel role. And the parallels were so clear to me that I had no doubt Corado would end up with some version of a lobotomy – though in this case it was administered via repeated head slams to the wall . .
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The film version of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was also filmed in Oregon.
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Although this episode aired over 12 years ago, Chase, in an almost prophetic scene and moment, foreshadowed what has now become an overplayed theme in today’s society as a last ditch attempt to thwart any accusation or criticism by playing the race card.
Jameel, when confronted with being an accomplice to Junior that he cannot defend with facts, states that he his being unfairly accused because of the “ color of his skin.”
It’s truly uncanny how looking back, the Sopranos mirrors certain aspects of current American society and/ or political stances.
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Another funny and sad race moment: Little Carmine and Chris get to say a few words at the premiere of “Cleaver” while the third director, Morgan Yam, who is Asian, is booted off stage before he can reach the microphone. The idea of it is cringe-y: what does an Asian film director have to say about a mobster-horror movie? And, is it racist to ask this question? It doesn’t help that Carmine and Chris are obsessed with their image and are more than flattered to make a few remarks in the first place.
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I didn’t really think of the race issue there but it’s a good point. It’s made worse by the fact that Morgan isn’t the third director, he’s the actual director.
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Oh, didn’t catch that. Even worse. It’s a little satirical remark about the silencing of minorities on film/TV. It’s funny, considering the Asian kid in the sanatorium with Junior is actually given a voice. Come to think of it, there are plenty of minorities with a voice on the show.
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Cilurnum – Worse yet is that an Asian guy took – and passed – the SEC test for Christopher!
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I like how you are acting like this scene is the first instance of someone ‘playing the race card’ when throughout the entire series the mobsters constantly say police target them due to Italian discrimination
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They always mispronounce names. Remember Tony calls Rhiannon “Rihoonie” and the Indian girl that Meadow was talking to something similar but incorrect. Its indicative of not really caring what someones name is because they are not important. He called Noah Noel…its just something he does to indicate that he doesn’t really care what immaterial people’s names are.
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And of course Noah, who I don’t think he ever refers to by his actual name (almost certainly due to racial discrimination).
Which in a way comes around to the minorities experience of the ‘American Dream’ and racism, how it almost becomes a competition as to who is more put down upon. Plus ca change, sadly…
Yet another great scene – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbuNOzrxLqw
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It’s interesting to contrast Tony’s inflammatory reaction to the Meadow/Noah relationship with his more subdued one to the AJ/Blanca relationship. I don’t think he’s “evolved” on the idea of one of his kids dating outside their race — to me, it’s an example of his 1950s gender prejudices coming into play. AJ is a man and so can date who he wants, Meadow is “his” daughter and he doesn’t want her to be “ruined” by someone he doesn’t approve of.
It’s also interesting that he says “at least she’s Christian” to Carm (Noah was Jewish) when she’s the one who calls out Blanca’s race. These folks have a very strange relationship with Catholicism.
First time commenter. Love the work y’all are doing here, both in the write ups and the comments!
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Good points. I’ve heard that “At least they’re Christian” prejudice many times over the years. But it also seems that Catholics, at least in my experience, have evolved on the issue much further than the Evangelicals have..
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More notably- Ken Leung was in “Saw”.
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If you recall Army Of One , Season 3 finale, the head of the military school they were going to send AJ , was played by Tobin Bell, the Jigsaw killer from the Saw films
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Ron, I wonder if these repeated references to peeing and urination are in some way linked to the fact that Tony is eventually killed by a man who comes out of the restroom.
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Hmm I guess that’s possible. But then it could also be referring to the possibility that the man was just a customer who went into the bathroom to take a piss…
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Ron – Look at who’s playing a coy Chase right now!
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i swear, Tony’s relationship with Paulie is like the mobbed-up, violent version of Michael Scott’s relationship with Dwight Schrute in ‘The Office’.
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Great write up as usual, Ron. There is one tiny complaint I have.. it’s with the pee part. I don’t think you go deep enough so I did a little research of my own..
