Adriana La Cerva's informant status takes a psychological toll when Tony visits her club The Crazy Horse, hallucinating that Tony receives a tip and decides to mutilate and kill her. She then tracks Tony and others to the basement of the club and watches while they torture a man named Giovanni. Following her alienation from Deborah Ciccerone's undercover guise as "Danielle", the FBI assigns Adriana a new handler, Robyn Sanseverino.
Consulting her cousin Brian, Carmela requests that Tony sign a life insurance trust and make other investments, but he remains evasive at the prospect. After speaking to his own accountant, Tony learns that such a contract would benefit Carmela in the case of a divorce. He agrees to sign multiple papers, including one that authorizes Brian to invest in stock on behalf of himself and Carmela but refuses to sign the trust, angering Carmela.
As Bobby Baccalieri continues to grieve the loss of his wife Karen, his neighbor Janice zeroes in on him as a suitor. As Mikey Palmice's widow Jojo visits Bobby with a meal, Janice quickly intervenes, taking the meal Jojo had brought as a gift and brushing her off while taking care of chores around the Baccalieri household. She maneuvers a variety of frozen meals that are not hers, bringing Jojo's tray as a gift to Junior and later feeding Bobby and his kids with Carmela's lasagna.
Tony gets closely involved with Ralph's horse-racing investment after taking a shine to Ralph's racehorse Pie-O-My. Ralph disregards advice from the horse trainer but takes credence when Tony reiterates that same advice. This leads Pie-O-My to win a race, making major profits for Ralph, who gives a cut to Tony. As Pie-O-My continues to be a lucrative source of income, Tony (subtly) demands a larger cut of Ralph's winnings.
The FBI gradually integrates Adriana, revealing the falsehood of her misconceptions that Big Pussy Bonpensiero and her uncle Richie Aprile went into witness protection. During a meeting where Adriana positively identifies Giovanni from the Crazy Horse, an agent rushes off, suggesting this was vital information. Still conflicted, Adriana feigns sickness when she and Christopher are invited to dinner with the Sopranos, realizing this would only get her in deeper as an informant. Christopher is stressed out and worried that this will make him look bad when Tony has been grooming him lately and shoots up heroin. Though she does not generally partake in the drug, Adriana cracks under the pressure of her new duplicitous life and shoots up alone later.
Junior's trial continues, and he is embarrassed when the courtroom sketch artist draws a less than flattering portrait of him. He turns around in his seat to sternly face the artist on the next day of the trial, ensuring that a better likeness is captured. Meanwhile, Bobby's grief gets in the way of his work as a driver and enforcer for Junior. Janice realizes this will negatively affect Bobby's career, and encourages him to get back to work despite his loss. Bobby pulls it together and effectively intimidates a union boss into changing his vote, potentially changing the course of Junior's election. Later when Janice offers to prepare dinner for Bobby, she finds the last dish that Karen ever prepared, a tray of ziti. Bobby is appreciative of Janice's help, but still not ready to eat his wife's last meal.
Pie-Oh-My gets sick in the night, but the veterinarian refuses to treat the horse until his previous bills are paid. When Ralph gets the news, he pawns it off on Tony. Tony gets the call while being ignored at home by a distant and resentful Carmela, and irritated by AJ's loud music. Taking the opportunity to get out of his house, Tony travels to the stables to pay the veterinarian and sits with Pie-O-My.
Tropes:
- 555: Ralph gives the stable manager Tony's numbers when he doesn't want to deal with the vet bill situation. Wanna guess what the first three numbers in Tony's number are?
- Animal Lover: Tony's shown to be friendly and affectionate to all the animals in the stable, including the goat that the others are afraid will buck them. He immediately takes a shine to Pie-O-My.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Ralph promises Pie-O-My he'll turn her into a bottle of glue if she loses the race. He also tells the stable manager to instruct the rider to use the whip unsparingly on the horse to make sure it wins.
- Bait-and-Switch: The opening scene has Adriana ask herself, "What the fuck?" as though trouble she didn't want was coming through the door. But then she warmly greets Tony and Silvio as they come in. Could also double as Rule of Symbolism, since her original curse ends up reflecting more and more how she's really going to feel about the mobsters using the Crazy Horse as a place to conduct their own business.
- The Big Race: Pie-O-My wins a couple of races and nets big hauls for Tony and Ralph.
- The Bus Came Back: JoJo Palmice returns briefly for this episode, largely to lampshade that the entire DiMeo crime family, no matter what side of the Enemy Civil War in Season 1 they had been on, unites to console Bobby following his loss of Karen.
- Call-Back:
- Ralph gets involved with a young filly who occasionally has problems and to whom Tony feels a connection. Where have we seen this before?
- The song played over the end credits is "My Rifle, My Pony and Me" from Rio Bravo. Tony was seen watching the movie (and specifically, the scene in which the song appears) in "For All Debts Public and Private".
