This is a weekly feature. I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning. This is the sixth episode of the first season.
Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger
This episode is all about Tony and the women in his life: his wife, his therapist, his harlot, and his mother. These women play a large role in the whole season, but it's emphasized especially so in this episode.
He is suffering the fall-out of not telling Carmela that his therapist was a women. Carmela, who had come to terms with Tony cheating on her, is hurt because she feels he is actually cheating on her. I guess she had accepted that Tony would be cheating on her with women who couldn't match her intellectual ability. Dr. Melfi is obviously a threat to her on an intellectual level.
Tony fantasizes about Dr. Melfi in this moment and makes a move on her. I really love the scene where Tony sings "What Time is It," which thankfully is on Youtube so you can see it yourself. His declaration of love for Dr. Melfi comes as a surprise and hilariously inaccurate. Dr. Melfi's answer that his love is a result of Tony projecting everything he wants from the women in his life onto her seems dead-on.
This is the first episode where Livia's negative influence on Tony's life starts to reach the surface. She encourages Junior to put a tax on Hesh when he wasn't even thinking about it. Tony and Junior are both aware of what Livia is capable of, but Tony doesn't realize Livia's the one to blame for his troubles yet.
A minor and small part of the episode is Tony trying to get Irina to dress like Dr. Melfi. This doesn't go over well to say the least as she throws a candle at him. Throughout the episode, Tony deals with fears of impotence, but it appears it's simply an inability to get turned on by anybody other than Dr. Melfi.
A Tony and Dr. Melfi romance seems very possible in this episode, but when Dr. Melfi asks to see Tony later that day, he says no. If he said yes, would this relationship have gone somewhere? Probably nowhere good, mind you, but I think it would have gone somewhere. I guess we'll never know.
I liked that when Hesh got taxed, he said "I said it was a reasonable request at an unreasonable amount." He ends up negotiating his way down to $200,000 if you include the fact that Tony gave him his own share. He is a shrewd businessman indeed.
Junior also killed a valuable asset to one of the other capos. He was giving a favor to his tailor, who believes his grandson died due to drugs that he sold him. A little too conveniently in my opinion, the guy also happens to be an expert salesman. A rare contrivance from The Sopranos that I've been able to spot.
The Junior conflict for the rest of the capos is momentarily dissolved, but it's pretty obvious it's a problem that won't go away. Tony giving Junior the boss position didn't help matters like he thought he would.
I guess I should also give a paragraph to expressing how terrible of a person Father Phil is. He openly encourages Carmela to stay in a marriage that is obviously not good for her. His idea of divorce as for quitters is kind of outdated (although true in the technical sense). Carmela's influence of Father Phil pretty much guarantees that she will never leave the marriage even if she's given many reasons to do so. (I haven't seen past the second season, so this could look stupid)
Surprise Guest Appearances
Sadly, no one appeared that I even remotely recognized that was in something other than The Sopranos.
Deaths
Drug dealer was thrown over the bridge into the water by Mikey
Quotes
"It was between two Jewish guys and a paesana like me, so I picked the paesana." - Tony, on why he picked a woman doctor
"Who ever heard of a Jew riding horses?" - Livia talking about Hesh
"If I wanted a fucking conversation around here, I might as well be a fucking dildo." "If you were a dildo, we wouldn't be fighting."
"You don't even know what you're apologizing for. Its our anniversery. Ours. Not mine, yours, and Johnny fucking Sack's."
"Hey, I don't even let anybody wag a finger in my face." - Tony, on possibly getting a prostate exam
"I never said fucked." - Hesh
"But your uncle, Madonna, does he eat alone? He doesn't even pass the salt." - Larry Boy
"She's a degenerate gambler." - Livia, talking about Milly
"Oh, I wish the Lord would take me." - Livia with her classic case of getting people to feel bad about her. (She's pretty good at it)
"For the first time, I feel like he's really cheating and I'm the one who's thirsty." - Carmela to Father Phil
"I'm in love with you." - Tony to Dr. Melfi
"You're not just in my life, you are my life." - Extremely cheesy although it seems in character for Tony to steal this and for Carmela to swoon over it.
Playlist
1. "Ain't No Thang" - Outkast
2. "Roscoe" - Midlake
3. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" - The Verve
4. "Get Lucky" - Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams
5. "Pretty Apollo" - Cyne
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