Tony: My estimate historically, 80% of the time it ends up in the can like Johnny Sack or on the embalming table at Cozarelli's.
Bobby: Don't even say it.
Tony: No risk, no reward.
Bobby: I mean, yeah, our line of work, it's always out there. You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?
Bobby: Don't even say it.
Tony: No risk, no reward.
Bobby: I mean, yeah, our line of work, it's always out there. You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?
We see a flashback of Johnny Sack getting arrested two years prior, and Tony discarding his gun while fleeing. A neighboring teenager sees Tony and takes it for himself. In the present, Tony is arrested for possessing a gun that can fire hollow-point ammunition. The teenager, arrested for possession of cocaine, cuts a deal to provide evidence against Tony.
Phil is given a welcome back party after recovering from his heart attack. He expresses a desire to live more quietly and anoints Gerry as his successor. Doc Santoro joins the party as a senior made man, but it's obvious most of the other New York mobsters can't stand him.
The county police make a big publicity deal out of arresting Tony on the gun charge. But the federal DA quashes the prosecution and takes over the gun charge. The federal prosecutors don't proceed right away on the gun charge but hold onto it as a RICO predicate. Tony is still stressed out over matters, so he accepts an invitation for him and Carmela to join Bobby and Janice at their lakeside cabin.
Tony and Bobby have a discussion about both the benefits and downsides of mob life. They agree that early death is more likely than not. Tony notes that Bobby has yet to "pop his cherry" when it comes to committing murder, while Bobby Sr. was a legend as a hit man (i.e. "The Terminator").
The couples enjoy each other's company that night, starting with karaoke and then a Monopoly game. Tony's and Janice's resentments against each other, going back to their childhoods, surface under the encouragement of alcohol. Tony makes repeated crude insults against Janice, despite multiple warnings by Bobby to stop. Tony ignores the warnings, and Bobby punches him square in the face. The two massive men get into an all-out brawl with each other, which sees Bobby leaving Tony a bloody mess on the floor.
Bobby panics at the realization that he has just beaten the boss of the family. He tries to drive away, but only succeeds in backing into a tree. Everyone goes to bed for the night. Tensions between the four continue the next day and end only when Tony and Bobby leave for a business meeting with a couple of Quebecois men.
Tony and Bobby meet with a pharmacist from Quebec along with his brother. The brothers offer expired pharmaceutical drugs at a discount that can be sold for a profit in America so long as the expiry dates are altered. Tony tries to bring the initial purchase price down, but the pharmacist is initially hesitant. It turns out that the pharmacist's sister is embroiled in a legal battle for custody of her daughter, with her ex on the other side. Tony agrees to have Bobby kill the pharmacist's brother-in-law in exchange for the lowered production price.
Bobby struggles with anger and guilt over his new assignment, even lashing out angrily at Janice. He travels to Montreal and carries out the hit on the brother-in-law. He returns to the cabin, both struggling with his guilt and yet elated to see his family again.
Tropes:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy:
- Tony's Jerkass behavior was under the influence.
- Bobby backs his car into a tree while loaded.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Tony reminds Carmela that she fell for him by witnessing him winning a fight in high school against a bully. That doesn't stop Carmela from calling him out and expecting him to behave more like an adult nowadays.
- Bad Boss: Janice is quite abusive towards Domenica's nanny, even though Nica seems to share more of a mother-daughter bond with the nanny.
- Barbarian Longhair: The pharmacist's brother-in-law has it.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Bobby has off and on expressed a frustrated desire to move up The Mafia ladder and take on more responsibilities. He learns the hard what it can entail, doing things that he may be uncomfortable with and will grate on his conscience. And sure enough, Tony puts him up to murdering the brother-in-law of the Quebecois pharmacist.
- Berserk Button: Bobby often takes flak and abuse from the other mobsters when it's directed only at him and to the point of letting himself become a card-carrying Butt-Monkey. Do or say anything that's hurtful, emotionally or physically, to any member of his immediate family? Whole different story...
- Beware the Nice Ones: Tony makes one crude joke too many at Janice's expense. And he learns the hard way that even a Gentle Giant and Nice Guy like Bobby has his limits.
- Birthday Episode: A large part of the focus is on celebrating Tony's birthday.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Bobby finishes off the pharmacist's brother-in-law.
- Cassandra Truth: The way Mink recaps the county's case for Tony's weapon charge to the judge (that a teenage drug addict who was caught with cocaine and the gun by the police made a plea deal and testified that he saw Tony drop the gun and took it for himself over two years prior) makes it sound completely far-fetched. It's also exactly what happened.
- Character Development:
- Meadow shows her gradual descent into becoming Daddy's Little Villain when she asks Carmela with vehemence if the police show of force was for no other reason than to humiliate Tony. It shows that she's starting to rationalize her becoming a Mob Amoral Attorney as safeguarding the civil rights of Italian-Americans.
