Characters / The Sopranos: Christopher Moltisanti

The Sopranos Main Character Index
The Soprano Family (Tony Soprano, Christopher Moltisanti) | DiMeo Crime Family (Capos | Soldiers | Associates) | The Lupertazzis and Other Criminals | Mob Wives, Sweethearts and Goomahs | Law Enforcement and Civilians

Christopher Moltisanti

"That's the guy... My uncle Tony. The guy I'm going to hell for."

Played by: Michael Imperioli

"Like everybody starts out somewheres. and they do something, something gets done to them and it changes their life. That's called an arc. Where's my arc?"

Tony's nephew/cousin and protege.

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A-K

• Accidental Murder: Once when high on heroin, Christopher slumps back on the sofa and dozes off to sleep... unaware that Adriana's dog, Cosette, is already on the couch, leading Christopher to unknowingly sit on her and breaks her neck. Even if the entire incident was an accident, Tony was absolutely livid at Christopher for allowing his recklessness to kill someone else's pet.
• Addiction Displacement: After he emerged from the rehab program, he seemed to develop an addiction to soda pop as a substitute, particularly Coca-Cola; it was made evident throughout the series although never addressed verbally.
• Addled Addict: He pretty much is unable to function properly when he's not clean from any drug, and when he is, it doesn't last long.
• Aesop Amnesia: No matter how many times Tony or any of the other senior mobsters tell Christopher he needs to be more responsible and can't keep goofing around when he should be earning it never sticks.
• Affably Evil: Despite his volatility and immaturity, Chris is usually an easy going guy if you're not pissing him off.
• The Alcoholic: He has a clear taste for alcohol.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When he's set up for a mock execution back in Season 1, courtesy of Junior, Christopher begs for his life. This only happens once in the entire series; Christopher later on is shown to be quite defiant or well-kept and reserved in desperate situations.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite all the horrible things Christopher does over the course of the series, his spurs into self-destruction and abuse brought about by his insecurities and the lack of genuine respect from Tony and other mobsters is hard to watch. And his pathetic fate, for which Tony feels no remorse, is particularly pitiful.
• All for Nothing: Christopher's biggest goal in the series is to become an adequate and respectable mob boss in the future and also win the approval of his uncle, Tony, whom he sees as a father figure. In the end, his own recklessness leads to his death around the age of 31. Not only does his mentor Tony end up being the one to kill him, but he feels no remorse, meaning that Christopher had failed horribly in his aims.
• Ambiguously Related: Tony frequently says that Christopher is not only his nephew but his blood, which is inaccurate. Dickie Moltisanti, Christopher's father, is the first cousin of Carmela Soprano (née DeAngelis). So Christopher is Carmela's first cousin once removed. Chris' mother Jeanette (née Blundetto) is the sister of Al Blundetto, so Chris and Tony S. are cousins with Tony B. but not with each other. It's all addressed in Season 5.
  Adriana: It's an Italian thing.
• Apologizes a Lot: His catchphrase on the show was, "I'm sorry, T!" ("T" being shorthand for Tony.) He was notorious for frequently being late to meetings, irresponsible in his business dealings, and generally less "together" in his affairs than the rest of Tony's crew, due to his chronic drug and alcohol abuse, and so was constantly in the position of having to apologize to his uncle and boss for his shortcomings.
• The Apprentice: In Season 1 and 2. He's this for Tony and Paulie.
• Asshole Victim: By his final appearance in the show, he's this in Tony's perspective. After seeing just how much of a threat Christopher was to his own family, most of all his daughter Caitlin, Tony decides that he's no longer worth mentoring and kills him. While everyone else mourns for Christopher's sudden loss, and while Tony tries to showcase that he's hurt by his loss, internally he feels that Christopher's death was good riddance and he even celebrates the occasion away from his family.
• Avenging the Villain: When his best friend and partner-in-crime Brendan Filone is whacked by Junior's second, Mikey Palmice, Christopher goes on the warpath. When he finally does have Mikey cornered, he invokes And This Is for... before executing him.
• Ax-Crazy: He has his moments. His mental disorders aside, he's the living embodiment of this trope when he kills his friend JT Dolan.
• Babies Make Everything Better: Deadly deconstructed. Chris, after having a child with his wife, gets into a horrible car accident in which the baby seat he had in his car is completely destroyed. Had his daughter been in that seat, she would have surely been killed; this leads Tony to suffocating Chris before calling an ambulance.
• Bad Liar: In contrast to his uncle's easy lies, Christopher has a harder time weaving a convincing deception. Especially when put on the spot.
  Adriana: You were saying [Danielle] had a nice ass!
  Christopher: I was trying to say something positive 'cause she's your friend!
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He hungers for the notoriety his older and wiser peers resent and is ecstatic when his name is printed in connection with organised crime. His rising star gets him fingered as a potential asset to facilitate Tony's downfall, and it's the beginning of the end for Christopher when the feds turn his girlfriend into The Mole.
