The Sopranos 4x02 Reaction

The Joke of Ralphie is one of the most memorable (and important) joke of the show. Of course is not political correct but that make it more funny.

“I feel like episodes like this don’t get praised enough.” You have no idea how right you are.

Meadow should sign up for this course: Understanding Cognitive Dissonance 101.

I know Tony is a bad dude but so far I’d say he still has good qualities it’s like how Jimmys hypocrisy and lying and conning wasn’t judged heavily by you two nothing wrong with it but just wondering what makes Tony different

The Papermill Playhouse, where Meadow was supposed to intern over the summer, is a theater in Millburn, NJ. It's classified as a regional theater, but because of its close proximity to New York City it is often viewed as a "feeder" for Broadway. Shows that are expected to be "big" on Broadway but aren't quite ready will often run at the Papermill for a season to work out the kinks and gauge the audience response. The other option is to go the "Off-Broadway" route, where they start in small theaters in NYC before being 'promoted' to Broadway. A "no show" job is a job where the person is on the payroll, but doesn't have to even show up to work. Tony has had a no show job for the whole series. In season two, when Tony's lawyer told him to show up to work to give the impression that he has a real job, his assigned office was filled with storage boxes because of how long it had been since he ever went into the office. A company can only have so many no show jobs, because they have to be able to justify it when their books are audited. If the person is on parole and their parole officer shows up at the job, they need to be able to give an excuse as to why they're not there. Any company only has so many field salesman and delivery drivers that aren't at the main location, so that's a hard limit on no show jobs. The highest ranking people get no show jobs. A "no work" job is a job where the person has to physically show up at the location, but doesn't have to do any actual work. Those are the people that we see sitting around on lawn chairs when we visit the construction sites. If anybody shows up and questions why they're not doing anything, they can just say that they're on a break or that they're the backup crew or the "on call in case of emergency" crew. A company can have a lot more no work jobs than no show jobs, so most mid-level people get these. Several other people already mentioned it in other comments, but Silvio is currently the "consigliere" of the family. The consigliere is specified as an advisor to the Boss, and (depending on how you judge things) is either the #2 or #3 person in authority. Paulie is a "caporegime" (Captain), which is generally regarded as being below the consigliere. Silvio would never be considered to fill in as the capo of Paulie's crew. But he would want the "proper" person to get the role. Patsy was a Made guy long before Christopher, and has already been shown to be in authority over him. He was one of the guys hazing Christopher after he was first Made. To promote Chris over him, without Chris having DONE anything to show he deserves it, is just bad management and Silvio can see it a mile away. As consigliere Silvio tried to make it go over smoothly at first, but when Tony wasn't receptive when he tried to explain the problems that were happening he bucked authority because he was angry and trying to make a point. The issue specific to this construction in this episode is that Tony is planning to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars from this project. Maybe millions. So the small-time profits from stealing supplies from the job site (Fiber optic cable the first time, ceiling tiles the second time) is short-sighted. You might make $30,000 (which sure is a nice payday) but it attracts attention and may get the rest of the project shut down or investigated. And if that happens, the potential $10 million goes away. So Tony wants things to go smooth on-site, but Chris is too new (Or too stupid) to realize this. And after the first time, once Tony lays out the clear message, everybody else is too angry to listen to it.

That very gentle lullaby playing over the credits is Kid A by Radiohead who make some very beautiful music that is completely devoid of intellectual clarity..or like Tony said: "I knew all this constant harping on art was gonna cause trouble"

Infighting within the Mafia wasn’t at all uncommon. These guys after all are competing with each other for power but most importantly money. You have their business constantly overlapping with one another and on top of that they’re sociopathic killers when they have to be as well. A bosses job is to keep everyone in line and keep the heat off the family so everyone can keep earning. Of course though the bosses are human and they were extremely self interested so it didn’t always run smoothly.

The casual attitude all of these people have towards life, death and loss is absolutely bonkers. These are guys who constantly talk about how much family means to them, but you really get the impression that none of them could give a shit about any of the others The way Tony and Sil discuss Patsy with the line “you wanted to have him killed last year”, like they were planning on just firing him from his job or something. It was also quite telling the way Carmela spoke about the prospect of Paulie and Sil taking care of her if Tony were to disappear. She clearly understood that it would be a disaster. Just look at any of the funerals they go to. They really don’t care about anybody else

Saw this TikTok a while ago and now seems to be the right time to share it https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdBR6ub1/

Chris pulled a gun on Patsy and without missing a beat, he picked up an iron pipe and was ready to go, spitting and swearing, not an ounce of fear or hesitation. Much like we saw last season, Patsy has such a believable ruthlessness in his demeanour, he’s a scumbag like the rest of them but man, what a spitfire he is.

