OTH: The Sopranos- "Amour Fou" / "Army of One"
Plus final thoughts on season 3!
Season 3, Episode 12
Aired May 13, 2001
Directed by Tim Van Patten
Story by David Chase, Teleplay by Frank Renzulli
Synopsis: Tony’s affair with Gloria is nearing its end. As Dr. Melfi does her best to hold her tongue as Tony recalls their encounter the other night, by some luck, Carmela visits Gloria’s Mercedes-Benz dealership to turn in the car for service, gladly offering to drive her home as she connects the dots. Carm warms up to this nice car shop lady and tells her about her family, including where her daughter goes to school. Later that evening, a distraught Gloria calls Tony up as she finds her tires slashed, fearing that Irina might have done so after her hasty call the other day. Tony assures her that she has nothing to worry about, but his irritation turns to fury the next day when her learns that a Mercedes rep drove Carmela home, causing him to rush to the location and tells her to stay away from him and his family. Gloria doesn’t seem to learn the lesson, though, as he later receives a delusional call from her at the Bada Bing. He arrives at her house to see what’s going on and call things off for good, which is when Gloria threatens to tell Carmela the truth and to even go to Columbia if he dares to, which is when Tony gets violent, hitting and then strangling her until she relents. The fucked up thing is that Gloria likes it and asks her to finish the job, but he refuses. She later accompanies Patsy Parisi for a test drive, who stops by his car as he pulls out a gun, demanding that she never contacts Tony again.
While visiting a museum with Meadow, Carmela is moved to tears by The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, which comes after she spots blood. Later, she tears up at a dog food commercial, when she comes to her senses as dreadful thoughts come to her. Carmela decides to have confession with a different priest, one who is currently studying for psychology. She recalls her meeting with Dr. Krakower, how he encouraged Carmela to leave, although this priest disagrees as Carmela is upfront with how much she loves Tony, instead sticking to Catholic values and insists that she stays and tries to show Tony good in his life. Carm is also worried that she may have ovarian cancer, although she hasn’t met with an OGBYN, which the priest also recommends. Her appointment turns out well as she’s clear, and Carmela celebrates with friends for dinner, including Rosie Aprile who suggests that the women at the table should look to Hillary Clinton for how she handled her husband’s scandal and eventually transitioned to her own thing. Carm appears to take the advice to heart, as she’s seen studying real estate at the end of the episode.
Jackie Jr. causes more of an uproar with the family. While Tony and Carmela are relieved to hear that he and Meadow have split, the young Aprile still aspires to make it big. First, he starts a scene with a group of young Hispanic men at a longtime DiMeo pizza spot, which Christopher just misses moments after the fact. After learning how his father and Tony made a name for themselves by holding up a high stakes poker game, he decides to follow their suit by robbing Eugene Pontecorvo’s game. Jackie rallies up his buddies Dino and Carlo. What they don’t realize, however, is that a couple of familiar faces, including Christopher and Furio, are a part of the game. Luckily, Jackie and co are wearing ski masks, but while he wisely keeps silent, it’s noticeable how the mobsters are able to keep cool even with guns in their face. They still follow the masked men’s orders, although one man nicknamed Sunshine won’t stop cracking jokes, and is soon gunned down by a nervous Jackie. Chris and his crew then pull out their guns as he shoots Carlo in the forehead, while Furio gets hit in the leg; meanwhile, Jackie’s getaway driver zooms off the moment he hears gunshots. Jackie is able to escape after carjacking a nearby vehicle, but Dino isn’t so lucky when Chris and Ally Boy find and shoot him down.
Christopher recognizes Dino, which raises his suspicion that this is Jackie Jr’s doing, which he confides in Tony while Furio has his bullet removed. Tony is understandably conflicted, as Jackie aimed at made men, but is still their former boss’ son as well as a family friend. He meets with Ralphie, who insists on sparing Jackie Jr, which Tony ultimately agrees to despite implying that Ralphie may lose the family’s respect if he gives Jackie a pass. Tony also gives Ralphie the gun he confiscated from Jackie Jr a few episodes ago.
“Amour Fou” comes from Dr. Melfi during her first session of the episode with Tony, translating to crazy love. A fitting title for the episode, although it’s a shame that Van Morrison doesn’t show up this week.
Gloria is not the first of Tony’s side chicks to cause him distress- frankly, I think her belief that Irina might be responsible is valid- and I don’t think she’ll be the last. On the one hand, while Tony seems to enjoy the excitement to some extent, it’s clear that with Gloria he’s in over his head, and her suicidal fixation isn’t as hot as he once thought it was.
We’ve seen Tony show his violent streak before, but not to the personal extent he shares in “Amour Fou”, as he nearly kills Gloria off the bat. While the attempt is understandable, as she threatens to reveal understandably damning information, this only proves to make the character appear even more… conflicting isn’t the right choice of words. Even from the beginning, it’s evident that Tony isn’t exactly a good person. But any pretenses of a gentler personality should be shattered by now.
