Tony: What for?
Adriana grows closer to "Danielle", the undercover identity of FBI agent Deborah Ciccerone. One night at the Crazy Horse, the conversation turns to children, and Adriana emotionally confesses that she may be unable to conceive because of complications from an abortion she had once. Christopher arrives later with Little Paulie Germani, whose advances are rebuffed by Danielle. In light of this, Christopher becomes convinced that Danielle is a lesbian.
Meadow slums around her parents' house, spending her time sunbathing and hanging out with her friend Misty while procrastinating registering for classes at Columbia. When confronted about her lethargy, she blames it on grief over Jackie Jr's death. She later reveals her plans to take a gap year and travel to Europe with Misty, based on vague plans of getting involved with the production of a music video. Tony and Carmela attempt to discourage this. When Tony brings it up with Dr. Melfi, she takes Meadow's claims of grief seriously and offers to refer her to a colleague.
At a birthday dinner for Albert Barese, at which Tony and many other family members are present, Ralph makes a joke about Ginny Sacrimoni, the overweight wife of Johnny Sack. After Tony has left the dinner, Silvio discusses plans to restructure the family, with Christopher taking on the role of acting captain in the absence of Paulie, who is in jail out of state on a gun charge. Little Paulie, his nephew, visits him and references Ralph's joke about Ginny Sack. Paulie, who has been cozying up to Johnny Sack to earn favor with the Lupertazzi family, is unamused.
As acting captain, Chris receives a "no-show" job at the Esplanade construction site while Patsy Parisi and others receive "no-work" jobs where they still have to be present. Patsy, disappointed that the no-show went to Tony's nephew instead of him despite his years of loyal service, subtly points out expensive fiber-optic cables at the construction site when Christopher visits, giving him an ambiguous gesture. Patsy then has the cables jacked. Tony is angry with Christopher for allowing this to happen on his watch, as legal scrutiny is bad for business on a huge investment like the Esplanade. When Christopher confronts Patsy about it, he claims Christopher gave him the go-ahead non-verbally through a "look".
After hooking up at the Soprano house during the birthday dinner for Rosalie, Ralph and Janice begin an affair. While they watch Faces of Death together at Livia's old house, Tony arrives unexpectedly and Ralph hides upstairs. Tony finds his shoe in the kitchen and immediately identifies its owner, expressing disgust at Janice's choice of boyfriend. Later, Ralph plays basketball with Vito Spatafore and discusses the situation, revealing the resentment still brewing between himself and Tony.
In the back of the Crazy Horse, Christopher parties with Adriana and Danielle. While kissing Adriana he puts his hand on Danielle's thigh, attempting to initiate a threesome despite her resistance. Adriana sees what's going on and gets into a fight with Christopher while Danielle quickly leaves. Christopher manages to convince Adriana that Danielle was pulling his hand onto her, and they reconcile while Adriana cuts all contact with Danielle.
Silvio is skeptical of Tony's decision to promote Christopher over other, more seasoned members of Paulie's crew. When he voices these concerns to Tony, he is dismissed. Later, Patsy meets with Silvio, who gives him the go-ahead to steal floor tiles from the Esplanade site, undermining Tony's previous orders. As the situation repeats itself, with Tony chastising Christopher, Christopher drives to the Esplanade and shouts at Patsy for his insubordination. The confrontation escalates and Christopher pulls a gun on Patsy, while a frightened Adriana watches from the car. She then witnesses Patsy brutally beating a bystander with a pipe and is shocked by the violence.
As Meadow continues to argue with her parents about going to Europe, Tony tells her to just go, undermining the united front between himself and Carmela. Meadow visits the colleague Melfi recommended, Dr. Wendy Kobler. However, despite Tony and Carmela's expectation that this session will convince her to resume classes at Columbia, Kobler actually encourages Meadow's eurotrip, dismissing any accountability on Meadow's part. She also bizarrely asks Meadow if she has ever been molested by her father. Despite her rebellious streak, Meadow still upholds Omerta during the session, refusing to acknowledge that the Mafia even exists, much less that her father is involved. Kobler's influence throws Carmela and Tony's plans into disarray, and they have an explosive fight with Meadow, during which she refers to her father as "Mr. Mob Boss", insinuating that she believes him responsible for Jackie Jr.'s death. Tony furiously yells at Meadow that her whole lifestyle is contingent on his work, and she leaves the house crying.
