...To Save Us All from Satan's Power

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"...To Save Us All from Satan's Power"
The Sopranos episode
Sopranos ep310.jpg
Episode no. Season 3
Episode 10
Directed by Jack Bender
Written by Robin Green
Mitchell Burgess
Cinematography by Alik Sakharov
Production code 310
Original air date April 29, 2001
Running time 45 minutes
Guest actors

see below
Episode chronology
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"Pine Barrens"
Episode chronology

"...To Save Us All from Satan's Power" is the thirty-sixth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and is the tenth of the show's third season. It was written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, directed by Jack Bender and originally aired on April 29, 2001.

Starring

* = credit only

Guest starring

Also guest starring

Episode recap

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Before meeting Paulie Walnuts on the boardwalk at Asbury Park, Tony flashes back to the winter holidays of 1995 when he first discovered Pussy was acting strangely. When Tony asks if Paulie feels guilty about murdering him on the boat, Paulie claims he does not regret it for a second and would do it again. When Tony brings the topic up again at the pork store, Silvio Dante begins having nightmares regarding Pussy. Further reminiscence is prompted when Silvio and Paulie have to find a replacement for their former friend to play Santa Claus at the Satriale's Christmas party, a tradition set up by Tony's father when he took over Satriale's to entertain and give back to the kids of the neighborhood. The mobsters at the pork store first try to get Tony to play Santa on account of his girth, but, when he refuses, they pick Bobby "Bacala" for the part. Unlike Big Pussy, who back in his day could play Santa Claus at the Christmas party to everyone's liking, Bobby's shyness and bluntness do not go well with his role. After a child swears at Bobby, Tony tells Bobby to be more cheerful.

When Tony is mulling over Pussy's betrayal and death, he remembers the time when Pussy missed a sitdown to mediate peace between Jackie Aprile and Junior Soprano he himself had previously set up in Boca Raton. Tony thinks it was the night when the FBI coerced him into cooperation after catching him selling heroin and later, at Christmas, made him wear a wire when he dressed up as Santa at Satriale's (and refused to let anybody touch his costume).

Meanwhile, Janice Soprano announces that she will cook Christmas dinner since she feels guilty about always being served by Carmela. When Janice tells Tony that her wrist is becoming hard to manage, she reminds him about her encounter with the Russian thugs who arrived to take back Svetlana's prosthetic leg. Tony adds to his Christmas "to-do" list an entry: "Janice's Russian." As a favor to Tony, a member of the local Russian mob, who launders money for him, gives Tony the name of Janice's attacker (Igor) and his place of employment (a taxi firm for which he drives a cab). The following evening, Tony and Furio get into Igor's taxi, beat him and throw him through a glass window of a mall display where the beaten Igor is later found wearing a Christmas hat and lying under a Santa's sled decoration. The following day on the news, the reporter presenting the story says a youth street gang is suspected to be responsible. When Janice sees this on television, she becomes emotional, wakes up her narcoleptic boyfriend, Aaron, and mentions that what's missing from their Contemporary Christian music song they are trying to write is the "brother concept."

At Nuovo Vesuvio, the newly separated Charmaine Bucco has started to wear revealing clothing, attracting compliments from several mob members. As Tony, Paulie and Silvio eat dinner, Charmaine walks over to the table where she jokes to Tony that she believes the people at the next table are FBI. Silvio becomes offended by this, and Artie apologizes. The following day, Tony meets up with Charmaine at the coat check where she tells him that she does not want him and "his boys" there all the time and that he ruined their marriage. Tony becomes angry and he, Silvio and Christopher leave. The trio check out the Bada Bing's rival strip club where they spot Jackie Aprile, Jr. getting a lap dance from a stripper. Infuriated, Tony drags him into the bathroom where he shoves, punches and slaps him, drawing blood from his nose. After confiscating Jackie's gun (which he got from Ralph Cifaretto), Tony finally knees Jackie in the groin and tells him "You bottomed out."

On Christmas morning, the Sopranos open their gifts when Jackie Jr. arrives with presents from Rosalie. He then gives Meadow a necklace with the engraving "To M.S. from J.A.: I will always be true...," to Tony's irritation. As Tony goes to the kitchen, Jackie follows. Jackie confesses to him that he "flunked out" of Rutgers University but that he wants to enter the men's fashion business and that he still wants to be supportive and loving to Meadow. Jackie then leaves saying he has to drive his mother to visit his grandmother. Returning to his family to continue unwrapping presents, Tony has to fake a happy face when he finds that Meadow has bought him a Big Mouth Billy Bass, the singing fish looking so similar to the one in his dream he had earlier that year, the dream that made him first realize Pussy had been a turncoat.

Title reference

References to prior episodes

  • The Big Mouth Billy Bass, including the song "Take Me to the River", was previously featured in the episode "Second Opinion".
  • The Asbury Park boardwalk in winter, along with the view of the sea closing the episode, was previously featured in "Funhouse".
  • In 1995, Big Pussy mentioned that he always dreamed of having a house on the ocean and said, "Maybe in another life". This is ironic because Tony, Silvio, and Paulie dumped his body in the ocean after shooting him on Tony's yacht, in "Funhouse".

Production

  • Tony's deductions about Big Pussy's betrayal timeline conflict with prior information: in Season 2, FBI Agent Skip Lipari reminds Big Pussy that he's been working for them since 1998, not 1995 as suggested in this episode by Tony. Also, just before his execution in 2000, he admits to Tony (perhaps truthfully) that he has been working for the FBI for a year-and-a-half. It is possible that Tony was just being paranoid about the events of 1995.
  • In his only cameo-like appearance in the series, director of cinematography Alik Sakharov plays Russian-mob bookkeeper Agron. Like the character, Sakharov is also of Russian heritage.[1]

Music

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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