TV Series: The Sopranos Season 3 (Part 4)

The eleventh episode of season three, "Pine Barrens", is worth a special mention, because most Sopranos fans consider it the best episode of the whole series. Paulie and Christopher accidentally kill a man when a pick up goes wrong. They dump him in their trunk and drive to Pine Barrens, a woodland area in southern New Jersey, to bury the body. They should have checked more closely. When they open the trunk he's still alive. He attacks them and runs away. The rest of the episode involves Paulie and Christopher wandering around in the woods, unable to find where they parked their car.

The main recurring theme in the fourth part of season three (episodes 11 to 13) is break ups. Tony's short, tempestuous relationship with Gloria Trillo is over. She crosses a line by making contact with Tony's wife. She even threatens to tell his wife and children about their relationship. No no no. That's going too far. Tony breaks off the relationship immediately, and when she rings him to ask him to change his mind he sends a man to threaten to kill her if she ever contacts him again.

The other break up is Jackie Aprile, who's been dating Meadow Soprano for only a few months. When Meadow says she's too tired to have sex with him, he contacts another girl to fulfil his needs. What's wrong with him? God gave men a right hand to deal with problems like those. Meadow is suspicious because of his lame excuse; he has to take his car to be repaired. At midnight? Would anyone believe that? She breaks off the relationship immediately. Unlike Gloria he doesn't beg to be taken back.

But the break up is sealed in another way. A few days later Jackie is foolish enough to rob a card game run by his uncle's associates. Jackie goes into hiding, but he's found and shot in the back of the head. He doesn't even see it coming. That's a mercy.

The FBI has no decency. They interrupt Jackie's funeral to arrest Silvio Dante for gambling offences. They know where he lives; they know where he works. Couldn't they have arrested him later? Silvio isn't worried. He laughs at the agents and tells them his lawyer will get him out before his soup is cold.

We hear nothing more about the arrest, but Silvio's prediction comes true. A few hours later we see him at Jackie's funeral wake with his wife. Incidentally, the two actors are also man and wife in real life. They make a beautiful couple.

There are two developments at the end of the season that will have effects in the following seasons. Tony's son AJ (Anthony Junior), shown here looking smart at the wake, is expelled for stealing the results of a school test. There's an unsuccessful attempt to enrol him in a military academy, but the season ends with him being unschooled.

The junior FBI agent Deborah Ciccerone is assigned to get closer to the Soprano family by becoming friends with Christopher's girlfriend Adriana.

Deborah fluffs her hair up and arranges a chance encounter in a clothing store. They're friends immediately. But which look do you prefer? Speaking for myself, I like her professional flat hair look. Did Deborah really have so much hair glued to her head?

This was yet another excellent season? Where will it go from here? I already know the answer, because I've seen it all before, but I'll keep you in suspense.

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