OTH: The Sopranos- "The Happy Wanderer" / "D-Girl"
Even with such interesting guest stars, these episodes remain lively.
Season 2, Episode 6
Aired February 20, 2000
Directed by John Patterson
Written by Frank Renzulli
Synopsis: Tony meets up with an old friend, Davey Scatino, while attending College Night at Meadow’s high school. Davey asks about Tony’s Executive Game, a high-stakes card game started by his father and uncle which he inherited, but Tony is uncomfortable with adding Davey, not thinking that his sporting good store makes enough to justify the stakes. Still, Davey gets around, and he’s seen at another game inhabited by Richie Aprile, which he’s short to pay back. This upsets Richie, who demands that Davey stay away from further card games until the debt is returned, with interest. He doesn’t listen and is soon allowed to join in on the Executive Game, but despite some early luck, comes out behind 45 grand. This may be his end as Richie comes by, furious to see the cocksucker return, but Tony is able to stop a scene from occurring, taking Richie outside and reminding him who’s in charge. Tony tells Richie that he’s not able to collect from Davey, or add interest to his debt, until his is paid off first. Tony then demands that Davey pays hid debt back within two days, or interest will arise rapidly. Those two days come and go with nothing coming up, and Tony stops by Davey’s office and whacks him. When his attempt to plead with Artie, another friend who knows Tony’s cruelty upfront, falls on deaf ears, Davey decides to pay back by giving his son Eric’s SUV to Tony, which he gifts to Meadow. She refuses the gift, noticing that it belongs to her friend, but Tony refuses to give it back. The two are supposed to perform together at a school-functioned cabaret night (Meadow sings, Eric on bass), but Eric refuses to give Meadow quarter, even after Meadow insists that she refuses the car and that his dad is not innocent in this scenario. Eric walks off, and Meadow ends up doing a solo instead, but given how pitchy she’s appeared earlier in the episode, it’s a good thing we don’t actually see the performance.
Back at therapy, Tony is reluctant to open up to Dr. Melfi once more, blaming her for appearing weak and victimizing him. Despite things being good for Tony, he resents seeing how happy so many others can be when he walks the street. The thing is, Tony does have things to talk about, first discovering that he had a “slow” uncle, one who his father and Uncle Junior seldom talked about, one who was sent to a charity house as their family couldn’t raise him. Additionally, Tony is distraught to hear that his brother-in-law’s father passes after falling while attempting to install a satellite dish just one day into his retirement. He was a good man, but Tony doesn’t allow himself much chance to grieve when he hears his mother sob uncontrollably during his service. She appears once again at Meadow’s performance at the end, but he has no interest in reconciling, despite Richie’s attempts.
Tony may hate the happy wanderer, the kind of person who goes through life with a smile on their face and never questions their place in life, but he sees this stock character everywhere he goes. Is this how he views Davey Scatino, a longtime friend who doesn’t think about how his gambling addiction affects his loved ones until he’s in too deep? Or does he resent the possibility of relating too much to his intellectually disabled uncle to the point that even the slightest comparison turns him off?
We’ve seen Tony try to keep the line between his personal and business relationships as closed as possible thus far. He tells Carmela little about his line of work and tells his children even less, while the few friends he has outside of the business he tries to keep as separate as possible. Even Artie Bucco, Tony’s longest-lasting friend, is only in the picture with Silvio for something school-related, as they and Tony’s daughters are in the same circle. His reluctance to invite Davey into his newly-officiated executive games fits his desire to find some sort of distance.
Of course, that doesn’t work out, and now Tony needs to play the bad guy with a long-time friend whose son is friends with his daughter. What makes this development so interesting and “The Happy Wanderer” such a worthwhile watch is how easily Tony returns into the role, particularly how almost giddy he appears to receive Eric Scatino’s SUV and hand it off to Meadow. Is there hypocrisy in Tony’s desire to divide his personal and business lives? Of course. I don’t think he cares that much, however.
Dr. Melfi, however, is already starting to notice this. Their sessions in “The Happy Wanderer” show a new dynamic of sorts. While it took some nudging for Tony to return to his sessions, she’s now in control and isn’t afraid to remind him. Right away, Dr. Melfi can tell that there’s more to Tony’s spotty relationship with his mother than he’s letting on, and her attempts to nudge him to, if not reconcile, at least come clean about them, keeps falling on deaf ears. Their sessions thus far haven’t been very productive and she’s rightfully tiring of this, to the point where she sarcastically throws back Tony’s words to her as he discusses his recent revelation of his “slow” uncle. When even this doesn’t seem to be adding anything to their meetings, where can she go from here?
