The Sopranos Experience: Season 3, Episode 1

The FBI goes all out to wire up Tony’s house, Meadow goes off to college and we learn Carmela and Anthony Jr. are both quite the athletes in Season 3, Episode 1 of “The Sopranos”.

What a tough break for the FBI. Their No. 1 informant on Tony, “Big Puss”, is officially out of the picture and now they have to come up with a new plan to take down Tony. They decide it’s time to wire up his house, but the catch is they have to do it when no one is home. They concoct this elaborate plan where they follow around every member of the family to figure out their schedule and when they will and won’t be around the house, including the maid! That’s what I call dedication.

Throughout this process, we learn Carmela takes tennis lessons with Adriana, Christopher’s fiancee. It’s amazing it took this long to find out this revelation. The FBI is watching Carmela as they play, but the dude with the binoculars has a real infatuation for Adriana and the proactive outfits she wears. Literally the guy can’t help himself.

We also see later in the episode Anthony Jr. trying out for the school football team. There’s no way he’s any good. If Anthony Jr. can be good at football, so can I!

Back to the FBI. On I believe their first attempt, they are all ready to execute their plan when in the nick of time Carmela and Tony each rush home after finding out their basement flooded. What are the odds! My first inclination when I saw this was a neighbor saw strangers entering the home and managed to do something that would scare them away. As it turned out, I was wrong (as usual).

They successfully hook up the wire on their next attempt, but all we see is a pair of FBI guys listening to Tony and Carmela discuss who gets to ride the exercise bike first in the basement. Obviously there’s a long way to go with this but my guess is Tony or someone in the house will discover the wire and all hell will break loose. You can’t fool me David Chase!

It is wild the FBI even sent someone to Columbia University to have ears on Meadow’s doings as a freshman at college. Maybe she’ll be the fine to discover there’s a woman clearly older than everyone always hovering around her dorm. Now that would be an amazing plot twist.

 

The Sopranos Experience: Season 2, Episode 13

Another character gets killed off the show, Tony has the most violent food poisoning I’ve ever seen and for the first time all series, Tony gets arrested in the Season 2 finale of “The Sopranos”.

It’s crazy how David Chase just drops new bits of information in the show whenever he pleases. When this episode starts, we learn (or at least I did) that in addition to Janice, Tony has another sister named Barbara. She’s way more attractive and she comes to town to help the mother Livia decide where she’s going to live next now that Janice has skipped town after murdering her fiancee. More on that later.

Sometimes in life, all it takes is a little bit of money to cure major issues. Take Tony and Carmela for example. After being enraged at him in the last episode for cheating, Tony buys her a luxurious fur coat, they immediately have intercourse and all is forgiven. Just like that! Amazing.

Then we get to Tony’s absurd dreams after he goes out for Indian and Italian food. First, he dreams he has incurable cancer and lights himself on fire on a Jersey shore boardwalk. It was either Asbury Park or Point Pleasant. Another dream has him going into Dr. Melfi’s office with the world’s largest erection which leads to Tony’s fantasy of him having intercouse with her. The last one is him walking in place on the boardwalk and laughing. Very strange.

To top it all off, whenever he wakes up from these dreams, he has the most violent food poisoning I think of all-time. He blames it on the Indian food or the mussels from Artie’s restaurant. It was almost comical how bad it was. Food poisoning is the worst which makes Michael Jordan’s flu game all the more amazing.

Now to the most dramatic scene from the Season 2 finale. Tony finds out once and for all that Pussy is indeed wearing a wire when he goes into his house and finds the contraption at the bottom of his cigar case. Immediately after finding this out, Tony, Paulie, Steven Van Zandt (I’m still not sure what his character’s name is on the show) and Pussy all go out under the impression they’re buying a boat. Knowing Tony and how he operates, I had no doubt the whole time Pussy was going to end up dead. Pussy downplays the crap about being wired and claims the feds know nothing. They all do shots together before firing bullets in his chest. Another one bites the dust.

At the end of the episode, we find out the airline tickets Tony gives to his mother so she can move to Tuscon are fake and the FBI now has a warrant to arrest him which they do at the same time Meadow returns to the house with her friends. I can’t imagine ever seeing my parents get arrested. The shock value would be through the roof.

Tony posts bail I believe and returns to his normal living pretty quickly. With four more seasons to go, there’s no way Tony is going to jail so fast. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.

 

The Sopranos Experience: Season 2, Episode 12

Carmela’s patience with Tony’s cheating is running thin and a shocking result in the Janice-Richie relationship you have to see to believe in Season 2, Episode 12 of “The Sopranos”.

