Season 3, Episode 7
Aired April 8, 2001
Directed by Tim Van Patten
Written by Lawrence Konner
Synopsis: During surgery, Uncle Junior has an anesthesia-laden dream where the CIA offer him a cure for his cancer in exchange for his cooperation into giving up his nephew. Does he go through with it? We may never know, but his physician, Dr. (John F.) Kennedy reports to Tony that his uncle’s tumors have been removed, although we see earlier that he cuts his lab reports early. The good news later turns over when Dr. Kennedy finds malignant cells on a later date and insists on further surgery. Tony doesn’t like the news, and suggests that Junior search for a second opinion, but he remains loyal to Dr. Kennedy, which Tony believes is due to his uncle’s fascination with the former President. Tony convinces Junior to see another doctor, who suggests chemotherapy, which a board at Junior’s regular hospital agrees to, although Dr. Kennedy decides to rebuff his former patient after going behind his back. As Junior begins suffering through side effects of the chemo, he tries to contact his doctor to no avail. This leads to Tony and Furio finding Dr. Kennedy playing a round of golf at his country club, where the two make sure that he answers Junior’s calls.
Christopher isn’t getting the respect he deserves as a made man, primarily from Paulie. First, Chris is asked to strip to prove he isn’t wearing a wire, only for his manhood to be insulted. But the real injustice comes when Paulie stops over at Chris and Adriana’s one evening at 2 am as he looks for items to make up for what Christopher owes him. During this trip, Chris catches Paulie sniffing a pair of Adriana’s panties, which aggravates him to no end. He tells Tony, who tries to go bat for him, but agrees that Paulie was out of line. After the two do some talking, Paulie finds Chris after an afternoon with a sex worker and stops him to give a very deliberate warning- don’t go blabbing to the big man again or he will regret it. The two then bond over a singing fish.
After a volatile dinner with her parents, Carmela reaches a breaking point, which is made no easier when AJ leaves for a week. She can’t even spend the time with Tony, who is always seemingly dragged away for work. Carmela calls to meet with Dr. Melfi in private, who struggles to offer individual counseling as Tony is her patient first. Instead, she recommends another psychiatrist for Carm. Carmela continues her week without AJ with a trip to the supermarket, where she runs into Angie Bonpensiero, who remains in the dark about her husband Sal’s (aka Big Pussy) disappearance, although she’s grateful for Tony’s allowance. Angie mentions that her dog is sick and needs treatment which would be outside of what Tony covers for her, which Carm agrees to bring up to him. When she sees Tony later that evening, he’s unhappy with the request and curses both Angie and Pussy, who he insists must have left for witness protection without his family. Carmela also asks if Tony will join her to meet with the dean of Columbia, but he declines as he has plans the next day- Tony stops by the Bonpensiero house where he sees Angie’s new Cadillac and smashes it with a baseball bat, while leaving her a message to come directly to him, not Carmela, for any help. Meanwhile, after a sour encounter with Meadow, Carmela meets with the dean who asks for a $50,000 donation for a new student center. She likes the idea, hoping that this will leave Meadow’s future with the school secure, but Tony is less interested, only agreeing to pay $5,000. The problem is that Carmela already offered the amount, and while it takes a while, she eventually convinces Tony to pay.
Carmela also meets with Dr. Melfi’s colleague, Dr. Krakower, who she comes clean to about her lifestyle. The psychiatrist suggests that Carmela leave Tony behind, taking only her children with her as she should find a way to receive legitimate funds to pay her way. Carmela takes the advice into consideration, but we see her back at the house at the end of the episode.
"Second Opinion” is an appropriate episode title, not just for Junior looking for an alternative to his doctor’s prognosis. Carmela is also referred to another psychiatrist as she ponders her life with her criminal husband, while Christopher comes to Tony for advice on what to do about Paulie Walnut’s weird ass.
Michael Imperioli and Tony Siricio have already proven to work wonderfully together, which is why I’m glad to go back to the Chris and Paulie well. Christopher’s hopes to play big man being consistently smashed by Paulie using every ounce of his power to undermine him makes for some gold, and both actors have proven to be game to play off each other’s present challenge.
