History Fridge / TheSopranos

* Animals on the show are symbolic, and the symobolism is frequently addressed in dialogue. The ducks in the pilot are Tony's family. That bear that wouldn't leave Carmela alone is clearly Tony. Big Pussy is associated with fish after his murder. The horse Pie Oh My represents innocence. Ralph's murder of her has an obvious link to to Ralph's murder of Tracee, who was objectively associated with Meadow.

* By burning down his original restaurant, Vesuvio, Tony reassured that Artie's reputation wouldn't be compromised.
** And even if he justifiably kills Tony because of his place being burned, Artie will be automatically whacked by Tony's vengeful crime family.

* An observant viewer will notice that Silvio Dante has killed the most traitors and/or informants in the series (Jimmy Altieri, Big Pussy Bonpensiero, Adriana LaCerva, Burt Gervasi), and has been tapped by Tony personally to eliminate other problem cases (Coach Hauser, Richie Aprile) before being called off, or the situation resolved itself. Why Silvio, the level-headed consigliere, whose primary responsibility in the crime organization is management and advice, as opposed to Paulie Walnuts, Furio Giunta, Christopher Moltisanti, Patsy Parisi or even Bobby Baccialeri? Because the targets would least suspect Sil because of his general temperament and role in the Soprano organization. He can get close BECAUSE he would raise less alarm. And of course his victims won't be telling anyone...

* Regardless of how you might feel about the polarizing Ralph Cifaretto as a person, you'd have to agree that, what with his ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' fixation, it is poignantly fitting that he dies locked in visceral, bloody, gladiator-esque one on one combat against his perennial arch-nemesis Tony.
* When Johnny Sack shames himself by opening weeping in a MomentOfWeakness at his daughter's wedding (due in no small part to the FBI's relentless attempt to humiliate him), Christopher immediately sides with Phil, who derides John's conduct and claims that he'd just lost all respect for him as a man. Tony seems to think that Chrissy's stance on this is insincere, but really, Johnny had been ''hugely'' antagonistic towards Christopher throughout the entire series, for very petty reasons. It's not surprising at all that Chrissy had no sympathy for the man when the wheel finally turned.
* "Little Carmine" Lupertazzi was generally seen as a joke of a mobster, ridiculed for his lack of ambition disregarded due to his apparent low intellect and infamous for his over the top (even for the Sopranos characters) malapropisms. Even when he was attempting to claim his apparent "birthright" as head of the New York Family, it was largely at the behest and urging of his lieutenants Angelo Garepe and Rusty Millio, who probably would have used him as a "puppet king" had he won the internal power struggle. He's widely known as "Brainless the Second" among his fellow mobsters, and even his own father Carmine openly disrespected him while he was alive. But examine his character arc: despite being at the center of a violent tug of war for leadership of the Lupertazzi family, he comes out of it alive and well, even after Garepe and Millio, the main instigators, are whacked, as well as several others. He quietly retires from the Mafia, only returning to NY and/or NJ to dabble in Christopher's "Cleaver" project and to try to mediate a couple of situations with Tony and Phil Leotardo. During this last instance, he tries to impart a stirring bit of wisdom to Tony that was conveyed to him by a dream about the true nature of happiness, that seems to run exactly counter to Tony's whole life philosophy of excess and never being satisfied. Tony seems to consider Carmine's advice, but ultimately seems to ignore it. So by the end of the series, the "moron" Carmine survives, has a happy family life that he can fully enjoy because he walked away from the life, and Tony Soprano, still head of a seriously depleted Mafia crew, surrounded by potential rats, facing yet another trial, and maybe even whacked in front of his wife and children.
So who's "brainless" now?
** Furthermore, during the meeting between Phil and Tony, Carmine dismissively states: "Your brother Billy, whatever happened there," which upsets any peace the parties had made. He did this knowing that would set Phil off as revenge for Rusty Millio and screwing over Tony.

Bobby Bacala Sr. was the best choice to take out Mustang Sally for assaulting Vito's brother. He was the only option that could pull it off. After all, Bobby Sr. is Sally's godfather, so a visit from him would probably lower his guard down and did. A visit from anybody else would've to raise alarms for Sally. Even as Bobby Sr. pulled out to the house, Sally was shown looking out the window with his gun in his hand.

