The Blue Comet


"The Blue Comet" is the 85th and penultimate episode of the American crime drama The Sopranos, the eighth episode of the second half of the show's sixth season and 20th overall episode of the season. Written by series creator and showrunner David Chase and Matthew Weiner, and directed by Alan Taylor, it premiered on June 3, 2007, on HBO in the U.S. It had nearly eight million viewers on its premiere.
Much praise was directed at the episode's pacing and efficient build-up of suspense as well as the execution of the gunfire scenes toward the end of the episode. The episode was also praised for story elements concerning the escalation of the conflict between the rivaling Mafia families of the show and for the conclusion that it brought to the professional and personal relationship between the characters Tony Soprano and Jennifer Melfi.

Starring

''* = credit only''

Guest starring

Synopsis

recognizes another patient: Rhiannon Flammer, Hernan O'Brien's old girlfriend, who has had "food issues" and depression. After discharge, they continue seeing each other.
Jennifer Melfi is at a dinner party with colleagues, including Elliot Kupferberg. The conversation turns to a recent study claiming criminal sociopaths take advantage of talk therapy. Kupferberg angers and shocks her by revealing that Tony Soprano is her patient. However, she reads the study at home and is convinced of its findings. At his next session, Tony wavers between contempt for A.J.'s depression and gratitude for his in-patient care. Her responses become sarcastic and aggressive. When she says she intends to cease treating him, he is taken aback and hurt: "We're making progress! It's been seven years!" She says, "Since you are in crisis, I don't want to waste your time." She waits for him to go, then closes the door on him.
Janice tells Tony that, as far as they can tell, Junior's money has run out, and she asks him to contribute, together with her and Bobby, so that he does not have to go into a state institution. Tony scornfully refuses.
Silvio uses a garrote to kill Burt Gervasi, a soldato of the Soprano crime family who has been negotiating with the New York family. Phil speaks contemptuously to Albie and Butchie about "this pygmy thing over in Jersey." "We decapitate, and do business with whatever's left," he says. "Make it happen." Butchie and Albie meet with their own subordinates and order the murders of Tony, Silvio, and Bobby to be done swiftly in one 24-hour period. The FBI learn from an informant that something is being planned, and Agent Harris warns Tony that his life may be in danger.
Tony decides to act first and kill Phil, using the "cousins," the Italian hitmen who performed the hit on Rusty Millio. The order is eventually passed down to Corky Caporale, who makes contact with them. But Phil is in hiding, and they kill the wrong man, the father of Phil's comare — and kill his comare, too.
Tony realizes the urgent danger, and orders Silvio to tell everyone in the family to go to their safe house, but it is too late. Almost simultaneously, Bobby is killed in a model railway store and, leaving the Bada Bing together, Silvio and Patsy are intercepted by two Lupertazzi hit men. Silvio is shot several times and severely wounded; the doctors say he may never regain consciousness. Patsy escapes unhurt.
Tony goes home and breaks the news to Carmela. He is going to a safe house; she must go to some other safe place. He goes upstairs to A.J.'s bedroom, where he now spends most of his time. Rhiannon is there with him and Tony sends her away. Tony tries to explain things gently. When A.J. starts whimpering about depressive symptoms, he pulls him out of bed and throws him onto the floor.
At night, Tony, Paulie, Carlo, Walden Belfiore and Dante Greco drive to an old suburban safe house. Tony goes upstairs and lies down fully clothed, holding the AR-10 rifle that Bobby gave him for his birthday while reminiscing on his conversation with Bobby about the possibility of being killed.

Deceased

  • Burt Gervasi: garrotted to death by Silvio Dante for betraying his crime family and working with the Lupertazzis.
  • Alec Kastropovic : shot dead in the head by Italo, the Italian hitman, who mistook him for Phil Leotardo, who he was supposed to murder on orders from Tony Soprano to eliminate the Lupertazzi threat to his crime family.
  • Yaryna Kastropovic : shot in the abdomen and then shot dead in the head by Italo, murdered for being present at the failed Leotardo hit.
  • Robert "Bobby Bacala" Baccalieri Jr.: shot to death by two Lupertazzi hitmen on orders from Phil Leotardo, as part of Phil's move to quickly wipe out the DiMeo family's management after continued long arguments and fights between the two families.
  • Unnamed Biker: Fell off his motorcycle after being overtaken by a car driven by two Lupertazzi hitmen, of which he is then run over by another car.

