Season 3, Episode 5
Aired March 25, 2001
Directed by Jack Bender
Written by Terence Winter
Synopsis: Staying true to his word from the previous episode, Carmela joins Tony at his next appointment with Dr. Melfi, but Mrs. Soprano quickly feels out of place between the other two’s progress. What’s more, when Dr. Melfi asks if Carmela is aware of the “root causes” of Tony’s blackouts, she begins to think that this is an attack and starts an argument with her husband. As the two drive home, Tony gets increasingly agitated as Carmela’s tears start piling up, which causes him to increase his speeding. They’re soon pulled over by a cop, and despite Tony’s best attempts at charming this unfamiliar officer, he receives a ticket. Not for Tony Soprano. He calls his friend Ronald Zellman, who’s able to pull some strings and has the officer demoted. Tony finds that the officer, Leon Wilmore, works a second job at a lawn ornament store, which he goes over to taunt him, only to learn that his hours have been cut. Tony feels remorse and offers Wilmore a big tip for an order, which he refuses.
At a funeral for Carmela’s uncle, Tony runs into Bobby Baccalieri Sr. (Burt Young), who is in town for the funeral and to catch up with his son and grandchildren. Bobby Sr. learns of the attack on Vito Spatafore’s brother, which upsets him as the person responsible, Mustang Sally, is his godson. Tony asks Bobby Sr. to whack Sally, which he gracefully accepts, despite suffering from lung cancer. Bobby Jr. is uncomfortable with having his father take on the hit in his condition, and asks Uncle Junior for this one favor to call it off. Considering how good Bobby has been to Junior, he agrees to meet with his nephew, but Tony refuses, which Junior accepts until the senior Baccalieri arrives for dinner and hacks up blood. He asks Ralphie and Johnny Sack to have Tony reconsider, but he triples down and keeps the hit as planned. Bobby Sr. arrives at his godson’s house, as weak as a forgotten cup of coffee, when Mustang Sally begs his godfather for forgiveness. Bobby offers it, and asks for a cup of water as he prepares his pistol. Before he gets his hit in, Sally’s roommate notices the gun and remarks, and Bobby can only shoot his ear off before aiming a round at the roommate. Despite a struggle, Bobby is able to kill both of them as he lights up another cigarette as a reward. While Bobby Sr is able to drive away successfully, he soon struggles to pick up the lighter he dropped on the ground of his car, which causes him to pass out and swerve his car onto a pole across the street. The news of his passing of course hits Bobby Jr. heavily, but also takes its toll on Junior, especially as he learns something on his own- he has stomach cancer. Junior begs Tony to not tell anyone else the news, not wanting people to think lesser of him, which he agrees to… right after telling Janice. The two bond over wine as they look back at their family. Junior later ignores his own request as he uses the cancer as an excuse to not go to Bobby Sr.’s funeral.
Per Christopher’s wishes, Adriana agrees to stop working at Artie’s restaurant, which he expresses happiness with for her, but when he sees Chris the following night, he starts getting increasingly passive aggressive to the point that Christopher snaps at him. Tony asks his nephew to step outside as he antagonizes Artie, who confesses that he’s in love with Adriana and feels nothing for Charmaine. Tony tries to change the subject and suggests that they run a company selling some of his renowned sauces, a move that Charmaine shoots down immediately. Artie uses this opportunity to throw in his desire for a divorce, which she’s too happy to agree to, even in the middle of dinner. Artie later has dinner with Adriana as he tells her about his new business venture and offers Ade her old position back if she’s not sure about the “marriage thing”. Adriana takes the hint and excuses herself.
In this week’s Meadow update, as well as our FBI update, she comes home to do some laundry and takes their wiretapped lamp with her after Meadow and Tony get into another argument about race.
“It always comes in threes.”
Junior isn’t kidding. The rule of threes isn’t just for comedic timing, but almost a game the Reaper likes to play, like he prefers to not come home with at least a few victims. But to someone who wallows in darkness as his twilight years grow dimmer, this is almost a gift for Junior. Now he has an excuse to mope around like his late sister-in-law, no matter how fast or slow the disease is eating at him. And while Tony and Janice can laugh it off, Bobby is going to get the brunt of it.
“Another Toothpick” is another fine, if morbid episode, not just due to its title, which comes from an antiquated term used to describe cancer patients. To God, we’re all just toothpicks is Livia Soprano’s way of thinking, and a cancer diagnosis is his way of tossing us out. It’s a cynical way to view the value of life, one that I don’t think the show agrees with no matter what its characters say. While many a person meets a random, violent end over the show’s run, enough of its cast get their fair shot at life to repute the morbid belief.
