Tony Soprano's most ruthless moments? Possible spoilers.

I was trying to think of the most ruthless things Tony has done over the 4 seasons, and the top 3 I've come up with are:

1) Almost killing his mother in Season 1.
2) Torturing and killing Matthew Bevilaqua in
Season 2.
3) Killing Ralph over the horse in Season 4.

I also considered him killing his best friend Pussy, but he wasn't really ruthless, and it tormented him.

Busting out Davey Scatino's sporting goods store

I wouldn't really call this ruthless, and maybe off topic a bit, however, remember when Tony was telling Paulie, Silvio and his crew that he thought another family had Ralphie whacked? He lied so convincingly, and yet it seems not everyone is buying it. Can't think of his name, but the guy who has a son in Florida (I think) said he thought it was Tony that killed Ralphie.


TIS

Every time he commits adultery, kills someone, or mouths off to his kids.

So, in short: Tony Soprano is ruthless with EVERY moment in EVERY scene in EVERY episode. There is not a moment where he isn't ruthless.

Mick

Yes, you are correct Capo. Yet in spite of his ruthlessness and killing and cheating, etc., I do believe he loves his wife in children very much. Don't you??? Not that that justifies all his wrongs, but I think where his family is concerned, his feelings are sincere.


TIS

Tony is ruthless and he usually gets what he wants....gotta love a guy like that.

I can't remember one instance where Tony was ever ruthless towards his children.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong next season, but I don't think Tony would ever harm Carmella either. In his own cockeyed way, and even tho by that season five clip someone posted, with Tony saying there would be no divorce, I do think he sincerely loves Carmella too (the cheating murdering creep that he is). Don't you?? I think that pride and tradition is why he wouldn't want a divorce, but I also think he loves Carmella.


TIS

I disagree, Mick. Tony often displays a soft side to himself. One example that comes to mind is the scene from Season 3 (I think) in which the local cop who gave Tony a speeding ticket gets re-assigned and is no longer eligible for overtime (because of Tony's influence with the Congressman), and Tony tries to give the cop a few extra bucks.

That's true SC. Also when Gloria (the woman at the car dealer) killed herself, he seemed genuinely upset and even felt guilty. Not to mention when his horse died, he showed genuine remorse as well.

TIS

Oh yes, SC, he has a soft side, and I was exaggerating my opinion of him in my post. His soft side is obviously his wife and kids. He would do anything for them IMO. But I don't think there is a time he is not ruthless with regard to his other Family--particularly in season four, in which IMO Tony starts to get even more ruthless than he already is.

The cop incident you refer to did show some kind of guilt from Tony, but that was soon wiped away when a black guy stole Meadow's bike.

And Just Lou, Tony was somewhat ruthless to Jackie Aprile and Noah, who I consider kids compared to the Mob Boss himself.

Mick

Rushles towards Jackie? He did everything he could to
keep him out of trouble. Yes he beat the shit out of him for what he was doing to Meadow, but most fathers would have done the same thing.

He seems to have a soft spot for animals. I can kinda' relate, but not at his level since I've never tortured anyone, cheated on a woman or killed a human being...

He had paternal-type feelings for the ducks from S1. He had a special love for Pie-o-My. Then pay attention to his reaction at Christopher's intervention when Adrianna talks about Cosette (sp?). He's almost obsessed on it for a few moments.

He did feel guilty about Gloria, but it was almost at the expense of realizing that she was pretty coo-coo and that he couldn't have done anything. She was suicidal, even when they were involved. Then Tony felt betrayed Melfi didn't tell him about it, but realistically she wasn't allowed to.

The way he reacted with Irina, because of his guilt of Gloria's death, led her to call Carmela because she was convinced Tony still wanted her. C'mon... we've all been in relationships where they appear afterward to have more lustre than they actually had...

Nick

I watched the season 4 repeat of the Season finale last night. If I am not mistaken, that is the closest I've ever seen Tony get to hitting Carm. Yet he held back and punched the wall instead. Seemed tense tho for a while. Has he hit/attacked any other women in the show? Or killed or had a woman killed? I am thinking I did see him at least slap one once, but don't recall. Just wondering I guess if Tony had any scrupples when it came to physically hurting a woman???? Ha ha, I must have a short memory, I just finished watching all the repeats and if it did happen, I forgot already.

TIS

TIS, the closest I can remember Tony comign to hurt a woman was two instances:

When he tried to suffocate his mother Livia, after learning she tried to have him whacked, but she had faked a stroke and it turned out he couldn't get to her.

And then there's when he almost strangled Gloria, when she threatened, out of sheer desperate insecurity, to call his wife and tell of there affair. Tony got to the floor in a choke hold, before letting go, and then he sent Pat Parisi to ensure Gloria wasn't going to bother him again with a nice gunpoint threat.

Mick

Maybe this incident is not as "ruthless" as the rest of you guys might think, but I think it was unthinkably new as far as ruthless-ness is concerned:

1) Season 1: when Tony grabs Christopher (who has a bandage around his neck after being dragged to the Meadowlands) and squeezes a "little bit" hard when Chrissy threatens to "question" Tony's leadership.

2) Season 1: almost the very following scene when Tony uses the stapler on Mikey Palmice's suit..I really loved that scene and have been keeping a similiar stapler in my car ever since

The Bevilaqua hit, without a doubt. Gives the kid a soda, lets him finish the soda, then he asks him was the soda, and tells him thats the last drink you'll ever have. The guy pissed his pants! It takes a cold-blooded guy to do something like that. But i have to admit, it was pretty bad ass as ruthless as it was.

