WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.049 Welcome back to the deep dive. I am um I am so 00:00:03.049 --> 00:00:05.169 incredibly ready for this one. Oh, yeah, me too. 00:00:05.290 --> 00:00:07.570 It is a big one. It really is. You know, usually 00:00:07.570 --> 00:00:10.390 for this show, we take a really broad topic like 00:00:10.390 --> 00:00:13.230 the history of the coffee trade or the underlying 00:00:13.230 --> 00:00:15.929 mechanics of black holes. And we try to just 00:00:15.929 --> 00:00:17.750 wrap our arms around the whole massive thing 00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:19.890 for you. Right. We try to give you the grand 00:00:19.890 --> 00:00:23.190 sweeping overview of a subject. Exactly. But 00:00:23.190 --> 00:00:25.870 today, today we are actually trying something 00:00:25.870 --> 00:00:28.190 a little bit different. We are taking that exact 00:00:28.190 --> 00:00:30.829 same level of scrutiny, that same obsession with 00:00:30.829 --> 00:00:33.929 detail. And we are pointing it like a laser beam 00:00:33.929 --> 00:00:36.729 at exactly one single hour of television. And 00:00:36.729 --> 00:00:38.530 we should clarify, it is not just any random 00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:41.070 hour of television. We are looking at what is 00:00:41.070 --> 00:00:43.329 arguably the most important, the most influential 00:00:43.329 --> 00:00:46.090 drama of the last 30 years. We are talking about 00:00:46.090 --> 00:00:48.350 The Sopranos. Yes, we are. Specifically, we are 00:00:48.350 --> 00:00:51.250 diving into season one, episode three. It is 00:00:51.250 --> 00:00:54.719 titled Denial. Anger acceptance. And I have to 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.399 admit, when I first saw we were doing just one 00:00:57.399 --> 00:00:59.399 single episode for this whole deep dive, I thought 00:00:59.399 --> 00:01:01.640 to myself, OK, how much is there really to say 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:04.280 about 45 minutes of TV? Right. You think it's 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:06.120 just going to be a quick recap. Yeah, exactly. 00:01:06.459 --> 00:01:08.939 But then I started going through all the source 00:01:08.939 --> 00:01:10.939 material we gathered for this, the Wikipedia 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:14.000 entries, the production notes, the critical essays 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.939 from people like Emily St. James and Alan Sepinwall. 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:22.040 And oh, my God. It is dense. It is literally 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:25.700 like a Russian novel just packed into this 45 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:28.239 -minute window. It really is staggering when 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:29.819 you break it down. You know, a lot of people 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:32.900 just casually remember the Sopranos for the mob 00:01:32.900 --> 00:01:35.239 hits and the Gargabagool and the tracksuits, 00:01:35.260 --> 00:01:37.219 right? Yeah, the pop culture caricature of it. 00:01:37.299 --> 00:01:40.159 Right, exactly. But this specific episode, the 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:43.079 third one ever aired, is where the show really 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.909 plants its flag in the ground. It looks at the 00:01:45.909 --> 00:01:47.829 audience and says, hey, we aren't just a mob 00:01:47.829 --> 00:01:50.810 show. We are a show about psychology. We are 00:01:50.810 --> 00:01:53.109 a show about the deep, dark lies that people 00:01:53.109 --> 00:01:55.549 tell themselves just to survive their everyday 00:01:55.549 --> 00:01:58.569 lives. And the mission today for us and for you 00:01:58.569 --> 00:02:00.890 listening is to really figure out how they pull 00:02:00.890 --> 00:02:02.609 that off. Because on paper, if you just read 00:02:02.609 --> 00:02:05.230 a summary, this episode sounds like a complete 00:02:05.230 --> 00:02:08.110 mess. It sounds incredibly disjointed. I mean, 00:02:08.129 --> 00:02:10.129 think about the distinct plot threads we have 00:02:10.129 --> 00:02:13.699 to untangle today. We have a mafia boss dealing 00:02:13.699 --> 00:02:16.740 with a dying best friend. Then we have this bizarre 00:02:16.740 --> 00:02:19.939 domestic dispute involving a Hasidic motel owner. 00:02:20.219 --> 00:02:22.659 Then over in another corner, we have a high school 00:02:22.659 --> 00:02:25.840 choir recital mixed up with a teenage meth addiction. 00:02:26.340 --> 00:02:28.900 And oh yeah, we also have a brutal professional 00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:31.639 mob hit. When you list them out sequentially 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:33.639 like that, it sounds like four entirely different 00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:36.020 shows. But the absolute genius of the writing 00:02:36.020 --> 00:02:37.919 here and what we are going to explore with you 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:41.710 today is how... All of those messy, chaotic pieces 00:02:41.710 --> 00:02:46.169 are held together by one central, unifying theme. 00:02:46.349 --> 00:02:48.210 And the title of the episode kind of gives that 00:02:48.210 --> 00:02:50.509 away immediately, doesn't it? Denial, anger, 00:02:50.710 --> 00:02:52.909 acceptance. It gives it away completely. It is 00:02:52.909 --> 00:02:54.729 a direct reference to the Kubler -Ross model 00:02:54.729 --> 00:02:57.689 of grief, the famous five stages. The writers 00:02:57.689 --> 00:02:59.590 are taking that clinical psychological framework 00:02:59.590 --> 00:03:01.629 and using it as the literal skeleton for the 00:03:01.629 --> 00:03:03.930 entire episode structure. But what is fascinating 00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:06.189 is they don't just apply those stages to actual 00:03:06.189 --> 00:03:09.110 physical deaths. No. Not at all. They apply the 00:03:09.110 --> 00:03:11.849 stages of grief to business negotiations, to 00:03:11.849 --> 00:03:14.090 crumbling marriages, to childhood friendships. 00:03:14.370 --> 00:03:16.650 So let's just dive right into the deep end here. 00:03:16.889 --> 00:03:19.169 The episode is structured around these stages, 00:03:19.370 --> 00:03:21.689 primarily experienced through Tony Soprano's 00:03:21.689 --> 00:03:24.669 own eyes. And the catalyst for all this intense 00:03:24.669 --> 00:03:27.750 emotional grief isn't some abstract concept for 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:31.150 Tony. It is a real person. Jackie April Sr. Right. 00:03:31.580 --> 00:03:33.379 And for those of you who might need a quick refresher 00:03:33.379 --> 00:03:36.360 on the early season dynamics, Jackie is the acting 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.099 boss of the Demio crime family. He's the guy 00:03:39.099 --> 00:03:40.860 currently sitting in the big chair holding it 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:44.419 all together. But he is dying. He has stomach 00:03:44.419 --> 00:03:47.060 cancer and it is incredibly aggressive. And this 00:03:47.060 --> 00:03:49.259 is exactly where we hit that very first stage 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:52.939 of the title. Denial. Now, usually when we talk 00:03:52.939 --> 00:03:55.139 about denial in everyday life, we tend to think 00:03:55.139 --> 00:03:57.379 of someone just being quiet, maybe refusing to 00:03:57.379 --> 00:03:59.580 talk about a diagnosis or withdrawing inward. 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:02.319 Sure. The quiet brooding type of denial. Right. 00:04:02.419 --> 00:04:05.099 But Tony Soprano does not do quiet. His denial 00:04:05.099 --> 00:04:08.020 is it's loud. It is incredibly aggressive. Well, 00:04:08.060 --> 00:04:09.860 it has to be aggressive. You really have to understand 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:12.360 Tony's core psychology to get why he reacts this 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:15.500 way. He is a man who imposes his physical will 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:17.959 on the world around him. That is his entire job 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:21.129 description. Right. He bends reality to his needs. 00:04:21.430 --> 00:04:24.509 Exactly. If a local union boss isn't doing what 00:04:24.509 --> 00:04:27.730 Tony wants, Tony leans on him until the guy breaks. 00:04:28.170 --> 00:04:31.389 If a degenerate gambler owes him money, he uses 00:04:31.389 --> 00:04:34.490 brute force to get it back. Tony has literally 00:04:34.490 --> 00:04:37.490 spent his entire adult life learning this one 00:04:37.490 --> 00:04:40.129 lesson. If you are mean enough and if you are 00:04:40.129 --> 00:04:42.610 tough enough, you can alter reality. And then 00:04:42.610 --> 00:04:45.389 suddenly he runs face first into cancer. Right. 