* The fate of Tony's family after the show ends. Whenever Carmella pesters Tony about what the family will do for money if he dies, Tony tells her that the information will be made available to her when "the time comes." However, by the end of the show, Tony's consigliere is in a coma, and his two most trusted right-hand men (Bobby and Christopher) are dead. This means that if Tony did indeed die in the show's finale, that his family's financial well-being is left in the hands of the resentful Patsy Parisi and the ever-unreliable Paulie. Given that both of them have been shown to dislike Carmella (with Paulie showing he was willing to screw her out of money before Tony was even dead), and that neither knew the extent of Tony's banking relationships, it is unlikely Carmella and her children will be left with much of anything. Without his father's influence, it is equally unlikely that AJ will keep his job, and Meadow will lack the means to pay for her law school.
** But I thought it was made pretty clear that A) Tony made sure a lot of his money was kept where only his mob lawyer Neil Mink could get a hold of it and B) Carmela has already squirreled some of Tony's money away herself into various accounts of $99,999 in preparation for such things?
** Plus Meadow is dating Patsy Parisi's son, so even though the match may not have the dynastic advantage for Patsy it once did, wouldn't he be looked down on by other mobsters if he failed to provide for his future daughter-in-law?
** Have not watched the show in quite a while, but I was always under the impression that the money would be delivered by the Russian money launderers/mobsters with whom Tony had originally placed it. Also, the relationship between Tony and the Russian always seemed more than merely professional to me. I never really thought that Tony would rely on his crew alone to provide for his family in case of a tragedy. While one might raise the possibility of the Russians cheating Tony and keeping the money instead of giving it to Carmela (be it as a lump sum or in installments), I would argue that this life insurance deal for mobsters is probably a significant portion of their operation which requires their customers to have an enormous amount of trust, making it unlikely for the Russians to be willing to cheat Carmela out of the money.
** Carmela ensured that she and her children have legitimate avenues to access Tony's assets in the event he was ever killed (e.g. the living trust Tony signed in Season 4). They might not be able to get to all of Tony's cash, but they certainly won't be left with anything.

** Carmela ensured that she and her children have legitimate avenues to access Tony's assets in the event he was ever killed (e.g. the living trust Tony signed in Season 4). They might not be able to get to all of Tony's cash, but they certainly won't be left with nothing.
* When Hunter visits Meadow at Columbia during Season 3’s premiere, Hunter updates her on their high school friends are. She mentions Eric Scatino hating his state school and doing a bunch of acid. Meadow wonders, as he was always a straight edged kid. Considering Eric lost his Ivy League opportunities when his father lost his college funds in his gambling debts and the bust out orchestrated by the Sopranos, his spiral into depression and abuse of psychedelics might have been avoided had Tony kept Davey away from the executive game. Davey leaving the family and moving to Nevada, never to be seen again, right after no doubt had a profound effect on Eric as well. The ripples of misery created by the mob’s actions continue well beyond the view of the story.

* Whenever Tony discusses the possibility of executing a fellow mobster, he usually makes reference to them being "clipped" ([[BeamMeUpScotty not "whacked", as many people assume]]). At first glance, it might just seem like a simple euphemism for murder, but it's also a pretty clever DoubleEntendre. The [=DiMeo=] syndicate is structured like a family--and when Tony removes associates from the family by executing them, he figuratively "clips" them from the family tree. And as we see several times: when Tony and his friends execute mobsters by gunshot, they have a habit of [[NoKillLikeOverkill using way more bullets than they need to]], just to be on the safe side. So when Tony executes someone, he usually does it with a full '''clip''' of ammo.

* When Chris discovers that Ralph has been wearing a toupee this whole time, Tony says that he's known all along. Chris is the youngest mobster of rank, so he didn't grow up with Ralph. Tony and the others have been around long enough to see the progression of Ralph's hair loss. Chris is probably the only one of their number who didn't know.

* One of Gloria Trillo's favorite songs is Affection by Steve Van Zandt. Sure, this doubles as a ShoutOut to Van Zandt playing Silvio Dante and a clear sign that Gloria wants more affection from Tony, but one of the lines in the song is [[spoiler:"I'm the spirit that haunts your dreams." In "The Test Dream," she literally haunts Tony's dream.]]
* [[spoiler: By burning down his original restaurant, Vesuvio]], Tony reassured that Artie's reputation wouldn't be compromised.
** And even if he justifiably [[spoiler: kills Tony because of his place being burned, Artie will be automatically whacked by Tony's vengeful crime family.]]

