Gloria Trillo (portrayed by actress Annabella Sciorra) was Tony Soprano's girlfriend in Season 3 of The Sopranos. Despite being with Tony for much less time than Irina Peltsin or Valentina La Paz, she was arguably the most influential of Tony's mistresses; appearing to him in dreams even many years after her death. Gloria, a successful, independent Italian-American woman, appeared to be "too good to be true" for Tony, and this proved to be the case as her severe emotional issues destroyed their relationship.
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Biography[]
Tony first met Gloria at Dr. Jennifer Melfi's office, as Gloria was another patient of Dr. Melfi's. Dr. Melfi may have accidentally scheduled them for the same time period, and Tony gave Gloria his time slot, which impressed Gloria.
Having overheard where she worked from a business call she was on when he first saw her, Tony later went to Globe Motors, a Mercedes dealership where she was a sales representative, on the pretext of being interested in one of the vehicles on the lot. He went there to follow up on signals Gloria seemed to be sending back in Melfi's waiting room.
They went out for a test-drive in one of the cars and, having determined that her interest was not mere flirting, he ended up taking her to his boat where they began their relationship.
In the beginning, things were going well between Tony and Gloria. Tony saw Gloria as an exotic breath of fresh air and was excited to have her in his life. Tony was also impressed with his view of Gloria as a liberated woman unlike most other cumare who were dependent on a "sugar daddy" relationship; an example being Gloria taking a vacation to Morocco paid entirely from her own funds.
However, after Christmas when Gloria returned from Morocco, Tony started to see the dark side of the beautiful Gloria Trillo. She became angry with Tony when Tony's ex-girlfriend Irina called and stormed off of Tony's boat. Soon after, Gloria apologized to Tony and their relationship resumed. Not long after, Gloria again became angry with Tony and exhibits toxic behavior.
During the course of all this, we see Gloria meeting with Dr. Melfi and it is shown that Gloria has been in quite a few relationships, all of them ending with her boyfriend leaving her after seeing the bitter, angry side of Gloria take over the relationship. Tony comes to see this when Gloria throws a London broil steak at his head out of rage for leaving her house early from a dinner date. On a subsequent night she "ran into" Tony in a parking garage and convinced him to give her another chance.
As Tony and Gloria's relationship begins to diffuse, Gloria sees Carmela Soprano at the Mercedes dealership one day, and offers to give her a ride home after overhearing the service manager refer to Carmela as "Mrs. Soprano", Tony's wife. This could be seen as a way for her to learn more about Tony's home life. After Tony discovers this, he angrily proceeds to the dealership to confront Gloria and decides to break the relationship there. This deeply hurts Gloria and she begs Tony to take her back by calling him to her house. Reluctantly, Tony shows up at her apartment, informs her their relationship was wonderful, but "It's time to put it to bed." Irrevocably done, in other words. Once again her angry, violent, relationship-killing side flares up and she not only threatens to "Call your wife!", she also threatens to go to Columbia and tell his daughter all about their affair if he insists on ending the relationship. Tony becomes enraged by the possibility of her going near his family and promises to kill her if she goes anywhere near his family, while strangling her. He lets up when he realizes that she wants him to kill her. As he leaves, Tony realizes Gloria reminds him of a woman he knows all too well: his mother. "I didn't just meet you," he says as he leaves, "I've known you all my life..."
Tony, pretty sure this woman is dangerous enough to follow through on her threats to expose their fling to his family, decides to send her a final warning. He sends his soldier and accountant Patsy Parisi to the Mercedes dealership to pose as a customer looking to buy a Mercedes. Gloria and Patsy drive out to a secluded location, and once there, Patsy pulls a gun on Gloria. At first, Gloria keeps her cool, figuring Patsy is trying to steal the car, and says Mercedes-Benz has procedures to thwart this. However, when Patsy reveals himself as an underling of Tony's, she pays attention. He warns Gloria to keep away from Tony, and that if she continues to harass him or blackmail him by telling Carmela, the last man she will ever lay eyes on will be Patsy, who warns her that "they'll be scraping your nipples off these fine leather seats". He assures her that her death “won’t be cinematic.” Patsy then departs the Mercedes and walks off, and Gloria is visibly shaken. The message is received as Gloria leaves Tony alone after that.
In Season 4, Tony discovers that Gloria committed suicide by hanging herself two months prior. She did not leave a suicide note but left a note on her office desk that was collected by the police. Ironically, Carmela is the one who delivers the news after hearing about it at the Mercedes dealership. Carmela never realized that Tony had an affair with Gloria, believing that Gloria was just a friendly sales-woman who had given her a ride home.
Soon after this, Tony goes to the Mercedes dealership. One of Gloria's co-workers confirms the tragic news. When Tony goes to see Dr. Melfi, he becomes very angry with her about Gloria's suicide and demands to know why she didn't help Gloria more. Dr. Melfi states that every patient's welfare is of great importance to her and that when she learned of Gloria's suicide, she was devastated at the news. Tony then chalks it up to saying Gloria was beyond salvation.
There are a couple of dream sequences where Tony dreams of Gloria, one being of an attentive, caring woman who serves Tony a beautiful meal, the polar opposite of the London broil debacle. Despite his mental attempts to brush the extramarital relationship away, it was apparent that the memory of her will always haunt Tony.
Appearances[]
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
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| Season 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||||||||||
| Season 4 | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Season 5 | ✔ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 6 |
Behind the Scenes[]
- Gloria is one of Annabella Sciorra's middle names.
- Gloria Trillo appears to have Borderline Personality Disorder, which is a serious Cluster B mental illness that causes unstable moods, behavior, self-image and relationships. At one point or another Gloria displayed all 9 diagnostic criteria for the disorder; including: A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation, identity disturbance, impulsive behaviors, frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, emotional instability due to significant reactivity of mood, chronic feelings of emptiness, inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger, and stress-related paranoid thoughts.
- The scene in which Gloria first meets Tony, when watched again after Gloria's true nature is exposed to the viewer, could lead to speculation about whether she was manipulating the situation all along, as Dr. Melfi seemed surprised, and Tony's sessions were on a regular schedule, making such a clash in scheduling unlikely.