"I GET IT!"
"Let me tell you something. I've murdered friends before, even relatives... my cousin Tony... my best friend, Puss. But this?"
— Tony Soprano
Tony has his garbage workers bring in materials containing asbestos to Barone Sanitation. Phil, now the owner of Barone Sanitation, refuses to let in any more asbestos materials unless he gets a 25% cut from Tony. Tony gives the offer a hard pass and drives away with Chris. The sanitation workers eventually dump the asbestos into a lake.
Chris is notably agitated while driving and repeatedly fiddles with the car stereo, to Tony's outspoken irritation. Failing to pay attention to the road, Chris almost crashes head-on with a car driven by two girls, Heidi and Kennedy. His desperate efforts to swerve out of the way result in the car rolling over into the ditch. Tony suffers only minor injuries since he wore a seat belt. Chris wasn't, and his internal organs have been ruptured, causing him to bleed from the mouth. Tony exits the wreck to access the damage, and Chris, having clear trouble breathing, weakly pleads with him to call a taxi instead of an ambulance, as he won't be able to pass a drug test, having relapsed in his drug use. Tony begins to call for help but notices that a tree branch has pierced right through the baby seat in the back, and realizes that Chris' infant daughter would have been killed had she been there. Tony cancels the call and coldly pinches Chris' nose shut, causing him to choke to death on his own blood. It is only after Chris dies that Tony calls 911.
Tony is driven to the hospital, where he leads the medical staff and his family to believe that Chris died instantly from the crash and pretends to grieve Chris' tragic "accident". But the same night, he has a dream wherein he has a session with Dr. Melfi, and he admits to her he's glad and relieved that Chris is now dead, feeling that his demise has ridden him of his "biggest blunder". Tony goes on to admit that he also killed Pussy and Tony B before he awakes with a start. The next day, Tony tries asking Carmela if she feels any relief at Chris' death, which she denies. During an actual session with Dr. Melfi, he simply recalls Chris as an embarrassment and says he is content to never have to deal with his screw-ups again, confessing that he hates having to keep up appearances and feign being remorseful in front of his family.
Nucci (Paulie's aunt and adoptive mother) has passed away from a stroke at almost the same time as Chris. Very few people attend her wake since Chris' wake is on the same day. Paulie is not only devastated by Nucci's death but is angered by the sparse attendance, feeling that Chris has somehow managed to upstage him one last time. Tony and Carmela make a point of visiting Nucci's wake, which Paulie appreciates.
However, Tony is getting sick of being surrounded by people who do care for Chris and are genuinely grieving him. So he decides to take a trip to Las Vegas for some alone time. He receives a call from Phil, who rejects his demands to assist him with the asbestos removal and mocks him over Chris' death. He then pays a visit to Sonya (a former mistress of Chris'), and informs her that Chris died in a car accident. They end up small talking, with her asking if he has plans for his trip.
Jason Gervasi pulls up to join Jason Parisi and A.J. for dinner. He opens his driver-side door in front of an oncoming Somalian cyclist. The Jasons and another Italian youth gang up on the cyclist while calling him a "nigger" multiple times. A.J. is disturbed by the sight. He admits to his psychiatrist to feelings of hopelessness and trauma afterward.
Tony later returns to Sonya's place, and the two end up having sex and smoke marijuana together. She remarks to Tony that he reminds her of Chris in some ways, except that where Chris would talk about "some sad shit" at times, he seems "actually sad." Tony eventually talks her into getting some peyote as well. As the peyote starts to kick in, Tony and Sonya go to a casino together. Tony wins several roulette bets in a row and wins big. Intoxicated, he mutters, "He's (Chris) dead!" with an overjoyed expression on his face, and falls on his back. The pair later go out to observe a sunrise, while still high on peyote. The sun seems to flash and oscillate in Tony's eyes, moving him to repeatedly scream, "I get it!"
Tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: Tony yells "I get it!" when he sees the sunrise. It might seem like a Call-Back to the Aesops he acquired when he woke from his coma. But his behavior has been on the downturn since his coma. He also just won a few roulette bets in a row. And his jubilant mood and yelling "I get it!" is on the heels of murdering Chris, and feeling justified about it. Does the ending scene signify that he's freeing himself from the constraints of his Aesops, and feels justified in going back hard into his old ways?
- Alas, Poor Villain: Chris may have been somewhat of a Hate Sink and Jerkass, but given his constant struggles with his addiction, his loss of Adriana, at least trying to be a family man for Kelli and their daughter, and how the other mobsters treated him, it's hard not to feel for him on some level. And that's even as the man who himself has a LOT of responsibility for Chris' issues is the one who's in the middle of murdering Chris.
- All for Nothing: After everything Christopher did over the series to try to get Tony's respect and approval, he winds up being murdered by Tony himself when he decides Christopher is too much of a liability and he feels absolutely no remorse over the act.
- Alone in a Crowd: Tony is the only person (possibly besides Silvio) who's glad Chris is dead, and yet is having to spend so much time among people who actually did care for Chris and are genuinely grieving him. It prompts him to seek some alone time in Las Vegas.
- Anyone Can Die: You know this series intends to live up to the trope when even Chris, whom you could call the Deuteragonist of the series, gets taken out.
- Blatant Lies: Tony, when he pretends multiple times that Chris died in the accident itself.
- Blood from the Mouth: Chris, immediately after the accident.
- Bookends: Twofold. Tony and Chris' onscreen relationship ends as it began: with Chris driving Tony while wearing a baseball cap. Also, the pilot episode had Tony doting on a family of ducks living in his swimming pool; in this episode, after six seasons of character devolution, Tony's actions allow for asbestos to be dumped into a duck habitat.
- The Bus Came Back: Julianna attends Chris' funeral.
- Butterfly of Doom: Tony notices a branch that has pierced right through the baby seat in the back, and has the realization that Chris' infant daughter would have been killed had she been there. Tony has over the course of the series been given a lot of reasons to do away with Chris once and for all. He has constantly struggled between Chris being a liability and yet being his son in all but name. It's an open question whether he would have allowed Chris to live were it not for that sight, or if that sight was not a form of self-rationalization on Tony's part.
- Call-Back:
- In the pilot episode, when Christopher is first introduced, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony to New York City. Right before he dies, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony back from New York. According to an article in TV Guide, Michael Imperioli states that he does not know if this is intentional or a coincidence.
- Also in the pilot episode, a big subplot had to do with Tony's preoccupation with a family of ducks that made a home in his swimming pool, pointing to one of his initially redeeming qualities. In this episode, marking arguably the character's lowest moral point, Tony either authorizes or apathetically allows asbestos to be dumped in the marshland, which we can hear is a duck habitat.
- In "The Strong, Silent Type", when Tony discovers during the intervention that Christopher accidentally sat on and suffocated Adriana's dog, Cosette, he remarks that he "ought to suffocate" Christopher. Coincidentally, Christopher dies suffocating on his own blood as Tony smothers him.
- Right after the scene when Christopher's death is confirmed to Carmela, Tony awakes suddenly from a dream of Kelli hearing the news to the sound of a crow cawing, just prior to Silvio and Paulie's entering Tony's room to offer condolences. Christopher saw a crow at his making ceremony initiating him into the mafia in "Fortunate Son", which he interpreted as a bad omen.
- In "Chasing It", Carlo relates to Tony The Twilight Zone (1959) episode, "A Nice Place To Visit", in which a dead gangster, Rocky Valentine, finds himself unable to lose when gambling and able to have any woman or any other pleasure he desires. Originally, he believes himself in Heaven, until it is revealed he is actually in Hell. In this episode, Tony finds himself in a similar situation while in Las Vegas, winning at roulette and having sex while high on peyote. Also, at one point during this trip, he encounters a flashing red devil logo on a slot machine.
