THE SOPRANOS Reviewed by Brad Meltzer (These reviews originally appeared on e.findlaw.com, and the best part of the deal was, Brad got to watch each episode a week early!) Go to Episode Review: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 April 2, 2000 EPISODE 12: What's Good For the Goose There's this great moment at the end of Superman II, where Christopher Reeve is fighting the three Kryptonian super-villains at the Fortress of Solitude. As you may remember, he'd lost his powers by stepping into this crystal chamber (presumably the Kryptonian I'm-taking-your-powers-away chamber) and then miraculously stepped in again and got his powers back. Anyway, to make his victory complete, Terrance Stamp (as General Zod), forces Superman back into the crystal chamber to suck his powers away one last time. A funny thing happens, though, when Superman steps out of the power-sucking chamber (and I hope I'm not ruining anything here)—yes, powers were lost, but not Superman's, dear reader. No, it was the three villains who were played for the suckers. Indeed, as they tried to rob Superman of his strength, Christopher Reeve pulled the old switcheroo and robbed their powers from them. It's a great device, that ole' switcheroo (say it with me now—switcheroooo). I mean, think about the incredible irony: General Zod wanted to take away Superman's powers—and Superman wound up taking his! It makes you feel warm inside, doesn't it? The funny thing is, it's the same kind of warmth that was . . . well, warming the characters on this week's Sopranos (how's that for a transition?). So who's General Zod? Well, this episode, it was Richie—the man who's been plotting with Uncle Junior to take out Tony Soprano. For the past three episodes, we've watched him slide his pawns into place, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. But a funny thing happens on the way to the hit: Richie wants Uncle Junior to turn on Tony—but Junior pulls the ole switcheroo (see top paragraph for definition), and instead decides to turn on Richie. In typical Benedict Arnold style, Uncle Joon tells Tony, "Richie Aprile is moving against you". As if that didn't make for a bad enough day, Richie also has to deal with his wife-to-be, Janice. Sure, it's not the most stable of relationships, but it is love (he likes to have sex holding a gun to her head—"Usually he takes the clip out," she defends). (Oh, much better). Regardless, they're ready to get married. So ready, in fact, that Janice even tries on a wedding dress ("Oh God, look at that cleavage!" she sings proudly!). But the switcheroo is on the horizon—and when Richie punches Janice in the face during a moment of anger, she pulls the carpet out from under him by... well, by shooting him in the chest and killing him. It's clearly the biggest shock of the whole season—and though it does wrap up Tony's problems a bit too easily—you have to admire the originality. As Janice might say: You wanna play rough with me—now I'm gonna play rough with you. Throughout the rest of the episode, the trend continues. And to keep it consistent, I'll even do my best to create more fake dialogue. And so, Pussy might say to the FBI: You want me to be an informant—now I'll be a full-fledged G-man. Or as Tony's lover, Rina, might say to Tony (when he breaks up with her so they can both get their lives on track): You want me to be stable—now I'll be totally nuts (she tries to kill herself later in the episode). By itself, each subplot creates some nice irony, but taken together they start straining credibility (especially the idea that Pussy (in one episode!) is suddenly an aspiring law enforcement officer). Still, the Sopranos has plenty of other ways to entertain: When Tony walks in and sees that his sister just killed Richie, the first thing out of his mouth is, "Where's Ma?" The second is, "Where's the gun?" And the fourth is, "Take a shower—gimme the clothes and the shoes you got on." Over the next hour, Tony cleans up the house, confronts his mother ("What kinda chance did [Janice] have with you as a mother?"), and sends Richie's corpse to the meat-grinder at the butcher. (Mmmmmmm, gorey.) Of course, with a night like that, you have to ask (as Janice does), "What's wrong with our family?" The answer doesn't come till the final scene, where Tony tells Carmela that his sister is moving back to Seattle. "You're kidding?" Carmela asks. "Well, what about Richie—he must be devastated." "Richie's gone," Tony deadpans. "Whattya mean, gone?" "Gone." "Where?" "Carmela, after eighteen years of marriage, don't make me make you an accessory after the fact." "An accessory after the—Holy s**t!" "Stop askin'." "Oh God! Oh, my God!" "I took care of it," Tony promises. There's a long pause as Carmela thinks it over. And then, the understatement of the year: "That was not a marriage made in heaven." The crazy part is, it actually comes off as a nice moment. And for a split second, we even believe that Tony might walk away from this one completely unscathed. But c'mon people, this review's about the ole switcheroo! Or as Carmela might say to Tony if we had to keep running the fake dialogue joke straight into the ground: You spend all your time cheating on me and running around—now I'm going on a pleasure trip to Rome, and you can stay home and deal with dentist appointments and tennis camp scheduling. Sure, it's no Superman II, but even Tony Soprano has kryptonite. Or as the final song blares over Tony's shocked face: "Hey, hey, I saved the world today, and everybody's happy now, the bad thing's gone away..." LAW BREAKING MOMENT OF THE WEEK (AND MAYBE THE YEAR): Christopher dealing in the most despicable of all mob crimes (which really must be heard in his own words): "I got something hard edge... Pokemon cards!" FAVORITE BOOK SIGHTINGS OF THE WEEK: Carmela's still reading Memoirs of a Geisha Tony's girlfriend is reading Chicken Soup for the Soul Silvio starts quoting from Gail Sheehy's find-the-potential-in-your-life-book, Passages And Richie's last piece of reading material: New Jersey Bride magazine! It'll kill ya! © Brad Meltzer Previous Episode | Next Episode