The Sopranos: Richie Aprile & The JACKET

There were many great antagonists introduced in the Sopranos. Ralph Cifaretto, Phil Leotardo, Feech La Manna. All of these characters brought a wonderful tension to the show and added to the growing conflict surrounding Tony. But my favorite of these seasonal villains has to be the man with the Manson lamps himself: Richie Aprile.

Introduced in Season 2, Richie is the older brother of former acting boss Jackie Aprile Senior. He’s been away in prison for the last 10 years, but returns and reclaims his old position as Captain of the Aprile crew. He also starts up a relationship with Janice, who was his girlfriend when they were younger. He butts heads with Tony over the leadership of the family, and the conflict between the two escalates until his eventual death at the hands of Janice.

Richie is just such a fascinating character. He’s both an eastern spiritualist into Taoism and yoga, and also a cold blooded psychopath willing to kill anyone in his path. Not to mention he has incredible moxie for his size. However, of all the strange aspects of Richie, the one that people remember the most about him is his obsession with The Jacket. Oh I’m sorry, not the Jacket. I mean THE JACKET.

Richie is obsessed with a leather jacket that he took off a mobster named Rocko Dimeo. Rocko, at least according to Richie, had the toughest reputation in Essex county, and the jacket serves as a trophy for Richie after he defeated him. Richie then gives this jacket to Tony as a gift and an attempt to mend their fractured relationship.

However Tony doesn’t want the jacket, as he is increasingly distrustful of Richie. He gives the jacket to his maid’s husband, in the same way that he gives away old clothes and TV’s to charity. This is extremely insulting to Richie, and that along with other conflicts is what leads Richie to conspire with Junior to try and have Tony killed.

However the question remains, why did the jacket mean so much to Richie? Sure Tony giving away a gift is rude, but it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, especially to a mobster like Richie.

Well as we established already, the jacket was a trophy for Richie. It represented one of his greatest accomplishments, the defeat of Rocko DiMeo. He said that despite his small size, when he wore it made him look and feel like Erwin Rommel, a German general in WW2. The jacket was obviously a source of pride for Richie, and the rejection of the gift by Tony deeply hurt his feelings.

However this relationship to the jacket also represents a problem that Richie has: he’s stuck in the past. He’s focused entirely on his past accomplishments, rather than looking towards the future. Being stuck in the past is obviously a result of his time being locked away, as we see other released mobsters struggle with adapting to the new world as well.

This is symbolized in the style of the jacket as well. It’s old fashioned and dated, just like Richie, and looks a little tacky to the modern perspective. We saw the same visual metaphor of the outdated clothes when Tony Blundetto got out of prison as well.

The jacket is also not the only example we have about Richie’s obsession with the past. His fixation on Beansie is also a part of this. Beansie worked for him and his brother before he went away, and the fact that Beansie became a successful restaurant owner while he was in prison just gets under his skin. He takes Beansie’s distance from him as another insult, and reacts very violently to this perceived disrespect.

His outdated world views extended even to his family. Despite the fact that he has a great son who not only manages to be successful in international dance competitions and finds time to clean his father’s house for him, Richie prefers his dimwitted nephew Jackie Junior, all because he associates Little Ricky’s dancing with homosexuality.

This focus on the past is why he wasn’t able to get the support of the Barese crew. Despite any problems they had with him, they knew that Tony was a safer choice for the future rather than Richie.

This outdatedness is a trait that he shares with Junior, which is probably why they naturally teamed up. One of the reasons Junior couldn’t get the support to be the real boss is because he was stuck in the past and not innovating when it came to their crimes.

However the story behind the jacket might also underline another contradiction with Richie. The way Richie tells it, Rocko was a very tough guy, thus making his beating of him all the more impressive. However Junior mentions offhandedly how Rocko actually died.

Now people can develop Alsheimer’s at a younger age, however it’s a disease we typically associate with very old people. It’s possible I’m reading too much into this, but Rocko dying of Alzheimer’s might have meant he was quite a bit older when Richie beat him, making the accomplishment not nearly as impressive as he makes it out to be.

There’s even more evidence for this theory in connection to the jacket. Richie says the jacket is made of fine Corinthian leather, which is not a real thing. It’s a marketing term used by Chrystler to suggest the idea that their upholstery was exotic, when in reality it was normal domestic leather manufactured in where of course? Newark, New Jersey. Describing the jacket as Corinthian might have been a very subtle way of suggesting that Richie’s story was an exaggeration, just like the leather.

Now I’m not saying Richie isn’t tough. He’s obviously brave, not backing down from Tony even despite their size difference. But there is a disconnect between Richie’s fearlessness, and his ability to make significant accomplishments, and the Rocko DiMeo story might be an example of this.

This wouldn’t be the only example of contradiction when it comes to Richie either. In his first appearance, he tells Christopher that he is not allowed to hit his niece Adriana la Cerva until he marries her. Now obviously it’s messed up that he believes that you can ever hit your spouse, but it goes to his old fashioned world view.

However he later breaks his own rules when he strikes Janice before they are married. According to his own old school rules, that was an offense punishable by death, and thus his death at the hands of Janice after this is a just outcome.

Despite all his bullshit about easter philosophy and being a different man, he’s still the same guy he always was. Violent, arrogant, and concerned only about himself. He’s never let go of the past, which was why he was never able to adapt to the future.

But Richie is still one of the most colorful characters from the show, and it’s why he remains my personal favorite character in the series. All his wonderful contradictions and flaws make for really entertaining television, and Season 2 is my favorite season in large part because of him. Let me know your thoughts on the character in the comments, and stay tuned for more content coming soon!