The world was introduced to Anthony “Tony” Soprano (played by the actor James Gandalfini) on January 10, 1999, when the first episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos” hit the air. Tony is supposedly a “waste management consultant”, but is actually the Boss of the DiMeo Crime Family in Northern New Jersey. He lives in North Caldwell, NJ, with his wife Carmela, daughter Meadow, and son Anthony Jr. (AJ). Officially, Tony is really only the Street boss, since the official Boss Dominic Ercoli “Eckley” DiMeo is serving a life sentence, which he was sentenced to in 1995. And the alleged “Acting Boss”, Corrado “Junior” Soprano, Tony’s Uncle, is currently on house arrest under a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charge from the FBI. In reality, Junior is the boss in title only — Tony has been seen as the actual Boss by the other Capos (“Captains”) in the family since the death of Jackie Aprile in Season 1.
Other primary members of the DiMeo crime family include:
- Silvio Dante, Tony’s Consigliere
- Christopher Moltisanti, Tony’s nephew
- Paulie Walnuts, a Capo
- Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, a soldier
- “Bobby Bacala” Baccilieri, a Capo
- Patsy Parisi, a soldier
- Vito Spatafore, a Capo
What came before?
The first season of “The Sopranos” opened with Tony suffering from panic attacks, and finally seeing a therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi. Tony actually starts the series as a Capo in the family, until the death of Jackie Aprile from cancer. Tony’s problems are multitude in this season: his mother Livia needs to be in a nursing home, and is bitterly resentful of her son when she’s finally put there; to prevent a murder from happening in the restaurant of his friend Artie Bucco, he has to blow up the restaurant; with the death of Jackie, an immediate power struggle with his Uncle Junior begins; and he’s informed by a cop on his payroll that there’s a rat in his organization. On this last part, he worries about one of his oldest and closest friends: “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero. His concerns are not helped at all by the fact that Pussy seemingly disappears from the face of the earth towards the end of the season. However, another Capo named Jimmy Altieri ultimately gets fingered as the true rat, and meets an untimely demise.
Tony’s life at home is no better: his daughter Meadow is getting ready to go off to college, his son AJ is constantly getting in trouble at school, and his wife learns that his therapist is a woman (to put it mildly, she does not approve). The climax of the season comes when his two families collide: AJ innocently tells Livia that Tony in therapy, and Livia in turn “accidentally” informs Corrado. (As we soon find out, it is possible that Livia is the most heartless and cunning character in the entire of the show — if she had been male, she would have been Michael Corleone). Junior and Livia plan a hit on Tony while in Livia’s nursing home room — which, in turns out, is a rather bad idea, since the FBI is bugging that room. The hit fails, and Tony finds out where it came from in the last episode, when the FBI plays the tape for him. In retaliation, Tony has 3 members of Junior’s crew killed (but spares Junior himself). Tony also warns Dr. Melfi that her life may be in danger, and she needs to disappear (she’s seen in the next season meeting her patients in a motel room). Also, to head off the problem before it grows any larger, Tony tells his crew he’s been seeing a shrink — for the most part they are ok, but his “nephew” Christopher Moltisanti seems the most bothered by it. And in the ultimate frustration for Tony, Livia has a stroke before he can enact his revenge on her — although he can see her smirking at him through her oxygen mask as she’s being wheeled away on a gurney, in a truly disturbing scene.
In the first episode of Season 2, “Big Pussy” comes back, claiming he took a vacation in the Caribbean, but Tony is still obviously unsure of his true loyalty (as are we viewers, until Episode 2 confirms that Pussy has indeed become an FBI informant after being picked up for heroin). Another surprise appearance is Tony’s sister Janice, who flies in from Seattle. Meanwhile, Uncle Junior is under house arrest, awaiting trial on the RICO charges.
However, the biggest problem for Tony turns out to be the return of Richie Aprile (Jackie’s older brother), fresh from spending the last 10 years in jail. Richie expects to immediately return to his old positions in the family, and is extremely frustrated by Tony’s resistance. (The fact that Richie is completely homicidal doesn’t help much). In the fourth episode, Tony and his boys take a trip to Italy for business, and return with a new associate: Furio Giunta, a ruthless and efficient enforcer. (Furio is mostly a background character until the fifth season.) At the beginning of the season, Dr. Melfi refuses to have anything to do with Tony, but she eventually relents and agrees to re-starting his therapy, hoping that she can actually do some good with him.