The other character of note this week is Meadow, who almost seems to flip-flop on her new car. While she’s initially disgusted to receive her friend’s SUV, she does side with Tony as she explains to Eric how the car became hers almost too easily, which makes me wonder if she’s falling for her father’s lifestyle, or just trying to rationalize it. Meadow does appear to have some sort of conscious, but also a sneaky side to her if the party episode is any indication. It helps to make the character a little more interesting than the kind of anonymous daughter character a lot of drama series would feature to make their protagonists relatable and believable. Additionally, I do think that Jamie-Lynn Sigler is up to the role to make Meadow simultaneously likable and irritating. Thus far, she does appear to take after both of her parents in terms of personality- she has Carmela’s (as well as Livia’s) emotional manipulation alongside Tony’s deceptively clever nature.
James Gandolfini earned his first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama for this episode, a deserved win, as he gets to show off the character’s menace in memorable fashion this week. It adds up to another terrific episode.
Season 2, Episode 7
Aired February 27, 2000
Directed by Allen Coulter
Written by Todd A. Kessler
Synopsis: Christopher and Adriana meet up with his cousin Greg and his fiancé Amy, who is an assistant for Jon Favreau. Curious about Chris’ screenplay, Amy invites him to check out the set of Favreau’s new movie, but while he’s initially uninterested after abandoning the screenplay, Adriana convinces him to go and reveals that she saved a copy of it. When he arrives, Chris makes a solid first impression when he offers Sandra Bernhard a unique ad-lib to co-star Janeane Garofalo, which convinces Favreau to meet with Chris and Amy for lunch to talk about the script. Jon is interested in making a gangster picture for his next film, possibly starring as Joe Gallo but Chris berates the director at the idea. Still, it goes well, especially after Christopher shares a story with the two of them about a former good-looking woman who loses her sex appeal literally overnight. He lends the screenplay to Jon, who has Amy read it first. She and Jon both give Chris advice, but their private encounters go in opposite directions- he sleeps with Amy, while Christopher’s attempt at roughhousing with Favreau doesn’t go over well. The latter encounter puts Chris in a bad mood and has him lash out at Adriana when he meets her with Tony and Carmela for dinner. He returns to Amy’s hotel, where the two sleep again. This meeting doesn’t go as well, with Amy realizing how wrong it is to cheat on Greg with his cousin. As she runs into her hotel room’s bathroom, Chris reads a script that Favreau is working on that Amy is reading, and finds the story he shared with them earlier added in. Amy insists that this is merely coincidental, but he knows otherwise and fears for his safety. Unfortunately, he can’t access Jon anymore, as he’s flying back into LA, and his attempt to catch Amy one last time goes nowhere.
With the Soprano family, AJ is in trouble after he “borrows” Carmela’s car and busts a side window. His parents are understandably upset, but it’ll blow over- like Tony tells Dr. Melfi, “you can’t put the shit back in the donkey- boys will be boys”. What upsets them is their son’s response, with AJ seemingly picking up nihilism and defying his belief in God, going so far as to not want to be confirmed. This contrasts heavily with Tony and Carmela’s beliefs, but they can’t get their boy’s spirit back. Tony has AJ meet with his Uncle Pussy, who is supposed to be his confirmation sponsor, but he has his own problems going on as his FBI informant is growing impatient. They insists that Pussy wears a wire at AJ’s confirmation, but even though they only really want him to use it for Tony’s afterparty, he’s resistant to wear one at a church. Pussy eventually gives in, although it causes him to snap at his wife when she nearly catches him putting it on. He tries to get some information from Tony at the party, but he’s too busy playing host to answer too many questions. When AJ is caught smoking weed with a couple of friends in the garage, Tony and Carmela furiously demand that he goes up and interacts with his guests, but instead rushes to his room. Pussy sees this and goes up to talk with AJ, telling a story of how Tony came with him to see his dying sister every day, even being the person by her side as she passed when he was getting a burger. Can Pussy betray the lifelong friend who has stood by his side like that? The episode ends with him crying in the bathroom as he thinks it over, tap still on.
A development girl is a derogatory term for a gofer, which is a term Amy resents when Chris refers to her as such. She’s a vice president, after all!
Alicia Witt is a long-standing film and television regular, ranging from roles like Donna Hayward’s younger sister in Twin Peaks to recurring roles in Friday Night Lights, Justified, and Orange is the New Black, for a few examples, the kind of actress you’ve definitely seen even if she never quite had that one defining role. Still, her undeniable charm is present as Amy, a pretentious yet charismatic Hollywood hopeful who could potentially offer Christopher his big break.