- Cigar Of Anxiety: Tony has one while maintaining an Unbroken Vigil over Pie-O-My.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Since the "money buried in Livia's house" plot wasn't going anywhere, Janice suddenly decides to set her sights on Bobby and morphs into this trope. Don't worry, the Janice we all loathe will be back.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: Tony and company gradually turn the Crazy Horse more and more into this, much to Adriana's chagrin and worry, since she originally understood that it would be her own thing. She becomes increasingly stressed over the heat that increased mobster presence will bring.
- Daydream Surprise: Adriana hallucinates briefly that Tony has discovered that she's The Mole and is about to kill her when he's really just talking finances with Carmela over the phone. She quickly snaps out of it, but she's still plenty scared about the situation she's been placed in by the FBI.
- Death Glare: Junior, trying to make sure the courtroom artist gets it right next time.
- Descent into Addiction:
- Chris slides harder and harder into this trope. Almost anything and everything that he perceives as a setback, including Adriana not wanting to go to dinner at Tony's house with him, becomes an excuse to shoot up.
- Hinted at as a possibility for Adriana. She samples some of Chris' heroin in response to the stress of being caught between The Mafia and the F.B.I.
- Dramatic Irony: Chris assumes the F.B.I. knows nothing of the Crazy Horse, and therefore Adriana has nothing to worry about. Little does he know ...
- Empathic Environment: The dark night of raining cats and dogs seems to coincide with Tony's real distress over the health and fate of Pie-Oh-My, and Adriana helping herself to some of Chris' heroin in response to the stress of being caught between The Mafia and the F.B.I.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Adriana is still really raw towards Ciccerone.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Tony is genuinely disgusted that the veterinarian refused to treat Pie-Oh-My, even while the horse was in danger of dying until outstanding bills were paid in full.
- Evil Is Petty: A classic Junior moment of pettiness: the courtroom artist drew an unflattering likeness.
- Excessive Mourning: Played with. Bobby has really shut himself down following Karen's death. Janice will eventually succeed in becoming his Second Love, but it's going to take a lot of time and effort on her part.
- Fat Comic Relief: Vito falls flat on the ground, and the office chair ends up in pieces. That can happen for anyone who sits back too far in such a chair, but it doesn't stop the others from cracking up at him on the assumption that his weight caused the mishap.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Subverted hard and again in the case of Janice. Uncle Junior lampshades that she's a gender-flipped version of Dads Can't Cook. Ties in with Spotting the Thread noted below.
- Foil: The episode doesn't even try to be subtle about contrasting Ralph as an example of Bad People Abuse Animals with Tony as the Animal Lover. Tony rushes to pay the vet bills without a moment's hesitation while Ralph, Pie-O-My's actual owner, can't be bothered.
- Foreshadowing:
- Adriana tries to ward off the FBI's attempts at intimidating her through Chris by emphasizing that as close family members, Tony would never hurt Chris. Anyone who's watched the series to its end will know how that turned out.
- Ralph says that he'll make Pie-O-My a bottle of Le Page glue if she doesn't win the race. Want to guess the horse's fate once her ability to win races comes to question in earnest? Further enhanced by the knowledge provided over the course of the episode that the horse has increasing medical concerns.
- Hesh lets on that he knows that Ralph's particular Fetish stems from Mommy Issues. It becomes a plot point later on.
- As for Pie-O-My, note also that just as Tony heads out to pay for the vet bills, his television is showing the 80th birthday speech of Winston Churchill. The words "I am now nearing the end of my journey. I hope I still have some services to render" become quite creepy in hindsight.
- Friend to All Living Things: Tony loves animals and this episode shows that in turn, animals love and implicitly trust Tony. He's able to soothe Pie-O-My who is in critical condition and a small goat that is kept in the stables to keep company and calm down racehorses runs towards Tony like his old pal.
- Gilligan Cut: Tony shuts down an effort by Carmela to put $10,000 into a legitimate stock investment. The next shot is of him retrieving about the same amount from the cash in the duck feed bin, so he definitely has a different kind of investment in mind.
- Holding Hands: Any lingering doubts that Janice may be interested in Bobby get removed when she takes hold of his hand.
- Hypocrite: Ralph remarks that the veterinarian has no compassion for animals. And yet we've seen that Ralph is a textbook example of a Bad Person willing to abuse animals if it suits his selfish purposes, and the whole situation arose because he was being a cheapskate over the vet bills to begin with because the horse is his.
- Implied Death Threat:
- How Bobby assures Uncle Junior is elected union president. An example is when he tells a union steward that if the rival candidate is elected, that candidate will screw him over so badly that the steward may find himself Driven to Suicide. Bobby makes a Finger Gun to his own head to emphasize the point. It's really a form of Double Speak to coerce the steward into changing his vote to Junior.
