Whitecaps (8 Dec. 2002)

Junior's trial comes to an end, but Tony's trials are just getting underway. Also, the Soprano's almost purchase a house on the beach.

Director:

John Patterson

Writers:

David Chase (creator), Robin Green,

Stars:

James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco

Cast

Episode credited cast:
James Gandolfini	...	Tony Soprano
Lorraine Bracco	...	Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Edie Falco	...	Carmela Soprano
Michael Imperioli	...	Christopher Moltisanti
Dominic Chianese	...	Junior Soprano
Steven Van Zandt	...	Silvio Dante
Tony Sirico	...	Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri
Robert Iler	...	A.J. Soprano
Jamie-Lynn Sigler	...	Meadow Soprano
Drea de Matteo	...	Adriana La Cerva
Steve Schirripa	...	Bobby 'Bacala' Baccalieri (as Steven R. Schirripa)
Aida Turturro	...	Janice Soprano
Vincent Curatola	...	Johnny 'Sack' Sacrimoni
John Ventimiglia	...	Artie Bucco
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ray Abruzzo	...	Little Carmine Lupertazzi

Storyline

Tony is surprised though not displeased when Johnny Sack suggests that eliminating Carmine may be the best way to resolve the differences between the two families. A plan of action is set in motion but is interrupted when Carmine suddenly becomes more flexible. Money is still tight with the Esplanade site shut down, but Tony decides to make an offer on a seaside property. Even Carmela smiles for the first time in ages when she sees the house. All hell breaks loose however when Tony's old girlfriend Irina calls Carmela to tell her he is now having sex with her cousin, the one-legged Svetlana. It's the last straw for Carmela who tells Tony their marriage is finished and she wants him out of the house. Tony is now faced with having to terminate the deal to buy the beach house and uses his own unconventional methods to convince the sellers to return his deposit. Meanwhile, Uncle Junior's trial comes to an end and his men have sought a little bit of extra insurance to get the verdict they ...

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Plot Keywords:

reference to katharine hepburn | gangster | reference to spencer tracy

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 December 2002 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Silvercup Studios - 4222 22nd Street, Long Island City, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Brad Grey Television, Chase Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min 72 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The album that they use to harass the owner of the beach house is 'The Rat Pack - Live at the Sands'.

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Quotes

Anthony 'A.J.' Soprano, Jr.: Un-fuckin'-believable!

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Connections

References Chinatown (1974)

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Soundtracks

"I Have Dreamed"
Fantastic Strings

User Reviews

Another powerful ending

That Joe Pantoliano would win an Emmy for his work on this show's fourth season was pretty much a given from the start, and anyone doubting James Gandolfini and Edie Falco's potential will probably have changed their mind after seeing the superb season finale, Whitecaps.

Named after the place where Tony considers buying a beach house, the episode is essentially one long climax of the main tension that has been there for four years: the Sopranos' stressful marriage. It's all kick-started by a phone call from Irina, Tony's resentful former lover, who mercilessly taunts Carmela by revealing Tony has been sleeping with her one-legged cousin. This causes Mrs. Soprano to project all her repressed rage on her unlucky husband, who eventually accepts to leave the house. Therefore, two wars begin for Tony (the other is against Johnny Sack, who doesn't approve of the Jersey boss's decision not to go through with a hit on Carmine Lupertazzi), whereas another one ends for Uncle Junior: thanks to a threatened juror, his trial reaches the conclusion he was expecting.

While the Johnny and Junior situations are given very little room, saving material for the fifth series, the Tony/Carmela battle occupies 90% of Whitecaps: it's as if the writers (Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess and David Chase) had taken a regular fight between the two, which usually lasts a couple of minutes, and extended it to make it the subject of an entire episode. But rather than having a soap opera kind of quarrel, which gets boring after thirty seconds, the Soprano family breakdown is a 40-minute metaphorical fistfight between two of American television's finest actors, Gandolfini and Falco spitting bile at each other with neither of them pausing for breath. The Season 4 conclusion is an unstoppable container of acerbic, adult drama, so strong it's hard to believe anything could top The Sopranos at the Emmys in the Outstanding Drama Series category (The West Wing did, for three years; The Practice beat the first season). Unmissable.