On the professional front: Christopher is shot and gravely wounded by two young wise-guys hoping to make a name for themselves. Tony and Big Pussy hunt down and shoot one of them, but find out later there was a witness to the shooting. To protect himself, Tony takes a civilian job in, ironically, a waste management company (where, from what we see, he spends most of him time screwing the secretary). Frustrated by his place in the organization, Richie Aprile approaches Junior about attempting a violent takeover on Tony. But when Richie isn’t able to get any of the Capos to support him, Junior rats him out to Tony, who immediately plans revenge. Ironically, Richie’s end comes about at the hands of another Soprano: Janice (his fiancee at the time), who shoots Richie after he makes the rather fatal mistake of punching her in the mouth after an argument.
Season 2 ends with the landmark episode “Funhouse”, which begins with a food poisoning-driven hallucination. In it, Tony ends up talking to a fish with the voice of Big Pussy Bonpensiero, who informs Tony that he’s working with the FBI. And in a truly postmodern touch, the fish (from Tony’s own subconscious — this is his dream, remember) tells him “You passed me over for promotion. You knew.” The climax of the season comes with Tony, Pussy, Silvio and Paulie taking a boat ride that ends in Pussy’s execution, and subsequent dumping into the Atlantic.
In the beginning of Season 3, we get the rather premature death of Tony’s mother, Livia (due to the fact that the actress playing her died between seasons). This leaves Tony with a *pile* of unresolved maternal issues to deal with, of course. But, he’s going to be forced to face them head on very soon.
Tony’s headache-du-jour for this season, mafia-wise, is Ralphie Cifaretto, a soldier in the DiMeo family, and complete psychopath. Tony’s utter distaste for Ralphie, and everything about him, seems to cause Tony himself to question his own path in life. This relationship comes to a head when Ralphie beats a dancer to death in the parking lot of the Bada Bing (a strip joint run by Silvio), who just happened to be carrying Ralphie’s child at the time. (In fact, one of Ralphie’s last lines to her was, “And if she’s a girl, maybe she can grow up to be a cock-sucking slob like her mother.”) Tony’s rage at Ralphie’s indifference to this girl’s death causes Tony to do something a made guy never does to another made guy: he strikes him. Repeatedly, in front of the entire crew.
Tony also comes to a bit of self-revelation in his personal life through his affair with Gloria Trillo, a Mercedes saleswoman. He starts an affair with her hours after looking at a car, and finds himself fascinated with her, mostly because she’s like none of his other “goomaras” (a mob girlfriend/mistress) — she’s smart, she’s independent, she’s self-supporting, and she seems like everything Tony thought he was looking for. Unfortunately, it soon turns out all-too-obvious why they met in Melfi’s waiting room: her psychological issues make Tony’s panic attacks look like a bit of indigestion. In quick sequence, she A) hits in the back of the head with a cut of london broil, B) tries to make friends with Carmela at the dealership, and C) threatens to go to Carmela after Tony breaks up with her. At this point, Tony absolutely flips out — and finally realizes where he (metaphorically) knows Gloria from — his mother. “I’ve known women like you all my life!” At the height of Tony’s rage, with his hands tight around Gloria’s neck, she practically pleads with him: “Kill me”. This seems to snap Tony out of it, and he simply walks out of her place. Not long after, an emphatic message is sent to Gloria by a Soprano enforcer, Patsy Parisi, who informs her in no uncertain terms that if she doesn’t stay away, her ending “won’t be cinematic.”
