WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.779 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We are doing something 00:00:02.779 --> 00:00:04.940 a little special today. We really are. Because 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:07.280 usually, you know, we take a really broad topic 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:09.300 like the history of coffee or the future of AI 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:12.460 and we drill down. But today we are going fully 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:16.839 subterranean into a very specific moment in pop 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:18.940 culture history. Right. We are looking at the 00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:23.420 exact moment a television show went from. You 00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:26.219 know, a promising pilot to an absolute masterpiece. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:28.559 Which is a pretty big claim. It is a big claim. 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:30.940 But I think the evidence really backs it up. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:32.899 We are talking about The Sopranos today. But 00:00:32.899 --> 00:00:34.460 not the whole series, right? We aren't boiling 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:37.619 the ocean here. No, exactly. We are zeroing in 00:00:37.619 --> 00:00:40.520 on season one, episode two. The episode is titled 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:45.100 46 Long. 46 Long. It aired on January 17th, 1999. 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:47.960 It was written by the creator himself, David 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:50.820 Chase, and directed by Dan Attias. And honestly, 00:00:50.979 --> 00:00:53.119 this is the episode where the show truly begins. 00:00:53.380 --> 00:00:55.600 That's an interesting distinction. Because, I 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:57.179 mean, everyone remembers the pilot, right? The 00:00:57.179 --> 00:00:59.280 ducks in the pool, the collapse of the barbecue, 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:01.619 the very first panic attack. But you're saying 00:01:01.619 --> 00:01:04.590 the pilot isn't really the show yet? Not exactly, 00:01:04.709 --> 00:01:06.969 no. You have to remember how television production 00:01:06.969 --> 00:01:10.569 actually works. A pilot is often filmed months, 00:01:10.750 --> 00:01:12.890 sometimes even a full year before the series 00:01:12.890 --> 00:01:14.469 actually gets picked up by a network. Right, 00:01:14.530 --> 00:01:16.129 they make the one episode to sell it. Exactly. 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:18.329 So the actors are still sort of figuring out 00:01:18.329 --> 00:01:21.030 who they are. The writers are testing the boundaries 00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:23.409 of the world. Even the sets are different. If 00:01:23.409 --> 00:01:25.549 you look really closely at the pilot, the pork 00:01:25.549 --> 00:01:28.250 store is different. The Soprano house feels slightly 00:01:28.250 --> 00:01:30.310 different. Oh, I never noticed that. Yeah, it's 00:01:30.310 --> 00:01:33.569 subtle, but it's there. So 46 long. the first 00:01:33.569 --> 00:01:35.689 time they are back on set as an ongoing series. 00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:38.780 This is where the rubber meets the road. So our 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:41.200 mission today for you listening is to unpack 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:46.200 how this specific hour of television really expands 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:49.359 the universe, how it sets up the central conflicts 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:52.239 that run for years and perfectly balances that 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:56.540 unique mix of suburban boredom and mob violence. 00:01:56.840 --> 00:01:58.939 And we have a great stack of sources for this 00:01:58.939 --> 00:02:00.959 deep dive. We're looking at production notes, 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:03.620 detailed plot breakdowns, and some really sharp 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:05.739 critical reception from heavy hitters in the 00:02:05.739 --> 00:02:08.319 TV criticism world like Alan Sepp. Spinwall and 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:10.000 Emily St. James. We have a lot to get through. 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:12.759 We really do. And what's fascinating here is 00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:16.979 that 46 Long establishes the core formula of 00:02:16.979 --> 00:02:19.400 the entire series. It shows us Tony Soprano not 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:21.819 just as this terrifying mobster, but as a guy 00:02:21.819 --> 00:02:24.800 dealing with the most mundane, frustrating, everyday 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:27.759 problems imaginable. Which he then tries to solve 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:31.659 with well less than mundane methods. Right. Oh, 00:02:31.939 --> 00:02:34.219 absolutely. Some of the plot points in this deep 00:02:34.219 --> 00:02:37.419 diver just. Unbelievable. There is a stolen car 00:02:37.419 --> 00:02:40.560 subplot early on that is just pure comedy. It 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:43.099 is. It really is. But it also serves a very specific 00:02:43.099 --> 00:02:45.819 purpose. But before we get to the funny stuff, 00:02:45.900 --> 00:02:47.620 we have to look at the psychological underpinnings. 00:02:47.659 --> 00:02:50.060 Because this is the episode where the relationship 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:52.120 between Tony and his mother, Livia, goes from 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:55.319 just difficult to a full -blown crisis. Okay, 00:02:55.379 --> 00:02:57.099 let's unpack this. Because I actually want to 00:02:57.099 --> 00:02:58.680 start with that funny stuff you mentioned. Sure. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.280 It really highlights that collision between Tony's 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:03.919 two worlds. You have the suburban dad life and 00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:06.080 the crime boss life. And it all starts with a 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:08.219 high school science teacher race. Right. So let's 00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:11.599 set the context for you. It's 1999. The economy 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:14.439 is absolutely booming. Suburban New Jersey is 00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:18.599 this sort of bubble of relative safety and affluence. 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:23.080 And in that bubble, we have AJ Soprano, Tony's 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:26.400 son. Right. He's not a bad kid, but he's struggling 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:28.780 a bit in school. And he has a science teacher 00:03:28.780 --> 00:03:31.120 named Mr. Miller. And Mr. Miller has a problem. 00:03:31.259 --> 00:03:34.180 A very standard suburban problem. His car gets 00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:36.030 stolen. right out of the school parking lot. 00:03:36.330 --> 00:03:38.530 It's a Saturn. Do you remember Saturns? The plastic 00:03:38.530 --> 00:03:40.250 cars. They don't even make them anymore. That 00:03:40.250 --> 00:03:42.569 really dates the episode to the late 90s. It 00:03:42.569 --> 00:03:45.129 does. It was the quintessential sensible teacher 00:03:45.129 --> 00:03:48.500 car. So the car is gone. Now, in a normal family, 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:50.319 you'd call the police, you'd file a report, and 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:51.879 you'd wait for the insurance payout. You'd complain 00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:54.199 about the deductible at dinner. But this is the 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:57.159 Soprano family. And crucially, it's Carmela who 00:03:57.159 --> 00:03:59.520 steps in here. She does. And that's a really 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:01.719 important character note right from the jump. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.060 We often think of Carmela as the one trying to 00:04:04.060 --> 00:04:05.800 keep the darkness out of the house. But here 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:07.919 she is actively bridging the gap. Right. She 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:11.259 initiates it. Exactly. She persuades Tony to, 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:14.000 quote unquote, help find the car. She tells him 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:17.399 his car was stolen, Tony. Do something. She knows 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:19.139 what that means, right? She isn't naive. She 00:04:19.139 --> 00:04:21.699 is absolutely not naive. She knows she isn't 00:04:21.699 --> 00:04:24.360 asking Tony to call the local precinct and check 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:27.220 the stolen vehicle logs. She is asking him to 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:29.319 use his other resources. Because she wants to 00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:32.060 be the hero. Yes. She wants to be the good neighbor, 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.000 the helpful, involved parent who magically fixed 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.439 the problem for the teacher. She wants all the 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:39.259 social capital that comes with being the powerful 00:04:39.259 --> 00:04:41.519 family in town, but she desperately doesn't want 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:43.959 to see the violence and intimidation that makes 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:46.360 that power possible. So Tony. Tony sighs and 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:48.779 puts the word out. He rolls his eyes, which is 00:04:48.779 --> 00:04:51.079 classic Tony. He hates these little domestic 00:04:51.079 --> 00:04:54.100 errands, and he recruits Salvatore Big Pussy 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:57.389 Bonpensiero. Pussy runs an auto repair shop, 00:04:57.490 --> 00:05:00.029 a body shop. So he's the natural choice to have 00:05:00.029 --> 00:05:02.009 his ear to the ground regarding stolen vehicles 00:05:02.009 --> 00:05:04.290 in North Jersey. And because they are highly 00:05:04.290 --> 00:05:06.990 efficient criminals, they actually find the thieves. 00:05:07.230 --> 00:05:09.589 They do. They track down the guys who boosted 00:05:09.589 --> 00:05:12.129 the Saturn. But here is the twist. And this is 00:05:12.129 --> 00:05:14.550 where the mob logic completely crashes into normal 00:05:14.550 --> 00:05:17.689 reality. They locate the vehicle, but it's too 00:05:17.689 --> 00:05:19.709 late. Right. It has already been chopped for 00:05:19.709 --> 00:05:22.350 parts. The seats are gone. The engine is stripped. 00:05:22.529 --> 00:05:25.110 The car is effectively just a metal skeleton. 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:27.759 So game over, right? You just tell the teacher, 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:30.060 sorry, we tried. Call State Farm. You would think 00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:32.699 so. That would be the rational adult thing to 00:05:32.699 --> 00:05:36.939 do. But Tony Soprano cannot admit defeat, especially 00:05:36.939 --> 00:05:39.899 not on a favor. No, his ego won't let him. Exactly. 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.720 He cannot go back to Carmela and by extension 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:45.180 the school and say, I couldn't handle it. That 00:05:45.180 --> 00:05:47.779 damages his reputation as the guy who can make 00:05:47.779 --> 00:05:50.920 things happen. It makes him look weak. So what's 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:53.180 their solution? The solution is completely absurd. 00:05:53.970 --> 00:05:56.050 Pussy and the crew decide that since they can't 00:05:56.050 --> 00:05:58.389 return the original car, they will simply replace 00:05:58.389 --> 00:06:00.750 it. Like just buy them a new one out of pocket. 00:06:00.949 --> 00:06:02.290 No, of course not. They aren't going to actually 00:06:02.290 --> 00:06:04.269 spend their own money. They simply steal another 00:06:04.269 --> 00:06:07.430 car. They steal a Saturn to replace the stolen 00:06:07.430 --> 00:06:10.560 Saturn. Exactly. They find another Saturn of 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:13.779 the exact same model. They steal it, they clean 00:06:13.779 --> 00:06:16.240 it up, and they present it to the teacher as 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:18.259 if it were his original car. Hey, Mr. Miller, 00:06:18.379 --> 00:06:20.079 we found it. We found it. Here you go. And the 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:22.480 teacher. What is his reaction when they roll 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:24.879 up to the school with this recovered vehicle? 00:06:25.339 --> 00:06:28.560 Just absolute terrified confusion. Because you 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:30.660 have to imagine being the science teacher, you 00:06:30.660 --> 00:06:32.839 know who these guys are, or at least you heavily 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:36.480 suspect. They hand you the keys. But they aren't 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:38.620 your keys. They're different keys. And looking 00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:41.060 at the car, it's the wrong color. It's the wrong 00:06:41.060 --> 00:06:43.480 color entirely. It's a completely different shade. 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:45.620 I think the original was green and this one is 00:06:45.620 --> 00:06:48.759 blue or something along those lines. And the 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:50.779 teacher is just standing there holding these 00:06:50.779 --> 00:06:54.360 foreign keys, looking at a car that clearly isn't 00:06:54.360 --> 00:06:57.079 his. And Pussy Bomb Pensiero is just smiling 00:06:57.079 --> 00:06:59.300 at him, basically daring him to say something 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:02.480 about it. That is incredible. It's gaslighting 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:06.269 on an industrial scale. Here is your car. Don't 00:07:06.269 --> 00:07:08.430 mind the paint job. Don't mind the keys. Just 00:07:08.430 --> 00:07:10.810 say thank you and drive away. It's the ultimate 00:07:10.810 --> 00:07:13.709 punchline of that subplot. And looking at the 00:07:13.709 --> 00:07:16.209 analysis from our sources, specifically the critic 00:07:16.209 --> 00:07:19.550 Alan Sepinwall, this storyline represents the 00:07:19.550 --> 00:07:22.110 broader, lighter end of the comedy spectrum for 00:07:22.110 --> 00:07:24.250 the show. Yeah, it feels almost like a sitcom 00:07:24.250 --> 00:07:26.750 plot, but just with felonies involved. It really 00:07:26.750 --> 00:07:30.160 does. Sepinwall actually notes that at this stage, 00:07:30.339 --> 00:07:33.060 creator David Chase was still fiddling with the 00:07:33.060 --> 00:07:36.920 knobs. He calls this subplot not quite right. 