Things appear to be moving along pretty well with Richie and Janice’s new house at the beginning of the episode. But we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about how Tony reveals to Janice he doesn’t want Richie hanging around his children after declining his invitation to bring Anthony Jr. to an event at Giants Stadium (I wonder if that venue is still standing?? Might have to do some research). Janice is very taken aback by this and responds by saying Tony just doesn’t want to see her happy. Yep. That’s definitely it Janice!

The turning point in the Janice-Richie relationship comes when Tony informs Richie his business deal for his garbage business fell through putting his house with Janice in serious jeopardy. This completely ruins Richie’s mood and a few nights later while Janice is cooking dinner, they get into some sort of argument and Janice, after brings up the idea Richie’s son might be gay, he throws a right hook right in Janice’s face! He had zero remorse for it to boot. And then Janice, clearly shocked, whips out a gun and fires two bullets right into Richie’s chest, killing him instantly.

I know I’ve criticized David Chase in these posts following episodes, but I did not in a million years ever envision Janice killing Richie like that or any way for that matter. I also had no idea Janice had it in her to do something like that. But as usual, I was wrong. In the grand scheme of things, Richie’s presence really pissed me off and I’m glad I won’t have to see his pathetic presence the rest of the series. Good riddance!

The first phone call Janice makes after the crime is to Tony who comes right over, cleans the place up and Christopher along with Furio handle the body grinding it up at a meat shop. Of all the things to do with a dead body, I’ve never heard anyone doing anything like that. The mere thought makes me queasy. The next step is Janice skipping town and moving back to Seattle. I really hope I don’t see her again the rest of the series either. My inclination is that won’t be the case. We’ll see!

The other storyline in this episode is Tony’s affair with the Russian woman. Carmela finds some of her clothing in the wash and she breaks down at the engagement party Tony threw for Richie (while he was still alive) and Janice. She doesn’t believe anything he says and you’d have to think a divorce is coming. Tony decides to take matters into his own hands and tells the woman he’s ending it with her, but she answers by attempting to commit suicide. It gets real dark real fast but hopefully for Tony and Carmela’s future, they can move on from this and live happily ever after!

 

The Sopranos Experience: Season 2, Episode 11

Dr. Melfi has turned into an alcoholic, an epic restaurant confrontation and Tony is once again collapsing left and right in Season 2, Episode 11 of “The Sopranos”.

The episode begins with a garbage truck controlled by Richie unloading its trash at a random store’s parking lot. The owner runs outside to try to stop it but the dude is helpless. It was such an out of line move by Richie who really pisses me off. The guy thinks he’s such a big shot and I can’t for the life of me understand what he sees in Tony’s sister Janice. Something is very fishy there and I definitely question the man’s intentions.

Dr. Melfi’s life is completely falling apart. The woman is chugging glasses of vodka before her sessions with Tony which is a huge issue. Her own psychiatrist essentially begs her to refer Tony to someone else but she won’t budge. I can’t believe it.

It gets so bad for Melfi, with the tipping point being when she goes out with her son to dinner and while they’re eating, a woman at the next table is smoking a cigarette (Remember when that used to be normal!) and Melfi asks her to put it away. The woman refuses multiple times. Melfi then drops F-bombs and eventually throws her napkin in her face before the two nearly start throwing fists. Unfortunately for my entertainment, the fight gets broken up before it really got started and Melfi gets kicked out of the restaurant. If this were 2021, I’d completely side with Melfi here. But this was a different time and a different generation. If you didn’t want to sit near anyone smoking, you sit in on the non-smoking section. Common sense, Doctor.

Poor Tony. A common theme I’ve noticed throughout the series thus far is he routinely collapses. He goes to this gathering and while the song “More than a Feeling” is playing falls face first to the floor like Tyron Woodley against Jake Paul. He then goes to the hospital where they can’t find anything wrong. This annoys Tony because he’d rather it be physical so they can rip whatever it is out of him. The doctor responds by saying he should lose weight. Burn!

Later in the episode at an open house Richie and Janice are interested in, Tony nearly collapses again! Something’s gotta give here. Tony can’t keep living like this.

The episode ends with Tony talking with some random guy outside one of his spots and they’re talking about the Nets and talk about how amazing Jayson Williams is playing. I was too young to remember him but know he went to prison for a period of time. I wonder what Kyrie thought about that????!!! :))))

 

The Sopranos Experience: Season 2, Episode 10

Tony prepares to go to prison now that there’s a witness to a murder he committed, Carmela hits on the wallpaper man and Anthony Jr. is apparently on a swim team in Season 2, Episode 10 of “The Sopranos”.