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:47.680 Because cancer does not care if you're a street 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:50.180 boss. Cancer does not care if you threaten to 00:04:50.180 --> 00:04:52.699 break its legs in an alleyway. It is just biology. 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:56.180 It is a force of nature. And Tony's brain simply 00:04:56.180 --> 00:04:58.699 cannot compute that level of powerlessness. There 00:04:58.699 --> 00:05:00.779 is this incredible line early in the episode 00:05:00.779 --> 00:05:03.360 that perfectly captures this. He is in a session 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:06.519 with his therapist, Dr. Melfi. She gently brings 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:09.000 up Jackie's illness, trying to get him to process 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.019 it. And Tony just completely waves it off. He 00:05:11.019 --> 00:05:13.060 literally says, Jackie is so mean, he'll scare 00:05:13.060 --> 00:05:15.790 that cancer away. Such a wild thing to say. I 00:05:15.790 --> 00:05:17.649 honestly kind of laughed when I rewatched that 00:05:17.649 --> 00:05:19.949 scene for our prep. But when you sit with it, 00:05:19.970 --> 00:05:21.769 it is actually kind of heartbreaking because 00:05:21.769 --> 00:05:23.910 he really, truly believes it in that moment. 00:05:23.990 --> 00:05:27.029 He thinks Jackie can just bully his own malignant 00:05:27.029 --> 00:05:29.550 cells into submission. It is the definition of 00:05:29.550 --> 00:05:32.569 magical thinking. But because Tony is Tony, a 00:05:32.569 --> 00:05:35.449 man of action, he tries to force that magical 00:05:35.449 --> 00:05:39.089 thinking to manifest in the real world. And that 00:05:39.089 --> 00:05:42.129 desperate attempt leads us to what I honestly 00:05:42.129 --> 00:05:44.990 think is one of the most cringe -inducing, uncomfortable... 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.860 scenes in the entire first season. Oh, man. Are 00:05:47.860 --> 00:05:49.839 you talking about the hospital party? I am definitely 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:51.939 talking about the private party. OK, I really 00:05:51.939 --> 00:05:53.860 want to paint the picture for you listening right 00:05:53.860 --> 00:05:56.439 now because the visual contrast the director 00:05:56.439 --> 00:05:59.259 sets up here is just wild. You have this incredibly 00:05:59.259 --> 00:06:01.740 sterile hospital room. You've got the steady 00:06:01.740 --> 00:06:04.079 beeping of the heart monitors, the harsh, awful 00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:06.279 fluorescent lights. And lying in the bed, you 00:06:06.279 --> 00:06:09.000 have Jackie April. And he looks absolutely terrible. 00:06:09.300 --> 00:06:11.660 Oh, the makeup department deserves a massive 00:06:11.660 --> 00:06:15.040 award for this episode alone. Jackie looks completely 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:18.060 emaciated. His skin has this awful gray power 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:22.240 to it. He is sweating profusely. He is very clearly 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:25.240 a man who is actively, painfully dying. Right. 00:06:25.579 --> 00:06:28.040 And then out of nowhere, the door just bursts 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:31.259 open and in walks Tony Soprano. And he is not 00:06:31.259 --> 00:06:34.459 alone. He has a cooler completely full of lobsters, 00:06:34.459 --> 00:06:37.339 which, by the way, who on earth brings a cooler 00:06:37.339 --> 00:06:40.240 of raw shellfish to a chemotherapy ward? Nobody 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:42.000 in their right mind. Right. And not only does 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:43.920 he have the lobsters, he has a young woman with 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:46.300 him, a dancer from his strip club, the Bada Bing. 00:06:46.459 --> 00:06:48.579 And she is not just there to pay her respects 00:06:48.579 --> 00:06:50.959 or visit. She's there to put on a performance. 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:53.540 Exactly. So suddenly you have this surreal nightmare 00:06:53.540 --> 00:06:56.569 unfolding. stripper actively dancing in a tiny 00:06:56.569 --> 00:06:59.290 hospital room. Tony is loudly cracking jokes, 00:06:59.470 --> 00:07:01.490 popping open beers, acting like it is just a 00:07:01.490 --> 00:07:03.410 regular Saturday night hanging out at the club. 00:07:03.490 --> 00:07:05.310 And he keeps looking over at Jackie with this 00:07:05.310 --> 00:07:07.769 expectant face like, come on, snap out of it. 00:07:07.810 --> 00:07:10.230 Look at this. It is completely grotesque to watch. 00:07:10.709 --> 00:07:12.930 But if we analyze it through the lens of the 00:07:12.930 --> 00:07:15.610 episode's themes, it is the ultimate desperate 00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:18.870 act of denial. Tony isn't doing any of this for 00:07:18.870 --> 00:07:21.209 Jackie's benefit. Not at all. If you look closely 00:07:21.209 --> 00:07:23.449 at Jackie's face during that scene, the actor 00:07:23.449 --> 00:07:26.490 plays it. Perfectly. He is so exhausted. He is 00:07:26.490 --> 00:07:29.170 in deep physical pain. He barely has the energy 00:07:29.170 --> 00:07:31.629 to even muster a fake smile for his friend. He 00:07:31.629 --> 00:07:33.550 clearly just wants to close his eyes and rest. 00:07:33.970 --> 00:07:36.870 But Tony needs the party to happen. Because if 00:07:36.870 --> 00:07:38.829 the party actually stops. If the party stops, 00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:41.430 the silence immediately rushes back into the 00:07:41.430 --> 00:07:44.370 room. And in that terrifying silence, the reality 00:07:44.370 --> 00:07:47.319 is that Jackie is dying. And if Jackie can die, 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:51.079 a guy who is Tony's exact age, Tony's peer, a 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:53.699 guy just as tough as him, then Tony himself is 00:07:53.699 --> 00:07:56.540 mortal. And Tony Soprano simply cannot face his 00:07:56.540 --> 00:07:58.399 own mortality. So he brings in all this chaotic 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:00.420 noise. He brings in the sex and the rich food 00:08:00.420 --> 00:08:02.740 and the loud music. He's actively trying to drown 00:08:02.740 --> 00:08:05.180 out the concept of death with earthly vice. I 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:07.399 was thinking about it earlier. It is almost like 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.160 he is trying to jumpstart a dead car battery, 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:12.040 but the entire engine block is already totaled. 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:14.730 That is a brilliant analogy. But eventually, 00:08:14.870 --> 00:08:17.689 despite all the noise, the battery just dies 00:08:17.689 --> 00:08:19.730 completely. You can't outrun biology forever. 00:08:20.250 --> 00:08:22.509 Which naturally moves us into the second major 00:08:22.509 --> 00:08:26.279 stage of the episode's structural title. Right. 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:29.379 The loud, obnoxious denial simply stops working. 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:32.879 The cold reality of the situation starts to unavoidably 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.279 seep in. And we see that shift happen back in 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:38.159 Dr. Melfi's office. She stops playing along with 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:40.080 his delusions about scaring the cancer away. 00:08:40.340 --> 00:08:43.340 She forces a realistic prognosis into the conversation. 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:45.580 She essentially looks him in the eye and tells 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:49.759 him, Tony, he is going to die. And Tony, being 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:52.340 the deeply emotionally mature and stable adult 00:08:52.340 --> 00:08:54.700 that we all know he is, handles this terrible 00:08:54.700 --> 00:08:57.220 news with quiet grace and reflection. Obviously 00:08:57.220 --> 00:08:59.539 not. He completely explodes. He physically storms 00:08:59.539 --> 00:09:02.100 out of the therapy room. Because the one single 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:04.259 tool he uses to fix every problem in his life, 00:09:04.299 --> 00:09:06.460 intimidation, has entirely failed him. Right. 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:08.379 He can't threaten the doctor into changing the 00:09:08.379 --> 00:09:10.100 medical charts. Exactly. And he can't threaten 00:09:10.100 --> 00:09:12.240 the tumor into shrinking. So for the first time 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:14.460 maybe in his life, he is left with just pure, 00:09:14.539 --> 00:09:17.700 unadulterated, impotent rage. He is powerless. 