- Tony during the early seasons never batted an eyelash over taking advantage of civilians who he considered indebted to him. But he did his utmost to make sure innocent civilians never got hurt or murdered. Now we see him assign Bobby to murder the Quebecois pharmacist's brother-in-law, who as far as we know wasn't doing anything other than fighting a legal custody battle for his daughter against the pharmacist's sister. And Tony does it simply to enlarge the profit he will get on a pharmaceuticals deal. Tony is definitely going hard into Aesop Amnesia.
- Bobby has been slowly moving upwards in the mob hierarchy since his introduction and correspondingly has become more cunning, charismatic, and willing to commit violence as a result. However, the hit on the pharmacist's brother-in-law constitutes the final hurdle for Bobby, who has hitherto never killed anyone. While Bobby will remain the Token Good Teammate until the end of his time on the show, he will also become less morally righteous and thus more powerful in the family as a result of the hit, such that by the end of the series Tony is actively asking him directly for advice.
- Characterization Marches On: Gerry's hair is shorter and darker. And nobody reacts to it in any way in-universe.
- Chekhov's Gun: The county police initially make a big public show about arresting Tony for the gun he threw away while fleeing Johnny Sack's house. The federal DA takes over the gun charge but doesn't proceed on it right away. Although Tony doesn't have to worry about anything right now, the federal DA is holding onto the gun charge as a RICO predicate.
- Continuity Nod:
- The first scene of the episode is a flashback to Johnny Sack's arrest during the winter of 2004.
- Carmela mentions the house on the shore she and Tony once wanted to buy and Tony, irritated, changes the subject.
- Janice makes a reference to Tony's pet dog, Tippy.
- Tony refers to Bobby's father as "The Terminator".
- Janice describes to Carmela her previous boyfriend who once hit her and she "exploded" in anger against him.
- Carmela mentions to Janice on the lake that Tony slapped A.J. and added that he "felt horrible after it for days."
- Cool Uncle: Domenica by now has really taken a liking to Tony.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Bobby gives the pharmacist's brother-in-law a gunshot to the chest. The brother-in-law is shown in total agony and desperately fighting for every breath he can until Bobby finishes him off with a Boom, Headshot!
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Tony, up until now, has ended any physical confrontation he's ever had with either a Curb-Stomp Battle or a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Bobby is every bit the hulking behemoth Tony is. And he ends up the only character in-universe to leave Tony a bloody mess on the floor and still standing up with barely a scratch.
- Do You Want to Haggle?: Tony gets the Quebecois pharmacist to knock down the purchase price of the pharmaceuticals in exchange for having Bobby murder the pharmacist's brother-in-law.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Phil glares when an unnamed mobster makes a joke about Tony going down on some sheep. Also doubles as a Shout-Out to the scene where Nicky Santoro seems overly sensitive about a crack made by Henry Hill during GoodFellas.
- Bobby does not take kindly to Tony's crude jokes about his wife Janice.
- Evil Is Petty: Tony forces Bobby into killing the pharmacist's brother-in-law as petty revenge for Bobby handing his ass back to him during the fight.
- Fish out of Water: Blanca is still very much a case of Penny Among Diamonds. She asks with incredulous surprise how Tony could have gotten released so early on a serious charge, with the implication that early release is the exception rather than the norm for the Latino neighborhood she comes from.
- Flashback combined with Call-Back: We see the scene from the Season 5 finale where Johnny Sack gets arrested. This time, we now see a neighboring teenager watching from his window as Tony flees in a panic and throws his gun away. Now we have an idea of how that gun becomes a Chekhov's Gun.
- Flipping the Bird: Tony gives one to the officer behind him after getting cuffed.
- Foreshadowing:
- Depending on your interpretation of the show's ending, the scene with Bobby and Tony on the boat is filled with this.
- Within the episode itself, Tony lampshades that Bobby has yet to "pop his cherry" when it comes to actually killing someone.
- Bobby is listening to a story about terror bombings in Iraq on the radio.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The New York mobsters observe surface courtesies with Doc Santoro when they're face to face. But any further than a few feet, and it becomes obvious they can't stand to be in the same room as him.
- Glory Hound: Clearly the case with any of the DAs who are after Tony. The federal DA in particular tears one off the local DA for grabbing a "cheap headline".
- Guilt Complex: Bobby really struggles with the assignment to murder the pharmacist's brother-in-law, both before (when he takes out his anger on Janice) and afterward.
- He's Back!: The New York mobsters throw a welcome back party for Phil.
- Hypocrite: Tony accuses Bobby of starting the fight with a sucker punch. Yet every fight Tony has ever won has been started with a sucker punch.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Tony gets sensitive about Janice's remark that their relationship has improved on account of Tony changing (but no ownership by Janice of anything she's done).
- Irony: Carmela tells Janice that: "Tony is not a vindictive man." We soon see just how vindictive he can be, and at Bobby's expense.
