Sopranos Episode 75 Moe and Joe
Poor Sal is trying to get out from under the onerous landscaping job at the Sacrimoni residence for which he gets bupkis, but Tony throws it in his face ("you selfish prick") that with Johnny in jail this is the time that Mrs. Sacrimoni needs him the most.
Johnny's lawyer Ron Perse suggests that perhaps he can avoid having most of the 5 million in assets seized if he flips. But Johnny puts the kibosh on that idea. Amusingly, his lawyer then makes an about face and says "Good, because frankly, I don't represent turncoats."
Janice, on her daily visit to Satriale's, finds out that Tony cut her order of stuffed pork loin. Tony answers that you get what you pay for, meaning since she didn't pay for it she doesn't get any free meat from Satriale's. Janice notes that Tony never misses a chance to shit on Bobby, probably because Tony blames both of them for getting shot. Tony says he has only himself to blame, but Janice pushes the point demanding to know exactly what it is that Tony has a hard on for.
Janice wants to know why Bobby is not yet a captain. "where does all your anger come from? your hate for me". She explains that she cried at his bedside when he was in a coma.
Tony: "But we both know, no matter how much help I gave, you'd still be here fuckin complainin".
Janice: "My god, there's nothin holding us together but DNA."
Vito is confronted by "Jimbo" (Johnny Cakes) who found a trifecta ticket in his trash. Jim wants Vito to come clean about who he really is, now that they're sharing his home, so they can take the next step in the relationship. Vito confesses, partially, that's he's not a writer and from Jersey, that he left his contracting business, his wife and kids and that he's running out of money.
Jim offers to find Vito a job as a handyman.
Carmela and the ratpack women visit Ginny Sack (what no phonecall first?) on her birthday and also to cheer her up. Carmela waves to Sal and remarks that "he's such a mope." The girls enjoy some small-talk while Angie Bompensiero berates a worker at her shop over her cell. All business, that Angie.
Janice looks over Ginny's house like a vulture not knowing that it soon will be hers.
Vito and Jim enjoy domestic bliss. I leave out the slurpy details. As Vito turns over the scene fades to the sound of a toy train as it enters a tunnel. The writers are having a little fun with us here.
Lionel Lines Moe & Joe Flatcar
Bobby Sr tries to get Bobby Jr interested in his train set but junior blows him off. But perhaps I shouldn't use that phrase given the tenor of this episode.
As for the spec house and the building inspector, Carmela brings it up again and we hear Tony give her the okey-doke, that he sent Little Paulie to see the supervisor, but that he couldn't get anywhere with the inspector and that he'll send Sil on the case. I suppose he had to lie - how often can he say he forgot about it?
Later at the Bing, Tony instructs Sil to visit the Montvale Building Department and gets this humorous query from Sil, "to what end?" Meanwhile Sil is taping up a sexy poster of "The Perfect Secretary", a comely young thing bent over revealing a small patch of white panties. Yes, my idea of the perfect secretary. Somewhat similar to the poster for the movie, no?
Just then, Ginny Sack's brother Anthony shows up, (Tony: "Ah, the Lord of the Lenses"), with a gift of a Cross Pen, a new line of merchandise that his store is carrying. He brings a request from Johnny Sack: Johnny wants Tony to get cash out of a New Orleans equipment leasing outfit (Bayou Leasing) that he's a silent partner in, but Phil shouldn't be involved.
vito is trying to work hard for a living but gets caught taking a break. Clearly he's not cut out to be a working stiff.
Carmela tells Tony that she's looking for a new contractor for her spec house. Tony can't see why she can't use her dad, after all, he built their home. We can assume Carmela never told Tony that her dad looted her new place.
Dr. Melfi observes that to Tony, the spec house can be built as long as it doesn't interfere with Tony's life.
Tony says that he and Carmela have an understanding: he supplies her with money to do what she likes and he gets to do whatever he wants.