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:39.839 It's a bit cartoonish compared to the heavy psychological 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:42.300 drama we see later in the series. Right, because 00:07:42.300 --> 00:07:44.720 in later seasons, the show gets much darker, 00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:47.800 much more grounded. Exactly. This feels a bit 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:51.439 more like Get Shorty or a comedic mob movie than 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:54.160 the trademark Sopranos tone. But even if it's 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:56.699 a bit broad. I feel like it tells us something 00:07:56.699 --> 00:07:59.279 vital about Tony. Absolutely it does. It shows 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:01.399 Tony actively trying to be the good dad and the 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:03.259 good neighbor, but he only has bad guy tools 00:08:03.259 --> 00:08:06.019 in his toolbox. He literally cannot solve a problem 00:08:06.019 --> 00:08:08.100 without creating a victim somewhere else. That's 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:10.560 a great point. Right. To fix Mr. Miller's problem, 00:08:10.660 --> 00:08:12.800 some other poor schlub in New Jersey had to lose 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:15.339 their Saturn. It's a zero sum game with Tony. 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:17.899 He transfers misery. He doesn't ever actually 00:08:17.899 --> 00:08:19.920 eliminate it. That is a perfect way to put it. 00:08:19.980 --> 00:08:22.279 He wants the suburban accolades. Yeah. But he 00:08:22.279 --> 00:08:24.660 uses the mob tactics to get them. But speaking 00:08:24.660 --> 00:08:26.680 of those mob tactics, let's pivot to the other 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:29.379 side of the coin. The actual business. Right. 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:31.839 The family business. Because 46 Long introduces 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:34.440 us to the next generation of criminals. And they 00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:37.120 are, well, they are incredibly messy. Extremely 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.059 messy. We are talking about Christopher Moltisanti 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:42.399 and his friend Brendan Filoni. Now, Christopher 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:45.899 Ron. We met in the pilot. He drove Tony around. 00:08:46.059 --> 00:08:49.120 He seems like the heir apparent to Tony. But 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:52.399 Brendan Filoni, he is a piece of work. Brendan 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:54.179 is crucial for understanding the generational 00:08:54.179 --> 00:08:56.240 conflict at the heart of the show. He represents 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.440 everything the old guard hates. He's loud. He's 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:00.799 disrespectful. He has absolutely no sense of 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:02.879 history or protocol. And the source material 00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:05.159 makes a very specific point to mention that Brendan 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:08.740 has a meth habit. Meth. In 1999, I feel like 00:09:08.740 --> 00:09:10.960 we usually associate the mob with, you know, 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:14.600 cocaine or alcohol or cigars. Right. The older 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:16.740 guys, the made men, they drink scotch. Maybe 00:09:16.740 --> 00:09:18.519 they do a little powder cocaine on the weekends 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:22.740 in the back room. But crystal meth? That's a 00:09:22.740 --> 00:09:25.779 street drug. That's dirty. That's unpredictable. 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:29.179 It's chaotic. And that chemical instability fuels 00:09:29.179 --> 00:09:33.070 a lot of the chaos in this episode. Brendan is 00:09:33.070 --> 00:09:35.610 twitchy. He's paranoid. He has that aggressive, 00:09:35.690 --> 00:09:38.389 restless energy that comes from being up for 00:09:38.389 --> 00:09:40.990 three days straight. So what do these two geniuses 00:09:40.990 --> 00:09:43.090 decide to do? They decide they want to make a 00:09:43.090 --> 00:09:46.029 big score to prove themselves. So they hijack 00:09:46.029 --> 00:09:49.389 a truck, specifically a shipment of DVD players. 00:09:49.690 --> 00:09:51.330 And we really have to pause and remember the 00:09:51.330 --> 00:09:53.309 context here for the listener. This is 1999. 00:09:54.070 --> 00:09:57.009 DVD players were the absolute cutting edge of 00:09:57.009 --> 00:09:59.549 home entertainment. They were luxury items. A 00:09:59.549 --> 00:10:03.250 single DVD player could cost $400 or $500 back 00:10:03.250 --> 00:10:05.490 then. A whole truckload of them. It's tens of 00:10:05.490 --> 00:10:07.350 thousands of dollars. It's a goldmine on royals. 00:10:07.450 --> 00:10:09.870 So they pull off the heist. They bring the haul 00:10:09.870 --> 00:10:12.210 to the Bada Bing. And this is another key thing. 00:10:12.549 --> 00:10:15.450 It establishes the Bing as the headquarters, 00:10:15.710 --> 00:10:18.539 right? Yes. In the pilot, we saw them hanging 00:10:18.539 --> 00:10:21.019 out at Santani's Meat Market, which was an actual 00:10:21.019 --> 00:10:23.620 real location in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But for 00:10:23.620 --> 00:10:25.299 the series going forward, they built the Bada 00:10:25.299 --> 00:10:28.639 Bing sets. This episode really cements Silvio 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:30.960 Dante's strip club as the main office. It's where 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.340 the real business gets done. So everyone is happy, 00:10:33.419 --> 00:10:35.460 right? Great score, lots of money to go around. 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:38.279 Far from it. This brings us right into the internal 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:41.620 politics of the DiMeo crime family. It turns 00:10:41.620 --> 00:10:44.039 out the trucking company they hit, Comley Trucking, 00:10:44.039 --> 00:10:46.649 actually pays protection money. to Junior Soprano. 00:10:46.769 --> 00:10:49.549 Tony's uncle. Tony's uncle. And in the strict 00:10:49.549 --> 00:10:52.750 mob code, this is the cardinal sin. You do not 00:10:52.750 --> 00:10:55.009 touch a business that is paying protection to 00:10:55.009 --> 00:10:57.929 a made guy. Especially a capo like Junior. It 00:10:57.929 --> 00:11:00.289 is a massive violation of protocol. It's basically 00:11:00.289 --> 00:11:02.289 stealing money directly out of Junior's pocket. 00:11:02.730 --> 00:11:05.149 So this leads to a sit down. And I love this 00:11:05.149 --> 00:11:06.750 term. It sounds so civilized and polite. We're 00:11:06.750 --> 00:11:08.610 going to have a sit down. It is effectively the 00:11:08.610 --> 00:11:10.929 court system of the underworld. And this scene 00:11:10.929 --> 00:11:13.289 is vital for world building. We see the clear 00:11:13.289 --> 00:11:15.710 hierarchy. We have Tony, who is a capo. We have 00:11:15.710 --> 00:11:18.370 Junior, who is also a capo. And we have the acting 00:11:18.370 --> 00:11:21.509 boss, Jackie April Sr. Jackie April is the boss. 00:11:21.870 --> 00:11:24.269 I feel like people always forget that in season 00:11:24.269 --> 00:11:26.860 one, Tony isn't actually the DOS yet. Correct. 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:29.100 People often conflate the later seasons where 00:11:29.100 --> 00:11:30.960 Tony is fully in charge at the very beginning. 00:11:31.139 --> 00:11:33.259 At this point, Jackie April is running things. 00:11:33.500 --> 00:11:37.210 But Jackie's sick? He has stomach cancer. He 00:11:37.210 --> 00:11:39.809 looks frail in this scene. Yeah, he doesn't look 00:11:39.809 --> 00:11:42.409 well at all. He's eating, but he looks exhausted. 00:11:42.429 --> 00:11:45.529 And he has to mediate this bitter dispute between 00:11:45.529 --> 00:11:48.289 his two top captains. So Jackie plays judge. 00:11:48.529 --> 00:11:50.950 What's the official ruling? He rules that Tony's 00:11:50.950 --> 00:11:53.409 crew has to pay restitution to Junior for the 00:11:53.409 --> 00:11:56.009 disrespect and the lost revenue, specifically 00:11:56.009 --> 00:11:59.750 $15 ,000. And Tony has to ensure his guys never 00:11:59.750 --> 00:12:02.149 touch calmly trucking again. That's a hefty fine. 00:12:02.409 --> 00:12:04.970 But Tony accepts it right. he knows the rules 00:12:04.970 --> 00:12:07.649 of the game tony accepts it immediately he's 00:12:07.649 --> 00:12:09.889 a professional he knows they screwed up and got 00:12:09.889 --> 00:12:14.230 caught he nods he agrees to the terms but christopher 00:12:14.230 --> 00:12:17.299 christopher is furious why He's the one who screwed 00:12:17.299 --> 00:12:19.419 up. He robbed the wrong truck. Because Christopher 00:12:19.419 --> 00:12:22.080 has this immense, unearned sense of entitlement. 