At the same time, Tony’s attack towards Gloria is done for the sake of his family, this time his domestic family. One of the show’s points is that Tony keeps walking a thin line between which of his two families matters the most to him, his personal or professional, to the point that they both eschew towards the other direction- Tony often treats his closest capos, Paulie, Silvio and now Christopher, as much as his family as his wife and kids, while Carmela, Meadow and AJ sometimes appear as a front for his shadier activities. In this case, however, Carm and the kids come first, as Tony would rather kill some bitch than let her ruin his marriage.
Granted, Carmela knows that Tony is unfaithful and was fully aware of Irina, although Gloria appears to be a secret for now. At least, she has no idea that Tony’s new fling is the one driving her home from the Mercedes dealership.
But the big thing about Gloria, and I promise that I’ll get to the rest of the episode after this, is her proximity to Livia’s character. Just like Tony’s mother, she’s irritable and liable to lash out, uses the same phrases, and shares a similar apathy towards life. The sad fact is, back in the first season, Dr. Melfi noted that the women in Tony’s life, herself included, have shades of his mother in them. Meadow, who shares Livia’s DNA, is obvious enough to explain (and we’ll see a little more of this side of her in the following episode), Janice even easier, but that includes Carmela’s mood swings, although hers are seldom as violent as Irina or especially Gloria’s. He doesn’t realize this until Melfi (who herself is more volatile than she’d care to admit) points it out, but Tony can’t unsee it when he does. Tony brings up a Soprano curse in the following episode, but this may be an even more notable one. While the men in his family suffer from panic attacks, the women can be erratically destructive… which is more of a turn-on than Tony cares to admit.
Anyway, back to Carmela. While in season 2, she mostly left behind her earlier doubts about her marriage to Tony, in season 3 this subject returns to her mind, although it probably never should have left. Recall that she can’t even properly cheat on Tony without her potential fling running away out of fear of retaliation.
Carmela’s material in “Amour Fou” brings us back to her earlier story in “Second Opinion”, where she met with a psychiatrist who insists that she leaves Tony, as this time she meets a priest studying psychiatry who tells her the opposite, to stay and do the best she can to urge her husband in the right direction. Considering Carmela’s strong Catholic faith, this is logical, while also addressing another noteworthy concern- she doesn’t have much to back herself up with on her own, spending the majority of her adult life as a homemaker with assistance.
So she should stay. Carmela knows this, as she still loves Tony, who still loves her and the children. But while she may not have many skills of her own, does Tony beyond his life of crime? If he was to turn a new leaf, what would he do, actually work in waste management or his seedy strip club? This is something Carmela will have to work on for herself just as much as Tony would have to on his own.
I think what the priest says is worth noting, to “live on the good and forgo the bad.” I don’t agree with this, especially depending on the bad in question. For Carmela, it’s reasonable to do so with Tony, who we’ve never seen get violent with her, despite the occasional temptation, while his open debauchery only benefits her. For someone like Gloria, who we see nearly die on the spot when she hits the wrong spot with Tony, that’s easier said than done.
And then we return to Jackie Jr. Poor, stupid Jackie Joo. It’s been a smart move to have the character cross paths with Christopher as frequently as he does, proving that despite his own problems, Chris is better suited for this life and has built his way up correctly… to an extent. Christopher’s family history and his own connection to Tony have helped him to achieve the place he’s at today, while Jackie has the same privileges and can’t catch a break. I’d argue that The Sopranos tends to split the bill on whether it’s luck or determination that allows a person to succeed, and while Christopher has had a good bit of luck, the fact that he’s able to clean up and follow orders every once in a while, and can even come up with a good idea or two on his own, suggests that he’s more than just a hopeful Moltisanti trying to break in.
Jackie Jr, however, just sucks at this. Only a complete amateur would fail to inspect the poker game he and his cronies rob and still go through with it even after noticing the made men involved. But if anything, this is meant to be Jackie Jr’s destiny. He’s not as skilled as his father or Tony are, he doesn’t have the internal leadership skills they do. He’s a spoiled brat who gets in over his head and is liable to die for it.
But damn if it doesn’t make good TV. “Amour Fou” is exciting from beginning to end, setting up another (hopefully) worthwhile finale.
James Gandolfini won his second Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for '“Amour Fou”, while Annabella Sciorra was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress.
