Tony is depressed over Pussy's sudden disappearance, and hides inside the house all day as a result. Chris relays this information to Silvio after meeting with him, and Silvio tells him that it's just a phase and will pass. At the Soprano house, Carmela tries to rouse Tony, who tells her that he's taking lithium and Prozac on Melfi's advice.
Carmela goes off to buy a suit for A.J.'s upcoming prom and opens the blinds for Tony before she leaves. As he gets up from bed, he looks outside and sees a woman hanging laundry next door.
At the funeral for a mob associate, Junior is having second thoughts about the hit on Tony. He's also bothered by Jimmy showing up and saying pointed questions about Brendan Filone's death. Junior tells him to mind his own business before leaving. Afterward, Mikey arrives and tells him that the preparations have been made and that two hitmen will kill Tony at a newsstand.
Chris meets with Tony, who is distracted and still feeling the effects of the pills. Tony tells him that he doesn't want to hear any more about Pussy, and not to do anything about Jimmy until they can prove he's wearing a wire. Afterward, Tony goes outside and finds the same woman in the white dress at the Cusamano residence. She tells him that the Cusamanos went on vacation, and that she's a foreign exchange student who's working as a maid over the summer.
When Tony leaves to make a run to the newsstand, Chris becomes concerned and follows. As Tony arrives, the two hitmen, Rasheen Ray and William Clayborn get ready to exit the car. However, their plan is thwarted when Christopher drives in front of their vehicle and scopes out the newsstand. Despite their efforts to tell him to leave, Chris tells them off and keeps watching the stand. Tony walks out behind the building and enters a side entrance for Melfi's office, while Chris enters the nearby donut shop and is perplexed when he can't find Tony.
Junior is vomiting out of a car door as he and Mikey go to meet with their contact, Donnie, after learning that the assassination was botched. While Junior hides in the backseat, Mikey meets with Donnie, who tells him that the hit has been rescheduled for the following day. While leaving, Donnie makes a remark that even Tony's own mother wants him dead, causing Junior to tell Mikey to silence him. Mikey walks over to Donnie's car and shoots and kills him through the windshield before they leave.
Tony continues to suffer from more and more delusions, and Melfi seemingly ups his dosage of Prozac after listening to him ramble. Soon after, he goes outside and sees the same woman, who now refers to herself as Isabella, and he invites her for lunch. At a nearby restaurant, they discuss their similar tastes and family histories, but has a vision that she's breastfeeding a baby in an old Italian home.
That night, Livia comes over for dinner and antagonizes A.J. for his lack of table manners. Tony wanders downstairs, still in his bathrobe, and listens to Livia rant about how nobody respects her before getting fed up and walking back upstairs. Livia cries and says she's never coming back to the Soprano household. The next morning, Tony wakes up and sees Isabella outside again, and gets called on it when Carmela sees him spying on her. She gives a speech criticizing him for being distracted by women and being lazy while she works before storming out of the bedroom in a rage.
The next day, Tony goes back down to the same newsstand and buys a carton of juice and a paper. On his way back to his car, two shots ring out, both of which miss him and hit the juice bottle and car window beside him. Clayborn reveals himself and advances toward Tony, who in turn gets in his car and puts it in drive. Clayborn attempts to shoot Tony, who grabs his arm and twists it away. When Rasheen runs to the other side of the vehicle and fires a round, it hits Clayborn in the temple, killing him instantly.
Tony grabs Rasheen's arm and holds him as he drives forward, eventually causing the latter to fall out and roll off onto the road. Tony laughs in triumph...just before plowing into a vehicle several seconds later.
Carmela, A.J., and Meadow meet Tony at the hospital, who has suffered from several cuts and bruises. The family is hustled out after he assures them he's fine. Afterward, he's visited by Agent Harris, who indicates that he knows Tony was almost killed in a mob hit and offers to put him in a witness protection program. Despite Harris' offer, he tells Harris to stop talking to him and leave. Silvio and Paulie arrive soon after to guard Tony, while the kids indicate to each other that they know it wasn't just a simple carjacking.
Junior watches a report on the assassination attempt with Livia that night and realizes that his plan has failed. He feigns innocence when Livia asks who could have done this. They visit Tony afterward and give well-wishes, while Father Intintola stops by to pray for Tony's good health. Behind the scenes, Silvio, Paulie, and Christopher speculate that Junior was behind the attempted hit.
Tony meets with Melfi after-hours and asks if she ever told anyone who he was. She admits that she mentioned it to her family offhandedly, but never identified him in any way, shape, or form. Tony admits that the attempted hit has made him feel alive again, and talks about the experiences with Isabella. Melfi realizes that Tony's description is actually a hallucination, and Isabella was actually the idolized version of his mother. Tony strokes Melfi's cheek in appreciation before leaving and driving off with an associate. He realizes afterward that everything, including the meeting the previous night with Melfi, was All Just a Dream, and confirms it to incredulous responses from Bruce Cusamano and Carmela. Melfi tells him to flush his lithium medication.