• Being Evil Sucks: When he isn't on the other side of this trope, it's been shown that Chris knows full well how empty the mafia life really is and is frightened at the prospect of never evolving or growing beyond it, best expressed when he asks Paulie "where's my arc?". This only becomes more pronounced after he becomes a made man, being regularly reminded of how bad the life is and how little respect he's been given but feeling unable to leave, and is forced to eventually choose Tony over Adriana, condemning her to death.
• Berserk Button: While he can get angry over just about anything, Chris particularly loses it when he feels he's being disrespected or not given sufficient deference, shooting a baker in the foot just for making him wait.
• Book Dumb: Initially Dumb Muscle, he gradually matures but still (among other things) believed the Cuban Missile Crisis was just a made-up Hollywood movie.^note He might be referring to Thirteen Days, a movie about the crisis starring Kevin Costner released around the time The Sopranos was airing.
• Book Ends: When he's first introduced, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony to New York City. In his final scene, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony back from New York City.
• Bring Me My Brown Pants: Christopher "does a number two in his pants" as girlfriend Adriana puts it, when he is mock executed by a pair of Russian gangsters.
• Broken Pedestal: Idolizes Tony, but their relationship is full of ups and downs. In the very end, it's irreparably broken and Tony at that point couldn't give a shit about Christopher, even enjoying himself over the fact that he's dead.
• Bros Before Hoes: Despite his genuine affection towards Adriana, Christopher prioritized his loyalty to the mob and his apprenticeship under Tony above his romantic relationship and, albeit very hesitantly, decided to let Adriana be killed off by Silvio and have her death covered as her having abandoned Christopher and moved out to someplace.
• Butt-Monkey: The poor guy gets put through all kinds of shit.
• Came Back Wrong: Was traumatized by his visions of Hell/Purgatory after being shot and was terrified of going back there. It didn't stick though.
• Character Catchphrase: "I'm sorry T." Due to his habitual fuck ups. It's even the first words he speaks when he awakens from a coma!
• Character Development: From ignorant and eager novice to family man, but with important detours. As an aspiring writer, he actually discusses the concept of a character arc and worries that he doesn't believe himself to have had one in life; he is arguably the Sopranos character with the most significant arc.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • One of his main quirks. To boot, this is what comes into his mind when the topic of Jonny Sack's daughter's name is bought up...
    Christopher: "Allegra"? Ain't that a cold medicine?
    Paulie: It means "happiness" in Italian.
    Christopher: ...What the fuck's that got to do with cold medicine?
  • At one point, this is subverted by him by a discussion regarding a Young Earth Creationist Theory.
    Christopher: What's he saying? There were Dinosaurs back with Adam and Eve?
    Tony: I guess.
    Christopher: No way. T-Rex in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve would be running all the time, scared shitless, but the Bible says it was paradise.
• Characterization Marches On: Christopher is absolutely terrified during his mock execution, soiling himself and begging for his life. This is the one and only instance he shows fear in such a situation; every other time he stares down a barrel, it's with utter defiance. Possibly justified in that he's climbed the Mafia ladder since then and feels better protected by the Plot Armour his position affords him, but he's utterly fearless even when dealing with assailants who have no reason to respect this.
• Co-Dragons: Alongside Silvio, Paulie, Big Pussy, and later on, Bobby, Christopher serves as one of Tony's lieutenants in the mob business and he is certainly the one with the closest relationship to Tony, being his protege as well as his cousin from Carmela's side.
• Cool Car: He loves expensive cars, having owned a Lexus LS400, Mercedes CLK 430, Land Rover Range Rover, Hummer H2, John Sacrimoni's Maserati Coupé (which "Sacks" sold after he was arrested), and the 2007 Cadillac Escalade EXT, which he purchased after the Maserati was seized by the government and which he crashed while driving intoxicated with Tony as a passenger.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Tony makes him choke to death on his own blood after a severe car crash ruptures his internal organs.
• Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Influenced in-universe by the trope. His ambition in life is to become a made man. Enjoys the life and suffers the drawbacks. Possibly the biggest deconstruction in the series.
• Death by Irony: His large nose, often the butt of ridicule by the other guys, is ultimately the instrument of his demise, as Tony pinches it shut, causing Christopher to choke on his own blood.
• Deuteragonist: So much of the plot revolves around Chris that a new viewer might almost believe the show is about him. His best friend is shot in the eye. He is shot in the spleen. He's one of only two people shown being made ^note for others, only the celebration is briefly shown during the series. His heroin addiction. His girlfriend flips and is murdered. He's even eventually murdered at the hand of Tony himself. Also, throughout the entire series, there is an overlying plot involving him wanting to get into showbiz. This even takes up a good chunk of season 6 when he produces Cleaver.
• Disappeared Dad: Dickie Moltisanti was apparently killed by a cop when Christopher was a child. He was actually whacked by Junior for laughing at his expense.
• Domestic Abuse: He's often shown as physically abusive with Adriana, even more so when on drugs.
• Dragon with an Agenda: While Chrissy tends to be among Tony's closest subordinates and an apprentice, he also has his own ambitions and desires that he wants to achieve, which also tend to be out of Tony's desires and even outside of the mob business. Some of these pursuits, of course, tend to get Christopher butting heads against Tony on several occasions.
