The Sopranos: "Denial, Anger, Acceptance"

This is a weekly feature.  I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the third episode of the first season.  

Programming note: My plan was to do this every Sunday. but I missed last week's.  This was posted on a Monday after another Sunday I missed due to the NCAA tournament.  So I will be posting episode 4 this Wednesday, and Episode 5 this Sunday.  Afterward, it'll return to its weekly programming.  I'm just catching up on the weeks I missed.

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long

The title is a direct reference to the looming and inevitable death of Jackie Aprile.  They are the typical stages of grief that a person goes through for a person's death.  Tony covers them all in this episode, although the transition was so seamless, I didn't really realize it.

First, Tony denies that Jackie can die as he took chemotherapy for three weeks and "not one hair on his head" fell.  He doesn't believe Jackie can die as Tony has built him as a larger than life figure.  Then he cusses out Dr. Mefli for next to no reason and walks out on the session.  In the last scene, he's sadly accepted it as Jackie barely notices Tony's existence.

That storyline also gives us the memorable scene where the stripper comes in dressed as a nurse and her boobs pop out.  It's clear that the nurse is no ordinary nurse, but the first time I watched I pretty much had the same reaction as Jackie.  It's also hilarious.  It seems like a thing Tony would do as well.

As far as the Meadow and her friend storyline goes, it definitely shows when it was made.  Was Adderall not a thing then I guess?  That's the go-to drug for needing to study a large amount of material in a short amount of time nowadays.  Anyway, that was pretty realistic and gave Jaime-Lynn Sigler something to do.  (As good of an actress as she is, they have to do something with her)

I'm pretty sure that storyline was created for another reason.  The pay-off to that storyline is when Christopher is getting beat up and is convinced he'll die at the hands of the hit-men   The hit-men try to tell Christopher, it's from Junior, but he's crying and telling them he's sorry he sold the speed to Tony's daughter.  The joke being that Chris thinks Tony found out about him selling speed to Meadow and would kill him over it.  It's pretty funny.

Livia Soprano gets almost nothing to do here, but the little they give here has way bigger consequences than anything else in this episode.  She basically sends Brendan to his death.  I'm not sure I picked up on it the first time I watched it (forgive me, I'm slow on stuff like that), but she definitely not so subtly hinted at killing Brendan and beating up Christopher without really saying it when talking to Junior.

By bigger consequences, I mean it escalates the Junior and Tony conflict that will remain the rest of the season.  And just in case we felt bad about Brendan getting shot, they made him extra unlikable in this episode by having him hit on two high schoolers about as sleazy as someone can.  (Hitting on high schoolers at his age is already sleazy. He somehow upped the ante)

I also missed this the first time, because again I'm slow on this stuff and there's a lot of plot to take in, but this brings about the motels in future episodes.  I know one episode is almost exclusively in a motel (poker game) so that explains how they managed to do that.

Deaths (New Feature)
Brendan - We don't really feel any sympathy for him, because he's not a likable character.

Surprise Guest Appearances
There were zero famous people in this episode, but half the time Ned Eisenberg was in a scene, I kept wondering where I'd seen him before.  Then it clicked and he reminded by of John Cazale, who I knew was dead so I was more confused.  The beard certainly didn't help.

Quotes
"Listen you weirdo fuck..." (I just love the delivery) - Paulie to Ariel, the Hasidic Jew who refused to divorce Shlomo's daughter.

"Fuck that.  This is how I say nothing!" *Starts hitting Ariel in head with bell* How's that for nothing?" - Also Paulie in same scene

"Like the cop would be calling this asshole sir if the fucking cameras weren't around?" - Chris commenting on COPS

"Trees.. ducks... who the fuck are you, Ranger Rick?" - Tony to Dr. Melfi

"We both made our choices.  I'm fine with mine." - Charmaine to Carmela about choosing their current husbands

"My son was right.  I've created a living gollum." - Shlomo to Tony

"Hi Jack.  Bye Jack." - Mikey before he wacks Brendan