External links
- "Remember When". HBO . Archived from the original on August 18, 2016.
- "Remember When" at IMDb
| "Remember When" | |
|---|---|
| The Sopranos episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 15 |
| Directed by | Phil Abraham |
| Written by | Terence Winter |
| Cinematography by | Bill Coleman |
| Production code | 615 |
| Original air date | April 22, 2007 |
| Running time | 58 minutes |
"Remember When" is the 80th episode of the HBO television series The Sopranos , the third episode of the second half of the show's sixth season, and the 15th episode of the season overall. In the episode, Tony Soprano and Paulie Gualtieri travel to Miami to elude an FBI investigation into Tony's first murder, while Junior Soprano encounters interpersonal conflicts while being mentally institutionalized.
Written by Terence Winter and directed by Phil Abraham, "Remember When" originally aired on April 22, 2007. and was watched by 6.85 million viewers on its premiere. Critical reception was generally positive, albeit with some criticisms of the writing. The episode was also an early role for Lin-Manuel Miranda, who discussed this role in a 2018 interview on Live with Kelly and Ryan .
* = credit only
The FBI recovers the body of bookie Willie Overall—Tony's first murder—based on information from Soprano family capo Larry Boy Barese. Tony and Paulie drive to Miami to lie low until the heat is off. On the way down, Tony asks Paulie how Johnny heard about Ralphie's joke about his wife—the incident which nearly led to hostilities between New Jersey and New York—but Paulie says he does not know. While Paulie was Tony's role model growing up, Tony now doubts his loyalty and usefulness. In Miami, the two men meet Beansie's Cuban contacts and agree to trade in stolen goods. Tony also arranges a bridge loan of $200,000 from Hesh to cover a string of losing sports bets.
Larry tells the FBI that the late Jackie Aprile, Sr. killed Overall. Upon receiving this news, Tony rents a sport fishing boat to celebrate with Paulie. However, Paulie is uneasy as he remembers the killing of Big Pussy on a boat. On the open sea, Tony questions Paulie again about the joke leak; Paulie again denies involvement. Tony glances at a hatchet and some fishing knives, but the tension passes. That night, Paulie has a dream in which he sees Pussy and, in a panic, asks him how he would handle his own death. Back in New Jersey, Paulie sends Tony and Carmela a $2,000 espresso machine; Tony tells her that they owe their lifestyle to people like Paulie.
In New York City, Faustino "Doc" Santoro and his bodyguard are murdered in a hit arranged by Phil, who becomes the new boss of the Lupertazzi family.
Junior is visited at his mental care center by his former soldiers Pat Blundetto and Beppy Scerbo. Junior declares that he wants an apology from Tony for being accused of shooting him. He then asks them to help him escape, but forgets about it as soon as they leave. He returns to his old mob habits, bribing an orderly and organizing an illicit poker game for other patients. Professor Lynch, a patient Junior teases, informs on him and the game is ended. Junior finds an admiring follower in a young patient named Carter Chong, who has been institutionalized for his anger issues.
Junior assaults Professor Lynch and is given a new regimen of sedatives. Carter devises a plan to distract the orderlies handing the pills to Junior so that he can covertly throw them away. Some of the drugs were meant to combat Junior's incontinence, and he soon humiliatingly wets himself. The orderly is fired for taking bribes and Junior is threatened with a transfer to a less pleasant, state-run facility if he does not take his medications. He complies with the treatment, much to Carter's disillusionment. Junior tries to make up with him, but calls him "Anthony." At a piano recital, Carter starts throwing paper balls at the pianist; when Junior shows disapproval, Carter becomes enraged and ferociously attacks him.
Junior is next seen with the other patients (though not Carter) receiving animal-assisted therapy in the garden. He is in a wheelchair, with one arm in a cast, seemingly sedated, apart from the others.
"Remember When" had 6.85 million viewers, significantly down from the 7.66 million watching the midseason premiere "Soprano Home Movies" two weeks earlier. [2]
Television Without Pity graded the episode with a B-, with Kim Reed calling the subplot of Junior organizing poker games in the mental institution "a parody of real mob life". [3] : 4 Reed also praised the scene of Junior writing a letter to Vice President Dick Cheney requesting clemency. [3] : 6 However, Reed criticized the scenes of Tony and Paulie riding the boat, considering their discussion of Big Pussy's murder as "over the top" and redundant with past episodes and the camera work to be inconsistent. [3] : 10, 11
For IGN, Dan Iverson rated the episode 9.0 out of 10 points, praising the episode's theme of how different characters approach aging. Iverson concluded: "While this episode had drama to spare, it wasn't just the multi-layered conversations which got our attention, as this episode had plenty of humor as well." [4] Los Angeles Times critic Paul Brownfield regarded the Junior subplot as the most emotional part of the episode, "a comic-tragic portrayal of a once-proud mob boss". [5] Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger called the episode "sad" and "moving" and found an unintentional coincidence between the Asian-American patient in the mental facility for anger issues and the Virginia Tech shooting that happened days before the episode's premiere but months after the episode was written. [6]
Entertainment Weekly had a more critical review, with Lisa Schwarzbaum commenting: "This relatively ungainly episode might just as well have flashed a sign announcing that the theme of the evening was Indignities and Old Men." [7]
