OTH: The Sopranos- "Bust Out" / "House Arrest"
Even Tony needs to learn that if you fuck around, you'll find out.
Season 2, Episode 10
Aired March 19, 2000
Directed by John Patterson
Written by Frank Renzulli, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess
Synopsis: Following Tony and Pussy’s assassination of Matt, a witness identifies someone who fits Tony’s stature as one of the people responsible. It’s looking bad and Tony prepares for the worst, which they may need to- despite their suspicions that someone in the family has ratted him out, Paulie gets intel that there was a witness, which throws a wrench into things. Tony prepares by giving his lawyer a briefcase with $400,000, which he asks to save for his wife, who will come by for an allowance, no questions asked. Soon enough, though, the witness in question discovers who the victim is connected to and changes his tune.
While working with Davey Scatino’s wife, Christine on activities for the seniors, Carmela meets her brother, Victor, an attractive, widowed housepainter. The two are instantly smitten, despite Christine’s objections. Sure enough, after Carmela hires Vic and one of his buddies to paint the living room, the two embrace in the bathroom. Humiliated to act like Tony, she apologizes, but it’s clear that they both enjoyed this. Vic does end up having a lot on his plate, as Davey’s gambling losses continue to bite him, with Tony and Richie going through his best sporting goods material and selling them on the black market for their own gain. Davey, who remains too embarrassed to go home to Christine and their son Eric and has been camping at his shop, comes clean to Vic how deep in debt he is. The store is the only thing he has in name, although it’s basically a front to Tony at this point. He even blew through Eric’s college fund, which makes his Georgetown acceptance moot. Vic offers to pay for his nephew’s education, but demands that after Eric graduates high school, Davey leaves his sister. Davey also reveals who he’s indebted to, which has Vic realize that he needs to cancel his plans to work by himself for Carmela the next day and have a nice, private lunch.
Also going on, Tony wants to spend some quality time with AJ, who’s not opposed but rebuffs his dad’s offer to go to a movie when he has plans to go to the mall with friends instead. Feeling rejected, Tony returns the favor by skipping AJ’s last swim meet of the season, which infuriates Carmela, causing the two to fight. Tony makes this up to AJ later by having him learn to steer his yacht.
You’d believe that Tony would be more interested in spending time with Meadow, who is accepted in Berkley while she’s only waitlisted for Georgetown, but he realizes that his son is the one who needs the attention. Still, Tony has a nice moment with his daughter as he stays up, fearing jail time and reminds Meadow of his love for her and how everything he does is for her and her brother.
Tony could very well spend the rest of his life behind bars. This is something he knew coming into the family business, and it’s a burden he’s had to bear. Granted, I don’t think he’d regret being locked up for murdering the person responsible for nearly killing Christopher, someone who he’s treated basically like a son, but it’s something he has to keep in mind.
Killing someone out in the open like he and Pussy did, however, shows a sloppiness on Tony’s part that he’s normally better at avoiding, and despite the witness from earlier denying his initial testimony, it’s still something that can easily come back to haunt him. Thus far, Tony has been smart about cleaning off his footprints, but even the best can occasionally cause error, and it’s only time before his actions catch up to him.
“Bust Out” shows Tony among his most vulnerable to date, even before learning about the witness. Besides his heartfelt one-on-one with Meadow in the kitchen, Tony’s time waiting by the mall’s carousel for Richie appears to bring back memories of his father taking a young Janice to the local amusement park on weekends, making him want to bond with his son the way Johnny Boy seldom did with him. The problem here is that AJ’s a little too old to go ride a carousel with his old man, but Tony tries to rectify this with more age-neutral activities like going to the movies or sailing. Still, there’s a distance as his only son is entering the age where he doesn’t want his parents around except for the moments that matter, like his swim meets.
As we see, however, despite his strong strategic mindset, Tony’s emotional maturity isn’t very high, and he misses his son’s final meet of the season. This could have resulted in a potentially trite storyline about misunderstanding and developing adolescence, but I like how instead, the episode ends with a common bond found between the two as Tony allows his son to drive his yacht. Recklessly, mind you, but with reasonable guidance as Journey memorably blasts through the air. It’s a lovely moment brought effectively to screen by Patterson, enough to make “Bust Out” another exceptional episode. The Carmela stuff is good, too.
Season 2, Episode 11
Aired March 26, 2000
Directed by Tim Van Patten
Written by Terrence Winter
Synopsis: After Tony’s close call with the law, his attorney Neil suggests that he spends time, maybe not actually working, but at least pretending to focus at the waste management department that he nominally manages. He’s not crazy at the idea, but recognizes that focusing on legit business will make it seem like he’s actually keeping active to the FBI. When he returns, Tony’s fellow manager lets him know about Richie’s recent mean streak with some of their frequent stops and how some of their drivers sell cocaine between deliveries, neither of which he’s a fan of. Tony agrees to put a stop to this and confronts Richie at a country club banquet, but in the midst of it, he has another panic attack and passes out. While there’s no physical cause for it, Carmela blames his psychiatrist’s dosage, not knowing that Dr. Melfi is having problems of her own. She’s continuing to find her treatment with Tony soul-sucking and is increasing her drinking, which results in her lashing out at another patron while having dinner with her son. While she is close to taking Dr. Kupferburg’s advice by dropping Tony, she does suggest that he may have alexithymia, which affects people with antisocial tendencies. He scoffs at the notion, but after realizing how bored he is at the sanitation job and that his attempt to ease out of the blow-selling business is moot (down below), he stops coming in.
