On the moral side of things, the Police made a slip up and had to let him go on a technicality so I don't think there was any further course of action she could have taken, legally.
If Tony told her he was going to do something and she didn't go to the police with this information, I'm pretty sure she could be charged as an accessory or conspirator. But otherwise, I don't think she would technically have done anything that broke the law.
No, but then given your argument, even if she was breaking the law by telling Tony, it shouldn't matter all that much with your apparent moral outlook.
No one's saying that if Tony killed or severely maimed Rossi it would have "struck fear into the hearts of all of society's rapists" or that it would "deal with something as socially destructive as rape." But neither does the legal system do these things.
If it isn't 'dealing with' something as socially destructive as rape in
some way - i.e., seeking 'justice' in response to it, which is a way of dealing with it - then what's the use of Melfi telling Tony about it at all?
Melfi recognises the potential for bloody revenge when she confesses to Elliot some satisfaction in knowing that she
could, should she want to, tell Tony about Rossi. She also recognises that ultimately, Tony hurting Rossi or worse isn't going to bring much
lasting, if any satisfaction to her.
If your daughter was raped and/or murdered, and you learned that Melfi could have prevented it by telling Tony what happened to her and who did it, you would hardly think she did the right thing by keeping quiet.
This is a curious stance, which places all the moral obligation onto the victim, in spite of how traumatic a rape actually is.
My argument isn't a straw man because I'm not convinced that Melfi would be doing 'the right thing' by 'preventing' one rapist from further rape when the issue isn't as singular as that; if your 'daughter' (or son for that matter!) was 'raped and/or murdered' and you found out Melfi 'could have prevented it', why wouldn't you then ask her why she wasn't preventing
other rapists from raping people too? Or, what if your daughter (or son, or mother, etc.) was raped and you found out Melfi
had told Tony about Rossi? Would the judicial responsibility then befall Tony?
This is very idealist. It neglects firstly the shocking trauma that Melfi has had to experience; the rape itself, then the 'technicality' that allows Rossi to go free; the fact she has professional obligations to her patients, whilst telling them for various reasons that she was in a car accident; then of course are the psychological effects of a rape, which the show doesn't go into: Melfi's own possible guilt, fear of certain public spaces, distrust of men, disdain of the police and the legal system, possible racial profiling, etc.; all of which would affect her domestic, social and professional lives.
Apparently, none of this matters. Melfi is not to be admired for deciding against seeking out Jesus Rossi and preventing him from hurting others in the future; forget the responsibilities she has to herself - she has a
responsibility to all future rape victims!
This actually makes my Ralphie example even more relevant than it already was:
Your reference to Tony and Ralphie is misplaced. Tony only didn't kill Ralphie right after the latter killed Tracee because Ralphie was a made man. And Tony eventually did do it. The justice system was never going to rearrest Rossi.
Firstly, as I've argued
here, Tony lashes out at Ralphie behind the Bing! because Ralphie is openly and verbally rude to Tony, not because he killed a stripper about whom Tony is blatantly indifferent throughout the same episode.
That's the actual tragedy of Tracee's episode; not that she's killed - brutal as that is - but that her death is completely skirted over immediately. She's another piece of exploited business to Tony (via Silvio), whereas Ralphie earns more than her.
Saying Tony eventually 'did do it' (kill Ralphie in "Whoever Did This") implies he was waiting for his chance to avenge Tracee, which isn't the case. Tony kills Ralphie in the immediate aftermath of Pie-O-My's death, convinced by his own irrational, childish tendency toward a violent expression of grief, that Ralphie was responsible for the stables fire. Tony says as he strangles Ralphie, "She was a beautiful little creature, what did she ever do to you?" Later in the same episode, Tony looks at a photo of Tracee backstage of the Bing!, inviting us to read into the earlier words; either way, even if Tony was referring to Tracee and not Pie-O-My as a "beautiful little creature" (extremely out of character if so), it's his irrational way of justifying his current murderous actions; for me, it doesn't wash.
Tony didn't kill Ralphie because the latter was 'a made man'? Right; you might argue that had nobody stepped in, Tony and Ralphie would have fought to the death there and then. But the others did step in, and it is
Ralphie, once the others have held Tony back, that reminds Tony he is a made guy. I'm not sure that Tony thinks these kinds of things through as he's doing them; he certainly doesn't when he strangles Ralphie to death in Ralphie's own kitchen.
Also, don't forget that at the moment Tony kills Ralphie - because of a dead horse, not a murdered stripper - Ralphie is not only
still a made guy, but Tony's highest earner. And, as a final point on this 'misplaced' reference, do you think we should question Tony's moral priorities when, as you put it, he chooses not to dish out 'justice' after Tracee is killed '
because Ralphie was a made man'? Ah, the noble traditions of the Mafia!
Anyway, the further relevance of this reference is the gap in your logic: if you 'didn't admire that [Melfi] didn't tell Tony about being raped', why is she less likeable than Tony when the latter doesn't
immediately prevent Ralphie from murdering further strippers?
And your statement that Melfi could have pursued justice "in any way she pleased" sounds very hollow. Rape is not something that someone should get a slap on the wrist for. The only punishments that seem commensurate with the crime are prison or some violent extralegal punishment. The former was ruled out when Rossi was released. The only other realistic options would have been either for Melfi to tell Tony what happened or for her to go after Rossi herself--the latter obviously being far riskier for her than the former.
Or the option she does take, of course.
To all of the material effects of the rape I listed above, we might add, had Melfi sought 'justice' in the way you envisage, her double guilt about doing so. She's a complex, moral character, not surrounded by murder and death in the way Tony is; she might tell Tony about Rossi on the spur of the moment and feel good about it, might feel some satisfaction... but after that, when she realises that she was still raped and that she's set into motion events which would probably end in the death of a worker (and a good one, apparently) who is also somebody's son, who might also be a father, a boyfriend, etc., etc...?
I'm in no way justifying rape, here, but all of these things make your apparently simple solution to the situation more of a moral conundrum than you're making out, no?
I return to a telling point from you that I've already quoted:
"The justice system was never going to rearrest Rossi."No, and so it's
the justice system as it is consciously presented in the show - plausibly representative no doubt of real life - to which our anger and energy should be directed.
Not to Rossi,
per se, not for me anyway; but then I find the episode contrived, one of the show's weakest, actually. Regardless, though, I feel much more outrage when Richard rings the police and finds out about the technicality than I do when I see Rossi's face on the 'Employee of the Month' placard.
Turning vigilante isn't the positive thing to do, and on those grounds, nor could I ever say it's 'the right thing' to do. Understandable in certain situations, but most likely a product of a desperately narrow viewpoint.
