"They made me an offer I couldn't refuse." After the Goodfellas references last week, we get one better as the show quotes The Godfather. The reference is made by the girls' football (that's right Americans! Football, not soccer) coach who the mob, seeing as though many of their daughters play for the team, are not happy that he has decided to leave. The majority of the episode is taken up by Paulie, Salvadore and Chris' attempts to bribe, bully and blackmail the coach into staying. Their attitude soon changes, however, when it is discovered that the coach has slept with one of the girls
multiple times. Naturally the mob would like to kick the guy's teeth in but after a heated discussion with Artie (whose thinking is mostly done by his wife) and a warning from Dr Melfi that she would call the authorities Tony wisely decides against hurting the coach, and opts to allow the police to deal with the situation. It does beg the question of whether Tony has a conscience or was just trying to save his own skin. Meanwhile, in an episode full of immature gossiping, there are rumours that Junior "goes down" with his lady friend Bobby when at Boca Raton, which is seen as a sign of weakness. The word of mouth (Geddit? Geddit?) reaches Tony. Dr Melfi doesn't share his amusement, and Carmela finds his glee a sign of hypocrisy
seeing as though he does it himself. Still, it was nice to see Tony and Carmela get along so well, even if it was at the expense of the Boss. This was one of the finest hours of The Sopranos, as two uncomfortable story lines are juggled with enough humour and self- awareness that the whole think is made very entertaining. Tony fires under-the-radar insults at Uncle Junior at a golf course, such as: Tony: "Uncle Jun', how was Boca?" Junior: Lovely! I don't go down enough!" Tony: "That's not what I heard." It's a cracking scene, but the smile was soon wiped off my face as Junior blurts out to his right hand man that nobody would be able to say anything if he thought about clipping Tony. Whoa. That's some heavy ****. But knowing Junior, Tony's behaviour won't go unpunished. First to get some chastisement is Bobby herself. In a scene accompanied by some beautiful orchestral music, Junior majestically
um, shoves a cake in her face. Still, could be worse. And knowing Junior, it's probably gonna get a lot worse
My Rating: 7.5/10