- Tony "motivates" the veterinarian to make sure Pie-O-My recovers.
- The Death Glare Corrado gives that poor courtroom artist could very well have overtones of this.
- It's All About Me:
- Everything that Janice does, as always, including her efforts with Bobby, is informed by her own selfish desires.
- Uncle Junior wants his own matters, like being driven to his trial and having his union business taken care of, attended to by Bobby. He's nonplussed by Bobby being in grieving over Karen. Even Bobby lampshades it, albeit in Junior's absence.
- Lady Macbeth: Janice shows signs of this when she "encourages" Bobby to go back to work.
- Manipulative Bitch: Janice may be genuinely interested in Bobby, but she also definitely has her own interests at heart first and foremost. A lot of her actions are meant to ingratiate herself with Bobby and give the appearance of selflessness at the same time. Note how she rolls her eyes when JoJo is giving Bobby advice on how to reheat the chicken marsala.
- Memento MacGuffin: The last Ziti dish Karen had baked. It will also double as Rule of Symbolism for when Bobby has finished mourning her and is ready to move on to the Second Love.
- Men Act, Women Are: Tony still has what many would, by today's standards and even then, consider dated views of gender relations. He believes he should be out doing the earning, and Carmela should stay in the house and not get involved in financial affairs.
- Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Janice calls on Bobby's obligations to his children to rouse him out of not caring about life anymore following Karen's death.
- Mirroring Factions: It's hard to see the FBI as any more ethical or moral than The Mafia. At one point, they're not above threatening Adriana by openly approaching her in her neighborhood to expose her in order to force her into another meeting.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Chris explicitly invokes this trope as a justification for his Undying Loyalty to Tony. "What I owe him, I would follow that man into hell."
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: This applies to Ralph of all people. He freely gives Tony money to reward him for his good advice and show his appreciation, only for Tony to bully him into giving him the lion's share of his winnings.
- Parental Substitute. Janice keeps wooing Bobby and one of her attempts is trying to win over Bobby's kids. She tries to act as their caretaker or even mother figure. It doesn't go over very well with them.
- Pet the Dog: Tony's love of animals comes up again and is portrayed as one of his redeeming qualities.
- Playing Sick: How Adriana gets out of having to go to dinner at Tony's house.
- Properly Paranoid: Whether he suspects an agenda or not, Tony's not going to sign papers that would leave Carmela reaping benefits if she divorces him.
- Rule of Symbolism: The last scene has Tony maintaining an Unbroken Vigil over Pie-O-My. And the goat that everyone was so scared of? It walks right up to Tony as though he were a familiar friend. The whole scene shows Tony, ever the Animal Lover, as a Friend to All Living Things because the animals implicitly trust him.
- Silent Treatment: Carmela pointedly ignores Tony and his attempts to converse after he refuses to sign the trust.
- Spotting the Thread: Janice has been passing off food made by the other Mafia wives as her own, and giving it to Bobby while making her moves on him. Uncle Junior knows she can't cook, and figures out what she's up to when he recognizes that the lasagna Bobby describes is Carmela's recipe.
- Stalker with a Crush: Janice spies on Bobby with binoculars while he's receiving gifts of food as condolences.
- The Strategist: Tony takes a turn at it. His idea of having Pie-Oh-May hold back, and save her energy for the victory lap, works perfectly and against the advice of more established experts. Pays off again when his strategy of having the horse sprint from start to finish in a shorter race also works.
- Take a Third Option: Adriana tries to get out of the Morton's Fork forced on her by the FBI by leaving herself in a position where she has little information of value to offer the feds. That includes refusing to set foot in Tony's house, which if the feds ever knew of would immediately put them in a position to force Adriana to divulge anything she heard in the house. In the end, she only ends up delaying the inevitable. She also tries some sly questioning to try and gauge Chris' willingness to leave New Jersey altogether for a new life. It only serves to anger him. Adriana also finds another way to navigate her Third Option partway into the episode. She gives them information on a heist pulled by Patsy Parisi, remembering well his confrontation with Chris. This willingness to give information on somebody she has a beef with to temporarily satisfy the hunger of her FBI handlers, while avoiding giving real information on those she cares about, like Chris, or those who could authorize her death, like Tony, becomes a Modus Operandi for her time left on the show.
- Through His Stomach: Janice tries to latch onto freshly widowed and still grieving Bobby through delicious food and taking care of his kids, albeit we soon find out she's passing off other peoples' food as her own.
- Unbroken Vigil: Tony maintains one over Pie-O-My after paying the vet.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Implied when Tony insists on a bigger taste of Ralph's winnings after the second race.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: The stress of her situation obliges Adriana to make a run for the cafe bathroom. So unlike a previous episode, we're spared the sight this time around.
