Episode 03- Business Crosses Cultures

This is an episode with a lot going on for every member in the family.

Tony has to deal with the business of a Jewish family and with his friend, Jackie Aprile, dying of cancer. Carmela has a silent auction at the home. She asks family friend Artie to cater the event but ends up treating his wife, her ‘friend’, as a servant. Charmaine gets back at her in a great scene that is unexpected and bitter. Meadow has trouble handling everything she has to handle in high school so she goes to extremes to get through it.

The best parts of the episode are two scenes. The first involves Tony trying to help his dying friend with the only way he knows how, a dancer from his club. It’s a humorous and sad attempt to help a friend. It shows just how lost Tony is with how to help his friend but at the same time how much Tony cares for his friend. It proves that, in his own way, Tony truly has a heart. Tony may be a brute but he is no Golem as the Jewish father has suggested.

The other great scene is straight from The Godfather, a montage of violence and peace. It all begins with Livia, the conniving grandmother. More and more we see just how much power she has over the whole mafia. Manipulative and vengeful, it is obvious how detrimental her words can be as she advises Junior to scare Chris and kill Chris’s friend. What follows is a carefully crafted scene in which a moved Tony watches his daughter’s choir sing an angelic song as the violence blessed by Livia occurs. It’s a brilliant homage to one of the most famous scenes in cinema.