Meadowlands (The Sopranos episode)

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“Meadowlands”
The Sopranos episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 4
Guest stars see below
Written by Jason Cahill
Directed by John Patterson
Production no. 104
Original airdate January 31, 1999
Episode chronology
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"Denial, Anger, Acceptance" "College"
Episode chronology

"Meadowlands" is the 4th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos. It was the 4th episode for the show's first season. The episode was written by Jason Cahill and was directed by John Patterson. It originally aired on January 31, 1999.

Contents

[edit] Guest starring roles

[edit] Episode recap

Tony suffers increasing paranoia over his secret psychiatric sessions, especially after a near-encounter with Silvio Dante, who was visiting the dental office just opposite Dr. Melfi's. However, Tony is in no hurry to abandon therapy: he has also been developing feelings for the doctor, even to the point of having a crooked detective in his employ, Vin Makazian, secretly follow and photograph her. Unfortunately, Makazian assumes Melfi is a mistress of Tony's, and oversteps the mark; when he sees Melfi with a date, he pulls the pair over on a false accusation of crossing the double yellow line, and after the date admits to having wine with dinner, proceeds to conduct a field sobriety test and then brutally beat the helpless man and take him into custody, stating to a confused Melfi: ``You got prime rib at home, and you're going out for hamburger?``. Tony's dangerous feelings even lead him to consider quitting therapy, but Carmela insists he continue, although she is still under the impression that Tony's psychiatrist is male. In fact, Carmela goes so far as to warn Tony that without continued therapy, their marriage will be at serious risk.

Anthony Junior is left confused when a physically bigger classmate, Jeremy Piocosta, backs down from a fight with him. With some guidance from Meadow, AJ comes to realise that Jeremy was intimidated by the reputation of his father's position, which turns out not to be waste management consultancy as he had believed. It turns out that Tony had coincidently met Jeremy's father the day before at a nursery as Tony was seeking pesticide for his corn.

Christopher, meanwhile, is running scared after his mock execution, which has left him in a neck brace, and is even more unnerved when he and Adriana discover Brendan Filone lying dead in his bathtub, shot through the eye. Convinced that Tony is exacting vengeance on him for giving drugs to Meadow, his fears are only allayed when he questions her and discovers that she has not revealed the transaction. However, finding that Junior is responsible, and has also assumed collection of protection money owed to Tony's crew, he is keen for vengeance. Upon bringing news of Brendan's demise, Christopher also implies that he will take out Mikey Palmice. Tony does not allow Chris to go forward with his plans because Mikey is a made guy. Instead, Tony takes a ride to the luncheonette, beats Mikey and proceeds to staple his suit with a staple gun. He then confronts Junior about his extreme actions against Brendan and Chris.

Although Tony chastises his nephew, the prospect of war with Junior also looms large for him, especially after the abrupt death of his friend and acting DiMeo Family boss Jackie Aprile creates uncertainty over who will be his successor. Although Tony has the backing of the other capos, and is irate over the unauthorized and extreme punishments meted out to Christopher, he seeks a peaceful resolution with his uncle, and after some unwitting inspiration from Dr. Melfi about giving the elderly the ``illusion of control``, Tony concedes leadership of the family to Junior, with several advantages: he can avoid a war and obtain income-earning properties and contracts as payment from Junior in exchange for his recommendation. Content with his decision, Tony opts to remain in therapy.

[edit] First appearances

The episode marks the first appearances of:

[edit] Deceased

[edit] Title reference

  • The Meadowlands is a region of New Jersey reputed for being a dumping ground for New York and New Jersey's Mafia murder victims (and is one of Jimmy Hoffa's supposed resting places). Yo-Yo Mendez remarks to Christopher in this episode that he was rumoured to have been taken there for execution.

[edit] Awards

Jason Cahill won a Writers Guild of America award for his work on this episode.

[edit] Miscellanea

  • Big Pussy refers to Brendan Filone's execution style slaying as a 'Moe Greene special', related to Moe Greene, a character in The Godfather who was also murdered with a bullet through the eye. This serves as one of the many references in the series to the Godfather films.
  • Tony Darrow ("Larry Boy" Barese) also appeared in Goodfellas as Sonny Bunz — a restaurant owner busted out by the mob.
  • Christopher quotes Al Pacino's iconic lines from the finale to the 1983 gangster film Scarface, perhaps forgetting how it ended.
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