00:12:22.419 --> 00:12:25.320 He thinks he is due his button, which means becoming 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:28.000 a formally made man in the mafia. He thinks he's 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.019 this rising star untouchable. So he actually 00:12:31.019 --> 00:12:33.139 tries to argue with the ruling during the sit 00:12:33.139 --> 00:12:35.500 down. He starts to mouth off to the boss and 00:12:35.500 --> 00:12:38.460 his uncle. That seems incredibly suicidal in 00:12:38.460 --> 00:12:41.740 that room. It borders on a death wish. Tony has 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:44.360 to immediately shut him down physically. And 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:47.460 then after the meeting, Tony uses this as a teachable 00:12:47.460 --> 00:12:50.559 moment, a very harsh one. How so? What does he 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:52.799 do? Tony tells Christopher that the $15 ,000 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:55.240 fine is coming entirely out of Christopher and 00:12:55.240 --> 00:12:58.039 Brendan's end of the profits from the DVDs. And 00:12:58.039 --> 00:13:00.059 on top of that, Tony is still taking his full 00:13:00.059 --> 00:13:02.299 captain's cut off the top. So Tony gets paid. 00:13:02.750 --> 00:13:04.470 Junior gets paid and Christopher and Brendan 00:13:04.470 --> 00:13:06.570 get nothing. Worse than nothing. They did all 00:13:06.570 --> 00:13:08.029 the work. They took all the physical risk and 00:13:08.029 --> 00:13:10.029 they probably ended up losing money on the deal 00:13:10.029 --> 00:13:12.730 after paying the fine and the kickbacks. So Tony 00:13:12.730 --> 00:13:15.970 is squeezing them to teach them a lesson. Just 00:13:15.970 --> 00:13:18.750 know your place in the food chain. Exactly. And 00:13:18.750 --> 00:13:20.970 this sets up the central conflict that Emily 00:13:20.970 --> 00:13:23.309 St. James points out in her critique of the episode. 00:13:23.509 --> 00:13:25.870 She calls this episode a confident expansion 00:13:25.870 --> 00:13:28.409 of the show's sense of generational conflict. 00:13:28.769 --> 00:13:31.769 You have the old school represented by Junior 00:13:31.769 --> 00:13:33.990 and Jackie April. Right. The guys who wear suits. 00:13:34.250 --> 00:13:37.809 Yes. These are men who genuinely care about rules, 00:13:37.990 --> 00:13:41.070 territory, respect and hierarchy. They view the 00:13:41.070 --> 00:13:44.190 mob as a structured organization with an unbreakable 00:13:44.190 --> 00:13:46.350 code. And then you have the new generation coming 00:13:46.350 --> 00:13:48.559 up behind them. Christopher and Brendan. They 00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:51.360 are the MTV generation of mobsters. They are 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:54.000 reckless. They are drug addled again, going back 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.899 to the meth versus the scotch. They want everything 00:13:56.899 --> 00:13:59.580 immediately without putting in the decades of 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:02.100 work. They want the glory. They see the mob life 00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:04.220 as a way to get rich and famous fast, not as 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:07.039 a solemn lifelong oath. They quote gangster movies 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:09.059 constantly. They act like they are literally 00:14:09.059 --> 00:14:11.820 in Goodfellas or Scarface instead of real life. 00:14:11.980 --> 00:14:13.899 It's the classic kids these days argument, but 00:14:13.899 --> 00:14:16.879 with loaded weapons. Precisely. And that. generational 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:19.820 tension doesn't just go away after the sit down. 00:14:19.960 --> 00:14:22.379 It escalates because Christopher and Brendan 00:14:22.379 --> 00:14:24.700 don't actually learn their lesson. You'd think 00:14:24.700 --> 00:14:26.279 losing all that money would scare them straight, 00:14:26.419 --> 00:14:28.740 but it just makes them angrier and more resentful. 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:31.379 Right. Let's talk about section three, the escalation, 00:14:31.379 --> 00:14:34.440 because despite getting slapped with a fifteen 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:37.519 thousand dollar fine and being told explicitly 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:40.159 by the boss not to touch that specific trucking 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:43.039 company ever again, they plan another heist. 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:46.779 It's pure hubris and it's drugs. The sources 00:14:46.779 --> 00:14:48.799 note that for this second heist, both Christopher 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:51.919 and Brendan are extremely high on cocaine. Their 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:54.259 judgment is completely impaired. They are sitting 00:14:54.259 --> 00:14:56.500 around stewing in their perceived mistreatment. 00:14:56.620 --> 00:14:58.879 And Brendan convinces Chris that they should 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:01.179 hit Comley Trucking again to get back what they 00:15:01.179 --> 00:15:02.960 lost. What are they going after this time? Italian 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:05.919 suits. Another truck from Comley. Brendan has 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:08.179 a tip from an inside guy. He thinks it's an easy 00:15:08.179 --> 00:15:10.600 score. He basically says, Junior won't know. 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:13.000 We'll just do it fast and fence the stuff quietly. 00:15:13.259 --> 00:15:15.799 But something happens with Christopher right 00:15:15.799 --> 00:15:18.259 before the job. Yeah. This is a really interesting 00:15:18.259 --> 00:15:21.179 character moment for him. It is. Brendan arrives 00:15:21.179 --> 00:15:23.379 to pick Christopher up for the job. It's late 00:15:23.379 --> 00:15:26.080 at night. It's pouring rain outside. But Christopher 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:29.279 is incredibly stoned, just lying on his sofa, 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:32.820 staring blankly at the ceiling. And he gets surprisingly 00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:35.519 reflective. He backed out. He does. He says, 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:37.980 I'm not going. He talks about a quote he heard 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:40.100 somewhere, something about fear knocking at the 00:15:40.100 --> 00:15:42.799 door. It's a rare moment of clarity amidst the 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:45.539 drug haze. Maybe it's intuition warning him. 00:15:45.580 --> 00:15:48.139 Maybe it's just pure laziness. But he decides 00:15:48.139 --> 00:15:50.340 to stay home on the couch. That decision probably 00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:52.590 saved his life. Or at least his entire career 00:15:52.590 --> 00:15:54.549 in the family. Absolutely. Because Brendan decides 00:15:54.549 --> 00:15:56.710 to proceed without him. Brendan is unstoppable 00:15:56.710 --> 00:15:59.389 at this point. He's high. He's manic. He needs 00:15:59.389 --> 00:16:02.129 the win. So he takes two inexperienced associates 00:16:02.129 --> 00:16:04.889 with him instead of Christopher. Associates. 00:16:04.889 --> 00:16:07.370 That's a very polite mafia way of saying random 00:16:07.370 --> 00:16:09.929 guys he found on the street. Exactly. Muscle 00:16:09.929 --> 00:16:12.250 for hire. And this is where the relatively light 00:16:12.250 --> 00:16:15.289 comedy of the earlier car theft entirely shifts 00:16:15.289 --> 00:16:17.919 into dark tragedy. This isn't funny anymore. 