Unidentified Black Males

"Unidentified Black Males" is the sixty-first episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the ninth of the show's fifth season. It was written by Matthew Weiner and Terence Winter, directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on May 2 2004.

Guest starring roles

Episode recap

Tony Soprano notices that Tony Blundetto has a foot injury, which he blames on an assault by black males. While playing golf with Johnny Sack, Tony then learns that the man who killed Joey Peeps walked with a limp. This causes Tony to nearly pass out from one of his panic attacks. Tony confronts his cousin, and Tony B, after a half-hearted denial, requests more responsibilities and earning power. Tony gives them to him. This in turn causes Christopher Moltisanti to express frustration and jealousy in front of his girlfriend Adriana La Cerva, who then gives her FBI handler Agent Sanseverino a phone call.

At Joey Peeps' funeral, the mood is tense, not least because the mobsters who provided the headstone got his name wrong on it. Johnny Sack, extremely angry at the slaying of his protégé, now suspects Tony B's involvement. Tony Soprano makes up an alibi for Blundetto, which Sack accepts reluctantly after warning him of consequences if he is lying. Both Sack and Little Carmine are gearing up for a confrontation.

Meadow and her boyfriend, Finn De Trolio are having difficulties choosing where to spend the summer, which causes tensions in their relationship. Tony gets Finn a fake job working at a construction site, where he meets many men in the Soprano crime family, who have all been added to the payroll. He gets along with them at first, but becomes uneasy at the sycophancy addressed at him over his association with the Sopranos. This turns into downright fright after he witnesses a violent encounter between Eugene Pontecorvo and Little Paulie Germani over homophobic jibes. The next morning, Finn reports for work early and catches Vito Spatafore performing oral sex on a male security guard. Later in the day, Vito invites Finn to a New York Yankees game, and intimidates him into agreeing. Unsure of Vito's intentions, and worried he might get killed, Finn decides to leave the New Jersey area. This triggers a long and heated argument with Meadow, who is dismissing all his fears of violence, and accuses him of lacking commitment to her. Exhausted, Finn proposes to her at four in the morning.

In a traumatic session with Dr. Melfi, Tony reveals that his panic attacks are back, and she traces them all to his cousin Tony B. He ends up admitting the truth about what he was doing the night Tony Blundetto got arrested. His story about being beaten up by black guys was a lie to cover up a panic attack he suffered after arguing with his mother, Livia. Tony also realises that he has not been "making things right" with his cousin but rather assuaging his own guilt and shame.

Carmela seems inclined to get close to her estranged husband following their one-night-stand, but he avoids her so she decides to pursue divorce instead. Tony reacts very angrily to the news, and vows to deny her his money. After contacting several lawyers, Carmela realises that Tony has outmanoeuvred her on the legal front, making contacts with them all so that they are ethically prevented from taking her case. She becomes tearful looking out the window of her home and seeing Tony peacefully on a float in the backyard pool, as Meadow is on the phone with her sharing the news of her engagement to Finn. Meadows mistakes her distress for tears of joy.

Title reference

The title referring to "unidentified black males" is referenced several times in the episode:

Tony blames the black males for his mugging the night Tony B. was arrested.
Tony B. blames black gang members for his foot injury.
When Eugene smashes a bottle on Little Paulie's head, they agree to blame it on some unidentified black men ("I think I seen a couple of niggas runnin' that way").
When Meadow tells Finn of Jackie Aprile, Jr.'s death, she repeats the false story that he was killed by (black) drug dealers.

Connections to previous episodes

Finn was previously associated with an awkward discussion of homosexuality when he and Meadow defended a homo-erotic interpretation of Herman Melville's novel Billy Budd to Tony and Carmela at dinner in "Eloise."

Production

Joseph R. Gannascoli came up with the idea of Vito being a gay mobster after reading about a member of the Gambino crime family who was gay and allowed to live for the sake of being a good earner. Later inspiration for the writers would come in 2003 when a Cosa Nostra member revealed in court testimony that back in 1992, the acting boss of the DeCavalcante family, John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato, had been murdered by some of his own subordinates for engaging in homosexual sex acts. [1]

Music

The song played over the end credits is If I Were a Carpenter by Bobby Darin.