The Fleshy Part of the Thigh

"The Fleshy Part of the Thigh"
The Sopranos episode
Episode no. Season 6
Episode 4
Directed by Alan Taylor
Written by Diane Frolov
Andrew Schneider
Cinematography by Alik Sakharov
Production code 604
Original air date April 2, 2006
Running time 57 minutes
Guest appearance(s)

see below

"The Fleshy Part of the Thigh" is the 69th episode of the HBO original series, The Sopranos, and the fourth of the show's sixth season. Written by Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, and directed by Alan Taylor, it originally aired on April 2, 2006.

Starring

* = credit only

Guest starring

Also guest starring

Episode recap

Tony's condition improves as he awaits surgery. He tells a nurse he now sees life in a different way. Aaron Arkaway and Pastor Bob Brewster, an evangelical minister, wish Tony and Carmela for a good outcome of his operation. After the surgery, Tony is disgusted when he learns the insurance representative wants to send him home as soon as possible. Tony spends his remaining days at the hospital interacting with two patients, John Schwinn and rapper Da Lux. Da Lux expresses admiration for Tony and invites him to watch a boxing match in his hospital room. While watching the fight, Paulie moans about how alone everyone is and Schwinn discusses the interconnectivity of all life. Da Lux agrees with Schwinn, saying: "everything is everything, I'm down with that." Later, Tony confides to Schwinn he is starting to believe they are all part of something bigger, but Schwinn tells him the doctors found out that he has laryngeal cancer. Tony offers his condolences.

Tony learns Carmela and A.J. have reconciled and that his son got a job at Blockbuster. He meets the paramedic that checked his wallet and accuses him of stealing $2,000 from it. The man denies taking any money for himself, but Christopher and others intimidate him to pay the money back. Paulie visits his dying Aunt Dottie, a nun, who informs him that she is actually his mother; because she broke her vow of celibacy and did not want to shame her family, she had her sister raise Paulie as if he were her son. He confronts Nucci, the woman who raised him, and his worst fears are confirmed. Devastated by the news and questioning his own identity, Paulie struggles to remain focused at work, angering Tony. After Dottie's funeral, Paulie tells Nucci he will no longer support her financially and throws her flatscreen TV out of a window. When Paulie confesses the news about his true mother to Tony, he urges him to reconcile with Nucci, saying his foster mother brought him up and helped him numerous times in his childhood.

Tony criticizes Bobby for his model train hobby. When Bobby says he is sorry for Tony getting shot by Junior, Tony insists he never hear his uncle mentioned ever again. In the hospital, Bobby meets Marvin, a member of Da Lux's entourage, writing a song. Da Lux's injuries, many of his followers and colleagues believe, will help his career by providing him a huge boost in "street cred," while Marvin is struggling to attain fame. Bobby then proposes an idea to Marvin the next time he meets him: for $8,000, Bobby will help jump-start Marvin's career by shooting him in the "fleshy part" of the thigh. Marvin agrees but can only pay $7,000, which Bobby reluctantly accepts. Marvin also requests that he not be informed when the hit is about to take place. A few nights later, after leaving a fast food restaurant with his girlfriend, Marvin is instead shot in his buttocks. As the rapper cries in pain, Bobby flees the scene. Bobby later brings a hefty envelope of cash to Tony, saying he had "a good week."

Following Dick Barone's death, his son Jason takes over ownership of the Soprano family's sanitation front and tries to sell the company without Tony's approval. After Tony, Paulie and Patsy Parisi order him to not proceed with the sale, Jason discovers he is too far along in the process to back out. The company trying to buy Barone's routes, Cinelli Sanitation, is associated with Johnny. After a violent encounter between two garbage crews, and after some back-and-forth negotiation between Tony and Johnny, Tony agrees with a more favorable offer from Johnny and allows the sale to go through. Tony also acquiesces to Jason's mother, who begs Tony to make sure no harm comes to her son. The pleading of a mother for her son drives Paulie to leave the hospital room in tears.