- Compensated Dating: Sonya becomes involved with both Chris and Tony (among others), and also works as a stripper to put herself through college.
- Continuity Nod:
- Tony and Phil mention the Barone Sanitation sale, which happens in "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh".
- Tony keeps his bets small and few when he's in Las Vegas. He's apparently kicked his former gambling addiction.
- Carmela tells Tony that it was Christopher who comforted her in the hospital when Tony got shot by Junior in "Join the Club".
- At the end of the episode, Tony sees a flash of light over the canyon with the sunrise, and shouts, "I get it!" This may be the same flash of light he sees (but looks away from) in his hotel room during his coma at the end of "Join the Club".
- Crapsack World: How A.J. starts to see the world after his friends gang up on the Somalian cyclist.
- Crocodile Tears: No actual tears from Tony, but he wears a long face and pretends to be sad along with the others who attend Chris' wake and funeral.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Tony was wearing his seat belt, so he emerges from the wreck with minor injuries. Chris wasn't, so his internal organs have been ruptured, and he's bleeding from the mouth. Tony pinches Chris' nose shut, causing him to choke to death on his own blood.
- Death Is a Sad Thing: Almost everybody is overcome with grief at Chris' death, but especially Kelli, his mother, and Carmela. Silvio and Tony are the apparent notable exceptions.
- Dies Wide Open: Chris, although the look on his now-dead face is still one of sadness and seeming to look away from Tony.
- Double-Meaning Title:
- Kennedy and Heidi are the names of the teenage girls driving the car that nearly collides with Christopher's vehicle. Heidi refuses to stop after the accident for fear of losing her learner's permit for the curfew violation.
- Tony remarks that Chris's wife, Kelli, behaves and dresses like Jackie Kennedy at Christopher's wake.
- Tony then hides over in Vegas
- May be a reference to the Chappaquiddick incident, in which Senator Ted Kennedy left Mary Jo Kopechne to die in a car crash.
- Drugs Are Good: Tony and Sonya really enjoy themselves with marijuana and peyote.
- Drugs Are Bad: On the other hand, Chris's high driving causes him the crash, and him being back on he wagon has made Tony decide he's had enough.
- Drunk Driver: Chris, while he's high on heroin. He ends up in the ditch after almost driving head-on into Heidi's car and swerving desperately to avoid a crash.
- Due to the Dead:
- Played straight for the most part with Chris' funeral, as plenty of people attend and are grief-stricken. Tony is the notable exception.
- Subverted for Nucci. Hardly anybody attends her funeral.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Chris stares at Tony full of hate and the feeling of being betrayed, even as he's powerless to stop Tony from pinching his nose shut.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Paulie is devastated over Nucci's death. And he's beside himself over the fact that hardly anyone showed up at her funeral because Chris' funeral was the same day.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Tony has a surprised look on his face when he can hear over the phone that Carmela is really broken up about Chris' death.
- Evil Gloating:
- Jason Parisi mocks Victor by giving him a Finger Gun.
- Phil rubs Chris' death in Tony's face.
- Evil Is Petty: It is heavily implied that Phil is taking a hard line against Tony on the asbestos as a way to get back at Tony for past slights any way that he can. And of course, he indulges in some Evil Gloating over Tony on account of Chris' death. And the capper? Phil quickly hangs up just as Tony says, "This is me hanging up".
- Foreshadowing:
- A rather immediate example from Chris, "Life is short."
- Carlo stays downstairs while the other mobsters are gathered around Tony's bed, and the others notice it multiple times.
- A.J. is taking a class on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- Gag Nose: Chris' prominent schnoz allows Tony to maintain a firm grip on it in order to suffocate Chris.