As Adriana refuses to answer Agent Ciccerone/Danielle's calls, she meets with Harris and Cubitoso and they decide to bring Adriana in on drug charges. They pick her up on the sidewalk, with Ciccerone dropping the act, and bring her back to their office. Cubitoso lays out the situation to Adriana - she will work as an informant and give them dirt on Tony Soprano, or she will go to prison for years on a charge of possession with intent to sell. He and Ciccerone warn Adriana that she and Christopher will be killed if Tony finds out that she brought an undercover agent into his house. Completely backed into a corner, Adriana vomits all over the table, with Cubitoso getting hit as well.
Silvio visits Tony's house the next morning, learning that Meadow has run away, and may or may not have gone to Europe. In the basement, Tony shuts down Silvio's minor insubordinate streak, reasserting his authority. He goes upstairs to Carmela and they have a brief exchange. Carmela claims that Meadow blames her more than Tony, though not specifying for what. Meanwhile, Meadow finally signs up for classes, selecting a pre-law course called "Morality, Self, and Society".
Tropes:
- Bad Boss: Sure, Chris got promoted. But the flip side of that is that Tony tears new ones off of him more than ever. So he still feels this way about Tony.
- Big Brother Instinct: Tony is genuinely concerned that Ralphie won't be any good for Janice. She doesn't listen.
- Blatant Lies: Tony maintains the lie that Jackie was killed by Black drug dealers. Dr. Melfi sees right through it.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Meadow may be older and in college (for now), but it's pretty hard to tell apart the Meadow in this episode from the one we saw in the first two seasons.
- Call-Back: Tony pointedly reminds Janice that he had to take the last mobster she dated out of the house in a garbage bag.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Adriana cuts off her friendship with Danielle on the perception that she was after Chris. It ends up contributing to an Outside-Context Problem that obliges the FBI to change tactics.
- Close to Home: Danielle saying "if I ever have a baby" triggers this reaction in Adriana, since it becomes a painful reminder that she's now suffering the Law of Inverse Fertility.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Tony tries to impress on Chris why stealing fiber optic cables from the construction site risks the "big fucking picture", Chris asks, "Aren't they insured?"
- Continuity Nod:
- Silvio, Patsy, and Little Paulie discuss the no-show and no-work jobs for Paulie's crew. In "To Save Us All From Satan's Power", Paulie tells Tony that Tommy Angeletti, a contractor for Ralphie's Esplanade Project, owes him $100,000 from betting on college basketball. Since Ralphie held out Angeletti for more money, he is unable to pay back his debt. Paulie requests that Tony give him the jobs as compensation.
- When Chris and Patsy get into a fight at the construction site, Chris warns Patsy that he didn't forget about his sniffing Adriana's underwear. Patsy responds that it wasn't him. This is a reference to the incident in "Second Opinion", wherein Paulie and Patsy barge into Chris and Adriana's apartment demanding their cut of Chris' score of designer shoes. While searching around, Chris spots Paulie, not Patsy, sniffing Adriana's underwear.
- While talking to Dr. Kobler, Meadow mentions that she was irritated by Junior's singing Italian ballads at Jackie Jr.'s wake, and the attendees' sentimental reactions in "Army of One".
- Tony makes reference to Richie Aprile while talking to Janice, reminding her that "...I had to haul your last boyfriend out of your kitchen in a Hefty bag." Tony had Christopher and Furio remove Richie's body from the kitchen of Janice's home after she had murdered him in "The Knight in White Satin Armor".
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: One of the ways that the mobs take advantage of the Esplanade project. Some of them get either no-work jobs where they have to show up but just get to sit around in lawn chairs pretending to be on call, or no-show jobs where you don't even have to show up on-site. It also has other benefits besides an extra cash stream from the government funds allocated for the construction itself. It allows them to file tax returns and legitimately accrue health benefits and the like, which also helps deflect concerns about Suspicious Spending. A form of money laundering in other words.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Sibling variation. Janice seems primarily attracted to Ralphie because Tony has a problem with him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Meadow takes it up to eleven in this episode, with "Mr. Mob Boss" being one of the most well-remembered lines ever uttered in the series.
- Descent into Addiction: Chris is sinking further and further into his heroin addiction in response to the pressures of his line of work.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers both to the no-show jobs allocated for the Esplanade project and to Meadow running off toward the end.
- Dramatic Irony: Chris tells Adriana that he thinks he has Danielle figured out. He explains that Danielle is single with no boyfriend, no other friends, and cold approaches Adriana out of the blue. A lot of first-time viewers were left thinking that Chris was about to blow open Danielle's cover. But it turns out that he thinks Danielle's a Lipstick Lesbian who has the hots for Adriana.
