We're In The Motel Business

The Sopranos 1.03 Review - 'Denial, Anger, Acceptance'

Guest Starring:

John Ventimiglia as Arty Bucco

Katherine Narducci as Charmaine Bucco

Al Sapienza as Mikey Palmice

Anthony DeSando as Brendan Filone

Drea de Matteo as Adriana La Cerva
Michael Rispoli as Jackie Aprile

Sharon Angela as Rosalie Aprile

Michele de Cesare as Hunter Scangarelo

Jerry Adler as Hesh Rabkin

Oksana Lada as Irina Peltsin

[Reviewer's Notes: This episode originally aired on January 24th 1999].

This week's episode of The Sopranos started off on a high - namely with Christopher and Brendan returning the truck they had stolen in the previous episode and delivering it to Uncle Junior's clothing store.

But i'll get back to their story arc in just a moment.

This week, three significant story arcs were expanded on.

The first one i would like to address is Tony's major plot development this episode, involving a Jewish run hotel business. After being introduced to the hotel owner, Tony dispatches some of his men to capture the owner's son in law and attempt to 'convince' him to give up on his goal of obtaining 50% of the hotel. However, the men are surprised when the Jewish son in law turns out to be much more resiliant then they first realised. After calling Tony to come down, they finally manage to do the job after threatening to cut the man's genitals off. However, the Jewish owner attempts to refuse to give Tony his 25% and as a result, Tony beats the man around a little until he gives in.

Tony then visits his old friend, and Mafia Don, Jackie Aprile, to report the news, but he discovers that Jackie no longer cares about the mafia work - instead he seems to care about nothing at all, due to his cancer making him depressed. Tony brings his friend's depression up with his therapist and she tells him to try and overcome his own feelings of depression and sadness, which causes Tony to get angry and storm off. However, i think he'll be back.

The second important story arc for the episode involves Christopher and Tony's daughter, Meadow. After Meadow initially asks Christopher for some meth to study for her S.A.T.'s, Christopher finally gives in to Meadow's demands after fearing she would visit the rough neighbourhoods looking to score some. Focusing more on Christopher's storyline, we also see that Uncle Junior has had enough of Christopher and Brendan's messing around and dispatches some of his men to take them out. After Christopher gets taken, he is taken to the docks where he believes that Tony sent his men to kill him for giving Meadow meth, but he discovers that Junior had sent the men to warn him that if he tried anything again he would get killed. Brendan, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. After visiting Brendan's house, Junior sends his man in and kills Brendan in the bathtub.

Lastly, the brief plot developments in Carmela's life. Aside from Carmela organising a dinner party fundraiser, not much else took place in her story line, apart from a brief revelation from Arty Bucco's wife who revealed that she and Tony had slept together once before they were married. This evidently angers Carmela who seems to be fuming at Tony as the episode closes. Will this lead to a more complicated and expanded subplot in the next episode? Only time will tell.

Overall, here are 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 effectiveness of the episode's narrative:  *******

• Integration and effectiveness of multiple story arcs and character relationships:  *******

Overall Marks: 53 / 70

Grade Percentage: 76%

All in all, this week's episode was very entertaining and i look forward to next week's developments.