We've talked before about how The Sopranos occupies a moral universe, a place where Heaven and Hell are more than theoretical and where those who do evil will eventually get what's coming to them, even if that doesn't happen until after they die. These twin themes of death and morality animate much of the show's run, but "Another Toothpick" places them on parallel streams. Roughly half the episode is about the elderly passing on and their children trying to make sense of it.
Roughly the other half is about various people sucked into Tony's orbit trying to do the right thing, a favorite recurring plot point the show would return to again and again. Sure, there's other stuff going on here. Since season three has so many hours that are closed off from everything else, like "Employee of the Month," this episode does a lot of the heavy plot-lifting, and, as such, it's a little cluttered. But the primary ideas at play here are those of morality and mortality, yet again.
I once read a piece by an atheist who'd once been a believer, and he stated that the hardest thing for him to give up on in his old belief system was the idea of Hell. He was fine with the idea that he would die and wouldn't receive any theoretical award after, would just drift into nothing.
That gave his life on Earth greater drive and purpose. But without Hell, then the evil wouldn't necessarily be punished. Sure, there are those like Hitler, who are eventually brought down by their own egos and hubris, but for the most part, those who exploit and take and use people go unpunished.
In fact, it sometimes seems like the world is set up to their benefit, to push toward the idea that the powerful just gain more and more power, no matter how they take that power, and the powerless are trod upon. The Sopranos , taking place in a fictional universe, feels no compunctions about suggesting that the wicked will be punished, but at times, I wonder if that doesn't harm the show in its third season.
Make no mistake: I think that season three of the show is one of the series' finest. But at times, particularly in the early episodes, there's too much of an attempt to set up simple morality plays for the characters to go through.
Sometimes, they gain enough raw power via the writing and performance to become standouts of the series, even as viewers are acutely aware of how the writers are pulling the strings as with "Employee of the Month".
At other times, the little morality tests simply seem to be there, another reminder of the fact that Tony thinks the world will pretty much conform to whatever he wants, since he's usually right until he meets someone with a stronger moral code than just about everyone else in the universe he inhabits.
Tonight, he brushes up against two such people, a traffic cop, who has the temerity to cite him for speeding, and Charmaine Bucco, who continues to hold him in low regard and forces her husband to choose between her and a potential business opportunity with Tony. Show the supply chain who's boss Get a head start on your holiday shopping at Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and more.
To be fair, Tony pretty much never knows about the Charmaine ultimatum. Artie and Charmaine have always been a sort of mirror image of Tony and Carmela, as though the show passed through a wormhole into some other universe and wound up with a man who's tempted but rarely gives in or has the opportunity to give in, more accurately and a woman who keeps him from falling prey to those temptations at every turn. Plenty of Sopranos fans disliked Charmaine during the show's run, but I think she's an important character.
She's a reminder that people can live in this world without having to be of it. Melfi is a similar character, but she's outside of the mob world, which means she's less of an exemplar of the idea that these guys could have avoided this life than Charmaine is. But I think a larger part of Charmaine's lack of appeal for some stemmed from the fact that we're watching a show about an antihero, where the drama will naturally be driven by him doing Very Bad Things.
In that situation, it's rare to want to see someone who constantly reminds the characters and audience that this man is doing those bad things. But Charmaine is necessary for the reasons I outlined above. Fans often turn against the "nagging" wife who holds the antihero back on shows like this witness some of the vitriol spilled against Rita on Dexter or Skyler on Breaking Bad , but David Chase was wise to push Charmaine to the edges of the series. She, like her husband, is very much a supporting character, even though she's a regular, but every time we check in on her, she's plugging along, trying to keep her family from losing its soul, and the show doesn't really comment on it.
Charmaine may say that she sees Tony as someone beneath her at least morally , but the show doesn't make a huge deal out of her moral stances. It's just simply a part of who she is, and the more the series goes on, the more interesting that portrayal becomes.
To a real degree, Charmaine is one of the show's less subtle reminders that the audience shouldn't be having fun, a part of its passive-aggressive relationship to its own success, but as a character, she works more often than not. I can't really say the same about Leon, the traffic cop played by veteran character actor and director Charles S.
Dutton's work is very good, giving Leon an almost instant sense of dignity that stands out from the second you first see him. Dutton's dignified air is probably why the producers hired him for what's, ultimately, pretty much a bit part. And the story does some canny things with Tony, revealing how he thinks he can buy pretty much anything and the limits of his sympathy. On some level, he realizes that getting Leon demoted was a bad thing that he did, and on some level, he wants to make amends.
But he doesn't want to rock the boat too much to do so, and that means Leon's stock falls farther and farther in life, simply because he dared give a ticket to a venal man who thinks the world should bow to him at every turn. The final image, of Leon turning away from the bribe Tony offers in an attempt to assuage his own conscience and to make sure his fountain arrives in "one piece," is powerful, and Tony exploding about how Leon got what was coming to him on the phone with Assemblyman Zellman is a nice reminder of who this guy is at some base level.
But the overall sense here is of a morality play that the show has toyed with over and over again, yet another reminder that Tony has some instinctive moral sense but never pays attention to it because that would be deeply inconvenient in his line of work.
Critic Matt Zoller Seitz, whose writing on the show has been highly influential on my own, spent much of the show's mid-period thinking the series had said all it could say about its characters and was now spinning its wheels. This is, of course, an oversimplified summary, but bear with me.
Though he always appreciated the show, he felt, especially beginning in season three, that the show was playing out some of the same basic scenarios, over and over. Tony contacts a corrupt New Jersey assemblyman, Ronald Zellman, to get him out of the ticket. Days later, while visiting a lawn ornament store, Tony sees Wilmore selling pottery. Tony sarcastically antagonizes Wilmore, who was transferred to the property room and forced to take a second job thanks to Zellman's influence.
Feeling guilty, Tony calls Zellman, who relates that Wilmore is thought to be battling depression. Despite this, Tony asks if Zellman can let Wilmore have his job back. Tony argues with Meadow about his racist attitudes, causing her to take the FBI-bugged lamp back to her dorm at Columbia University and inadvertently set back the Bureau's investigation. Tony contacts Zellman again and tells him to forget his request.
When he returns to the garden store, Tony offers Wilmore a bribe to ensure that his expensive order arrives in one piece. Wilmore looks at him and walks away. Tony learns that Bobby, Sr. Bobby fears for his father's health and asks Junior to convince Tony to get someone else. Junior attempts to make Tony change his mind, eventually turning to Johnny and Ralphie. Tony angrily informs them that the matter is no longer up for discussion. Tony, Johnny, and Paulie realize that Ralphie resents Gigi for being promoted as capo of the Aprile crew over him.
Bobby Sr's hit almost goes awry and ends with a struggle, but Bobby Sr. However, after leaving the scene, Bobby Sr. Bobby is extremely upset at the news. Later, Junior informs Tony that he has been diagnosed with stomach cancer and asks him not to tell anyone. Tony, however, tells Janice, and they both meet at Livia's house and discuss the deaths in their family.
When Bobby comes to get Junior for his father's wake, he admits he has cancer and pretends to be too sick to go. Artie becomes upset as Adriana leaves Nuovo Vesuvio after Christopher has gotten made. A drunken Artie insults Chris in front of Tony, which almost leads to violence. After Chris leaves, Artie tells Tony that he is in love with Adriana, but Tony tells him to sober up and to never utter those words again.
The next day, Tony suggests that he and Artie go into business together selling Italian food products under the Satriale's brand name.
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