Episode 8: The Legend Of Tennessee Moltisanti
Christopher keeps having nightmares over killing Emil the Czech man he killed over a garbage route dispute. His ghost keeps visiting telling him he made a mistake. This worries Christopher. Larry Barese's daughter is getting married. Everyone is at the reception. Livia is there with Tony "Listen to him, with that my darling, I am nobody's darling!" She says Larry responds "She never disappoints this one." Livia pipes up "Are you still seeing your other women, Lorenzo?" In a condescending tone, this embarrasses Larry. Larry says he's heard some disturbing shit he wants to talk to Tony about later. Paulie and Larry talk about Federal indictments he has a friend who's girlfriend is a word processor for the FBI. He doesn't know when but that it's coming. Tony and Sal are asking Larry about the indictments and says not only his source in Jersey gave him the info but that half of "New York" has moved to Fort Lauderdale already. Chris is talking to Jimmy Altieri "They're gunna want my ass." Jimmy asks "Why?" What do you mean why? I'm O.C." Jimmy asks "When did you get your fuckin' wings?" Chris says "I didn't. Not yet anyway." Tony is standing with his and Junior's crew talking about strategy. Tony says "Uncle Jun' you got anything you want to say about this?" Junior says "You guys see indictments under your beds at night, right away you're ready to lam it. As far as I'm concerned it's just speculation." Mikey says "Rumor." Ray suggests "Better to be safe than sorry, no? I say we duck for awhile." Junior answers "What are we gonna do? Close shop? We can't do that." Ray asks "Tony, what do you think?" Junior upset says "What the fuck are you asking him for? I just gave you the answer!" Tony says "Junior's right, we go on the lam now the fuckin' Albanian's will be living in our houses." Sal says "Fuck, I just gave a g-note to Larry's kid for a boost, if I knew I had to lam it in a hurry I would have chosen another time." Sal goes over to the bride to get his envelope back. Tony says he agrees with his Uncle. He suggests that everyone do a little spring cleaning, we see everyone disperse with their lives, sometimes a bit forcibly. Everything is fine until the facade begins to crack.
Tony and Carmela round up the loose cash and guns in the crawlspaces and vents around the house. Meadow sees this and runs up to her room, AJ is chasing a fly with a flyswatter she tells him to boot his computer to remove all the porno because the cops are coming. Sal is throwing various documents onto a burning grill. Christopher at his apartment is writing his screenplay, he accidentally deletes it. He gets Adriana to bring the script back. Christopher gets upset hitting the table. He asks her what she thinks, she says that she needs the entire thing at once not piece by piece. She comments that Christopher his her Tennessee William. She says she has never seen him apply himself like this before. "I love movies. That candy and carpet smell in Blockbuster. I get high off it." He talks about how mob stories are always hot and that he can make it big with the right script. Georgie calls Christopher and tells him to turn on channel 6, there is a news special on the coming FBI indictments. Everyone is watching. Junior has been named as the acting boss, it's mentioned they have long standing ties to the "New York" families. Brendon Filone is mentioned as a possible casualty of escalating war as a Soprano soldier and associate. Christopher is pissed off at this assumption because his name is nowhere to be found on the news. At a family dinner Dr. Melfi mentions to her son that he wouldn't want to mention the word Ginzo in front of him. She lets it slip that her client is involved with the mob. "Why should I refer him to another doctor? He's my patient." Richard her ex husband says "You know you can't treat sociopaths. He's scum and you shouldn't help him with his bedwetting." Melfi says "You have no idea who this man is and yet you call him scum." Richard says "People like him are the reason why Italian Americans have such a bad image." Melfi's mom says "I agree." Richard making another point "Ask any American to describe an Italian American in this country and invariably he's going to reference The Godfather, Goodfellas..." Jason, her son says "Good movies." Richard finishing his thought "And thre rest are going to mention Pizza." Jason says "Good movies to eat pizza by." Melfi says "Stop it, Jason. I never said he was in the Mafia." Richard says "Why do you think we're never going to see an Italian President?" Melfi says "Oh and that's my patient's fault? I realize you're very involved in the defamation lobby, so go after Hollywood if you feel you absolutely have to but leave my patient alone." Richard says "It's a synergy. News items and and the constant portrayal of Italian Americans as gangsters." Jason reminds his father of a glaring historical fact "Wasn't the anti def deal started by Joe Columbo, a mobster?" Richard ignores this and continues "Italians against discrimination did a study. At it's height the Mafia in this country had less than 5,000 members and yet that tiny insignificant fraction casts such a dark shadow over 20 million hard working Americans." Jason says "Dad, at this point in our cultural history, mob movies are classic American cinema, like Westerns." Melfi's dad says "I have to agree there Rich. You never saw the Scotch-Irish pissing and moaning about always being portrayed as rustlers or gunslingers. To we, the 20 million."
Christopher back at his apartment. Tony calls Christopher and tells him to come down to the Bing and to bring pastries. Christopher takes a number and is waiting a long time. A customer comes off the street and seems to cut in line, the baker explains that he went out to get gas and was here prior. Christopher demands he be next. The situation escalates to the point of Chris shooting him in the foot after he boxes up the pastries. Chris leaves him bleeding on the floor. Sal, Silvio and Tony are shooting pool talking about the indictments. Chris shows up with the pastries. Tony asks Chris to go with Georgie to sweep for bugs in the bathroom. Carmela shows up to take Livia out to Lunch, so that she can get out of her room while Tony hides money and guns in her room. Tony is in therapy. Tony lets Melfi know that he might not be available in relation to the news stories of recent regarding organized crime. Chris is at his apartment, looking depressed. Food containers around, clothes everywhere. The place is a mess. Paulie comes over. He's there to take Chris out with a couple of "broads". Paulie asks Chris what's wrong. He tells Chris that he's heard about the Bakery shooting and that eyewitnesses say he was driving a Lexus, Chris confirms that Tony doesn't know about it. Chris talks about his struggle screenwriting. How he doesn't have an arc. Paulie sums it up Nothing good ever happened to me, I'm alive, I'm surviving..so what? Chris is looking for some deeper inner truth that is simple unavailable to him in the "life". Some of us never fulfill whatever ultimate purpose we have a chance to reach. All of America is an opportunity, but there's simply no guarantee of happiness.
