Melfi: I see.
Tony: Did I ruin your Christmas?
Tony visits the Asbury Park boardwalk to meet with Paulie. Before Paulie arrives, Tony flashes back to 1995 during the holiday season, when he met with Jackie Aprile, Sr., and Pussy Bonpensiero, both now deceased. In the flashback, Pussy references being involved with heroin, which would eventually get him flipped by the FBI, and already exhibits rather suspect behavior. Back in the present, Paulie arrives. When Tony mentions that he was reminiscing about Pussy, Paulie insists that he has put it behind him.
With Christmas approaching, the Sopranos are in a rush to prepare for the holiday. Tony checks his Christmas "to-do" list and suffers a panic attack before he even gets out of bed. Janice, meanwhile, insists on cooking Christmas dinner to relieve Carmela of the burden. While Tony visits his sister, she complains of pain in her wrist from the Russian who attacked her in "Employee of the Month". Tony adds "Janice's Russian" to his list. He gets the name of the man, Igor, from Slava, an associate in the Russian mob with whom Tony is on friendly terms. Slava offers to take care of it, but Tony insists that he wants to do the job personally.
As Tony and his guys prepare for Christmas festivities at Satriale's pork store, Silvio finds the Santa outfit and realizes that they do not have a Santa for this year, as Pussy had always played the role in the past. Tony mentions his recent memories of Pussy to Silvio, unsettling him as well. Silvio later has a nightmare where he finds Pussy caught in a mousetrap in the Bada Bing, and visits Tony. They begin to speculate as to when Pussy might have been turned, recalling a time he went to Boca Raton and was briefly MIA, missing a sitdown he was meant to mediate between Junior and Jackie, Sr. This flashback also shows a younger Jackie, Jr., who was fairly dimwitted but regardless praised and doted on by his father.
The newly divorced Charmaine Bucco starts displaying more cleavage while working as the hostess at Vesuvio's. She attracts the attention of Tony, Paulie, and Silvio, who attempts to flirt with her, but when she makes a joke about seeing FBI agents nearby they are unamused. Artie confronts her claiming she's a hypocrite for flirting and acting friendly with the mobsters she wanted him to stay out of business with. Charmaine snaps back that her work as a hostess is getting them more business than Artie's cooking. Carmela, meanwhile, is suspicious that Tony is interested in Charmaine, revealing that she knows they dated in high school.
Tony and Furio get into the taxi driven by Igor, the Russian who attacked Janice, and leave him bloody and beaten inside a Christmas display, with a Santa hat on. Janice is inspired by this to add more of a "brother angle" to the Christian Contemporary song she's been working on. After searching for a new Santa at Satriale's, with Tony himself turning down the part, the guys settle on Bobby Bacala. The shy Bobby is strongly opposed to doing this but is forced into it. He makes a very flat Santa and even antagonizes one child. In another flashback, Tony recalls that when Pussy dressed as Santa in 1995, he bristled when anyone tried to touch his belly. By contrast, he was also very good in the role. Tony tells Silvio that he thinks Pussy was already wearing a wire in Christmas of '95.
At Vesuvio's on Christmas Eve, Tony tries to make a move on Charmaine but she tells him in no uncertain terms that she isn't interested, and doesn't like having Tony and his associates at her restaurant. His ego bruised, Tony quickly leaves with Silvio, who shows interest in visiting a new strip club that opened across town, to "check out the competition". At this strip club, they encounter Jackie, Jr. receiving a lap dance. When Tony confronts him he uses the same excuse that he did at the casino, claiming he's there for a bachelor party. Tony drags him into the bathroom and beats him, taking the gun he got from Ralphie before kneeing him in the gut and leaving him whimpering on the floor. Tony tells Jackie, Jr. that he "bottomed out".