On the day Tony is leaving the hospital, he passes Schwinn's room but does not say goodbye. The EMT worker accused of stealing from Tony approaches him with an envelope of cash, but Tony does not take it. As he is wheeled outside, Tony takes a few moments to observe the bustle of life outside. He grabs Janice's hand and comments that "every day is a gift" to him now. Back home, Tony lounges at the patio, seemingly enjoying the elements of nature, listening to the wind rustle the tree leaves. At the bank of a river, Paulie finds Jason getting ready to row in his boat and viciously beats him with a metal pole. Paulie demands a monthly cut from Jason equal to the cost of Nucci's retirement home expenses, warning him not to say a word to Tony as he brandishes his gun. Paulie walks away from the pier as the wind stirs the tree leaves around him.

First appearances

  • Albie Cianflone: Phil Leotardo's consigliere who, together with Phil, attends a meeting regarding Barone Sanitation with Tony and Paulie outside the hospital.

Deceased

  • Aunt Dottie: Paulie's biological mother, who dies of natural causes.

Title reference

  • When discussing ways to increase Marvin the rapper's popularity, Bobby proposes delivering to him a relatively benign gunshot wound to "the fleshy part of the thigh". This would be done to increase his reputation, popularity, and his appearance as a gangster to his fans.

Production

This is the first episode written by Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider who joined the series' writing staff for the final season and also acted as supervising producers on it. They would write three more episodes. Frolov and Schneider previously collaborated with David Chase on Northern Exposure.

Other cultural references

  • When Aaron pays a visit to Tony in his ICU room, accompanied by Pastor Bob, he is wearing a shirt bearing the name of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who, being in a persistent vegetative state, was a center of controversy in the late-1990s and early-2000s (decade), in regards to sustaining her life through artificial means.
  • While having his wound dressed the day before surgery, Tony speculates that Janice is responsible for taping the Ojibwe saying introduced in "Mayham," "Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while, a great wind carries me across the sky," to his wall.
  • After learning that Pastor Bob and his followers oppose female contraception, Tony asks them if their God disapproves of Viagra too.
  • Tony's surgeon jokes to the surgical team that he found Jimmy Hoffa in Tony's abdomen.
  • Tony tells the insurance agent his doctors look like the United Colors of Benetton.
  • After moving to a regular hospital room after his surgery, Tony is watching the 1970s television series Kung Fu; Tony comments to Paulie that he used to watch that show "all the time" when he was a kid.
  • In Da Lux's hospital room, members of his crew tell Da Lux that he "only got two less shots than Fifty", a reference to rapper 50 Cent, who survived 9 gunshot wounds in 2000.
  • Pastor Bob presents Tony with a copy of the book Born Again by Charles Colson, a key figure in the Watergate scandal who would later become a born again Christian while in prison.
  • In addition, when Pastor Bob sees that Tony was reading a book on dinosaurs, he mentions that the Earth was created by God 6000 years ago, and not by evolution over billions of years—this is a reference to the belief in Young Earth creationism. Tony compares this to The Flintstones while Christopher does not believe Adam and Eve's paradise could have included T-Rexes.
  • Beth Kaplan says she has nothing against evangelical Christians as they revere Israel as the Holy Land.
  • Tony reminds Jason Barone that Tony, Jason's father, and Paulie had taken Jason to watch the New York Mets, Mookie Wilson and Dave Kingman, play at the Shea Stadium.
  • The character John Schwinn was a scientist for Bell Labs, which built the first active telecommunications satellite, Telstar. While watching the fight on a satellite television system, the signal breaks up and, at one time, Paulie asks him to fix the reception.
  • During the scene in the hospital as Tony and Paulie watch the fight, Schwinn makes a comment of everything being related to which Da Lux responds "Everything is everything, I can dig that." The actor playing Da Lux is Lord Jamar from the rap outfit Brand Nubian. Brand Nubian's third album is titled Everything Is Everything.
  • Bobby mentions a "Dr. Droop" to Marvin, a malapropism of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
  • When Paulie pays Nucci a visit at her retirement community room, scenes from a Gilmore Girls episode can be seen.

Music

References

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