ISABELLA

ISABELLA

As the first season of The Sopranos crashes to a conclusion it does so to the strains of Nottingham band Tindersticks.  It feels a most odd act to have on the soundtrack for the mob battlefield of New Jersey but in capturing the moment and mood of the piece “Tiny Tears” from their second album proves perfect.

Arriving at the penultimate episode of the season Tony is not in a good way and it has not gone unnoticed.  Amidst word of an FBI informant in their ranks Pussy has gone missing and life in general is catching up on Tony.  And now Melfi has him on medication.

It begins at a funeral.  The deceased is an old lady called Mariolina Capuano.  Jimmy Altieri is around saying things he shouldn’t to Uncle Junior much to his chagrin.  Within seconds things cut to Bada Bing where Silvio and Christopher are discussing Tony’s condition.  Depression is offered as the reason/cause as Silvio compares his state to Churchill and Napoleon (thus comparing his own boss to said leaders).

Back at Casa Soprano Carmela is asking Tony if he needs socks.  Soon their exchange descends into an argument as she tells him to snap out of it, yanking open the curtains (the drapes) letting the light in on the day (“sunlight is good for you.  In Alaska they use light hates so they don’t get depressed”).  Now disturbed Tony gets up out of bed and enters the day looking out his bedroom window and spotting a mysterious beautiful lady in the garden next door hanging out the washing, much like his family is currently airing their dirty laundry.  It is a very gusty and windy day making the job difficult and exposing the mystery lady slightly but for the job of getting things clean it is effective.  As Tony looks on gawping and giddy for him this is a rare vision/glimpse of beauty in stifling and tough times.  This is Isabella.

From here with the Tindersticks in full flow we cut to Tony stepping into his bathroom getting his medication (Prozac and Lithium) from the cabinet coupled with a lingering shot of a pink toothbrush, a very feminine image, as he downs the pills and drifts off.  In the process he looks at his reflection disjointed and barely recognisable.  Confused with his eyes rolling he takes perch on his toilet and mentally drops.  It’s an Elvis death.

Returning to the funeral Junior is stressing.  His guys Mikey Palmice and Chucky Signore are late arriving as he admonishes them for leaving him alone to deal with “Pork Chop Boy” (Jimmy Altieri).  With this settling/calming things down Palmice informs Junior that they have set up “the thing” to happen tomorrow (“black guys, it will never leak back”).  Now somewhat happier in distracted fashion Junior looks at the deceased lady in near celebration commenting “Mariolina, gave me my first hand job.  God, what is this man saying at this poor woman’s funeral?  Attempting to bring things back on topic Palmice continues to ease Junior’s mind regarding the hook as he observes a boy looking at his prayer cards, a boy that looks like a young Tony, his nephew.  With guilt Junior comments “thousands of bucks for Honus Wagner and jack shit for Jesus” before adding “guy spills his guts on some fucking shrink’s carpet” half justifying, half denying his decision to whack Tony.  With this Palmice continues to fill Junior in on the details until out of annoyance he snaps “enough, I don’t want to hear anymore.”

Back home the time is now 2.30PM (tooth hurty) as Christopher updates Tony on the lack of information on Pussy’s whereabouts.  As he continues to discuss Pussy Tony soon tells him to stop.  With that Tony heads downstairs and finally gets dressed.

Stepping out into his garden the gales remain as he notices a slip on the grass.  Without hesitation he picks it up and sniffs it, he remains an animal.  Despite being depressed Tony is still smart, smooth and charming as he heads next door to return the garment and make his introduction.  It turns out his neighbours the Cusamanos are in Bermuda playing golf while Isabella house sits.  She is reading “Principles Of Oral Surgery”, a clear connection to both the pink toothbrush in his cabinet, the clock on the wall and Tony’s health in general.  He comments “if my dentist looked like you I would stay away during a root canal” which looks like a variation on something he might say to Dr Melfi as he attends to a different set of roots with her.  With that their exchange ends with her sitting down returning to her book all dressed in white, pure in both appearance and conduct.

At this point Tony heads out to town in his SUV with Christopher trailing him keeping tabs.  At the newsstand Tony buys a newspaper under the watchful eye of both Christopher and his would be assassins (John Clayborn and Rasheen Ray).  To all this Tony is oblivious, his medication has taken/stolen his edge and street smarts.  And while Chris and the hitmen clash outside he skulks around like Frankenstein’s monster entering Montclair Physicians’ Suites.  In his medicated state with this vision Tony is the physical embodiment of depression and a broken man.

