The Sopranos “The Happy Wanderer” (February 20, 2000)

The character actor Robert Patrick does a revelatory guest turn in this jaded entry of The Sopranos which, like many of the best episodes, navigates the surreal borderline between the civilian world and the cracked-mirror realm of the mob.  Patrick often plays taciturn military types, but his guileless, slightly hangdog look was perfect for David Scatino, a sporting goods dealer whose teenaged son is a classmate of Tony’s daughter Meadow.  David, revealing a self-destructive streak a mile wide, worms his way into Tony’s all-night, high-roller card game and ends up 45 G’s in the hole, despite Tony’s politest efforts to keep it from happening.  Frank Renzulli, who nailed the intricate mafioso slang better than any other staff writer, contributes a blitz of dazzling poker-table dialogue and a brilliant ending.  David, in an utterly craven gesture, finds a pretext to confiscate his son’s SUV (“the tires are muddy!”) and uses it to pay his debt to Tony – who gives the car to Meadow.  The children’s friendship is the final cost of their parents’ bad behavior.  The deeper point is, of course, that given the opportunity the “straight” people of the world will exhibit the same larcenous impulses and weakness of character as Tony’s thugs.  James Gandolfini finds a marvelous new wrinkle in his portrayal of Tony, a sort of a glad-handing, executive demeanor that he uses on outsiders; he’s so good that when David finally sees the real, terrifying Tony for the first time, the one we’re used to, we still think for a moment that Tony won’t really smash his fist into this cleancut, upstanding citizen’s face.  But he does.