Along with this episode and the last episode’s references to peeing there’s a quote in season 2 episode 11 from Bobby to Junior about Junior’s former goomar buying a fountain of “a kid pissing.” This is of course is probably a cheap imitation of the Manneken Pis; the bronze fountain sculpture in Brussels. Just three episodes later in the first episode of season 3 we see Patsy peeing in Tony’s pool in a stance and position evocative of the sculpture. Let’s jump to season 3 episode 5 where Tony sees the cop he got demoted at Fountains of Wayne. As Tony notices the cop and realizes who it is, you can see this very statue (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xRvCYQqINrw skip to 38 seconds) and then again at the very end of the episode (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf_urYJvunA) behind Tony when he attempts to bribe the police officer. Of course, we know Tony is motivated by guilt in this scene and wants to bring the police officer down to his level by getting him to take a bribe. But the officer just walks away. Is going to the bathroom to pee? We don’t know and that’s not the point anyway. What we do know is that the uniform he’s wearing is red as opposed to the blue police uniform we see when Tony first meets him. What exactly is David Chase trying to say here? Well, red can symbolize a lot of things: passion, energy, love, STOP. Like the stop signs this officer of the law likely pulls people over for if they don’t obey? Of course, when one thinks of stop signs you think of the octagonal shape. The triagrams of the Taoist bagua are also often arranged octagonally. Taoism is a Chinese religion. Carter Chang (Junior’s mentee from the mental institution) has Chinese heritage. Coincidence? I doubt it. Did David Chase name Carter after the protagonist in the critically acclaimed 2005 film starring Samuel L. Jackson – Coach Carter? Most likely yes. Coach Carter is based on the true story of a high school basketball team from Richmond, CALIFORNIA. California is also where Tony was when he was DYING OR ALREADY DEAD in his purgatory fantasy in the beginning of season 6. And what’s the guy’s name who has served as the US Representative for CALIFORNIA’S 29th congressional district since 2013? You guessed it, Antonio “TONY” Cardenas. David Chase was such a mastermind and genius that he not only knew this man would be elected but was bold, nay, ballsy enough to put it into the Sopranos 6 years earlier as a hint that Tony would die.
So in conclusion I think it’s clear that what David Chase was trying to say with the peeing references is that Tony Soprano is gonna die. Maybe or maybe not in the finale but definitely at some point.
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I love it 👍🏽
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Maybe the urination theme is a grotesque metaphor for life’s way of pissing on Tony
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Haha yes, and life is pissing on all of us in 2020
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Ron – And STILL pissing on all of us in 2021, along with a lot of defecation too.
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“So in conclusion I think it’s clear that what David Chase was trying to say with the peeing references is that Tony Soprano is gonna die. Maybe or maybe not in the finale but definitely at some point.”
*Everyone* dies “at some point.”
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I was left with the distinct impression that Carter had murdered his father, and that was the reason for his presence in the group home.
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I had a similar feeling, maybe not murder but some kind of assault or something
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Paulie was truly a loyal soldier of Johnny and Tony. We’ve seen him a number of times willing to step up when he feels Tony is being disrespected (vs, Chrissy in season 1 “you do what you’re told’, Jackie Jr. ” go to the EENT department, have your hearing checked” vs. Bobby “the boss of this family says you’re Santa Claus”). Of course he lost it a bit when Ralphie became Tony’s favorite in Season 3-4.
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Junior shown with a pussy cat on his lap at end made me smile.
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😊
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reminded me of the framed cat drawing above his phone in his house
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“Aren’t pussies the thing the ducks flew off with in your dream?”
“Wait, do you mean pussy, or PUSSY? I got Pussy on the brain”
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It made me cry. That once proud capo, now reduced to a demented old man holding a snaggle-toothed cat staring out into nothingness.
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I find Season 6.II to have a lot of connective tissue between episodes. In this episode, as in the previous one, we witness an aging gangster navigating an institutional setting, aided by a helper figure…
Tony’s coma dislodged something. In 6.I, he was newly sensitive to the hypocrisies of his surroundings. In 6.II, following Juliana’s being claimed by Tony’s quasi-son, Christopher, and the premiere of Cleaver, which Carmela reads as Christopher’s wanting revenge for Adrianna, this sensitivity turns to suspicion. Of Christopher, that he’ll betray him. And now, of Paulie too – with his income source coming to an end, with Tony’s subconscious telling him that Paulie was the one who relayed the joke – that he’s liable to betray him too. But beneath all this there’s a deeper suspicion… about the past in general. Are Tony’s grounding beliefs reliable? No one was Gary Cooper, not Paulie, and not Tony’s own father, who, when Tony was 22, locked him into the gangster state of mind…
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All of our memories are perception. This is why children of the same parents can have a totally different view of their childhoods. We romanticize and make things better than they were, or worse than they were. Paulie caused a lot of trouble by playing both sides….I think Tony’s affection for him saved his life.
