Join the Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Join the Club" | |
|---|---|
| The Sopranos episode | |
 Carmela sits by her comatose husband Tony's side in the hospital and talks to him. |
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| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 2 |
| Written by | David Chase |
| Directed by | David Nutter |
| Production no. | 67 |
| Original airdate | March 19, 2006 |
| Guest stars | |
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Jerry Adler |
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| Season 6 episodes | |
| Part 1: March 12, 2006 – June 4, 2006 | |
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| Part 2: April 8, 2007 – June 10, 2007 | |
| List of The Sopranos episodes | |
"Join the Club" is the second episode of the sixth season of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and sixty-seventh episode overall. It was written by series creator/executive producer David Chase and was directed by one-time Sopranos director David Nutter. The episode premiered on March 19, 2006 in the United States.
The episode's narrative details the aftermath of the shooting of series protagonist Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) by his uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano (Dominic Chianese). Tony, now in coma, has a dream-like experience in which he envisions himself as a travelling salesman not involved with the Mafia. Meanwhile, Tony's family and associates adjust to the possibility of Tony not coming out of his coma.
Most hospital scenes of the episode were filmed in Elizabeth, New Jersey with additional exterior and interior scenes filmed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey. "Join the Club" attracted 9.18 million American viewers and was generally well-received by critics, who singled out Edie Falco's performance in the episode for praise. Since its premiere, the episode has frequently been cited as one of the best of the series. It received two award nominations for directing. The episode's dream sequence has been the subject of fan analysis.
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[edit] Plot
Tony is in critical condition, two days after being shot by Uncle Junior. The attending physicians in the ICU sedate Tony into an induced coma after he awakes and rips out his breathing tube. Several doctors comment on the complications of Tony's gunshot wound, the most dangerous of which is severe sepsis, and they encourage Carmela and others to talk to him and play him music he enjoys in the hopes of a recovery. However, they also warn his family members of the "obviously negative outcome", as well as the prospects of brain damage. Carmela asks the doctor if Tony is "aware that he's dying." A vigil of Tony's family members and business associates have assembled in the ICU. A distraught Carmela, Christopher Moltisanti, and Meadow sleep in the hospital.
Uncle Junior is being held in custody and is questioned about the shooting. He is confused about the situation, hostile towards his interrogator and does not remember that he has a new lawyer, replacing Harold Melvoin, who Junior dismissed after his stroke. He denies that he shot his nephew and insists that if Tony was shot it must have been self-inflicted, because he is "a depression case."
Christopher, Paulie Walnuts, and Vito Spatafore vie for small opportunities to assist Tony's family during the crisis, such as sending presents to Tony's room and bickering over giving a ride home to A.J.
During the funeral wake of the late soldier Eugene Pontecorvo, an impromptu meeting of associates is held, and Silvio Dante assumes Tony's responsibilities as acting Boss. The meeting also reveals that, while most of the group is loyal to the incapacitated Tony, some are unsympathetically furious at Junior, and others are suspicious of why Bobby—traditionally Junior's de facto caretaker—was not in the house that night. Vito makes a bid to take over Eugene's sportsbook responsibilities, and later, suggests to Janice that perhaps Eugene had been a self-loathing homosexual who had no one to talk to.
Meanwhile, A.J. acts curiously aloof, avoiding Tony's room, and shirking his familial and school responsibilities. To the chagrin of Carmela, he talks to a reporter at the hospital, but later curses the ones camped outside the Soprano home; he forgets to bring requested items to the hospital to assist in Tony's recovery. A questionable stomach flu (which may have been faked or psychosomatic) excuses him from a night shift at the hospital and he is flippantly preoccupied with cars. A.J.'s unforthcoming behavior to his father's condition worries Carmela, who voices her concerns to Rosalie Aprile. With the death of her own wayward son Jackie Aprile, Jr., Rosalie advises Carmela to engage in stricter parenting with A.J.. In addition to the normal worries for her son, however, Carmela fears that A.J.'s deep esteem for his father is the source of his aloofness.
A.J. admits to Meadow that he is embarrassed and angry by the actions of his family, especially Uncle Junior, whom he calls a "mummy." A.J. finally concedes to his family's wishes to talk to his comatose father. Once the two are alone (and after talking about cars), A.J. vows to avenge what he believes to be his father's imminent death by putting a bullet in Uncle Junior's "mummy head." Immediately afterwards, he admits to Carmela that he flunked junior college—after earning a 1.4 Grade Point Average, his counselor told A.J. that it would be pointless to go back.
