Tony Blundetto

Tony Blundetto, played by Steve Buscemi, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He was Tony Soprano's cousin who was released from prison at the beginning of the show's fifth season.

Biography
Anthony Blundetto was the father of three children — two sons, Justin and Jason (conceived by having his semen smuggled out of prison) — and an estranged daughter, Kelly. Blundetto and Tony Soprano were close childhood friends and were known as "Tony Uncle Johnny" (Soprano) and "Tony Uncle Al" (Blundetto) to tell them apart. During Season 5, Blundetto was usually called "Tony B" to distinguish him from Tony Soprano. As teenagers, they visited their Uncle Pat Blundetto's farm with cousin Christopher Moltisanti, whom they bullied. Moltisanti would resent Blundetto for decades afterward, because Blundetto was the one who always wanted to bully him and always persuaded Tony S. to join in. Soprano and Blundetto also came up together in the ranks of the DiMeo crime family.

Blundetto was a growing force in the mob until the mid 1980s when he was arrested for an attempted hijacking and spent 17 years in prison. Tony Soprano was supposed to have helped with the job but never arrived and thus escaped his cousin's fate. Soprano told everybody that he had been mugged by African-Americans while leaving a bar and his injuries prevented him from helping. It was eventually revealed to Dr. Melfi that Tony felt guilty not only because Blundetto had been arrested while he had not, but that the reason he did not show up that night to help with the hijacking was because he had gotten in a fight with his mother, Livia Soprano, and collapsed from a panic attack.

While in prison Blundetto formed a close friendship with Lupertazzi crime family figure Angelo Garepe. Tony and Angelo were released at around the same time as one another; along with Phil Leotardo and Feech La Manna, they were referred to as the class of 2004 by the media.

After he was released on parole, "Tony B" initially decided not to return to his previous life as a gangster and decided to go straight and become a licensed massage therapist. While he tried to get this off the ground, he worked as a delivery man for a dry cleaning business. Things seemed to be going well for him — he re-connected with his sons and was seeing a woman who had written to him in prison. However, Blundetto gradually became more and more frustrated with how long it was taking to get his business off the ground and by his financial shortcomings, particularly in contrast to Tony S's wealth and success. Finally, he sabotaged his efforts to run a legitimate massage parlor by losing his temper and assaulting his boss at the dry cleaner's, who would have been his partner in the venture.

Yearning for the recognition (and quick infusion of income) he felt entitled to after serving long years in prison for the family, Blundetto joined Little Carmine's side in his turf war with Johnny Sack — without the permission of Tony Soprano. He was initially contracted by Angelo Garepe to kill Leotardo crew associate Joe Peeps in retaliation for Peeps killing an old female friend of Little Carmine's (Lorraine Calluzzo). Blundetto tracked Peeps while he was out on his collections and killed him while he was sat in his car. A woman was in the car with Peeps, who Blundetto killed as well. The car then rolled over onto his foot, and he limped away. Tony Soprano realized his cousin's involvement when he spotted the limp. However, when Johnny Sack confronted Soprano with his certainty that Blundetto had been the killer and expressed a strong desire to exact vengeance for the unsanctioned hit, Soprano covered for Blundetto and did his best to convince Johnny that his cousin had nothing to do with Peeps' death. He did this because of the guilt he felt and his desire to make amends for what he saw as letting his cousin down years earlier. Tony's guilt over the night of the hijacking also led him to place Blundetto in charge of the crime family's Bloomfield Avenue casino under Carlo Gervasi soon after his return, which was a big operation for Blundetto. This angered Christopher Moltisanti, who felt that the job should have gone to him instead and who still held a grudge against Blundetto for tormenting him as a child. Blundetto also returned to his Uncle Pat's farm with his cousins Tony and Moltisanti to help them move some bodies soon after this. Moltisanti and Blundetto actually seemed to bond during the trip in Soprano's absence and it seemed as though Christopher was ready to forgive Blundetto for bullying him. Everything changed when Soprano arrived at the farm, however, and the relationship between the three reverted to something similar to what it had been when they were children. At dinner, Blundetto began making fun of Moltisanti's unwillingness to drink. Christopher, a recovering alcoholic, was not amused, especially when Soprano started making jokes at his expense as well.

Phil Leotardo and his brother Billy killed Angelo to avenge Joey, driving Blundetto into a rage. He tracked down the Leotardo brothers and shot at both of them, killing Billy. Blundetto's out-of-control behavior sparked the fire of Johnny Sack's crew and threats of revenge; in particular Phil Leotardo demanded a bloody and extremely painful vengeance for what had happened to his brother.

Initially unwilling to hand Blundetto over for 'justice' at the hands of Phil and Johnny Sack (and still affected by his own guilt), Tony Soprano eventually capitulated to pressure both inside and outside his crew to give up Blundetto, as well as the strong possibility of Phil carrying out a revenge attack on Tony's nephew Christopher. To appease relations with Johnny and to give his cousin a quick death, Soprano killed Blundetto personally with a shotgun blast to the head, having traced his cousin to an old family home where he was hiding out. He later dispatched Christopher to conceal the body.

When Tony Soprano was shot and fell into a coma the following season, his dreams included an encounter with Blundetto. In the dream, his cousin is stuck as a doorman in what may be purgatory, urging Tony to let go of his life as a mobster and spend the rest of eternity with his dead loved ones. Specifically, Tony arrives outside a house where a fancy dinner party is being held. He wants to go in and is invited inside by Blundetto, but is told that he will have to leave his briefcase outside. Tony is reluctant to let go of the briefcase, since he says his "whole life is in there." The implication is that he is on the verge of crossing over into the afterlife and must leave the briefcase, symbolizing his mortal life, behind. The presence of Blundetto, a man he murdered, and his dead mother adds further credence to this idea. Tony was torn and confused, but he had heard a little girl's voice (his daughter Meadow was calling out to him). With that, he held on to the briefcase and avoided going into the house. He awoke from his coma moments later. It should be mentioned that the episode ("Mayham") that includes this coma does not cite actor Steve Buscemi as Tony Blundetto, but as "Man".

Tendencies
It is hinted at throughout the show that Tony Blundetto is not the man that his cousin believes him to be. Uncle Junior does not care much for him, warning Tony Soprano that Tony B. is a "weird fuck". Even in his deep dream during "The Test Dream", onlookers warn Soprano that he should have pre-emptively murdered his cousin and his subconscious chides him that he knew there was something not right about him.

Sure enough, Tony B. proves to be a real sociopath quite quickly. He is a compulsive gambler almost immediately after being released from prison. Also, he has an uncontrollable temper. Out of frustration he viciously beats Sun Kim, his Korean boss of the laundry, for simply not helping him build the massage parlor. Tony B. also throws the entire series into chaos by setting off a chain-of-events that would eventually lead to a mob war when he shoots Billy Leotardo to death out of revenge for Angelo Garepe. Finally, he even hints to Christopher Moltisanti that he had murdered several people who had bullied him in his childhood.

Tony Soprano's guilt forces him to look past all this, as well as ignore the fact that Tony B. disobeyed his orders repeatedly from the outset of his return from prison. Besides his faith in Christopher Moltisanti, the defence of Tony B. is a glaring mistake in Soprano's criminal career and it can be argued that it inadvertently causes the shootings of Bobby Bacala and Silvio Dante.

External link

 * HBO Profile: Tony Blundetto