Pussy and Tony both shot and killed Matthew Bevalaqua. Then Skip tells Pussy that he needs to get Tony talking about this killing on tape. Pussy is soon killed, but the FBI has a tape where Pussy tried to get Tony to talk about the murder. Pussy says something like "I think the family was relieved he got taken out. He sure cried like a baby that night." Then Tony says something like "Ready to order? Waiter!" Anyways, why would Pussy attempt to get Tony to talk about a murder they both participated in (if Tony does talk about the murder and mentions how him and pussy killed Matthew, then Pussy is fucked)? Pussy has to hide the fact that he participated in this murder from the FBI...yet he is going to bring it up in taped conversation? This is only a small part of the show and not hugely significant, but anybody else see how this is illogical?

Now that you mention it, it does seem pretty stupid that he'd try to get Tony to talk about it when he participated. Skip already confronted Pussy about whether he was involved, and he denied it vehemently, so why would he risk giving a tape that has Tony talking about his involvement?

I guess he just wasn't thinking properly, but still.

It doesn't make a lot of sense. However, at that point Pussy was all over the map loyalty-wise and delusional -- remember the Pokemon hijacking fiasco around the same time. When Pussy gave Lipari the scotch, he referred to it as "turning a blind eye." I think the FBI had a pretty good idea that Pussy was involved, but would rather snare Tony since they already had Pussy in the bag for major crimes.

The bigger blowback would have been to Lipari. Here he's supposed to be Pussy's handler, yet on his watch, Pussy goes out and commits a murder. That has to be a career-ending move.

I think Skip was like 95% sure Pussy was a trigger man in the murder. At one point later on, Pussy says something like "I'll never forget you looked the other way on that beef" and Skip says "What! The FBI would never look the other way on a murder" or something like that. I think the idea was that Skip wanted to keep his informant on the street. Unless Pussy tells Skip flat out "I killed Pussy", Skip is able to deny that he knew Pussy murdered Matthew - and he can still reap the benefits of a high echelon informant.

Also, the fact that Pussy said on tape to Tony, "He sure cried like a baby that night" is insane. He is basically admitting he was at the very least present at the murder. Doesn't make too much sense.

The walls were closing in on Pussy at that point, so I think he was throwing anything at the wall to keep both the family and the FBI at bay (like his "mindfucking" techniques that were causing more harm than good for Tony despite Pussy's intentions).

The duplicity was seriously affecting Pussy's judgement. Earlier in the season, he whacks Jimmy Bones after being seen at the party store with Skip. The murder of a half assed connected guy would have shown up on the FBI radar. Pussy may as well left a giant billboard saying "I Did It" at the scene.

Also, at one point the FBI is questioning pussy - Skip asks, 'who took over the stolen car operation?' and pussy answers, 'uhh, ray curto.'

However, this is in the episode (or maybe the episode before) when Tony goes over to Italy to strike a deal to export stolen cars to Italy. So was Pussy lying to protect Tony in that instance? Or do you think Ray Curto was running the day to day operations for Tony and Pussy was being honest?

I think Pussy was lying I thought I would check with you guys though...

It's the same episode. Pussy lying about it was probably his "mindfucking" plan, good intentions, but if the FBI had Curto as a CW at that point, they would know it was bullshit.

That's a good point. I forgot Curto ends up informing.

sorry to bring up a old thred but it has been bothering me why didn't pussy finger christopher for the polish Kolas Bros son hit as part of his deal with the FBI- this is when it gets a bit far fetched becuase it seams when the turn they do a full 360 and tell all...

That hit took place in the pilot, which was filmed some 18 months before the remaining Season 1 episodes. I think with a lot of pilots, there's bound to be continuity errors. In the pilot for example, Adriana is the hostess at the restaurant Tony takes (blonde) Irina and Carmela.

Ignoring the errors, I don't think Christopher was that high value of a target to risk exposing Pussy as an informant. If they do arrest Christopher, Pussy was the only one to see Christopher with the corpse of Emil Kolar before it's buried. Even a knucklehead like Paulie could figure that one out.

By the middle of Season 1, Christopher had already moved the body elsewhere (he said downstate in the episode, but it ended up being Pat's farm in upstate New York). With Christopher's unwillingness to flip on Tony, coupled with the disappearance of the only real witness, there's not really a case to be had.

The cobwebs are now removed

Pardon me for piggybacking on this thread, but since it is about Pussy......I recently watched a YouTube video of Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" for the movie starring Denzel Washington. In the opening scenes up pops Vincent Pastore. In the video he is Alfred Bello, a small time hood who robs the register in a bar after everyone had been shot. You never know where actors will show up. The film was released in 1999, the first year of the Sopranos.

The Hurricane

I watched and listened to this the other day, but for some reason the sound quit after 20 seconds. Maybe you will have better luck. The song is a Dylan classic.

CC Greg Scarpa, CC Whitey Bulger.

Precisely. Lindley DeVecchio resigned in disgrace not long after Scarpa died, and John Connolly has been in prison longer than Whitey has.

Any coincidence that Skip disappeared after the Season 3 premiere?

Nope