• Drugs Are Bad: Most mobsters are guilty of using drugs in their spare time, but Christopher appears to be among the most notorious examples of this, having been so indulgent in drugs, particularly heroin to the point that he was taken into rehab in an effort to help him recover, and even then, it doesn't really help much. Even in the business, he is mocked and criticized for this by his peers, especially Paulie.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Even after reaching the rank of capo, Paulie and the others treat him like a Butt-Monkey and crack disrespectful jokes about his family. This sets up a fatal chain of events.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: More or less, they have a complex relationship, but Christopher does have a soft spot for his mother.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Their relationship was a toxic and abusive one, but it's clear in the end that Christopher really did love Adriana. In contrast, he feels nothing for the woman he goes on to marry.
  • He has Undying Loyalty for Tony and really does care for him as a father figure.
  • It's mentioned that he used to have a close relationship with Meadow and regularly bought her happy meals. Even when she's a teenager, Christopher is still not keen on her doing drugs and only gives her some because he's afraid she'll try to obtain them herself in the inner city.
  • He genuinely loves Brendan and tries to get Tony to be nicer to him. He also avenges his death.
  • He shows some affection for Carmela, comforting her when Tony is shot.
  • He and Bobby confront A.J. about buying a gun to avenge Tony's shooting and manage to talk him out of it.
• Evil Is Petty: Being immature and reckless, Christopher is very prone to acting impulsively and can lash out, cheat, and attack others with very weak and pathetic excuses. In one such example, he seems to have a genuine friend in his AA sponsor, a man who he met while in rehab for his drug use. Chris then gets the guy to play in Tony's card game, covers his losses, then ensnares him in the same debtor cycle gangsters have been subjecting people to for centuries. He even beats the hell out of the guy for not paying up. When the guy understandably relapses, Chris looks at him with disgust and eventually takes possession of his car to cover part of the loan.
• Family Business: He is specifically groomed by Tony to be his direct biological successor in the DiMeo mob empire, considering that Tony's own son, AJ is too immature, reckless, and unmotivated to be wanting to pursue the mob life, not to mention that Tony doesn't want AJ to become a criminal like him, let alone a member of the mob. Coincidentally, Christopher's father was also a notable mob enforcer who had close ties to Tony.
• Fatal Flaw: His desire and enthusiasm in wanting to be a respectable and feared mobster and a head in Tony's crime family; he doesn't realize being a made man in The Mafia comes with a lot of responsibility, which means he cannot goof around when he's under tremendous pressure from his bosses to earn more money. By the time of his death, Tony had realized that Chris was The Load to the family. While being a mafioso has its perks, Chris should have known that some parts of a mobster's life can be boring and dangerous at times.
  • His Undying Loyalty to Tony and the crew also proves to be a fatal weakness for him. It's clear that many of the guys view Chris as a fuck up who'll only get them into more trouble than it's worth. But he still naively attempts to gain their respect. Selling out Adriana was the final straw, and it left him disillusioned with the guys. He then is suffocated to death by Tony when he has enough of him.
• Fearless Fool: He shows fear exactly one time in the series, and it's when Junior sets him up for a mock execution in Season 1. All later episodes in the series have him staring down the barrel of anything from a pistol to a shotgun without even so much as flinching, and he's willing to fight absolutely anyone regardless of how many enemies he's facing down and how much more powerful they are than he is. It causes him some trouble when:
  • He mouths off to a group of drug dealers who have him at gunpoint and are hijacking his Land Rover.
  • He absolutely refuses to show any hint of fear or remorse when Tony and the other capos bring Chris out for an actual execution after Christopher draws down on Tony in the Bing in a fit of drunken rage. The only reason Christopher doesn't end up killed is that Tony B. offers an alternative solution.
• Food Slap: Christopher is prone to doing this whenever he's pissed and if there's food nearby. One, he throw a sandwich at Vito and insulted him for his weight at the same time, and later on, he slapped an ice cream out of Patsy's hand.
• Foreshadowing: When Tony hears that Chris accidentally killed Adriana's dog due to being high, Tony flips out and yells, "I oughta suffocate you, you little prick!!!" Later on, when Chris causes a car crash because he's high, Tony sees the destroyed baby-seat for Chris's infant daughter and realizes she would've been killed, and ends up murdering Christopher by pinching his nose to prevent airflow and letting Christopher suffocate on his own blood. Though the baby-seat was more of an excuse as Tony's real motivations were due to Tony increasingly viewing Chris as a liability to his business.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: More and more as the series progressed, Christopher became this to his mafia friends due to his callousness and unreliability. Not only is he often at odds with Paulie and Tony, but he also is a constant butt of jokes to his peers and at times earns their disgust due to Christopher's tendency for domestic abuse, as well as beating and threatening his close friends and allies alike on a whim for minor inconveniences. By the time the series reached its final season, Christopher had become eerily similar to the likes of Richie and Ralph who were both constant thorns on Tony's side and hated by everyone. That said, upon his death, many of Christopher's colleagues are shown mourning his loss (with the exception of Tony himself), with Paulie in particular regretting how hard he was on Chris and referring to himself as Christopher's "Dutch uncle". It's also shown in "Made in America" that the crew keep a photo of him mounted on a wall in the back room at Satriale's as a memorial.