After Melfi asks him to come in for an appointment, Tony tells her that he's going to feel a whole lot better once he finds out who shot him...
Tropes:
- Apologetic Attacker: Mikey apologizes to Donnie before whacking him on Junior's orders.
- Blatant Lies: Tony insists the attempted hit was just a random carjacking gone wrong. Not a single person believes it.
- Boom, Headshot!: Petite Clayborn's death, in slow motion. Mikey also takes care of Donnie this way.
- Brick Joke: After A.J. mentions that he won't be able to attend the school formal due to his father's injury, Carmela arranges to have him driven there despite his objections. Several scenes later, A.J. is seen in the back of a stretch limo with his date...and being escorted by Paulie and Silvio, who stare at him blankly after he asks for some whiskey.
- Cassandra Truth, doubling as Foreshadowing: Livia maintains her act of going senile when Uncle Junior tries to call her out on her duplicity. She tells him that he'll soon find out what it's like to start forgetting things. Livia herself has no idea how right she'll turn out to be.
- Continuity Nod:
- Jimmy mentions attending the funeral of Brendan Filone when he meets Junior at the funeral parlor.
- When Father Intintola stops by to pray for Tony's continued health, the latter mockingly asks if he's planning to spend the night at their house again.
- Death Seeker: Tony shows signs of this due to his depression, and claims to Melfi during an appointment that he doesn't want to live anymore. It takes the failed hit to make him feel alive again, and he tells Melfi that every part of him wants to stay and fight as a result.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Carmela calls out Tony on being distracted by Isabella (the only thing that rouses him from bed) during "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Dream Within a Dream: Tony has a daydream about Isabella breastfeeding a child in an Italian home, while already in the midst of hallucinations and visions.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Meadow didn't like Tony's joke about getting good mileage out of the vehicle he crashed in.
- The Ending Changes Everything: It turns out Isabella never existed and Tony was hallucinating her existence and the argument with his wife due to side effects of his lithium medication.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Christopher is genuinely worried about Tony's depression and follows him out of concern for his well-being, which unwittingly saves his life.
- Junior is heartbroken over ordering the hit on his nephew and only does so because he firmly believes Tony is a threat to his position as boss.
- Evil Is Petty: Junior has Donnie killed on the suspicion that he might later joke about him.
- False Friend: Both Livia and Uncle Junior put this trope into play by showing up to Tony's get well party after hearing about the failed hit on the news. Uncle Junior in particular puts on the Faux Affably Evil really thick. Even Chris, Paulie, and Silvio are thrown off by the sudden display, but they're not completely freed from their suspicions either.
- Foreshadowing:
- Tony's attitude switching from morose and depressed to civil and upbeat (in the course of two subsequent shots) in Melfi's office is the first indicator that he's undergone Sanity Slippage due to the combination of drugs he's taking.
- Isabella improbably guesses that Tony's family is from Avellino, a hint that the conversation is not real.
- When Junior calls out Livia for his own moment of senility, she tells him that one day soon, he's going to forget things just like she does...
- Uncle Junior vomiting out the side door of his car is the first hint that he's developing stomach cancer.
- When Junior demands that Jimmy be more respectful at funerals, the first hint that subsequent developments will force Junior to try and attend any and every funeral he can get his hands on.
- Genius Bruiser: During the assassination attempt, Tony manages to stop his attacker's gun from firing by grabbing the barrel and squeezing it tight enough that the firing mechanism would not work. Just the fact that he thought of this so quickly says a lot about Tony's intellect.
- Gut Feeling: Almost every character not in Uncle Junior's camp suspects him of being behind the "carjacking". Even A.J. has an inkling of it. And Chris puts two and two together when hearing the black guys who tried to kill Tony were driving a Taurus.
- I Gave My Word: When Carmella and Tony are discussing ratting out other criminals and going into witness protection, Tony says this. Carmella replies: "What are you, a kid in a treehouse?" A nice way to point out how ridiculous this trope can be when the choice is following your word or protecting your family.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Rasheen accidentally shoots Petite in the head while aiming for Tony in a moving car.
- Impairment Shot: When Tony takes his daily dose of Prozac and the newly-prescribed lithium pills, the camera begins to tilt sideways as he sits down in the shower.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Rasheen and Petite both have the drop on Tony for the hit and somehow managed to miss every single shot they aim his way. Rasheen goes the extra mile of somehow shooting Petite in the head while Tony is sitting down and restrained by Petite.
- Learned from the News: Uncle Junior and Livia learn of the failed hit on Tony through a news broadcast.
