The Sopranos: "Boca"

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

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

Down Neck

The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti

This episode starts off kind of slow, but ends up raising some great questions and two moral debates internally for both Artie Bucco and Tony Soprano.  Along the way, we have to suffer through kind of painful soccer game.  Painful, because the soccer game looks like it was played by grade schoolers and instead it's actually being played by a high school winning team.

First off, Tony ends up looking like an asshole, because the coach of Meadow's team is leaving for Rhode Island.  Tony doesn't want him to leave and takes some measures to intimidate the coach into staying.  Then Ally cuts her wrists and the only think Tony can think of is for the soccer team.  These scenes show the sheer evilness and selfishness that is Tony.

Then, Tony has a debate about whether or not to kill the coach.  At first it seems obvious to him.  He's a child molester, he deserves to die.  He has a point about the justice system not punishing him like he deserves.  So when we hear that Tony will kill him, I think some of us agreed with him.

Artie has another episode where the price of friendship with Tony Soprano weighs heavily on him.  He knows Tony is not a good person, but he convinces himself otherwise.  With the help of his wife badgering him, he tells Tony to cut out the mobster intimidation moves he's putting on the coach.  When he finds out that the coach has had sex with Ally, he at first agrees with Tony that he needs to die.  Again, with the protests of his wife, he has a last minute plea with Tony to not do it.

In between, we get an awesome scene where Tony gets a guy to take off his hat at a nice restaurant.  Artie beams at Tony and probably thinks "That's why I'm friends with him."  Then of course Tony ruins it when he tells the waiter he thinks cops are in the table next to him.  Great acting by John Ventimiglia as his faces drops when he hears this news.

At the end, Tony gets stupid drunk and feels kind of good about himself at not killing the coach.  As he tells Carmela, he didn't hurt nobody for once.

The "B' storyline focuses on how much reputations matter to these mob men.  Junior apparently goes down on his lover, Bobbi, quite often and does it well.  But word gets out, and there are some funny scenes of sexual innuendo first by Carmela at the dinner table, and later by Tony at the golf course.  

This pisses Junior off enough to tell Mikey that Tony is seeing a psychiatrist, which makes Mikey think Tony is going to get the whole mob in trouble.  Then he breaks up with Bobbi, which apparently lasted 14 years.  Well, that's the last we see of Bobbi in the series, so I guess that means he needed to get rid of her in order to keep his reputation intact, at least in his mind.

One of the weaknesses of The Sopranos is that it brings in random characters for one episode that the Sopranos seem to know and care about, but we the audience don't.  Ally cuts her wrist and it sucks, but this is the last appearance of her.  Other shows are guilty of this, but I don't think any great show has as many one-appearance characters be part of such major storylines and then drop out.

Surprise Guest Appearances

No surprise, but this is the first appearance of Attorney Hal Melvoin, Junior's lawyer.

Deaths

The only notable thing here is that there were no deaths.  Coach Hauser lives another day... in prison.

Quotes

"Anthony, those dogs will start foaming at the mouth" - Livia at the grave

"Life has been putting Prozac to the test" - Tony 

"Last week, I called you a whore.  I might have been overstating the case." - Tony said hilariously to Dr. Melfi

"They think if you'll suck pussy, you'll suck anything." - Junior on his reasoning

"They don't sell hot dogs here.  They removed the bleachers three years ago." - Tony telling the man to take off his hat

"Let me tell you something, guido.." "My name is Clarence." -

"I don't go down there enough." - "That's not what I heard." - Carmela making fun of Junior

"What?  No reward?  Just kidding, I'm an animal lover." - Chris, playing it deadpan

"Carmela, I didn't hurt nobody." - Tony says after he drunkenly falls to the ground

Playlist

1. "Undercover Martyn" - Two Door Cinema Club

2. "Just My Imagination" - The Temptations

3. "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons

4. "Lost Ones" - J. Cole

5. "Bitch Please II" - Eminem ft. Nate Dogg, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg