Tag: ma_head_003_joe_

It’s one of the longest-running “conspiracies” around a game storyline that I’ve ever witnessed.

Fifteen years on from Mafia II, you will still see comments, blog posts, and videos about how Joe Barbaro is alive.

Joe is the secondary protagonist of Mafia II, best friend to player character Vito Scalleta. Despite only officially appearing in one game, Joe has been hovering on the outskirts of the entire series.

He, alongside Vito, conclude the original Mafia’s story by completing an assassination on Tommy Angelo, with Joe firing the gun that kills Tommy. And in Mafia III, Joe is supposedly chauffeur to Leo Galante, a high-ranking member of the Commission and character in Mafia II.

Supposedly.

Because I believe Joe Barbaro to be dead. First, some context.

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In very, very broad strokes and major spoilers ahead;

• The final third of Mafia II is about Vito and Joe going into the drug business with their friend Henry Tomasino.
• They buy drugs from the Chinese Triads, but later Henry is killed by them for being an FBI informant.
• Vito and Joe raid the Triad base of operations and kill their men and gang leader.
• This kicks off a war between the two Italian families, the Vincis, (of which Leo Galante is a part of), the Falcones (which Vito and Joe are part of) and the Triads.
• To calm tensions in the city, Leo instructs Vito to kill his boss, Carlo Falcone. Falcone tries pitting Joe against Vito, but the two friends take down Carlo together.
• After Joe and Vito kill Carlo, they are whisked away by Leo in two separate cars.
• When Joe’s car makes a sharp turn, Vito asks, “Where are they taking Joe?”
• Leo replies with the now iconic line; “Sorry kid, Joe wasn’t part of our deal.”

Okay, now with context out of the way, let’s get onto why Joe Barbaro has to die.

Dead Man Walking – Why is Joe Barbaro dead?

Okay, let’s dig in a little deeper on the context that I laid out.

In Chapter 15, Vito looks over the destruction that he and Joe caused, them lying to their boss Carlo Falcone and his deputy Eddie Scarpa about their involvement, and Henry being revealed as a rat. Vito says;

“The truth was going to come out sooner or later, and then we were going to have Falcone after us along with the Chinese and Vinci…I ducked it for as long as I could, but it was finally catching up with me. It was all just a matter of time…”

And when Leo picks Vito up the next day and instructs him to kill Carlo, he says;

“Frank and the rest of the Commission want you dead. So does Mr. Chu. And to top it all off, you vouched for a rat. You think Carlo’s gonna let that slide? You’re a dead man walking.”

There needs to be repercussions for Vito and Joe’s actions. Mr. Chu of the Chinese wants revenge, and getting the man who killed their leader Mr. Wong would suit him fine. Frank and the Commission see Vito and Joe too deadly and destructive to keep alive. And Vito vouched for a rat, a death sentence within the real-life Cosa Nostra.

But Vito has Leo, his golden ticket to safety. Leo literally says, “…if it wasn’t for me, you would’ve already been taken care of.” Joe doesn’t have that same privilege. So Joe has to die on a weighted, transactional reading of the story.

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Now to look at it thematically. When looking at its story structure, Mafia II is a tragedy. In basic terms, its about a young man trying to find a better life for himself and only when he has reached his peak, then realises he’s lost everything.

As Vito says when looking over his family album in Chapter 15;

“This wasn’t how I imagined it when we were startin’ out. I dreamed o’ money, cars, women respect, freedom…

“I guess I ended up gettin’ all of that more or less, but along with it came prison, living in constant fear, and the blood of my friends.”

Vito loses his house and possessions, loses his mother and sister, and by Mafia III he is old, grey, and seemingly tired of life, fuelled only by the last dying embers of his original dream of being a big shot.

The nature of narrative is to continue that thread. There is no redemption for Vito and so the story on a basic thematic level has to follow the thread of loss…which leads to Joe, the last piece of Vito’s life in the mafia that hasn’t already been taken away from him.

And when Joe’s car makes that turn, where does he turn to? The exact overlook that Vito, Joe, and Eddie dispose of Frankie Potts, another traitor in the Empire Bay mafia (seen in Chapter 7). It’s a symbol, this location means death.

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Finally, let’s look at the logical and logistical aspect of Joe being alive. Joe is wanted by not just the Commission and the Vincis, but also the remnants of the Falcone family (mainly Eddie Scarpa), the Chinese Triads. No city is going to be safe for him.

When finishing Vito’s “I Need a Favour” mission in Mafia III, Vito details how what he knows about the aftermath of Carlo’s death. Joe escaped his final car ride in Empire Bay and fled to Chicago, but the family granting him sanctuary turned on him. And while Joe might have got lucky during the course of Mafia II, there will come a point where that luck will run out.

The Mafia has a long memory. Tommy Angelo turned on his family and they hunted him down over thirteen years later. Joe caused untold damage to both the Commission and the Triads, there is no way they are letting him go…or letting him back into the fold.

Because that is the prevailing theory. At the end of Mafia III, Leo Galante comes to visit Lincoln Clay after the death of Sal Marcano. When Leo leaves, the camera lingers on his driver. The frame, the baker-boy hat, the knowing stare straight into the camera, it gives the impression of Joe.

Delving into the game files, the model off Leo’s driver is named “ma_head_003_joe_”. And shortly after the release of Mafia III, the Mafia X (formerly Twitter) account responded to a fan asking “why did you kill Joe Barbaro?” with “Did you finish the game?”, hinting that the man at the end is Joe.

But WHY? Why would Leo risk the wrath of the Commission, the Triads, and Vito and Joe (who are both well known for going on rampages for revenge) just to have a chauffeur who is good in a fight? Would Joe, after fleeing destruction, come back and be fine relegated to a driving job, when we see throughout Mafia II he’s continually setting up new scores?

Vito says in his conversation with Lincoln that, “…if Joe was alive – he would have found me by now.” Joe would know, since Vito was sent down to New Bordeaux by the Commission, and as seen by his actions in Mafia II, he totally would contact Vito. Even if he was forbidden by Leo under pain of death, Joe would take that gamble.

I think the face and the tweet are just nods to fans, nothing concrete. Just a dedicated game artist and social media manager hyping up a game and story that most Mafia fans didn’t enjoy.

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So there, those are my thoughts on the Joe Barbaro conspiracy. Narratively, thematically, logically, and logistically, Joe Barbaro has to die and to deny that wrecks both his story and Vito’s arc throughout the Mafia series.

But if you are interested in Vito’s arc, then have a read of my character analysis right here!

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