00:09:18.299 --> 00:09:20.679 And this is where the writing of this specific 00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:23.500 episode gets so structurally brilliant. Because 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:26.419 usually in a lesser television show, that intense 00:09:26.419 --> 00:09:28.740 anger would just neatly stay contained within 00:09:28.740 --> 00:09:31.240 the boundaries of those therapy scenes. But in 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:33.659 The Sopranos, that emotional bleed is everything. 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:36.419 That anger leaks out of the office and violently 00:09:36.419 --> 00:09:39.320 spills over into his mob work. which means we 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:41.259 really need to pivot and talk about the main 00:09:41.259 --> 00:09:44.159 A -plot of this episode, the whole Hasidic hotel 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:47.340 deal. Oh, this is such a weird, highly specific 00:09:47.340 --> 00:09:50.840 storyline. But it is absolutely crucial for illustrating 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:53.600 exactly how Tony operates when he is emotionally 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:56.240 off balance. So let's set the stage for you listening. 00:09:56.399 --> 00:09:58.419 Who are the main players in this hotel situation? 00:09:58.940 --> 00:10:01.259 Okay, so Tony gets approached by a man named 00:10:01.259 --> 00:10:04.340 Shlomo Teitelman. Shlomo is the wealthy patriarch 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:07.730 of an Orthodox Hasidic Jewish family. And Shlomo 00:10:07.730 --> 00:10:10.529 has a very messy, very public domestic problem 00:10:10.529 --> 00:10:13.370 on his hands. His son -in -law, a guy named Ariel, 00:10:13.590 --> 00:10:15.769 is currently in the process of divorcing Shlomo's 00:10:15.769 --> 00:10:17.929 daughter. But it is not an amicable split by 00:10:17.929 --> 00:10:20.789 any stretch. Not even close. Ariel's flat out 00:10:20.789 --> 00:10:23.669 refusing to grant the divorce. Or more specifically, 00:10:23.929 --> 00:10:26.710 he is refusing to grant the get, which is the 00:10:26.710 --> 00:10:28.750 official religious divorce document required 00:10:28.750 --> 00:10:31.259 in their faith. And he says he won't give it 00:10:31.259 --> 00:10:34.019 to her unless Shlomo hands over a 50 percent 00:10:34.019 --> 00:10:36.519 ownership stake in the family's very lucrative 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:39.539 motel business. So it is just pure extortion, 00:10:39.659 --> 00:10:42.720 basically. Ariel is literally holding this poor 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:44.919 woman's religious freedom and future hostage 00:10:44.919 --> 00:10:47.379 just to carve out a massive piece of the family 00:10:47.379 --> 00:10:49.360 business for himself. That is exactly what it 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:52.139 is. And Shlomo is trapped. He can't exactly go 00:10:52.139 --> 00:10:54.039 to the real police about this religious document, 00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:56.179 and he certainly does not want to lose half of 00:10:56.179 --> 00:10:59.379 his life's work. So, feeling desperate, he makes 00:10:59.379 --> 00:11:01.679 a deal with the devil. He goes to see Tony Soprano. 00:11:01.820 --> 00:11:05.480 The classic mob fix. Right. The deal they strike 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:07.799 is pretty straightforward. Tony will use his 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:10.080 unique methods to make Ariel sign the papers 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:11.960 and walk away with absolutely nothing. And in 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:14.860 exchange for this service, Tony gets a 25 % permanent 00:11:14.860 --> 00:11:17.740 stake in the motel's profits. Which, if you think 00:11:17.740 --> 00:11:20.580 about it, is just simple mob math. Losing 25 00:11:20.580 --> 00:11:22.919 % to the mafia is still mathematically better 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:25.240 than losing 50 % to your awful son -in -law. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:29.259 So Tony agrees, and he sends in the boys to handle 00:11:29.259 --> 00:11:32.620 it. He sends in his top guys, Silvio Dante and 00:11:32.620 --> 00:11:35.159 Pauly Goltieri. Now, as anyone who watches the 00:11:35.159 --> 00:11:37.919 show knows, these are not subtle diplomatic men. 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:40.399 They're literal instruments of blunt force trauma. 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:43.340 They grab Ariel off the street, they drag him 00:11:43.340 --> 00:11:45.740 into a secluded garage, and they viciously beat 00:11:45.740 --> 00:11:48.320 him. And usually 99 times out of 100, that is 00:11:48.320 --> 00:11:50.259 the end of the scene. We have seen this exact 00:11:50.259 --> 00:11:52.759 sequence play out a hundred times in mafia movies. 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:55.179 The regular civilian gets slapped around, they 00:11:55.179 --> 00:11:57.500 cry, they beg for mercy, and they frantically 00:11:57.500 --> 00:11:59.659 sign whatever paper is put in front of them. 00:11:59.740 --> 00:12:02.940 Right. But this turns into a classic unstoppable 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:06.960 force meets an immovable object situation. Because 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:09.500 Ariel does not break. He takes an absolutely 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:12.240 brutal beating. He is bleeding, his face is bruised, 00:12:12.259 --> 00:12:14.559 but he just looks Pauly right in the eye and 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:16.600 flatly says he will never sign the document. 00:12:16.940 --> 00:12:19.059 There is that one really striking moment during 00:12:19.059 --> 00:12:21.019 the beating where Ariel mentions that he fought 00:12:21.019 --> 00:12:23.919 in the Israeli army. He talks about the horrific 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.720 things he has seen and survived over there. And 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:29.340 you can actually see Polly and Silvio get genuinely 00:12:29.340 --> 00:12:31.399 confused. They don't know how to process it. 00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:33.860 Right, because they are so used to dealing with 00:12:33.860 --> 00:12:37.299 degenerate gamblers or cowardly civilians or 00:12:37.299 --> 00:12:39.220 other low -level criminals who have absolutely 00:12:39.220 --> 00:12:43.149 no moral spine. But Ariel is different. Ariel 00:12:43.149 --> 00:12:46.049 is entirely driven by deep personal and religious 00:12:46.049 --> 00:12:49.809 conviction. And that resilience creates a massive 00:12:49.809 --> 00:12:52.769 operational crisis for the DiMeo crew. Because 00:12:52.769 --> 00:12:55.429 their entire currency is physical violence. That 00:12:55.429 --> 00:12:57.330 is exactly how they purchase compliance from 00:12:57.330 --> 00:12:59.490 the world. If the violence suddenly doesn't work, 00:12:59.629 --> 00:13:01.690 they are functionally bankrupt. They literally 00:13:01.690 --> 00:13:03.950 do not know what the next step is. So think about 00:13:03.950 --> 00:13:06.509 where Tony is at mentally. He is already deeply 00:13:06.509 --> 00:13:08.649 frustrated and grieving about Jackie's cancer. 00:13:08.970 --> 00:13:11.629 Now he gets the call and he is incredibly frustrated 00:13:11.629 --> 00:13:14.429 that his top, most feared enforcers can't even 00:13:14.429 --> 00:13:18.269 handle a stubborn motel manager. So Tony decides 00:13:18.269 --> 00:13:21.070 to escalate things. He goes to see Hesh Rabkin 00:13:21.070 --> 00:13:23.940 for advice. Right. Hesh is a fantastic character. 00:13:24.100 --> 00:13:26.700 He serves as this unofficial conciliar figure 00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:29.899 for Tony. He is Jewish himself. He intimately 00:13:29.899 --> 00:13:32.340 knows the local community. He understands the 00:13:32.340 --> 00:13:34.899 cultural nuances at play here. And Tony just 00:13:34.899 --> 00:13:37.659 frankly asks him, how do I actually break this 00:13:37.659 --> 00:13:39.940 guy? What is his weak point? And Hesh's answer 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:42.279 is, well, it is incredibly dark. Even for a show 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:44.539 like The Sopranos, it really pushes the envelope. 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:47.120 It is intensely dark. Yeah. Hesh understands 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:50.080 human psychology. He knows that mere physical 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:52.279 pain is never going to work on a true zealot. 