Season 3, Episode 13
Aired May 20, 2001
Directed by John Patterson
Written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner
Synopsis: During another night at the campus, AJ and a friend find the answers for their next geometry test, wisely using the results to score a 96%, Suspicious, the principal calls the two to his office and mentions that he had their DNA tested (which is bullshit, DNA tests take much longer than 24 hours), and the two come clean. This time, Verbum Dei High School’s star football player doesn’t get another pass and is promptly expelled. Tony is furious with his son, going so far as to slap him after AJ talks back, and pulls out military school pamphlets he received from Janice. Carmela disagrees, as she considers the school for troubled children the school psychiatrist recommended, but Tony stands firm, deciding that AJ needs stricter discipline. Tony convinces Carmela to take AJ to Hudson Military Institute, which Carmela continues to be against, at least until going to a service for someone mentioned below, when she decides to go along with military school to prevent a similar fate for his son. However, when AJ has a panic attack and passes out after trying on his new uniform, they have no choice but to take him out of the school. Tony blames himself for passing down the “dreaded Soprano gene”, sharing a tale of an Italian ancestor who had a crippling panic attack that resulted in him losing control of a donkey cart and crashing to his death.
Jackie Jr goes into hiding in the projects following the previous episode’s botched heist. Miserable, Jackie calls Tony, giving him his location and asking for help, but Tony refuses to intervene and tells him to call Ralphie, claiming that any sympathy he has for Jackie and his father is over. Tony later meets with Ralph, who is already under hot water as he continues to avoid paying Paulie his share for a deal they supposedly worked on together, and tells him that while he will go with whatever Ralphie decides, Tony wants him to make his final decision. Ralphie ultimately decides to have Vito, who has been detailing the area Jackie’s been staying at, to shoot him the next time he leaves, point blank in the back of the head. The story that’s going around is that Jackie Jr was the victim of a drug deal gone wrong, although a distraught Meadow has her doubts. Carmela convinces Meadow to stop blaming the family for their problems and insists that Jackie Jr was a casualty of the drug scene, which she defends with Jackie’s sister Kelli after the funeral.
The FBI decide to keep their DiMeo hunt a new angle and convince one of their agents, Deborah Ciccerone, to gain a new bff- Adriana La Cerva, noticing how her fiancé only seems to be climbing up the ranks as of late. Deborah blows her hair up and introduces herself to the future Mrs. Moltisanti, who already starts naming more names than she should, as they go shopping and pick up Starbucks together. Adriana doesn’t understand what’s going on, even as Christopher and Silvio are arrested at Jackie’s burial; Uncle Junior, who has just been released from house arrest, dips before the feds could see him. The two make bail shortly after and make it over to Nuovo Vesuvio for a luncheon, where the funeral goers are serenaded by a relieved, cancer-free Junior. Everyone is moved, except for a drunken Meadow, who throws bread at her uncle and storms off before Tony can give her a similar slap to what he offered AJ earlier in the episode. When Tony catches her outside, Meadow calls this whole scenario bullshit as she runs across the street in the midst of heavy traffic. Tony decides to not stop her and instead goes back to watching his uncle perform with his family in tow.
In some ways, Tony’s children are completely different from their old man, in others, they follow him to a T.
AJ doesn’t have Tony’s discipline or general intellect- he’d know better than to crack as easily as AJ does when caught by the principal for one thing- but he does take one notable trait from his father’s side of the family. It appears that Tony’s dangerous panic attacks are a family curse for the men’s side of the family, one that hurts AJ’s potential for the rehabilitation Tony thinks is necessary for him.
Anthony Junior’s indifferent, dimwitted approach to life and inability to see beyond his privilege drive Tony up the wall, but Carmela is right earlier in the episode in that he is the reason his son can possibly view life this way. Tony has offered his children an entitled mindset which results in AJ thinking he can cheat the system due to his connections and excellence in sports, which proves to only be right to a point, which he’s crossed. And now it’s up to Tony, who had a similarly privileged, if even more dysfunctional childhood, to correct this.
The use of military school as a viable option, especially because “the country hardly ever goes to war anymore” makes “Army of One” feel almost like a world apart from where the world would be even a few months later; this could have only been done in a pre-9/11 society. The thing is, I can’t tell which direction the show would have taken this concept if it was made a year later, if Carmela would have been more against or immediately supportive of sending her son to military school. It’s fun to speculate in either direction, and it makes you wonder how the following season, which premiered a year after the September 11 terrorist attacks happened, will handle the changed environment.
Meadow, meanwhile, appears to be much smarter than her brother, easily making it into Columbia, but she takes after the women on Tony’s side of the family with her bouts of depression and morbid tendencies. Granted, Meadow’s depressive turn this week makes sense, as she’s mourning the loss of her childhood friend-turned lover-turned ex, but she goes darker than your average ex’s death would take someone. “Army of One” also paints Meadow’s drunk turn near the end as somewhat alarming, that she’s too young to drift to this side just yet.