00:16:18.019 --> 00:16:19.919 They stop the truck. They pull the driver out 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:22.279 at gunpoint. But during the hijacking, one of 00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:24.759 these inexperienced associates drops his gun. 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:27.419 Just drops it like he's just clumsy. Clumsy. 00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:31.299 Nerves. Wet hands from the rain. He drops the 00:16:31.299 --> 00:16:33.940 weapon. And when it hits the wet pavement, it 00:16:33.940 --> 00:16:36.200 discharges. And the bullet hits the truck driver. 00:16:36.299 --> 00:16:38.340 It hits him right in the chest. Kills him instantly. 00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:40.740 So now it's not just a grand theft. It's a felony 00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:44.659 murder. An accidental senseless death. Over some 00:16:44.659 --> 00:16:47.779 designer suits. This is a massive escalation 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:49.799 for the series. Now they haven't just stolen 00:16:49.799 --> 00:16:52.279 from Junior's protection racket again. They've 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:55.500 brought serious heat and a body count. The police 00:16:55.500 --> 00:16:58.440 will be actively investigating a homicide. The 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:01.080 Teamsters union will be up in arms. Junior will 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:04.339 be absolutely apoplectic. Tony must be furious 00:17:04.339 --> 00:17:06.420 when he gets the call. He is beyond furious. 00:17:06.500 --> 00:17:09.119 When he finds out the fun good uncle act is completely 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:11.740 gone, he grabs Christopher, who... Remember, 00:17:11.819 --> 00:17:13.960 wasn't even at the robbery, but is guilty by 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:16.960 deep association. And he physically manhandles 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:19.059 him. He throws him against a wall. He has to 00:17:19.059 --> 00:17:22.119 fix it before a war starts. Right. He orders 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:23.940 Christopher and Brendan to return the entire 00:17:23.940 --> 00:17:26.759 consignment of suits directly to Junior and to 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:30.079 beg for peace. He is doing desperate damage control. 00:17:30.339 --> 00:17:32.900 He knows this unauthorized murder could start 00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:36.380 a shooting war within the family. But I love 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:38.400 this specific detail because it just perfectly 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:42.559 sums up. The moral rod of the show. Tony is still 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:45.299 Tony. Yes. This is one of my absolute favorite 00:17:45.299 --> 00:17:47.960 details in the entire episode. Tony is screaming 00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:50.400 at Christopher about respect and rules and how 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:53.039 monumentally stupid they are. But before they 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:55.039 box up the stolen suits to return them to Junior 00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:58.240 as an apology, Tony goes through the rack. He 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:00.599 literally goes shopping. He browses. He picks 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:02.680 out a few nice Italian suits for himself. He 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:04.680 holds one up against his chest to check the fit. 00:18:04.819 --> 00:18:06.799 Sorry about the dead driver and the massive disrespect, 00:18:07.059 --> 00:18:09.059 Uncle Junior. But here are most of the suits. 00:18:09.259 --> 00:18:11.740 It perfectly encapsulates the hypocrisy of these 00:18:11.740 --> 00:18:14.000 guys. They talk endlessly about sacred codes 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:16.359 and ancient honor, but if there's a free expensive 00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:18.920 Italian suit sitting right there, they're taking 00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:22.420 it for themselves. Tony capitalizes on the massive 00:18:22.420 --> 00:18:24.940 screw -up even while he's violently condemning 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:27.700 it. It's pathological. It really is. So we have 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:30.359 the mob chaos completely spiraling out of control 00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:33.400 on one side. We have dead truckers and stolen 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:36.839 cars. But arguably the more emotionally dangerous 00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:39.119 storyline is happening back in the quiet suburbs. 00:18:39.740 --> 00:18:43.299 We need to talk about Livia Soprano. The matriarch. 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:46.160 Played brilliantly by the incredible Nancy Marchand. 00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:48.900 If the mob stuff is the muscle of the show, Livia 00:18:48.900 --> 00:18:52.420 is the psychological spine. In 46 Long, we see 00:18:52.420 --> 00:18:54.660 a domestic crisis that finally forces Tony's 00:18:54.660 --> 00:18:56.940 hand regarding her care. It starts with a fire, 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:00.190 right? Yes. Olivia is alone in her kitchen. She's 00:19:00.190 --> 00:19:02.910 cooking mushrooms on the stove. She gets distracted 00:19:02.910 --> 00:19:05.609 or maybe just confused by her age. The pan catches 00:19:05.609 --> 00:19:07.930 fire. The kitchen quickly fills with thick smoke. 00:19:08.089 --> 00:19:09.930 And she just stands there, almost paralyzed, 00:19:10.109 --> 00:19:11.789 staring at the flames until her neighbor finally 00:19:11.789 --> 00:19:14.109 sees the smoke and calls for help. It's a terrifying 00:19:14.109 --> 00:19:16.529 sign of her declined ability to live alone safely. 00:19:16.750 --> 00:19:19.569 It is. And Tony, trying his best to be the dutiful 00:19:19.569 --> 00:19:22.829 Italian son, steps in. He insists on hiring a 00:19:22.829 --> 00:19:24.470 live -in nurse to help her around the house. 00:19:24.609 --> 00:19:26.890 He hires a woman, I believe she's Trinidadian, 00:19:26.930 --> 00:19:29.740 to stay with Olivia. full time. Which is a very 00:19:29.740 --> 00:19:32.000 practical, normal solution for an aging parent. 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:35.680 A very expensive, very practical solution. But 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:38.500 Livia is not a practical woman. She is a pure 00:19:38.500 --> 00:19:41.299 agent of chaos. She behaves so terribly towards 00:19:41.299 --> 00:19:44.019 this poor woman. She is openly racist. She is 00:19:44.019 --> 00:19:46.660 demanding she is cruel. She constantly accuses 00:19:46.660 --> 00:19:49.000 the nurse of stealing from her. She deliberately 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.359 makes the environment so incredibly toxic that 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:54.160 the nurse just quits. She actively drives the 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:57.799 help away. Deliberately, yes. She wants to maintain 00:19:57.799 --> 00:20:01.779 her total independence. Or perhaps she just desperately 00:20:01.779 --> 00:20:03.900 wants to be a martyr. She wants to be able to 00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:06.119 say to her friends, see, no one can stand me. 00:20:06.140 --> 00:20:08.039 My terrible children are trying to put me away 00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:10.140 with strangers. But then comes the turning point. 