• Gag Nose: His prominent schnoz is the butt of frequent jokes by his fellow gangsters, most notably Richie Aprile who likens it to that of a camel.
  Richie: He's the only guy I know who can smoke a cigarette in the rain!
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: A believer in this. He tries to segue into a threesome with Adriana and her "friend" "Danielle", to no avail.
  Adriana: What did you think, you were gonna fuck the two of us? You and those fuckin' videos!
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Like many characters in the series, Christopher tends to explode in violent outbursts when he is truly upset.
• Hates Being Touched: Almost as much as he hates being threatened.
• Hate Sink: Zig-Zagged and ultimately subverted. Christopher is an interesting example in that his character progression sees him evolve from a somewhat roguish hoodlum with redeeming qualities to a much more hateable character, whose shallow, needlessly violent, and holier-than-thou attitude toward any perceived slight as well as his disproportionately abusive treatment towards Adriana occasionally clouds his more noble qualities. This is balanced, however, as the more Chris evolves into a worse version of himself, the more he suffers with the main sources of grief being his almost-savant devotion to a lifestyle that's slowly suffocating him and loyalty to people who refuse to let him get better his own way, with Tony, Paulie and the other mobster further prodding him to more self-destruction. By the end, he has become a living indictment of the toll the mafia life can have on people, with his death being cast in a somber light and his fellow mobsters other than Tony mourning him.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Christopher produces a horror film, Cleaver, where undead mobster Michael comes back for revenge on his boss Salvatore and his cheating fiancé. It's quite obvious that Michael is a stand-in for Christopher, Salvatore for Tony, and Michael's fiancée for Adriana.
• Hidden Depths: For all his stupidity and tough-guy posturing, it's shown a few times that Chris is more introspective and aware than he seems. He's one of the few characters on the show to realize how empty and miserable the mafia lifestyle really is and who wants something more but his attempts at self-improvement are regularly hindered by his own inability to leave the life behind as well as circumstance and the behavior of others.
  • He is shown to have a genuine talent for acting and improv when he takes an acting class in season 2.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Chris is convinced he can make it big with his screenwriting, but he's at a loss when it becomes apparent his laptop won't magically do the work for him and his grammar is atrocious. He also holds to the bold belief that he'd be a great success as a male model.
• Hypocrite:
  • Christopher condemns humankind's vulnerability to temptation and weak moral judgment. Yeah, about that…
    "Human frailty. Makes me sick."
    • For added irony, he says this after attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
  • When he lashes out at the other mobsters during his intervention and cites their own transgressions, he calls out Silvio for constantly cheating on his wife. Christopher himself is also guilty of infidelity as he frequently cheats on Adriana.
  • During a casual conversation about their sexual histories, Chris brags about his previous experiences. When Adriana shares her, he instantly flies into a jealous rage, pushing her around and calling her a whore.
  • When Tony B comes back into the fold, Chris is incensed by Tony's nepotism, but only because he's not the beneficiary of it anymore.
    Paulie: It used to be you didn't it? Teacher's pet... Now you know what I went through.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: While Christopher himself has gotten a lot breaks because of Tony's nepotism, he has a right to complain about preferential treatment Tony gives Tony B after Tony B murders Billy Leotardo. After all, none of Christopher's screw ups ever brought the wrath of the Lupertazzis upon their family and he himself has been singled out as their top Revenge by Proxy target if they don't get Tony B.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Showed a particular talent for channeling his emotions into acting, but his hyper-masculine mafia conditioning led him to abandon this.
• Ignored Epiphany: Chris has realized on more than a few occasions both that the mafia lifestyle is a truly miserable way to live, leading to prison or an early grave, and that Tony is a raging narcissist who will never give him the respect he desperately craves, most notably after nearly dying in Season 2. But he always falls back into his old habits due to the influence of others and his own weakness.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: Above all, Christopher's greatest desire is to be seen and recognized as a notorious and awesome crime boss as well as earn Tony's respect. Deconstructed in that his desires end up constantly clashing against his own reckless, idiotic nature and he can barely display any actions that can count as "badass".
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Having lost his father at a very young age, Christopher always tries to find a surrogate. The most obvious choice is Tony, but given their line of work, their chain of command, and their respective mental situations, the relationship slowly sours until it's rotten.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Quite possibly the best shot in the show. Despite having just been shot twice, he quickly gets off a headshot on Sean with his weak hand. He also shoots Jackie Jr's friend Carlo between the eyes as he's trying to help rob Christopher's card game and manages a fatal neck shot on a deer while running in the snow. Later in the series, he nails a biker from dozens of yards away while he and Tony are speeding away after a robbery.
• Inadequate Inheritor: He's Tony's heir apparent and Tony spends a lot of time grooming him for the job. However, Christopher proves to be too fickle, antagonistic, short-sighted, and lazy to be an effective leader. Tony himself realizes it after Christopher almost gets Tony killed while driving under the influence and decides to cut his losses by killing him.
• In-Series Nickname: "Chrissy".
