Season 2, Episode 12
Aired April 2, 2000
Directed by Allen Coulter
Written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess
Synopsis: With Richie and Janice’s wedding coming up, his and Tony’s tension is at an all-time high, especially as Tony demands that they stop selling cocaine on his garbage route. Junior remains adamant that they keep the route going as his legal bills continue to skyrocket. Between this and learning that Tony kept AJ from going out with Richie and his son, he decides to take a hit out of Tony and tries to get Junior to take his side. He appears neutral to the suggestion, but when Richie leaves, Junior makes an executive decision to keep Tony closer and tells him about Richie’s plan the next day at the doctor’s office. As Tony plans to put a stop to Richie, this proves unnecessary- later that evening, Janice gets into an argument with her fiancé which leads into bringing up a sore subject, his son’s sexuality. Richie doesn’t appreciate Janice’s warmness to the possibility that Richie Jr, an aspiring ballroom dancer, may be gay, so he punches her. Janice retaliates by taking a gun they use for kink purposes and shoots him in the chest. Distraught, she calls Tony, who comes to help get rid of the evidence as he takes the gun away, mops off the blood, and has Christopher and Furio come to take Richie away to grind him up at their butcher shop. Tony returns later in the morning to check on her sister, and it’s here that he’s confronted by Livia for the first time since her stroke, as she wakes up after being heavily medicated the previous night. Tony takes the opportunity to confront her for how she parented him and his sisters, Janice in particular. The moment ends with Tony falling face first as he exits his sister’s now-former house, causing Livia to laugh. Tony buys Janice a Greyhound back to Seattle as they bond over their traumatic childhood one last time.
Tony is back with his side chick Irina, but between her depressive episodes and Janice’s awareness of their situation, he decides to break up with her for good, suggesting that she should spend her energy on a man who will properly provide for her or at least try to further her aspiring modeling career. His rejection causes Irina to attempt suicide by mixing pills with vodka, which makes Tony feel remorseful as he asks Dr. Melfi for a possible psychiatrist she can see. However, according to Irina’s mother, Russians have complicated relationships with psychiatry, so she refuses the help and continues to pity herself after being rejected by a modeling agency for being “too old”. Despite Tony’s plans to wash his hands of Irina for good, and even after being honest about the ordeal with Carmela, she remains furious at him and tries to reconnect with Vic Musto, who remains cagey. She later learns that he distanced himself after realizing who she’s married to, and realizes that she can’t get back at her husband by cheating on him. Instead, she books a trip to Rome with Rosalie Aprile after Meadow’s graduation for three weeks, leaving him to pick up the slack around the house.
Pussy, meanwhile, decides to go all in on his FBI informant role, not realizing that he’s only wanted to take down Tony. He thinks he has a chance to help out after getting intel from Christopher on a Pokémon card heist, he tries to bust it but ends up getting into an accident and drives through a 7-11 clerk on the way. Agent Lipari informs him to stay out of the way and reminds Pussy that his job is to get dirt on Tony and his crew, and when he’s done enough, he’ll serve time for selling heroin and can start a new life. That’s it.
“The Knight in White Satin” clears Tony of two of his biggest headaches, at least temporarily.
First, he finally washes his hands of his long-time side chick Irina. I don’t tend to bring her up in these reviews as I don’t find her the most compelling character- she exists largely to remind us of Tony’s debaucherously devilish lifestyle. As a made man, he’s expected to fool around as he sees fits, and Irina tickled his fancy for a while, trading his Italian hullaballoo for Russian hullaballoo, but between Carmela’s frustrated acceptance of his infidelity and her general unwell nature, not to mention even his own sister’s knowledge of the situation, he wisely deduces that it’s time to say goodbye.
The problem Tony has is that Irina won’t go without a fight, and makes his life as hard as possible in the process. Frankly, it’s what Tony, who is a little too complacent with his life of corruption, deserves, but even still, he offers some guidance with a psychiatrist’s information, and eventually, a healthy wad of cash after she refuses. Tony is wise to realize that things with Irina will only get worse before they get better as he washes his hands of her.
Meanwhile, we see how Tony’s infidelity has affected Carmela, while his notoriety makes it nigh impossible for her to reclaim any sort of vengeance. The risk to reward ratio is skewed by sleeping with Tony Soprano, but it can still easily go your way. Sleeping with his wife, however, and there’s virtually no hopes for any kind of reward. So Tony can sleep around, and Carmela can’t even get any good dick of her own.
The worst part is that despite how much he frustrates her, Carmela is still in love with Tony, and leaving seems borderline impossible to her. Tony clearly feels the same, although his own selfish nature makes it harder for Tony to connect the same way.
