Mikey Palmice

Mikey Palmice
First appearance	"46 Long" (episode 1.02)
Last appearance	"The Test Dream" (episode 5.11)
Created by	David Chase
Portrayed by	Al Sapienza
Information
Aliases	"Grab Bag" "Mikey P" "Mike"
Gender	Male
Title	Soldier, Consigliere
Family	DiMeo Crime Family, Junior Soprano's crew
Spouse(s)	JoJo Palmice (wife)
Children	Michael Palmice Jr. (son) Francis Albert Palmice (son)

Michael "Mikey Grab Bag" Palmice (pronounced Pahl-MEE-Chey), played by Al Sapienza, is a fictional character on the HBO television series The Sopranos.

Plot details

Palmice starts out as a soldier in Corrado "Junior" Soprano's crew as his driver and bodyguard. After Jackie Aprile dies, Junior becomes boss, and Palmice is promoted to consigliere.^[1] He is a very loyal, obsequious minion to Junior, and is very respectful to those whom he deems worthy. When confronted by people he dislikes or who are a threat to Junior, however, he reveals his true nature — that of a violent, depraved sociopath.

Palmice and Tony Soprano despise each other, and have been bitter rivals for years. Tony and other caporegimes such as Ray Curto and Larry Barese describe Palmice as having been "a disease" since childhood, and Tony often teases him with implicit, insulting jokes and one liners such as referring to him as having "fuck-face-itis". Palmice is one of Tony's first enemies on the show and chief rival in season 1. Palmice's wife is named JoJo and he has two sons, Michael Jr. and Francis Albert. Janice mentioned how Michael Jr. has been prescribed Ritalin. Palmice is usually seen driving Junior's black 1995 Lincoln Town Car.

When acting boss Jackie Aprile is diagnosed with cancer, Junior is quick to act to ensure that he becomes boss. Palmice accordingly plans to get rid of any opposition to Junior, including Tony Soprano and Christopher Moltisanti. He works alongside his friend, Chucky Signore, another soldier in Junior's crew. Palmice kills Brendan Filone on Junior's orders after Brendan and Christopher hijack trucks belonging to Comley Trucking, a firm supposedly under Junior's "protection",^[2] then contracts two Russians to perform a mock execution on Christopher. Christopher is enraged and wants to kill Palmice himself, but Tony warns him not to, because Palmice is a made man and Christopher is not. Tony instead beats Palmice with a staple gun, in retaliation for the hit and for Christopher's mock execution.^[3]

Junior discovers his long-time tailor's teenage grandson has killed himself by jumping off Paterson Falls bridge after he took some ecstasy sold to him by Rusty Irish, who is one of Larry Barese's top earners. He orders Palmice to have Rusty killed to prevent him from selling any more drugs to kids. Palmice and an associate respond by throwing Rusty off the same bridge the boy fell off of, which doesn't sit well with the caporegimes, especially Larry.

Subsequently, in a meeting, Larry Barese, Raymond Curto, and Jimmy Altieri complain to Tony about Junior and Palmice's behavior. After word gets out that Tony's own mother wants him dead, an associate named Donnie Paduana, organizes a hit on Tony. Tony, along with Junior's other capos, were meeting New York underboss Johnny Sack behind Junior's back at the Green Grove Retirement Community and Junior felt they were conspiring against him. After being given the task, Donnie's contract killers fail to fulfill the job, as there are too many witnesses. At a later meeting, Palmice shoots Donnie in the latter's car. Palmice then informs his wife about the plan to kill Tony, and tells her that it means much more money for them.^[4]

Junior sets the order in motion the second time around, but it doesn't work since Tony survives the assassination attempt and manages to kill one of his assailants. Tony later decides to get rid of both Chucky and Palmice in order to prevent Junior's from putting another hit on him. Tony catches Chucky off guard at the marina and executes him. Christopher and Paulie Gualtieri chase Palmice down while he is jogging, kill him, and leave his body in the forest. Initially the FBI believe that Palmice fled the jurisdiction, having been tipped off about the impending indictments.^[5]

Posthumous mentions

In the episode "From Where to Eternity", when Christopher is revived after being pronounced clinically dead from a murder attempt, he tells Paulie and Tony of a trip he made to hell, where he saw Brendan Filone and Mikey Palmice playing cards with Roman soldiers in an Irish bar and they had a message for Tony and Paulie, "Three o'clock". While not bothering Tony, this greatly upsets Paulie, who thinks Chris went to purgatory. Paulie visits a psychic who claims he can "communicate" with dead people, including Paulie's victims. Palmice is apparently one of the dead people as the psychic says that one of the spirits mentioned poison ivy and wanted to know if it still itched. This is a reference to Palmice's death scene where Paulie is infected by poison ivy while chasing Palmice through the deep woods. How the psychic knew such details is left ambiguous.

In "Whoever Did This", Tony and Christoper take Ralph Cifaretto's severed head to be buried in Palmice's hospitalized father's farm in Upstate New York.

Al Sapienza's last appearance as Mikey Palmice was in the fifth season episode "The Test Dream". Tony dreams he is riding in the backseat of his late father "Johnny Boy" Soprano's 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. Other deceased Soprano crime family members present include Big Pussy Bonpensiero, Ralph Cifaretto, Richie Aprile, and Gigi Cestone. When Tony looks at Palmice and tells him he knows he's dreaming, Palmice simply replies, "I got no opinion. One way or another."

Murders committed by Palmice

• Brendan Filone - Shot in the eye while in his bathtub on Junior's orders for hijacking trucks under his protection. (1999)
• Rusty Irish - Thrown off the Paterson Falls pedestrian bridge for selling drugs to Old Man Capri's teenage grandson, Dominic. (1999)
• Donnie Paduana - Shot on Junior's orders for making jokes about Tony's mother wanting him killed. (1999)

See also

• List of characters from The Sopranos

External links

• Mikey Palmice at the Internet Movie Database

References