With this we cut to Junior leaning out the back of his car and vomiting.  Suddenly it becomes evident this is tomorrow and the hit was supposed to go down but did not (“apparently a civilian got in the way”).  Unwittingly Christopher just saved Tony.  The fixer Donnie Paduana arrives to explain what happened with fresh assurance of it now happening tomorrow.  In conversation Paduana makes light of the rumour Livia arranged the hit prompting Junior to order him hit for having a big mouth.  After Palmice performs the deed they pass the car he was shot with Junior looking on in horror.  He is an uneasy man.

In session Dr Melfi begins by asking Tony if he is still taking the Lithium.  She says the intention is to give him a kickstart/jolt to the system.  He exhibits doubt of its effect stating that he “don’t feel nothing…I feel dead and empty”.  There is however one thing: Isabella.  Focusing on the bleak he offers the declaration “I’m like King Midas in reverse here, everything I touch turns to shit” before expressing doubts of his own being “I’m nothing”.  Melfi suggests that if he feels that way Tony should subtly section himself for some rest and relaxation (“into a laughing academy?”).  This idea is naturally rejected.  With this dismissal Melfi states then instead she will increase his Prozac dosage to 60mg.

After the session Tony collects his medication from the chemist and bumps into Isabella.  She has just finished class having bought a sandwich for lunch.  Confused by what she has actually purchased Tony displays his wealth and class taking her to a high end restaurant for lunch.  She asks him if he has ever been to Italy (the motherland) to which he responds “no, I never got off my ass” as she asks where his people are from.  From here she tells him about a house in her town that survived an earthquake due to its foundations (much like his two families).  At this point Tony states that his grandfather was a Stonemason (a member of a secret society).  To this Isabella adds that the earthquakes mean now there a no longer as many houses left (much like the Mafia with the FBI).  She adds how in her hometown there is a church where the bell rings whenever a baby is born and with this Tony drifts off to a vision of her sat in a rocking chair holding a baby as church bells ring in the distance.  Isabella looks up and acknowledges the viewer (Tony).  This is the mother figure he never had.  Returning to reality (to the restaurant) Isabella asks the spaced out Tony “are you on medication?” which he denies before changing the subject asking her further about her dentist studies.

Cutting to the evening back home Meadow is seen calling upstairs to Tony announcing dinner as A.J. comes running downstairs.  Livia is visiting for dinner as Carmela forces A.J. to pull her seat out for her even though it is only her status that commands this (not her personality).  At this point Tony emerges from an unexpected direction/room still wearing his bathrobe and bed clothes.  He gives his mother a peck on the cheek as she comments about his smell as he responds “I really don’t need that right now ma” in the manner of a neglected and wounded child prompting the comment “aren’t we being sensitive”, the opposite of what is need at this time.  There are two bosses at this table jockeying for position of head.  And the wrong one is winning.  It turns out that Junior was supposed to attend also but he wasn’t feeling well.  As the chicken is passed around Meadow states that during its lifetime the average chicken’s legs do not touch the floor to which A.J. reacts “that’s dicked up” causing Livia to comment “if you used that language (around me) I’d slap your face” both treating him how she treated Tony and sending out another message that she is the alpha at this table.  Speaking further she states how she read about a woman in Pennsylvania killed herself and her three children in a fire.  But isn’t she the one that has called for the killing of her own son?  At this point she asks Carmela why Tony is still in his bathrobe more to emphasise the wrinkle than explain it.  Unhelpfully Meadow trivially states that “he is depressed” further emasculating Tony prompting him to head back up to bed causing Livia to begin crying further manipulating the situation.  “This is the last time; I am never coming back to this house”.  And if Tony gets whacked it probably will be.

New day rising and the wind remains heavy as ever as Tony looks out his bedroom window at Isabella stood in the Cusamano’s back garden.  At this point Carmela steps in commenting “what a day, with this wind huh?”  She then asks what he is looking at before getting a full view of Isabella, asking who she is.  Tony admits to having lunch with her prompting an argument and Carmela laying into Tony snapping “if I had an ounce of self respect I would cut your dick off!”

With the wind (of change) growing heavier we cut to a hat blowing down the street past Junior and Livia where they are wrapped up in a cinema queue for its everyday $3 matinee.  Here Livia comments on dinner at his son’s last night and how Meadow and A.J. “barely have a father now” which is quite rich considering her own parental skills.  As she keeps commenting and sticking in the boot an ill at ease Junior retorts “I don’t want to know” instead stating “some bargain ($3), that’s all anyone should pay for a movie”.  Junior is from better times.  Oblivious to this in continuation Livia compares Tony to looking like her cousin Kiki after having a lobotomy (“empty shell, better Kiki had died than going on living like that”).  This woman really feels justified in killing Tony.

“Can you hurt someone so much you’re supposed to care for, someone you said you’d always be there for”.

With that “Tiny Tears” rears back into proceedings as an above shot of Tony in bed slowly pans down in dizzying and woozy fashion.  It’s the disorientating angle of when life you feel sick and about to vomit.  It is what it almost induces of the viewer at this time.  And when his maid enters the room he responds with a bunt “go away!”