Tony explains why enjoys tormenting Bobby and Janice. "Janice only does acts of Janice." He reveals that when they were children Janice tape-recorded Tony and his sister Barbara having a fight and held it over his head, extorting him for a month. Make her bed, etc.
When Ginny's brother visits Johnny in prison he has a hard time using crime substitution slang to explain that Tony wants 10 cups, not 7 for getting cash out of New Orleans. I assume that means 10 percent of the deal. When Johnny asks if he got the cake, Anthony misunderstands and thinks they're still speaking in code. Johnny: "No, an actual fuckin' cake." He explains it's Ginny's birthday. But this sequence should have come before the girls visited Ginny.
Back in Johnny Cakes land, there's a distress call for the fire department and a water leak at a Church. Vito gets on a ladder and cuts the electric line so the fireman can go into the building. Jim freaks out about Vito playing the hero and putting himself in danger. They get into a shoving match over it. Later, when the firemen are all having a drink, Vito gets turned down for a game. He's itching for some action that New Hampshire life can't give him.
Bobby collects 3 grand at a pickup and gets roundly beaten by local Newark hoods. A homeboy shoots off a round which hits the ground and kicks up some sidewalk into Bobby's eye.
Tony meets the two Cajun brothers in New Orleans to get Johnny's half out of the business - Bayou Leasing now worth about 6 million. But the brother with the football jones balks at the idea of coming up with cash to buy Johnny's interest out. What started out as a $50,000 "loan" has ballooned to $500,000 which bought half the company.
Paul Calviac: "I had to come to new jersey to get truly fucked."
What's not clear here: the Cajun brothers (actually Earl Bretanoux is a brother-in-law) stand to make a lot of money from the Katrina reconstruction - why couldn't they easily find a buyer to take Johnny Sack's position? Or at the minimum get a legitimate loan from a bank to do so?
Paulie admits to Tony that he has cancer of the prostate.
Later Paulie asks Tony if he heard about Bobby. Tony's opinion is that Bobby was stupid going there given the fact that the cops don't even go into that neighborhood.
Later at the Bing Carlo throws Tony an envelope from Bobby who wanted to make sure Tony got his kick up from the week's collections. Tony doesn't appreciate the gesture, "Fuck that Honor and Loyalty shit" and called it a manoeuvre because he knew it was his own fuckin fault. Tony's crew are a little out of ease with that sentiment. Tony shouldn't be bad mouthing Bobby this way and denigrating the good gesture.
Lawyer Ron meets with Rene, the Assistant US Attorney handling Johnny's case who wants 20 years and 90% of his assets. Ron observes that this offer makes a trial a risk worth taking. He counters with 12 years and leave the house alone.
Man, Vito knows how to cook and layout a good kitchen. We see a candlelight dinner of pork chops in vinegar peppers. Jim apologizes for blowing up over the previous incident, he was worried something could happen to Vito.
Jim: "Vincent - I love you."
Vito: "I love you johnny cakes".
HBO states: "But it turns out to be a farewell dinner." That is a bit misleading, I would have written: "But it unintentionally turns out to be a farewell dinner." We know that Vito didn't cut and run until the next day.
We see Vito training himself to work like a normal person. But just when he thinks he's been working for almost 3 hours it turns out to be less than 50 minutes. He realizes then that this is no life for him and picks up his belongings and scrams back to Jersey. On the way there he crashes into a car and when the owner insists on reporting it to the police, Vito pops one in the back of his head.
Finn doesn't get it. Meadow cries. What more can one say. While Tony is comforting Meadow he is conflicted between soothing her and getting his food out of the microwave.
Meadow storms off and this pisses off Tony against Carmela for not paying more attention to family. He tells Sil to drop the go-see with the building inspector.
When Johnny is told that Tony can't do the New Orleans deal unless Johnny's house is thrown in for 50% off, Johnny has to agree. He just has to figure out how to sell the idea to Ginny. I hope she doesn't get depressed and start eating lots of ice cream.
