The only problem was, you would be getting in bed with criminals and their criminal activities. Rough justice from an otherwise non-criminal person is one thing, but rough justice from career criminals who expect you to return the favor in some criminal way is another.
Someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day.
Ya know, I think the funeral director Bonasera made a big mistake by being afraid of doing business with the Godfather. I bet he could have made inconvenient bodies disappear for the godfather and turn a nice buck too.
This scene came up for discussion because freepers above were defending the TV series' inclusion of Italian-American characters who were morally upright. The role of Dr. Melfi challenged Lorraine Bracco (who had been offered the role of Carmela, but asked to play Melfi instead), demanding that she depict a therapist who must walk a fine line between helping a man of potential who had been corrupted by his criminal parents, and the objectively evil acts in which he engaged.
Her decision to avoid telling Tony about the rape, even when he confronted her and asked what was bothering her, was a sharply defining episode. Bracco played it well.