00:13:52.500 --> 00:13:55.019 If you want to break someone like Ariel, you 00:13:55.019 --> 00:13:56.799 have to attack his core identity. You have to 00:13:56.799 --> 00:13:58.679 threaten to take away something that matters 00:13:58.679 --> 00:14:02.860 far more to him than his own physical life. suggests 00:14:02.860 --> 00:14:05.639 the threat of castration. Jesus. It is just so 00:14:05.639 --> 00:14:08.440 medieval and visceral. It is brilliant psychological 00:14:08.440 --> 00:14:10.879 warfare, though. Hesch knows that for Ariel, 00:14:11.019 --> 00:14:13.779 a man who is deeply embedded in a highly patriarchal, 00:14:13.779 --> 00:14:16.360 deeply traditional religious community, the loss 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:18.440 of his manhood is viewed as a fate far worse 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:20.759 than death. It is a fundamental diminishment 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:22.539 of his identity that he simply could not live 00:14:22.539 --> 00:14:25.620 with. And the terrifying thing is, Hesch is completely 00:14:25.620 --> 00:14:27.820 right. It works perfectly. They don't actually 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:30.000 go through with it, obviously. But the sheer 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.539 threat of it. The visual of Tony Soprano standing 00:14:33.539 --> 00:14:36.279 over him holding those massive metal bolt cutters, 00:14:36.340 --> 00:14:39.919 that is finally what breaks Ariel's spirit. He 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.740 terrifiedly agrees to sign the divorce papers. 00:14:42.940 --> 00:14:46.600 So on paper, Tony wins. The immediate problem 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:49.330 is technically solved. But we have to remember 00:14:49.330 --> 00:14:52.090 the thematic structure here. We are still firmly 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:54.830 trapped in the anger stage of the episode. The 00:14:54.830 --> 00:14:57.529 dark, emotional, energy -driving Tony hasn't 00:14:57.529 --> 00:14:59.529 magically dissipated just because a contract 00:14:59.529 --> 00:15:01.649 got signed. That is such an important point. 00:15:01.750 --> 00:15:04.029 Because right after that apparent victory, we 00:15:04.029 --> 00:15:06.029 immediately get the twist ending with Shlomo 00:15:06.029 --> 00:15:08.730 Teitelman. Exactly. Shlomo sees that the dirty 00:15:08.730 --> 00:15:11.490 job is finally done. Ariel is completely out 00:15:11.490 --> 00:15:13.669 of the picture, the daughter is free. And suddenly, 00:15:13.809 --> 00:15:16.460 Shlomo gets incredibly greedy. He sits there 00:15:16.460 --> 00:15:18.639 and thinks to himself, hey, why should I willingly 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:21.379 hand over a massive 25 % of my lucrative business 00:15:21.379 --> 00:15:23.360 to this Italian gangster? The problem is already 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:26.240 gone. Ariel isn't coming back. So Shlomo attempts 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:28.419 to aggressively renegotiate the deal after the 00:15:28.419 --> 00:15:31.120 fact. Which is, I mean, you really want to talk 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:33.299 about a complete lack of a survival instinct. 00:15:33.379 --> 00:15:35.779 You are an innkeeper and you are going to try 00:15:35.779 --> 00:15:38.700 to stiff Tony Soprano on a handshake deal. It 00:15:38.700 --> 00:15:41.870 is essentially business suicide. But look really 00:15:41.870 --> 00:15:44.110 closely at Tony's reaction in that scene. He 00:15:44.110 --> 00:15:46.149 doesn't just firmly say, no, a deal is a deal. 00:15:46.250 --> 00:15:49.590 He violently explodes. He gets right up in Shlomo's 00:15:49.590 --> 00:15:51.629 face with this absolutely terrifying, quiet, 00:15:51.750 --> 00:15:55.389 seething rage. He refuses to budge even a single 00:15:55.389 --> 00:15:58.350 millimeter on the original terms. And do you 00:15:58.350 --> 00:16:00.370 really think that massive overreaction is just 00:16:00.370 --> 00:16:02.830 about the weekly cash from the motel? Not at 00:16:02.830 --> 00:16:05.850 all. I think it is 100 % directly connected to 00:16:05.850 --> 00:16:08.370 the situation with Jackie April. Tony feels utterly, 00:16:08.529 --> 00:16:10.450 hopelessly powerless against the encroaching 00:16:10.450 --> 00:16:13.009 cancer. He feels powerless against the inevitability 00:16:13.009 --> 00:16:16.450 of death. So when Shlomo foolishly tries to take 00:16:16.450 --> 00:16:18.370 even a tiny bit of power away from him in this 00:16:18.370 --> 00:16:21.450 motel deal, Tony drastically overcompensates. 00:16:21.529 --> 00:16:23.889 He desperately needs to feel like an omnipotent 00:16:23.889 --> 00:16:26.210 god in that specific moment. He needs to aggressively 00:16:26.210 --> 00:16:28.450 assert that he is the one who decides exactly 00:16:28.450 --> 00:16:30.529 how the world works, because back in that sad 00:16:30.529 --> 00:16:33.340 hospital room, he is a nobody. He is helpless. 00:16:33.539 --> 00:16:36.759 It is just a textbook perfect example of psychological 00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:39.340 displacement. He can't physically beat up the 00:16:39.340 --> 00:16:42.500 stomach cancer, so instead he ruthlessly bullies 00:16:42.500 --> 00:16:44.820 the motel owner to regain his sense of control. 00:16:45.059 --> 00:16:47.879 Precisely. He redirects all that grief -fueled 00:16:47.879 --> 00:16:50.919 anger onto a target he can actually intimidate. 00:16:51.019 --> 00:16:53.580 Now, while Tony is busy dealing with these high 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:56.000 -stakes negotiations and his dying mafia boss, 00:16:56.279 --> 00:16:58.720 we actually have a totally different kind of 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:01.860 war brewing right in his own kitchen. We need 00:17:01.860 --> 00:17:04.019 to shift gears and look at the domestic side 00:17:04.019 --> 00:17:05.720 of the episode. Let's talk about the domestic 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:08.539 class warfare storyline. Oh, this is the entire 00:17:08.539 --> 00:17:11.099 subplot involving Artie and Charmaine Bucco. 00:17:11.220 --> 00:17:13.420 And honestly, looking back, it contains some 00:17:13.420 --> 00:17:16.160 of the absolute best, sharpest writing in the 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:19.000 entire episode because it is just so painfully 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:21.279 uncomfortable to watch unfold. For those listening 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:23.000 who might have missed the fine details of the 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:25.720 previous episode, let's recap quickly. Artie 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:28.079 Bucco is Tony's lifelong childhood best friend. 00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:31.089 He is a passionate, hardworking chef. He owned 00:17:31.089 --> 00:17:34.369 a beloved local restaurant called Vesuvio. But, 00:17:34.509 --> 00:17:36.950 and this is obviously a massive but, Tony secretly 00:17:36.950 --> 00:17:39.470 had the restaurant burned to the ground. Right. 00:17:39.529 --> 00:17:41.910 And we should clarify, Tony did it to save Artie, 00:17:41.970 --> 00:17:43.930 theoretically speaking. In Tony's mind, anyway. 00:17:44.130 --> 00:17:46.670 Exactly. Tony's uncle Jr. was planning to carry 00:17:46.670 --> 00:17:50.549 out a very messy mob assassination right in the 00:17:50.549 --> 00:17:53.349 middle of Vesuvio's dining room. If that had 00:17:53.349 --> 00:17:55.349 happened, it would have permanently ruined the 00:17:55.349 --> 00:17:57.970 restaurant's reputation anyway. Nobody wants 00:17:57.970 --> 00:17:59.950 to eat pasta where a guy got his brains blown 00:17:59.950 --> 00:18:03.490 out. So Tony, in his own twisted logic, burned 00:18:03.490 --> 00:18:06.029 the place down to force Artie to close for renovations, 00:18:06.089 --> 00:18:08.650 thereby preventing the hit and saving the brand 00:18:08.650 --> 00:18:11.680 long term. But Artie doesn't know any of that 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:14.700 complex mob logic. All Artie knows right now 00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:17.000 is that his entire life's work, his passion, 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:20.259 is sitting there as a pile of charred ash. And 00:18:20.259 --> 00:18:22.759 on top of that, the insurance company is aggressively 00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:25.240 dragging its feet. They are refusing to pay out 00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:27.519 the policy because they strongly suspect it was 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:30.259 arson, which, of course, it was. So Artie is 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:32.500 entirely broke. He's deeply depressed and he 00:18:32.500 --> 00:18:34.779 is just rapidly spiraling out of control. So 00:18:34.779 --> 00:18:37.200 what exactly does a deeply depressed, completely 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:40.670 broke chef do to make ends meet? He reluctantly 00:18:40.670 --> 00:18:43.109 agrees to cater an extravagant charity event 00:18:43.109 --> 00:18:47.009 being held at the Soprano Mansion. And the unspoken 00:18:47.009 --> 00:18:50.049 power dynamic here is just so incredibly awkward. 