OTH: The Sopranos- "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood" / "Proshai, Livushka"
Season 3 begins with some big changes.
Season 3, Episode 1
Aired March 4, 2001
Directed by Allen Coulter
Written by David Chase
Synopsis: Some months after Tony Soprano’s arrest and the unexplained absence of Sal “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, the FBI increase their coverage of the Soprano family. With Pussy assumed to be dead, his intel is all but moot and the FBI needs something new to dig up on Tony for. The thing is, he’s caught on perfectly well that his house is tapped, while probably also suspecting that his family is similarly being kept an eye on, including Meadow over at Columbia, although there’s one place in the house it’s believed Tony and his crew meet- in the basement, where the air conditioning system should make it trickier for the main wire system to hear. Noticing a period where Tony and Carmela are both absent from the house on Tuesday afternoons, this becomes the designated day to set up their new tap while still sending their designated agents to follow on each family member- Tony has one when he meets with the crew, which is moot as the FBI doesn’t have authorization to set a tap in their other locales; Carmela during her tennis practice, who she’s recently invited Adriana to tag along with; Meadow, who has an agent wait outside her dorm when she’s out of class; and A.J. as he meets with his fellow high school football hopefuls as they skip class to smoke cigarettes.
Everyone has their own story going on, but not all of it matters- I mentioned A.J. trying out for football, while Meadow successfully adapts to the college lifestyle, as opposed to her roommate Caitlin, who is having a harder time as she learns firsthand that partying too hard too early on can be a problem. Carmela, on the other hand, is getting the hang of her new tennis coach who really takes a liking to Adriana instead. As for Tony, there’s a problem he isn’t quite aware about when one of his soldiers, Patsy Parisi, is mourning the loss of his twin brother Philly, another soldier who he expects Tony being responsible for his demise. One day while having breakfast at the house while talking to one of the garbage departments executives, who is trying to stop a strike, Patsy arrives in a drunken haze to shoot Tony, but instead stops, sobs, and urinates in the Soprano house pool. While Tony misses the whole ordeal, he does notice Patsy’s recent unhappiness and has him confess his allegiance to Tony.
As for the tap, during their first Tuesday. the members asked to install it find an applicable item to replace the wire with on their first day. The next day, their plans go astray when the water heater explodes and leaves the house unable to dig into. Tony and Carmela struggle to save their family photos as the basement is flooded. By the third week of inspecting, they eventually succeed, although Tony, still wise to the FBI, doesn’t give away any information.
There’s a terrific remix combining the theme for Peter Gunn and “Every Breath You Take” that plays whenever the FBI agents are active during this episode. I really enjoy how they work together, but frankly anything is an improvement over Puff Daddy’s take on The Police classic. It works well, just as Tony singing along to Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work” just as smoothly.
Each song has their purpose. Peter Gunn works as an example of the aspirational detective the FBI members are trying to adhere to, which contrasts wonderfully with The Police’s legendary ode to stalkers, which represents what they’re really doing- putting illegal surveillance they can’t prove they need. And Tony does dirty work, literally and figuratively.
We’ve seen since very early on that the FBI has tabs on the DiMeo family, with a heavy reliance on Tony’s side of the business, noting his lineage. The moment they could lock his Uncle Junior up for anything, they jumped right on, and the same happened to Tony at the end of last season. Despite Tony’s ability to get out scott-free, he’s far from out of murky waters, and the first of season 3’s dual premieres reminds us of this. While they can’t pinpoint his exact crimes the way we the viewer can, it’s clear that Tony’s influence is wide across the New Jersey crime scene and that there’s an attempt to wipe the streets clear of him.
“Mr. Ruggerio’s Neighborhood” takes us away from Tony’s viewpoint to show the FBI’s scenario, doing so while doing its best to keep us up to date with the family following “Dreamland”’s explosive finish, doing so in typically entertaining fashion.
We even get to see a bit of Meadow’s life at Columbia as we follow the agent who (weirdly successfully) is able to trace her activity in Meadow’s dorm hall, where we see nothing interesting in regards to crime. It’s apparent that Meadow is adjusting to college life better than her roommate Caitlin, who switches from drunkenly dancing without pants to being bedridden after heavy medication. Meadow appears to appreciate her life away from the family, while AJ seems to similarly thrive as he grows up and finds his place among his peer circle, finding smoking buddies and trying out for football. Again, no hint at his father’s lifestyle, but the two should be dead ends anyway, as they’re practically children.
