The Sopranos 3.13

The Army of One

Jackie Jr. hides out in the projects but he goes out for walks and one day he gets wacked. The hit man is Viro Spatafore, who works for Ralph. Jackie's mother is heartbroken of course.

The FBI decides to try something new. They assign Agent Deborah Ciccerone to get close to Adriana. She does just that without too much trouble.

Paulie gets into an argument with Ralph. He gave Ralph some information that helped his guys rob a check cashing place. They got away with $100K. Paulie wants half. Ralph has yet to pay him anything. Paulie asks for a sit down meeting with Tony and Ralph. Paulie expects that Tony will rule in his favor, but he doesn't. Tony decides that Ralph should pay Paulie $12K.

AJ and one of his friends get tricked into admitting that they broke into their school late at night and stole the answers to a test. They get expelled. Tony feels that what his son needs is to be sent to a military academy. Carmela is opposed to sending AJ to military school. She fights Tony on it while they investigate the possibility and visit a military school in upstate New York.

Tony has a couple sessions with Dr. Melfi. He is focused on Jackie Jr's death in the first one and AJ in the second one.

Tony is really determined to send AJ to military school but in the end that plan falls through. AJ has a panic attack after they get home. The medical condition rules out the possibility of sending him to such a school.

Everyone comes together for the viewing and then the funeral of Jackie Jr. Meadow gets into an argument with Kelli Aprile, Jackie's sister, about their families and why Jackie got killed. The official story is that he was dealing X in the projects and got killed by a rival drug dealer. Meadow later gets into an argument with first her mother and then her father. This is after she has had a few drinks. She winds up leaving the reception in a hurry.

Paulie runs into Johnny Sac after he leaves the reception. Johnny Sac can tell that Paulie is agitated and is more than happy to listen. Christopher apologizes to Tony for the way he has been acting lately. The episode ends with Uncle Junior singing a song about an unfaithful heart at the reception.

Thoughts

Vito Spatafore has appeared in just 8 episodes so far, all but one of those appearances were in the Season 3. He appears in 31 of the next 37 episodes. His role in the show becomes very central eventually.

Michael K. Williams, who is probably best known for playing Omar Little on The Wire, plays the guy who Jackie is staying with at the time he gets murdered. This is his one and only appearance on The Sopranos.

I can see the seeds being planted for the next season. Adriana's new friend and Paulie's discontent with Tony are both threads that will receive more attention in future episodes. AJ's issues with his parents will continue to be a recurring theme.

This is the final episode of the season. The Sopranos is a well made show but I don't feel any strong compulsion at this time to keep watching or even to return for season 4 at some point down the road. I've seen the show before in its entirety. In some respects my opinion of the show has not changed. I don't think that the cost of continuing to watch is worth it for whatever benefit I might gain. I would rather move on and watch something else, that I may or may not have watched before.