- Gilligan Cut: Tony tells Dr. Melfi that he feels regret for murders he's committed in the past: namely Tony B. and Big Pussy. As for Chris, he says, "But this ..." The next shot is of him snoring in bed before waking.
- Gut Feeling: Carmela notes that Julianna is a "good-looking woman", and clearly suspects Tony of having been involved with her.
- Innocently Insensitive: One of the mobsters gathered around Tony's bed mentions that Chris was dedicated to rehab since he threw Little Paulie out the window, much to Paulie's chagrin. Silvio has to tell him, "Let's not go there!"
- Irony: A.J. and Jason Parisi are listening to rap music. The two Jasons and another Italian youth gang up on a Somalian youth and give him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown mere moments later for being a "nigger ... in the wrong neighborhood".
- Just Keep Driving: Heidi and Kennedy panic and drive away after watching Tony and Chris's car run off the road.
- Karma Houdini: Tony feels this way since after having just murdered Chris he's now having the time of his life with Sonya high on Peyote. And the feeling is reinforced by winning big with several roulette bets in a row. It leads to his Aesop Amnesia.
- Kick the Morality Pet: Tony's impulsive murder of Christopher, the same man who saw Tony as a Mentor in earlier seasons.
- Killed Off for Real: Chris.
- Living Lie Detector: Tony tells several mobsters gathered around his bed that Chris suffocated on his own blood after the accident. The camera makes a point of focusing on Silvio. The twitch in his facial expression conveys that he has instantly figured out that Tony grabbed the chance to kill Chris. But since Silvio was just as happy to see Chris go, he decides to Maintain the Lie.
- The Load: Chris, and why Tony is jubilant to Dream!Dr. Melfi that he's relieved that he'll never have to worry about another screwup from Chris ever again.
- Lonely Funeral: Paulie is disgusted by the low attendance of Nucci's funeral.
- Meaningful Name:
- The title refers in part to John F. Kennedy getting murdered and leaving Jackie behind. Kelli looks rather like Jackie at Chris' funeral. Tony even lampshades it.
- The girl who drove away is named Heidi. The classical Heidi character brings out the best in her caretaker. Is Heidi in this episode an Inversion in that she helps bring out the worst in Tony?
- The Mistress: Tony, while he's in Las Vegas, pays a visit to Chris' mistress, Sonya.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Paulie thinks all the grief he gave Christopher over his addictions may have contributed to his death.
- Never My Fault: Tony thinks Chris is to blame for his own death because of his drug addiction. He arguably would have been right if he had not undermined his nephew's attempts to sober up and bullied him over his addictions.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Jason Gervasi pulls up to the curb, and opens his driver-side door in front of an oncoming Somalian cyclist. An argument ensues. The two Jasons and another Italian youth gang up on him and beat him to a pulp.
- No Sympathy: Tony admits he feels none for Joanne, regarding her as a Neglectful Mother to Chris while he was alive.
- Pet the Dog:
- Paulie expresses regrets over how he treated Chris while he was still alive.
- Tony tries to make Paulie feel better, who is upset over so few people showing up for Nucci's wake.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Jason Gervasi was upset plenty over his damaged driver-side door. But to give the Somalian cyclist a beating for that reason would have been a case of Disproportionate Retribution. The additional and probably real reason for the two Jasons and another Italian youth giving the cyclist a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown was that he was a "nigger" "in the wrong neighborhood".
- Pride: Tony refuses to give Phil the 25% cut because he doesn't want to leave the impression that he'll always Kneel Before Phil whenever Phil demands it.
- Remember the New Guy?: Walden Belfiore, seen briefly with Carlo at the Bing in an earlier episode, accompanies the core mobsters to Tony's bedside to receive news of Chris's passing. From this episode forth, and without so much as an introduction, he's a DiMeo family mainstay. Partially justified in that Walden's job seems to be bodyguarding and goon work, both of which will soon be in high demand with a Mob War looming, but his abrupt addition to the crew can still feel jarring.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- The spinning of the roulette wheel. Is Tony going to spend the rest of his life spinning wheels, unable to break out of what his life has been?
