Live Free or Die (The Sopranos episode)

Infobox Television episode | Title = Live Free or Die
Series = The Sopranos
Season = 6
Episode = 71
Guests= "see below"
Airdate = April 17, 2006 (HBO)
Production = 606
Writer = David Chase & Terence Winter and
Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess
Director = Tim Van Patten
Episode list = Episode chronology


Prev = Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request
Next = Luxury Lounge"Live Free or Die" is the seventy-first episode of the HBO original series "The Sopranos" and the sixth of the show's sixth season. It was written by David Chase, Terence Winter, Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, was directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on April 16 2006.

Guest starring

* Tom Aldredge as Hugh De Angelis
* Edoardo Ballerini as Corky Caporale
* Elizabeth Bracco as Marie Spatafore
* Max Casella as Benny Fazio
* Will Janowitz as Finn DeTrolio
* Arthur Nascarella as Carlo Gervasi
* Suzanne Shepherd as Mary De Angelis
* Lenny Venito as James "Murmur" Zancone
* Maureen Van Zandt as Gabriella Dante

Episode recap

The New York wiseguys who spotted a leather fetish clad Vito Spatafore dancing in a gay bar have spread the news. Salvatore Iaccuzzo from Yonkers, New York tells the story to Christopher Moltisanti and his friend "Murmur", who repeat it to Tony Soprano and his crew at the Bada Bing. Paulie Gualtieri describes the news as slander, and Tony insists more proof is needed.

Benny Fazio, Dante Greco and Terry Doria visit Vito at the beach house of Vito's "comaré", where he's been lying low. They try to take him to see Tony but Vito speeds away. Vito returns to his home, looks in on his sleeping children, grabs a couple of family pictures and a stash of money, and drives off into the rainy night. He throws his cell phone out of the window, when its incessive ringing (from his cronies wondering where he is) drive him crazy. After his car hits a downed tree branch, Vito finds himself stranded in a small town in New Hampshire.

Vito's hasty disappearance suggests to Christopher and others he has something to hide. Further testimony is gained from Silvio, who after speaking to the mobster's wife, Marie Spatafore, declares, "I'm around a lot of women. That one ain't getting laid."

All the while, Tony continues contacting Vito, but to no avail. A road crew worker finds Vito's phone as it rings; after being offended and puzzled by Tony's discussion, the worker purposely tosses it in the path of a steamroller, crushing the phone and further isolating Vito from his own crew.

The gossip soon spreads further, as Meadow reveals to Carmela and Rosalie that Finn witnessed Vito performing oral sex on a security guard of the construction site where Vito and Finn worked (in the Season 5 episode "Unidentified Black Males"). Tony takes Finn to the back room of Satriale's and asks him to repeat the story for the assembled wiseguys. The fact that Vito was "catching" instead of "pitching" the favor seems worse to the group, especially to Paulie. Finn is intimidated by the interrogation and repulsed by the thought the mobsters will "mete out their own justice" on Vito over his sexual orientation. Finn later challenges Meadow's rationalization of her father's business as Italian tradition.

Meadow also has her values and relationships questioned when she sympathizes at the law center with an Afghan Islamic family whose son was detained by police on suspicion of terrorist activity, but can find no support at home. Her recounting of the tale prompts Tony to ask Christopher if his Arabic friends, Ahmed and Muhammad, are possibly "al-Qaedas". Christopher tells Tony the pair seem too tolerant and Americanized to be terrorists, but is concerned by the suggestion.

Paulie, feeling personally betrayed, leads the cries for Vito's head. Rumors grow about how the fugitive Capo's crew won't follow his orders and some express the desire to kill Vito themselves. Tony, who expresses to Dr. Melfi his ambivalence over whether Vito's sexual orientation truly matters, manages to quell immediate calls for bloodshed while he considers the impact of Vito's death on Vito's wife and children and on his own income. After Tony suggests to Silvio he will not go after Vito, Silvio notes Tony's captains will use clemency as an excuse to kick back even less money.

Phil Leotardo arrives to comfort his distraught cousin Marie, both of them now informed of the accusations against her husband Vito. Phil inquires if Marie can help him locate Vito, ostensibly to get Vito some sort of help.

In his New Hampshire hideaway, Vito tries unsuccessfully to locate a cousin, socializes with the townsfolk and tourists, and notices a gay couple being welcomed warmly at a local diner. Among the peace and quiet, Vito stops by a picturesque whitewater river, then visits an antique shop where, after admiring the most expensive piece in the store, he is told by the proprietor he has "a good eye" and is "a natural."

Meanwhile, Carmela discovers that Angie Bonpensiero has secretly branched out into business with some members of Christopher's crew, putting money up for street loans and buying stolen car parts. Carmela tries to pressure Tony into having the local building inspector allow her to move forward with work on her , but to no avail; Tony seems to forget her request, and Carmela is appalled to find that her father Hugh De Angelis has set about selling materials salvaged from the construction site.

Title reference

* The episode's title, "Live Free or Die", refers to the New Hampshire state motto, which Vito notices on a license plate while stranded in the fictional town of Dartford, New Hampshire.
* The title also refers to the decision that must be made about Vito: i.e., whether to let him live free or die. It could also refer to Vito's contemplating suicide.

Production

* The scenes filmed for the town of Dartford, New Hampshire were actually filmed in Boonton, New Jersey.
* At a diner in Dartford, Vito is introduced to jonnycakes, pancakes made with white corn meal, which is also the title of the sixth season's eighth episode.
* This is the final episode to be written by the married writing team of Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess. They left the series, which they had been with since the first season, to produce a new project for HBO, which never took shape.
* Sharon Angela (Rosalie Aprile) is now billed in the opening credits but only for the episodes in which she appears.
* In the scene with Dr. Melfi, Tony referenced the controversial comments made by Senator Rick Santorum (pronouncing his last name as "Sanatorium") who once claimed the government's allowance of gay marriage would be the first step in a slippery slope leading to tolerance of more taboo practices, including bestiality.
*After Finn confirms to the Soprano crew that he caught Vito performing a sex act on a security guard ("Unidentified Black Males"), Christopher suggests that he should cut off his penis and "feed it to him." This same fate befell actor Michael Imperioli's character on behalf of the Viet Cong in the film "Dead Presidents".

Music

* The song played during the end credits is "4th of July" by X.
* After Meadow tells Carmela and Rosalie Aprile about Vito and the security guard, Tony comes down the stairs singing the opening line of "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull.