Meadowlands (S01E04)
Airdate: January 31st 1999
Written by: Jason Cahill
Directed by: Jason Patterson
Running Time: 53 minutes
Fourth episode of The Sopranos, while still generally good, represents first major step down in quality. And this is somewhat surprising, because it resolves some important issues of the plot.
This impression is made at the very beginning, with rather unimaginative sequence which is too quickly turned out to be Tony Soprano’s dream. It suggests that Tony is both sexually attracted to Dr. Melfi, while, at the same time, after close encounter with Silvio Dante in office building, becomes increasingly worried about his colleagues and peers learning about therapy session. As a result he hires corrupt police detective Vin Makazian (played by John Heard in guest starring role) to discreetly follow Dr. Melfi. He misinterpreters Tony’s motives, thinking that Dr. Melfi is Tony’s mistress instead of therapist and when he sees Dr. Melfi on a date with a tax lawyer Randall Curtin (played by Mark Blum in guest starring role), he beats him up in front of psychiatrist.
Tony’s son Tony Junior has first important subplot of his own, which is rather weak. He gets in a conflict with his friend Jeremy Piocosta (played by T. J. Coluca), which leads to series of very public fights in school hall. The issue is supposed to be resolved in another public fight, but Jeremy, after Tony visits his father George Piocosta (played by Sal Petraccione) humiliatingly yields. Tony Junior is baffled, but his older sister Meadow prints materials she has found on Internet, thus finally revealing what his father does for a living and how much power he has.
The main plot deals with the potentially escalating food between Tony and Uncle Junior, further complicated with murder of Brendan Filone, whose corpse Chris Moltisanti and Andrea La Cerva find. Chris is both frightened and angry, and wants to kill Junior’s right had man Mikey Palmice. Tony Soprano bars it because is Mikey is “made man”, while Chris is not. Things get even worse when the news comes that family underboss Jackie Aprile Sr. has died. This news hits Tony very hard, but also creates problem in the form of inevitable struggle for succession with Uncle Junior. Following Dr. Melfi’s advice how to deal with elderly parents, Tony comes to solution – he yields to Uncle Junior in exchange for number of lucrative contracts.
Apart from weak beginning, Meadowlands has issues with not properly explaining Makazian’s mishandling of Dr, Melfi. Potentially strong emotional scene when Tony learns about Jackie’s death in Bada Bing is compromised with bizarre shot during which stripper, played by Theresa Lynn, says that “she will remember the day as long as she lives”. The episode, however, acquits itself with strong finale during Jackie’s funeral, which ironically shows Tony skillfully manipulating older generations, while his son sees his father with new pride.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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