TV Series: The Sopranos Season 4 (Part 2)

The New Jersey and the New York mob almost go to war over a joke? Is that possible?

Last season Ralphie Cifaretto told a joke about Ginny, the wife of Johnny Sack, the New York underboss. He mocked her because of her weight. It was an inappropriate joke, but everyone present, including Tony Soprano himself, laughed. That should have been the end of it, but Paulie had a grudge against Ralphie, so he informed Johnny what had been said. Johnny isn't like the other mobsters. All the others cheat on their wives with goomahs, but not Johnny. He idolises his wife, however much she weighs.

Johnny demands revenge. First he demands that Tony take action against Ralphie. When Tony refuses, Johnny asks his boss, Carmine Lupertazzi (pictured above), for permission to execute Ralphie. Carmine refuses, but Johnny makes it clear that he'll go ahead regardless. He hires a hitman. At the same time Tony realises that Johnny won't listen to reason and arranges for someone to kill him.

The killers are already underway, when Johnny has a change of heart. He rings Tony to tell him he'll accept an apology. Tony calls off his hitman, and so does Johnny. Peace is maintained. For now.

Ralphie buys a race horse called Pie-O-My from Hesh. After the horse wins two races there's a lot of excitement. Ralphie shares his winnings with Tony. When Pie-O-My is taken ill, Ralphie refuses to pay the medical bills. Tony steps in, because he feels affection towards the horse. It's possible that Pie-O-My will never race again.

The FBI increases its pressure on Adriana. Deborah/Danielle rings her in the middle of an appointment in a beauty parlour and tells her to come to a meeting immediately. Disgraceful!

Deborah passes Adriana on to Robyn Sanseverino as her primary handler. She's supposedly been in the FBI longer and has more experience, but what a miserable face she has! Adriana is told what's been happening behind her back. She's been told that Pussy Bonpensiero and Richie Aprile have been taken into the witness protection programme, but the agents deny this. They want Adriana to give them a steady stream of information. She says (quite correctly) that she hardly knows anything, so they tell her she should make more of an effort to find things out.

The main result of the increased pressure is that Adriana begins to use heroin.

Junior Soprano, the official head of the family, is on trial for a collection of offences, but what bothers him most is the poor quality of the courtroom sketch that's shown on television. The following day he sits facing the artist to make sure that a better sketch is made.

After the death of Bobby Baccalieri's wife in a car crash the wives of Tony's crew show sympathy, cooking meals for him, more food than he could possibly eat. Janice, who's now single, is especially interested in him. She visits him regularly, encouraging him to get back to work, supporting Junior. She isn't much of a cook, so she claims that some of the meals delivered to him are her own.

Tony finds out that his ex-lover Gloria Trillo has killed herself. Tony blames himself and wishes he could have done more for her.

Tony's long time friend Artie Bucco is talked into a deal by Jean-Philippe, the brother of his new waitress. He wants to distribute Armagnac in America. He needs $50,000 to buy the marketing rights, and he'll get his first payments within two weeks. Artie borrows the money from Tony to give to him. But things go wrong. Jean-Philippe spends the money, but is unable to sell the Armagnac. He's unable to pay Artie back, so Artie is unable to pay Tony back. Artie attempts to kill himself with a mixture of alcohol and pills. Tony, still obsessing over Gloria's suicide, forgives Artie. He tells him that he'll take over Jean-Philippe's debt personally, wiping Artie's debt clean.

Tony's son AJ hs a girlfriend, probably his first. As far as I know, he's 17, so it's a good time to start. Wow! She's a real beauty. I'd say she's out of his league, but it seems that she's attracted to him by the stories about his family. She keeps asking him about the things his father does, but AJ is innocent and barely knows anything.

This is what AJ gets up to on Daddy's couch. It looks like a scene from "On The Buses". I shouldn't make fun of him. I was 17 as well.

Once more, there's very little violence in this segment of the Sopranos. There's a lot that could happen, but it doesn't get that far. There are two injuries, but no deaths. It's possible that Jean-Philippe is killed by Furio, but it's off camera. The series handles its subject matter very tastefully.

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