Paulie is outraged to hear about the 98 pound mole joke about Ginny Sack, however last season he was making the exact same weight jokes about her lol. A subtle touch, but if you look at Ralph when Chris is announced as acting captain, he smiles and congratulates him, until Chris looks away from him and his smile instantly drops. I have to assume that’s a deliberate touch in a show with so many micro-expressions to pick up on. I think there is more to Silvios moves this episode than just correcting the proper order of things. First, Silvio is the second-in-command of this whole structure, as he is Consigliere (advisor) to Tony, so becoming captain of Paulies crew is a step down for him personally. Patsy meanwhile does feel passed over, and he is right to, because that is essentially what has happened. Silvio in allowing Patsy to steal the tiles, settled his ego and allowed the situation to resolve without any serious repercussions by taking the blame. He knew Tony would not be so outraged as to punish him severely. So Silvio in reality played a very clever game and kept the crew together, as opposed to letting tensions spike too high. Dr Wendi Kobler is certainly ‘interesting’ as the girls said, but you can go as far to say she does not come across appropriately, especially for a first meeting. As discussed in Sopranos Autopsy, a great post-show companion piece, there are real-life psychiatrists who found Kobler’s methods to be off, including Dr. Joel Whitebook, who had this to say: “Totally devoid of therapeutic skepticism and humility, she postures as if she has all the answers. Kobler immediately tells Meadow what to do about Columbia and Europe, despite the fact she hardly knows her.” I do think Meadow is legitimately depressed however, but not for specifically Jackie Jr, and more due to the cognitive disssonance she is experiencing as being a mob daughter, as we saw in the season 3 finale. The scene in Meadows bedroom is fantastic and Tony and Meadow is the heart of the exchange, however it’s worth paying attention to Carmela here too. Her face and silence during their fight shows where her head is at, same as the final scene in the bathroom. The line “take the children, what’s left of them, and go” must be echoing through her mind, and now we see the cost of her not doing that when she was told. Her complicity is to blame for this path for her daughter and she knows it. She can’t say this to Tony of course, and so we get no answer to his question at the end.

Emily St. James said of The Sopranos in the post 9/11 era: “the attacks neatly cleave the series in two. Creator David Chase’s plan was likely always to have a long, slow build of the good times getting ever better, even as those good times had the taste of ashes at their core, followed by a long decline, a slow malaise that gives way to self-destruction” As Carmela said last episode, “everything comes to an end”. There definitely is a shift in the show that makes things feel like we are now in the downturn, both in the family and the ‘famiglia’.

"I was trying to say something positive because she's your friend" is such a funny line. Great discussion. Tony is definitely noticeably colder this season. He's not emotionless but he is able to separate himself from his emotions and people he once cared about much easier than most of us could or would even want to. We saw it with Pussy, Jackie Jr, and we're seeing it with Chris. Also totally agree on Adriana. She's kind of like Bobby. Yes they're complicit but they were born into it like everyone else. They're uncomplicated nice people that aren't trying to hurt or be calculative, like you said.

Reacting to TV shows... lotta money in this shit

Am I the only one who thinks Jackie Jr. wasn’t really Tony’s responsibility? How much more was he supposed to try and get him to stay away? In the end it was Ralphie who brought him down and gave him delusions, gave him a gun, etc. Not to say Tony is without fault, but I don’t think he was the primary cause of Jackie Jr.’s downfall. And I do think there is a small part of him that cares and feels guilt. But he can’t process it healthily and takes no accountability for his role in things.

No show jobs and business with the unions is thoroughly explained if you watch “Goodfellas” Although I recommend watching it in after season 4

Also the choice of class Meadow chose to take can still imply somewhat of a rebelling, even if it's not as overt as running away. With a subject like 'Morality, Self, and Society' there's no way that doesn't brush up against her existing conflict. Tony is getting more careless and self-centered, which is a new avenue, implied by the economy mentioned in the first episode. We're seeing a side of him that has money trouble for the first time in the show. There was no "test" like this in the first three seasons, things were genuinely going well, business wise.

So I'll cover the whole issue with Silvio. Silvio is in the position of consigliere, which is basically #2 to the boss, or the right hand man of the boss. Tony made Chris the head of their biggest construction project because he's blood family and is grooming him to take over as boss (as it stands in Tony's planning). Silvio feels subverted and threatened by it, so when Patsy tells him about the tiles he says go ahead I have your back. When Tony has the face to face with Silvio about going against his orders, Tony tells him they go way back and he's not going to punish him or whack him. Tony said if you're trying to "feel" the situation, "it's not like that"... as in I'm not trying to get rid of you. Silvio is defending himself to see tony's reaction, who already garnered the backing of patsy perhaps in case they have to create a split and Silvio seeks infighting to take Tony's place.