On Christmas morning, Tony's "to-do" list is complete, and the Soprano family enjoys a peaceful and relaxed gift exchange. Jackie, Jr. shows up to give Meadow a gift and share a tender moment while Tony watches ruefully. Jackie then talks to Tony in the kitchen, revealing that he flunked out of Rutger's. Tony is unsympathetic, telling Jackie that he hasn't decided "what to do with him". Tony returns to the living room where Meadow gives him a gift. Upon opening it, it is revealed to be a Big Mouth Billy Bass. Carmela and AJ both find the singing fish hilarious, while Tony pretends to laugh along and suppress panic as the toy once again reminds him of Pussy.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Was Pussy an informant in 1995? The flashbacks heavily imply as much, as seen in his body language, his inquisitiveness about business at an unusual time, and his missing the sitdown between Jackie Sr. and Junior. However, given how these memories are being viewed from Tony's point of view, it's possible the audience is seeing them from a biased perspective. Additionally, in the previous season, it was stated by Skip Lipari that Pussy had been working for them since 1998, something that Pussy himself reiterates in the finale before his death. This would imply either a retcon of the timeline established in Season 2 or a case of Tony and the crew being overly paranoid.
- Anxiety Dreams: Silvio has one where he sees a thoroughly dead Pussy lying in the closet room of the Bing. It causes him to wake with a sweating start.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
- Tony hunts down the Russian who beat Janice and gives him an even bigger beating. When she sees the news report she's inspired to add a verse about "brotherhood" into the CCM song she's writing with Aaron.
- Tony and Meadow start to patch things up post-Noah when Meadow gives Tony a particular gift. Of course, it only Foreshadows another rough patch right around the corner.
- Bad Job, Worse Uniform: How Bobby regards getting roped into becoming the new Santa. Tony and the rest of the crew don't exactly disagree with him either, even as they force him into it. Made even worse in that it provides yet another excuse for the rest of the crew to crack You Are Fat jokes at his expense.
- Bad Santa: Tony's actions during the episode effectively turn him into a villainous version of Santa Claus.
- Even from the beginning, he's having to make decisions about who gets what pieces of action from the Esplanade project in the manner of a gift-giver.
- He provides money and gifts to Slava so as to grease a favor for himself (analogous to accepting cookies at midnight).
- He keeps and constantly checks a list of things he needs to do leading up to Christmas. Some of them are helpful, some of them not so much, so much so that the list itself invokes the Rule of Symbolism. The whole exercise is evocative of the Christmas carol verse: "He's making a list, he's checking it twice. He's going to find out who's naughty or nice."
- The painfully shy Bobby Bacala, pressured into the role, isn't the best Kris Kringle. He's harsh and abrupt with the children, shooing through the line like assembly workers, and even gets into a shouting match with a five-year old boy.
Paulie: It would kill him to say "ho ho ho?" - Bait the Dog: Tony's final scene with Jackie Jr. teases the possibility of a Last-Second Chance for the latter to turn himself around. Tony is at a loss as to what to do with him but seems willing to see where his newfound honesty and devotion might lead. The next episode will drive home that this change of heart is only fleeting, if it was genuine at all, and that Jackie will always slide back into vice.
- Big Brother Instinct: Tony finally gives the Russian thug-cabbie the (offscreen) Revenge No-Holds-Barred Beatdown as reprisal for beating Janice.
- Blatant Lies:
- Jackie Jr. gives Meadow a necklace as a Christmas present. The inscription on the back reads: "To M.S. from J.A. I will always be true." Note Tony in the background with barely contained Tranquil Fury.
- One scene later Jackie admits that he has flunked out of Rutgers. But he proceeds to try and convince Tony that he's going for fashion design instead. Problem is, that Tony found the gun that Ralph gave him when Tony beat the crap out of him. Therefore, Tony knows Jackie is wanting to break into the mob, leading to the Implied Death Threat noted below.
- Call-Back: Carmela has been noticing that Charmaine has been Cleaning Up Nicely since leaving Artie. And that reminds her of when Charmaine, during an earlier episode, told her of having slept with Tony but not taking it further. It prompts Carmela to argue with Tony more than once during the episode and contributes to a brewing tension that will test their marriage to its limits.
- Paulie reflects that a high water point of Junior's feud with Jackie Sr. was when the former hijacked one of the latter's trucks. An amusing tidbit, given how determined Junior was to redress the injustice of this happening to him in the first season.
- Characterization Marches On: Bobby isn't quite the affable mobster that he's later known as, and this is shown in his attitude towards playing Santa.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Valery, who plays a major role in the following episode.
