S01E04 ยท aired 1999-01-31

Meadowlands

Episode guide - plot, credits, music, and analysis.

Plot

Junior Soprano is declared acting boss of the DiMeo crime family, with Tony operating behind the scenes as a kind of shadow power. Tony's preference for Junior as figurehead is partly strategy: it keeps Tony out of the FBI's primary frame. Agents Harris and Grasso are tracking Tony's movements, cataloging associates, and intercepting what conversations they can.

Livia tells Junior that Tony has been seeing a psychiatrist. Junior treats this as a liability -- both a sign of weakness and a security risk. The information shifts how Junior views his nephew. Tony does not know his mother has said anything. He visits Livia, still pushing gently toward Green Grove, and she deflects every approach with the specific passive-aggressive skill she has spent a lifetime refining.

Meadow is dating a boy named DJ and Tony's questions about the relationship reveal that he applies the same territorial instinct to his daughter that he applies to his business. In Melfi's office Tony begins to open up about his childhood, describing the violence he witnessed from his father, Johnny Boy Soprano, with a mixture of admiration and something he cannot quite name.

Credits

Written by: Jason Cahill
Directed by: John Patterson