* After Tony [[spoiler: kills Christopher]] in the aftermath of their car accident, he brings up how a tree branch destroyed the babyseat in the back. Why? To justfy the murder to himself.
** Tony focusing on the booster seat is actually a CallBack to a certain other character who had an infanticide fixation. Double points for Tony [[spoiler: killing Christopher by effectively smothering him]], which is exactly what that same character said she would rather do to her children than send them to Nevada. Triple points for this method being what Tony himself [[spoiler: tries to do to Livia after he finds out she really did try to have him killed]]. And quadruple points when you realize that Tony isn't trying to justify his actions, but genuinely believes he did the right thing (as he states to Melfi in his dream, where he has no reason to lie, exasperated by having to pretend he grieves [[spoiler: for Christopher]]) because he now subconsciously sees [[spoiler: Christopher and Livia as of the same kind]].
* When Tracee is introduced in the Bing, Silvio refers to her as a "thoroughbred" to describe her good looks. The term typically is used to describe purebred horses. After [[spoiler: Tracee is murdered by Ralphie]], guess what species of animal becomes her allegorical stand-in to represent the unsettled conflict between Tony and Ralphie?

* Regardless of how you might feel about the polarizing Ralph Cifaretto as a person, you'd have to agree that, what with his ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' fixation, it is poignantly fitting that he [[spoiler: dies locked in visceral, bloody, gladiator-esque one on one combat against his perennial arch-nemesis Tony.]]

* "Little Carmine" Lupertazzi was generally seen as a joke of a mobster, ridiculed for his lack of ambition disregarded due to his apparent low intellect and infamous for his over the top (even for the Sopranos characters) malapropisms. Even when he was attempting to claim his apparent "birthright" as head of the New York Family, it was largely at the behest and urging of his lieutenants Angelo Garepe and Rusty Millio, who probably would have used him as a "puppet king" had he won the internal power struggle. He's widely known as "Brainless the Second" among his fellow mobsters, and even his own father Carmine openly disrespected him while he was alive. But examine his character arc: despite being at the center of a violent tug of war for leadership of the Lupertazzi family, he comes out of it alive and well, even after Garepe and Millio, the main instigators, are whacked, as well as several others. He quietly retires from the Mafia, only returning to NY and/or NJ to dabble in Christopher's "Cleaver" project and to try to mediate a couple of situations with Tony and Phil Leotardo. During this last instance, he tries to impart a stirring bit of wisdom to Tony that was conveyed to him by a dream about the true nature of happiness, that seems to run exactly counter to Tony's whole life philosophy of excess and never being satisfied. Tony seems to consider Carmine's advice, but ultimately seems to ignore it. So by the end of the series, the "moron" Carmine survives, has a happy family life that he can fully enjoy because he walked away from the life, and Tony Soprano, still head of a seriously depleted Mafia crew, surrounded by potential rats, facing yet another trial, and maybe even [[spoiler: whacked in front of his wife and children]].

* [[spoiler:The fate of Tony's family after the show ends. Whenever Carmella pesters Tony about what the family will do for money if he dies, Tony tells her that the information will be made available to her when "the time comes." However, by the end of the show, Tony's consigliere is in a coma, and his two most trusted right-hand men (Bobby and Christopher) are dead. This means that if Tony did indeed die in the show's finale, that his family's financial well-being is left in the hands of the resentful Patsy Parisi and the ever-unreliable Paulie. Given that both of them have been shown to dislike Carmella (with Paulie showing he was willing to screw her out of money before Tony was even dead), and that neither knew the extent of Tony's banking relationships, it is unlikely Carmella and her children will be left with much of anything. Without his father's influence, it is equally unlikely that AJ will keep his job, and Meadow will lack the means to pay for her law school.]]

* When Hunter visits Meadow at Columbia during Season 3’s premiere, Hunter updates her on their high school friends are. She mentions Eric Scatino hating his state school and doing a bunch of acid. Meadow wonders, as he was always a straight edged kid. [[spoiler: Considering Eric lost his Ivy League opportunities when his father lost his college funds in his gambling debts and the bust out orchestrated by the Sopranos, his spiral into depression and abuse of psychedelics might have been avoided had Tony kept Davey away from the executive game. Davey leaving the family and moving to Nevada, never to be seen again, right after no doubt had a profound effect on Eric as well. The ripples of misery created by the mob’s actions continue well beyond the view of the story.]]

