Choosing between family and 'the family' is something Tony Soprano has to face time and again in this series, but in this episode that choice is for our other mobbed-up friend, Salvatore 'Big Pussy' Bonpensiero. At this point in the saga, little is known about the character other than that he is an acquaintance of our better-known protagonist and a cigar aficionado. But over the course of this episode, his home life is revealed and his true character is just peaked at -but it's enough to make us sympathise with him and his severe backache.
Detective Vin Makazian opens a particularly foul smelling can of worms when he confronts Tony with the possibility that Pussy could be a rat. Only Makazian really presents it as more of a fact, with evidence to back it up. Watching this episode the first time 'round is gripping as you'd expect, but on second viewings it is laced with a tragic underlining. Tony's human response is to vehemently deny this, although one shrink's appointment later he is forced to assess the situation logically when Melfi offers a symptom of Pussy's backache-related stress: hiding a secret. Could Pussy be relying on the fed's payroll to get his son through college?
On the subject of 'College', we already know Tone's feelings in regard to 'rats', and this makes us fear for a minor character we have come to like. However, the less likable Makazian's objectivity is called into question when T discovers he owes Big Pussy $30,000 and this is some sort of relief for Tony and the viewer because now we know his pal could still be his pal.
So TS pays his friend a visit and offers him fiduciary assistance if he needs it, assuring him that he's "got friends, and options". Meanwhile, another pal of Tony's who could definitely do with some, Vin Makazian, is having trouble with the law -supposedly the people he works for. He's been arrested on corruption charges; much like Pussy who has apparently betrayed his tribe: the mob. His answer to the stress and imminently public disgrace: suicide, or "a header off the Route 1 bridge".
As a sign of respect, Tony pays Vin's favourite brothel worker, Debbie, a visit. In her pantsuit, she resembles his psychiatrist and even refers to the idea when she explains the frequency of Vin's visits as a form of therapy, where "instead of a couch you use a bed." TS is confronted with his own feelings for Melfi in a contender for the best accidental psychiatry session he's had yet when Debbie asks "who wouldn't want to sleep with their shrink?" Perhaps the legitimisation of finding his sexual fantasies to be quite common is all the solace he deserves for one episode.
Or maybe he's spoilt when we discover a far more suitable rat along with him in the form of Jimmy Altieri, who Makazian could possibly have confused with another cigar-smoking "fat f*ck with black hair". As only we know, Jimmy isn't the only one with an axe hanging over his head as Junior's crew plot the untimely demise of a certain cunnilingus-implying nephew...
Detective Vin Makazian opens a particularly foul smelling can of worms when he confronts Tony with the possibility that Pussy could be a rat. Only Makazian really presents it as more of a fact, with evidence to back it up. Watching this episode the first time 'round is gripping as you'd expect, but on second viewings it is laced with a tragic underlining. Tony's human response is to vehemently deny this, although one shrink's appointment later he is forced to assess the situation logically when Melfi offers a symptom of Pussy's backache-related stress: hiding a secret. Could Pussy be relying on the fed's payroll to get his son through college?
On the subject of 'College', we already know Tone's feelings in regard to 'rats', and this makes us fear for a minor character we have come to like. However, the less likable Makazian's objectivity is called into question when T discovers he owes Big Pussy $30,000 and this is some sort of relief for Tony and the viewer because now we know his pal could still be his pal.
So TS pays his friend a visit and offers him fiduciary assistance if he needs it, assuring him that he's "got friends, and options". Meanwhile, another pal of Tony's who could definitely do with some, Vin Makazian, is having trouble with the law -supposedly the people he works for. He's been arrested on corruption charges; much like Pussy who has apparently betrayed his tribe: the mob. His answer to the stress and imminently public disgrace: suicide, or "a header off the Route 1 bridge".
As a sign of respect, Tony pays Vin's favourite brothel worker, Debbie, a visit. In her pantsuit, she resembles his psychiatrist and even refers to the idea when she explains the frequency of Vin's visits as a form of therapy, where "instead of a couch you use a bed." TS is confronted with his own feelings for Melfi in a contender for the best accidental psychiatry session he's had yet when Debbie asks "who wouldn't want to sleep with their shrink?" Perhaps the legitimisation of finding his sexual fantasies to be quite common is all the solace he deserves for one episode.
Or maybe he's spoilt when we discover a far more suitable rat along with him in the form of Jimmy Altieri, who Makazian could possibly have confused with another cigar-smoking "fat f*ck with black hair". As only we know, Jimmy isn't the only one with an axe hanging over his head as Junior's crew plot the untimely demise of a certain cunnilingus-implying nephew...