In season 2 of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) learns his sister Janice (Aida Turturro) has returned home to New Jersey after a lengthy absence from the Garden State. And Tony isn’t thrilled to hear the news.
As season 2 progressed, viewers got an idea why Tony wasn’t excited to see his sister. For starters, Janice has a way of manipulating people that rivaled only their terrible mother Livia (Nancy Marchand). And Janice acted just as ruthlessly.
That side of Janice came out when she tried to plant the idea of murdering Tony in the head of Richie Aprile (David Proval). Janice attempted that gambit while Richie held a gun to her head during sex. So, all in all, Janice made quite the impression after returning to North Jersey.
The legend of Janice only grew when she killed Richie (then her fiancé) at the dinner table. And when Tony put her on a bus out of town, the writers expected to close the book on the character there. But she returned early in season 3.
Janice wasn’t going to return to ‘The Sopranos’ after Richie Aprile’s murder
If you need a reason to get out of town, murdering your fiancé will work. With that stroke, Sopranos writers had the ideal excuse to keep Turturro’s character away. And it was intentional. “[Janice] was not supposed to come back as a character,” Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccala) explaned on the Talking Sopranos podcast. “She was gone.”
To explain why in the context of the show, Tony could keep repeating the line about Richie joining the witness-protection program. Janice naturally left town after he disappeared. While that move didn’t match Richie’s hardboiled character, there was nothing anyone could do about it, save interrogating the boss of the North Jersey mob (i.e., Tony).
But Janice didn’t stay away long. Between the end of season 2 and the start of season 3, Marchand died. Producers used CGI to stage another appearance by Livia, but they didn’t try twice. She died by episode 2 (“Provai, Livushka”), after which the characters did their best to mourn Livia. Suddenly, Janice was back in town.
‘Sopranos’ writers brought Janice back to fill the void left by Livia’s death
With Marchand passing away, Sopranos writers had to scramble a bit to replace her. At some point, they decided to use the equally soulless Janice to fill that void. “They needed that strong female antagonist,” Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) explained on Talking Sopranos.
Janice was that and then some, of course. In season 3, she seems determined to up the appalling behavior of Livia. At one point, Janice asks Livia’s domestic aide Svetlana to return the old records (LPs) Livia gave her prior to her death.
When asking nicely doesn’t work, Janice steals Svetlana’s prosthetic leg and holds it to ransom. Svetlana’s Russian mob contacts eventually beat it out of Janice (triggering the obligatory response by Tony), but the writers already made their point. There’s a new Livia in town, and she’s not going away this time.
In season two, Janice returns to Newark, New Jersey, ostensibly to take care of her sick mother. Her high school boyfriend, Richie Aprile (David Proval), is a DiMeo crime family capo who is released from prison around the same time.
A distraught Janice called her brother Tony who had DiMeo soldiers Christopher Moltisanti and Furio Giunta dispose of Richie's corpse by dismemberment at Satriale's Pork Store and sent Janice off to Seattle to lie low. Apart from Tony and Janice, only Christopher and Furio know what really happened to Richie.
Kick the Dog: Annoyed at seeing Janice improve herself while he struggles with his anger, Tony cruelly brings up Janice's son, Harpo, mocking her parental skills.
Janice's total appearances are 3 in the first season, 2 in the second season, 6 in the third season (this was when Chandler was willingly in a relationship with her), and 1 appearance every season thereafter (although in the season six episode only her voice can be heard, and the Season 8 finale is technically two ...
Her relationship with Tony is often strained, as he still holds her responsible for abandoning the family and leaving him to deal with their abusive mother, Livia, alone. While in New Jersey, she became engaged to her old boyfriend, Richie Aprile, then recently released from prison.
If so, who killed Tony Soprano, one of the most controversial anti-heroes to ever appear in an HBO series? There were many interesting people in the diner that night, but the man in the Members Only jacket probably pulled the trigger. The Members Only jacket guy was Eugene Pontecorvo's brother.
This could be seen as one of the events that accelerated the brewing war between Phil Leotardo and Tony Soprano. At the end of the series, it was revealed Meadow had become engaged to Patrick Parisi and might find employment at his law firm.
What is the age of Tony Soprano's daughter in the show? Born in 1982, the character Meadow starts off as a senior in high school in the first season and is 25 at the show's end. The actress who played her was roughly the same age (born one year earlier, 1981).
Harpo is homeless, a “street person” at that time. While details aren't provided, Harpo's father took the young child away from Janice and moved to Canada before the series started.
The Sopranos aired on HBO for six seasons over the course of eight years. In addition, Tony celebrates his 47th birthday with Carmella during the second part of the sixth season.
We don't just see Tony overeating in the show so that he has something to do in the scene; it's strategically woven throughout the show to demonstrate his constant need for satisfaction. He can't find it emotionally, so he gorges on food to find some joy in his torturous life.
When Georgie Santorelli responds by saying "that's why you gotta live for today," Tony suddenly explodes in fury and gives him a beating that sends him to the hospital and causes permanent hearing loss.
While Tony's baiting of Janice at the end of the hour is indefensible, he does bring up a valid point: Janice was a pretty horrible mother to Harpo, and her deficiencies as a parent probably did contribute to the difficult life that he's had.
While Tony's baiting of Janice at the end of the hour is indefensible, he does bring up a valid point: Janice was a pretty horrible mother to Harpo, and her deficiencies as a parent probably did contribute to the difficult life that he's had.
Sigler played Tony's daughter, who dashes toward the door in the final scene. She was surprised by the ending because "it wasn't written the way it happened" on-screen, she told Us Weekly in June 2017.
The final scene of "Made in America" became the subject of intense discussion, controversy, and analysis after its original broadcast. The use of an abrupt cut to black followed by several seconds of silence led many viewers to initially believe that their cable or DVR had cut out at a crucial moment.
Tony and Carmela negotiate over her desire to build a house on spec in partnership with her father Hugh. Tony agrees to pay $600,000 for the land and promises that his "midlife crisis will no longer intrude anymore" into their marriage. They are reconciled and he moves back into their house.
Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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