In the fourth ever episode of the show, the passing of Jackie Aprile caused a power struggle between Tony Soprano and his uncle Junior, a fight that was eventually won by the younger mobster. Now, history is about to repeat itself, as Rat Pack starts with the demise of Carmine Lupertazzi (Tony Lip), the unfortunate victim of a heart attack.
The event provokes a major rupture between the old man's son, Little Carmine (Ray Abruzzo), who lives all nice and easy in Miami, and Johnny Sack, whose friendship with both Carmine and Phil Leotardo make him the more ideal successor. As well as handling the stress of this new inconvenience, Tony must deal with yet another informant in his crew (it is revealed there are two more, besides Adriana, who doesn't get caught this time), not to mention the discovery that his beloved cousin Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi) intends to leave his crime days behind him and find a straight job.
Though the battle between Little Carmine and Johnny is the one that should be more interesting, especially in regards to laying out the path for the remainder of the series, it is inevitably the Tony B. subplot that comes off as the most memorable, probably because the Soprano family members have always been the strongest contributors to the show's tragic aspect: Uncle Junior, the late Livia, Janice and now Tony Blundetto - a riveting gallery of flawed individuals. Also, given Buscemi directed two episodes of the program prior to appearing as a cast member, he knows exactly what the tone should be and plays his role in a humorous yet darkly foreboding way.
A similar technique is used with Drea de Matteo's work in a couple of scenes that cleverly bring back an old guest star: after appearing in one scene in the fifth episode of Season Three, Vanessa Ferlito reprises her cameo as Tina Francesco, a friend of Ade's who starts to hit on Chris, causing Adriana a lot of jealousy and prompting her to exploit her FBI liaisons. What could have been a waste of screen time is instead employed to perfection to unveil the duplicitous nature of every single person involved in the show's events, even sweet little Adriana, who just wanted to live happily ever after with her now clean fiancé. Of course, she could have picked a more honest guy to live with, but that wouldn't have been as much fun, would it?
The event provokes a major rupture between the old man's son, Little Carmine (Ray Abruzzo), who lives all nice and easy in Miami, and Johnny Sack, whose friendship with both Carmine and Phil Leotardo make him the more ideal successor. As well as handling the stress of this new inconvenience, Tony must deal with yet another informant in his crew (it is revealed there are two more, besides Adriana, who doesn't get caught this time), not to mention the discovery that his beloved cousin Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi) intends to leave his crime days behind him and find a straight job.
Though the battle between Little Carmine and Johnny is the one that should be more interesting, especially in regards to laying out the path for the remainder of the series, it is inevitably the Tony B. subplot that comes off as the most memorable, probably because the Soprano family members have always been the strongest contributors to the show's tragic aspect: Uncle Junior, the late Livia, Janice and now Tony Blundetto - a riveting gallery of flawed individuals. Also, given Buscemi directed two episodes of the program prior to appearing as a cast member, he knows exactly what the tone should be and plays his role in a humorous yet darkly foreboding way.
A similar technique is used with Drea de Matteo's work in a couple of scenes that cleverly bring back an old guest star: after appearing in one scene in the fifth episode of Season Three, Vanessa Ferlito reprises her cameo as Tina Francesco, a friend of Ade's who starts to hit on Chris, causing Adriana a lot of jealousy and prompting her to exploit her FBI liaisons. What could have been a waste of screen time is instead employed to perfection to unveil the duplicitous nature of every single person involved in the show's events, even sweet little Adriana, who just wanted to live happily ever after with her now clean fiancé. Of course, she could have picked a more honest guy to live with, but that wouldn't have been as much fun, would it?