One of the many seasons-long relationships explored by The Sopranos, Bobby Bacala is first introduced as a meek whipping boy who Tony gives the emasculating task of caring for his Uncle Junior, whose been confined to house arrest while awaiting trial. Tony’s animosity eventually lessens as Bobby becomes an integral part of his two families, while never quite seeming as though he is someone he completely respects.
Here’s a look at how their relationship evolved through a series of Tony’s most critical insults to Bobby on The Sopranos (available to stream on HBO Now).
“You tell that fat f*ck Bacala to come out from his mouse hole. I want to see him tomorrow.”
While visiting his Uncle Junior in prison, Tony, now the unquestioned head of the family, tells him he wants to meet with Bobby. When Junior asks him why, Tony simply hangs up the phone and leaves, again flaunting his victory against him.
“Why don’t you get the hell out of here before I shove your quotation book up your fat f*ckin’ ass!”
For Bobby’s formal introduction, Tony and Silvio meet with him in the back of Satriale’s Pork Store, as Tony explains his new role as caretaker for Junior. While informing him that Junior gets to “keep his stripes,” Tony now owns everything that was previously his. As Bobby starts to leave, he offers a bit of philosophical insight, saying “to the victor, go the spoils,” which Tony clearly doesn’t appreciate.
“I think it’s time for you to seriously start considering salads.”
With protests from a union holding up work on a Masserone Construction site, Bobby meets with Tony to discuss their rather extreme solution. While Bobby casually leans on Tony’s car, Tony offers him some dietary advice.
“F*ck you, Santa!”
It’s not Tony delivering this insult, that honor goes to the kid accused of trying to score an extra toy from the Christmas party. He was the one pushing Bobby into the Santa suit. While Bobby repeatedly pleads for a way out of it, citing his shyness, Paulie informs him that “the boss of the family says you’re Santa Claus. You’re Santa Claus.” While a great bit of comic relief, it’s an intentional reminder of Bobby’s lowly place within the family at this point.
Tony laughs at Bobby’s hunting outfit.
With Paulie and Christopher out lost in the woods of the Pine Barrens, Tony, fresh from a fight with Gloria Trillo, meets Bobby at Junior’s house. As Bobby shows up wearing a conventional hunter’s outfit, Tony can’t help but break down laughing. Bobby attempts to leave, declaring he also “has his limits,” before Tony semi-apologizes. Later, they have their first real conversation, where Tony, feeling guilty for laughing at him, thanks Bobby for caring for his uncle, as Bobby responds back earnestly, “I wish he was my uncle sometimes.”
“You want more responsibility? Start by controlling your wife.”
After Bobby meets with Tony asking for more responsibility, Tony promises to do so, as the two are now brothers-in-law, and Tony has a deeper sense of responsibility toward him. However, Tony watches Janice calmly and politely disregard a telemarketer on the phone, and it triggers something within him, and he quickly (and easily) baits her into a rage. As he leaves their house with Janice in hysterics, he smiles and leaves Bobby with these parting words.
“I suppose you got a little choo-choo train at home. Makes you toast in the kitchen and delivers it up to your bedroom?”
While still in the hospital after being shot by Junior, Tony again doesn’t mince words with Bobby. He calls him a “good guy,” a sign of his fundamental change of opinion on him, but warns him not to “push the brother-in-law sh*t too far.” He also makes it a point to deride him for both his weight and his model train hobby.
“He should be a candidate for a brain transplant.”
As Bobby is picking up collections late at night in a bad neighborhood, he’s attacked and beaten by a group of kids. As he pleads for his life, he’s shot at, but the bullet hits the pavement, causing a chunk to jump into his eye. Tony, still resentful of Bobby after being shot by Junior, is dismissive towards the sympathy the rest of the crew shows, and his scathing remarks show it.
“No bow and arrows, now.”
A brutal fistfight between the two erupts after a game of Monopoly (the show always had a sense of realism to it), and Tony and Bobby leave the vacation house for a meeting. There, one of the two men makes a request: Make his daughter’s ex-husband go away, and a lucrative deal will be in place. Tony, knowing Bobby had never “popped his cherry in that regard,” gives him the job. It’s a malicious act on Tony’s part, a way for him to feel victorious after losing the fistfight.
“And as for your husband, Janice, Exile on Main Street!”
In the show’s penultimate episode, Janice comes to Tony imploring for help. Junior, having run out of money, is being transferred to a state-run facility. Tony, who forgave his uncle once for trying to kill him, will not do it a second time, and ultimately feels betrayed by Bobby over his sympathy for him. The tone in his voice reflect that betrayal, as behind the blistering declaration is a true sense of anguish.