We’ve seen Tony flip-flop between both schools of thought thus far, and it’s something I can’t quite pin down on the character. Is this another example of Tony’s intellect, as he continues to weigh both takes on mortality before coming to a solid conclusion, or is this an example of Tony shooting off every concept that he comes across whether he believes them or not.
Honestly, I kind of like this about the character, that he’s a great strategist but kind of dopey in other ways. It’s a fun take on the character and feels authentic- no one is capable at every capacity of life. Even the smartest people you know are dumb at other aspects of life.
“Another Toothpick” is an excellent episode, one that brilliantly uses Burt Young (Paulie from the Rocky series) as Bobby Baccalieri Sr. to represent an aged mobster, one on the brink of death, as he returns to his old game for one last mission. This could be a future for Tony or even Junior, something the latter takes to heart with his own diagnosis. Young is quite good at the senior Baccalieri, finding one last strain of dignity as he successfully takes out his fuck-up of a godson despite his disadvantages.
Also going on is Tony’s run-in with Officer Willmore, someone who appears to be “one of the good cops” as he rejects Tony’s influence. It’s telling how the rest of his department don’t seem to care for Willmore, but what’s more interesting is Tony’s change of mind, another example of the conscience he does, in fact have when he visits the officer at his second job.
Tony cares enough to try to help Willmore out, but he refuses to put a stop to the mission that killed Bobby Sr. If anything, this is a step forward, step back situation. Whether I believe if Tony is interested in salvation, I don’t think this matters, as the show works as well as it does when he keeps flip-flopping, like he does with his philosophy. Another hit.
Season 3, Episode 6
Aired April 1, 2001
Directed by Allen Coulter
Story by David Chase, Terence Winter, Todd A. Kessler, Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess, Teleplay by Terence Winter and Salvatore Stabile
Synopsis: One of the younger strippers at the Bada Bing, Tracee, tries to get close to Tony after he gives her advice regarding her sick son, but he tries to refuse her, primarily as she’s currently seeing Ralphie Cifaretto behind Rosalie Aprile’s back. This gets further complicated as Tracee becomes pregnant, and she comes to Tony for advice, who suggests that she gets an abortion and distance herself from Ralphie, keeping the baby a secret. Smart move, as the previous night, Ralphie, in another Gladiator-inspired spree, spins a chain around and hits Georgie in the eye with it. He becomes a further problem as he keeps Tracee at her house for a few days and ignoring her work schedule. This results in Silvio rushing over to his house to take her, even beating Tracee before driving her to work, which Ralphie watches in amusement from his window. Tracee remains distant to Ralphie over the next few days and berates him in front of his fellow mobsters when he calls her out. Ralphie takes her outside and gets increasingly violent, beating her and pushes Tracee’s head to a guardrail, leaving her for dead. When he comes back into the Bada Bing and says something about her falling, Tony goes out and sees Tracee, instantly recognizing that Ralphie’s story is bullshit by her bruises. This results in Tony breaking mafia code by attacking Ralphie, a made man. While their fellow mobsters successfully pull the two away, the damage is done, and Tony becomes emotional at his and Carmela’s next session with Dr. Melfi.
At Columbia, Meadow’s blossoming relationship with Noah is being held back by her depressed roommate, Caitlin, who makes it hard for the two to have alone time. At least at Meadow’s dorm, however, as the two start spending time at Noah’s room, ultimately resulting in Meadow losing her virginity and becoming closer to him. However, the Caitlin problem only gets worse as she becomes despondent when Meadow continues to spend more time not only with Noah, but back home, resulting in Caitlin’s anxiety increasing. Meadow has Noah agree to accompany the two on a night out in the city for her birthday, which is ruined when they see a homeless person with a newspaper stuck to her rear end. As Caitlin’s anxiety only worsens and Meadow further distances herself, she goes over to Noah’s room when Meadow is back in Jersey and distracts Noah from working on an important paper, which has him receive a C-. While Noah was initially patient with Caitlin, his father convinces Noah to file a restraining order on Caitlin, and he soon follows up by breaking up with Meadow, just as she was getting close with him.
It’s been long enough that I’m not sure if I’ve made the connection between Ralphie Cifaretto and Richie Aprile, but it’s worth noting. Both are connected to the former DiMeo boss, Ralphie dating his late wife and Richie obviously being Jackie’s brother. Both have names starting with “R”, to find a third example. And both have volatile personalities that clash with Tony’s own aggressive attitude.