00:20:10.619 --> 00:20:12.859 The accident in the driveway. This is the moment 00:20:12.859 --> 00:20:15.019 that changes everything for that family. Livia 00:20:15.019 --> 00:20:18.099 is driving her car. It's a big, heavy, old American 00:20:18.099 --> 00:20:20.339 sedan. She gives her best friend Fanny a ride. 00:20:20.460 --> 00:20:22.559 They were parked in the driveway. Livia is talking, 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:25.220 complaining as usual, not paying attention. She 00:20:25.220 --> 00:20:27.880 goes back out to the street. But she forgets 00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:30.799 to actually shift the car into reverse. She hits 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:33.400 the gas pedal hard. The car is still in drive. 00:20:33.660 --> 00:20:36.740 It shoots forward unexpectedly. She hits Fanny. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:39.319 She physically pins her friend against another 00:20:39.319 --> 00:20:42.140 parked car or a brick wall. And Fanny is badly 00:20:42.140 --> 00:20:45.339 hurt. Very badly. A broken hip. Multiple severe 00:20:45.339 --> 00:20:48.059 injuries. It is serious trauma. And it makes 00:20:48.059 --> 00:20:50.559 it undeniably clear to everyone. Livia cannot 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:52.960 live alone anymore. She certainly cannot drive. 00:20:53.259 --> 00:20:55.839 She is an active danger to herself and the community. 00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:58.440 So Tony. has to finally make the call. The decision 00:20:58.440 --> 00:21:01.259 literally no child wants to make for their parent. 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:04.339 Green Grove, the retirement community. It's a 00:21:04.339 --> 00:21:06.119 retirement community. I can hear Tony yelling 00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:08.519 it now. He says it over and over again. It's 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:11.160 not a nursing home, Ma. It's a retirement community. 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:13.940 He desperately compares it to a luxury hotel 00:21:13.940 --> 00:21:16.460 at Captain Teab's, which isn't even a real place. 00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:18.480 He actually means Captain Teab's in France, but 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:21.400 he mixes up the name. He is trying so hard to 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:22.940 sell it to her, but really he's trying to sell 00:21:22.940 --> 00:21:25.420 it to himself. He feels immense crippling guilt. 00:21:25.930 --> 00:21:29.029 But she is eventually forced to move. And this 00:21:29.029 --> 00:21:31.349 leads to a quiet scene that is incredibly revealing 00:21:31.349 --> 00:21:34.630 about Tony's fragile psyche. The house clearing 00:21:34.630 --> 00:21:37.890 scene. Right. Livia has finally been moved out. 00:21:37.930 --> 00:21:40.490 The family house is empty. Tony is there alone, 00:21:40.690 --> 00:21:43.789 packing her things up into boxes. It's quiet. 00:21:43.890 --> 00:21:47.269 The air is still. He's just walking slowly through 00:21:47.269 --> 00:21:49.029 the rooms where he grew up. And he finds the 00:21:49.029 --> 00:21:51.670 photos? He finds an old box of black and white 00:21:51.670 --> 00:21:53.750 family photos. Pictures of himself as a happy 00:21:53.750 --> 00:21:56.309 little boy. Pictures of his father. Pictures 00:21:56.309 --> 00:21:58.490 of the whole family smiling together on the beach. 00:21:58.690 --> 00:22:00.630 And he has a full -blown panic attack. Nearly. 00:22:00.970 --> 00:22:03.569 The sources specify he nearly suffers another 00:22:03.569 --> 00:22:06.130 panic attack. He gets extremely dizzy. He has 00:22:06.130 --> 00:22:08.750 to sit down heavily on the stairs. He grabs an 00:22:08.750 --> 00:22:11.369 old throw pillow and just smells it. That sensory 00:22:11.369 --> 00:22:14.849 detail. smelling the pillow it's so incredibly 00:22:14.849 --> 00:22:17.309 intimate and sad it is it's the literal scent 00:22:17.309 --> 00:22:19.809 of his childhood but we have to ask why does 00:22:19.809 --> 00:22:22.789 it trigger panic is it just sadness about his 00:22:22.789 --> 00:22:25.250 mom getting old i don't think so i think it's 00:22:25.250 --> 00:22:27.670 the intense cognitive dissonance he's looking 00:22:27.670 --> 00:22:30.170 at these staged photos of a smiling happy normal 00:22:30.170 --> 00:22:33.460 family but that wasn't his reality Exactly. His 00:22:33.460 --> 00:22:35.799 actual memories, the reality of his childhood, 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:38.380 are of a mother who explicitly threatened to 00:22:38.380 --> 00:22:40.720 smother his children with a pillow. A mother 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:43.490 who was relentlessly miserable. a father who 00:22:43.490 --> 00:22:46.329 was a violent gangster. The massive gap between 00:22:46.329 --> 00:22:48.789 the idealized image of the happy past and the 00:22:48.789 --> 00:22:51.990 dark reality of his trauma is what physically 00:22:51.990 --> 00:22:54.589 shorts out his brain in that moment. This connects 00:22:54.589 --> 00:22:56.990 directly to his therapy sessions. We really have 00:22:56.990 --> 00:23:00.029 to talk about Dr. Melfi because Tony takes all 00:23:00.029 --> 00:23:02.430 of this mounting stress, the stolen Saturn, the 00:23:02.430 --> 00:23:06.250 hijacked DVD trucks, the mother burning the kitchen, 00:23:06.329 --> 00:23:08.269 and he brings it all into her office. He does. 00:23:08.509 --> 00:23:10.809 And in this specific episode, he uses a very 00:23:10.809 --> 00:23:13.359 famous phrase. To describe his mother to Melfi, 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:15.339 it's one of the most memorable descriptions in 00:23:15.339 --> 00:23:17.720 the entire show. He tells Melfi he desperately 00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:19.940 needs to stop his mother with her black poison 00:23:19.940 --> 00:23:22.380 cloud. That is such a visceral, haunting image. 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:25.240 A black poison cloud. It's almost Shakespearean. 00:23:25.259 --> 00:23:27.960 It shows exactly how toxic her mere presence 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:29.640 feels to him. It's not just that she's annoying 00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:31.980 or difficult. It's that she literally infects 00:23:31.980 --> 00:23:35.299 his mind. She darkens his entire world. But Dr. 00:23:35.380 --> 00:23:38.259 Melfi, she doesn't let him off the hook with 00:23:38.259 --> 00:23:41.539 just a poetic metaphor. She confronts him with 00:23:41.539 --> 00:23:44.500 a really hard truth. She really pushes him here. 00:23:44.579 --> 00:23:46.819 She listens to him complain endlessly about the 00:23:46.819 --> 00:23:48.859 cloud, and she finally says, you have feelings 00:23:48.859 --> 00:23:52.529 of hatred toward your mother. Whoa. You do not 00:23:52.529 --> 00:23:54.910 tell an Italian son from New Jersey that he hates 00:23:54.910 --> 00:23:57.329 his mother. Exactly. It's a massive cultural 00:23:57.329 --> 00:24:00.730 taboo. It's a biological taboo. Tony rejects 00:24:00.730 --> 00:24:03.190 it immediately and violently. He explodes at 00:24:03.190 --> 00:24:05.509 her. He says, I don't hate my mother. I love 00:24:05.509 --> 00:24:07.630 my mother. She's a sweet little old lady. He's 00:24:07.630 --> 00:24:09.529 actively gaslighting himself in the chair. He 00:24:09.529 --> 00:24:12.490 is. He claims he feels guilt, not hatred. He 00:24:12.490 --> 00:24:14.190 says the real problem is just that he's a bad 00:24:14.190 --> 00:24:17.490 son. He absolutely cannot accept the conscious 00:24:17.490 --> 00:24:19.670 idea that he hates the woman who gave him life, 00:24:19.789 --> 00:24:22.309 even if he just described her as a black poison 00:24:22.309 --> 00:24:25.390 cloud. He can't bear Melfi's clinical words, 00:24:25.470 --> 00:24:28.009 so he just storms out of the session. But all 00:24:28.009 --> 00:24:29.970 those intense feelings have to go somewhere, 00:24:30.089 --> 00:24:32.630 right? Melfi said earlier in the episode that 00:24:32.630 --> 00:24:34.369 if he doesn't acknowledge the feelings, he will 00:24:34.369 --> 00:24:37.039 simply displace them. Displacement. It's a very 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:39.819 classic psychological defense mechanism. You 00:24:39.819 --> 00:24:42.220 take the intense aggression you feel toward a 00:24:42.220 --> 00:24:44.019 highly dangerous target, like your terrifying 00:24:44.019 --> 00:24:47.339 mother or your boss, and you redirect it safely 00:24:47.339 --> 00:24:50.059 toward a safe target, someone who simply can't 00:24:50.059 --> 00:24:53.099 fight back. And that perfectly leads us to the 00:24:53.099 --> 00:24:55.819 Bada Bing and poor Georgie. Georgie Santorelli, 00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:58.680 the resident bartender at the Bing. He's a big, 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:01.519 sweet, slightly dim guy. He really becomes the 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:03.920 physical punching bag of the entire series. Set 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:07.279 the scene for us. Because this is the true climax 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:10.289 of the episode's emotional arc. Tony is standing 00:25:10.289 --> 00:25:12.390 at the bar in the club. He's drinking heavily. 