The Exact Moment Tony Soprano Went Full Villain Mode With No Turning Back
And fully embraced who he was.
When watching any series we usually subconsciously start rooting for the good guys. And there’s no surprise in that, as the writers give them the best storylines and turn them into likable characters.
But what to do when a show almost has no positive characters and the leading man is actually a mob boss? This was the case with the iconic show The Sopranos. The series premiered in 1999 and became a hit in no time.
At the center of the series are the Sopranos (duh), with Tony being the father of the family and the mafia boss. The show starts with him being confused about his life and his personality, not realizing what to do with it. It’s only later in the series that we meet the whole other version of him, the ruthless mob boss ready to do everything to make sure he is respected.
“Tony was sort of the straight man early on. Everyone else in his life was crazy and always nagging him. I feel like he was meant to be relatable in that way. Like a nice guy who tries his best but can't catch a break. "Is everyone in my life bananas or what?" The show almost felt like a 90s sitcom at times,” Redditor Valuable-Wafer-881 said.
However, early in the show there’s a pivotal moment in his life when Tony fully embraces his sociopathic tendencies and accepts his true nature. The moment we are talking about happened in season 2, episode 13 titled Funhouse.
Tony discovers that one of his closest friends, Big Pussy, is a rat (an FBI informant), and he has no choice but to kill him. So Tony, filled with the pain of betrayal, gathers Paulie, Silvio and Pussy on a boat and goes to the sea. For that moment the viewers were already aware what was going to happen next.
Of course they kill Pussy, because that's the only way the rats were treated. And the infamous murder scene also becomes a point of no return for Tony. Only now does he fully understand what he is capable of. There will be more murders after that, but none of them will be as emotionally hard for Tony.
The Sopranos is available to stream on Hulu.