Guest Starring:
Paul Schulze as Father Phil Intintola
Oksana Lada as Irina Peltsin
Tony Ray Rossi as Fred Peters
[Reviewer's Notes: This episode originally aired on February 7th 1999].
Episode 1.05 of The Sopranos took an unusual turn from the previous four episodes, as a majority of the episode was spent on the road as Tony took his daughter Meadow to several universities near Maine to learn some more about each university and to get a feel for the university life. However, the episode involved so much more than just the road trip - Tony himself had a rather difficult challenge to face - in the form of Fred Peters, an alias for a former made man of the New Jersey mob who became a rat to avoid going to jail. Not only did Tony have to protect his daughter from the armed man, but he also had to take him out without letting Meadow know that they were in danger.
Admittedly, Tony was the one who instigated a majority of the events in the episode, as he was the one who scoped out the Peters house and alerted Fred's attention. But the constant power shift between the two men was very interesting to see, as we diverted from Tony's investigations into Fred's own investigation of Tony Soprano, culminating in a near assassination in a hotel parking lot.
One of the most interesting events in the episode was when Tony finally got the upper hand on Fred and started strangling him with the wire. Fred told Tony that he had been in the parking lot and was about to shoot Tony dead but he stopped because his daughter was there, and he believed that it was only a coincidence. Unfortunately for Fred, Tony didn't relent and he met his grisly demise. But it was interesting to see that even Tony himself was willing to kill people, even though he was a capo and could have sent his lieutenants to do it. Fred's death was a revenge kill for all of Tony's friends who ended up in jail and the viewer sees another side of Tony that we haven't seen so explicitly thus far - a vicious, ruthless and bloodthirsty side as opposed to his usual strict but fair side.
Of course, the episode wasn't entirely about Tony and Meadow - Carmela's subplot was greatly expanded upon as well. After staying home because of the flu, Carmela's close friend, Father Phil, decides to pay her a visit and see how she is going. What follows is a gradual progression of Carmela attempting to garner the attention of the priest in more ways than one. I really liked Carmela's storyline this episode, as we see her desire for Father Phil held back by a conflicting love for her husband. Of course, Father Phil does get quite drunk from all the wine he and Carmela have, but before he has a chance to kiss her, he runs to the toilet and vomits. Looks like Carmela missed out this time. But as for how long she will stay with Tony? I don't know. I suppose that will be addressed further on down the track.
I should also mention that when Tony and Meadow got back, Carmela did confront Tony about his lie in reference to his therapist (he had originally told her Dr. Melfi was a man). I have a feeling this will be addressed next episode.
Overall, my marks for the episode:
- Potency of the season's theme(s) identified in the episode: ********
- Editing & Scenes of Relevance: *********
- Main characters connection with audience/actors effectiveness in role: *********
- Secondary characters connection with audience/actors effectiveness in role: ********
- Music & Visual Effects: *********
- Originality and effectivenss of the episode's narrative: *********
- Integration and effectiveness of multiple story arcs and character relationships: *******
Overall Marks: 59 / 70
Grade Percentage: 84%
This episode of The Sopranos was absolutely brilliant and i enjoyed it very much. Of course, the episodes so far have all recieved fairly good marks, but this episode has taken the base story and expanded it much further, resulting in a multitude of interesting scenarios that would not have been expected so early for a show like this.
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