The Second Coming (The Sopranos)
| "The Second Coming" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sopranos episode | |||
 Tony, A.J. and Carmela in group therapy. |
|||
| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 19 |
||
| Directed by | Tim Van Patten | ||
| Written by | Terence Winter | ||
| Cinematography by | Alik Sakharov | ||
| Original air date | May 20, 2007 | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
|
|||
| List of The Sopranos episodes | |||
"The Second Coming" is the nineteenth episode of the sixth season and eighty-fourth episode overall of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos. The sixth season was broadcast in two parts; it is the seventh episode of the second part of the season. It was written by executive producer Terence Winter and directed by longtime series director Tim Van Patten. It originally aired in the United States on May 20, 2007.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The episode begins with asbestos and waste smoking into the air in an area of scrubland near the New Jersey Meadowlands. As Tony sleeps in his bedroom, a sleepless A.J. turns on some rap music, waking his father up for a moment. When Tony goes downstairs later, he finds that the gift he bought Carmela in Las Vegas, an engraved watch, has arrived by courier. Carmela recalls that Tony said he went to Vegas to wrap up some of Christopher's business there and mentions that Christopher's widow, Kelli, will need financial support now. When Tony shows up at the office, a framed picture of Christopher, taken on the set of Cleaver, has been put up on the wall. Tony tells the guys about his peyote experience in Las Vegas.
When Tony goes with Silvio Dante and Bobby Baccalieri to see Phil, he tries to reach a compromise with Phil about the asbestos removal project, reminding him of the talk they had while Phil was recovering in hospital. Phil tells Tony about the compromises he made while spending 20 years in prison, and he flatly rejects Tony's offer. Tony retaliates by taking Phil's men Coco and Little Carmine off the payroll from another construction project. Butch and Coco viciously beat the foreman when he gives them the news.
A.J. despairs about the world and his future to his therapist, Dr. Richard Vogel, complaining, "Why can't I catch a fuckin' break?" He becomes interested in W. B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" and reads it in bed. He feels deeply disillusioned with the political and materialist status quo and talks pessimistically while Kelli is over for dinner. When Meadow comes to see her brother in his bedroom, he dismisses her cheeriness about the film Borat, telling her "it wasn't fair to the people involved" and dejectedly claims that the U.S. will bomb Iran. He also tells her he's dropped out of college. Meadow tries to console him and reminds him that he's a son in an Italian family and so "you'll always be more important." After Carmela leaves for a lunch date, A.J. attempts suicide in the family pool, jumping off the diving board with a plastic bag around his head and one foot tied by rope to a cinder block. While underwater, he manages to struggle back up to the surface since the rope is too long. Tony comes home, hears his son's cry for help, jumps in the pool, and saves him from drowning. A.J. is put on Valium and admitted to a psychiatric ward in a local hospital.
When Tony talks to the guys in his office about A.J.'s suicide attempt, he laments, "Where did I lose this kid?" Patsy, Silvio, and Carlo try to console him with their stories of their children's tough times. When Tony tells Carmela he feels depressed, an argument between them erupts. Carmela blames A.J.'s condition on Tony's family's genetic predisposition towards depression, tells Tony he plays the "depression card," says that he is always complaining, and throws the watch he bought for her at him. In Dr. Melfi's office, in response to her suggestion that the long rope suggests A.J. subconsciously didn't want to die, Tony responds, "he could just be a fuckin' idiot... historically, that's been the case." Tony talks about the "Sopranos curse" that Carmela mentioned but refuses to shoulder all the blame. "His mother," he says, "she coddled him."
While Meadow has another "mystery date" with her new boyfriend at a cafe in Queens, a drunk Coco comes over to their table and makes several lewd comments. After Meadow tells Carmela, she tells her father what happened and Tony hides his rage. Meadow reluctantly tells Carmela and Tony that her boyfriend is Patrick Parisi, Patsy's son. After Tony leaves, Meadow tells Carmela that she will not be going to medical school but instead law school, inspired by Patrick's passion about the justice system.