The Bevilaqua hit, without a doubt. Gives the kid a soda, lets him finish the soda, then he asks him was the soda, and tells him thats the last drink you'll ever have. The guy pissed his pants! It takes a cold-blooded guy to do something like that. But i have to admit, it was pretty bad ass as ruthless as it was.

Busting Cocos teeth out in the restaurant.

Was watching those episodes recently, the bust out was pretty brutal.

But he was warned that it was the executive game and you'd need deep pockets.

James Gandolfini played a very convincing sociopath so being ruthless was in the character. Sociopaths do ruthless things sometimes. It is up to the individual which is most ruthless.

Killing Chris..

Bevilaqua Hit at first didnt bother me. Then I watched it again, and the worst part is seeing this kid covered in blood crying, his last words being mommy was sad. Poor kid who made some bad fuckin descision.

Beating up Georgie the bartender for trivial things would fall under the ruthless category. But there's also the more subtle ruthlessness that Tony exhibited (like revenge being "cold cuts" as he describe once to Melfi):

- Setting up Feech LaManna to have his parole violated
- Loaning Artie the $50,000 for the Frenchman, knowing that Artie would flub it
- Fronting Davey Scatino the Executive Card Game money knowing he had the store that could be busted out
- Making Matt Bevilaqua sweep up by Silvio at that card game, knowing that Silvio would react violently
- Blasting Dean Martin Live From the Sands at the lawyer's oceanfront house to get his $200,000 back
- The way he treated Junior after the indictments after Season 1, from seizing nearly every earning channel Junior had, to mocking Junior about the Executive Card Game (knowing he was under house arrest and couldn't run it)
- Pulling Bryan Camarata into his circle for a time, and pulling Bryan out of Carmela's sphere regarding investment advice
- Beating Carmela to the punch by tainting the divorce attorney pool in North Jersey
- Sleeping with Christopher's Las Vegas call girl after Christopher's death, sort of a parting shot at Christopher
- Jerking Hesh around with the shylock business, especially making a huge production and mockery of paying the weekly vig

The way he acted when Chris was dead. I mean all series he acted like a surrogate father to him and said he loved him like a son. But it turned out he didnt really giive a shit about him. Yes he is a gangster/sociopath but after all the stuff they went through in teh end Tony kind of threw away chris like garbage when he didnt need him anymore

Probably the Scatino bust out, purely because it was such a drawn out and malicious process as well as the fact he could clearly see what he was doing to Davey and Davey's family. Other than than that, the majority of the other ruthless acts he committed were of a some form of "street justice", I'm not trying to justify what he did, it just lessens the severity of the effects his actions caused. Ruining a civilian and his family's lives, not to mention an old friend, goes way above killing another murderer like Ralphie or the others.

Yeah killing Christopher is number 1, as Christopher was in pretty bad shape and couldn't defend himself , was cold to suffocate him like that

I would separate Tony's ruthless moments by violent acts vs. non-violent acts.

Non-violent ruthless moments (not in particular order):
1. Giving Meadow Erik Scatino's car and then berating her when she wouldn't accept it. "And the money that pays the bills, buys the cds, and all your other shit" (or something to that effect)

2. Bashing Big Pussy's wife's car after she tried to squeeze money out of Tony for her dog's operation. Tony made it abundantly clear that he wouldn't be shaken down and that he would gladly kill her.

3. Tainting as many lawyers as he could so Carmella couldn't hire them

4. Hooking up with Christopher's goomah (the one who was an ex-druggie)

Violent ruthless moments:
1. When Tony bashed the guy's face from Phil's crew who made the pass at Meadow. Later some of the guy's teeth were caught in Tony's pantleg

2. Setting up Adrianna even though he didn't carry out the hit
3. Killing Ralph
4. Killing the "rat" when taking Meadow on her college visits and then lying to Meadow's face only a few minutes later.

I disagree about killing Christopher. Tony always regretted promoting Christopher and I think he should have been killed earlier in the series. At the very latest, Tony should have killed him when Christopher came into the Bing with a gun thinking that Tony had fooled around with Adrianna. The way Christopher ended up dying was a terrible scene, in my opinion.

Agree on the killing of Christopher. In Melfi's world, the sociopath had the soft spot for animals and children. After the crash, Tony saw a branch impaled the empty child seat. That's what triggered him to finish off Christopher.

This always bugged me, I never understood tony's motivation for doing it.

You summarized better what I was trying to say. Tony was definitely pissed that Christopher was high and the baby could have been in the back. No doubt that's what inspired Tony. The point I was trying to make was that in terms of ruthlessness, the way he killed Christopher (plugging his nose) was NOT ruthless. It was just a perfect opportunity for Tony to kill Christopher without implicating himself.

I thought that one of the most potentially ruthless killings that didn't happen was during "Remember When." Tony kept pressing Paulie to confess that Paulie was the one who told Johnny Sacc about the "90 lb mole" on Ginny. So much so that Paulie was on a boat alone with Tony and started freaking out. If I recall, he even flashed back to when they whacked Big Pussy on the boat. Paulie was definitely ready to soil his pants. And I think had Tony killed his friend Paulie, it would have been among the most ruthless things Tony had ever done.

Especially when in that episode, Tony told Paulie that there were times he wish Paulie were his father growing up.

When Tony hurled that beer at Paulie, Paulie was about white as a ghost.

RE: Christopher -- I do agree that it wasn't a ruthless killing on Tony's part (and I should have made that clearer).

Same here. Tony was more prickish in that episode -- wishing Carmela's spec house would collapse, screwing over Marie Spatafore with helping Vito, Jr., even down to how he treated Melfi with the missed appointments.