Awesome / The Sopranos

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Season 1

• In the pilot, Carmela's response to what she thinks is an intruder is to grab an assault rifle.
• In "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" Carmela speaks to Charmaine in a manner of Condescending Compassion, and with the assumption that Charmaine must be jealous of her wealth. Charmaine then tells her that she had a one-night stand with Tony before he married Carmela, but didn't take it any further than that. She is obviously implying that she could have usurped Carmela's place as the Trophy Wife, but made a moral choice to not have anything more to do with Tony or his blood money.
• As brutal as it is, Tony hunting down and strangling the rat in "College", and in between the visiting campuses with his daughter, is impressive.
• Tony defeating the two hitmen sent after him in "Isabells", which ends up pulling him out of the depression he'd been sinking into.
  • On top of that, Tony stopping the gun from firing by gripping the barrel tightly with his big hand, so that the firing mechanism would not work.
• "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano":
  • I heard the tapes, ma.
    • For context, Tony confronting his mother upon having heard the FBI recordings in which Livia all but commands Junior to kill her only son makes for an awesome scene by itself, but Livia cackling at Tony's futile attempts to intimidate her elevates the scene even more.
  • Christopher avenging Brendan's death by chasing down and killing Mikey Palmice with Paulie is pretty damn satisfying too.

Season 2

• Furio's debut as Tony's newest enforcer in "Big Girls Don't Cry". In the process of collecting from husband and wife brothel owners who owe Tony money, Furio busts into the brothel, beating the shit out of anyone in his path on his way to savagely beating both with a baseball bat, topping it off with kneecapping the husband.
• In "Full Leather Jacket", Chris, who is right-handed, repels his attackers and takes Sean Gismonte down with a clean headshot, with his left hand, from the ground, when already wounded.
• Janice killing Richie after he struck her across the face in "The Knight in White Satin Armor".
• The ending of "Funhouse", set to The Rolling Stones' "Thru and Thru", which encapsulates everything that happened during some 13-odd hours of television into a few minutes. The song is also definitely badass and effectively reminds the audience of events and characters with carefully selected imagery.

Season 3

• Carmela and Hugh's respective rants against Livia during her funeral after-party in "Provai Livushka" are two of the most satisfying scenes to watch in the whole series.
• "Employee of the Month" gives a powerful one to Dr. Melfi, Tony's therapist. She's brutally raped in a stairwell after work, and finds herself consumed with the desire for revenge, especially after a procedural error means the cops have to let the guy go. Dr. Melfi starts having dreams about a powerful Rottweiler attacking her rapist, and realizes that she wants Tony to "take care" of him—all she has to do is say the word, and Tony will make the problem vanish forever. The episode ends with Dr. Melfi and Tony alone in her office. He asks "Do you wanna say something?", and after a very long pause...she says "no." While Tony giving the guy a violent death would have been delicious karma and certainly deserved, Dr. Melfi chooses to maintain her integrity and professionalism, even if it means not seeing her rapist destroyed.
• Even if it's a mafia code violation, Tony beating the shit out of Ralphie for murdering Tracee in "University" was immensely satisfying.
• Valery, the Russian from "Pine Barrens".
  • He gets his windpipe crushed by Paulie and is presumed dead so they tape him up in a carpet and throw him in the trunk of their car. Sometime later they open the trunk and he chewed through the tape. They march him through the snow into the woods and despite wearing only his pajamas he shows no sign of discomfort while Christ and Paulie are both freezing. When they tell him to dig his own grave he boasts "Cocksuckers. I'll kill you both. You think the cold bothers me?! I wash my balls with ice water. This is warm. You American pieces of shit!" before kicking both of their asses with a shovel and running off. The guys chase after him but can't catch him, even though the only shoes he's wearing are slippers. Paulie manages to shoot him in the head but he immediately gets back up and keeps running. Then he disappears and is never seen again. It's revealed that he was in Russian special forces and single-handedly killed sixteen Chechen rebels. There is an implication that he climbed a tree to hide from Paulie and Chris, then went back and stole their car but he is never heard from again.
• Carmela receiving a second opinion from Melfi's recommended psychiatrist is a great scene, given that the psychiatrist murders her with words and completely exposes her hypocrisy as a mob wife with the bare minimum of information.
• For all of Christopher's problems, he ended up showing major Nerves of Steel during "Armor Fou", when Jackie Jr. and his friends tried to mug a low-level poker game - and he was able to identify that Jackie was the one who did the robbery even before finding out Dino was involved, as indicated by his look of recognition when a masked Jackie yelled at Sunshine to shut the fuck up. Chris may have been a screwup, but he showed that he wasn't just all talk during this specific scene.
• The entire scene with the Principal at the Hudson Military Institute in "Army of One" is a great one. Much like with the psychiatrist and Carmela, the Principal offers an expressly entertaining, calculated, and wise take-down of AJ and the educational background that he has. It also doesn't hurt that he's played by Tobin Bell.