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Brilliant webpage. I think you’re missing something here though… Paulie is at Tony’s 3 o’clock when they are on the balcony, cackling at THREES COMPANY. Pauly is THREES COMPANY, as in 3 o’clocks company. They show you how he cackles with Vito in slow mo, while feech stews. His song is “Nancy with the laughing face”, perhaps ironic foreshadowing to him and Vito who openly have discussed change of power. The elevator scene with Vito and Pauly when Carmela sees the scowls – the “motherless” and the “cocksucker”. In sopranos Home movies, tony sits by the water the next day after the first fight and a bell rings at his 3 o’clock. This is foreshadowing to the bell ringing in the last scene. Pauly is at his 3 o’clock. Pauly is untouched in the war….it was Pauly…. Tony was “waiting for the other shoe to drop”, a deep pine barrens reference, he was waiting for Pauly to fuck up again like that so he had a reason to get rid of him. This episode is the arc, Pauly is the turncoat. – John Oliva
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In the last scene of the show, the door bell rings at 6 o’clock from where Tony is sitting, not 3 o’clock. The whole point was to make Meadow experience Tony’s death from a different angle (which is why she spent extra time parking, so she could walk in on it). She sees it in slow-motion, not enough time to stop it by screaming, but just enough to see it coming before the bang. The cinematic way. The way she saw Tony, as a romantic figure, a samurai, not as a brutal murderer that he was (and that samurais were). She literally thought of her father as of a movie character, and got to experience his equally cinematic death that even us, the audience, didn’t. But about the shoe…
Junior visibly loses a shoe while beating the professor in this episode. Just throws it deliberately at the end of the fight, you can see it was completely on purpose, and took multiple takes and is cut to and from, cause it’s hard to do spontaneously, especially with a slip-on with no shoe-laces. And throughout the episode, we see people’s shoes, there’s a scene of Jun sitting and watching TV that catches his shoes, shots of many other characters in this episode seem to start below their feet level, which is not common in TV, it’s a waste of space unless framed correctly, so it’s definitely there.
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I meant 12 o’clock. *
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Tony was killed from his 3’oclock direction. I’ll be making a video soon explaining everything, all I can say is this, don’t look for implied clues, just look at the blatant clues and everything about this wonderful show is there for you to figure out. Cheers! -Oliva
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“In sopranos Home movies, tony sits by the water the next day after the first fight and a bell rings at his 3 o’clock. This is foreshadowing to the bell ringing in the last scene. ” Again, this is not foreshadowing of the bell ringing in the final scene, because the door bell at the final scene rang at 12 o’clock from where Tony was sitting. As for him being shot from 3 o’clock, that is a different thing entirely, and is of course, obvious. It was figured out basically in 2007, when it aired, so…
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With all due respect, the key word there is “blatant.” With Chase, blatant clues are typically a misdirection. These theories about 3 o’clock, the members only guy and you don’t hear it when it happens…Chase presents these as easy to figure out, obvious things. Too simple. It is the opposite of how the entirety of the previous 85 episodes of this nuanced and ambiguous series has been presented to us.
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Not the case…. The subtle clues are all over the show, and if you really know what the outline was, Chase thought he was making 3 seasons when he started at most. Most of the foreshadowing occurs in the first 2 seasons, but it’s all there, hidden in plain sight, a great who done it veiled in modern Italian Americanism with depression and all. People want this show to have an existential deeper meaning than it’s reality base, but it doesn’t. There is plenty to throw you off in the name of comedy, but the clues are all there. Just watch from the perspective that everything is important, and you want miss them. 3 o’clock is the biggest clue to understanding who and how and why the story unfolds. – oliva
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I respect your right to believe that.