- Christmas Episode: As, ah, complicated as the sentiment is, the episode does take place in the days leading up to Christmas, culminating in the unwrapping of gifts.
- Cleavage Window: Charmaine indulges in this, not out of preference, but out of perceived necessity to keep the restaurant going. Given what we've seen of Charmaine so far in the series, suggesting she's suffering from D-Cup Distress while she's doing it is not unreasonable.
- Clothes for Christmas Cringe: When the Sopranos are opening presents on Christmas morning, AJ is annoyed when he opens one from Nana and finds it's another sweater.
- Compliment Backfire: Tony tries to compliment Charmaine on looking good. She responds with "The Reason You Suck" Speech that combines Your Approval Fills Me with Shame and an accusation of having been a Toxic Friend Influence on Artie, as noted below.
- Continuity Nod: The Big Mouth Billy Bass gift again reminds Tony of his dream of Big Pussy appearing to him as a fish.
- When Tony brings Silvio down into the basement to discuss Pussy, he mentions that Meadow took the only desk lamp with her to college. The same lamp that was secretly bugged by the FBI, in the first episode of this season.
- Creepy Souvenir: The Santa outfit that Big Pussy used to wear effectively becomes this for Tony and the guys.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Tony beats the utter crap out of Jackie Jr. Jackie didn't fight back, but it probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway.
- Dramatic Irony: During the Christmas flashback, Silvio sees Pussy in the Santa costume and does one of his signature Godfather impressions "I know it was you, Fredo", unwittingly predicting that Pussy, like Fredo in The Godfather Part II, is the traitor.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Charmaine pranks Tony and his associates by saying that there are FBI agents at another table. Sil is not amused.Silvio: She's over here joking about the FBI! Since when is that funny?
- Evil Laugh: Tony and Furio, wearing Santa hats, can't help themselves when they get in the car with the Russian cabbie.
- Flashback Echo: Tony remembers back to a meeting between himself, Jackie Sr., and Big Pussy. There's more than one layer to the echoes.
- Tony had to warn Pussy against dealing heroin because of the heat it would bring, while Pussy was himself feeling the pressure to earn more. When Tony meets Paulie at the same spot by the shore, Paulie wants a piece of the Esplanade action. It doubles as Foreshadowing as Paulie will himself venture into actions that can be considered disloyal when he feels he's hard done by.
- Tony and the other mobsters are forced to remember Pussy on account of the Santa vacancy, and they periodically scratch their heads over how they couldn't see that Pussy may have been The Mole even as far back as that earlier meeting at the beach, and when he didn't make the sit-down between Jackie Sr. and Uncle Junior.
- Tony seeing Bobby in the Santa suit prompts the Flashback of when Pussy wore the suit shortly after the sit-down that he was absent for. Tony realizes that Pussy had his Hidden Wire in the suit since he was sensitive about Paulie touching it, and Pussy started asking for details about the garbage business as a front during what was supposed to be a festive occasion.
- Foreshadowing:
- Tony notes that Janice's wrist is still bandaged up from her previous run-in with The Mafiya. It reminds Tony that he still has some unfinished business to attend to, which he adds to his Christmas errands list.
- Tony walks into a building for a meeting with Russian mob boss Slava. His brother Valery, who's busy Drowning His Sorrows, demands Tony sit down for a drink. Doubles as Establishing Character Moment for Valery, even if he's only around for one more episode.
- Tony tells Paulie and Silvio about how his new Goomah, Gloria, is the perfect woman to be involved with. He even says word for word: "Too Good to Be True". He has no idea how right he'll turn out to be.
- Charmaine, during an argument with Artie, hints that his cuisine by itself hasn't been pulling in the customers like it used to. This theme will get expanded on in a future episode.
- Tony starts to press Paulie about why he saw a psychic, shortly after Paulie says that Big Pussy can continue to "sleep with the fishes". It will turn out that Paulie will have his own turn with disloyalty.
- Gilligan Cut: Tony and Silvio remark how a rat like Big Pussy often gets flipped in a matter of hours and shows up again that very day in order to throw off the targets of the sting. The next scene is Paulie asking Silvio and Tony what they're getting their Goomahs for Christmas. Doubles as Foreshadowing that Paulie will himself engage in disloyal behavior.
