Chris is watching Saw II as inspiration for his Cleaver movie project. His new girlfriend, Kelli, walks in on him and informs him that she is pregnant with his child. He proposes to her on the spot and cries while he's holding her. It's obvious that the tears are ones of regret for not being able to have children with Adriana instead.
Paulie and Patsy visit Father Jose in the local Catholic parish, with the intention of organizing the annual Feast of Saint Elzear. Father Jose tries to pressure Paulie into raising the donation to the parish from $10,000 to $50,000 and even threatens withholding the golden hat from being displayed at the festival unless he gets the increased donation. Paulie decides to dispense with the golden hat. The fair begins, and the crowd is noticeably upset that the statue is being paraded around without the cherished item.
Chris and Tony have a bonding moment when they hold up bikers who are stealing wine from a liquor store and then enjoy the trip back together. They celebrate with a restaurant dinner on the way back. Chris has stayed clean but relapses when Tony encourages him to have some of the wine to celebrate his pending marriage.
Chris pays Corky his fee for helping to set up the hit on Rusty Millio. The fee includes some heroin as a bonus. Corky immediately begins to shoot up. Chris gives in to the temptation and samples some of the heroin himself. He spends the rest of the night at the fair on a drug high while petting a dog that resembles Adriana's past dog, Cosette.
Carmela sees Liz, the mother of Adriana, at the fair. Liz is angry and expresses her suspicions that Chris murdered Adriana. Carmela confronts Tony, who of course maintains that Adriana has disappeared for good after voluntarily leaving Chris for another guy.
Paulie meanwhile takes extreme measures in cutting down costs for the fair. That includes not paying for more recent rides and neglecting to pay for maintenance and repairs to ensure the safety of the rides. An accident occurs where a child loses several teeth, and a woman breaks her arm. Janice, her infant daughter, and Bobby Jr. were on that ride but emerge unscathed. Janice nonetheless fakes neck pain in anticipation of a lawsuit. Bobby beats the owner of the ride and learns about Paulie Cutting Corners. He becomes absolutely livid and charges Paulie at the fair, and several men have to hold him back. The crowd looks disapprovingly at Paulie, and rumors begin to circulate about his reckless cost cutting.
Nucci in turn calls Paulie out for his role in recent events. He responds angrily. Tony in turn gives Paulie a talking to. Paulie then admits that there is something else on his mind. He's been in pain since one of the Colombian thugs kneed him in the groin. He's stressed out while waiting for the results of a prostate cancer biopsy. Tony tells Paulie to snap himself out of his superstitious thinking, and focus on the tasks at hand. Tony also orders Paulie to settle Bobby's outstanding grievances.
It turns out that Paulie still gets spooked out by the arrival of 3:00 a.m., and tries in vain to call the cancer clinic. He hangs up and then goes to visit Nucci in Green Grove. They quietly watch television together, while the wind blows outside Nucci's window.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Phil is remarkably pleasant towards the hot dog vendor at the fair.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: Tony and Christopher come across two bikers stealing fine wine. When they decide to steal the wine from them, the bikers arrogantly proclaim, "We're with The Vipers!" Tony and Christopher are naturally unimpressed.
- Babies Make Everything Better: What Chris hopes for.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Bobby has been the gentle giant and Nice Guy among the main characters of the show, even to the point of letting himself be a card-carrying Butt-Monkey for the others. But the thought that his children, especially his baby girl, could have been hurt on that ride because Paulie was Cutting Corners puts the Wrath of God into him. He goes after Paulie fully intent on a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, and Paulie becomes visibly terrified of that very thing actually happening.
- Blatant Lies:
- Chris decides to Maintain the Lie that Adriana left him for some other guy.
- Tony also lies through his teeth that Adriana is alive and well but in parts unknown.
- Continuity Nod:
- Chris pets a stray dog that looks like a larger version of Adriana's beloved Cosette while he's high on heroin.
- Carmela asks Tony if he's ok with what's in the fridge, on the heels of him being a Jerkass to her over there not being any cold turkey in the fridge last episode.
- Paulie still gets spooked out by the 3:00 a.m. thing, so he makes another call to the cancer clinic.
- Corrupt Church: Father Jose may not necessarily qualify as a full-blown Sinister Minister. But his insistence on $50,000 to hold the Feast of Saint Elzear gives at least the local parish shades of Corrupt Church. And it solidifies with his insistence on withholding the golden hat from the festivities unless he gets his raised donation plays out like outright extortion.
- Cutting Corners:
- Paulie first refuses to pay the extra $40,000 to adorn the statue of Saint Elzear with the golden hat.