[edit] Tony's coma and Kevin Finnerty
While he is in a coma, Tony has a long dream-like experience that is woven throughout the episode. The experience begins with Tony awaking in a hotel room at a Radisson Hotel in Costa Mesa, California. He is a mild-mannered precision optics salesman on a business trip, without his real-life New Jersey accent. That night, he goes to the hotel's bar, where he notices a TV showing a brush fire in Costa Mesa; he also notices a strange light that glows on the horizon as he looks out the window. The next morning he goes to a convention and is asked for ID to gain admittance. But Tony has someone else's wallet and briefcase, a man named Kevin Finnerty from Kingman, Arizona, to whom he bears a resemblance. Tony says that he must have unintentionally picked up these items the previous evening at the hotel bar. He returns to the bar, where a group of business travelers overhear him telling his story to the bartender (when asked what Costa Mesa is like, the bartender replies, "Around here, it's dead"). The group invite Tony to join them for dinner, during which he discusses his 'life' in more detail, alluding to a midlife crisis by saying, "I mean, who am I? Where am I going?" As he and his group leave, Tony notices a commercial on TV, which displayed the question, "Are sin, disease and death real?", followed by the Cross. After dinner, outside the hotel, Tony makes a pass at a woman from the group. She responds at first but then cuts him off. She tells him she saw his face when he got off the phone with his wife (whose voice is not Carmela's). Suddenly, a helicopter spotlight shines on the pair, to which the woman says "They must be looking for a perp". It is here that Tony awakens from his original coma, and rips out his breathing tube. He is moaning "Who am I? Where am I going?" (The latter phrase perhaps being both a reference to his life in both the dream and waking life, and his afterlife). The dream resumes when he is placed in another coma, as he checks into a different hotel, the Omni, under Finnerty's name. Two Buddhist monks overhear him checking in and, thinking he is Finnerty, accost him saying they had a horrible winter at the monastery because of Finnerty's heating system. Tony tells them that he's not Finnerty, which makes the monks angry; they scuffle briefly and the monks flee. The next morning, the hotel elevator is out of order, so Tony takes the stairs. As he is walking down the stairs, he slips and falls; in the emergency room, the doctor tells Tony that aside from having a minor concussion, his CT scan shows some dark spots on his brain, which indicate lack of oxygen. The doctor states that this indicates early stages of Alzheimer's disease. When the doctor leaves him at his bed, Tony is seen saying "I'm lost" to himself. After he returns to his hotel room, Tony picks up the phone, but hangs up before dialing.[1]
[edit] Title reference
- In Tony's dream, Lee (the woman from the business group at the bar) tells Tony to "join the club", an expression commonly used when someone talks about undergoing stress or pain to someone else experiencing the same.
- The title could also be considered something of a "sequel" to the previous episode's title, "Members Only".
[edit] Production
- The exterior of the hospital is actually Fenster Hall at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).
- The interior of the hospital lunch room is actually "The Highlander Club" (formerly called "The Pub") inside the Campus Center at NJIT.
- The interior of the hospital is the same hospital from the TV show Scrubs.
- In the hotel Tony checks into, under Finnerty's name, he is given a room on the 7th floor. This may be a reference to the seven terraces of Purgatory in Dante's Purgatorio. When Tony falls in the stairwell he lands on the 5th floor, which is where the avaricious or greedy are banished.
- The credits do not mention the actress providing the voice of Tony's wife in his dream, though the writers have stated the voice is of a generic New Jersey actress and not intended to be anyone previously featured on the series.[2] On the A&E syndication rebroadcast, the voice is credited on the closed captioning as 'Carmela's voice'.
- This episode was shown at the season's premiere party instead of the first installment, "Members Only".
[edit] References to prior episodes
- Carmela tells Tony that she regrets telling him that he would go to Hell when he dies. This occurred in the pilot episode
- Lee is curious how Tony made the jump from selling patio furniture to precision optics. Tony mentioned selling patio furniture on Route 22 as an alternative life during a conversation with Meadow in the season one episode "College", and in a therapy session with Dr. Melfi in season 1.
[edit] Music
- The song Carmela says was playing in Tony's car an entire weekend at Long Beach Island is "American Girl" by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.
- The song playing at the end of the episode, where Tony returns to his hotel room and picks up the phone but ceases dialing, is Moby's "When It's Cold I'd Like to Die" with vocals by Mimi Goese.
- The song playing in Bada Bing is "Spitfire" by The Prodigy.
- The song Carmela plays for Tony in the hospital first is "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. This was the same song played in the series' second season premiere, "Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office...", in a scene where Tony crashed his car into a barricade.
[edit] Reception
"Join the Club" was watched by 9.18 million American viewers on its premiere date.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Episode guide - Episode 67 - "Join The Club"". HBO. http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/episode/season6/episode67.shtml. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
- ^ NJ.com: Star-Ledger Sopranos Archive: Tony checks into the Hotel California
- ^ Kiley, David (April 2006). "Sopranos Ratings Slide Exposes Flaws in Ratings System". Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2006/04/sopranos_rating.html. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
[edit] External links
- HBO.com — The Sopranos official website
- The Sopranos at the Internet Movie Database
- "Join the Club" at the Internet Movie Database
- Television Without Pity – The Sopranos recaps
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