On his way out of the hospital, Junior meets with Catherine Romano, the widow of an old friend. While he’s initially reluctant about reuniting with her, at least partly due to the embarrassment behind his house arrest, the boredom of the lifestyle has him change his mind. Having his hand stuck in the garbage disposal for six hours must have been another reason. Luckily Janice and Richie stop by and help him, which Richie uses as an opportunity to tell Junior about Tony’s request to stop selling cocaine on his garbage stops, which he shoots down, as the sales help pay for his legal fees. He eventually calls Catherine for coffee at his place and the two start reconnecting, even after coming clean about his house arrest.
“Bust Out”s conclusion of the witness story came down to luck on Tony’s end, but as his neutral attorney advises him, Tony will never fully be out of the woods, and his strip club isn’t as strong of a cover as he’d like. The waste management job he supposedly runs is a much more sound alibi, and it’d work better if he actually went into work every once in a while.
Despite this, Tony doesn’t factor as much into “House Arrest”, as it’s more of Junior’s episode. Given his titular house arrest, we don’t see much of Tony’s Uncle, and he’s growing increasingly agitated by his limitations. Being home based still gives him advantages that jail life wouldn’t, like direct access to his assets, but it has to be lonely when the only environment you can regularly see besides your house is the hospital.
The return of Catherine Romano into his life helps to ease some of that boredom, at least curing Junior of his loneliness with a familiar face who doesn’t judge him. Catherine is aware of his lifestyle, at least enough to ask if her late husband was involved, but not enough to know about his house arrest, and that seems to be just perfect for Corrado. Similar to how Tony likes to keep Artie Bucco close as one of his few ties outside of crime, Junior’s reluctance turns to a welcome embrace as he enjoys sharing coffee and watching Diagnosis Murder with someone with no ties to mob life.
Junior’s material feels welcome yet somewhat despondent, that this is all he has in life in his old age, confinement to an aging house and a limited supply of visitors. He’s lonely and despite decades of wealth from crime, has little to show from it, as he relies on risky cocaine runs to pay off his legal expenses. As we see later in the episode, that might be more than Livia has, as even Janice is appearing to grow tired of watching over her, as she changes her attention from inheriting her mother’s house to purchasing a new one entirely with Richie.
Speaking of Richie. he’s clearly growing tired of being undermined by Tony and feels disrespected that he didn’t inherit his brother’s role after serving his time. Despite how aggressive and unlikable Tony can paint himself out to be, it’s hard to feel sorry for the younger Aprile, who has proven to be erratic and unloyal ever since returning to the real world. Tony knows this too, as he struggles with how to handle his future brother-in-law.
And yes. the revelation of this news is bringing Tony’s panic attacks back, a turn that makes Dr. Melfi uncomfortable as her desire to walk away from him for good is tainted. If she leaves Tony when he needs her professional attention once again, she’s stepping away from her personal oath, but what good is she offering to the world if Tony takes her expertise to become a better mob boss? This conundrum has been at the core of her story this season, resulting in Jennifer drinking and overeating, the former more dangerous but the latter still noted by her questionable psychiatrist. As much as I enjoy Peter Bogdanovich’s presence, I don’t find her material with Dr. Kupfurburg very enlightening, as it often comes down to the same conclusion- he thinks Jennifer should leave her patient behind, but this goes against her moral code. We see enough of how her mind works regarding Tony when she’s treating him, while her own sessions tend to come off as redundant.
Still, “House Arrest” is another strong episode, keeping the show’s momentum going as strongly as ever.
Dr. Melfi’s Notebook:
Tony refers to Elvis country, which according to Paulie (Furio plays the role of the audience and asks what this means) is any place with no Jews or Italians.
“You know, I’ve dodged a bullet and I’m feeling very good, so I don’t need any more psychiatry today.” That’s not how it works, Tony.
“Wheel in the Sky” is prominently featured in the last act of this episode, which feels right for the series. I wonder if we’ll hear more Journey later on…
Additionally, I absolutely buy that Carmela would be a big Shania Twain fan. But I mean, who didn’t have Come on Over on CD during that period?
The doctor and nurse who were helping Junior seemed to be hip on Marshall McLuhan’s philosophy. An interesting character choice for them.
Back to the hospital, the nurse who helped Tony wins for line of the week- after Tony digs at her for a moment, she perfectly snaps back with “You know, losing some weight wouldn’t hurt.”
Next Week: We wrap up the second season first by Tony and Richie coming to a head, followed by the same for Pussy’s FBI informant status.