* Tony tells Davey he’s not the first guy to get his business busted out. [[spoiler: We later learn Mr. Satriale was busted out by Johnny Boy Soprano and committed suicide around the holidays. He was a gambler like Davey and Tony used this, like his father, to justify it. Not to mention the Jewish motel business, the club Rocco is forced to turn over to Adriana, etc. Just how many lives have these men ruined?]]
* Jimmy Altieri [[spoiler: is never confirmed to have been a rat. He’s never given a chance to deny the charges, mostly because Tony doesn’t like him as much as Pussy. Considering Pussy winds up being the rat and he’s never mentioned by the FBI, it’s unlikely he actually was a rat. He was probably whacked over pure mob paranoia, Tony’s unwillingness to accept Pussy was a rat, and misunderstanding. And unlike Pussy, who actually was a rat, nobody mourns him.]]

* YMMV on this, but every animal on the show is a symbolic stand-in for one of the characters. The ducks in the pilot are obviously Tony's family, the cat in the finale is probably Christopher or Adriana, that bear that wouldn't leave Carmela alone was clearly Tony, and Big Pussy actually appears as a fish in one of Tony's dream sequences. The horse Pie Oh My is a bit trickier, but Tony's overreaction to her death suggests she represents someone important. The fact that he gives horseshoe-shaped brooches to all his ex-goomahs would point to Carmela. And there are plenty of other examples.
** The horse most likely represented Tracee.

* Coach Hauser refusing to indulge in a paid-for lap dance at the Bing initially appears out of faithfulness to his wife. [[spoiler: But after it’s revealed he impregnated Meadow’s high school soccer teammate, it’s probable he just wouldn’t be aroused by a grown woman and didn’t want that to get out to the other dads.]]

* Dr Jennifer Melfi is Tony's true consigliere. Melfi's effectiveness in this role is part of the reason that Tony is able to maintain control over the North Jersey rackets for many years, when other families seem to constantly beset by internal power struggles.
* The opening titles. [[OnceAnEpisode Every week]], Tony drives the [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey Turnpike]]. Every time, he takes a ticket and pays his toll in cash. Why not get an [=EZPass=]? Because that's an RFID transponder and he's paranoid about being tracked, by law enforcement or otherwise.

** On top of that, Artie [[spoiler: kills Tony for eating in a rival restaurant!]]
* It seems odd at first that Tony's father is so over-the-top in flashbacks, compared to the serious nature of the show, and even his memories of everyone else. However, Johnny Boy has been dead for a long time, and all Tony has left is a memory of his father that has been built up over time to ridiculous proportions.

* It is stated in "Chasing It" that there were child rehabilitation camps in the Pacific Northwest where corporal punishment was permitted. [[TruthInTelevision That was absolutely true at the time]], as there were certain radical rehabilitation camps in Idaho and Montana that would physically beat children as late as 2007. These camps have been mostly eradicated, but it is still disturbing to think about.

* "Little Carmine" Lupertazzi was generally seen as a joke of a mobster, ridiculed for his lack of ambition disregarded due to his apparent low intellect and infamous for his over the top (even for the Sopranos characters) malapropisms. Even when he was attempting to claim his apparent "birthright" as head of the New York Family, it was largely at the behest and urging of his lieutenants Angelo Garepe and Rusty Millio, who probably would have used him as a "puppet king" had he won the internal power struggle. He's widely known as "Brainless the Second" among his fellow mobsters, and even his own father Carmine openly disrespected him while he was alive. But examine his character arc: despite being at the center of a violent tug of war for leadership of the Lupertazzi family, he comes out of it alive and well, even after Garepe and Millio, the main instigators, are whacked, as well as several others. He quietly retires from the Mafia, only returning to NY and/or NJ to dabble in Christopher's "Cleaver" project and to try to mediate a couple of situations with Tony and Phil Leotardo. During this last instance, he imparts a stirring bit of wisdom to Tony that was conveyed to him by a dream about the true nature of happiness, that seems to run exactly counter to Tony's whole life philosophy of excess and never being satisfied. So by the end of the series, the "moron" Carmine survives, has a happy family life that he can fully enjoy because he walked away from the life, and Tony Soprano, still head of a seriously depleted Mafia crew, surrounded by potential rats, facing yet another trial, and maybe even [[spoiler: whacked in front of his wife and children]].

* Whever Tony discusses the possibility of executing a fellow mobster, he usually makes reference to them being "clipped" ([[BeamMeUpScotty not "whacked", as many people assume]]). At first glance, it might just seem like a simple euphemism for murder, but it's also a pretty clever DoubleEntendre. The [=DiMeo=] syndicate is structured like a family--and when Tony removes associates from the family by executing them, he figuratively "clips" them from the family tree. And as we see several times: when Tony and his friends execute mobsters by gunshot, they have a habit of [[NoKillLikeOverkill using way more bullets than they need to]], just to be on the safe side. So when Tony executes someone, he usually does it with a full '''clip''' of ammo.