In a daze Tony gets up and heads out into another windy day towards town buying a racing post and bottle of Tropicana orange juice at the newsstand before returning to his SUV and spotting a man in his wing mirror approaching brandishing a gun.  With this the first shot is fired getting his drink as the second take out his driver side window as the lull of the music ceases and he snaps into action wrestling with the first hitman as the second rushes up and declares “you’re dead now motherfucker” managing to take out the passenger side window, Tony’s ear and his hitman partner with one shot.  Out of instinct Tony starts up his SUV and grabs the second shooter’s gun and manages to keep it pointed away from him while speeding off until the second gun man finally falls to the wayside as Tony briefly delights in his escape before ploughing straight into a parked car knocking himself out cold.

In the aftermath the episode cuts to Carmela, Meadow and A.J. running through a hospital corridor to check on Tony.  While getting his ear stitched together he jokes with Meadow about it being just a failed carjacking before asking A.J. “what’s the matter with you?  Forgot how to talk because your old man got banged up a little?”  Banged up – interesting terminology at this time.  With this they leave as Agent Harris steps in with feeble offers of protection off the back of what was an obvious assassination attempt.  Carmela sees this too.  She thinks they can get out but they can’t.  Ever buoyant Tony stands tall as the father figure while in the hall Meadow sits worrying as A.J. scoffs a sandwich (“God, self involve much?”).  And at this point Silvio and Pauly arrive as Tony’s other family also stands by his side - “Takes more than a Jamaican bobsleigh team with a couple of cap guns to stop your old man”.  With that they go in to see Tony as A.J. concludes to Meadow “I don’t believe it was a carjacking”.

Having made the news word soon gets out that it was a “gangland execution gone awry” as both Junior and Livia watch the news report on TV with very different reactions.  Naturally Junior is worried/scared (“I feel like I’m floating in space”) while Livia quickly changes her tune with the reaction of “he’s my only son” as she suggest that they visit him.

Now back home everyone is making a fuss of Tony.  Despite his injuries he is rejuvenated, the incident sparked/reignited something in him.  Silvio and Pauly are already around him as soon Christopher is joining them as it is said the surviving hitman is said to have drive off in a Taurus which he links with his little bout of road rage (his beef) a couple of days earlier.  The pieces slowly come into place.  On that note Carmela returns as the guys all celebrate Tony.  Christopher declares “he’s like a father to me”.  At this point Junior and Livia arrive just his men tell Tony “it had to be your uncle, right?”  As suspicions rise so does the threat of tension and repercussion so quick on her feet Livia conveniently forget who Meadow is.  Is she losing her mind?

With Tony now an endangered man he soughts a late night meeting with Melfi in a car park asking/checking whether she disclosed his treatment to any third parties prompting the subsequent questioning his authority.  Of course she has not, she’s a professional with ethic, she’s a good egg.  Satisfied with her admission he further defends his mother as being the blabbermouth, the culprit but it was her.  With this conversation picks up as Melfi asks him how he is feeling and he smiles “pretty good” commenting on the recuperative powers getting a jolt to the system, “a nice kickstart”.  He takes back his previous comments about not wanting to live and that in the height of the moment he says “I didn’t want to die.  Every fucking particle of my being was fighting to live”.  He comments how he had lunch with Isabella and his vision (his mind’s eye) stating how it was the parental fantasy he always desired.  Soon Carmela arrives to pick him up as elsewhere A.J. and his date are escorted to the school dance by Silvio and Pauly.

Elsewhere at Green Grove Junior storms in on Livia (looking for her slipper under her bed) asking what she was doing yesterday forgetting her granddaughter.  She denies faking her gesture (“I don’t know what you’re talking about”) as exasperated Junior storms off.

Back at Tony’s he goes into his backyard where Dr Cusamano is raking up leaves.  Seeing him Tony asks where Isabella is but he doesn’t know what he is talking about.  Then inside he asks Carmela if she saw Isabella to which she angrily responds to accusation of threatening to cut off his dick.  With this realisation that there was no Isabella, that she was just a hallucination, he telephones Melfi somewhat peeved as she tells him to discontinue the already flushed Lithium.  Forever the analyst Melfi further analyses/reviews Isabella and what she represented asking Tony if he ever flirted or came onto her.  He didn’t.  Melfi continues asking “why now?” highlighting the need for a maternal figure in his life.  She asks him hoe he is feeling and he responds “I feel pretty good actually.  When I find out who took a shot at me I’m going to feel even better”.  The episode cuts and ends with “I Feel Free” by Cream.

For me “Tiny Tears” has come to represent the song that accompanies the droned out depressed and misery that Tony inhabits in this episode.  It is now an anthem.