As for Richie, Carmela is right, his and Carmela’s courtship was not made in heaven, and it was only a matter of time before his passing. It’s a terrific shock for Janice to be the one to take Richie out, instead of Tony or one of his crew mates, but by this point, The Sopranos has reveled in doing the unexpected. The build-up to his death is especially perfect, as we see what “domestic bliss” would have been for Janice and Richie, which is anything but. Rather than accepting a lifetime of cruelty from a piece of shit (note how quickly Richie went to eating his dinner after socking Janice), she refuses and takes him out.
Recently on Twitter, a list of the most hated television characters has been going around, voted by what seems like a bunch of incel losers. Janice made the top 10, one spot above her mother, which I think is unfair (at least for Janice, Livia at least makes sense), but I do understand why the character can turn off viewers, especially here as she reminds us a little too much of her mother. Like how Livia coerced Junior into putting a hit on her son, Janice may not claim to be a part of the family, but knows how to work the game to her advantage, although unlike her mother, Janice needed to lift a finger this time.
There’s a lot to admire about “The Knight in White Satin”, an excellent episode, but my favorite material comes in the last act when we see Tony and Janice interact positively like siblings for the first time all season. Besides how quickly Tony went to his sister’s defense after pulling the trigger, but how he went to bat for her against Livia. For as much of his own problems that Tony causes, it’s clear that his parents are to blame for at least some of them, and these also trickled down to Janice. If nothing else, the two can laugh and bond over their tricky childhood now, while Tony gets the chance to use some of his new coping mechanisms brought to him by Dr. Melfi out on his mother.
As stated above, “The Knight in White Satin” is terrific stuff and could have easily worked as a season finale if Chase and co wanted it to. Of course, there’s more to be done here, and at least one story ready to be resolved.
Season 2, Episode 13
Aired April 9, 2000
Directed by John Patterson
Written by David Chase and Todd A. Kessler
Synopsis: Following Janice’s departure, Tony and Barbara are called over to Livia’s place to discuss her living arrangements. Barbara insists that she can’t keep her mother, and Tony is only here at his sister’s request, as his and Carmela’s invitation for her to live with them has long since expired. Additionally, the retirement center Livia stayed at won’t take her back, which gives Tony one last recourse- two tickets to Tucson, for Livia and her sister Quintina, so they can live with their other sister. Later that evening, Tony has appetizers with Silvio, Pussy and Furio at Artie Bucco’s restaurant after having dinner at an Indian place as they discuss a credit card scheme, and while they’re having a good time, Pussy’s explanation of said scheme stands out to Tony in a way he can’t put his finger on.
Sooner or later, it’ll all come together. After coming home and settling for bed, Tony has a strange dream where he meets with his crew at the Asbury Park Boardwalk and reveals that he has six months to live. From what, we don’t know, but he and his crew are weirdly accepting of this. The dream ends with Tony dousing himself with gasoline and Paulie lighting him up with a Zippo, only for it to end abruptly so he can wake up and rush to the bathroom. Whether it was the Indian or the mussels Artie served them, Tony has a bad case of food poisoning. He spends the entire night and the next day hopping between his toilet and his dreams, including some wild times with Dr. Melfi and a scenario where he shoots Paulie while Uncle Junior works a factory job. The most damning dream comes later, when Tony starts talking to a fish with Pussy’s face, who reveals to Tony what he’s suspected since last season- he’s an informant, and it’s time he slept with the other fishes.
Tony follows this instinct and, despite still feeling sick, comes over to Pussy’s with Silvio as he suggests that they help him inspect a boat he’s interested in buying. Tony feigns illness one more time and rushes into Pussy’s bedroom toilet while he has Silvio stall him and Angie with a cup of coffee as Tony looks for evidence. He scouts the bathroom and bedroom until he finds Pussy’s wiretap. They later pick up Paulie and after taking his new boat out for a ride, Tony and the other two confront Pussy and demand that he comes clean and doesn’t lie. Sal (in the only time I’ll call him by his name) confesses that the FBI had him on record selling heroin and were able to scale him down from 30 to life to just a year in a half with the information he offered, which he swears was largely “disinformation” aside from some small things like the credit cards. They clearly don’t want to do this, Pussy has been like family to the three and his story almost checks out, but Tony, Silvio and Paulie eventually pull their guns out and say goodbye to their friend once and for all, while honoring his wish to not be shot in the face. They then take off his jewelry and pull out some weights, which they put in a bag with Pussy’s body and push it into the ocean.