Season 4

• In "Everybody Hurts", Artie Bucco gets screwed in a vodka distribution scheme engineered by Jean-Philippe, the brother of his new French hostess. When the deal goes sour, Artie, having borrowed money from Tony to finance the deal, goes to confront Jean-Philippe, and is soundly thrashed. When a despondent Artie later attempts suicide via an overdose of sleeping pills, Tony learns of the deal's collapse and opts to assume responsibility for collecting the debt. This entails Jean-Philippe answering his door and opening it to find FURIO GIUNTA.
• Tony managing to overpower and kill Ralphie in a fistfight in "Whoever Did This". Even more so since Ralph had essentially pepper-sprayed him, in addition to being much more cunning and spry.
• "Whitecaps"; the scenes where Carmela and Tony confront each other over their respective adultery (Tony literally, Carmela figuratively in terms of her confessing to having fallen in love with one of Tony's associates) stands as one of the finest moments of the show's run.
  Carmela: Who knew all this time you wanted Tracy and Hepburn? Well Tony, what about all the thousand other fucking pigs you had your dick in over the years? The strippers, the cocktail waitresses, were you best friends with all of them too? You fucking hypocrite.

Season 5

• "Two Tonys": Carmela driving a bear away with pots and pans when it comes near AJ.
• Melfi lands some truths on Tony:
  Melfi: ... you're not a truthful person. You're not respectful of women, You're not really respectful of people. Maybe you love them, I don't know. You take what you want from them by force or the threat of force. I couldn't live like that. I couldn't bear witness to violence...
• Tony punking and humiliating Phil in "In Camelot". Rock the Casbah, baby!
• In "All Happy Families...", Tony puts Feech La Manna in his place with the greatest STFU in broadcast history.
  Feech: In my day-
  Tony: That's another thing; I don't wanna hear no more about how it was "in your day". You just keep your anecdotes to local color, like Dynaflows or the McGuire Sisters or shit like that. Otherwise, SHUT THE FUCK UP!
• Carmela calling her mother out on her hypocrisy regarding Tony and her Italian heritage in "Marco Polo".
  Mary: I'm sorry for everything. What can I say?
  Russ:Get my boy home safe.
  Carmela: You're sorry? For what? No, no. I wanna hear.
  Mary: Oh, please, Carmela. The off-colour jokes, the sausage twirling...
  Carmela: Tony?
  Mary: These are cultured Italians. Russ is a success, a diplomat. This was a shock for them.
  Carmela: He's such a diplomat he insults his host? You heard what he said to Tony! He's a pompous man. He always was.
  Mary: Let's talk about this another time.
  Carmela: That's why you didn't want Tony here. It had nothing to do with the marital situation. All along, it was so that your cultured Italian friends, who were born and raised on Arthur Avenue, I might add, wouldn't meet your gavone son-in-law.
  Mary: He made us all look like gavones.
  Carmela: Whatever we are, I am proud of it, unlike you obviously.
  Mary: I have always been proud of my heritage!
  Carmela: Bullshit. I remember you telling Aunt Rose you were glad DeAngelis didn't end in a vowel.
  Mary: I never said that!
  Carmela: And when Meadow came out..."Oh my God, she's so dark."
  Mary: You're drunk. I'm going home.
  Carmela: There are Italians all around with their closet self-loathing. I just never wanted to believe my mother was one of them. What the fuck are you crying about? Your secret is out.
• As dark as it may be, the dread, tension, and build-up to the death of Adriana La Cerva in "Long Term Parking" is one of the most beautifully structured in the show. With all the terrible death moments in the series, the feeling this one gets tops them all.
• The final moments and demise of Tony Blundetto in "All Due Respect".