Chris decides to dig up Emil, afraid it was in a bad spot. He and Georgie dig him up. Chris mentions the Pine Barrens as a good place to dump him. South Jersey. Dr. Melfi and her ex Richard are discussing selling a piece of property for their Son's education. "So are we gonna sell or what?" Richard asks Melfi says "For Jason. But you know I don't want to hear you took one of your Colleen's on a cruise. We all know you're a sucker for those Irish girls. Every Italian boy bows down to the freckles." Richard says "I married you." Melfi says "I was a mother figure." Richard says "Don't bust my balls with freud by numbers, would you?" Melfi says "Don't bust my balls? Watch it, Richard, your calabrese is showing." Richard asks "Are you somehow implying by all this that I'm ashamed to be an Italian American?" Melfi says "With all the poverty, starvation, ethnic cleansing, and generally horrible shit in this world you devote your energies to the protection of the dignity of Connie Francis. You know, you're all worked up about my patient, a man who has no bearing on who you are or where you are in this world." Richard says " Call him a patient, the man's a criminal Jennifer. And after awhile finally you're going to get past psychotherapy with it's cheesy moral relativism and you're going to get to good and evil and he's evil." Tony is waiting for Christopher, he knows about the shooting. And smacks Christopher and tells him to drive. They discuss Christopher shooting the clerk, digging up a body, these actions show Tony that he wants to get caught. Tony yells at him for quite awhile. They discuss life feeling difficult and hard and serotonin levels. Tony lights a cig backwards, then quickly puts it out. "You know about that shit?" Tony says he saw it on a program. "What and take Prozac? Not this skinny guinea." Chris says. Tony asks Chris if he ever considered suicide and then they laugh about losers who do that. You can tell they've both thought about it by the expressions they try to hide. The FBI rings the doorbell at The Soprano house, AJ busy with Nintendo. Tony is not at his appointment due to this. Meadow, AJ, Carmela, and Tony watch as they search the house. Agent Grasso accidentally dropped a glass bowl. Tony and Agent Grasso trade verbal barbs, but Grasso cleans up the mess he made. That night they are eating Chinese takeout talking about having Italians involved with the FBI, sending them intentionally. "What's he think he'll get to the top by arresting his own people? He'll see, he'll learn. You'd think there never was a Michelangelo." Carmela says "Did you know an Italian invented the telephone?" AJ says "Alexander Graham Bell was Italian?" Tony upset says "You see? Antonio Meucci invented the telephone and he got robbed! Everybody knows that" Meadow asks "Who invented the Mafia?" Tony says "What?" Meadow asks "La Costa Nostra, who invented that? Wasn't it Salvatore Lucana better known as Charlie Lucky Luciano who organized the Five Families? Lucchese, Gambino, Bannano, Profaci." Tony asks "Is there something you want to say to me?" "I just like history just like you dad." AJ wanting to defend his dad says "Can you just shut the fuck up about it?" Both Tony and Carmela yell "Hey!" They continue discussing famous Italians and the discrimination faced by Sacco and Venzetti. Tony finishes this by saying "And of course, Francis Albert." This a clear reference to Frank Sinatra.
Tony in therapy is told he'll be charged for the miss session. He equates missing his session to getting hit by a car. He becomes upset when Melfi doesn't agree. Tony upset throws money at Melfi and equates her behavior to pouring out his feelings to a call girl. He leaves by telling Melfi to "stick it up your ass." At Green Grove a stand up comedian is telling very lame jokes. Junior and Livia are visiting. Junior is discussing his headaches. Livia tells Junior that Tony is seeing a psychiatrist, obsessing that he's talking about how awful of a mother she is. Livia asks that there be no repercussions. Junior keeps repeating "A psychiatrist?" Christopher's phone rings, it's his mother, she mentions that his name is in the paper along with other mob ties. Melfi her ex and Jason are in family therapy. Richard wants to talk about Jennifer seeing Tony as a patient. "Jason are you concerned that your mother is treating patient x?" The psychiatrist asks. "I don't care." Jason answers. Richard says "After her last encounter with him she finally acknowledged she saw a different side of him, the sub-human." The therapist asksed "I take it you were frightened?" Jennifer says "Frightened, revolted." Richard says "At long last, appropriate emotions." Jennifer says "Oh for christ sake, Richard, you too Sam, when did we get so afraid to get our hands dirty." Jason says "It's what she gets paid for." Richard asks "Jason how would you like to see your mother.....never mind I'm not going to paint any graphic images." Jason says "See, he always does that." Richard "What?" The therapist asks "Follow that up Jase, Dad does what?" Jennifer says "His real issue is that I should distance myself from this man on the grounds of the stigma that he brings us." The therapist says "I say refer this patient to a therapist that specialists in mafia depression." making a joke. "You know on my mother's side, we have a few dark sheep. Lepke." Jason asks "Who's Lepke?" "Louis Lepke Buchalter. You know, Murder Inc. My mother's uncle was Lepke's wheel man. His driver. Those were some tough jews." The reminder that so many beginnings started with crime. Christopher gets a stack of papers to commemorate the mention of himself.
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