You’d think Carmela would lead to more concrete evidence. but that doesn’t end up being the case as she largely stays out of her husband’s lifestyle. Even taking tennis lessons with Adriana, the fiancé of a soon-to-be-made man, doesn’t end give her tagalong agent anything useful. Still, I appreciate their scenes together, as Adriana’s sapphic-tinged bonding with her instructor makes for a welcome change of pace.
And for Tony? He’s been wise to keep the business talk down to a minimum at his house, finding the right times or location to talk when necessary. He knows fully well his place in the ranking, and he won’t let anyone in too deep. Although he’s not entirely in the know- hopefully he doesn’t take a swim in his pool too soon.
I think that “Mr. Ruggerio’s Neighborhood” is a fun return to form, the series reminding us of its intelligent storytelling while remaining as captivating as ever. Violent and sexier episodes definitely exist, but we’re just getting started.
Season 3, Episode 2
Aired March 4, 2001
Directed by Tim Van Patten
Written by David Chase
Synopsis: Carmela comes home and finds Tony on the ground, having suffered from another panic attack. Retracing his steps by rewinding the mornings events like a VCR tape, we see that he was shocked to find Meadow come home earlier that day with a friend, Noah. The two start talking but their casual conversation about film history (he and Meadow are in a class and came to watch Tony’s copy of The Public Enemy), but Tony reveals his true colors when Noah reveals that he’s half Black, and makes it clear that he wants the kid to stay away from his daughter. After they leave, Tony prepares a sandwich, but has an episode after seeing a box of Uncle Ben’s rice in the cabinet. A weird predicament, as Tony hadn’t recently suffered from any panic attacks. His anxiety goes up as he later visits his mother with some movies and asks her to remember an important piece of information for when she becomes investigated by the FBI- Tony had no knowledge of her plane tickets being stolen. Livia continues to give her son a hard time and he storms off, something he’ll later regret when he learns that she passes that evening.
Tony and Carmela stop by Livia’s house to meet with her caretaker, Svetlana, who says that she died in her sleep. As the three take a toast to her life, Tony calls his sister Barbara to inform her as she prepares to come down to visit. While noting that their mother had insisted on no service of any kind, it’s the least they can do, although a roadblock is present when Janice refuses to come. Tony has to call her over, offering to pay for her flight and insists that Richie’s case is cold in the ground. When she arrives the next day, Janice is flooded with grief and eventually convinces her siblings to have the funeral she was resistant against. Tony also has to struggle with Ralphie Cifaretto, a member of Richie’s crew who is escalating the garbage dispute by setting fire to various trucks. Tony insists that Ralphie, who is aspiring to be a capo, to stop, but he doesn’t listen.
Before the wake and service, Tony meets with Dr. Melfi, who remains silent, but notes that Tony’s initial feeling of relief from his mother’s passing is valid, recalling her scheming to set a hit on her and the abuse Tony and his siblings suffered from her. Tony, however, remains conflicted, noting that this is still his mother. After some notable encounters at the wake and funeral, the party returns to the Soprano house, where Janice leads a chance for the party to recall their positive memories of Livia. Most struggle to come up with something to say, although Artie Bucco, who has memories of Livia confiding in Artie about Tony destroying his family’s restaurant, decides to use the opportunity to come clean. Tony tries to stop him, but he doesn’t get an opportunity, as Carmela takes the chance to come clean about her mother-in-law’s awful personality and the burden she was to virtually everyone. Carmela’s father joins her, and the party goers air their grievances.
Over the course of the episode, Tony watches his copy of The Public Enemy, and the episode ends with him tearing up as James Cagney’s mother prepares for her son to return home, only for him to arrive dead on arrival.
Nancy Marchand passed in June 18, 2000, one day before turning 72. According to David Chase, Livia was meant to be a major element of The Sopranos over its run, but rather than recasting the character even as her story remained unfinished, he decided to write Marchand’s death into the series.
While I would have liked to have seen Chase’s plans, I think this was for the best. Nancy Marchand was absolutely irreplaceable as Livia, her mannerisms and fascinating gift for depreciation being hard to imagine matching. This also allows for a new perspective for Tony and his closest, as he needs to adapt to life without his mother.
