411 Retro TV Review: The Sopranos – Episode 9
Posted by Mike Gorman on 11.13.2007
The trouble with secrets is that they’re no fun unless you tell someone. This week we find out that some of our friends in Jersey are not so good at keeping secrets whether they’re about Tony, Uncle Junior or even Meadow’s soccer coach.
Cast:
James Gandolfini ... Tony Soprano
Lorraine Bracco ... Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Edie Falco ... Carmela Soprano
Michael Imperioli ... Christopher Moltisanti
Dominic Chianese ... Corrado 'Junior' Soprano
Vincent Pastore ... Salvatore 'Big Pussy' Bonpensiero
Steve Van Zandt ... Silvio Dante
Tony Sirico ... Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri
Robert Iler ... Anthony 'A.J.' Soprano Jr.
Jamie-Lynn Sigler ... Meadow Soprano
Nancy Marchand ... Livia Soprano
“I don't go down often enough.” - Uncle Junior
”That's not what I hear.” - Carmela
This episode of The Sopranos, “Boca”, amounts to what I would now define as a basic episode. It contains all the usual elements we have come to expect including the balance of time between the actual Soprano family and the crime “family.” This doesn’t mean however that this is an episode not worth your viewing time. As I teased, secrets abound this week and for most of the show you just wondering when the proverbial beans will be spilled. The first secret continues its presence from past episodes. It is Tony’s therapy and again Livia brings it up to Uncle Junior in her own unique way. Her masterminding and manipulation continue at the same pace. The remaining two major secrets of the episode make up the two major plot threads of the episode as well. The first involves Meadow’s soccer team with their winning coach.
On the surface all seems well so you know there is a problem waiting to rear its head. From first glimpse of him I had a bad feeling about the soccer coach and it turns out I was right. I wonder though if it was just an easy guess or if somehow watching this program so often has started to strengthen my cynical side. I suppose only time will tell for now though we have the too perfect coach. When one of Meadow’s teammates attempts suicide it is revealed that the coach is planning to move to a better paying job. Tony and Silvio decide they must use their best efforts to keep the coach at their daughters’ school. They try to bribe him with a super sized television and when that fails they have Christopher pay a late night visit to the coach’s home so he can return the coach’s dog that went “missing.” It soon seems that none of these tactics will change the coach’s mind. Tony is at his wit’s end until one night at dinner when he shares his attempts to keep the coach in town. Upon hearing this, Meadow gets angry and storms off to her room. Tony sees her as ungrateful and goes to confront her where she reveals that the team wants the coach to leave because he slept with one of the players. I wish I could say that this was a tense reveal and ramped up the action of the episode but it was telegraphed in many previous scenes and overall it was easy to see it coming. The girl who attempted to injure herself was also the coach’s target. Her suicide attempt was brought on when the coach rejected her advances and told her he was leaving. Tony’s anger towards the coach shifts gears here and now we see that he will exact revenge for the young girl. Is Tony going to have the coach killed? It certainly seems that way now so as we ponder this action lets explore the third secret of the episode, Uncle Junior and his female companion.
This week we meet Uncle Junior’s lady friend, the much younger Roberta. Long story short, and I apologize for this imagery, but their subplot is basically about the frequency and skill with which Junior performs oral sex on her. He tells her to tell no one because he is afraid it will make him appear too sensitive to the other men. Roberta, of course, tells a few different people at her hair salon and the information even gets back to Carmella. At the same dinner where Meadow flips out, Carmella teases Junior with her knowledge of his bedroom prowess. Later in the evening she reveals this secret to Tony who finds it quite amusing. Later in the episode Tony and Junior are playing golf with several of their associates. Tony starts to tease Junior about his enjoyment “south of the border” and how he is surprised that Junior eats “sushi.” The childish way these men react to any talk of oral sex stood out as odd and the only reason I saw for its placement here was that this teasing eventually pushes Junior to reveal to his right hand man that Tony sees a psychiatrist. He also ends his relationship with Roberta. Finally the fuse is lit for this little secret to become explosive and Tony is none the wiser. He has bigger things on his mind, like the coach.
It is Tony’s friend Artie Bucco, whose daughter is also on the soccer team, who gets Tony to reconsider his plan of action for the coach. Artie again dances on the edge of the “dark side” and almost to succumbs to his desires to see the coach dead. He also shows that he is one of the show’s everyman characters because he does go through a spectrum of emotions about the situation and eventually realizes that it is best for the law to give the consequences to the coach and not Tony. His plea to Tony does have an affect and I believe it strikes a cord in Tony surrounding his feelings of wanting a “normal” existence outside of the mob. He chooses the non-violent route as if to show his more sensitive side.
The previews for the next episode show Tony attempting to hang out with some non-connected friends. Will he be able to be himself in this new context? I am curious after this week’s actions. This episode overall served to widen the rift between Uncle Junior and Tony. Seems like the perfect time for the scheming Livia to make her move. Three more episodes to the season finale and I can see the family falling apart as the feds strengthen their position. The strength of the Sopranos family lies in their connections to each other. If they lose sight of this they may be in for a bigger fall than any of us could expect.
The 411: A solid episode with a few weak moments, like the painfully obvious deviant behavior of the coach. Sooner or later Tony & Uncle Junior’s unspoken animosity is going to explode and I cannot wait to see it happen. Why do I feel like Livia will be there with a bowl of popcorn enjoying the show? This episode takes us one step closer to this inevitability and that cannot be bad.