00:18:50.190 --> 00:18:52.710 These two guys are supposed to be equals. They're 00:18:52.710 --> 00:18:54.769 childhood best friends. They go out to dinners 00:18:54.769 --> 00:18:59.930 together. But tonight, tonight. Tony is very 00:18:59.930 --> 00:19:02.930 clearly the wealthy master of the manor, and 00:19:02.930 --> 00:19:05.809 Artie is strictly the hired culinary help. And 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:08.589 you can literally feel the toxic resentment just 00:19:08.589 --> 00:19:11.410 radiating off of Artie the whole night. He is 00:19:11.410 --> 00:19:13.349 stuck back in the hot kitchen, sweating over 00:19:13.349 --> 00:19:15.670 the stove, desperately working for a paycheck, 00:19:15.910 --> 00:19:18.069 while Tony is out there in the main room wearing 00:19:18.069 --> 00:19:21.269 a nice suit, smoking expensive cigars, and loudly 00:19:21.269 --> 00:19:23.490 playing the generous big shot for all his wealthy 00:19:23.490 --> 00:19:26.190 friends. It is profoundly humiliating for Artie 00:19:26.190 --> 00:19:28.440 to experience. And all of that pent -up... Tension 00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:31.500 finally snaps. But it doesn't snap with a dramatic 00:19:31.500 --> 00:19:34.000 fist fight like you might expect. It snaps with 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:36.500 a food fight. It is so incredibly pathetic, isn't 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:37.940 it? When you step back and look at the visual, 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.940 you have these two middle -aged, deeply stressed 00:19:40.940 --> 00:19:43.779 men. One of them is a terrifying, murderous mob 00:19:43.779 --> 00:19:46.539 boss. The other is a highly trained culinary 00:19:46.539 --> 00:19:49.019 artist whose life has fallen apart. And instead 00:19:49.019 --> 00:19:51.240 of talking, they're violently throwing handfuls 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:53.319 of mushy food at each other across a luxury kitchen. 00:19:53.579 --> 00:19:55.599 There is that one line Tony yells right before 00:19:55.599 --> 00:19:58.630 the chaos starts. He screams, I've been good 00:19:58.630 --> 00:20:01.289 to you, Arthur. You pay me back with nonstop 00:20:01.289 --> 00:20:03.789 ass rape. And then just splat. He throws the 00:20:03.789 --> 00:20:07.490 food. That entire food fight sequence is so beautifully 00:20:07.490 --> 00:20:10.309 tragic comic. What it really shows us is that 00:20:10.309 --> 00:20:13.289 these two men simply do not possess the emotional 00:20:13.289 --> 00:20:16.369 vocabulary to actually deal with what is fundamentally 00:20:16.369 --> 00:20:19.829 broken in their relationship. Artie can't just 00:20:19.829 --> 00:20:22.829 look at his friend and say, Tony, I feel deeply 00:20:22.829 --> 00:20:25.650 emasculated by your immense wealth in my sudden 00:20:25.650 --> 00:20:28.029 poverty. And Tony certainly can't say, Artie, 00:20:28.049 --> 00:20:29.990 I literally burned down your livelihood because 00:20:29.990 --> 00:20:31.730 I love you and I wanted to protect you from a 00:20:31.730 --> 00:20:34.150 mob hit. That is impossible. So instead, they 00:20:34.150 --> 00:20:36.609 instantly revert back to acting like two angry 00:20:36.609 --> 00:20:38.809 12 -year -olds on a playground. It is a total 00:20:38.809 --> 00:20:41.349 regression. But what is fascinating is that while 00:20:41.349 --> 00:20:43.410 the men are acting like completely immature children 00:20:43.410 --> 00:20:45.910 throwing tantrums, the women in the house are 00:20:45.910 --> 00:20:48.230 operating on a whole different level. They are 00:20:48.230 --> 00:20:50.069 going straight for the psychological throat. 00:20:50.309 --> 00:20:52.309 We really have to talk about the dynamic between 00:20:52.309 --> 00:20:55.309 Carmela and Charmaine. Oh, this is the real hidden 00:20:55.309 --> 00:20:58.529 battle of the episode. Carmela Soprano sees Charmaine 00:20:58.529 --> 00:21:00.869 Bucko actively working the catering party, walking 00:21:00.869 --> 00:21:03.630 around serving drinks. And Carmela really tries 00:21:03.630 --> 00:21:06.410 to project this aura of being benevolent and 00:21:06.410 --> 00:21:10.029 helpful. But it comes off as so incredibly condescending. 00:21:10.109 --> 00:21:13.230 There is this one specific physical gesture Carmela 00:21:13.230 --> 00:21:15.710 does. It is permanently ingrained in my memory 00:21:15.710 --> 00:21:18.549 from watching this. She spots Charmaine across 00:21:18.549 --> 00:21:21.809 the crowded room and she does this tiny dismissive 00:21:21.809 --> 00:21:24.180 little hand wave like, come here, servant. Fetch 00:21:24.180 --> 00:21:26.940 me a drink. Yes. It is the absolute embodiment 00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:29.019 of the lady of the manor summoning her lowly 00:21:29.019 --> 00:21:31.380 maid. And you can see Charmaine process it in 00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:33.720 real time. She sees that wave. She sees the entitlement. 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:35.819 And you can visibly see something just hardened 00:21:35.819 --> 00:21:38.480 behind her eyes. Charmaine Bucko is an incredibly 00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:41.099 proud, self -aware woman. She knows exactly who 00:21:41.099 --> 00:21:43.519 Tony Soprano really is behind closed doors. And 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:45.240 she knows exactly who Carmela is for choosing 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:48.259 to marry him. So, later on in the episode, after 00:21:48.259 --> 00:21:50.759 the party winds down, Charmaine finally decides 00:21:50.759 --> 00:21:53.730 to drop the absolute nuclear bomb. She pulls 00:21:53.730 --> 00:21:56.769 Carmela aside privately. And she doesn't yell. 00:21:57.029 --> 00:22:00.490 She isn't throwing food. She just very quietly, 00:22:00.569 --> 00:22:04.430 very calmly reveals a massive secret. She looks 00:22:04.430 --> 00:22:06.210 right at Carmela and tells her, you know, me 00:22:06.210 --> 00:22:08.960 and Tony, we actually hooked up. A long time 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:11.339 ago, back before you two were ever married or 00:22:11.339 --> 00:22:13.339 serious. Now, on the surface, if you just hear 00:22:13.339 --> 00:22:15.700 that line out of context, it sounds like simple, 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:18.099 petty jealousy, like a high school girl saying, 00:22:18.140 --> 00:22:20.480 I had him first, you just got my leftovers. But 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:23.059 when you really analyze the scene, that is not 00:22:23.059 --> 00:22:25.420 what is happening at all, is it? No, not even 00:22:25.420 --> 00:22:27.880 slightly. If it were just basic jealousy, Charmaine 00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:29.440 would have eagerly spilled that secret years 00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:32.160 ago just to cause drama. She specifically chooses 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:34.519 to say it now because she urgently needs to rebalance 00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:37.160 the psychological scales between them. Carmela 00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:39.160 has spent the entire evening treating Charmaine 00:22:39.160 --> 00:22:42.819 like this pathetic charity case, like a woman 00:22:42.819 --> 00:22:45.359 who somehow lost at the game of life simply because 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:47.500 she has to work a hard, honest job for a living. 00:22:47.779 --> 00:22:49.839 Charmaine is completely flipping that entire 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:52.140 narrative script. She is basically saying to 00:22:52.140 --> 00:22:55.019 Carmela, I didn't lose out on marrying Tony Soprano. 00:22:55.339 --> 00:22:58.420 I actively rejected him. Exactly. The subtext 00:22:58.420 --> 00:23:00.440 of that entire conversation is Charmaine saying, 00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:03.460 I sloughed with him. I saw exactly what kind 00:23:03.460 --> 00:23:06.240 of man he was. And I consciously chose to walk 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:08.859 away. I chose Artie. I chose the financial struggle. