HoNoToGroABeMo Day Thirty-One: It Is Done
5 years ago
2:10 PM
Follow up to: Another Point of Singularity: The Unintentional Hilarity of outing Gay Vito
Some Spoilers
If you read The Previous Post About "Gay Vito" on the Sopranos, you'll know that I was impressed that the subject came up in such a macho milieu as a New Jersey mafia family. My position last week was that Vito would admit up to it and either get whacked or Tony (Soprano) would accept him the way he was and deal with it.
It didn't exactly happen that way, but the last show did indicate a fourth option I hadn't considered: Gay Vito would be outed, the crime bosses would get word of it, and Vito would just bail on the entire lifestyle. Which is what he does. Vito gets word of Tony's desire to "Have a little discussion" and knows the jig is up for him. He grabs some emergency cash and leaves home at high speed, heading north to try to find some cousins in New Hampshire. His car breaks down in the middle of a rainstorm, and he pathetically trudges up the road until he stumbles on one of those tourist-y New England towns in New Hamsphire. Checking in to a bed and breakfast, you see him looking enviously on the openly gay couple that eat breakfast in the diner he is in. We last see Gay Vito in an antique shop, staring fixedly at a vase.
Back in NJ, the rest of the organization gets wind of things and the word spreads fast. Seems like everyone knows that Vito is a member of the "Pink Brigade" now. The old timers have predictable reactions: they want to rub him out for the 'honor of the family'. Tony, NOT so surprisingly, doesn't. "There's just these guys that want to make a hit all the time and not think of anything beyond it, constantly..." and "When you get right down to it, there's a part of me that wants to say "take a pass, and God bless.. I don't give a f*ck what you do in your private life". Even though Tony was framing things in extremely selfish terms ("If it weren't for Vito last year, I wouldn't have been able to BUY my boat"), he still recognizes that Vito, the professional, is still a very proficient and ruthless guy at what he does... so in a weird way Tony is the most un-homophobic guy in the whole gang. Good writing.. for the most part.
It wasn't exactly revolutionary, but I was hoping the character would stick around for a couple more episodes. I thought an openly gay gangster would have been an interesting plot twist in such macho surroundings.
Some Spoilers
If you read The Previous Post About "Gay Vito" on the Sopranos, you'll know that I was impressed that the subject came up in such a macho milieu as a New Jersey mafia family. My position last week was that Vito would admit up to it and either get whacked or Tony (Soprano) would accept him the way he was and deal with it.
It didn't exactly happen that way, but the last show did indicate a fourth option I hadn't considered: Gay Vito would be outed, the crime bosses would get word of it, and Vito would just bail on the entire lifestyle. Which is what he does. Vito gets word of Tony's desire to "Have a little discussion" and knows the jig is up for him. He grabs some emergency cash and leaves home at high speed, heading north to try to find some cousins in New Hampshire. His car breaks down in the middle of a rainstorm, and he pathetically trudges up the road until he stumbles on one of those tourist-y New England towns in New Hamsphire. Checking in to a bed and breakfast, you see him looking enviously on the openly gay couple that eat breakfast in the diner he is in. We last see Gay Vito in an antique shop, staring fixedly at a vase.
Back in NJ, the rest of the organization gets wind of things and the word spreads fast. Seems like everyone knows that Vito is a member of the "Pink Brigade" now. The old timers have predictable reactions: they want to rub him out for the 'honor of the family'. Tony, NOT so surprisingly, doesn't. "There's just these guys that want to make a hit all the time and not think of anything beyond it, constantly..." and "When you get right down to it, there's a part of me that wants to say "take a pass, and God bless.. I don't give a f*ck what you do in your private life". Even though Tony was framing things in extremely selfish terms ("If it weren't for Vito last year, I wouldn't have been able to BUY my boat"), he still recognizes that Vito, the professional, is still a very proficient and ruthless guy at what he does... so in a weird way Tony is the most un-homophobic guy in the whole gang. Good writing.. for the most part.
It wasn't exactly revolutionary, but I was hoping the character would stick around for a couple more episodes. I thought an openly gay gangster would have been an interesting plot twist in such macho surroundings.
