{"id":4137,"date":"2025-04-24T07:30:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T11:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/?p=4137"},"modified":"2025-04-24T22:23:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T02:23:36","slug":"the-most-important-television-episode-of-all-time-tony-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/2025\/04\/24\/the-most-important-television-episode-of-all-time-tony-carter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Important Television Episode of All-Time | Tony Carter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Sopranos\u201d was released to the public via HBO on Jan. 8, 1999, and has been revered as one of the greatest television shows ever. In 2024, the show reached its anniversary of 25 years, sparking new fan interest.\u00a0 Airing from 1999 through 2007, the show follows Tony Soprano as he works his way up the ranks from capo (made man\/captain) to boss of the New Jersey-based DiMeo crime family. Episode V, titled “College,\u201d is the arguably greatest in television history because it featured the first on-screen murder by a protagonist.<\/span><\/p>\n

When one immediately dives into \u201cThe Sopranos,\u201d they are met with the trials and tribulations of Tony Soprano\u2019s life. Episodes I-IV tackle current issues as if this crime family has been up and running for multiple decades. Tony must deal with the inner conflict between his crime family and his direct family. His direct family consists of his wife, Carmela, his young adolescent son, AJ, and his teenage daughter, Meadow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We are introduced to the \u201cwild card\u201d of the show\u2019s premise, with Tony seeking psychiatric treatment after suffering numerous anxiety attacks. He discusses with Dr. Melfi, his therapist, that he has trouble balancing the criminal world and his family life. Fast-forward a few episodes into season one, the family\u2019s boss, Jackie Aprile Sr., has passed away from illness. Tony, along with his Uncle Junior, believe that they are worthy of being next in line to call the shots for the family. The show trudges along, with episode five of season one being released on February 7, 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n

The episode begins with Tony taking Meadow, a remarkably bright high school student who is likely to gain admission to any prestigious university. During their time together, Meadow drops a surprising question on her father, asking if he is in the mob. This catches Tony off guard, and he explains that the mob was a central path for Italian Americans during his childhood. He reassures Meadow that he is not involved in the mob. Still unconvinced, Meadow questions why they live in such a large house in the suburbs if Tony \u201cworks\u201d in the waste management business. Meadow, now feeling enlightened at her father\u2019s honesty, tells him that she recently took speed to study. Angered at first, Tony understands and really cannot punish her because he knows he just lied to his own daughter\u2019s face.<\/span><\/p>\n

While on the road, Tony thinks he has spotted Fabian Petrulio, a former member of the DiMeo crime family who entered the witness protection program after feeding evidence of mob activity to the FBI. Tony decides he is going to search for Fabian while looking at schools with Meadow. After locating the whereabouts, Tony leaves Meadow with some college students to hang out and get drunk while Tony follows Fabian around. Realizing hours have flown by, Tony retrieves his daughter, and they go back to their motel. Fabian felt like someone was watching him all day and followed Tony and Meadow to their motel with a loaded handgun. Petrulio cannot bring himself to pull the trigger as there was an old couple in both party\u2019s presence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, Tony drops off Meadow for an interview with one of the universities and tails Petrulio. We cut to a scene of Petrulio becoming more and more paranoid at his office location, which is in a secluded area surrounded by nature. Fabian walks outside off his trailer, clutching his gun as we hear the wind rustling in the trees, and birds chirping. As he looks around, the eeriness of the silence builds up the suspense. When the audience least suspects it, Tony comes from behind and garrotes Fabian. Fabian pleads for his life, but Tony repeats \u201cYou took an oath, and you broke it!\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0In a later scene, Tony and Meadow are driving to another school. She notices Tony\u2019s dirty clothes and cuts on his hands and asks what he did during her interviews. Tony answers but lies to Meadow. She senses that he is not being honest with her, tearing down the bridge of trust and honesty they built earlier. The episode ends with both sitting in the car in complete silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is this episode and the murder scene so significant in pop culture today? Why would any casual viewer or critic care about this subplot in one measly episode of a mob show? Originally, David Chase, the creator and head writer of the show, along with many producers, did not want this scene to take place. They thought that this would make people hate Tony Soprano since no lead in a TV series had ever committed an on-screen murder up to that time. Chase loves to place deeper meaning into the scenes and writing. Due to the stakes of this episode and deeper meaning, \u201cCollege\u201d became a cult-classic among fans. At the time of release, audiences adored its themes, and how each character was developing. It also skyrocketed the popularity of this new show, which would be solidified as one of the greatest to this day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once Tony had killed the rat, a flock of birds flew over his head. Also, at Bowdoin College, Tony sees a quote on the wall by Nathanial Hawthorne that states, \u201cNo man can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.\u201d The viewers understand that Tony is in a tough place from the very start of the series. For being in the ultimate macho field of being a mob captain (and then eventually boss), he is surprisingly a sensitive person. We learn from his introductory visits with Dr. Melfi that Tony thinks he could have lived an honest life from the beginning if it weren\u2019t for his parents. Instead, he lives his life wearing a depressing mask over his face and deals with being a mobster who quietly has severe anxiety and panic attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ever since the dawn of television, there have been more or less \u201ctraditional\u201d limits to what characters can and cannot do. Leading up to this specific episode, the audience thought that \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d was destined to be a normal crime show. Taking the role of a soap opera that happened to be a mob drama, the episode starts with an instantaneous question from Meadow, \u201cAre you in the mafia?\u201d \u201cAre you in the mafia?\u201d is not something a normal teenage daughter asks her father. During their road trip, we learn that Meadow asks this because she stumbled upon $50,000 and a .45 automatic pistol during a family Easter egg hunt years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nathanial Hawthorne\u2019s quote is a scene that sticks with most people after watching this episode. Tony acknowledges that he carried out death once he saw this man and is forced to deal with that decision. He feels no shame, maybe sadness, depending on who you ask. Tony is a man with a multitude of faces, making the audience question who he is. Once this episode is concluded, we, the audience, must decipher Tony Soprano, the killer and family man only 5 episodes into a 7-season series! I find myself always coming back to this episode, because of the weight it pulls on me. In retrospect, this kick-started my curiosity for Tony Soprano.<\/span><\/p>\n

Never had a television show poured so many themes and narratives into one singular episode. Never had people been so invested in an \u201canti-hero,\u201d and never had a protagonist commit murder on-screen in television history. The viewers now put themselves in the shoes of Tony. Without Tony Soprano, we would never have seen the birth of culturally significant shows such as \u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d \u201cThe Wire,\u201d \u201cDexter,\u201d and \u201cTrue Detective.\u201d Hawthorne\u2019s quote can be true to these types of anti-heroes such as Walter White (Breaking Bad) and Dexter Morgan (Dexter). \u201cCollege\u201d is still making footprints after 25 years, from the writing, acting, themes, and especially that famous scene. Not only is this the greatest episode of the series, but it is the greatest television episode of all-time.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Sopranos\u201d was released to the public via HBO on Jan. 8, 1999, and has been revered as one of Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2312,"featured_media":4143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,29,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwr","category-reviews-recommendations","category-what-were-reading"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4146,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions\/4146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}