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:12.599 I chose the honest, unglamorous life. It completely 00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:15.059 and utterly destroys Carmela's deeply held sense 00:23:15.059 --> 00:23:18.279 of moral and social superiority because it heavily 00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:20.460 implies that Carmela is actually the one who 00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:22.680 settled. She settled for the blood money in the 00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:24.799 mansion while Charmaine kept her soul. It is 00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:27.160 just a masterful power move. She is essentially 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:29.960 saying, my dignity as a working class caterer 00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:32.359 is worth infinitely more than your giant blood 00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:34.759 -soaked mansion. God, that has to hurt so much 00:23:34.759 --> 00:23:36.940 to hear. It is totally devastating for Carmela. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:38.859 And if you watch her face after Charmaine walks 00:23:38.859 --> 00:23:41.500 away, it leaves her profoundly rattled in a way 00:23:41.500 --> 00:23:43.200 that nothing else in the series really does up 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:45.279 to that point. It cracks her entire worldview. 00:23:45.710 --> 00:23:48.089 So we have got the men fighting with literal 00:23:48.089 --> 00:23:50.289 food in the kitchen. We've got the women fighting 00:23:50.289 --> 00:23:52.309 with devastating psychological secrets in the 00:23:52.309 --> 00:23:55.049 hallway. But we really can't ignore the next 00:23:55.049 --> 00:23:57.730 generation in this episode. The overarching title, 00:23:57.970 --> 00:24:01.509 Denial, Anger, Acceptance, is obviously about 00:24:01.509 --> 00:24:04.549 navigating grief. But there is this huge secondary 00:24:04.549 --> 00:24:06.650 theme running powerfully through this entire 00:24:06.650 --> 00:24:10.490 hour. And that is the theme of corruption. And 00:24:10.490 --> 00:24:13.250 that burden lands squarely on the kids' shoulders. 00:24:13.589 --> 00:24:16.880 Yes. This is the storyline following Meadow Soprano 00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:19.319 and Christopher Moltisanti. And honestly, for 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:20.920 a lot of parents who tuned into this show back 00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:23.440 in the day, this was easily the scariest, most 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:25.660 unsettling part of the entire episode. Because 00:24:25.660 --> 00:24:27.740 it starts out looking so completely innocent 00:24:27.740 --> 00:24:30.079 and relatable. Meadow and her best friend Hunter 00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:32.640 are just incredibly stressed out teenagers. They 00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:34.720 are the quintessential suburban overachievers. 00:24:34.839 --> 00:24:38.500 They have intense daily choir practice. playing 00:24:38.500 --> 00:24:40.640 competitive volleyball, and they have the massive 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:43.160 weight of the SATs looming over them, like this 00:24:43.160 --> 00:24:46.359 dark, heavy cloud. They're just physically and 00:24:46.359 --> 00:24:49.500 mentally exhausted by the pressure. And in any 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:52.079 normal 90s sitcom, the solution would be they 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:54.940 sneak out and drink way too much coffee, or maybe 00:24:54.940 --> 00:24:57.079 they hilariously fall asleep in the middle of 00:24:57.079 --> 00:25:00.369 a big math test. But we are watching The Sopranos. 00:25:00.650 --> 00:25:04.250 So they decide they urgently need a serious chemical 00:25:04.250 --> 00:25:07.049 edge to survive the week. They decide they need 00:25:07.049 --> 00:25:10.509 to get their hands on speed, specifically methamphetamine. 00:25:10.589 --> 00:25:12.849 And because of the world they live in, they don't 00:25:12.849 --> 00:25:14.730 just go down to a shady street corner to find 00:25:14.730 --> 00:25:16.950 a dealer. They go directly to their own family. 00:25:17.069 --> 00:25:19.990 They go and ask Christopher. Now, this immediately 00:25:19.990 --> 00:25:22.950 puts Christopher in a completely. terrifying, 00:25:23.009 --> 00:25:26.069 impossible spot. He is an ambitious young soldier 00:25:26.069 --> 00:25:28.329 in the Soprano family. He knows exactly what 00:25:28.329 --> 00:25:30.930 the unwritten rules are. If Tony Soprano ever 00:25:30.930 --> 00:25:33.150 finds out that he gave hard drugs to his precious 00:25:33.150 --> 00:25:35.529 teenage daughter, Christopher is a dead man. 00:25:35.789 --> 00:25:38.289 There would be no sit down, no mafia trial, no 00:25:38.289 --> 00:25:41.089 conversation, just a bullet to the back of the 00:25:41.089 --> 00:25:43.849 head. So naturally, his first instinct is to 00:25:43.849 --> 00:25:47.109 aggressively say no. He shuts them down. Right. 00:25:47.170 --> 00:25:49.849 He refuses. But then enters Adriana LaServa, 00:25:49.910 --> 00:25:52.529 Christopher's longtime girlfriend. And she starts 00:25:52.529 --> 00:25:55.650 whispering in his ear using this incredibly dangerous 00:25:55.650 --> 00:25:58.950 logic that is just well, it is the textbook logic 00:25:58.950 --> 00:26:01.529 of the long term addict is the twisted logic 00:26:01.529 --> 00:26:04.329 of the ultimate enabler. What exactly is her 00:26:04.329 --> 00:26:07.119 argument to convince him? She essentially says 00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:09.500 to Christopher, look, these girls are determined. 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:11.720 They're going to get the drugs anyway. If you 00:26:11.720 --> 00:26:13.779 don't give it to them safely, they are going 00:26:13.779 --> 00:26:15.640 to drive down to Jefferson Avenue. They are going 00:26:15.640 --> 00:26:17.720 to buy from some dangerous stranger on a corner. 00:26:17.980 --> 00:26:20.200 They will get stuff that is cut with poison. 00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:23.180 They could get robbed or assaulted or killed. 00:26:23.420 --> 00:26:26.319 Wow. So she twists it so that by actively supplying 00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:28.900 them with the meth, he is actually being a good 00:26:28.900 --> 00:26:31.000 protective cousin. He is supposedly keeping them 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:33.579 safe. That is the incredibly toxic justification 00:26:33.579 --> 00:26:37.460 they land on. is i am doing this terrible thing 00:26:37.460 --> 00:26:40.779 to keep you safe from worse things yeah so christopher 00:26:40.779 --> 00:26:42.640 eventually caves and provides them with the meth 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:45.759 but he is absolutely terrified while doing it 00:26:46.059 --> 00:26:49.380 He intensely swears both girls to absolute secrecy. 00:26:49.420 --> 00:26:51.579 And the really terrifying part is that the girls 00:26:51.579 --> 00:26:53.759 take the drugs and it actually works perfectly 00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:56.539 for them. That is the scary reality the show 00:26:56.539 --> 00:26:58.819 portrays. They don't immediately crash and burn 00:26:58.819 --> 00:27:01.319 like an after school special. They stay up. They 00:27:01.319 --> 00:27:03.500 study all night. They ace their prep and they 00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:05.720 feel invincible. And all of that chemically induced 00:27:05.720 --> 00:27:08.579 overachievement leads us directly to the massive 00:27:08.579 --> 00:27:11.470 climax of the episode. The choir recital scene. 00:27:11.630 --> 00:27:13.970 The sequence. I mean, we really have to break 00:27:13.970 --> 00:27:16.349 this down visually and sonically because television 00:27:16.349 --> 00:27:18.630 critics go absolutely nuts for this specific 00:27:18.630 --> 00:27:22.190 sequence for a very good reason. Emily St. James, 00:27:22.470 --> 00:27:25.109 writing for the A .V. Club, famously called the 00:27:25.109 --> 00:27:29.289 editing in this climax sublime. She said it elevates 00:27:29.289 --> 00:27:31.650 the show above its muddy universe. It is the 00:27:31.650 --> 00:27:35.109 famous all through the night montage. So picture 00:27:35.109 --> 00:27:37.329 this visually as a viewer. You are suddenly inside 00:27:37.329 --> 00:27:40.029 this beautiful cavernous church. The lighting 00:27:40.029 --> 00:27:42.049 is incredibly warm, lots of candles and stained 00:27:42.049 --> 00:27:44.289 glass. Meadow and the rest of the high school 00:27:44.289 --> 00:27:46.250 choir are standing there singing this traditional 00:27:46.250 --> 00:27:49.329 Welsh lullaby. It is just so pure. It sounds 00:27:49.329 --> 00:27:52.029 angelic. The harmonies are gorgeous. And right 00:27:52.029 --> 00:27:54.269 in the middle of this beautiful sound, the camera 00:27:54.269 --> 00:27:57.170 cuts to Tony sitting in the pews. And he is just 00:27:57.170 --> 00:28:00.130 beaming with pride. He is playing the role of 00:28:00.130 --> 00:28:03.730 the perfect. proud suburban father he is sitting 00:28:03.730 --> 00:28:05.769 there listening to his beautiful daughter sing 00:28:05.769 --> 00:28:08.609 this innocent song and you can literally see 00:28:08.609 --> 00:28:11.190 it written all over his face he feels like despite 00:28:11.190 --> 00:28:13.970 everything else he does he has somehow done something 00:28:13.970 --> 00:28:16.730 right in his life this beautiful pure thing this 00:28:16.730 --> 00:28:20.009 soaring music it is coming from his family he 00:28:20.009 --> 00:28:22.230 created this but the audience sitting at home 00:28:22.230 --> 00:28:24.250 knows something that tony doesn't know right 00:28:24.250 --> 00:28:26.190 we know that she is completely high on crystal 00:28:26.190 --> 00:28:28.779 meth We saw the girls right before the show started, 00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:31.700 huddled in the bathroom. They are sweating profusely. 