Mob Experts on The Sopranos, Week 11

Jerry Capeci is author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia and Jerry Capeci's Gang Land: Fifteen Years of Covering the Mafia. His weekly column about organized crime, "Gang Land," appears in the New York Sun and at www.ganglandnews.com. Jeffrey Goldberg is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He covered organized crime for New York magazine and the New York Times Magazine. He is at work on a book about the Middle East. Gerald Shargel has represented many high-profile clients, including John Gotti. He is a practitioner in residence at Brooklyn Law School, where he also teaches. Dana Stevens, aka Liz Penn, is a Slate TV critic. She lives in New York and also writes on film and culture for the High Sign.

Who are these people?

Last year, each new episode of The Sopranos was analyzed by a group of shrinks; this year, each week two mob experts will discuss the lives and squabbles of America's favorite gangsters. Today, Jerry Capeci is joined by Gerald Shargel, an attorney who has represented many high-profile clients, including John Gotti.

A dead horse in a dream? A reference to a gun behind a toilet? ("Don't come back with your cock in your hand"—subtle, huh?) Tony sees dead people (Sixth Sense redux). Like Scrooge, Tony's dream takes him on a tour of Mafia past, present, and very near future. He sees what will happen if he doesn't wise up. But, Jerry, we're going to have to send you back to the New School. You're missing all the symbolism, man. Tony's dream puts him in the saddle moments after he is fornicating with his best friend's wife, and Carmella's ultimatum that the horse must go—because of "the shit and the stink"—is a double entendre, a reference to both the horse and the whores that Tony philanders with. And, by the way, you were disappointed that Christopher only described Billy Leotardi's murder? You're demanding too much blood and guts. We had just seen one of the goriest and most graphic murders in the show's history—the murder of Angelo in the trunk of the car. The eloquence of last night's episode was in the jarring contrast between the grisly reality of Angelo's murder and the swirling abstractions of the dream sequence.

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To tell you the truth, I still like the story of King George III better. Even if King George were alive today, he wouldn't be loafing in bed at the Plaza watching channel 35 and ordering cheap whores on the phone. Kind of pathetic, don't you think? Next Sunday night I'm tuning in to PBS.

Jerry Shargel

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