But this is more than just second banana playing with the runt just because he can. Even discarding eventual hindsight, I see Paulie trying to teach Christopher a lesson, one he clearly needs to learn. As we’ve seen, Chris is ill-tempered and doesn’t always have his head in a clean place- emphasis on clean. Is this an older and wiser man trying to prevent a young whippersnapper from making the same mistakes? I’m not sure, I don’t think Paulie cares that much, but he knows that Chris can be both an asset and a liability that shouldn’t be left to chance, and this seems like his way of doing so.
Sniffing Adriana’s panties, though? He did that because he could. Gross.
Still, their material feels the least essential here, which is worth noting when you realize that Tony factors in the least, only getting a quick moment between the two men individually. His time is spent more frequently as he tries to watch over his uncle and neglecting his wife, who continues to have mixed feelings over his lifestyle.
More important is Tony’s lingering grief over his reaction to Pussy’s betrayal. While he recognizes this is for the good for the family, the loss of his long-time friend, one who we’ve learned came up in the business around the same time, appears to still sting. And while Tony tries to do right by Angie (is he supporting her out of obligation, remorse, or both?), his lashing out at her Cadillac allows Tony a way to relieve himself of the mix of grief and anger he still feels about his friend. It’s excessive, but that’s the only way Tony knows how to do things.
Of course, people remember the singing bass thing, which is funny when Chris and Paulie bond over it, but comes off as almost traumatic to Tony, who has flashbacks to his dream in “Funhouse”, seeing Pussy speak to him as a fish. That has to hurt… or at least be weird. I personally find the singing bass to be a throwback, despite never owning one, but I understand why it upsets Tony so.
And then there’s Carmela, who finds herself feeling increasingly distant to her husband despite the closeness of their proximity. Having both children out of the house only makes the two seem further from each other, and only leads Carmela to wonder if it’s worth leaving a blind eye to the evil Tony occurs every day with his line of work.
As we’ve seen, before and once again here, the answer for Carmela is more or less yes. When she’s given the option to leave, she continually rebuffs it, choosing to stay in a life of wealth and privilege, rather than try to make something of herself away from Tony’s cruelty. It might make her pleas hypocritical, but Carmela knows the life she wants and even if she knows it’s wrong, at the end of the day she’s honest about it.
Additionally, she still clearly loves Tony, even defending him from Meadow’s (not baseless) insults. Carmela’s loyalty appears to be her blessing and curse.
“Second Opinion” was Edie Falco’s submission for the Emmys this year, winning her second award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama. As usual, she does excellent work here and deserved her win. It’s a good episode to be attached to.
Season 3, Episode 8
Aired April 15, 2001
Directed by Allen Coulter
Written by Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess and Todd A. Kessler
Synopsis: Tony and Ralphie’s relationship is further strained following Tony’s attack, which is further expanded when Ralph denies a drink offer from Tony. Silvio suggests that Tony offers Ralphie a public apology, possibly making him capo, an idea that Tony rejects despite Ralph being one of Tony’s best servers. This comes to the point that Tony refuses to have the Apriles come to Thanksgiving, demanding that Carmela comes up with an excuse to tell Rosalie. This comes at an awkward time, as Meadow and Jackie Jr. have started seeing each other. Not very seriously, the two only just started hooking up after a party, but Rosalie is already hearing wedding bells. While Carmela’s last-minute alibi works for her, Ralphie is incensed and comes to Johnny Sack after the holiday, requesting either an olive branch or to transfer to another family. Johnny agrees to the former, and convinces Tony to meet with Ralphie, who offers a reluctant, albeit sincere apology. Tony remains quiet, which causes Ralphie to prepare retaliation, although Tony has other concerns, as he feels the need to replace Gigi, one of his weakest performers, as a capo. At the same time, Tony is afraid of doing so that it’ll make him look indecisive and weak. Sure enough, fate offers Tony a favor, as Gigi dies of a heart attack while on the toilet. Realizing he has no other viable option, Tony follows through with the advice both Silvio and Johnny Sack offer him and promotes Ralphie to capo, although this time he doesn’t offer Ralphie a drink.