• Irony: Uncle Junior sets him up for a mock execution in the first season. In the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark, we see that Junior ordered the very real execution of Christopher's father, Dickie Moltisanti.
• It Gets Easier: Christopher gets haunted by a nightmare after pulling off his first murder on Emil Kolar. He never suffers the same problem again afterward and later starts pulling off kills without a second thought.
• It Runs in the Family: He likely inherited his addictive personality; his mother Joanne was shown to be an alcoholic, his cousin Hugo ("Hugh") DeAngelis was shown to be, at minimum, a borderline alcoholic, and his father, Dickie, had been drug-addicted ( although that last bit's probably just a nasty rumor originated and spread by Livia).
• Jerkass: When he has the opportunity to be unpleasant, he is an outright asshole towards nearly everyone around him, as well as an abusive boyfriend towards Adriana.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Many of his criticisms of Tony's leadership are on point, particularly the fact that Tony insists on the men following the rules while ignoring them himself if they become an inconvenience for him.
  • His speech at his intervention is 100% correct. He points out that for all of Silvio, Paulie, and Tony's criticism, none of them are any better than he is. Silvio constantly cheats on his wife, Paulie's violent personality constantly causes problems, and Tony is an overall self-destructive mess.
  • He's also correct to point out how others don't respect his genuine efforts to stay sober in the last season, especially Tony who outright and sincerely threatened to murder Chris if he didn't get clean but is now pushing him to break it just to be more tolerable to be around and whose years of therapy would have ideally made him more sympathetic to Chris' struggles.
• Kick the Dog: A more literal though accidental example. Chris manages to kill Adriana's small dog when he sits on it while high on heroin.
  • Has plenty of other instances, as well, including his physical abuse of Adriana and his murder of JT Dolan.
  • Of special note is him terrorizing and then shooting a donut shop employee in the foot just because the guy made him wait a while. This earns him a severe reprimand (as well as a punch to the head) from Tony.

L-Z

• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In the episode "Big Girls Don't Cry" he delivers an unprovoked, brutal beating to one of his classmates in the acting class. Chris breaks his toe kicking him, with the time it takes to heal putting a damper on his comings and goings.
  • He realizes over time that he sold out the one woman who loved him in Adraina for a bunch of scumbags who don't give a shit about him, being slapped in the face with this after they make fun of his daughter while he's drunk. Then Tony kills him after he finds out he's relapsed.
  • The Many Saints of Newark confirms that Christopher did indeed end up going to Hell as punishment for everything he did during his life on Earth.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Adriana is sterile and can't give him a much-wanted biological son. Kelli quickly gets pregnant, but ironically, he doesn't really love her.
• The Load: By the time of his death, Tony had realized that Christopher was this to him and everyone else. The final straw was almost getting Tony killed while driving under the influence, so Tony suffocates him to Make It Look Like an Accident. Tony reveals to Melfi in a dream that now that Christopher is dead he feels immensely relieved that he doesn't have to worry about his nephew's fuck-ups ever again.
• Love Martyr: Adriana is this to Christopher. She believes that deep down Christopher is a good person and would choose her over the mob in a heartbeat. When she is forced to become an informant to the FBI, she tells Christopher and after the third beating, she gives him the choice. Christopher chooses the mob and it results in Adriana's death, and eventually, Christopher's.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: When Tony decides to kill Christopher after his constant screw-ups finally begin to make Tony realize that he was The Load, he decides to say little about the accident that got Christopher severely injured, and Tony suffocates him shortly after. The doctors think Christopher might have made it, but they have no way to determine the actual fact.
• Malaproper: Does this quite often such as claiming the FBI is trying to create "dysentery among the ranks".
• Married to the Job: A tragic literal example, when he has to choose between his fiancée and his job, he chooses the job.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Christopher's trip to Hell (Purgatory?) and Paulie's complaints about hauntings and curses might be legit or just the result of troubled minds and mafioso superstitions. We never get a definite answer either way. For what it's worth, The Many Saints of Newark confirms that Christopher went to hell, though there's no elaboration on if it's similar to the experience he had in his coma.
• Misaimed Fandom: In-Universe. He's a big fan of gangster films and wishes to emulate the lifestyle through his own career. However, it's clear that during his viewings, Christopher overlooked the negative aspects of the lifestyle that those films depicted. He frequently cites Goodfellas in conversation, but it's clear that the end of the film where Henry Hill's career suffers a downfall due to getting involved with drugs did not resonate with him as he becomes a drug addict himself.
• Morton's Fork: Christopher faces one every time he attempts to get sober. When he doesn't drink, he is called out for being weak. When he does drink, he is called out for being a fuckup. He points this out to Tony and Paulie, who both wonder why he can't just be "normal."
• Most Writers Are Writers: He's an aspiring screenwriter.
• Mouth of Sauron: He acted as Tony's mouthpiece, issuing Tony's orders in order to insulate Tony from potential racketeering charges.
• The Movie Buff: He loves films and really wants to become a screenwriter.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • The entirety of season 6 sees him come to terms with his role in selling out Adriana to Tony and the guys in order to keep his place in the mob, showing guilt and wistfulness over the fact that not only did he sold out someone he loved, but ultimately he did it for someone (Tony) who not only encourages his vices, but also couldn't care about him the same way. By the time of his death, he has come to regret his decision.
