Unidentified Black Males

"Unidentified Black Males" is the sixty-first episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the ninth of the show's fifth season. It was written by Matthew Weiner and Terence Winter, directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on May 2 2004.

Guest starring roles

Episode recap

Tony Soprano notices that Tony Blundetto has a foot injury. While playing golf with Johnny Sack, Tony learns that the man who killed Joey Peeps walked with a limp. This causes Tony to nearly pass out from one of his panic attacks. After hearing his cousin's unconvincing denials, Tony makes up an alibi for Blundetto and tells Sack that the two cousins spent the evening looking for Tony B's estranged daughter. Sack accepts Tony's explanation, but implied that there would be consequences if Tony was lying. Trying to prevent Tony B. from acting on his own again, Tony gives his cousin more responsibilities in the business and promises to help try to get "the books opened" for him (to make Tony B. an official mafioso, since it was never made official due to him going to prison).

Meanwhile, at Joey Peeps' burial, his head stone read "Joseph Edward Peeps", using his actual first and middle name, but using the last name of his nickname, instead of his actual last name, Peparelli, to the chagrin of his compadres.

Tony gets Meadow's boyfriend, Finn De Trolio, a job working at a construction site, where he meets many men in the Soprano crime family. After witnessing a violent encounter between Eugene Pontecorvo and Little Paulie Germani, Finn feels uneasy at the site. He becomes even more uncomfortable when he observes Vito Spatafore performing oral sex on a male security guard one morning before beginning work. Later in the day, Vito invites Finn to a New York Yankees game, and intimidates him into agreeing. Unsure of Vito's intentions, Finn decides to leave the New Jersey area, but after a long and heated argument with Meadow, they agree to marry.

In a session with Dr. Melfi, Tony admits the truth about what he was doing the night Tony Blundetto got arrested. His story about being beaten up by black guys was a lie to cover up a panic attack he suffered after arguing with his mother, Livia.

Carmela has decided to pursue divorce, but receives word from yet another lawyer that he has declined to take her case because she is married to a mobster. She becomes tearful looking out the window of her home and seeing Tony peacefully on a float in the backyard pool, as Meadow is on the phone with her sharing the news of her engagement to Finn.

Title reference

The title referring to "unidentified black males" is referenced several times in the episode:

Tony blames the black males for his mugging the night Tony B. was arrested.
Tony B. blames black gang members for his foot injury.
When Eugene smashes a bottle on Little Paulie's head, they agree to blame it on some unidentified black men.
When Meadow tells Finn of Jackie Aprile, Jr.'s death, she repeats the false story that he was killed by black drug dealers.
At one point, a black bear appears in the Sopranos' garden whilst Carmela is on the phone. No mention is made of it and the plot continues without further reference to it.

Connections to previous episodes

Finn was previously associated with an awkward discussion of homosexuality when he and Meadow defended a homo-erotic interpretation of Herman Melville's novel Billy Budd to Tony and Carmela at dinner in "Eloise."
In one scene, Agent Sanseverino drives in her car with her daughter. However, in an earlier episode from this season, Irregular Around the Margins, she told Adriana that she did not have any children.

Production

Joseph R. Gannascoli came up with the idea of Vito being a gay mobster after reading about a member of the Gambino crime family who was gay and allowed to live for the sake of being a good earner. Later inspiration for the writers would come in 2003 when a Cosa Nostra member revealed in court testimony that back in 1992, the acting boss of the DeCavalcante family, John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato, had been murdered by some of his own subordinates for engaging in homosexual sex acts. [1]

Music

The song played over the end credits is If I Were a Carpenter by Bobby Darin.