The Sopranos: Paulie Becomes Awful

Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri has been one of the core characters of The Sopranos since its first episode. In the first few seasons he's portrayed sympathetically— at least comparatively for a member of an organized crime gang. "Honor among thieves," etc. But in season 3 and especially in the later part of season 4 his portrayal changes. He becomes a very unsympathetic character, showing tendencies toward sadism and rash, desperate behavior.

The change of character first appeared in season 3 when Paulie rode Christopher hard after Christopher became a "made man". Hazing the new guy would be one thing. Teaching him tough-love would be one thing. But Paulie takes it to an extent that is sadistic... and at least slightly perverted. When Christopher appeals to Tony to put a stop to it, Paulie threatens to kill him.

Also in season 3 we saw Paulie's growing rashness. In the memorable Pine Barrens episode I wrote about, the whole situation of Paulie and Christopher getting lost in the woods and almost dying is precipitated by Paulie choosing to escalate things with a guy who paid them their money but wasn't polite enough (in Paulie's eyes) about paying it. Through Christopher's POV, and indeed from how we see guys like Tony behave, we know that other guys in Paulie's position would've shown better judgment and not picked a fight over such a minor slight.

Two developments in season 4 reveal Paulie as a really awful person. In s4ep8 Paulie finally settles his elderly mother in an expensive care home, but she is ostracized by women she's known for years. Paulie threatens the son of one of the women, who's a high school principal, telling him to tell his mom to be nicer to Mrs. Gualtieri. Then ( Season 4 episode 8 spoiler )

What's so wrong with this, in the context of a gangster story where everyone's awful? It's awful because it's using violence over such a trivial matter. Compare it to Big Pussy's explanation about when he decided to turn against the gang and become a rat. He was offended that Tony ordered him to find a car belonging to a school teacher that had been stolen by low-level criminals. Big Pussy felt it was so far below him (or anyone at his level in the gang) to use violence and face risk over such trivial things that he considered it a reason to break his oath to the gang.

The second thing in season 4 that shows Paulie to be a really awful person is how he hurts an innocent person in s4ep12. ( Spoiler for s4ep12 )

One of the themes of The Sopranos is that careful, judicious people survive and advance, while rash and violent people die— either at the hands of people they cross, or at the behest of their own superiors who deem them a hazard to the organization. In light of this I believe the writers are laying the groundwork for Paulie to get whacked by his own people.

D'oh! My Back

My back gave out on me today. I was taking a leak around 10:30 and all of a sudden I almost fell over in the bathroom. A bolt of pain shot through my lower back and my right leg went weak. It felt like I'd been stabbed or shot.

I managed to finish my business without pissing myself and tried to see if I could walk it off. Walking was difficult and I needed to brace myself against the walls. I decided to lie down in bed. Even that (getting into bed) was painful, though it was better once I was laying flat— except when I tried to roll to shift positions.

After 5 minutes I tried to get up from bed. I couldn't. It was not only painful but my muscles froze when I tried. My body simply would not let me play through the pain. I phoned Hawk to come home and help me.

Hawk came home with take-out food for us to have for lunch. Again I tried getting out of bed, figuring I'd try to get to the dining room table, but again my body said, "Nope, not happening" when I tried to get out of bed. Instead I ate a picnic lunch while propped up on pillows.

With food in my stomach I popped a bunch of ibuprofen and a few acetaminophen to dull the pain. They only helped a little. They were enough, though, for me to managed to get out of bed an hour later to go my doctor's office. While getting out of bed was a minutes-long process of trial and (painful) error, one I was up standing and even walking weren't so bad. But sitting back down, such in the car to get to the clinic? D'oh!

Continued in D'oh! My Back, part 2.