  • Christopher ends up becoming this to Tony in their last moments. It's also a dark and morbid conclusion in their relationship; in addition to killing a son-figure, Tony feels absolutely no remorse in killing Christopher, sees him as a disgrace, and is baffled at the very thought that he is mourned by many, and expresses to Dr. Melfi that he is glad that Christopher is gone from his life.
• Naïve Newcomer: He's both this when it comes to the Mafia and Hollywood.
• Narcissist: In addition to his entitlement issues, Christopher believes himself to be more talented a writer than he really is and in possession of model-tier looks, making the bold assumption that he'd be a success in either field in the event the mob no longer commands his loyalty.
• Near-Death Experience: Has one in Season 2 after he is shot by Matthew and Sean, seeing what he believes to be Hell, and is terrified that he will be damned there. Carmela claims it was a chance for him to change his ways but Chris falls back into his old habits regardless.
• Nepotism: Played with, being the nephew-cousin of the big man gives him leeway but also exposes him to the fury of his mentor. This does him no great favors in the long run: Christopher is a good shot and can follow orders, making him a good soldier, but his poor impulse control, terrible judgment, and craving for fame and respect make him ill-suited for the high positions he rapidly ascends to by the grace of this trope.
• Never Lend to a Friend: Christopher's friend JT Dolan from AA runs up a large gambling debt, and Chris lends him the money to cover it. Dolan balks at the fact that Christopher charges him the same punishing vig as anyone else, but Christopher counters that he won't enable Dolan's bad decisions. Dolan has trouble paying the money back, causing Christopher to pummel him and steal his possessions, ultimately costing Dolan everything but the shirt off his back. From then on, Dolan is resentful and afraid of Chris, but Chris doesn't seem to notice.
• Never My Fault: Christopher has a hard time taking responsibility for his mistakes and often shifts blame on other people for his fuck ups. While he has some good reasons to be upset at Tony and the guys, he generally never sees his culpability in any of the things they pick on him for, the most egregious example being with Adriana's death, he's all pissed at Tony for not appreciating his 'sacrifice' when he sold her out in the first place.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In-Universe. He's extremely excited the first time his name shows up in the newspaper in connection with organized crime.
• Number Two: He's groomed as the heir apparent by Tony.
• Off the Wagon: Relapses several times, most often than not due to traumatic and life-changing incidents.
• Older Than They Look: Despite being a surrogate son to Tony, he's actually only about 9-10 years younger than him (Michael Imperioli was only five years younger than James Gandolfini), but it would be easy to assume he's much younger than that.
• Once a Season: While Tony is the main Villain Protagonist of the series, Christopher can easily be seen as the Villain Deuteragonist with the plot having a large emphasis on his struggles and aspirations on several occasions. This is furthered by the fact that every season has at least one episode where instead of Tony, Christopher is the main focus...
  • Season 1: "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti"
  • Season 2: "D-Girl", and to a certain extent, "Full Leather Jacket"
  • Season 3: "Fortunate Son"
  • Season 4: This one's debatable but the season premiere and "The Strong Silent Type" are the prime candidates.
  • Season 5: "Long-Term Parking"
  • Season 6, Part 1: "The Ride"
  • Season 6, Part 2: "Walk Like A Man"
• The Peter Principle: While Christopher's robbery, intimidation, and shooting skills make him a good soldier, his poor managerial skills and inability to think strategically make him a poor capo.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In "Pine Barrens" he hides Paulie's failure from Tony even though Paulie tried to screw him over by throwing him under the bus.
  • He's genuinely supportive of Ralph after his son's accident.
  • When he finds Ralph dead he protects Paulie by making it clear to Tony that Paulie was nowhere near Ralph's house when it happened.
  • When he finds out that AJ tried to buy a gun to kill Junior after Junior shot Tony due to his dementia, he and Bobby calmly try to talk AJ out of it and sympathize with his feelings.
  • Despite his eagerness to see Vito die for being gay, he's one of the few people to have any sympathy for Vito's kids or have any empathy for Vito Jr's struggles in the aftermath of his father's death.
  • Despite her, shall we say, difficult personality, he's consistently nice to Livia Soprano, doing repairs around her house. This saves his life when she makes sure Junior spares him at the beginning of Season One. He's also one of the few people to try and say anything nice at her wake, even if his being high out of his mind leads him to just ramble incoherently.
  • Despite stupidly talking out of turn when Tony clearly expressed to him not to do so, he was genuinely trying to help Johnny Sack try and reach a compromise with Little Carmine.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: He is the only one seen regularly earning, but then again, he is a rookie while the rest of the characters we mostly see are bosses and spend most of their time hanging around Bada Bing or Satriales. As explained by the hierarchical system; senior mobsters have their own crews and do mostly managerial work or collections, but do perform delicate tasks or street jobs from time to time — Paulie assaults Columbian drug dealers in Season 6.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Like other mobsters, he's racist, sexist, and casually homophobic. That said, his virulent display of homophobia in the wake of Vito's outing fizzles to Pragmatic Villainy, with him accepting Vito's death as necessary for the business but not worth pursuing out of some twisted sense of "political correctness."