Tony is in serious trouble and he knows it after the police show up to his house wanting to question him about the murder of Matt Bevilaqua. Not only that, they’re also on a mission to get Big Puss to continue wearing a wire around him (seems to be like he does it when he pleases) so they can catch Tony admitting to it.

Tony then takes drastic measures like leaving over $400k in cash with his attorney so Carmela can continue supporting the family while he’s in jail. We see him absolutely hammered late at night when Meadow comes to the kitchen to grab something from the fridge. It’s clear how uncomfortable Meadow is around her father during this scene given how incoherent he is. I honestly found it to be pretty disturbing as well.

It’s funny how it took until the latter-part of Season 2 to find out Anthony Jr. is apart of a swim team (I have no idea whether it’s club or school) and Tony fails to show up to the final meet of the season. Did he go to all the other meets earlier in the season we’ll never know! Hey David Chase, why were you keeping this a secret all this time and why did we never see Anthony Jr. once go to practice in the entire series?? I have questions, you better have answers!

Carmela loses it on Tony for not showing up to that said swim meet and not being honest with where he was. She takes matters into her own hands attempting to cheat on him with the wallpaper guy. She drags him into a side room and makes out with him and then invites him to the house without any of his helpers so she can take things to the next level but in a stocking result, the wallpaper guy doesn’t show up! Poor Carmela. She thought she was ready to seriously begin the process of moving on from Tony for good! Not so fast. I do wonder what changed and my guess is we’ll never find out.

Later in the episode, we see the witness to Tony’s killing find out in a newspaper article the victim was Matt Bevilaqua and that he and Tony were affiliated. He goes into an immediate panic and shortly after Paulie delivers the news that witness is no longer cooperating and Tony is in the clear, at least we think. Never a doubt about this!

Side note, this dude Dave might have the worst gambling problem of all-time. We see him in this episode holding a gun in his mouth and to his head, sleeping in a tent on his store floor and admitting to his brother-in-law he lost everything he owns and values including his children’s college funds. I mean, have a little bit of self-control guy! It couldn’t be worse for him that he’s in major debt to Tony who can literally cut his head-off whenever he feels like it.

The episode ends with Tony and Anthony Jr. riding a boat together. I guess despite not thinking he’s going to spend the rest of his life in jail he still wants to spend quality time with his son. Now that’s what I call being a father!

 

The Sopranos Experience: Season 2, Episode 9

Carmela wants Tony to get a vasectomy, Christopher has a dream he ends up in hell, another Dr. Melfi breakdown and Paulie goes to see a psychic in Season 2, Episode 9 of “The Sopranos”.

Tensions rise between Tony and Carmela in this episode. While they’re laying in bed, Carmela tells Tony she’s sick of his cheating and wants him to get a vasectomy because of the shame it would inflict on the family if Tony ever get another woman pregnant. Tony of course is not a fan of this and Carmela storms out of the bedroom.

It takes Tony until the end of the episode to agree to get the vasectomy and once he does, Carmela says she changed her mind and instead wants to try for another child. To go from a vasectomy to another baby is as wild a turn as you can possibly have and for the first time all series I believe, Tony and Carmela make love to each other. Whether this interaction results in a kid being born we’ll have to wait and see.

There was a very emotional scene while Christopher is in the hospital they announce a “Code Blue” over the loud speaker (I have no idea what that means) but his fiancee Adriana rushes into the room and they have to escort her out. It was all very sad and after the fact, we find out Christopher’s heart stopped for 1-minute but he did make it out alive. Once he’s back to being consciousness, he tells Tony and Paulie he had a dream where he ends up in hell like his father. Wild stuff.

Speaking of Paulie, I guess with a woman he’s seeing he experiences nightmares at 3am and as a result, she sends him to see a psychic and the performance he put on in that room was Emmy-worthy in my opinion. The way he responded to the psychic when he tried talking to him was nothing short of hilarious. He ends up being kicked out of the room and is throwing chairs on his way out. I can tell you for sure I would never believe in a psychic’s nonsense. It just wouldn’t happen. Sorry if you had any ideas for me.

If Dr. Melif has one more freakin breakdown about not being able to mentally handle treating Tony I’m going to lose it. She keeps saying she feels a responsibility to treat him but my goodness move on with your life doctor!

We do see Tony commit I believe his 2nd murder on the show when he kills Matt Bevilaqua, one of the accomplices in the shooting of Christopher. Tony put on quite the display here convincing Matt he wasn’t going to kill him, letting him drink a Diet Coke before telling him that was the last drink he’d ever have and quickly firing his gun multiple times. Cold. Blooded.