00:25:12.549 --> 00:25:15.150 He's already incredibly on edge. He's just walked 00:25:15.150 --> 00:25:17.309 out on Melfi. He's just forced his mother into 00:25:17.309 --> 00:25:20.009 a home. The guilt and the repressed rage are 00:25:20.009 --> 00:25:22.910 just boiling inside him. And Georgie is struggling 00:25:22.910 --> 00:25:25.009 trying to use the telephone behind the bar. Is 00:25:25.009 --> 00:25:27.069 it like a complicated phone system? It's just 00:25:27.069 --> 00:25:29.170 a slightly advanced multi -line office phone. 00:25:29.289 --> 00:25:31.509 Georgie is trying to transfer a call or put someone 00:25:31.509 --> 00:25:34.029 on hold and he just can't figure it out. He's 00:25:34.029 --> 00:25:35.789 fumbling with the buttons. He's asking annoying 00:25:35.789 --> 00:25:37.890 questions. Tony, how do I do this? Tony, the 00:25:37.890 --> 00:25:40.240 line is blinking. What do I press? And Tony just 00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:42.779 snaps. But you have to notice exactly why he 00:25:42.779 --> 00:25:45.440 snaps. The source material notes that Georgie 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.099 is using the phone in a manner strikingly similar 00:25:48.099 --> 00:25:51.880 to Livia. It's that exact type of flustered incompetence. 00:25:52.059 --> 00:25:55.200 It's that maddening inability to handle a very 00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:58.220 simple modern task. It instantly reminds Tony 00:25:58.220 --> 00:26:00.779 of Livia burning down the kitchen with the mushrooms. 00:26:01.059 --> 00:26:03.579 It reminds him of Livia crashing the car into 00:26:03.579 --> 00:26:06.180 Fanny. It reminds him of the helpless black poison 00:26:06.180 --> 00:26:08.160 cloud. So he physically attacks it. He grabs 00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:10.539 the handset of the phone, the big, heavy plastic 00:26:10.539 --> 00:26:13.779 receiver, and he just brutally beats Georgie 00:26:13.779 --> 00:26:15.700 with it. He smashes it into his head repeatedly. 00:26:15.700 --> 00:26:19.009 It's incredibly violent. It's sudden. Completely 00:26:19.009 --> 00:26:21.170 disproportionate to Georgie's minor crime of 00:26:21.170 --> 00:26:23.130 not knowing how to use the hold button. That 00:26:23.130 --> 00:26:25.529 is Melfi's clinical prediction coming true in 00:26:25.529 --> 00:26:27.970 real time. Yeah. He literally couldn't hit Livia. 00:26:28.190 --> 00:26:31.650 So he hit Georgie instead. Exactly. He displaced 00:26:31.650 --> 00:26:34.349 the aggression. Georgie is the physical proxy 00:26:34.349 --> 00:26:37.670 for his mother. It's a brilliant piece of television 00:26:37.670 --> 00:26:40.369 writing because it perfectly connects the B plot 00:26:40.369 --> 00:26:43.410 at the strip club directly to the deep emotional 00:26:43.410 --> 00:26:46.220 A plot with the mother. It shows us that these 00:26:46.220 --> 00:26:48.079 two separate worlds of Tony's aren't actually 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:50.500 separate at all. They constantly bleed into each 00:26:50.500 --> 00:26:53.279 other. The psychological stress of the son becomes 00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:56.599 the physical violence of the mob boss. It's fascinating 00:26:56.599 --> 00:26:58.779 how the show weaves these completely different 00:26:58.779 --> 00:27:01.799 elements together so seamlessly. But speaking 00:27:01.799 --> 00:27:03.579 of weaving things together, I want to jump to 00:27:03.579 --> 00:27:05.519 section six and talk about the actual production 00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:08.180 a bit, because there is a major casting scoop 00:27:08.180 --> 00:27:10.519 in this episode that changed the course of the 00:27:10.519 --> 00:27:12.539 whole show. Oh, yes. This is a genuinely great 00:27:12.539 --> 00:27:14.900 piece of TV trivia. We have to talk about the 00:27:14.900 --> 00:27:17.160 actress Drea DiMatteo. Everyone knows her as 00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:19.640 Adriana LaServa, Christopher's longtime girlfriend. 00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:22.079 She becomes one of the most deeply tragic and 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:24.000 important characters in the entire series run. 00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:27.799 But she wasn't always Adriana, right? No. If 00:27:27.799 --> 00:27:30.509 you go back and watch the pilot. Episode one, 00:27:30.670 --> 00:27:34.349 Drea DiMatteo is actually in it. But she isn't 00:27:34.349 --> 00:27:36.930 playing Adriana. She plays a completely generic, 00:27:37.170 --> 00:27:40.049 unnamed restaurant hostess. Really? Just a background 00:27:40.049 --> 00:27:42.430 actor, basically? Yes. In the pilot, Tony and 00:27:42.430 --> 00:27:44.769 Artie Bocco are talking at Vesuvio, the restaurant. 00:27:45.009 --> 00:27:47.349 Drea DiMatteo walks into the frame. She welcomes 00:27:47.349 --> 00:27:49.549 them and she shows them to their table. She has 00:27:49.549 --> 00:27:52.450 maybe one single line of dialogue. She's literally 00:27:52.450 --> 00:27:55.599 just credited as hostess. So how on earth did 00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:58.480 she get the massive upgrade to a main cast member? 00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:01.059 David Chase, the creator, was watching the dailies, 00:28:01.059 --> 00:28:03.779 the raw footage from filming the pilot. And even 00:28:03.779 --> 00:28:05.839 in that tiny brief five second interaction, he 00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:07.960 saw something special. He really liked her energy. 00:28:08.119 --> 00:28:09.880 He liked her authentic Jersey look. He liked 00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:11.839 her screen presence. So when they were writing 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:15.980 46 Bowl months, long months later, and they decided 00:28:15.980 --> 00:28:17.880 they needed a girlfriend character for Christopher 00:28:17.880 --> 00:28:20.759 Chase, said, bring that girl back. The hostess 00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:22.900 from the pilot. Let's give her a real role. That 00:28:22.900 --> 00:28:25.960 is. Huge. So she basically auditioned for the 00:28:25.960 --> 00:28:28.559 role of a lifetime without even knowing it. Exactly. 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:30.660 And think about the butterfly effect of that 00:28:30.660 --> 00:28:33.380 one decision. If she had been just a little less 00:28:33.380 --> 00:28:36.400 charismatic walking them to that table, we might 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:37.920 have had completely different actors playing 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:40.460 Adriana. Or maybe the character wouldn't have 00:28:40.460 --> 00:28:42.200 been written to be as prominent in the story. 