Episode 53: "Diamonds and Rubies" Running time: 52 minutes
As the opening credits end we see a truck full of jewellery being hijacked by two armed masked guys. We then cut to an initial shot of a pair of eyes, who, as we learn as the camera rolls back, belong to Furio Giunta. Furio sits on the couch of the Sopranos house living room, while Carmela Soprano eats ice cream and watches TV sitting next to him. Anthony Junior enters the room and says good morning to Furio, referring to him as “dad.” Tony Soprano’s eyes shoot wide open as he awakens from his dream. He is living with his sister Janice—temporarily—though he returned home last night to find that she was over at Bobby Bacala’s (again). As he makes his way out the house, he notices Janice has a picture up of her as a child with her parents in their Down Neck home. Tony can’t remember ever seeing it before.
Over at the Sopranos family home Carmela is waking up, alone. She has been sleeping in Meadow’s old room. The house is empty; AJ stayed out again the night before over at a friend’s, and Meadow is back home over in New York. Carmela dresses and gets ready for her art class, which she is about to start today. While getting ready, she goes into the main bedroom to decide what clothes to wear. She stops and looks at the made, empty double bed. She remembers of good times with Tony, before brushing it out of her head, as if she shouldn’t have been reminiscing.
At the Bada Bing, Silvio and Christopher await Tony’s arrival to make final decisions on the upcoming Executive Card Game, which will be held upstairs in the private suite. Chris then collects his share of some hijacked jewellery from the truck at the beginning of the episode. As he goes back inside the Bing he catches Tony in a daydream—oblivious to the numerous strippers around him, he has had another vision of Furio living at Tony’s old home. Silvio advises Tony to join one of the strippers in a private room to “take your mind of things,” but Tony gets cold feet at the last minute, and refuses the offer.
Out of jail and ready to reclaim his position of family capo, Larry Boy Barese meets with his cousin, acting capo, Albert “Ally Boy” Barese. Ally thinks it would be best if he kept his position as capo, as he believes the Family has no reason to “fuck around when things are going good.” Albert is furious, and orders a sit-down with Tony about it. Tony agrees to see him.
Uncle Junior has a lot on his mind. He has to undergo chemotherapy for his battle against the Big Casino—cancer. Bobby accompanies him. Junior raises a raging eyebrow after the doctor asks if Bobby is his grandson. “How old do I fucking look!?” Junior asks how things are going with Bacala and Janice. Apparently, Bobby is happy. Junior warns him that his niece can be a real power freak at times: she is her mother’s daughter, after all. Bobby doesn’t buy it.
Carmela visits AJ at his new job—a video and DVD rental shop. She explains that her art class was good and she’ll be going again. He is embarrassed by her visit, and shrugs the motherly love off, while his work colleagues mock him—of which Carmela is unaware. After Carmela leaves, AJ’s new girlfriend, Sarah, pops by. AJ is pleased that she is seen in front of his colleagues, and jumps at the chance to kiss her.
Junior is on the local news, reported to be seen exiting the hospital, with rumours that he is up against cancer circulating the press. Enraged by the fact that the media filmed him at a time when he didn’t look his respectable best—blaming the cold weather—he orders Bobby to go see the reporter.
Meanwhile, Christopher comes home with a handful of diamond and ruby rings for Adriana—though she is unaware that they are from a delivery truck. She kisses him, and thanks him for undergoing rehab. He agrees that Tony’s decision to make him do it was the best choice he’d ever made. Adriana reminds him that she played a helping hand too, wanting some credit herself. She also encourages Chris to go make things right with his mother.
Tony has a meeting with Harry Stewart, Deputy President of the Jewellery Suppliers Company. Stewart has claimed insurance on the hijacking and agrees that Tony gets a 40% taste of the action, as well as keeping the diamonds acquired from the truck raid. Tony agrees to in return give Stewart a taste of the profits made from the illegal sales of the diamonds.
Carmela gets a phone call from AJ’s school. As he is in his last year, the school feels it is paramount that he does not truant any more. Carmela tries to talk to her son when he gets home, but AJ decides to go to his room and blast the house down with defiantly high-volume music.
Tony has another dream about Furio, in which the Neapolitan kills Tony and starts to laugh, while being congratulated by Carmela. On waking up, Tony decides he’s had enough and rings Doctor Melfi. On hearing her voice at the other end, he hangs up.
While Junior is adamant in watching the news all night to see if he is on, Bobby turns up at the reporter’s house. With some reasonable, indirect Bacala threats, the reporter soon catches the end of the stick and realises his local news company have made a terrible mistake.
Carm calls in to visit AJ at work, but finds he is not there. One of his colleagues tells her AJ has quit. Furious Carmela lectures AJ about the importance of school and work, but AJ is not buying any of it.
Janice and Bobby’s watching of Grease is interrupted by a phone call. Melfi asks why Janice called her this morning. Janice denies all knowledge of it and asks who Melfi is. After realising she is a psychiatrist, Janice explains she is Tony’s sister, and goes into great detail as to why Tony might have rang her.
As the Executive Suite is being swept for bugs and Silvio goes over last minute details with Tony, Tony receives a phone call from Svetlana. Junior has had a heart attack. Tony gives Christopher charge of who is let into the Executive Game tonight, and heads off to the hospital to see his uncle. Uncle Junior will live, but the heart attack was far from minor, according to the doctor. He suggests that Junior stays on a low cholesterol diet. Tony agrees.
Back at the Card Game, Johnny Sac turns up, wanting a piece of the action with some of his high-profile business associates who happen to be on a trip to New York. Paulie tells Chris not to let them in. Chris realises that Sac’s business partners have come with plenty boxes of ziti, and thus decides to let them in. Paulie is fuming, and confronts Johnny, telling him to “go fuck yourself and that cocksucking old prick boss of yours.” He accuses Sac of wanting to take over the New Jersey Family, humiliating Sac in front of his associates. Sac doesn’t retaliate to Paulie’s temper, but Chris can see the frustration in his face. Chris asks Paulie what all that was for. Paulie tells Chris that Sac wanted to take a piece of the action from the game, and Chris should have seen it coming. Chris doesn’t buy it. Neither does Silvio.
The morning after Tony picks AJ up from home for the weekend. Carmela is upstairs washing her hair. Tony goes up, but Carmela claims to be too busy to even open the bathroom door. Tony decides not to persist, and leaves with AJ without saying goodbye. He and AJ eat at the Nuovo Vesuvio, Artie Bucco’s restaurant. Tony asks AJ how school is going. AJ says it’s okay. He tells Tony he quit his job. Tony tells him that it is his choice and he will back him. Encouraged by this, AJ complains about his mother’s lecturing him about it. Tony tells him to take notice of Carmela. Mothers know best.
Junior watches from his hospital bed, while eating salad, as the reporter tells viewers that they were wrong about Junior’s illness.
At the Bing Silvio tells Tony of Paulie’s tantrum. Tony tells him what to do. Tony returns home and finds Bobby’s undergarments down the side of the sofa. Disgusted, Tony decides to confront Janice about it. He goes to her room, but she is already asleep. He looks again at the photo of her and their parents, and Tony leans over to kiss his sister goodnight. He goes to his room and falls asleep.
I'll post episode 54 when I write it.
Please read it and give thoughts.
Thanks,
Mick