* When Phil Leotardo and his men ambushed and murdered Vito Spatafore, they pummeled him with batons so badly, his wife said that he "no longer looked like a human being". And they topped off this horrific act by jamming a pool cue up the man's rectum. And this was all because Phil disagreed with Vito's choice of lifestyle. Now think back to how vengeance crazed Leotardo was when Tony Blundetto killed his brother Billy, and his threats to make Tony B.'s death slow and agonizing, to basically torture him to death. Now if Phil is capable of doing what he did to Vito just because of his sexual orientation, imagine what kind of inhumanly hellish ordeal he was going to put Blundetto through before finally killing him. Tony S. imagined it, and decided it was far more merciful to shoot his cousin in the face with a shotgun.

* An observant viewer will notice that Silvio Dante has killed the most traitors and/or informants in the series (Jimmy Altieri, Big Pussy Bonpensiero, Adriana LaCerva, Burt Gervasi), and has been tapped by Tony personally to eliminate other problem cases (Coach Hauser, Richie Aprile) before being called off, or the situation resolved itself. Why Silvio, the level-headed consigliere, as opposed to Paulie Walnuts, Christopher Moltisanti, Patsy Parisi or even Bobby Baccialeri? Because the targets would least suspect Sil because of his general temperament and role in the Soprano organization. He can get close BECAUSE he would raise less alarm. And of course his victims won't be telling anyone...

** Tony focusing on the booster seat is actually a CallBack to a certain other character who had an infanticide fixation. Double points for Tony [[spoiler: killing Christopher by effectively smothering him]], which is exactly what that same character said she would rather do to her children than send them to Nevada. Triple points for this method being what Tony himself [[spoiler: tries to do to Livia after he finds out she really did try to have him killed]]. And quadruple points when you realize that Tony isn't trying to justify his actions, but genuinely believes he did the right thing (as he states to Melfi, exasperated by having to pretend he grieves [[spoiler: for Christopher]]) because he now subconsciously sees [[spoiler: Christopher and Livia as of the same kind]].

** Have not watched the show in quite a while, but I was always under the impression that the money would be delievered by the Russian money launderers/mobsters with whom Tony had originally placed it. Also, the relationship between Tony and the Russian always seemed more than merely professional to me. I never really thought that Tony would rely on his crew alone to provide for his family in case of a tragedy. While one might raise the possibility of the Russians cheating Tony and keeping the money instead of giving it to Carmela (be it as a lump sum or in installments), I would argue that this life insurance deal for mobsters is probably a significant portion of their operation which requires their customers to have an enormous amount of trust, making it unlikely for the Russians to be willing to cheat Carmela out of the money.
** Carmela ensured that she and her children have legitimate avenues to access Tony's assets in the event he was ever killed (e.g. the living trust Tony signed in Season 4). They might not be able to get to all of Tony's cash, but they certainly won't be left with nothing.

** Carmela ensured that she and her children have legitimate avenues to access Tony's assets in the event he was ever killed (e.g. the living trust Tony signed in Season 4).

** Have not watched the show in quite a while, but I was always under the impression that the money would be delievered by the Russian money launderers/mobsters with whom Tony had originally placed it. Also, the relationship between Tony and the Russian always seemed more than merely professional to me. I never really thought that Tony would rely on his crew alone to provide for his family in case of a tragedy. While one might raise the possibility of the Russians cheating Tony and keeping the money instead of giving it to Carmela (be it as a lump sum or in installments), I would argue that this life insurance deal for mobsters is probably a significant portion of their operation which requires their customers to have an enormous amount of trust, making it unlikely for the Russians to be willing to cheat Carmela out of the money.

** Tony focusing on the booster seat is actually a CallBack to a certain other character who had an infanticide fixation. Double points for Tony [[spoiler: killing Christopher by effectively smothering him]], which is exactly what that same character said she would rather do to her children than send them to Nevada. Quadruple points for this method being what Tony himself [[spoiler: tries to do to Livia after he finds out she really did try to have him killed]]. And quintuple points when you realize that Tony isn't trying to justify his actions, but genuinely believes he did the right thing (as he states to Melfi, exasperated by having to pretend he grieves [[spoiler: for Christopher]]) because he now subconsciously sees [[spoiler: Christopher and Livia as of the same kind]].