Tony tends to keep his distance, but he clearly loves his children and wants the best possible future for them, doing his best to keep AJ out of the family business and trying to keep Meadow as close as possible. Still, while The Sopranos has often shown Tony be calmer with his legal family, this episode takes Tony to his breaking point, slapping AJ as he mouths off after his expulsion, and coming close to doing the same to Meadow after she messes with her Uncle Junior’s performance.
Still, it’s easy to understand why Meadow is reacting the way she does to Jackie Jr’s death, as he wasn’t just a childhood friend, but also a lover. One who Meadow insists is more than the sum of his parts, somehow. Maybe he was a good lay.
It’s sad on one level, but the Jackie Jr story only had one logical conclusion, which was not meant to be a happy one. Over the course of the season, Jackie has not proven himself to be worth comparing to his father or being an equal to Tony, or even Christopher, failing his way throughout any attempt to prove his usefulness. It was only a matter of time before he faced his unfortunate, anticlimactic end. He doesn’t even receive the dignity of a proper goodbye before his passing, just a quick shot.
What’s worse is that Jackie Jr’s death was set to action by his potential stepdad, who seemed all too eager to agree to it after his initial hesitance. While Ralph Cifaretto has come off as a problem for the DiMeo family over this season, during the latter half, he’s at least more well-adjusted than Richie Aprile and has better judgment, at least when it comes to where he places his loyalty. For better or worse, Tony comes before Jackie Jr and even Rosalie, to the point that he becomes distant with her after the deed is done. This reads similarly to Tony’s detachment from the Bonpensiero family after whacking Pussy- there’s a touch of guilt, but the love is gone. It has to be if he can function.
“Army Of One” reads like what we’d expect a typical Sopranos finale to be thus far. People die, mobsters get arrested, and very few characters are happy even if they’re together. “Funhouse” shook the then-looming formula up with prophetic dream sequences, which made it more of a winner in my book, although sometimes a familiar ending works just as well as a curveball. I’d rather have something wrap up logically than throw shit to the walls like Game of Thrones did.
And to be fair, we’re only wrapping up the excellent third season. We’re not even halfway done with The Sopranos yet.
Season 3 Overview:
In its third season, The Sopranos was a well-oiled machine, still blending the line between high and low art as perfectly as any show since the increasingly distant glory days of The Simpsons. Chase, alongside his brilliant writer’s room like Terence Winter, Robin Green, Mitchell Burress, and sure, Michael Imperioli, he’s been able to craft a look at crime, violence in America, and family worthy of The Godfather without losing a step. Featuring an array of talented directors, including Steve Buscemi, further helps to bring the vision to life and justify its stature.
I recall the third season being a slight step up from the second, featuring the show at a new high, and my opinion stands. I think The Sopranos season 3 deserves an A, just short of the plus, and that this is as good as television can get.
The fourth season started a little later than usual, airing in the fall of 2002 as opposed to the beginning like the previous three, and I recall it being a slight step down from the previous two, still with highs but some material I wasn’t so hot towards. There’s one episode I’m not looking forward to, but I am curious to see if my opinion changes this time.
It is worth noting that The Sopranos had some friendly competition on HBO for its role as the Great TV Drama, as Six Feet Under premiered right after its third season wrapped up, and The Wire would air the following summer, wrapping up right before Tony and crew returned. Of course, The Wire will be covered on here soon, and I can see Six Feet Under also added to OTH someday. Maybe this year, if any TCA members read this blog? (I’d vouch for Breaking Bad instead, however)
Dr. Melfi’s Notebook:
I wonder if the Clintons watched this episode. It is funny to see how people talk about Hillary twenty years ago versus today.
“Yeah, he’s a regular Captain Marble.”
Why did the episode end with Patsy driving off with groceries? Was this meant to be some kind of red herring, with the possibility that Gloria was in the car or planted a bomb or something?
"You've don't got to love me, but you will respect me." That’s a terrific line from Tony, which addresses his relationship with Christopher.'
Bob Dylan’s cover of Dean Martin’s “Return to Me” was recorded specifically for the series at Dylan’s request as a fan of the series.
Fairuza Balk (The Craft, Return to Oz- yes, I know her from Return to Oz) initially played Deborah Ciccerone, but would soon be recast, and the versions of “Army of One” that you’ll see on home video or streaming retain a newly shot version using her future actress, Lola Glaudini.
At the end of “Army of One”, you’ll notice Janice sitting on Ralphie, which, uh, what’s going on with him and Rosalie?
it’s a small world: A little over a year before he became known as Omar Little, Michael K. Williams is seen keeping Jackie Jr. in hiding. The late Williams will soon become a reliable face for HBO, also landing notable roles in Boardwalk Empire, The Night Of, and Lovecraft Country, although he’ll forever be known as the face of The Wire.
Next Time: We’ll fast forward to nearly 2 years later with Tony considering the future of the family, while Meadow struggles to return to normal after Jackie Jr’s passing. Although I may have something else planned before we go back to Jersey…