With the threat of RICO having over his head, Tony decides at the beginning of Season 4 to begin the process of making Christopher his main go-through for all mob business. The hope is to distance himself from anything that could end up in a prosecution. It’s a fairly smart plan — but has a slight snag in the fact that Christopher has been a heroin junkie, and isn’t currently the most reliable soldier on Tony’s crew. This storyline culminates (just after Christopher unknowingly sits on and kills his girlfriend Adrianna’s little yip dog while high) with an intervention coordinated by Tony. Unfortunately, sensitivity is a bit lacking amongst North Jersey mafia members, and the intervention ends with Christopher taking a beating at the hands of Paulie and Tony. (Ah well, good intentions and all that…) But the concept of the intervention itself does show us that Tony still holds a special place in his heart for family: “You’re my nephew and I love you. Anybody else would’ve had their f*cking intervention right through the back of their head.”
Tony’s relationship with Ralphie takes a turn when Ralphie buys a racing horse named “Pie-O-My”, which actually wins a couple of races. Tony feels a strong and sudden bond with this creature, even spending the night in his stall when he gets sick. (This, of course, is just another symbol of Tony’s frustrated paternal instinct – unlike his own children, the horse is athletically successful *and* doesn’t talk back to him.) When a suspicious fire breaks out in the stall and kills Pie-O-My, Tony confronts Ralphie, who is his usual flippant self. Ralphie repeatedly denies causing the fire, but when he makes a comment that seems to confirm it, Tony attacks him, and the two fight throughout the house. It only ends when Tony strangles Ralphie with his bare hand (which causes my wife to say, “Wait – after all the crap that scumbag pulled, Tony kills him over a *horse*?!”). Tony calls Christopher over to the house to dispose of the body, with the head dumped in one place, and the rest of the body cut up and buried.
On a personal front, Tony has become completely disillusioned with therapy, and has informed Melfi that he doesn’t see any point in it anymore. In a poignant big of dialogue, Melfi asks, “You’re no longer interested in changing? In finding a way out?” His answer: “I guess not.” But, in an attempt to make his home life a bit more peaceful, Tony buys a house at the shore, which pleases Carmela. However, her mood takes an extremely sour turn when one of Tony’s old goomaras calls her at home. Carmela throws Tony out of the house (starting with his golf clubs, which land in the driveway — I hate seeing good golf equipment treated like that), and they have a truly epic screaming match — the highlight of which comes when Carmela informs Tony that she has spent the last several months fantasizing about Furio, one of Tony’s soldiers (who, not coincidentally, has gone back to Italy and basically disappeared). Tony comes thisclose to smacking Carmela in the mouth, but instead puts his fist through the drywall (several times). The season ends with Tony moving into a hotel — alone in a physical, emotional, and psychological sense.
What happened last season?
As usual, the sources of conflict in Tony’s life come hot and heavy in the beginning of Season 5: he’s still living away from his own house, his wife is still furious with him, and now he has to deal with animosity from the underboss of the New York mob, Johnny “Sack” Sacramoni. And when the boss of New York, Carmine Lupertazzi, suffers a massive stroke, Johnny Sack immediately begins a feud with Carmine’s son, Little Carmine, for control of New York. Tony, as usual, finds himself caught in the middle.
On the personal front, Tony’s cousin, Tony Blundetto (“Tony B”), is released from prison after 15 years. Tony B was arrested on a job that both Tony’s were supposed to be on, but Tony Soprano didn’t make it, later claiming to be attacked and mugged by two black men. As we find out much later in the season, it turns out he had an argument with his mother, had a panic attack, and passed out. The lingering guilt from this incident causes Tony S to bend over backwards for his cousin, and almost immediately offers him a position of power and high-earning in the family (after Tony B’s flirtation with a legit job as a massage therapist). This backfires in more than one way, as the other members of the family (Christopher, Paulie, etc.) are resentful of Tony B almost from the get-go.
With Tony’s current separation from Carmela and the ending of his therapy sessions, he decides to express his true feelings (or what he thinks is “true” at least) for Dr. Melfi, whom he has fantasized about since the very first season. The reasons, of course, are somewhat obvious: she’s completely unattainable for him, and Tony loves nothing so much as what he can’t have. Much to his surprise (and not at all to ours), she refuses him — there’s a doctor/patient professional ethics code, plus she admits that she’s extremely uncomfortable with Tony’s lifestyle.