- Honor Among Thieves: It's apparent that Tony and Slava have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with each other. Tony is resolute on avenging Janice's beating, but he gets permission from Slava first before going through it, so as to keep the relationship intact and avoid repercussions for the Jersey mob, like a gang war with The Mafiya.
- Hypocrite:
- One of the many times Tony shows his Moral Myopia and complete lack of empathy; he beats the stuffing out of Jackie Jr. for getting a lapdance from a stripper while still dating Meadow, yet Tony is already back to cheating on Carmela.
- Artie accuses Charmaine of being one for sporting a Cleavage Window.
- Implied Death Threat: Tony figures out that Jackie is wanting to forge a place for himself in the Jersey mob. Tony doesn't want it, both because of the promise he made to Jackie Sr., but also because he knows that Jackie would become an even bigger liability than Chris has ever been. So Tony tells Jackie: "I haven't decided what to do with you." That can be translated to: "Stay out of it, or else ..." Also doubles as Foreshadowing.
- It Was a Gift: Meadow's gift of a Big Mouth Billy Bass to Tony.
- It's a Small World, After All: Tony becomes angry after getting "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Charmaine, and wants to leave the Vesuvio restaurant. Silvio is curious to check out his competition in the form of a recently opened strip joint when Tony wants to leave. That same strip joint is where Tony can catch Jackie Jr. cheating on Meadow with a lap dance. There's just enough plausible Narrative Causality to keep the unfolding of events from becoming an all-out Contrived Coincidence.
- Men Can't Keep House: Gender subverted. It's Janice, a lazy Gold Digger who always wants the easy path to riches, whose house is an absolute mess.
- Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: The Jersey crew puts on a Santa Claus lineup for the local kids, with Bobby being Santa.
- Obfuscating Disability: It's strongly implied that Aaron faked his narcolepsy episode to avoid having to interact with Tony and Carmela in any way.
- Papa Wolf: Tony is pretty forceful in expressing his growing doubts about Jackie Jr.'s fitness for Meadow.
- Precision F-Strike: A little kid gives Bobby one as Santa when Bobby insists that kids only get to line up for him once.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Charmaine really lays it on Tony when Tony tries to compliment her. Part of it is Your Approval Fills Me with Shame, and part of it is an accusation that Tony has had a Toxic Friend Influence on Artie, which in turn has impacted her marriage.Tony: Carmela was right, you look great.Charmaine: (snorts) Thank you.Tony: I'm trying to give you a compliment.Charmaine: Well don't.Tony: What's your fucking problem?Charmaine: All these years I've sat here and kept my mouth shut. I didn't want you and your boys comin' in here. And look what happened. Look what you've done to my husband.Tony: Artie? I'm trying to help him.Charmaine: Well, good luck. Because he's a friggen' mess.
- Rejected Apology: Tony never accepts any of Jackie's numerous apologies throughout the episode.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Tony's late nights out have Carmela suspicious. He does have someone on the side, of course, but she's out of the country, and he's just getting into fights.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Tony, Paulie, and Silvio have this reaction when they notice Charmaine sporting a Cleavage Window.
- Spotting the Thread: Averted in the case of the Russian cabbie. He reacts when he sees Tony in the rear-view mirror, but he's unable to make the connection that Tony has a Strong Family Resemblance to Janice until it's too late.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music:
- The Big Mouth Billy Bass sings Al Green's "Take Me to the River". The lyrics include: "Take me to the river, drop me in the water".
- The episode ends with a shot of the tide coming on the Ashbury boardwalk, and the gospel song "I've Got a Feeling" playing in the background. The lyrics of the gospel themselves emphasize not fearing death for the prospect of Dying Happily Ever After and going to Heaven.
- Tranquil Fury: It's all Tony can do to stop himself from giving Jackie Jr. another beating while Jackie is getting sweet with Meadow on Christmas morning.
- We Used to Be Friends: Tony grows wistful thinking about his friendship with the late Pussy. So does Paulie, even though he castigates Tony.
- Working with the Ex: Artie and Charmaine are still working together at Nuovo Vesuvio, in a situation that doesn't make either of them happy.