This was a great episode with moving the storylines forward, but in my opinion the most important thing to happen was Meadow seeing her "real" father for the first time. After she challenged him, he took the mask off just long enough to scare her and to understand the real situation.

An important difference, Tony was already DIRECTLY exposed to mob violence by the time he hit college, as a younger kid than AJ and his father called him brave for it. Meadow's first real brush with it came when she is already in college. AJ has not to date been exposed to ANY mob violence. And yeah, Adriana and Carmela, in addition to the observation about Adriana, we KNOW Carmela was less integrated in the mob. She still was, Chris's father last episode was mentioned as a legend and they're related, but her own mother tried to get her to marry someone outside as mentioned last season. So there is a bit more of a push and pull, and how much her own selfishness brushes up against her guilt.

I distinctly remember Lola saying something about Carmela trying to cheat with someone from Tony's crew in an earlier discussion. Well guess what, she got what she wished for lol. Back in season 3, it was Paulie who started the jokes about Ginny Sack's weight. Now, after not getting what he wants from Tony and his newfound relationship with Johnny, he found the weight jokes tasteless.

Hey everyone, I know it’s a New Year and I don’t mean to start it off here with something negative I just want to remind all of you who are going back to work that your job is not your family. I don’t think anyone needs this reminder, but as we enter the new year, think about how much you are putting into your work vs putting into yourself. I’m not saying don’t do your job, but remember that what you have with your employer is a transaction, not a benevolent gift from them. They need work done, you are being paid to do it, you don’t owe them anything else. Do not prioritize your job over your mental or physical health. Being a go-getter means nothing if they don’t realize you’ve been dead at your cubicle for four days. The reason I’m producing this word-vomit is at my work we just had a mass firing on Christmas and the 26th. While I still have my job, a couple hundred people I know don’t. If anyone cares to know the reasoning, during June last year the company announced that we were going to fall short of the $ amount they expected to make by the end of the year. We were $26 million short (we were projected to make about $5 billion). They assured us that no one’s jobs were in danger over this, but encouraged us to work harder. We closed the gap by almost $10 million, meaning the company ended the year short of $17 million of its $5 billion goal. On Christmas Eve and Day, they fired over 20% of our employees due to the shortage. It also came out that they have known the names of the people they were going to fire almost six months ago, and they gave no warning. On the 24th our CEO blindsided two people from HR and put them in charge of calling the impacted employees to let them know they’ve been terminated over the next two days, and then they let go of those two HR ladies on the 26th. What’s more is that every employee within four years of retirement has also been let go, likely to avoid paying retirement benefits in the near future. It’s much more difficult for them as, like Tina in that episode of the Bear, hiring standards are much different and places do not like hiring older people. The excuse for the timing of the terminations is so that the people affected can be with their families. The truth is they didn’t want to impact productivity during the election and the holidays, and our fiscal year ends the 31st so they don’t owe them bonuses either. This is after the company threw a huge holiday party as well as a Vegas retreat for its three executives as well. I’m sorry again to be negative here, but I just want to remind people that, as much as HR wants you to believe, your life is not tied to your company or their “culture.” Don’t neuter your own health, memories, and experiences for the sake of some finance-bro’s profit-margin. Enjoy the new year on your own terms, not your employers.

someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I would say Silvio's role is the same as Stringer to Avon, so I don't think he has to be worrying about being captain of a crew.

I love that final shot with Carmela and Tony in the bathroom, the gap between them like something out of a painting

The therapists immediately recommending anti-depressants for Meadow is so perfect. Fucking pill pushers. Sometimes people just need to mourn without being drugged up.

Sil is Tony's number two. Chris just got promoted to take Paulie's place while he was in prison.. Patsy is part of Paulie's crew, so he was thinking he'd be the one to lead it if Paulie were gone. Tony just said naaa, and put Chris in his place instead

36:40 "It feels like Tony is cosplaying somebody who has emotions" is particularly good insight, imo. I feel the same way.

"No show" jobs are when somebody gets a paycheck on the books of a company, but doesn't have to physically be there. "No work" jobs are when they get the paycheck for doing no work, but still have to physically be at the job. It's a way for mafia guys to be earning a legitimate income on paper, while skimming money from construction projects etc

Poor Bobby doesn't make your favorite characters list. For shame :)

last thing from me because I haven't watched the reaction yet, but the FBI really pissed me off this episode. Using mob tactics on Adrianna and obviously not caring about her at all.

also, happy new year to both of you!

It makes sense Lola feels attached to Chris because he's as close to "baby boy" as you're gonna get in this show

I know that Adriana is knowingly benefitting from Chris's illegal activities but you'd have to have a heart of stone to not feel sorry for her. Drea de Matteo is such a good actor.