00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:45.480 But Drea DiMatteo took that unexpected opportunity 00:28:45.480 --> 00:28:48.920 and just ran with it. 46 Long is her official 00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:51.700 debut as Adriana LaServa. It really shows how 00:28:51.700 --> 00:28:55.019 organic the development of the show was in those 00:28:55.019 --> 00:28:57.059 early days. They were literally building the 00:28:57.059 --> 00:28:59.710 place. plane while flying it. Let's look at what 00:28:59.710 --> 00:29:01.369 the television critics thought of this episode 00:29:01.369 --> 00:29:03.630 looking back. We mentioned Alan Sepinwall earlier 00:29:03.630 --> 00:29:07.549 regarding the stolen car subplot. Right. Sepinwall 00:29:07.549 --> 00:29:10.410 is one of the definitive Sopranos critics. His 00:29:10.410 --> 00:29:13.170 take is very balanced. He heavily praised the 00:29:13.170 --> 00:29:15.630 Tony and Livia scenes as being fully formed right 00:29:15.630 --> 00:29:18.210 out of the gate. He said they were already operating 00:29:18.210 --> 00:29:20.809 on par with the show's future greatness. Which 00:29:20.809 --> 00:29:23.029 makes perfect sense. That specific dynamic is 00:29:23.029 --> 00:29:25.970 the core engine of the entire show. If the Tony 00:29:25.970 --> 00:29:27.730 and Livia stuff didn't work, the show probably 00:29:27.730 --> 00:29:30.250 would have been canceled after one season. Agreed. 00:29:30.549 --> 00:29:33.069 But he was notably critical of the Saturn car 00:29:33.069 --> 00:29:36.269 theft. He felt it was chase, still fiddling with 00:29:36.269 --> 00:29:38.829 the knobs, trying to find the tone. It was a 00:29:38.829 --> 00:29:41.230 bit too broad, a bit too light. It felt like 00:29:41.230 --> 00:29:43.829 a completely different network TV show for a 00:29:43.829 --> 00:29:45.670 few minutes. On the other hand, we have Emily 00:29:45.670 --> 00:29:48.369 St. James from the AV Club. She took a slightly 00:29:48.369 --> 00:29:51.420 broader, more thematic view. She praised the 00:29:51.420 --> 00:29:53.599 episode overall for being a confident expansion 00:29:53.599 --> 00:29:56.299 of the world. She really focused on that generational 00:29:56.299 --> 00:29:59.079 conflict we discussed earlier, the innocent civilians 00:29:59.079 --> 00:30:02.660 versus the mobsters, the old guard versus the 00:30:02.660 --> 00:30:05.299 young upstarts. She felt it brilliantly showed 00:30:05.299 --> 00:30:07.799 how very different kinds of people come into 00:30:07.799 --> 00:30:10.039 violent conflict in this specific New Jersey 00:30:10.039 --> 00:30:13.019 universe. She argued that this episode proves 00:30:13.019 --> 00:30:15.359 definitively that the show can sustain itself 00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:18.420 long term beyond the initial hook of the pilot. 00:30:19.950 --> 00:30:22.170 plot was a little goofy, the episode absolutely 00:30:22.170 --> 00:30:24.450 succeeds in building out the world. Absolutely. 00:30:24.710 --> 00:30:26.970 It establishes the permanent rhythm of the series. 00:30:27.170 --> 00:30:29.430 You have a frustrating problem at home, you have 00:30:29.430 --> 00:30:31.670 a violent problem at work, and you have a tense 00:30:31.670 --> 00:30:33.730 therapy session to try and make sense of it all. 00:30:33.769 --> 00:30:35.710 And usually you fail to make sense of it. So 00:30:35.710 --> 00:30:37.609 what does this all mean for the listener? When 00:30:37.609 --> 00:30:40.029 we look at 46 Long as a whole completed package? 00:30:40.450 --> 00:30:43.640 It permanently cements the formula. The Sopranos 00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:45.680 isn't just a show about whacking people and eating 00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:48.640 pasta. It's about the deeply mundane universal 00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:51.859 frustrations of modern life. Elderly parents 00:30:51.859 --> 00:30:54.559 who refuse to stop driving, co -workers who can't 00:30:54.559 --> 00:30:57.579 use simple office phones, incompetent subordinates 00:30:57.579 --> 00:31:00.460 who mess up projects. But it's all amplified 00:31:00.460 --> 00:31:03.380 by the capability for extreme sudden violence. 00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:07.390 Tony is completely squeezed. He is squeezed by 00:31:07.390 --> 00:31:09.970 his biological family, Livia's rapid decline 00:31:09.970 --> 00:31:13.210 and his crime family junior's fragile ego and 00:31:13.210 --> 00:31:15.690 Christopher's drug fueled recklessness. It's 00:31:15.690 --> 00:31:17.390 essentially extreme stress management with a 00:31:17.390 --> 00:31:20.029 loaded gun. Precisely. And the underlying tragedy 00:31:20.029 --> 00:31:22.069 is that he's actually not very good at managing 00:31:22.069 --> 00:31:24.230 the stress. As poor Georgie found out the hard 00:31:24.230 --> 00:31:26.109 way. It really is a master class in character 00:31:26.109 --> 00:31:28.470 development. Even the slight flaws in the episode, 00:31:28.509 --> 00:31:30.730 like the broad comedy car plot, tell us something 00:31:30.730 --> 00:31:32.930 important about who Tony desperately wants to 00:31:32.930 --> 00:31:35.549 be. True. He wants to be the good guy who fixes 00:31:35.549 --> 00:31:38.130 things for his community. But his nature means 00:31:38.130 --> 00:31:40.950 he inevitably breaks everything he touches. Well, 00:31:40.970 --> 00:31:43.829 that brings us to the end of our deep dive into 00:31:43.829 --> 00:31:47.490 46 Long. It's amazing how much dense material 00:31:47.490 --> 00:31:50.210 is packed into just the second hour of the series. 00:31:50.430 --> 00:31:52.369 There is one final thought I do want to leave 00:31:52.369 --> 00:31:55.029 you with today. A slightly provocative question 00:31:55.029 --> 00:31:56.950 for the listener, if you will. Let's hear it. 00:31:57.259 --> 00:31:59.900 We talked extensively about Tony seeing those 00:31:59.900 --> 00:32:02.160 old childhood photos and nearly having a panic 00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:05.039 attack on the stairs. And then very shortly after, 00:32:05.099 --> 00:32:07.839 he brutally beats Georgie with the phone because 00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:10.599 he reminds him of Livia. I want you to really 00:32:10.599 --> 00:32:13.680 consider this. If Tony hadn't seen those old 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:15.940 photos in the empty house, if he hadn't been 00:32:15.940 --> 00:32:18.880 so freshly reminded of his innocence lost, would 00:32:18.880 --> 00:32:21.400 he have reacted so violently to Georgie at the 00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:22.779 bar? Well, that's really interesting. You're 00:32:22.779 --> 00:32:25.000 asking if the nostalgic feeling itself is actually 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:28.059 the trigger for the violence. Exactly. Is it 00:32:28.059 --> 00:32:30.759 the warm memory of the past that makes his dark 00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:34.140 present completely intolerable? Does remembering 00:32:34.140 --> 00:32:36.839 the sweet boy he was make him deeply hate the 00:32:36.839 --> 00:32:39.720 violent man he has become? We usually think of 00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:42.380 nostalgia as a warm, fuzzy, comforting feeling. 00:32:42.740 --> 00:32:45.259 But for someone like Tony Soprano, nostalgia 00:32:45.259 --> 00:32:48.200 is a dangerous weapon. It starkly highlights 00:32:48.200 --> 00:32:50.500 the massive gap between the innocent child in 00:32:50.500 --> 00:32:52.759 the photo and the violent adult beating a man 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:55.400 over a phone. And feeling that gap is just too 00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:57.500 painful for him to bear without lashing out. 00:32:57.579 --> 00:33:00.019 That is definitely something to chew on. The 00:33:00.019 --> 00:33:02.500 hidden danger of nostalgia. Indeed. Thank you 00:33:02.500 --> 00:33:04.480 for listening to this deep dive. If you're re 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:06.599 -watching the series this week, keep an eye on 00:33:06.599 --> 00:33:08.319 those different colored keys in the replacement 00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:10.460 car scene. It's the little details like that 00:33:10.460 --> 00:33:12.160 that make the show great. Catch you on the next 00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:12.279 one.