In “D-Girl”, Chris has to ask if he really wants that big break, while we the audience are left to wonder if he deserves it based on the way he treats Amy and Adriana, as well as how he casually dismisses Jon Favreau’s work to his face. The future Iron Man and Mandalorian mastermind had made a splash on the big screen by directing Swingers and on the small screen with a memorable storyline in Friends, and he does fine as he plays a caricature of himself, one who’s fascinated by Christopher’s lifestyle but quickly becomes uncomfortable when he spends too much time with someone as dangerous and with virtually no self-awareness as the freshly made man. It’s no surprise that rather than taking on what sounds like an unpolished script, he lifts from stories shared by Chris, most notably a tale of horrific violence towards trans women. I don’t think that I’d want to be around the guy too long, either.
Michael Imperioli is so good at playing Christopher’s positive and negative qualities in equal measure that sometimes they can almost blend together, his lack of self-awareness coming off as almost kind of charming before lashing out at Adriana and reminding Tony of the script he was threatened to leave behind. Here he comes off as the petulant buffoon he really is, lacking Tony’s ability to keep cool or his sense of strategy. For as much as Chris idolizes his uncle, he only seems to learn the wrong lessons from “T”, like cheating on your dedicated loved one. Tony’s moment with Chris at the end, where he gives his nephew ten minutes to decide if he wants to stay in his life, is a necessary ultimatum that I think he needed.
Personally, I don’t tend to enjoy Chris’ stories as much as I do Tony’s, so I was looking forward to AJ’s dip into existentialism more, especially to see how poorly equipped Tony and Carmela are to answer his questions. Clearly they never had to read Camus in high school.
I mentioned in the previous episode that Meadow appears to become more comfortable with her family’s lifestyle as she gets older, but if anything, AJ appears to be the opposite, wanting some form of stability. He’s still a dumbass teenager and does stupid things like stealing his mother’s car and smoke weed at his confirmation party, but he’s also a little more sensitive than the kid who appeared frustrated about the lack of “fucking ziti” in the pilot. AJ appears almost disappointed in his father’s work now that he’s aware and has no one to turn to. The majority of the adult figures in his life are gangsters like Tony, while his grandmother is even more nihilistic than he is. It’s not an enviable position, but it’s one that’s relatable.
And then there’s Pussy, who continues to bear the burden of his game of double agent. Honestly, it’s easy to feel sorry for Pussy, his options are either a possible life sentence or a merciless death for double-crossing, both highly unenviable positions. We’ve seen what Tony is willing to do with someone who escaped the family after ratting some of them out, so we know that Pussy is very likely unsafe if he’s caught.
More good stuff, the show continues to offer the finest Italian cuisine, rich but not too fancy to come off as uninviting.
Dr. Melfi’s Notebook:
We meet Vito Spatafore in the former episode, who will play a major role later in the series. For now, he’s just kind of there, while actor Joseph R. Gannascoli appeared in an earlier episode as a background character.
Honestly, Dr. Melfi handled Tony’s desire to strangle her pretty well. I feel like most people would have dropped him on the spot.
Despite arriving to Jersey from Italy, Furio doesn’t seem to be doing much so far. His big moment in these episodes is offering the concierge at his hotel a blowjob from one of the escorts he called up for the game.
If you’re not very well-versed in Frank Sinatra’s lore, Martin Scorsese’s attempt to make a biopic out of Blue Eyes’ life was blocked by Nancy and Tina, who objected to his insistence to show off his alleged mob connections. But what does Junior do? Here, he’s playing cards with some of the same gangsters his old man probably played with.
The use of the R-word continues to bother me, but I’ll admit that I was far more surprised to hear Dr. Melfi use it than I was Tony, and even then, she was using his word to describe his late uncle. Notice how Junior didn’t entertain the use of the word earlier in the episode, either. I like how deliberate the use of this language is, but so far, I think The West Wing is the best of the series I’ve covered when it comes to handling characters with developmental disabilities, even if it’s a little too self-congratulatory in that regard, itself.
Jon Favreau will eventually make a similar movie to what he’s talking about called Made, which will star a couple of Sopranos alumni in it. Additionally, later in the episode Amy name-checks the film Mickey Blue Eyes, which recently came out and had even more cast members.
I love how AJ calls Nietzsche “Nitch”.
On that note, I like Pussy’s son, and how he simultaneously is trying to reach AJ’s level and mock him- “you still listen to rap?”
“Be a good Catholic for fifteen fucking minutes.”
The most 2000 thing that happens in these episodes? Amy casually mentioning the Weinstein brothers for their movie-making business, and not their, ahem, other “professional” activities.
Next Week: Christopher proposes to Adriana and has his underlings attack him, all in one episode! That will lead into an eventful second episode, which I’ll leave blank for now.