- It Gets Easier: Subverted by Bobby Sr. Bobby relates that his father, despite a long track record as a hitman, never enjoyed it and often wished he could limit himself to just being a barber and not committing any more murders.
- Jerkass:
- Tony, whether by mocking Bobby directly or making crude jokes about Janice despite repeated protests by Bobby, spends the whole Monopoly game begging Bobby to clock him. And sure enough, it happens...
- To be fair, Janice egged him on as well ...
- Just a Gangster: Tony and Bobby admit to each other, even as they're well aware of the drawbacks (e.g. probability of dying early), that they'll never know another life besides the mob one.
- Karaoke Bonding Scene: The wives enjoy themselves with it as Tony and Bobby watch on.
- Kick the Dog: Tony forces Bobby to murder the pharmacist's brother-in-law, even though he's well aware that Bobby is uncomfortable with the action. And Tony is motivated not just by profit, but by spite towards Bobby for kicking his ass during the fight.
- Large Ham: Phil finds the energy for it, even after his heart attack.
- Male Gaze: Tony ogles and honks a bikini-clad water skier. Subverted by Bobby, who is faithful to Janice and refuses to even steal a glance.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The look on Bobby's face after he whoops Tony's ass says it all.
- Nervous Wreck: Bobby becomes one upon realizing he beat the shit out of the recognized boss of the family.
- Never My Fault:
- Tony refuses to admit any fault or weakness. Admit that Bobby legitimately handed his ass back to him? Admit that he provoked Bobby and Janice? Admit that he's still a total Jerkass with all kinds of lame excuses for his behavior? None of it.
- Janice herself has plenty of excuses for her Jerkass behavior and being a bad mom. Estrogen pills?
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Essex County District Attorney brings a weak weapons charge against Tony that has no chance of getting a conviction as a PR boost. The U.S. Federal Attorney pays him a visit to berate him for potentially blowing the RICO case the F.B.I. has been building against Tony for several years.
- Oh, Crap!: Tony, when his facial expression belies that he knows exactly which firearm the county police are referring to.
- Passing the Torch: Phil expresses a wish to enjoy a quieter life with his grandchildren. He then pats Gerry affectionately, thereby anointing Gerry as his successor.
- Pride: Getting his ass handed back to him by Bobby works to bring out the worst in Tony, which is saying a lot.
- Promoted to Opening Titles: Gregory Antonacci, who plays Phil Leotardo's underboss Butch De Concini on the show, is promoted to the main cast and billed in the opening credits, but only for this episode.
- Pun: Tony says of the stuffed deer mount: "He's gonna pass (on offered food). He's stuffed."
- Rule of Symbolism:
- Tony is watching the lake from a lawn chair on the dock. A wind blows through the trees behind. He notices it but scoffs and goes back to watching the lake. He's apparently well on his way to Aesop Amnesia.
- And then a duck flies by him, but he doesn't even notice.
- Rules Lawyer: Bobby, during the Monopoly game.
- Serious Business: Bobby is a rules zealot in Monopoly.
- Shout-Out: Bobby comments during the boat trip with Tony that when a wise guy gets whacked, he probably doesn't even hear it. A tip of the hat to the scene where Henry Hill gets arrested near the end of GoodFellas. Henry muses that he knew it was cops on account of all the blaring sirens and the officers screaming at him. Henry also notes in the same breath that he wouldn't have heard a thing if it had been wise guys sent to take him out.
- Sibling Rivalry: Tony's resentments against Janice, going back to when they were kids, come to the fore after he's had plenty to drink. It fuels his Jerkass behavior towards Janice and Bobby.
- Title Drop: A collection of past home movies is Janice's present to Tony, and he says "Soprano Home Movies" out loud.
- Ungrateful Bastard:
- Tony feels Bobby is one for slugging him despite Tony leveraging Johnny Sack's house for Janice and Bobby.
- But Tony is himself one when he hangs up on Chris who calls to wish him a belated happy birthday.
- Vacation Episode: Tony and Bobby and their wives spend some time at a lakeside cabin.
- Visual Title Drop: Tony watches one of the "Soprano Home Movies" of him and Janice playing when they were kids.
- We All Die Someday: Combined with a deconstruction of Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster! Bobby and Tony have a discussion on the boat, and both are well aware that dying early is more likely than not when they're part of The Mafia. Tony himself admits that at least 80% go early to their grave.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Janice chews out Bobby for beating the crap out of the recognized boss of the crime family.
- Carmela in turn calls out Tony for provoking Bobby.
- Carmela, shortly afterward, does chide Janice for taunting Tony, and Bobby for "taking unfair advantage" of Tony, who only recently recovered from major surgery.
- You Are What You Hate: Overlaps with Like Mother Like Daughter. How Janice treats Domenica when she forces her out of the lake water is a dead ringer for how both Janice and Tony remember Livia treating them.