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Or, as Silvio likes to put it, "Always with the scenarios." He's also a master of firearms as shown when he takes out a wannabe gangster with one headshot despite being wounded himself. (In general, Chris probably has the biggest onscreen body count in the show.)
• Portent of Doom: When Christopher is made, he notices a crow perched on the window outside. Superstitious as he is, he frets about the significance of this for a while. He ends up dead at the hands – the literal hand, actually – of the man who made him.
• Posthumous Narration: He is the narrator for The Many Saints of Newark; the film opens with footage of his grave and he openly mentions how Tony ended up murdering him and claims he was damned to Hell.
• Properly Paranoid: He comes to suspect that something is going on between Tony and Ade; both parties object to it but Christopher remains unconvinced. He's right to be suspicious: Tony admits to his shrink that he's deeply attracted to Adriana, and it's circumstantial interruptions (getting walked in on during an intimate moment, crashing their car on the way to get high together) rather than any protestation from Ade herself that prevents them having sex.
• Really Gets Around: He had affairs, behind Adriana's back, with good-looking women of dubious repute. Some such women were prostitutes who, he told Paulie, he didn't have to pay; others were strippers (such as Sonya Aragon in Las Vegas) and even white-collar professionals (such as Julianna Skiff).
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: During his intervention session and after getting peeved, annoyed, and troubled by one too many questions and accusations, especially when concerned about his drug habits, Christopher starts to throw accusations toward the screw-ups of Tony, Silvio, and Paulie out of defensive anger.
• Redemption Equals Death: Inter-weaved with Redemption Rejection and Reformed, but Rejected in a literal way; he detaches himself from the dens in order to avoid temptations, but in turn, this hinders him professionally and makes the others resent and treat him with contempt, which makes him so miserable he returns to the old escapist drug habits he managed to avoid in the first place.
• Redemption Rejection: When he learns that Adriana has been working for the Feds for over a year, he rejects the opportunity to go into witness protection with her and get away from his dangerous criminal lifestyle. This results in not only Adriana's murder for being an informant but Christopher's as well when Tony finally decides he's too much of a liability.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Chris manages to kick his drug addiction and becomes a teetotaler in order to avoid getting tempted back into his old destructive behavior. Unfortunately, in the rather socially toxic environment of the mafia, his decision to stay away from not just drugs, but also alcohol, causes him to be frequently picked on and mocked by his mobster peers, and even Tony, who ordered him to get clean on the pain of death in the first place, frequently bullies him for it. This lack of support causes him to fall Off the Wagon numerous times.
• Relationship Reveal: Once, he has a new girlfriend, Kaisha; he tells his boss Tony that he's never brought her around because he doesn't want to deal with the racism of the other Mafiosi. A couple of scenes later, we realize he was lying; his girlfriend is actually Julianna, the hot realtor that Tony has been unsuccessfully trying to hook up with.
• Retirony: Tony points out to Christopher a man enjoying his retirement party in the nearby restaurant as being the Corrupt Cop who murdered his father. When an understandably incensed Christopher asks him why he's only just now being told this, Tony explains the man has been useful. Until tonight, of course.
• Robbing the Mob Bank: In 46 Long, Christopher and Brendan Filone start hijacking trucks. The owner of the trucks pays Junior for protection and Junior orders them to stop, but their need to feed their drug addictions forces them to continue. After a driver is accidentally killed, Junior orders retaliation against them. Brendan is killed in his bathtub while Christopher is subject to a mock execution.
• Sacrificial Lion: Christopher's arc and death highlights not only the high risk and toll the criminal lifestyle can have on a person, but also his suffocation at the hands of his uncle works as a final indictment on how Beyond Redemption Tony Soprano is.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Paulie accuses him of exploiting this too much.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: His struggle with heroin — it gradually worsens after the trip to Italy, Chris's shooting, and the Pine Barrens incident, finally spiraling out of control just after he helps Tony dispose of Ralph. Chris goes to rehab and joins Narcotics Anonymous, then relapses after hearing a false rumor about Adriana blowing Tony. He seems to pull it together after this, until Adriana's death, at which point he suffers another relapse. He pulls it together again, only to have another relapse while visiting Hollywood. Then another one after he learns his new girlfriend Kelli is pregnant and Tony convinces him to toast to fatherhood. He recovers again with help from his sponsor Murmur but then relapses after he hooks up with Julianna Skiff. The two of them go to another meeting and recover again. A few episodes later he has a heated feud with Paulie, and after they reconcile, Chris decides to drink with Paulie, and goes overboard, relapsing again and shooting JT Dolan. Then he crashes a car while high and driving Tony and Tony impulsively kills him. However, the use of this trope is immensely tragic and poignant, and with many recovering addicts, especially those leading a life of crime, this is sometimes Truth in Television.
