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As a Wild Mass Guessing subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.


Michael did forgive Fredo, but he had to kill him anyway.
Notice how even after he gave Neri the signal, he still let him near his kids and house. If he wasn't at least a tad forgiving he'd kill Fredo as soon as their mom's service ended.
  • So in other words, it wasn't personal, it was strictly business.
  • I think it fits with his personality: Ruthless as he is, Michael is still a very devout family man who shows compassion to those who wronged him (Pentangeli being an example, letting him commit suicide and taking care of his family). And let's not forget he screamed Fredo's name when he had his stroke, implying he felt horrible about it.
  • This is pretty evident by the fact that Michael specified he didn't want anything to happen to Fredo while their mother was still living. As ruthless as Michael is, he would have never put his mother through the pain of having lost two of her sons in her lifetime. For all Fredo's faults, he was still very much loved by his family. Michael absolutely hated himself for ordering Fredo's death.

Frank Pentangeli was in jail during the events of Part I
Everyone knew him and he was trusted enough to replace Clemenza as capo after his death, but the audience never met him during the events of Part I, in which he would have played a large part as one of Clemenza's top soldiers. As a loyal member of the Corleone family until he thought Michael had turned on him he would have gladly gone to jail for a crime rather than turn on the family.

Fredo knew it was coming.
Fredo was fully aware of the fact that Michael was going to have him murdered for betraying the family; He did nothing about it because he agreed with Michael's reasons for doing so and wanted to atone for his (perceived) crimes. When his brother had little Anthony taken away mere moments before they went fishing, he knew the time had come.
  • Perhaps he even arranged the moment it would happen with Michael beforehand, to make sure that Anthony'd be out of the way before it had to be carried out.
  • His prayer on the boat becomes even more chilling with this idea in mind.

Sal Tessio was Fredo's Godfather, Genco Abbandando was Michael's godfather.
While it is made clear that Pete Clemenza was Sonny's godfather, it makes sense that Vito chose Tessio and Genco to be godfathers to Fredo and Michael respectively. Think about it - Tessio and Fredo are pretty similar. They are both the "quiet ones" of the family and they each betray Michael (albeit for business reasons rather than personal). It would make sense that Vito wanted his original best friend to stand godfather to Michael. After all, Vito was adamant that Michael attended Genco's bedside before the latter's death.

Tom knew about Kay's abortion
She was being kept under constant guard at the Tahoe compound while Michael was gone under Tom's instructions. How would she have gotten out to get to a doctor or had one come to her without Tom knowing about it? Would also add a layer to Michael's distrust of Tom at the end.

Michael isn't completely alone at the very end of The Godfather Part III.
When Michael dies in 1997, people like to go on and on about the tragedy of Michael dying alone. But if one stops to actually think about the situation, it is incredibly unlikely that Connie and Vincent would have abandoned Michael. Yes, in an environmental sense, Michael may die alone, but it strains credibility to believe that Connie was not in the vicinity at the villa somewhere.

It was Mama Corleone.
  • Carmela (Vito's wife) is actually the bad apple in the marriage: all the Corleone boys have terrible defects not present in Vito: Sonny's violence, Fredo's vices and Michael's cold heart. Since all this didn't come from Vito, then it had to be from their mother's side who doesn't appear that much to be noticed as an actual evil person. In a way, she might be The Man Behind the Man since in the part II flashbacks she's the one who introduced her husband to the first of his "friends" asking favors.
    • Of course, the other way to look at it is that Vito has all the virtues of his sons, combined: Sonny's violence, Fredo's warmth, Michael's calculation.
    • In the beginning of Godfather II, Connie brings a man to the party for the First Communion of Michael's son. When she asked her mother, Carmela, to help her skip over everyone else to see Michael, she tells Connie to visit her children first before waiting in line to see Michael like everyone else. The way she said it, is the same way Sonny would have said it, if he was alive.

Sal Tessio is related to Vern Tessio
After Sal's attempted betrayal of Michael to Don Barzini, his relatives moved to Oregon in fear of reprisal.

Fredo killed the assassins at Lake Tahoe
The fact the bodies were found right outside of Fredo's residence with his wife loudly alerting the guards about the bodies, and that he was involved with sneaking the men in on order of Johnny Ola, it's likely that they ran to Fredo after failing to kill Michael to try hide and then Fredo out of panic killed them both.
  • Seeing as how Fredo clumsily drops his handgun when his father is shot in Part I (and collapses pathetically crying), it seems unlikely that he'd muster the courage and cold-bloodedness to murder multiple professional assassins a few years later. Fredo couldn't even belt his mama!

Vito had a sneaking suspicion that Luca would be killed, but didn't care.
Luca Brasi doesn't seem like the first person you'd think to send on a sensitive undercover mission. He seems much more like a "blunt instrument", so to speak, not to mention that his loyalty to Vito is well known, making his supposed interest in defecting very likely to be questioned. Luca is the only person Vito ever shows any discomfort meeting with, to the point he asks if it's really necessary to talk with him during the wedding. Vito would've been aware of the baby incident, which to a family man like him, would be totally unforgivable. Therefore, he figured sending Luca to Sollozzo was a win/win—if he manages to infiltrate the Tattaglia Family, fine. But if he's killed, then it's a convenient way to get rid of him.

Kay did actually have a miscarriage.
The shock of the assassination attempt did actually make Kay miscarry. She made up that she had an abortion on the spot when it became clear Michael wouldn't let her leave. She knew that claiming that would be one of the only things he would never forgive her for, to the point he'd throw her out.
There's a whole scene about how she's being monitored so closely she can't even go out to shop, so short of throwing herself down a flight of stairs, it's unclear how she could've obtained an abortion.

Vito’s quarantine at Ellis Island was for his wellbeing.
Upon arrival at Ellis Island, Vito is diagnosed with smallpox after a doctor’s examination and put into quarantine for three months. But considering how contagious smallpox was, and the blasé way the doctor diagnoses Vito, it’s very clear that the doctor is lying. So why did the doctor lie? It’s simple; they were seeking to give Vito a temporary home. Vito after all was an unaccompanied minor who didn’t speak English. Had they released him that same day, he probably would not have survived the streets of New York for very long. So he was put into quarantine so he had a safe place to stay while they figured out what to do with him. Whether it be to find a family who will take him, or teach him English, or properly prepare him for the world.

Connie knows Michael ordered Fredo's death.
Her romantic choices aside, Connie isn't an idiot. If her nephew Anthony could figure it out, a woman who grew up in the most powerful Mafia family in the country could easily put the pieces together. The clues were there: she was the one who told Fredo that Anthony couldn't go fishing with him because Michael suddenly decided his son had to go with him, leaving her brother in the boat with Al Neri, Michael's personal executioner. Connie's statement about Fredo's "tragic death by drowning" is not only her going along with the official party line, but her way of reconciling the ugly truth that Michael murdered their sibling. Connie swore that she would stand by Michael as the Godfather and head of the family, and that obviously included supporting the most difficult and controversial decisions, even ones she personally wouldn't agree with. As she was the one who begged Michael to spare their brother, this most ruthless action would be the hardest for her to go along with, so Connie likely doesn't really fully acknowledge it, on the surface level. But she knows it was done and had to be done, for the good of the family.


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