When Dr. Melfi sees Dr. Elliot Kupferberg, he tells her that a study has shown that sociopaths are not helped by talk therapy but further enabled by it, perhaps even "sharpening their skills as con men" in the process. Meanwhile, Tony tracks down Coco and Butch at John's Restaurant on East 12th Street in Queens. Tony then viciously pistol-whips Coco several times with a snubnose revolver and warns Butch at gunpoint to shut up and remain seated at his table. After kicking Coco's face into the step below the bar, Tony leaves the restaurant. At a session with A.J.'s psychiatrist that Tony and Carmela attend, A.J. recalls times when he felt humiliated by his mother and depressed by his visits to Livia at the nursing-home. As Tony listens, he notices one of Coco's teeth in the fold of his right pant leg. Carmela asks "What kind of poem is that to teach college students?".
At the office, Patsy talks warmly with Tony about the romance between Patrick and Meadow and hopes there will be a wedding one day. Little Carmine arrives to meet with Tony and tells him he will broker a meeting with Phil regarding the beating he gave Coco.
Tony partly blames himself for his son's state while in Dr. Melfi's office, although he also says he realized, while on peyote in Las Vegas, that mothers are like buses who drop you off and continue on, but "we keep trying to get back on the bus." Dr. Melfi tells him that it's an insightful thought.
Tony's beating of Coco has opened a deep rift with the Lupertazzi crime family, as Phil refuses to meet with Tony and Little Carmine when they show up at his house. After Butch closes the door on Tony and Patsy, Phil yells down at them from behind a second-floor window as they walk away from the house.
In the final scene, a despondent Tony goes to visit A.J. at the hospital and with the glass doors to the mental-health ward sliding shut behind him, he walks down the hall to his son and places a hand on his shoulder.[1]
[edit] Guest starring
|
|
[edit] First appearances
The episode marks the first appearance of:
- Timothy A. Feliciano as Patrick Parisi, son of Patsy Parisi, and new boyfriend of Meadow Soprano.
[edit] Title reference
- "The Second Coming" is a poem by W.B. Yeats, which A.J. is studying for college. Its bleak perspective increases A.J.'s depression which culminates in his suicide attempt. Parts of the poem's final lines ("what rough beast . . . Slouching towards Bethlehem") are echoed in the final shot. A slouching, downcast Tony is seen walking down the halls of the mental hospital, or "Bethlehem", which was famously the name of the world's first psychiatric hospital.
- In the season five episode "Cold Cuts", Dr. Melfi quotes "The Second Coming" to Tony.
[edit] References to prior episodes
- During their fight, Carmela angrily mentions the incident when Tony's father shot his mother through her beehive hairdo, as told to her by Janice in "Soprano Home Movies"; Tony hates the anecdote because it makes the Soprano family look "dysfunctional".
- A.J. recalls being deeply affected by Livia's comments that life is a "big nothing" and, "in the end . . . you die in your own arms" when he visited her in "D-Girl". A.J. also recalls Carmela calling him an "animal" for smoking marijuana at his confirmation, which occurred in the same episode.
- A.J.'s bungled attempt to drown himself is reminiscent of observations made by Tony's crew about Jackie Aprile, Jr. in "Army of One"; Jackie almost drowned in a few inches of water in a wading pool when he was a toddler.
[edit] Production
- Arthur Nascarella (Carlo Gervasi) is billed in the opening credits but only for this episode.
[edit] Music
- The song "Ridin'", by Chamillionaire, is played by A.J. when he wakes up in the morning at the beginning of the episode.
- The song "Please Mr. Postman", by The Marvelettes, is playing when Tony, Sil, Paulie, Carlo, Walden, and Bobby discuss Tony's trip to Vegas and their respective drug experiences.
- The song "Suspicious Minds", by Elvis Presley, is playing in the back room of Satriale's while Tony meets with Patsy and (later) Little Carmine.
- The song "Into the Ocean", by Blue October, is playing during A.J. and Meadow's conversation in his room.
- The song "Lullaby", by Ninna Ninna, is played when the chapter ends.
[edit] Awards
- The following actors submitted this episode as their 2007 Emmy choice: James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano), Edie Falco (Carmela Soprano), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Meadow Soprano), Robert Iler (A.J. Soprano) and Peter Bogdanovich (Dr. Elliot Kupferberg).
- This episode was nominated and won for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the WGA Awards.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- HBO.com — The Sopranos official website
- The Sopranos at the Internet Movie Database
- "The Second Coming" at the Internet Movie Database
- Television Without Pity – The Sopranos recaps
