Who knew Vinnie Delpino was such a bad ass? Free from Doogie’s shadow, Vinnie, aka Benny Fazio in his new TV life, had his coming out party in this week’s episode. First, he hooks up with the hot new greeter at Artie’s restaurant, then he throws a couple threats at Artie when Artie starts giving his girl a hard time, and he caps off his performance by shoving Artie’s “sautéing hand” into a pot of boiling sauce. Granted, he also had his ass handed to him by Artie, but Vinnie hasn’t had this much screen time since the “Doogie Howser” heydays. Assuming there were “Doogie Howser” heydays, of course.
The trouble started when Vinnie and his honey swiped a few credit card numbers from Vesuvio, Artie’s restaurant, and sold them to Christopher’s Middle-Eastern associates (more on that later). American Express picked up on the fraud, presented Artie with the evidence, and pulled Am-Ex from Vesuvio. Already hemorrhaging money thanks to some new competition, this latest bit of news sends Artie over the edge and, when he finds out Vinnie and his girlfriend are behind the operation, he goes to Vinnie’s house and rearranges his face for him. Unfortunately for Vinnie, his small-screen renaissance may not last long, not after Tony specifically told him to forget about the Artie situation and Vinnie still charred his hand. Will Tony do anything about Vinnie’s disobedience?
As for Artie, I’m not sure where this storyline is supposed to go. Artie’s provided a handful of memorable moments throughout the years but, honestly, I just don’t find his character all that intriguing. This week’s episode lacked focus, mainly because Artie was onscreen so much. We haven’t seen much of him at all until now, and yet he monopolized most of the episode. I suppose it’s all a matter of personal preference, and maybe this Artie detour will lead somewhere good when it’s all said and done, but Tony was dead on when, borrowing from the saying that was pinned to his hospital room wall, he told Artie, “You go about in pity for yourself.” Artie’s depressing, and aside from his encounters with Vinnie, he stole some of the show’s momentum this week.
Fortunately, Christopher kept things interesting while in LA. He and Little Carmine have a meeting set up with Ben Kingsley to talk about their ridiculous “The Ring meets The Godfather” movie idea. Kingsley, of course, hardly even pretends to be interested and tries to lose Chris and Carmine by going to a Luxury Lounge. Stunned by the amount of swag heaped upon the stars at the event, Chris later attacks Lauren Bacall, punches her in the face and swipes her gift bag.
I still say Chris is in for some big trouble this season. His crew is supplying Muhammad and Ahmed with all these credit card numbers, which they’re clearly using to get their hands on guns and/or other weapons. We’ll have to see if the bender Chris found himself on while in LA carries over now that he’s back home, but I’m guessing it will. If that’s the case, we’re going to watch Chris’ life quickly unravel and, sometime soon, agent Harris will confront him about his association with Muhammad and Ahmed. Whether or not Chris flips when faced with the prospect of hard time remains to be seen, but I’m saying he’s dead, for one reason or another, by the time the credits roll on the series finale.
Not much else happened this week. The hired guns Tony imported to take out Rusty, as a favor for Johnny Sack, get the job done but at this point, it’s unclear what exactly is brewing in that pot. Meanwhile, we didn’t see Vito, and aside from his screen time with Artie and Vinnie, Tony wasn’t around all that much either. The previews showed that Vito will make his way back next week, though, and we’ll also be introduced to Julianna Margulies, who looks to be Tony’s next fuck buddy. Stay tuned.
