The Sopranos: Agent Harris - Friend or Foe?

this video is brought to you by mubi a curated streaming service showing incredible films from around the globe get a whole month free at mubi.com purekino throughout the sopranos the fbi is a constant enemy of the dimeo crew they bug tony's house turn his closest friends into informants and all the while pursue a lengthy investigation to take him down one of the central characters on this side of the law is agent dwight harris a member of the task force investigating the mafia harris serves as the main federale we get to know in the series though he and tony are ostensibly enemies as the series goes on and priorities change so does their relationship by the end of it it's hard to tell whose side harris is really on is he a defender of justice or a friend of the mob let's take a look and find out harris is introduced in the season 1 episode the legend of tennessee multisandy where he searches tony's house as part of a warrant he doesn't want to traumatize tony's family by kicking in a door showing a level of empathy the other agents don't have when another agent grosso breaks the bowl in the kitchen harris acts as a mediator and calms everyone down even still tony thinks this is an act and calls him a snake that one guy wasn't so bad harris trust me he was the biggest sneak out of all of them it's all part of his little act after the attempted hit on tony's life the fbi bring him in and offer him a deal this is where we are first introduced to frank kubitoso the lead agent in charge of the investigation kubitoso shows contempt for tony saying despite the fact that they are both italian they are nothing alike you and i are not kombata tony you on the one hand me and agent grosso on the other even though our ancestors all hail from the same sunny peninsula he then plays him the recorded conversation of livia manipulating junior into doing the hit in order to break tony down and get him to cooperate it should be noted that harris looks uncomfortable with doing this to tony again showing level of empathy towards him despite the continued investigation tony and harris develop a friendly relationship they shake hands and are seen chatting at the end of house arrest however at the end of season 2 harris is part of the team that arrests tony after finding the stolen airline tickets in his car they have plans to indict him with libya's testimony however her death ends these plans by the way this was going to be the original plot line to season 3 but nancy marchand's unfortunate death in real life forced them to quickly rewrite the story the airline tickets mail and wirefoot especially if the mother testifies in exchange for immunity come on whose own mother's gonna testify against him harris then leads a team to plant a bug in tony's house in the season three premiere mr rigerio's neighborhood this episode is unique as it focuses on the fbi's point of view and all the hoops they have to go through in order to get this wire it gives us an insight into how difficult their investigation really is they successfully plant the bug but meadow inadvertently removes it when she takes the lamp it's planted in back to her dorm saving tony without him even knowing it but wait a second where are you going with that lamp i'm taking it halogen nanogaming gives me a headache hey don't change the goddamn subject both of you i'm out of here be sure to call me when you need some money with the investigation going nowhere the fbi try a new strategy they send an undercover agent danielle to become friends with adriana and get information out of her they eventually discovered that she helped cover up a murder and forced her to become an informant to avoid prosecution harris is part of the team that handles her and the other rats and tony's crew so what about my allen stewart shirt from that meeting ralph sefferetto spilt my coffee and ruined it i can petty cash it resubmit okay however things change in season six in the wake of 9 11 harris is transferred from the mafia division to counter terrorism and spends some time in afghanistan agent harris where you've been about some new federalia by rearview for six months actually i've been in pakistan get the [ __ ] out seriously i was transferred to terrorism when he returns to new jersey he offers tony goodwill if he'll provide him with any information about terrorist activities tony tips them off to two arab drug dealers that he knows from the bing though how much they are actually involved with terrorism is unclear this marks a complete change in their relationship harris begins to act like an ally to tony showing concern for him when he's shot he also begins providing him with information in his conflicts with phil leotardo and the lubritazi family harris does this in part for information about terrorism but also says that he has a personal animosity against phil leotardo who tried to set up a female agent for a rape and beating in the past bill leotardo my first assignment out of the academy was in brooklyn never cared for him he tried to set up this other rookie female rape and beating tony himself also shows sympathy for harris but he learns about the parasite he picked up overseas [ __ ] him i hope that parasite eats his [ __ ] uh i kind of feel bad for the guy harris continues to hang around satrialis throughout the season christopher suggests that the reason harris keeps coming around is because he misses them and harris doesn't deny this you know what i think i think you don't come here for the sandwiches i think you come cause you miss us in the series finale harris gives tony's phil's location which she obtained from sleeping with a female agent working phil's case some fans think this might be the agent that phil intended to have raped but there's no evidence either way however what we do see is that harris has gone completely team tony in his final scene when he learns that phil was killed he shows excitement for tony's victory you're old beat family eternal got popped damn i'm going to win this thing this is actually a reference to a real life incident where agent lindley de vecchio gave information and support to his informant greg scarpa though he was investigated for corruption he was never prosecuted overall harris is an interesting character though he begins the series actively trying to bring tony down by the end of it he's one of tony's most useful allies what brought about this change and what does it say about him as a federal agent well one possible reason for this change is of course 9 11. as the u.s government is focusing all of its efforts into fighting terrorism the mafia just isn't the same priority it was at the start of the series once harris is transferred he no longer has any reason to care about tony's involvement in the mob and not only that but he's able to leverage tony's knowledge of the underworld to further his investigation of suspected terrorists however this doesn't seem to be the reason why harris goes out of his way to help tony after all even if he isn't on the mafia task force his colleagues still are they're still trying to build a case against him and it doesn't make sense for him to fraternize with their target and possibly endanger their investigation can you really not be aware we've been building a ricoh case against tony soprano for five [ __ ] years then you blow this popcorn fart furthermore tony's information about possible terrorists is suspect at best and harrah seems to be aware that tony is only providing useless information in order to get information from harris but yet despite this harris goes out of his way to get information on phil's location to tony that he knows will result in a murder which is almost certainly corruption in the eyes of the bureau of course there is the personal animosity he deals towards phil for setting up a female agent to be raped and beat but in his final scene he doesn't cheer the fact that phil is dead he cheers that tony is going to win this seems to suggest that his feelings for tony are what's motivating him not his feelings for phil now don't get excited i'm not claiming harris is in love with tony or anything though i'm sure i could make a great click bait out of that title no what i think is he's become attached to tony in a way that's unhealthy for a law enforcement officer from his first scenes with tony we see him sympathize with him in a way the other agents don't and as the series goes on this friendly attitude develops into full-blown culpability this is something we're warned early on could happen these things can work two-way skin you can find yourself getting too close the irony of harris's character is that he is the snake tony said he was only it's the fbi that he's duplicitous with in the end even tony's enemy is sucked into his charisma just like we the audience are that or he's secretly in love with him the lovely agent harris and i have had this conversation [Music] special thank you the 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Channel: Pure Kino

Views: 187,025

Keywords: kino, pure kino, sopranos, sopranos harris, sopranos agent harris, sopranos tony harris, tony agent harris, tony soprano, sopranos fbi, sopranos ending, sopranos character, sopranos analysis, dwight harris

Id: BDIjCge3H0s

Length: 12min 13sec (733 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 27 2021