[governsleastgovernsbest]

Did others find the incident of violence when the guys were sitting around at the construction site to be far-fetched? Guys are just hanging out, engaging in good-natured ribbing, and suddenly over a joke no worse than any of the others were making, one guy comes close to beating another guy to death, and the other guys basically just laugh it off.

I thought it was a stretch done for plot purposes of scaring Finn.

[justshutupandtakeit]

There had already been an incident at that spot earlier where someone got the hell beat out of him. A Union guy not on the take I think.

I think it was intended to remind us of how close to the surface psychotic behavior is with these guys. Remember Goodfellas and the killings for no reason or the shooting of the guy who plays Christopher by Pesci. and recall Paulie's sudden shooting of the waiter who had gone into a seizure or his attacking the Russian guy who is still unaccounted for after he and Chris lost him in the Pine Barrens.

As for as Finn goes the beating was also written in so as to give him a reason to fear his discovery about Vito. After watching another mobster get the crap kicked out of him for nothing he understood how dangerous his knowledge was. After all he is a pampered character never around such behavior.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

engaging in good-natured ribbing, and suddenly over a joke no worse than any of the others were making,

Specifically it was a joke about homsexual activity...in the presence of Vito...which was intended to give us some insight into Vito's motivation later in the episode.