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John – Any headway with your video? If/when it’s done, I hope you post it HERE!! 📽
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Not yet unfortunately….super busy guitar repair shop and a 3.5 year old. Hopefully soon…
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Where’s the shop? I have a late 80s Charvel Jackson that needs work…
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Queens NY
Mobile Guitars
Make an appointment, I’ll fix your Charvel and we can talk sopranos! Lol
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That’s a bit far from me haha
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Also, Paulie isn’t at Tony’s 3 o’clock in this episode. He’s at his 5 o’clock, watching TV while Tony is on the balcony.
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Debatable, he may have started off at his 5, but clearly he’s not on his right side for a reason. It’s no coincidence he’s watching threes company either!
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He went from 5 to 3, that is true.
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I think there’s more than just a SUBTLE “karmic justice” to Mil– uh— I mean CARTER — beating up Uncle Jun, while serving as a stand-in for Tony. He also attacks Junior BECAUSE OF HIS MENTAL ILLNESS, and Junior did not take the risks it posed seriously, exactly like Junior shot Tony because of HIS mental illness, that’s risks were not taken seriously by Tony (or Janice, or Bobby, or anyone but Melfi, really).
Neither Carter nor Junior are truly culpable for what they did, because they are sick men, but they’re also not truly innocent either, because their illnesses are the kind that strip away control over one’s nature rather than supplanting it. Sorta like how “I was on Ambien” isn’t an excuse for going on racist, anti-semitic, and transphobic twitter rants at 2 in the morning, you know? Ambien doesn’t make you a bigot, it just may compromise your ability to keep your digital mouth shut about your bigotry. Dementia didn’t make Junior into the kind of guy who shoots his perceived enemies, it just compromised his ability to accurately identify them.
Also, my own reading of the episode was that it was shouting at us through a megaphone that CARTER IS IN THERE FOR MURDERING HIS FATHER from the second his mother shows up alone, unaccompanied, and clearly full of very conflicted emotions. So I knew from the get-go that the ONLY way Junior’s “father” role to Carter could possibly end was in the young man lashing out at, and possibly killing, the old man, and dreaded that inevitability for the entire second and third acts.
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Interesting theory about Carter, it is possible he’s a killer
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Yeah. The only ‘flying ointment’ in my theory is whether someone who killed their father in a non-premeditated violent outburst, with a successful insanity plea, would be sent to the same institution as a man who committed a similarly non-premeditated, not-quite-culpable act but while ALREADY under house arrest for federal crimes that WERE consciously premeditated, in a state of full mental agency.
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Natalie – If you’re a convicted criminal and nutcase and can afford to be in a ‘better level of care’ facility, you can end in the same institution.
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I was under the impression after watching Carter’s visit from his mother that his dad had become embroiled in a financial scandal involving banks or stock market and perhaps was under indictment for fraud or embezzlement and possibly killed himself leaving his family the shame of the accusatory attitude of others as he wasn’t acquitted. when she criticised “that gangster ” meaning Junior not to believe everything she’s reading In the papers “remember all the crap they wrote about daddy?”
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The opening sequence of this episode, of Tony waking up in a start (seen from above), made me expect some dream sequence content.
In the end, the dream we saw was Paulie’s. I loved what I considered a gradual reveal of the fact that things had not escalated on the Sea Vous Play voyage after we last saw the guys: we cut to Paulie entering his lonely condo, only to find Pussy cooking in the kitchen. Is this dream-Pussy, or afterlife-Pussy? My first instinct was the latter. It’s notable that the shot of Pussy in Funhouse that you include in this write-up (when he says “I feel like I can’t stand”) is compositionally nearly identical to the shot of Pussy in Paulie’s kitchen (when Paulie says “when my time comes, tell me: will I stand up?”) Pussy stands in a corner and looks across his body to the camera at left, with three light sources and a counter behind him. In each shot his right hand extends. I’d include a screen shot if I could. This really spooked me.
This dream/memory of Paulie’s underscored, for me, the cyclical nature of this episode’s major themes. Who’s propping who up (see: the gifted espresso maker)? It was also a treat to see that you included the very shot jogged in my memory in your write-up! Do we see other dreams of Paulie’s in the series? This is my first viewing so I may be missing later ones.
