Furio Giunta¶
At a glance¶
- Played by
- Federico Castelluccio
- From
- Naples — recruited by Tony in S2
- Position
- Soldier / enforcer
- Fate
- Returns to Italy, S4; never seen again
The show's most romantic figure, and the one who leaves rather than do the thing everyone else would have done.
The import¶
Tony meets Furio in "Commendatori" (S2E17) on a trip to Naples and brings him back — a genuine Neapolitan, which carries enormous prestige with the Jersey crew, who are three generations removed from Italy and deeply insecure about it.
Furio is quiet, polite, immaculately dressed, and extremely frightening. He does the collection work that requires actual menace. The crew treat him with a slightly comic reverence — he is, to them, the authentic article, a walking correction to their own diluted version of themselves.
The show gets a lot of quiet comedy out of the gap between how the crew see him and how he sees them.
Carmela¶
Furio drives Carmela places. He notices her. He asks about her garden. He is gentle with her in a way she has not experienced in twenty years of marriage, and both of them understand precisely what is happening long before either acknowledges it.
Nothing happens. They don't touch. The most that occurs is a dance at a party and a long look, and the closest thing to a declaration is her arriving at his house with a plant.
Which is worse than an affair, because it can't be resolved, apologized for, or ended.
Why he leaves¶
Furio is close — genuinely, actively close — to killing Tony. He stands behind him at a helicopter pad and looks at his back and does not do it.
Then he goes back to Italy without telling anyone, and Carmela finds out he's gone from a phone call.
The reason matters. Furio leaves because he understands the mathematics: if he acts, Carmela's children lose their father, and she will eventually hate him for it. Going home is the only outcome that doesn't destroy her. It's the single most selfless act any male character performs in six seasons.
Carmela's grief afterward is the engine of everything in season four's second half. When she throws his name at Tony in "Whitecaps" — I almost had an affair, with Furio — it detonates the marriage, and the show has already established there was never an affair to have.
Federico Castelluccio¶
An accomplished painter as well as an actor, born in Naples and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. His work has been exhibited, and he is known in the art world for identifying a lost Baroque painting.
Furio is never mentioned again after season four, which is unusual for this show and, given how the departure is written, correct.