- Then he takes being a cheapskate to the point of not paying for more up-to-date rides, or not paying for repairs, to the point that the rides themselves are dangerous.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Tony shows shades of it during his therapy session with Dr. Melfi, and projects it onto everyone attending the fair as well.
- Double-Meaning Title:
- The episode's title most directly refers to a faulty amusement ride at the feast, on which Janice, Bobby III, and Domenica were all riding.
- Tony spins Domenica around as in a ride.
- The title may also refer to the ride to Pennsylvania Tony and Christopher were taking when they stole the wine and bonded.
- It may refer to the philosophical "thrill ride" discussed by Tony and Dr. Melfi - something people are ready to pay their money for and actively seek to temporarily escape their mundane lives.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Phil when he cuts Johnny Sack out of the vitamins score. He's not The Starscream in that he isn't actively seeking to oust Sack. But he reckons he may as well line his own pockets on the assumption that Sack is on his way to being a has been. It will end up having consequences Phil didn't foresee.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Paulie shows up at Nucci's home, in a very penitent mood, and starts watching television with her.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Chris feels hurt even more during the Flashback when Tony checks him for surveillance wires.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Bobby absolutely loses it at the thought that his children, especially his infant daughter, could have gotten hurt on one of the rides on account of Paulie Cutting Corners.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Bobby has a point about making sure the rides were safe.
- Evil Feels Good: Tony and Chris really enjoy themselves when they rob the bikers.
- Evil vs. Evil: A couple of bikers are robbing a liquor store. Tony and Chris in turn rob them, and Chris even wounds one of them.
- Flashback: We see the moment when Chris betrays Adriana to Tony.
- Freudian Excuse: To be fair to Paulie, he is legitimately worried about the prospect of prostate cancer in addition to having to run the fair.
- Friend to All Children: It's actually Tony who manages to calm down Janice's bawling baby daughter, and even gets her laughing.
- Friendly Enemies: Tony and Phil agreeing to share the vitamins score represents probably the high point in their interactions with each other.
- Friendship Moment: Chris and Tony robbing the bikers together and bonding afterward represents the high point in their relationship.
- Honorable Marriage Proposal: Chris proposes to Kelli pretty much the instant she tells him he got her pregnant.
- Hypocrite: Chris tells Corky with reference to the heroin: "You know, you really gotta get yourself some help with this shit." Right before he dives in himself.
- Likewise, Tony dresses down Paulie for drawing negative attention to the family due to cheaping out on the fair...in the same episode where he and Chris perform a gunpoint heist on impulse, including exchanging fire with the other criminals, an incident which could easily have drawn major negative public attention had it gone pear-shaped.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Chris takes out the tire of the bikers' van in a flash. He also manages to shoot one of the bikers at a distance while Tony is driving away.
- Kick the Dog: Tony and Phil cut John out of profits from a heist despite both knowing that his family is in a terrible financial situation.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Completely subverted during the Flashback. Chris makes himself emphatically clear to Tony that he can't personally kill Adriana, even though he'd otherwise be the perfect Trojan Horse to sneak up on her for the deed. So Tony has Silvio do it instead.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Chris starts to let loose a few Manly Tears when he tells Kelli that he couldn't have children with Adriana. It's obvious that, notwithstanding the Honorable Marriage Proposal, he isn't really into Kelli and wishes he could have had children with Adriana instead.
- Living Lie Detector: Tony knows Janice is Playing Sick in anticipation of a lawsuit when she starts feeling her neck in pretend pain and bluntly tells her to give it up.
- Manly Tears: Chris sheds a lot of them while giving up Adriana to Tony during the Flashback.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: At one point, Paulie has a vision of the Virgin Mary at the Bada Bing. The fact that her reflection can slightly be both seen just a few seconds prior and then when she's on screen from behind calls into question if this was really her or not.
- Metaphorically True: Technically, Tony is telling Carmela the truth when he tells her Christopher didn't kill Adriana. Of course, Christopher did tell Tony she was working with the FBI and this led to Silvio killing her on Tony's orders while Christopher helped cover it up.
- My Master, Right or Wrong/Bros Before Hoes: Chris definitely lives up to these tropes when he gives up Adriana to Tony.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Subverted. One of the bikers drops the gang name of "Vipers" as though the mere mention of it is supposed to send Chris and Tony fleeing and peeing in their pants. Suffice to say neither of them are very impressed.
- Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: The Jersey mob has run the yearly festival to cultivate themselves as Villains With Good Publicity. Leave it to Paulie to screw it up in a matter of days with his Greed.