Thanks for all your work, Ron!
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Look closely….it’s not Pussy, it’s pussys head on Tony’s body. In Paulies subconscious he’s afraid Tony is or will become a rat. I could be mistaken, but he also cooking and wearing the same shirt that Tony’s wearing when Corrado shoots him! “When my time comes, will I stand up?” When he wakes up, he doesn’t go back to sleep, he starts pumping iron… I have a massive theory I’m gonna drop in a youtube video later this year. This site is great though, and sheds a lot of light on things tht go unnoticed. – John
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Thanks John
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My wife brilliantly realized two call-backs to prior Sopranos events in this episode:
1. Paulie hoards danishes at the hotel like how his mother/aunt hoarded dinner rolls at the restaurant with her friends
2. Carter throwing the paper at the singer is similar to drunk Meadow throwing the bread at Junior while he sings a few seasons back
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👍👍
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I never thought about it, but at the end, before they kill him, Big Pussy needs to sit down. In the end, he just wasn’t a stand-up guy.
Paulie was a stand-up guy when Tony was questioning him– he denied everything and wouldn’t admit he was the one who talked.
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YES!!
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Kind of obvious that all of Paulie’s shoes would be laceless, but the white shoes = death just might be true, only, they need to be white-white: Ginny cleans John’s shoes, so he can finally die; Paulie brings up two pairs while packing, and chooses the ones that have been worn just a little, so they are not completely white. He survives by a thread. Irony being, the slightly dirty shoes saved his life, they didn’t kill him as he superstitiously believes would happen with bacteria and what not. Tony wore white shoes when he survived that assassination attempt in season one (with the orange juice), but his trousers were kind of dirty-white/grey. Turns out, grey is good. Grey is ok.
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Yet another subtle stairs shot that confirms the stairs = libido theory: the scene with Pat and Junior in the asylum is opened with a shot of a random person going down the stairs, just before we realize where we are: in a nursing facility where people go to die. It seems to be connected with the direction: going down – loss of libido and finally death, going up – everything opposite of it.
This coding is obviously upside down in dream/coma sequences, cause, everything else is, too: Buddhist monks are aggressive and cannot shut the fuck up, Tony is polite and hates violence, light is actually death, Blundetto is a comforting guy, Tony’s wife is caring, sales-people are fun and non-intrusive, Pussy is a literal fish (smells like one, too then?), which, I mean, come on, that is some blue comedy shit you don’t see everyday and it doesn’t stop there; Jun’s joke about the smell of vagina follows it in this season, only, he really shouldn’t be the one to joke about that considering his history with oral sex (again with the constant hypocrisy of the Soprano family). It goes on: Ralphie is visibly bald and doesn’t laugh all the fucking time, regardless of his true emotions, Melfi is laughing, which she only does a couple of times in “real life”, the Italian dental student is not obnoxious as every Italian character is portrayed to be, but is a caring, motherly figure…
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Artie is a cuck in The Test Dream, but in real life he cannot stop chasing pussy. Tony never came when fucking Artie’s wife, which is the opposite of what happened in high-school. And he just plowed her while Artie watched, that is not sex, it’s just… grinding. Annette Bening is not fucking her boss. Vin Makazian is not a ruin, in fact, he’s an FBI agent (potentially) that offers Tony to cooperate (it was the other way around in real-life, Vin offered to cooperate with mafia in order to lower his gambling debt). Finn is content, and not neurotic as fuck. Phil Leotardo’s death not only breaks the fourth wall, but it also contrasts his eventual death: he’s looking at the camera, talking, and so on, he’s animated through it – exactly the opposite of being mutilated after you are dead.
And since somebody mentioned Nancy as Paulie’s song, that was actually one of the rare moments when a character in the SopranoWorld, outside of a dream, would show vivid self-awareness: Bobby’s comment “why the fuck is this his song?”. That was sweet and very po-mo. Although, I don’t agree with the “laughing face” reference, I think that it’s a nod to Tony’s mom Nancy Marchand (Livia actress), and connected to the fact that Paulie always thought Tony was lucky with her, even before he learned the truth about his own mother. It’s a nice foreshadowing, and we know how much of his own mother Chase saw in Nancy as a person, not necessarily Livia. “Why the fuck is this his song?” is a nice jab at the writers who over-self-mythologize, and Chase sort of speaks for the ever confused post-modern viewer that actually stops and asks questions. No, really, WHY?