“Proshai, Livushka” doesn’t beat around the bush, as it reminds us of how difficult Livia was as a person, a mother in particular. If Johnny Boy had a gift for a violent temper, his wife matched him in emotional manipulation and a depressive mindset that she had no problem sharing with her supposed loved ones. While we’re reminded that Tony, as well as Janice have become selfish, vindictive people on their own, they’re both their parents children (baby sister Barbara seems to have had taken the least of her parents’ abusive states of mind as an adult).
Let’s talk about Janice first. Her scene with Sveltana, Livia’s caretaker, as she demands her mother’s house and record collection is a welcome reminder of the violent nature that she claimed to have left behind with Richie’s “departure'“, but has clearly never left. This is best used by bringing back her intention to reclaim her childhood house, a major point from the previous season that Janice all but abandoned after her fling with Richie became serious enough for her to change the script. Still, that’s not the only reminder of this shade of her character. Recall how more than once, her siblings remind Janice that their mother did not want a funeral or any kind of memorial, yet she weaseled them into having one regardless, in what comes off as a way to appease her ego more than anything, to make Janice look like the thoughtful sibling even if she remains as apathetic about her mother as her younger siblings. When Tony called Janice, demanding that she fly back to Jersey, she appeared disinterested, yet arrived in town with crocodile tears. It’s an act that she’s not as good at as she thinks.
While Tony is far from an angel, going so far to call his late mother a cunt, at least he’s honest with his own conflicting viewpoints. On the one hand, she’s responsible for a lifetime of trauma that he’s inflicted on not just his children and spouse, but too many victims to count, yet this is still the woman who raised him. Livia coerced her brother-in-law, Tony’s own uncle, into setting a hit on him, yet she never denied her love for her son. It’s an unfair situation, and Tony is right to flip-flop, with the episode all but leaving him on the hook for struggling to either bless or curse his mother.
The rest of the cast don’t think this hard about Livia. Her own grandchildren share more remorse to their father for his loss than contemplate their life without their grandmother. Her so-called loved ones struggle to find anything nice to say, with the closest to someone speaking kindly about Livia, besides an incoherent, doped-up ad-lib from Christopher, comes from the woman she (admittedly accidentally) ran over. Carmela has to be the one to come clean and say what most everyone in the room was thinking- that Olivia Pollio Soprano was an awful woman who made virtually everyone’s life worse with her gruesomely nihilistic attitude.
For an episode meant to eulogize one of its cast members, “Proshai, Livushka” isn’t very nice, but this is the only way to handle a vindictive character like Livia. This isn’t like Buffy’s “The Body”, where Joyce Summers made virtually everyone in her circle’s life a little better (aside from maybe Hank Summers and probably Angel), or “Connor’s Wedding” from Succession, where Logan Roy’s sudden passing makes it impossible for his children to say what they were building up the courage to. There’s nothing to say to a narcissist like Livia, who all but lives on the grief she inflicts. And that’s why her passing lands.
Dr. Melfi’s Notebook:
With Nancy Marchand’s passing, she will be removed from the credits, although Federico Castelluccio (Furio), Joe Pantoliano (Ralphie), Steve R. Schirripa (Bobby), Robert Funaro (Eugene), John Ventimiglia (Artie) and Katherine Narducci (Charmaine) will all be added in for episodes they appear in.
FBI handles for the Sopranos- Tony is Papa Bing, Carmela Mrs. Bing, Meadow Princess Bing, and A.J. Baby Bing, which makes them all sound like Chandler’s family. Their house, meanwhile, is known as The Sausage Family.
Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t even see Richie’s name, who was killed at the same time as Pussy, on the FBI’s board. It makes me think that he was seriously a small-time player.
Meadow’s roommate, Caitlin, went to two real-life NYC institutions, Smoke Jazz & Supper Club, a hot club which is still open, and Ruby Foo’s, an iconic pan-Asian restaurant that closed in 2015.
Is this the first time we’ve seen Hunter since the first season? I don’t really recall her being a part of the second season, but Meadow’s material is hardly a stand out to me.
“I thought black was death.” “White, too.”
Artie’s flashback is from “I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano”, the season 1 finale.
Next Week (Or so): Christopher finally becomes a made man and Dr. Melfi has a rough encounter. That’s putting it lightly.