The fun doesn’t end here, however- it turns out that Livia and Aunt Quintina’s airline tickets are stolen, coming from Davey Scatino’s “make money now” scheme, and Livia calls Tony with an unusually exasperated tone. Before he can say anything, the FBI comes in with a warrant in regards to these tickets and arrests Tony, right in front of Meadow’s friends just before her graduation. This doesn’t look good, but Tony knows that he can get out of this one easily, and sure enough he’s free to make it to Meadow’s graduation day, which goes off without a hitch. Less successful is Dr. Melfi’s attempt to read Tony’s mind, noticing a familiar sadness to him during their session, but he remains mum about taking out his friend. But forget about that, let’s get back to the graduation, where Tony promises a recovering Christopher his button, and ends with Tony reflecting on a montage of some of the many crimes he’s committed to ensuring his daughter could make it to this point.
These last two episodes feature explosive back-to-back blows. While Richie’s death was a deliberately brief affair, however, rapidly paced to match Janice’s quick decision, it’s clear that Tony and the guys weren’t ready to say goodbye to Pussy. Here is a case where their code almost ended up for naught. Is it really worth adhering to their rough exteriors when they have to whack off someone who’s basically been a brother to Tony, Silvio and Paulie?
“Funhouse” takes its time making it to this conclusion, but by the end it’s clear that Pussy had to pay for betraying their oath, but what good is their lifestyle without Pussy?
Maybe it’s not worth asking, as the three take no time whacking him. Their loyalty to their friend isn’t worth as much as the blood contract they’ve signed, and any hopes that they’ll change is moot. Carmela says as much during the previous season finale, when she calls out Father Phil’s hopeless savior complex towards Tony. He’s fine with the life he’s living. He couldn’t live without it, in fact- we saw how bored he was of domestic work last season.
“Funhouse” gets to a conclusion place that is both logical and audacious, a perfect fit for a series that is never afraid to take risks but almost always knows when to fit the right pieces in. Pussy’s death, for instance, was inevitable, but Tony still getting arrested without his help? Excellent.
I’m not especially interested in digging through each of Tony’s dreams to find symbolism, partly since most of these events will transpire in one way or another. Still, Jon Patterson’s reliably sharp direction aptly brings Chase and Kessler’s bizarre scenarios to life as he’s able to find a balance between reality and a particular kind of distortion that only exists in dream time. Every sequence feels off, yet familiar. Confused, yet inviting.
Brilliant stuff. Both “Funhouse” and “The Knight in White Satin Armor” were nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, but lost to The West Wing’s “In Excelsis Deo”. It’s funny, this year, all nominated episodes came from covered-OTH series, as The West Wing’s pilot and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Hush” (which should have won, FTR) were also nominated.
Season 2 Overview:
Goddamn, that’s some good TV.
The first season of The Sopranos promised a fresh and challenging new kind of television program, a series with cinematic aspirations with the extended length of a television production to tell a fully-formed story. While those early episodes showed more ambition and artistry than its contemporary on the channel, Oz, in hindsight it’s clear that this wasn’t the best version of itself, which I think the series found itself with here, as nearly every episode is a classic, if not a full-blown masterpiece. The storytelling, artistry and performances are only sharping with each episode, as Chase and co find what elements work best for the series and which doesn’t. The crew’s love affair with The Godfather is still apparent, but rather than aping its plot points, we’re reminded with direct references, like Silvio’s impressions.
I feel compelled to give the second season an A. An impressive grade for sure- one where James Gandolfini won his first Emmy and second TCA Award- but we have four more quality seasons of television to go.
I recall season 3 being nearly as good, but it’ll be without a couple of main cast members. Of course David Proval ended his run as Richie Aprile with “The Knight in White Satin”, but Nancy Marchand will pass before production on season 3 starts. The series will deal with Livia’s passing early on, but note how this was a blow to Chase, who planned Tony’s mother to be a long-standing element of the series. But we’ll get there when we get there.
Dr. Melfi’s Notebook:
Apologies for missing last week, this has been a very hectic time at my job and I was only able to finish this blog today due to my getting sick. Blessing or curse?
I love Christopher saying Poke-ee-man. Takes me back, I was playing the game when this was airing.
Obviously Tony is still furious at his mother, but he couldn’t even let her stay for her granddaughter’s graduation?
“I had a dream I fucked your brains out, right over there. You loved it.” “Well, you threw that at me like a rock.”
Davey Scatino gets his own conclusion of sorts as he intends to leave Jersey and settle on a ranch in Nevada, not too far away from Vegas. One step forward, two steps back, basically.
Next (Two) Weeks?: tbd if I need another week off, but we’ll start season 3 with another potential rogue DiMeo soldier and something seemingly everyone has been waiting for. If you know, you know.