But Tony has two bigger issues to deal with in his “other” family. The first, and much smaller, is the return of an old goodfella named Feech La Mana, who wants to go right back to his old station immediately. When he isn’t able to, he targets his anger at Tony, and begins to gain some popularity amongst the other Capos. However, this is a more experience Tony as Boss, and he’s able to recognize this pattern before it gets out of hand: “Did I learn nothing from Richie Aprile?” But in an almost “kindler and gentler” move, he arranges to have Feech simply sent back to prison on a parole violation, instead of having him whacked. This move is significant, since it shows Tony fighting against his usual impulse of immediate violence, and instead using his wits to painlessly get out of a difficult situation (unlike, for example, almost every other member of his crime family, past and present).
The second issue is significantly more difficult: his cousin Tony B gets himself directly involved in the New York power struggle, and kills Billy Leotardo, while also wounding his brother Phil Leotardo. The main complication here is that Phil is Johnny Sack’s right-hand man, and they both want revenge — and in the bloodiest and most tortuous way possible. Tony Soprano spends much of the latter part of the season dealing with how to handle this situation: going by standard mafia-logic, the obvious solution is to hand over Tony B as soon as possible. But, the fact that Tony B is his favorite cousin, combined with the guilt that Tony S still feels about not being with Tony B 15 years ago, makes it impossible for an actual decision to be reached. However, once Tony S is able to work out his guilt in a session with Melfi (who he starts seeing for therapy again mid-season), the situation is handled decisively: Tony S shoots him in the face with a shotgun. While violently shocking, it is at least a quick and painless death, which is practically the best Tony B was going to get out of this situation.
Carmela and Tony are also able to (mostly) settle their differences, with Tony making practically all of the concessions on his end: he’ll stop seeing other women, and he also agrees to help come up with the down payment for a piece of land that Carmela is looking to purchase and develop with her father’s help. And how much does this parcel cost? “Six hundred thousand dollars.” When Carmela says this number, you can see the realization going across Tony’s face: he’s literally paying for his past indiscretions with straight cold cash. However, considering his line of work, Tony is certainly familiar with using money to settle emotional differences.
So where do we go from here?
Good question. Tony’s marriage is now balanced on a very thin point: a man simply does not live 45 years on this planet, banging almost any woman he sets his eyes on, and then cut that off cold-turkey. Especially not a man with the pressures in his life that Tony has, and surrounded by the crowd he runs with (who consider the goomara a proud Italian tradition). Eventually, he’ll stumble: and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Carmela demands another pay-off as restitution. She seems to have become much more comfortable with Tony’s (and in turn her) role in life, after having flashes of Catholic guilt last season.
And then there are his children: Meadow has her issues and certainly sees herself as intellectually and morally superior, but at least she’s able to stay clear of Tony’s “business” (outside of her ill-fated relationship with Jackie Aprile, Jr, and the job she got for her now-fiancee on a mob-run construction site, which didn’t last long). AJ, however, is turning out to a problem: he’s been suspended and expelled, and outside of his skill on the football field, he almost seems to have no direction in his life. And Tony knows that if AJ can’t find something soon, he’s doomed to follow in his father’s life. However, AJ’s new-found talent at party-planning at least seems to have given him something to get excited about — too bad that AJ thinks his best method of on-the-job training is to hang out at clubs seemingly every night of the week until the wee hours of the morning. Most troubling however, is the fact that AJ has begun to suffer from the same panic attacks that Tony has been dealing with; learning that Tony’s father suffered from these same attacks is definitely a bad omen for the X chromosome members of the Soprano family.
As for Tony’s other family: Tony is somewhat trapped by his romantic visions of the mob, usually shown through quotes from “The Godfather” movies (even the alleged third move — which NEVER HAPPENED; trust me on this one). Unfortunately, Tony often has equal parts of Sonny and Michael Corleone flowing through him — though the Michael part seems to be coming through more often recently. But his biggest problem is that most of his crew is either equal parts Sonny and Fredo (hot-tempered *and* stupid), or has too much in common (mostly the drug abuse) with Ray Liotta’s character from “Goodfellas”. None of these characters ended happily — when your best option is living in witness protection in the middle of Arizona, it doesn’t speak well for your future prospects.
