Any Thoughts on Marie Spatafore? Good Mom? Bad Mom?

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I found the scene with her on the phone with Tony fascinating. I got the sense she was not at all happy with sending Vito to the boot camp. I also got the feeling she was pissed off at Tony. She actually thinks it's fair for Tony to just give her $100K and that will fix her son? Doesn't she have any obligation there? Maybe something about parenting skills? I'm not saying that all of his problems could be solved by some good parenting skills. But it seems like she is not contributing any parenting skills here.

Anyway, while on the phone, I got the feeling like she wanted to tell Tony, "no" but was afraid to do that. Is it possible that there is more to the story about her moving to Maine? Could it be that she has her own reasons for wanting to get away from Jersey about more than just to "fix" Vito? What could she have been thinking about telling Tony? That his spending $18K wasn't enough and she wanted him to come up with the other $82K? Or could it have been that this wasn't really about her wanting to leave for Vito's sake?

In the end, I give Tony a lot of credit. He didn't have to give her anything. He met with the kid and tried to talk to him. I think he realized Vito had a point when he asked, "How am I supposed to fix that?", or "What does it have to do with me?" I think he decided the kid had a good point and that he decided to try and help him for that reason. I also think he wanted to win that $100K bet because he would have been happy to get Marie out of his hair and out of his pocket - once and forever. Maybe he should put her to work in Angie's body shop?

I also give Vito credit for telling Tony, "You don't even know who I am ... sometimes you call me Carlos Jr". By the way, I didn't get the joke when Tony told Vito that his father and Tony were friends and Vito replied, "But not buddies." I thought it was some reference to Vito being gay. But how was it funny? I didn't understand that at all.

Re: Any Thoughts on Marie Spatafore? Good Mom? Bad Mom?

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Vito Jr says, "Butt buddies?" which was a homosexual putdown.

Tony renegotiated the deal that by their code he was obliged to make. Marie knew, maybe per Vito, that LCN takes care of the widows and families in case of trouble. When Angie Bonpensiero put the reach out to Tony, she did it through Carmella. Tony visited her, saw her new Cadillac, and found out she had been exaggerating about her hardship. He then smashed her car window and rear tail light(ep 2.7 "Second Opinion") By contrast, I give Marie a lot of credit to pluck up the nerve to talk to Tony directly.

Why Maine? Maybe Vito raved about the Johnny Cakes in New England. Seriously, as we saw, part of "Little V's" problem was he was being tormented by the kids in school due to his family's recent history. This would follow him all through school. The only way to get away from that was to move out of the area where nobody knew the story. $18K may handle part of Vito's problem (I doubt it), but there is also the daughter to think about as well.

Re: Any Thoughts on Marie Spatafore? Good Mom? Bad Mom?

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well, girls dont live in a macho boys world.their world is probably more sensitive(especially at that age) and the girls in her class maybe were showing understanding.

i liked her plan, leaving possible metaphoric or whatever stuff about maine or whatever in that context away, she wanted to move to a mate she had, near the university of maine.a nice approach for giving vito jr. a good chance in life, she probably wanted her children to go to college then there.only thing speaking against it would be that it might have been too late already, vito jr. tasted the fruit and dealt with it his way, getting him back down would be hard...but im sure once in maine he would have been ok.
but generally i think it was a nice idea of marie spatafore to move near a friend who lives near the uni in maine.
and that 100k, jesus...tony seemed to blow that on a daily basis in the episode.but he was that much on a gambling trip ...

Re: Any Thoughts on Marie Spatafore? Good Mom? Bad Mom?

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ballermann wrote:i liked her plan, leaving possible metaphoric or whatever stuff about maine or whatever in that context away, she wanted to move to a mate she had, near the university of maine.a nice approach for giving vito jr. a good chance in life, she probably wanted her children to go to college then there.only thing speaking against it would be that it might have been too late already, vito jr. tasted the fruit and dealt with it his way, getting him back down would be hard...but im sure once in maine he would have been ok.
but generally i think it was a nice idea of marie spatafore to move near a friend who lives near the uni in maine.
The whole University in Maine was harken back to the "College" episode, where the rat (I forget his name) moved to Maine near the university, to get away from the mob. His problem caught up with him.

Tony was correct in saying there is no geographical solution to the problem, even if he was trying to sweep it under the rug.

Re: Any Thoughts on Marie Spatafore? Good Mom? Bad Mom?

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There were a few interesting things in that episode, and the Vito Jr stuff ties into a lot of it. I thought it was interesting that the mother was at her wits end with Vito Jr and her first thought was to run away to northern NE, which is where Vito ran away. VT, NH, ME - kind of the Tri-state area's Shangrila? Her thought was Tony will take care of it. Of course she wants a significant chunk of change to do it, maybe more than you need to get a decent pad in East Nowhere. And Tony of course tries to do anything but pay out - or even get involved. She passes the buck to Tony, he passes the buck again to Phil. They both eventually give variations on the same advice, which is kind of like "knock the sh!t off, kid." Then Tony ponies up with the ultimate solution - pay less money to pass the kid off to strangers out of state. She worries that they will hit Vito Jr, but ultimately goes along. She did not like any of the solutions they offered, preferring perhaps wisely to take the escape plan. But no one escapes that world. They can get rid of people, but no one walks for free.
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