• The Sociopath: ZigZagged. At first glance, Christopher possesses the characteristics to qualify as one. Excepting some anxiety related to his first murder, Christopher is a near completely remorseless killer, adulterer, and liar, has virtually no moral compass, and is constantly confounded that he is not being paid the respect he deserves (regardless of his current status in the family), is constantly seeking his next fix, and, according to Adriana, has only two emotional states: "screaming [his] head off or fucking dead." Even his ostensible affection for Tony, essentially his only lasting relationship based on any sense of mutual respect, is called into question by Season 6, when the film he produces, Cleaver, indicates that he has, at minimum, suppressed patricidal tendencies, and he demonstrates multiple times that he can turn on Adriana at the slightest inconvenience. The reasons he has for considering leaving the mafia life have absolutely nothing to do with morality, but rather deeply-embedded self-importance that leads him to believe he would be a rich and famous celebrity but not for the so-called sacrifices he makes to serve Tony. However, the fact remains that Christopher is capable of feeling real emotion and some self-reflection, still having felt true love for Adriana even after he gets her murdered and finding positive pride in having to raise a daughter.
• Stylistic Suck: Christopher's screenplay for Made Man in Season 1 is riddled with spelling errors. Even Adriana calls him out in it.
• Sweet Tooth: Downplayed. While the characters didn't discuss it, observant viewers noticed that after he got out of rehab, he was often seen drinking Coke. It's fairly common for recovering addicts to crave sweets after coming off drugs.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: His looks are disparaged by some of the men in his life (Tony notably describes him as "average, at best"), and he's certainly possessed of delusions as to how handsome he ''actually'' is, but a lot of women find him very attractive. His appeal is summed up almost verbatim by Agent Sanservino:
  Robyn Sanservino: Tall, dark, and sociopathic.
• Teeny Weenie: Implied by Paulie after Chris is made to strip off in front of the others shortly after being made, to prove he isn't wearing a wire.
  Paulie: I guess you could call that a dick. (starts laughing)
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He and Ally Boy Barese shoot Dino Zerilli in the head three times...and then Christopher walks up to his corpse and shoots him in the head two more times. This happens after the Pine Barrens incident, and Chris has valid reasons for making sure a dead body stays dead.
• Thicker Than Water: Given that Family is a major theme in the series, Tony and Christopher's relationship is one of its most defining examples here, although their actual blood ties are a bit vague (an FBI agent has to pick Adriana's brain to make sense of it: Chris is Carmela's cousin by blood, and Tony's honourary nephew... but Ade claims they're actual cousins too through extended family). Tony trusts and favors Christopher over more proven and competent underlings, as their familial bond ensures his loyalty. In theory, at least — Christopher's constant fuck ups and poor judgment eventually torpedo Tony's plan to groom him as an heir.
• Too Dumb to Live: Christopher makes a lot of dumb and illogical actions and reasonings throughout the sow, much to Tony and his main circle's annoyance. Sometimes this is Played for Laughs and Played for Drama, but it's in his last moments of him drunk-driving as well as holding a baby seat at the back of the car during a harrowing car crash (which also splinters said baby seat with a branch), where Tony realizes that Christopher's dim-witted mind is too dangerous, especially for his daughter, as well as the fact that he's become too dumb and irate to be worth mentoring, so he decides to suffocate Christopher to death.
• Tragic Villain: Despite his brutish, sociopathic nature, Christopher can be very relatable at times. To wit, he's the only member of the DiMeo family other than Tony who explicitly articulates an awareness of how empty the mob life is and clearly aspires to more, but his own loyalty to Tony and inability to distance himself from his upbringing traps him into his profession. And that's not even getting into how Tony occasionally undercuts his attempts at self-improvement.
• Those Two Guys: Gets lumped into this with Paulie, which pisses both of them off.
• Tropaholics Anonymous: He is seen many times attending Alcoholics Anonymous sessions.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Adriana. Acknowledged in-universe.
• Undying Loyalty:
  My uncle Tony... the guy I'm going to hell for.
• Vague Age: He's a young guy and seen as the crime family's heir apparent, but they never explicitly attach an age to Christopher, though it can be inferred that he is supposed to be somewhere in his mid-to-late-twenties. Cleared up at last on the Talking Sopranos podcast: Michael Imperioli confirmed that Christopher is 25 in the pilot; Imperioli was 31.
• Villain Protagonist: While not the protagonist of the series, many of the subplots in the episodes are focused on him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Paulie Walnuts. The two can't stand each other most of the time, but by the time Chris dies it is shown that they both truly cared for one another.
• Would Hit a Girl: He hits and almost kills Adriana a number of times in the series, and that's on top of all the other abuse he puts her through like disregarding her opinions, disrespecting her, and generally being an ungrateful asshole.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Towards Tony, his Parental Substitute.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Thinks he's living in a gangster movie. Technically he is living in a gangster television series, but The Sopranos is largely a deconstruction of the tropes Chris lives by. In the very first episode, after murdering a rival of the family, he wants to place the body in one of their waste management bins to send a message, a la the Luca Brasi scene from The Godfather. Big Pussy tells him all that would do is bring on a desire for revenge from the rival family as well as heat from law enforcement and they need to hide the body.

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"That’s the guy... My uncle Tony. The guy I went to hell for."