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Dr. Melfi accidentally double-books Tony and another patient, Gloria Trillo, a Mercedes-Benz saleswoman. Entranced, he agrees to reschedule his appointment and offers Gloria his previous time. Tony can’t keep Gloria off her mind, which sounds like bad news if Dr. Melfi’s session with Dr. Kupferberg is any indication. Still, Tony trails her down in hopes of buying a Mercedes, which ends up with the two hooking up in Tony’s boat, as Gloria cancels her appointment.
As for Meadow and Jackie, she warns Jackie that he shouldn’t expect things to advance too far so soon, as she’s still recovering from her breakup with Noah and worries about her father’s influence. Jackie isn’t happy about this and tries to distance himself from Meadow, until one night at a bar she steals Jackie’s keys and drunkenly tries to drive off, almost crashing into another car and swerving into a ditch. While the car is damaged, Meadow is okay, and Jackie comes to her rescue, ending up with the two returning home.
It’s clear that the Ralphie problem isn’t going to go away any time soon. When you get promoted to capo, that tends to mean you’re going to stick around, anyway.
Luckily, Ralph Cifaretto is a welcome addition to the show’s world, a similar agent of chaos to Richie Aprile, but just different enough to not feel like a retread despite being a comparable thorn in Tony’s side with undeniable ties to the Apriles. Clearly he’s trouble, but Tony can’t just easily whack him, least of all because Ralphie is also a made man.
The difference between Ralphie and Richie, at least the one we’re told, is that Ralphie is not just a good earner and doesn’t lash out at them, unlike last season’s antagonist. The fact that he’s the only viable capo option left after Gigi Cestone’s awkward-yet-unfortunate passing speaks as much to Ralph’s usefulness as it does to the small nature of the DiMeo family, something Tony and Junior are clearly aware of as we see during their meeting near the end of the episode.
This definitely makes “He is Risen” an interesting conundrum for Tony, who’s seen this situation before but can’t get out of it. His options are to give into an unruly coke head or to leave a needed position blank, which would only lead to more questions. But hey, Tony should know what he’s doing, he’s reading Sun Tzu and “Matchabelli”, after all.
“He is Risen” is largely about Tony, including his newfound target in Gloria Trillo (let’s save that for next time), but the show continues to find material for Meadow even as she’s ostensibly away from the family, while doubly finding a way to expand on Jackie Jr’s character. I can’t help but feel like their pairing is more for the latter character’s increasing involvement in the show’s world, as Chase and co want to find a way to keep the Aprile family front and center to Tony’s mind years after Jackie Sr’s passing. I think it works, and Jackie is a welcome addition, someone who can’t seem to decide if he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps or leave them behind. Pairing him with Meadow, someone who currently wants nothing to do with her father, is a smart way to contrast his two worlds, while it also allows her to still be a part of the show’s world, instead of just writing out the college-ready child like other shows would.
Tony’s material with Ralphie is the most interesting of the episode, but Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Jason Cerbone have strong enough chemistry together to make their material work. They’re clearly attracted to each other in the writing, and the actors are able to match that energy to the screen just fine.
“He is Risen” gets its title from Janice’s date(?)’s delayed response at Thanksgiving, but it also applies to Ralphie, who receives the promotion he’s dreamed of. Not every rise has an equal fall, but this seems inevitable for such a volatile character, although as mentioned, Ralph is at least a better businessman than Richie. Let’s see where he goes from here.
Dr. Melfi’s Notebook:
Before any further ado, here’s “some pulp”.
Furio’s opinion on golf- “stupid fucking game”
Dr. Krakower recommends that Tony should read Crime and Punishment after turning himself in. And while that’s a little on the nose, it’s a good read. My Dostoevsky of choice, however, is The Idiot.
We get a little update on Meadow’s depressed roommate Caitlin, who has a total attitude spike when she gets offered some E at the party they’re attending. Noticing how her mood changed with her earlier prescription, I can see her attending rehab before graduation.
Very interesting how Tony politely offers to walk Tony to Dr. Melfi’s car, only for her to rebuff the offer, despite her previous experience. I wonder why that is.
Of course Elvis is brought up alongside Gigi’s death, along with “Don something, producer of The Simpsons”.
Next Week (Or Whenever): Tony and Gloria continue their affair, while Christmas brings Tony memories of Pussy. I hope to have this one come out sooner (no West Wing this week, though).