Beat Tony soprano is going to have a panic attack in this therapy session, it's going to happen a little under four minutes from now.

The way James Gandolfini builds to that attack is only one reason why his performance as Tony is probably the greatest acting achievement ever committed to the screen.

Small or big.

You could pick 1000 scenes from this groundbreaking series, 1000 moments to highlight Gandolfini's artistry, but I think this one in particular demonstrates what he does so well how he carries us with him through a complex sequence of emotions.

It's not the first time it's happened recently.

I wish you had told me, well, I wish he'd killed it.

So, the scene is all about Tony's recent panic attacks.

Getting to the bottom of why they've been occurring so frequently.

The most recent one happened earlier in the same episode after Tony learned that his cousin Tony B was involved in a shooting that he shouldn't have been when the attacks first reappeared.

What was going on in your life, it would just rebuffed my affections.

Tony strikes at dr Melfi twice, blaming her first for not solving his psychological problem and then for causing it.

But the way Gandolfini plays it, you can see that he's not really convinced of her culpability and says that with his tone, his eyes and the tilt of his head.

Here's our first little foreshadowing of the agitated state he's going to work himself into.

It's a small thing, a hand on the head, but it signals to us that Tony is struggling and in these therapy scenes when he's confined to a chair, Gandolfini has a very limited mobility to work with.

But he makes the most of it when you actually passed out.

Were you thinking about me or my house?

And the cleaning girl was Yeah, crying on the phone about a cousin who went off the road of the mexican bus wreck or something.

I remember just feeling inside like I wanted to fucking choker because it was always something with her.

You can hear the musicality in his voice, some combination of leftover italian rhythms and a new york.

Inflected North Jersey accent crying on the phone about a cousin who went off the road crying on the phone about a cousin who went off the road and the mexican bus wreck or something.

As you'll see in this scene, Gandolfini uses these musical rhythms to build to larger and larger crescendos of anger feel inside like I wanted to fucking choker because there was always something with her.

When did it next happen?

Mhm My cousin Tony was up at the house, he went to buy some tools and they weren't there.

I was inside talking to Carmela and started to feel that, you know, Gandolfini's rhythmic anger like waves crashing on the shore is hypnotic drawing you deeper into his mental and emotional space with each new cycle as it intensifies.

This push and pull almost mimics the kind of breathing that leads to hyperventilation.

A key symptom of panic attacks.

You were so concerned about your cousin's foot.

You collapsed on the golf course.

I worry about him.

He's a grown man, isn't he?

Is he in danger of losing the foot or his foot?

It's not his foot.

Forget the foot.

I worry about him.

He's he's right out of fucking jail.

Okay, what's important here is that Tony is lying to Melfi about the cause of his latest attack.

He realizes that his cousin has something to do with it, but for legal reasons, he can't admit the real cause having to do with the murder.

Now this prefigures the greater lie.

He's about to tell in a second.

The reason he went to prison Because you got pinched hijacking a truckload of beta boxes in 96 and they hooked him up with a rico and he got 17 years and I was supposed to be there tonight at the Jack.

Now here comes the lie.

Why didn't you go jumped by a bunch of mullen yards.

They were trying to take my shoes.

I fought him off but they cut my head open the fucking jigga boo cocksucking motherfucker's.

So the reason he didn't go to jail and his cousin did was because Tony was jumped by some unidentified black males, which is the title of this episode and also sometimes a code for when a person is hit or hurt by mafia members that can't be named Chucky Jr was shot to death at the boonton projects by drug dealers.

Tony's racist outburst is ostensibly directed at whoever beat him up.

The only thing is it never happened.

That's tremendous guilt to carry.

He went to nam, I was four F and that's the way our friends look at it.

One of the amazing things about the sopranos is its use of silence.

And nowhere in the show is silence more prominent than in Melfi's office.

I mean, it would be impossible to score these scenes.

The script is asking Lorraine, Bracco and Gandolfini to do things.

That music is too blunt to follow after all, Tony's anger is complex.

Whether it's directed at Melfi or his cousin or unidentified black males.

The actual target is himself depression.

His rage turned inward.

He hates his own failings and he hates that he's embarrassed by them.

He also uses his anger as a shield a screen to block deeper self knowledge.

The writers are asking Gandolfini to do all that.

And at the same time to show that shield cracking.

He does that by responding to the silence in the office to the hollow echoes of his rage.

His subtle retreating postures after an outburst betray his insecurities right out of fucking jail.

Okay.

Yeah, well, I wish you'd cured it.

And that's the way our friends look at it.

No wonder you're having anxiety attacks.

Yeah, maybe if you came clean with him, it's the idea of the truth that finally triggers it.

Yeah, well yeah.

You okay?

Yeah.

Go on, go on, go on, go on what you were saying.

Are you having an attack now?

No, no.

I had a huge lunch, that's all.

It's it's gas.

Watch the way he wrestles and fights with his own body, refusing to accept what's happening as if words could overrule reality.

The night he got pinched.

I had a panic attack.

Alright from my mother.

God damn it.

I didn't even know what it was then.

Alright, just relax.

Focus on your breathing.

It's not that I just I just need some fucking pinot or something.

No, just please focus.

I've got my medical bag in case Gandolfini depicts the visual symptoms of panic attacks, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest pain, sweating, feeling faint and through them.

He confesses to the truth of why he missed that job all those years ago.

He does it in three parts first with a lingering anger at himself yelling through his attack.

I had a fight with my mother and I had a panic attack.

Ok, forget that for now.

Come on, we're supposed to come over with some fucking yawn for some booties.

My mother was making model then he seems to crumple and givin he resigns himself to the confession, looking defeated, notice his posture here, focus on your breathing.

I said to her.

I said Kamala loves you.

You know, you gotta understand she's got a three month old finally as his emotion ramps back up, it becomes infused with an intense vulnerability, as if he's on the verge of tears.

She kept fucking, she kept going and I started screaming at her.

So I left, I walked out the door, I went over to the car, opened the door, boom, cut my fucking head open and your cousin doesn't know this.

No, I lied.

What am I gonna tell him?

What am I gonna tell all of them?

I had a fight with my mother and I and I fainted.

That's why I missed the job.

It's Gandolfini's ability to convey these deep, inner reserves of vulnerability and insecurity to let us glimpse the tender source of his destructive passions that make him a sympathetic character on which the entire series depends.

You know, actors don't always get the gift of great writing, but when they do it's not just an opportunity, it's also a responsibility, A challenge to meet the nuance of the words with nuance in performance.

What the writers asked Gandolfini to navigate in the scene would be difficult for any actor, but he pulls it off with power and precision and he had to do the same for nearly every scene in all 86 hour long episodes.

It's a remarkable legacy sometimes.

What happens in here is like taking a ship.

Yes, okay.

Although I preferred to think of it more like childbirth.

Trust me, it's like taking a shit hey everybody, thank you so much for watching.

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