00:28:31.700 --> 00:28:33.519 Their pupils are pinned. They are physically 00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:35.680 vibrating with this intense chemical energy. 00:28:35.900 --> 00:28:38.500 So that beautiful, angelic performance Tony is 00:28:38.500 --> 00:28:41.779 so proud of is entirely fueled by illegal narcotics 00:28:41.779 --> 00:28:44.319 supplied by his own mafia family. It is such 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.660 a staggeringly dark irony. The purity that Tony 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:50.400 is admiring is entirely synthetic. It is a chemical 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:53.279 lie. But the brilliance of the editor here. is 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:55.299 that they don't just let us stay safely in the 00:28:55.299 --> 00:28:58.319 warm church to ponder that irony. This is where 00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:00.420 the overarching theme of systemic corruption 00:29:00.420 --> 00:29:02.619 really hits the viewer like a freight train. 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:06.160 While that gorgeous music continues to play uninterrupted 00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:09.400 on the audio track, this soft, gentle, soothing 00:29:09.400 --> 00:29:13.099 lullaby The visuals suddenly smash cutaway to 00:29:13.099 --> 00:29:15.319 something horrific. We suddenly go from the church 00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:18.559 to the freezing, muddy docks outside. It is pouring 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:21.019 rain. It is pitch dark. And we see Christopher. 00:29:21.140 --> 00:29:23.680 He has been violently grabbed by these massive 00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:26.099 Russian thugs. He is thrown to the muddy ground, 00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:29.609 and he is absolutely terrified. He genuinely 00:29:29.609 --> 00:29:31.789 believes that Tony somehow found out about the 00:29:31.789 --> 00:29:34.150 meth sale to Meadow. He thinks this is his execution. 00:29:34.450 --> 00:29:36.930 He is crying, pleading for his life on his knees 00:29:36.930 --> 00:29:38.630 in the freezing mud. And then just as quickly, 00:29:38.690 --> 00:29:41.230 the editor cuts again, this time to a dingy apartment. 00:29:41.529 --> 00:29:44.529 Yes, it is Brendan Filone's apartment. Brendan 00:29:44.529 --> 00:29:46.750 is Christopher's goofy, reckless friend, the 00:29:46.750 --> 00:29:48.630 guy who has been persistently hijacking trucks 00:29:48.630 --> 00:29:50.910 and causing massive logistical headaches for 00:29:50.910 --> 00:29:53.170 Uncle Junior all season. We see Brendan in his 00:29:53.170 --> 00:29:55.349 apartment, lying back in his bathtub, completely 00:29:55.349 --> 00:29:58.009 vulnerable. And standing right over him, holding 00:29:58.009 --> 00:30:01.650 a silenced pistol, is Mikey Palmas, Uncle Junior's 00:30:01.650 --> 00:30:04.450 personal hitman. And remember, through all of 00:30:04.450 --> 00:30:06.869 this rapid cutting, the church music is still 00:30:06.869 --> 00:30:09.910 playing loud and clear. Sleep, my child, and 00:30:09.910 --> 00:30:11.789 peace attend thee all through the night. The 00:30:11.789 --> 00:30:13.970 choir is hitting these beautiful soaring notes, 00:30:14.069 --> 00:30:17.170 and right on cue, Mikey calmly raises the gun, 00:30:17.309 --> 00:30:20.329 points it down at the bathtub, and bang. He shoots 00:30:20.329 --> 00:30:22.210 Brendan cleanly through the eye. And the music 00:30:22.210 --> 00:30:24.089 just keeps going. That is what makes it so haunting. 00:30:24.150 --> 00:30:25.890 It does not stop. It does not falter for the 00:30:25.890 --> 00:30:27.750 gunshot. It just flows right over the brutal 00:30:27.750 --> 00:30:30.470 murder like it's entirely natural. The director 00:30:30.470 --> 00:30:33.609 is intentionally creating this massive cognitive 00:30:33.609 --> 00:30:36.029 dissonance for the audience. Yeah. You are presented 00:30:36.029 --> 00:30:38.450 with the sacred. the beautiful church, the innocent 00:30:38.450 --> 00:30:41.289 child singing, and simultaneously you are shown 00:30:41.289 --> 00:30:44.609 the profane, the hard drugs, the cold -blooded 00:30:44.609 --> 00:30:46.670 murder, the desperate fear in the mud. And the 00:30:46.670 --> 00:30:49.809 show is very clearly, loudly telling us as viewers, 00:30:49.950 --> 00:30:52.269 these are not two separate disconnected worlds. 00:30:52.369 --> 00:30:55.190 They are exactly the same world. Meadows' expensive 00:30:55.190 --> 00:30:57.950 private school tuition, the nice clothes she 00:30:57.950 --> 00:31:00.400 wears to the recital. All of that is directly 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:02.599 paid for by the horrific things currently happening 00:31:02.599 --> 00:31:04.839 in that bathtub. It is deeply chilling because 00:31:04.839 --> 00:31:08.460 it completely implicates everyone involved. Tony 00:31:08.460 --> 00:31:10.319 is sitting there peacefully enjoying the song, 00:31:10.519 --> 00:31:13.160 completely compartmentalizing the reality that 00:31:13.160 --> 00:31:15.119 he just recently ordered, or at least tacitly 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:18.000 allowed, a brutal mafia hit to take place across 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:20.339 town. Exactly. He is sitting there crying at 00:31:20.339 --> 00:31:22.720 the beauty of it, completely ignoring the fact 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:24.740 that he is the ultimate indirect source of the 00:31:24.740 --> 00:31:26.700 poison currently pumping through his daughter's 00:31:26.700 --> 00:31:29.400 veins. So, as the montage concludes, includes, 00:31:29.480 --> 00:31:33.299 Brendan is dead in the tub. Christopher is deeply 00:31:33.299 --> 00:31:35.839 traumatized. It actually turns out the Russian 00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:38.559 thugs were only doing a mock execution just to 00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:40.960 scare him away from Brendan's crew. But Christopher 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:43.240 didn't know that in the moment. And finally, 00:31:43.319 --> 00:31:45.299 the beautiful recital ends and everyone claps. 00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:48.680 And all of this intense emotional escalation 00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:51.039 brings us right back to the final word of the 00:31:51.039 --> 00:31:53.500 episode's title. We have extensively covered 00:31:53.500 --> 00:31:57.119 denial. We have analyzed the anger. Now, as the 00:31:57.119 --> 00:32:00.220 episode closes, we logically must reach acceptance. 00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:02.700 Right. The episode ends by attempting to provide 00:32:02.700 --> 00:32:05.220 a resolution to the central Jackie April storyline 00:32:05.220 --> 00:32:07.920 that kicked everything off. Tony is finally back 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:10.319 sitting in Dr. Melfi's quiet office. And his 00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:12.599 entire physical demeanor seems totally different 00:32:12.599 --> 00:32:15.299 now. He is much calmer. The aggressive energy 00:32:15.299 --> 00:32:18.299 is gone. He leans back and quietly tells Melfi, 00:32:18.359 --> 00:32:20.299 you know, it's like he's already gone. He has 00:32:20.299 --> 00:32:22.759 officially accepted it. He has finally stopped 00:32:22.759 --> 00:32:25.099 trying to aggressively fight the biological reality 00:32:25.099 --> 00:32:27.700 of the cancer. But as viewers, we really have 00:32:27.700 --> 00:32:30.059 to ask ourselves a difficult question here based 00:32:30.059 --> 00:32:33.099 on what we just witnessed. Is this version of 00:32:33.099 --> 00:32:35.279 acceptance actually a psychological breakthrough? 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:38.539 Is this a healthy, positive step for a human 00:32:38.539 --> 00:32:41.480 being to take? Honestly, watching it right after 00:32:41.480 --> 00:32:43.859 that brutal murder montage, it feels incredibly 00:32:43.859 --> 00:32:46.980 cold. It is absolutely freezing cold. Think about 00:32:46.980 --> 00:32:49.680 the entire sequence we just unpacked. Tony smoothly 00:32:49.680 --> 00:32:51.740 accepts that Jackie is going to die of cancer. 00:32:52.509 --> 00:32:55.329 Just like Uncle Junior coldly accepts that Brendan 00:32:55.329 --> 00:32:57.529 had to be shot in the eye for business reasons. 00:32:57.849 --> 00:33:00.109 Just like Christopher is forced to accept the 00:33:00.109 --> 00:33:02.769 constant, terrifying violence of his chosen profession. 00:33:03.210 --> 00:33:05.950 The show is arguing that in the dark, unforgiving 00:33:05.950 --> 00:33:08.609 world of The Sopranos, acceptance isn't about 00:33:08.609 --> 00:33:11.309 healthy emotional healing. It is entirely about 00:33:11.309 --> 00:33:14.289 numbness. That is a really heavy insight. You 00:33:14.289 --> 00:33:16.190 are essentially saying that in order to physically 00:33:16.190 --> 00:33:18.329 and mentally survive in the mafia lifestyle you 00:33:18.329 --> 00:33:20.630 have to actively kill off your own natural empathy. 00:33:20.970 --> 00:33:24.190 Exactly. Empathy is a liability. If Tony Soprano 00:33:24.190 --> 00:33:26.910 actually allowed himself to genuinely feel the 00:33:26.910 --> 00:33:29.410 deep pain of his best friend's impending death, 00:33:29.589 --> 00:33:32.470 or if he truly felt the moral horror of Brendan's 00:33:32.470 --> 00:33:34.789 brutal murder or the crushing parental guilt 00:33:34.789 --> 00:33:37.190 of Meadows' drug use, he would completely fall 00:33:37.190 --> 00:33:39.869 apart. He physically could not function. He could 00:33:39.869 --> 00:33:42.609 not be the effective, ruthless boss the family 00:33:42.609 --> 00:33:45.349 needs. So this stage of acceptance we see at 00:33:45.349 --> 00:33:47.630 the end is really just a sophisticated defense 00:33:47.630 --> 00:33:50.349 mechanism. It is the exact moment you firmly 00:33:50.349 --> 00:33:52.089 shut the door on your own underlying humanity. 00:33:52.359 --> 00:33:54.579 So you can get up, walk out, and get back to 00:33:54.579 --> 00:33:56.660 the bloody work of the day. So when he sits there 00:33:56.660 --> 00:33:59.119 in the chair and says he's already gone, he isn't 00:33:59.119 --> 00:34:01.180 actually finding a sense of inner peace. He is 00:34:01.180 --> 00:34:03.099 just deadening the nerve so it stops hurting. 00:34:03.619 --> 00:34:06.160 Precisely. Yeah. He is just filing Jackie away 00:34:06.160 --> 00:34:09.139 in a mental cabinet. Jackie is dead. The problem 00:34:09.139 --> 00:34:12.280 is categorized. What is the next logistical problem 00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:15.849 on the agenda? Wow. That completely recontextualizes 00:34:15.849 --> 00:34:18.989 the entire premise of the therapy scenes. In 00:34:18.989 --> 00:34:21.150 the real world, the ultimate goal of going to 00:34:21.150 --> 00:34:24.010 therapy is to reach healthy acceptance so you 00:34:24.010 --> 00:34:27.389 can live a better life. But for a violent sociopath 00:34:27.389 --> 00:34:30.449 like Tony, achieving acceptance just clears out 00:34:30.449 --> 00:34:32.510 the emotional clutter and makes him a much more 00:34:32.510 --> 00:34:35.090 efficient, unfeeling machine. That right there 00:34:35.090 --> 00:34:37.969 is the fundamental inescapable tragedy of Tony 00:34:37.969 --> 00:34:40.449 Soprano's character arc. Over the course of the 00:34:40.449 --> 00:34:43.130 show, attending therapy actually makes him a 00:34:43.130 --> 00:34:50.550 much... That is such a profound read on the character. 00:34:50.789 --> 00:34:53.550 Now, before we fully wrap up this massive discussion, 00:34:53.809 --> 00:34:55.670 I just want to quickly throw in one little fun 00:34:55.670 --> 00:34:57.550 production detail I actually found buried in 00:34:57.550 --> 00:34:59.090 the research notes, just for the hardcore trivia 00:34:59.090 --> 00:35:00.769 heads out there listening. Oh, I love the behind 00:35:00.769 --> 00:35:02.800 -the -scenes stuff. Let's hear it. So this specific 00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:05.139 episode is actually the very first time we see 00:35:05.139 --> 00:35:08.000 the actress Oksana Lada playing the role of Irina, 00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:10.559 who is Tony's long suffering Russian mistress. 00:35:10.860 --> 00:35:13.320 If you go back and watch the pilot episode closely, 00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:15.920 Irina was actually played by a completely different 00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:18.960 actress named Siberia Federico. But from this 00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:21.739 third episode onward, Oksana Lada steps in and 00:35:21.739 --> 00:35:24.219 completely owns that chaotic role for the rest 00:35:24.219 --> 00:35:26.239 of her time on the series. That is a really good 00:35:26.239 --> 00:35:28.960 catch. It is those precise little casting and 00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:31.619 production details clicking into place. that 00:35:31.619 --> 00:35:34.300 slowly build the incredible continuity the show 00:35:34.300 --> 00:35:36.880 is famous for. So to bring it all together, we 00:35:36.880 --> 00:35:39.300 have deeply unpacked the stages of grief. We 00:35:39.300 --> 00:35:41.579 have looked at the brutal violence, the uncomfortable 00:35:41.579 --> 00:35:44.099 class warfare with the buckos, and the corruption 00:35:44.099 --> 00:35:47.239 of the kids with the drugs. To synthesize all 00:35:47.239 --> 00:35:49.880 of this, what is the big central takeaway for 00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:51.820 the person listening right now? When they turn 00:35:51.820 --> 00:35:53.980 off this deep dive and go back to their regular 00:35:53.980 --> 00:35:57.059 non -mafia life, what should they really be thinking 00:35:57.059 --> 00:35:59.409 about? I think everything ultimately comes back 00:35:59.409 --> 00:36:01.409 to that masterful all through the night montage 00:36:01.409 --> 00:36:04.269 we discussed. It perfectly illustrates the idea 00:36:04.269 --> 00:36:07.190 of surface beauty deliberately covering up underlying 00:36:07.190 --> 00:36:11.059 horror. And the uncomfortable truth is... We 00:36:11.059 --> 00:36:12.820 all do that in our own lives to some extent. 00:36:13.019 --> 00:36:15.639 We deeply enjoy our modern comforts, our beautiful 00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:18.360 choir recitals, our nice houses, our cheap goods, 00:36:18.500 --> 00:36:21.380 and we consciously try very hard not to think 00:36:21.380 --> 00:36:23.639 about exactly where the money comes from or whose 00:36:23.639 --> 00:36:26.119 labor was exploited or who ultimately got hurt 00:36:26.119 --> 00:36:28.340 to deliver that comfort to our doorsteps. Oof, 00:36:28.340 --> 00:36:30.880 that is a heavy mirror to look into. It is, but 00:36:30.880 --> 00:36:33.639 that is what great art does. The Sopranos violently 00:36:33.639 --> 00:36:35.679 forces you to look at the guy dead in the bathtub. 00:36:36.059 --> 00:36:38.739 It forces you to acknowledge the direct, undeniable 00:36:38.739 --> 00:36:41.000 connection between the pretty comfortable surface 00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:43.860 of suburban life and the ugly, violent reality 00:36:43.860 --> 00:36:46.119 that often sustains it. And it leaves the viewer 00:36:46.119 --> 00:36:48.800 asking a really provocative final question. It 00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:51.679 asks you directly, can you personally live with 00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:54.139 that knowledge? Can you comfortably reach that 00:36:54.139 --> 00:36:57.420 stage of acceptance? Or does accepting the horror 00:36:57.420 --> 00:37:00.019 of the world just make you... quietly complicit, 00:37:00.039 --> 00:37:02.320 making you an active part of the problem? Is 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:05.179 acceptance just permission for the horror to 00:37:05.179 --> 00:37:07.579 continue? That is the exact question the show 00:37:07.579 --> 00:37:09.619 wants you wrestling with as the credits roll. 00:37:09.820 --> 00:37:11.960 Well, on that incredibly cheery and lighthearted 00:37:11.960 --> 00:37:14.300 note, thank you so much for taking this intense, 00:37:14.360 --> 00:37:17.119 deep dive with us today. We covered a lot of 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:20.780 really dark, heavy territory here. But man, the 00:37:20.780 --> 00:37:23.260 underlying psychology of this show is just endlessly 00:37:23.260 --> 00:37:25.820 fascinating to pull apart. It truly is a masterpiece. 00:37:26.159 --> 00:37:28.079 It is always a pleasure to unpack it with you. 00:37:28.139 --> 00:37:29.800 And to you listening, thank you for sticking 00:37:29.800 --> 00:37:32.300 with us through the heavy stuff. Keep watching 00:37:32.300 --> 00:37:34.800 great television. Keep thinking critically about 00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:37.480 the media you consume. And we will definitely 00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:39.559 catch you on the next deep dive. Stay curious, 00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:39.900 everyone.