Season 6A/6B

• Angie Bonpensiero gets one in "Members Only". Throughout the episode, Carmela has been smugly showing off her new Porsche Cayenne that Tony gave her to make people jealous. However, she gets a big slice of Humble Pie from Angie when they leave Vesuvio's after dinner and it's revealed Angie bought herself a Corvette using the money she's been making at the body shop. Carmela is left speechless upon realizing that, unlike her, Angie can actually afford a life of luxury using money she earned herself, while Carmela is entirely dependent on Tony.
• Tony kicking his new bodyguard's ass while recovering from a bullet wound (and being severely overweight and out of shape) in "Mr.& Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request", even if it was completely unjustified.
  • On that note, Tony saves AJ from his failed suicide attempt. Yes, Overweight, middle-aged Tony saves his fully grown adult son who was weighed down by a metal weight and wearing a plastic bag over his head to drown in the pool, managed to get the both of them above the surface and out of the pool.
• Artie, the meek civilian, confronts mobster Benny Fazio outside his home and ends up assaulting him (for revenge for a scam Fazio pulled on Artie's restaurant) in "Luxury Lounge" - against all odds, Artie actually wins this fight, and Tony shields him from lethal repercussions from Benny. This triumph is short-lived though since Benny later shoves his hand into boiling sauce after Artie pushes his luck too much.
  • In the same episode, Artie finally has enough and tells Tony off about all the wrongs that his "friend" has done to him over the years, culminating in him seething at Tony to pay his tab, which had been Charmaine's point of contention for multiple seasons at this point.
• Sal Vitro, the innocent gardener who accepts Paulie's protection and goes through a Trauma Conga Line throughout Season 5 and 6A, has been mowing John Sacrimoni's lawn for free for a year. In "Moe 'n Joe", with Johnny Sack's imprisonment and allocution, and the sale of his home to Janice and Bobby, Sal humbly asks Tony to free him from this obligation. When Tony initially refuses, Sal shows tremendous balls by pressing for it. He gets his wish, giving the man at least some small respite.
• In "Soprano Home Movies", Bobby of all people is the one to beat Tony in a fight when he makes crude remarks about his wife.
• The ending of "Stage 5", when Phil decides he's not taking shit from anybody anymore, followed by Catlin's baptism with a Revealing Hug between a Tony and Chris, which highlights the bubbling resentment between the two men. Very chilling and emphasized by the haunting song "Evidently Chickentown". Watch
• In "The Second Coming", when a drunk Coco Cogliano harasses and comes onto Meadow, Tony marches into the restaurant and beats seven shades of shit out of him. And then giving him some American History X dental work on a step.
  • In the harassing scene, Patrick Parisi, albeit nervously, stands up to Coco as if he's ready to fight him. While he'd probably lose, it still takes brass balls just to even stand up to a mobster.
• "Made in America":
  • The hit on Phil Leotardo. Not only is extremely karmic, given all the horrible things he did, but the way he’s taken out must also be seen to be believed.
  • As divisive as the finale is/was, there is no denying that the usage of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" is pretty amazing. Fans usually remember Tony/James Gandolfini with a smile whenever they hear the song.

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