    Final appearances

"The Blue Comet" marks the final appearances in The Sopranos of these main or longtime recurring characters:
  • Jennifer Melfi: Tony Soprano's psychotherapist since the start of the series. Originally contacted to help treat his panic attacks, Tony also used his talk therapy sessions to deal with stresses in his life and gain advice on how to act in his personal and criminal life. Melfi was, at times, Tony's romantic interest, though his advances were consistently rebuffed.
  • Arthur "Artie" Bucco: a restaurateur, owner of Nuovo Vesuvio, a common mobster hangout, and Tony's close friend from childhood. After the fall-out with Davey Scatino in 2000, essentially, Tony's only remaining civilian friend.
  • Charmaine Bucco: the wife of Artie Bucco and a childhood friend of Carmela and Tony Soprano. Throughout the series, she urged Artie not to deal with the mobsters in his career and life, but eventually started to seemingly tolerate their gatherings in their restaurant.
  • Elliot Kupferberg: Melfi's own psychotherapist and mentor who often urged her to drop Tony Soprano as a patient. Also, an enthusiast of the Mafia.

    Production

Writing

The episode's general plot outline was developed collectively by the writing staff of The Sopranos, which for the second part of the sixth season consisted of showrunner and head writer David Chase, executive producer and co-showrunner
Terence Winter, executive producer Matthew Weiner and supervising producers and writing team Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider.
After the main story had been outlined, the script for "The Blue Comet" was written by Chase and Weiner. It is Chase's 29th writing credit for the series and Weiner's 12th and final. The penultimate episode marks the fifth time Chase and Weiner have collaborated on a The Sopranos script, following "The Test Dream" of season five and "Kaisha", "Soprano Home Movies" and "Kennedy and Heidi" of season six.
The research study that Elliot Kupferberg introduces to Jennifer Melfi, which she later carefully reads and which makes her decide to finally drop Tony Soprano as her patient, is an actual three-volume study called The Criminal Personality, written by Dr. Samuel Yochelson and Dr. Stanton Samenow, published between 1977 and 1986. David Chase discovered the study when he and some Sopranos writers attended a psychiatric conference. Chase further asked forensic psychologist Nancy Duggan to analyze Tony Soprano's mental state and the progress of his psychotherapy with Melfi; Duggan also opined that talk therapy was enabling Melfi's patient to commit crimes and justify his actions for himself. The Criminal Personality greatly impressed Chase after he read it and he decided that its introduction in the show would spell the end of Tony and Melfi's psychotherapy story arc in the series. After the airing of the episode, psychotherapists reported an outpouring of questions and concern from their clientele about the ethics of dropping patients unilaterally. Chase also commented about the seeming lack of finality in Tony Soprano's therapy, stating that its depiction was most realistic as psychotherapy most often is marked with moments of progress but is essentially an endless process until one party decides he or she has had enough of it. Lorraine Bracco said she was "upset" at the way her character was written off the show. She said, "I just felt like he wanted me to get rid of Tony. I felt that he did it in a very abrupt way. I don't think that she should have done it that way. I would have liked for it to have been more meaningful. I think she cared for Tony. Even though he was a fuck-up and he was never going to really straighten out. But I think she really cared for him. You don't spend seven years with someone and then discard them. I felt bad about that."
Chase called Steve Schirripa in January 2007 to inform him of his character Bobby Baccalieri's death in the episode. Schirripa found Chase's choice to call him surprising, as Chase usually took the actors for characters who die aside at read-throughs and inform them of their demise and how it occurs. Chase visited Schirripa to discuss his character's death, with Chase telling him Bobby would be killed in a train store. Schirripa then told Chase how he hoped he impressed him with his work on the show; Chase assured him of his happiness.
The cardboard cutout of Silvio Dante that appears near the end of the episode in the safehouse was added by the writers as a way to give the character some sort of presence in the scene. The writers created the safehouse as an unoccupied house kept for emergencies and storage of various items, such as the promotional cutout of Silvio for the Bada Bing!.