I’d mention both men’s violent behavior towards women, but that’s not something unique to the two of them- most of the DiMeo family have shown their own abrasive history with women. Before Richie kills Tracee, his stripper fling, Silvio gets a couple of hits in himself, after all. Even Tony and Christopher aren’t innocent.
Still, while I’m sure the thought occurred to him, Tony never ended up having to life a finger on Richie, like he did with Ralphie at the end of '“University”. While that ultimately ended up being Janice’s duty, it’s worth noting how closely Tony adheres to his lifestyles ethos and has ignored the desire to beat a fellow made man. Ralphie’s consistent irritation for the DiMeo family, right down to supplementing their love for The Godfather with his Gladiator obsession, it was only a matter of time for Tony to snap.
At the end of the day, Tony Soprano is not meant to be a good guy, although there are enough pushes towards likable personality traits to not make him truly repugnant as to deter audiences. As such, I view his attack on Ralphie to be mixed. On the one hand, the guy deserved it, while it’s clear that Tony was similarly out of line. Someone should have done something, but like Richie last year, this should have been up to fate.
Back to Tony’s morality, I like how “University” takes its time to allow Tony to slowly, but surely care for Tracee, although I think he was wrong to see her as a potential fling. The impression I get, more than anything, is Tracee seeing her boss as a father figure, a more level-headed male figure than the considerably more brash Ralphie or Silvio, which is something Tony seems to realize at the end, between his fighting for her honor and his breakdown during his appointment with Dr. Melfi.
It’s nice to see Meadow get a full-fledged story this week, instead of just a quick cameo to remind us that Jamie-Lynn Sigler is still in the cast. If anything, now is a good time to return to her world, as we’re nearing the season’s halfway point and we started out with promising material like her roommate’s depression and newfound love interest Noah, particularly how he clashes with Tony’s ideals just by existing.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that “University” is a fairly Meadow-heavy episode- recall how the title resembles “College”, the legendary season one episode that became an early showpiece for Sigler. While that episode had Tony handle the upcoming reality that his daughter would be leaving, here we see that in action, how Meadow is adjusting to her fresh new college life, which is better than some people.
Like Caitlin, her roommate who went from partying in no pants to becoming such a nuisance to Meadow that her first real boyfriend (maybe?) had to bail on her. I don’t usually gravitate towards the plots of younger characters like Meadow and AJ, but while I was preferring to return to Tony’s world, there is something here as we see how different freshmen handle their lives outside of home. It helps that New York isn’t too far from Meadow’s reality, as opposed to Caitlin uprooting from Oklahoma. It’s a bit of a jump, isn’t it?
While Meadow is fairing better, it’s clear how Caitlin’s downward spiral is affecting her as well, like how she starts spending more time at home, almost like she never left as she clashes with her father and brother, only getting closer with her mother. While we have a lot more to unpack with the oldest of the Soprano children, this is a good place as any to see what state of mind Meadow is currently in.
And it helps to make “University” another impressive outing in the show’s increasingly excellent third season. We have changes and actions, which should lead up to interesting consequences.
Dr. Melfi’s Notebook:
No, I didn’t really talk about Carmela’s sessions with Dr. Melfi this week. I’ll probably save that for the following review.
I won’t lie, starting your company’s name with the letter “v” to invoke the image of vagina is a smart idea.
How does Bobby not know his father’s age… I ask as I don’t know my father’s age.
The more you know- the store that Officer Wilmore works at is called Fountains of Wayne, in the town of the same name, which the band of “Stacy’s Mom” fame did, in fact, name themselves after. The store closed in 2009, so I wonder how many Sopranos tours it was a feature of before then.
In another ode to New Jersey’s love of Frank Sinatra, Junior is too busy watching The Devil at 4 O’Clock to go to Bobby Sr.’s funeral.
I try to not read other critics’ takes on these series, but I wish I bought a copy of Alan Sepinwall’s Sopranos Sessions to find out why “University” has so many writers.
Paulie’s fat jokes aren’t as funny as he thinks they are. but his amusement with himself is on point, and I love that he has to repeat himself to a disinterested Tony.
Ralphie’s review of Spartacus- “THEY DIDN’T HAVE FLATTOPS IN ANCIENT ROME!”
A lot of classic movie nods this week. Caitlin was disturbed by a screening of Tod Browning’s Freaks, while Meadow and Noah saw a late screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dementia 13. I wonder if that was Meadow’s first non-Godfather Coppola flick.
Next Week (or so): Junior begin chemotherapy and the Ralphie issue only gets worse.