Later when Tony tells Carmela that the inspector wouldn't change his mind, Carmela can't believe it. Did Carmela expect Sil to lean on the guy with muscle?
Vito briefly stares at Satriale's longingly and drives off.
At sentencing Johnny makes an allocution that he's been in the New York mob for ten years and gets 15 years while giving up 4.1 mil. Phil and his crew think that Johnny should have gone to trial rather than admit the existence of "this thing". Phil blurts out, "I did 20 years!" Yeah but he did it when he was younger. For Johnny Sack, there's a big difference between getting out at 67 or getting out at 72 or never geting out at all. He's a heavy smoker so I don't expect him t get out at all.
By the way, HBO goofs again with a line that was probably in the script but not in the aired episode: Phil Leotardo says all bets are off: "...the favored nations shit with Jersey is over."
The US Marshals repossess Ginny's Maserati. Chris complains that he bought the car for cash. There's a lesson here. Never buy a car from someone you can't sue. The police do it all the time. They sell repossessed cars at auction and then later they take it back from you on the grounds they didn't have the right to sell it. I'll make a blog about it later -it's really a disgrace.
We finally see Sal the landscaper released from his penance of doing the Sacrimoni yard, although Tony and Sil really raked him over the coals before doing so.
Janice is in tears over Tony getting the Sacrimoni house for her. Smart move on Tony's part: give her a bone while avoiding the request to bump him to captain. In Tony's eyes, Bobby is a screwup and is not captain material. By the way, Tony is still unpacking wine bottles and racking them up. How long will it take him to put all those bottles away, anyway? I can't figure out why Tony can do Janice a solid but stick it badly to his wife who spent all that time on her project. Kind of low. Tony can be cruel even while he's being supposedly nice. I guess he needs to balance good and evil within himself. A new Tony would have done two good deeds.
Cast/Crew List:
Arthur J. Nascarella (Carlo Gervasi)
Cara Buono (Kelli Moltisanti)
John Costelloe (Jim Witowski)
Carl Capotorto (Little Paulie Germani)
William Russ (Paul Calviac the "football jones")
Sharon Angela (Rosalie Aprile)
Maureen Van Zandt (Gabriella Dante)
Brad Zimmerman (Ron Perse, Johnny's Attorney)
Patrick Holder (Earl Bretanoux)
Lou Martini Jr. (Anthony Infante)
Lou Mustillo (Sal Vitro)
John Bianco (Gerry Torciano)
John 'Cha Cha' Ciarcia (Albie Cianflone)
Denise Borino-Quinn (Ginny Sacrimoni)
Adam Mucci (Eric DeBenedetto)
Daniel Ahearn (Elliot)
Chris McGarry (Pat)
Antony Hagopian (Emmerich)
Jason Betts (Ron)
Rick Gifford (Omar - New Hampshire Fireman)
Karen Lynn Gorney (Judy - Interior Decorator Ginny's House)
Rebecca Wisocky (Rene Cabot Moskowitz - Asst US Attorney)
Miryam Coppersmith (Sophia Baccalieri)
Angelo Massagli (Bobby Baccalieri, Jr.)
Danielle Di Vecchio (Barbara Giglione)
Ed Vassallo (Tom Giglione)
Tony Cucci (Fat Dom Gamiello)
Kate Buddeke (Nora Minter)
Guy Paul (Jeep Owner)
Sal Dipiazza (Bookie)
Joe Forbrich (Fed Marshal)
Jeffrey M. Marchetti (Peter "Bissell" La Rosa)
Christopher Maggi (Butcher)
Brianna Laughlin (Domenica Baccalieri)
Kimberly Laughlin (Domenica Baccalieri)
Gangbangers: Kadir Forbes, Daveed Ramsey, Alex Mitchell, Matthew (Matlok) Rullan, Brian Gilbert
Preview trailer for Moe and Joe:
Trailer 75 Right Click to download (save target as...) to your computer.
