Tony learns about his father through the man's mistress, while Chris' friend learns that there are habits more harmful to your health than...
Plot
Through a chance encounter, Tony discovers that his father Johnny Boy Soprano had a long-term mistress named Fran Felstein, played by Polly Bergen. Fran is in her seventies and lives in a care facility. Tony visits her and discovers she has a complex claim on his father's memory: she says Johnny Boy loved her in ways he never loved Livia, that she was his real family, and that money his father left behind went to support Fran rather than the Soprano household.
Tony is unsettled in ways that go beyond the obvious. Fran represents a version of his father he never knew -- one capable of tenderness, warmth, and devotion -- qualities Tony never witnessed at home. His relationship with his own mother has always been defined by her coldness and manipulation. The possibility that his father was more emotionally available than Tony ever saw is complicated to absorb.
Tony eventually asks to hear Fran sing -- she was a lounge singer who met Johnny Boy at a performance. She obliges, singing an old standard. Tony sits and listens. The episode ends on his face as he takes in this piece of his father's life that was kept from him. Back in New Jersey, Tony Blundetto's situation with New York is deteriorating. The complications around Angelo's death are pulling Blundetto back into violence he had been trying to avoid.
Credits
Written by: Terence Winter
Directed by: Steve Buscemi