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It’s another grim day for Ray Vecchio being undercover as Armando “The Bookman” Langoustini…discipline a casino employee for being too honest, reward a Mafia soldier for being too violent, order a hit with the seeming casualness of ordering a pizza.
Armando assures Ray that he’s doing great as “The Bookman” and Ray wonders what the Fibbies would think if they knew Armando was more of a help than they had ever been in perfecting Ray’s cover. Then Armando starts up again with trying to “turn” Ray, telling him how much sweeter this life is than the life of a Chicago flatfoot, saying that Ray should legit become loyal to the Iguana Family and fuck the FBI. “No, fuck YOU, “ Ray responds like he always responds to this line from Armando. And then Pop Vecchio chimes in at this point like he always does with “Where you get off talking to the man like that? Show some respect! He’s making you the son I can finally be proud of!”
When it was just Ray Vecchio’s dead father haunting him, that was bad enough – then there was Vegas and dead Armando Langoustini. And nowadays it makes Ray wonder about the times that Fraser seemed to be carrying on just half of a conversation – if only he could talk with Benny now, about this or about anything really, but especially about this because Benny is the one guy that Ray feels like he could talk to about ANYTHING and be taken seriously. And if Fraser COULD have known about Ray’s double haunting, he might have thought about Shakespeare’s line in The Tempest: “Two of these creatures you must know and own; this thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.”