The Blue Comet

"The Blue Comet"

"The Blue Comet" is the 85th episode of the HBO original series, The Sopranos. It is the eighth episode of the second half of the show's sixth season, and the penultimate episode of the series. The episode was written by David Chase and Matthew Weiner and was directed by Alan Taylor. It originally aired on Sunday June 3, 2007.

Episode recap

Burt Gervasi picks up his newspaper outside his home and is startled for a moment by Silvio Dante, who has dropped by. They go into the house, where Silvio garottes him from behind in the kitchen as the family dog barks. Silvio tells Tony Soprano,in the backroom at the Bada Bing, that he killed Gervasi, who had been considering switching factions to Phil Leotardo's side and had asked Silvio to join him.

During a sit-down with his consigliere, Albie Cianflone, and Butch Deconcini, Phil says he wants to "decapitate" the "pygmy" DiMeo crime family, brings up the homosexuality of Vito Spatafore, the beating of Coco, the disappearance of Fat Dom, and the murder of his brother Billy again, and orders a hit on Tony, Silvio, and Bobby Baccalieri. At Satriale's, Tony learns of the hit from Agent Harris. Tony sits down with Bobby and Sil and decides that they have to hit Phil first. Tony later decides that he will bring in the Italian hitmen who killed Rusty Millio.

A woman at a dinner party with Dr. Melfi, Elliot, and other medical professionals tells her of the study by Samenow and Yochelson that Elliot had mentioned to Melfi before that claims sociopaths take advantage of talk therapy. Melfi becomes irritated with Elliot for raising the subject again and then angry when he reveals to everyone present that Tony Soprano is her patient. Later, while in bed, Dr. Melfi reads the study herself, which includes the contention that sociopaths often express great affection for "babies" and "pets". At her next appointment with Tony, he rips out a BBQ recipe from an issue of Departures Magazine while waiting outside her office. Inside, Tony talks about Meadow's change of heart concerning medical school and then A.J.'s depression, including the cost of his therapy, but Dr. Melfi responds with some bitter remarks and asks him if he's even considered other patients when he "defaced" her "reading material". She then tells Tony that she can recommend him to some other therapists who do not use talk therapy. Tony, at first befuddled, chalks up her reaction to "female menopause" but then angrily walks out, telling her that her dropping of him as a patient after seven years is "immoral" considering that he is suffering through his son's crisis. On the way out, in front of Melfi, Tony puts the page into the magazine, showing spite.

Paulie Walnuts and Patsy Parisi head Tony's plan for a hit on Phil. Corky Caporale arranges the hit but it fails when the "cousins from Italy" hired to do the job kill Phil's goomar and her father, mistaking him for Phil. When Corky is told of the hit on the phone, while he's in an adult video store, he thinks little of the fact that the murdered man spoke Ukrainian, simply responding "Whatever," and he calls Patsy Parisi to tell him that the job is done.

At Vesuvio's, Tony and Carmela put a good face on Meadow's decision to not pursue medical school as they talk to Charmaine and Artie Bucco.

Janice talks to Tony as he is draining the backyard pool and tries to get him to pay for Uncle Junior's living arrangements or Junior will have to be moved to a state facility, as Junior has run out of money; Tony angrily refuses to pay a meaningful sum and calls Bobby an "Exile on Main Street" for supporting Janice's plea on behalf of Junior. At the Bada Bing, Silvio and Paulie learn of the mistake from "Murmur's" newspaper article on the murders and its accompanying photos of the victims. Silvio comes to Tony's house and tells him that the hit failed and they conclude that Phil has been hiding out in an unknown location ever since ordering the strike on New Jersey.

Phil's plan is put into action when two hitmen enter a hobby shop (Trainland in Lynbrook, NY) where Bobby is at a counter, buying a model Blue Comet train. They riddle him with bullets, sending him crashing into a toy train set. After Silvio and Patsy gather up documents from the backroom at the Bada Bing, their car is blocked by the car of Petey B. and Ray-Ray, Phil's hitmen, as it pulls into the parking lot. As Sil reaches into a bag for a gun, the assassins shoot, hitting Sil twice in the abdomen and once in the shoulder. Patsy fires back and then runs off into a ravine behind the club as Petey exhausts his clip. A bloody, unconscious Sil is left in the car. After the hitmen screech out and roar onto the road, the club's customers and strippers, gathered outside, look on as a motorcyclist loses control while trying to avoid the hitmen's car, falls off his bike, and is run over. Paulie tells Tony that Sil is in a coma from which doctors do not think he will awake.

At the Soprano home, Carmela and Rosalie Aprile are looking at photos of their trip to Paris. Tony takes Carmela aside and tells her about the attack on Bobby and Silvo. Carmela, deeply shaken, listens as Tony explains that they must pack up and hide out for a while. She suggests that they visit Janice first. When Tony goes upstairs to A.J.'s room, A.J. is with Rhiannon, an ex-girlfriend of his former friend Hernan whom he met in the hospital. Tony kicks her out and tells his son of Bobby's death. When A.J. begins to talk of depression, Tony roughly pulls him out of bed and orders him to pack. Carmela and Meadow show up at the Baccalieri household where Janice, in a state of shock, sits across from her step-children.

Tony, along with Paulie, Walden Belfiore, Carlo Gervasi, and Dante Greco, drive to a safe house. Tony goes upstairs and into a bedroom, closes the door, then lies down on the mattress, reminiscing about talking to Bobby out on the boat by his cottage while clutching the AR-10 assault rifle that Bobby gave him for his 47th birthday.

Guest starring

• Eric Mangini as Himself
• Lauren Potter as Dancer
• Matt Servitto as Agent Dwight Harris
• Peter Bogdanovich as Dr. Elliot Kupferberg
• Gregory Antonacci as Butch DeConcini
• John "Cha Cha" Ciarcia as Albie Cianflone
• Dominic Chianese, Jr. as Dominic
• Pete Bucossi as Petey B.
• Ricky Aiello as Ray-Ray D'Abaldo
• Frank John Hughes as Walden Belfiore
• Joseph Perrino as Jason Gervasi
• Michael Drayer as Jason Parisi
• Artie Pasquale as Burt Gervasi
• Anthony Ribustello as Dante Greco
• Edoardo Ballerini as Corky Caporale
• Matilda Downey as Yaryna
• Emily Wickersham as Rhiannon
• Miryam Coppersmith as Sophia Baccalieri
• Angelo Massagli as Bobby Baccalieri III

Deceased

• Burt Gervasi - Murdered by Silvio Dante after it was revealed he was working with the New York Family
• Bobby Baccalieri - Murdered by associates of the Lupertazzi crime family on orders from Phil Leotardo.
• Yaryna's father - Murdered in a failed hit after being mistaken for Phil Leotardo.
• Yaryna - Murdered for being present at the failed hit on Phil Leotardo.

See List of deaths in The Sopranos series.

Title reference

• The "Blue Comet" was a passenger train operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey which ran between Atlantic City and Jersey City from 1929 to 1941. Bobby is buying a Blue Comet train model when he is murdered.

Trivia

• Silvio garrotes Carlo Gervasi's cousin Burt for talking with the Brooklyn faction. In The Godfather, Carlo Rizzi is killed in the same way for conspiring with another Family.

• In a restaurant, Tony and Silvio shadow box to background music from Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana, also used in Raging Bull and The Godfather III.
• Phil's complaints about the inattention to induction rituals closely mirror those the New York-based mafia commission made about the Jersey-based Decavalcante family.

• When Paulie is speaking while on the main floor of the hideout, a cardboard cutout of Silvio is visible in the corner.