- Loose Lips: After Donnie makes an ill-timed joke that "Tony Soprano's own mother even wants him popped", Junior is angered and has him executed on the spot.
- Mugging the Monster: Rasheem and Petite attempt to kill Tony before he has a real reputation, although Tony was by then a reputed mob captain in the DiMeo crime family.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Livia puts this trope into motion almost the instant that she hears on the news that Tony survived the assassination attempt. She shows up at Tony's get-well party and pretends that she doesn't recognize Meadow in order to feign the onset of dementia. The purpose is to try and throw off any suspicions of having anything to do with the botched job. Junior figures out what she's up to, and it causes him to get angry with her because he's worried that it will leave him holding the bag.
- Pet the Dog: Paulie and Silvio both reassure AJ and Meadow that their father will be fine after the hit on Tony puts him in hospital.
- Plot Armor: Admit it, Tony was wearing a suit of it in this episode. Clayborn and Rasheen were just about to get out of their car and then corner Tony in a donut shop where they could have ambushed him and shot him at close range. Guess who pulls up and blocks their way? Christopher, who is completely unaware of their intentions, and tells them to shove it when they tell him to pull ahead and out of the way. The next time they try and take out Tony, it's in the much more open space of the street, with the result that Tony can both see them coming, and they miss at a longer range, allowing Tony to survive. They then bring their guns within hands reach of Tony, making their efforts an Epic Fail. Tony and his circle immediately begin to suspect Uncle Jun and his supporters, giving them the opportunity to turn the tables. The events can also invite speculation as to Alternate History had either attempt to kill Tony succeeded. It is likely that both Mikey Palmice and Chucky Signore would have survived and helped Uncle Jun continue to run the Jersey Mob. The story wouldn't have been about the Sopranos anymore, and who knows how things would have played out between Jersey and New York down the road.
- Preemptive Apology: Mikey says "sorry" to Donnie before executing him.
- Redemption Rejection: Tony obviously isn't game for Agent Harris' offer to join Witness Protection, and is vehement about it once Harris leaves the hospital room. The trope shows most clearly when Carmela pleads with him to think about his family's safety and his children still having their father. His response betrays a belief that Being Good Sucks, as he likens life in Witness Protection to living like "boring Mormons" in Utah.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Carmela really lays into Tony (although the ending shows the whole exchange never actually happened, Tony was hallucinating the whole time, so she was just a manifestation of his self-loathing depression):You fucking piece of shit. Going to dinner with you is a distant memory for me...but you have time to take her to lunch? You're sinking this whole family into your misery with your complaining...while I spoon-feed you and bathe you! A half-inch of another woman's thigh gets you out of bed? What am I, a fucking idiot? If I had an ounce of self-respect, I would cut your dick off!
- Sanity Slippage:
- Tony begins to hallucinate visions of the woman in white, Isabella, after taking the combination of Prozac and lithium pills. It's implied that the vision is an idolized maternal figure.
- Livia also begins to show signs of senility and fails to recognize Meadow for several moments when everyone meets to console Tony at the house after he's injured, although there's suspicious timing on this.
- Shout-Out:
- Tony nearly getting killed by Rasheen and Petite has a lot of similarities to when Vito was shot during The Godfather. Vito starts by buying oranges from an outdoor vendor. Tony starts by buying orange juice from an outdoor vendor. A pair of hitmen approach in each instance just as either is ready to return to his car. Both wind up unconscious, face down, and clinging to life after barely surviving the respective attempts on their lives.
- The assassins are derisorily referred to as "a Jamaican bobsled team," a Cool Runnings reference.
- Shown Their Work: Hallucinations are indeed one of the possible side effects of lithium.
- Unwanted Assistance: Mikey attempts to explain the nuances of the forthcoming hit on Tony to Junior, who is busy mourning at a funeral. Junior eventually tells him to shut up.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Uncle Junior vomits out the side door of his car.
- Wham Episode: Having sunk into a deep depression, Tony snaps out of it once he becomes the target of a hit placed by Uncle Junior and his own mother, barely surviving the attempt and killing one of his would-be assassins.
- Wham Line: When the Cusamano family returns from vacation and Tony asks Bruce what happened to Isabella, he has no idea what Tony's talking about, which leads Tony to the realization he was hallucinating her.Tony: So where's your... dental student?
Bruce: Heh. Where's my what? - What Happened to the Mouse?: Rasheen disappears after the failed hit on Tony, and isn't seen again in the series. It is unknown whether he survived the Enemy Civil War, as others in his crew (including Donnie and Clayborn) were killed as a result of the hit.
- Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Discussed. Chris tells Tony that they're feeding Jimmy false or incorrect information until they prove that he's wearing a wire and know what to do with him. He states that once the word comes down, Jimmy will be killed.
