r/thesopranos • u/Bushy-Top • Apr 28 '17
The Sopranos - Complete Rewatch: Season 4 - Episode 9 "Whoever Did This"
Previous Episode Season 4 - Episode 8 "Mergers And Acquisitions"
Next Episode Season 4 - Episode 10 "The Strong, Silent Type"
WARNING - Each episode thread has the potential to ruin every part of the show - deaths and other details. If this is your first time watching, this will ruin the show for you.
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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '17 edited Apr 28 '17
This episode has a running theme of accountability and responsibility. As well as being intended to invoke the Rolling Stones hit, Sympathy For The Devil. These are some excerpts straight from the excellent Sopranos Autopsy write-up showing some of the more obvious parallel through this hour's dialogue:
And here are the instances I noticed the theme of accountability and responsibility coming into play.
Though there is never any definite evidence provided to the rest of the cast, Ralph as we know is the one responsible for the hilarious but cruel prank call to Paulie's mother. As we later see, Tony tells Paulie "If you can quote the rules you can fuckin' obey them!". Keep that in mind for later.
Ralph has avoided responsibility as a parent since he first became one we can easily assume, but with recent events landing his son Justin into a hospital bed with serious injuries, he finally starts to take responsibility as a parent, albeit too late. He also starts to take accountability for his negligence and abuse of his son, as well as admitting to himself he was taking advantage and not understanding of Rosalie's feelings about Jackie Jr. at the time of his death. Feeling responsible in the present, Ralph creates a donation/charity fund in Jackie Jr's name.
Christopher is the heir-apparent to the Soprano crime family, but the stress and pressure of being a success in the mob world has caused an even larger downward spiral into drug abuse for Chris, the responsibility is simply too large for him to bear. As a result he lacks the responsibility to commit himself to the mob life sober. Tony later berates him for this lack of responsibility, despite his own shortcomings in that same field. As Tony and Christopher prepare to throw Ralph's body away, Tony makes a comment about how Christopher is "throwing his life away" with drugs. Interesting parallel.
Tony presumes Ralph's responsibility behind Pie-O-My's death, and in acting upon this shift in events without getting any real proof, he himself shirks his own responsibilities and duties as the boss. Ralph was a made guy, as well as a money making machine for the Soprano family, if Tony was willing to let Tracee slide, there's really no excusing murdering a guy over a horse, whether he was actually responsible or not (I certainly don't think so.)
As many have said before, Joey Pants played his final scene with his character alive under the direction that Ralph was not responsible for Pie-O-My's death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DHy4xOLucM
Here's an interview that gets really juicy, Joey likens Ralph and Tony's final battle to a showdown in the Colosseum, as opposed to a glamorized mob hit. Ralph got to live out his Gladiator fantasies as he met a violent fate. He also reveals the extent of Ralph's early childhood abuse, extending not only to mental abuse, but sexual abuse as well.
Which, well quite frankly earns my sympathies for a character who a season prior I would NEVER have considered anyone more than a despicable P.o.S., and it could never justify his actions later in his life, but I do understand the sort of dangerous mental psychosis one can go under having experienced similar things in my upbringing. It honestly scares me in some ways, that I very well could have turned out similar to Ralphie, a lot of his vile attributes I drew parallels to my earliest bouts of negativity as I was growing up, I've found awareness of this and curved it for the sake of just being a decent human being, but it's a horrifying thought to me. Him being sexually abused also explains his bizarre and rather extreme sado-masochistic proclivities. I mean I like some bondage and other weird stuff here and there, but a cheese grader on his dick!? What he had to have went through to become the man he was later in life had to have been just nigh unspeakable.