Bust Out

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“Bust Out”
The Sopranos episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 23
Guest stars see below
Written by Frank Renzulli and Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess
Directed by John Patterson
Production no. 210
Original airdate March 19, 2000
Episode chronology
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"From Where to Eternity" "House Arrest"
Episode chronology

"Bust Out" is the 23rd episode of the HBO original series, The Sopranos. It was the tenth episode for the show's second season. The episode was written by Frank Renzulli and Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess and directed by John Patterson. It originally aired on Sunday March 19, 2000.

Contents

[edit] Guest starring roles

[edit] Episode recap

The police locate an eyewitness to the Bevilaqua killing who identifies Tony from a book of suspect photos. He didn’t get a good look at Pussy, but describes the second man as "heavyset". Tony is panicked when word of the case reaches him, and he makes plans to flee until the witness can be identified and dealt with, giving a sports bag full of cash to his lawyer, Neil Mink, to provide for his family. Luckily for Tony, the witness realises via a newspaper article that the murder relates to the Mafia, and not a drug-related dispute as the detectives had let him believe, and urgently contacts the police department to retract his statement.

Tony and Richie squeeze money out of Davey's store, ordering bottled water, coolers, airline tickets and sneakers on the store’s credit and selling the stuff on the street. They inform Davey the squeeze will continue unless he is able to pay the money he owes them.

Davey is distraught over his situation and is shown in his basement lying on a pool table while pointing a pistol into his mouth. When his wife enters the room he hides the pistol in the ceiling tiles and claims to be fixing a light. Later, his wife and Carmela have lunch at Nuovo Vesuvio and she expresses concern about Davey's gambling, mentioning that the sporting goods store is in her name. Artie Bucco serves them the mineral water that Tony had Davey order, mentioning that he got a great deal on the price.

Unhappy with the cut he is getting from Davey’s store and the deal he has with Barone Sanitation, Richie discusses with Junior the possibility of getting rid of Tony. When Junior admonishes him, Richie reminds him of Junior’s plan to kill Tony the previous year.

Carmela is attracted to a new handyman, the brother of Davey's wife, who is a widower. He and Carmela share a passionate kiss, and then realize the futility of the situation. However, when he calls her, she invites him over for a "discussion" and gourmet meal which she prepares herself. In the meantime, he learns of Tony's involvement with his brother-in-law (Davey) and sends an assistant to meet her instead of arriving himself.

Tony tries to get closer to A.J. and Meadow, but does not succeed until Tony takes A.J. on his boat at the end of the episode, where they crank the boat up to full power and capsize two men in kayaks.

[edit] Title reference

  • A "bust out" is a common tactic in the organized crime world where a business's assets and lines of credit are exploited and exhausted to the point of bankruptcy. Richie and Tony profit from busting out Davey Scatino's sporting goods store in this episode.

[edit] Miscellanea

  • When asked by Davey why he let him get into debt, Tony tells him it was because he knew he had the store and other assets he could take, and instinctively saw an opportunity for profit. In a similar situation with Artie in Season Four, Tony reacts angrily when Artie accuses him of that line of thinking.
  • Cast members David Proval and Aida Turturro expressed concerns about filming their sex scene in this episode to David Chase.
  • The song playing at the end of the episode is Wheel in the Sky by Journey.
  • Meadow gets accepted into Boston University, New York University and the University of California Berkley. She gets rejected from Bowdoin, and gets waitlisted at Columbia and Georgetown.
  • Tony's boat has 620 horsepower.