- The crowd instantly expresses displeasure when the statue of Saint Elzear is brought out without its golden hat, which Paulie could have avoided had he been willing to fork over $40,000 more to Father Jose.
- Then an accident occurs where a child and a woman get hurt on one of the rides because Paulie didn't want to pay for the work needed to make it safe.
- Bobby's children were on that ride, so Bobby goes after Paulie fully intent on giving him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. It takes several men to hold Bobby back.
- But Bobby does enough damage by publicly accusing Paulie of Cutting Corners to the point of making the rides themselves unsafe. Paulie gets Shamed by a Mob.
- Tony even lampshades the negative
publicity repercussions for him.
- Never My Fault: Paulie refuses to take responsibility for his role in what goes wrong at the fair, at least for most of the episode.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Bobby shows he's not a man to mess with when he confronts the ride's owner, and later Paulie.
- Off the Wagon: Chris helps himself to some of the stolen wine with some encouragement from Tony. He then does some heroin while paying Corky.
- Oh, Crap!: Paulie, a veteran killer, and soldier for The Mafia, puts on a brave face when Bobby starts coming toward him. But it's easy to tell that he's scared shitless of a one-on-one throwdown with Bobby, who is every bit the hulking behemoth Tony is.
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Tony again takes this line against Paulie, who works himself into all kinds of stress and worry over the unconfirmed possibility that he may have prostate cancer.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Adriana's mother is in a lot of anger and pain on the entirely correct Gut Feeling that Adriana was murdered by the Jersey mob.
- Pet the Dog: In the flashback, Tony could've easily forced Christopher to kill Adriana, but agrees to have someone else do it after Christopher tearfully begs him not to.
- Despite their animus (past, present, and future), Tony extends the olive branch to Phil by informing him of the vitamin import job, and Phil is genuinely grateful.
- Playing Sick: Janice starts to pretend to feel neck pain when she hears a Chekhov's Lecture on negligence torts from Kelli and Meadow. Then she starts wearing a neck brace.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Chris lets out a sarcastic "El Mucho Pesos" at the thought that the parents of the Puerto Rican kid who got hurt may have a legitimate lawsuit. Tony adds: "Good, so they'll have excuses then when they can't go to work".
- Pragmatic Villainy: Tony tears a strip off of Paulie for lousing up the whole Feat of St. Elzear situation, citing how such celebrations aren't the universal draw they used to be (thanks to video games, the internet, etc.), and how their organization doesn't need the negative attention.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- The statue of Saint Elzear is adorned with cash bills from its neck to its feet.
- A wind blows outside Nucci's home while she and Paulie are watching television together. Is Paulie buying into the same Aesops as Tony?
- Shamed by a Mob: The entire crowd looks disapprovingly at Paulie after Bobby publicly accuses him of Cutting Corners to the point of making the rides themselves unsafe.
- Shout-Out:
- Chris is watching a scene from Saw II, with the films themselves providing inspiration for his Cleaver movie project.
- Christopher calls Tony "The Bad Lieutenant". The film is full of religious undertones and Catholic iconography similar to this episode. In one scene, the unnamed Lieutenant sees a vision of Christ just as Paulie sees a vision of the Virgin Mary at the Bada Bing!
- Stout Strength: It takes several men to hold Bobby back from closing in on Paulie.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: "Dolphins" by Tim Buckley is playing while Chris is getting high on heroin. The lyrics themselves reference "Saturday's Child", while the eternal search for a dolphin suggests a "Shaggy Dog" Story. There's additional Foreshadowing in that Buckley died after overdosing on heroin after months of staying clean.
- That's an Order!: Tony orders Paulie to settle Bobby's outstanding grievances over the ride.
- The Topic of Cancer: Paulie is in quite a bit of anxiety over his lingering groin pain, and the possibility that it may be prostate cancer.
- Tough Love: Nucci calls out Paulie for his responsibility in the riding accident.
- Visual Title Drop:
- Chris and Tony during their trip to Pennsylvania.
- The numerous rides at the fair.
- The statue of Saint Elzear being paraded at the fair.
- Wham Line: From Bobby, "Hey cocksucker!"
- Yank the Dog's Chain:
- Tony and Chris celebrate their wine theft in a restaurant afterward. Tony, knowing Chris has kept himself clean, encourages Chris to have some of the wine to celebrate his pending marriage. Chris relents.
- And again during dinner, Tony makes a point of saying the wine has lost a little of its "pop" in a deliberate attempt to taunt Chris.