- Tony, unlike his previous bouts with gambling addiction, actually wins several roulette bets in a row and wins big. He then proclaims "He's (Chris) dead" with an overjoyed expression on his face while high on peyote. Is Tony's luck turning around for the better?
- Shout-Out:
- Chris inserts the soundtrack for The Departed just before the accident, which may invite some comparisons to the Will Costigan character. Specifically, the song playing during the crash itself is "Comfortably Numb" as performed by Van Morrison and The Band from the Berlin 1990 performance of The Wall.
- The scene where the two Jasons and another Italian youth give a Somalian cyclist a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown is practically a carbon copy ripoff of a very similar scene in A Bronx Tale. Both scenes feature Italian youths beating on black cyclists for coming into the wrong neighborhood. Both scenes feature protagonists who are very reluctant to partake in the violence and are shocked by the spectacle.
- A.J. unintentionally quotes Rodney King word for word: "Why can't we all just get along?"
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Tony has lots to say about Chris post-mortem. He does it freely in front of Dr. Melfi (albeit in a dream). He does it with others as well but in a far more cryptic fashion.
- Spotting the Thread: Tony looks intensely at Chris, who's trying to raise the volume on the car stereo system. He realizes that Chris is Off the Wagon and high on heroin. Chris confirms it after the crash.
- Stunned Silence: Dr. Melfi is at a loss for words when Tony tells her exactly how he felt about Chris dying.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: The first song that plays after Chris inserts the soundtrack for The Departed is "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. The lyrics are from the perspective of someone too doped up to act and describe dashed hopes over a lifetime, growing from a child to a man with responsibilities, trying to get through to someone who's closed in on himself, and relief from suffering being on the horizon. Also doubles as Foreshadowing for the fate Chris is about to suffer.
- Title Drop: The two girls Chris almost hit on the road call themselves by their first names.
- Toxic, Inc.: Tony's sanitation workers dump a truckload of asbestos into a lake filled with cat reeds and ducks and other lifeforms, which means they're about to ruin an ecosystem. It's unclear if Tony authorized it, or if the workers got impatient waiting for the green light from Tony while worrying about getting busted by the authorities for carrying it illegally.
- Toxic Waste Can Do Anything: What to do with asbestos, and the dispute between Tony and Phil over it, provides a springboard for a lot of the drama in this episode. It is Truth in Television that overexposure to it over time can cause cancer. The way the garbage workers react to it, and the way it's described, start to give it Phlebotinum properties in-universe.
- Tragic Keepsake: Subverted. Tony contemptuously throws away the "Cleaver" coffee mug.
- Viva Las Vegas!: Tony takes a trip to Las Vegas to take some time away from all the maudlin mourning for Chris.
- Wham Episode: The series-long resentment between Tony and Chris culminates in Tony murdering Chris by making him suffocate in his own blood after a car accident. What makes it all the more shocking is that it happens in the beginning of the episode with little build-up, whereas almost all main characters (even ones who have spent far less time with the audience than Christopher) up until this point died at the end of a significant episode.
- What You Are in the Dark:
- Heidi refuses to go back to where Chris's car went into the ditch, as she only has a learner's permit without a proper supervisor. And no one besides Kennedy is there to know about it.
- The episode makes a point of showing a car's distant lights barely becoming visible over the top of the ditch as it drives past Chris and Tony. It emphasizes that nobody can see what is happening in the ditch at night. Tony is well aware that he has the opportunity to kill Chris and get away with it. And once he's made his decision, he grabs that opportunity with both hands. It is only after Chris is dead that he calls 911.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: An unusual variation where Tony dislikes Sonya comparing him to Chris, as though that's supposed to be positive. And by now we know Tony would definitely think reminding a stranger of Chris would mean something must be wrong with himself.