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Even Carmine, he was so cold and distant in real life even towards his own retarded son, while in the dream, he is literally half-naked in bed with Tony, knowing of no personal boundaries. Those fish lips, though… They exactly the same.
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Maybe there is a connection between Paulie’s song, ‘Nancy with the Laughing Face’, and Nancy Sinatra performing at Phil’s big event. Providing another reason to suspect Paulie as a traitor.
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I love your commentaries. However, I think that you sometimes give too much credit to David Chase when it comes to decisions on film editing, camera angles, directing and screen writing on the Sopranos episodes. There is no doubt that Chase will give the final approval after watching final takes/edits/cuts etc…but the reality is probably that he is usually not there on set, nor is he there standing over the shoulder of the writers and directors of the show as it is being made. Possibly in post production he has more influence for sure. I know this stuff because I had worked in the film/tv industry for many years. The creator/executive producers of a show absolutely set the tone and original storyline to be followed, but they are definitely not there to come up with every single writing subplot, camera angle, wardrobe, lighting and soundtrack decision that is made during any or all stages of production. If they were, my god they would never have a moment of rest! And believe me, these top execs love to rest more than anything.
Just something to keep in mind. Still, you do an absolute amazing job of breaking down these episodes. Keeps me entertained for hours!
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I agree with you. As I mentioned in my Pilot write-up, when I say “Chase,” I’m generally referring to both him and his production team. I tend to use “David Chase” when I’m referring to the man himself, though this isn’t a hard and fast rule.
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Ok, it’s been building the last few episodes but THIS episode, “Remember When”, reveals and explains the finale episode.
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R.I.P. Joe Pucillo (aka Beppy Scerbo, ran with Corrado), 2011
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Nice take on the ‘Carter as capo’ angle. I think this episode is also about strength and weakness. Carter begins to see Corrado as old and weak when he forgets the punchline to a joke, and has an “accident.” As you say, he also caves on taking his meds, which was the last straw. Carter attacks the weakened old lion.
We see a photo of a young, stronger Paulie, flexing his bicep. Tony tests Paulie’s strength, interrogating him on the boat. Paulie asks in his dream, “When my time comes, tell me, will I stand up?” He wakes up and starts doing bicep curls, getting stronger to potentially save himself from a weakened and dangerous Tony.
Tony has always seen the importance of not appearing weak, because the jackals would be at his throat, including his own capos, and he’s right to feel that way. But Bobby has bested him in a fight, New York is constantly taking advantage of “that Pygmy thing in Jersey,” Chris has undermined his image by making ‘Cleaver.’ He’s weaker and everyone knows it. His self-destructive urges and “rage turned inward” (and outward) will continue to manifest in the next episodes.
‘Remember When’ might also allude to “remember when we were stronger.”
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Pingback: The Soprano Onceover & Aki: #33. “Remember When” (S6E15) | janiojala
Fun fact: a lot of people don’t know this, but the name of the cat that Junior is stroking at the end of the episode was actually named “Mr. Bigglesworth” by his owner/handlers. 100% true
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At first, I thought that Paulie was just the typical thug. Yes, he IS a thug, but he’s also a very dangerous, sociopathic, and highly anxious (and obsessive) man, who was almost always overshadowed by others in the crew (especially Christopher). Despite his constant complaints to Johnny Sacrimoni about being mistreated by Tony, I think that he was the most loyal – he always followed orders. In a way, he was Tony’s link to the past, especially when it came to stories about T’s father. I’ll never forget the scene where Paulie told Tony, “The only time I ever saw him (Johnny) cry was when you were born”. Although Paulie continually repeated the same old stories, he was the crew’s ‘historian’, or ‘keeper of the past’. Tony often said how much he hated the ‘remember when’ stories, but I don’t ever remember him saying that to Paulie. After all, Paulie was a reminder of what it was like to be part of the Soprano/DiMeo crew back in the very last ‘golden age’ of the mafia.
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R.I.P. Paul Herman (‘Beansie Gaeta’, 2022).
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