- Dude, Not Funny!:
- Silvio's reaction to Chris' joke about getting a Paulie-style skunk stripe.
- Paulie's reaction to the mole joke, given his recent overtures to Johnny Sack.
- Chris' reaction to Patsy's "spores in the envelope" joke.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Adriana is floored when she sees that Danielle is an undercover cop stinging her the whole time. The feelings of betrayal are magnified considerably on account of Adriana having told Danielle some intensely personal stuff that was really Close to Home, especially about being a victim of the Law of Inverse Fertility.
- Euphemism Buster: Ralphie praises Janice's "Earth mother" qualities, but Vito references her "big tits."
- Evil Gloating: Chris can't help but rub it in Patsy's face that he got the no-show job.
- Exact Words: Playing one-on-one, Ralphie insists that Vito put up "a little defense," so Vito raises one hand. Half-way.
- Fat Comic Relief: Ralphie cracks his infamous joke about Ginny Sack needing to have a 98-pound mole surgically removed from her behind. Every other mobster in the room enjoys it immensely. They had little idea of the enormous blowback that could have resulted from it.
- Foreshadowing:
- The first hint we get that Carmela and Furio will develop a thing for each other is when Meadow's friend asks about the "guy with the ponytail". Carmela starts to check her hair and clothes, clearly suggesting a self-conscious worry on her part about how good she'll look in front of him.
- Adriana suffers from the Law of Inverse Fertility on account of an abortion gone wrong. That fact will turn out to be a crucial tipping point for a decision Chris makes next season.
- Heroic BSoD: Meadow seems to be in one even well after Jackie's death.
- Hidden Depths: Itemizing Janice's physical attributes, Vito correctly points out that her curly hair has a
Pre-Raphaelite
quality. Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight later. - Honest Advisor: Aware of the resentment the others already feel towards Christopher's promotion to acting captain, Silvio advises Christopher that it's a big responsibility and he needs to take the job seriously. Naturally, Christopher brushes him off and creates problems with his flippant attitude.
- A House Divided: The first time that we truly see this trope in play, at least among the main cast of characters. The DiMeo crime family had been a divided house in season one, but Uncle Junior and Mikey were the only characters from the other side we saw with any regularity. Since then we've seen Tony and the guys united against fringe pretenders and Friends Nobody Likes, such as Richie and Jackie Jr. and Ralph. Now we start to see real divisions cropping up among the main cast. Several guys, Silvio included, are unhappy that Patsy was Passed-Over Promotion when they felt he had done more over a longer period of time to earn it. Likewise, there is resentment towards Chris being promoted on the perception that it amounts to Nepotism when he hasn't done enough or shown enough quality to earn it. It is now that we see regular characters start to actively undermine Chris and defy Tony's authority. And then there's Paulie, who's now turning in earnest to Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal.
- Hypocrite: Tony berates Silvio for giving the nod to jack the floor tiles, then takes his cut.
- Improvised Weapon: Patsy picks up a pipe when Chris threatens him with a gun. He then takes it to the face of a construction worker who threatens to call the cops.
- In Spite of a Nail: The New York and New Jersey mobs over the course of several more episodes will manage to smooth things over and cooperate with each other on the Esplanade project. But matters hung in the balance for quite some time. Ralph's fat joke at Ginny Sack's expense could easily have ended up as the Butterfly of Doom that totally blew everything apart.
- Insistent Terminology: Despite Meadow uniformly calling her dead ex "Jackie," Dr. Kobler repeatedly calls him "Jack." Meadow finally pushes back.
- Ironic Echo: Tony chews Chris out for not seeing the "big fucking picture" when it comes to allowing side jobs that could expose the Esplanade project to the cops. Moments later Chris berates Adriana for not seeing the "big picture" when it comes to Danielle. The problem is that he doesn't see the big picture when it comes to Danielle either.
- Jerkass: Without any provocation, Chris taunts Patsy over getting the promotion over him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Tony doesn't go into specifics, but his appraisal of Ralph as a scumbag is entirely accurate... and wasted on Janice, who's convinced he's just trying to ruin her happiness. More broadly, there's a bit of weight to his crass assertion that her love life is very much his business since Janice keeps hooking up with brutal mobsters Tony knows intimately and deals with on a daily basis.
- Journey to Find Oneself: Meadow wants to spend a year in Europe with this rationale in mind.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: It turns out that Adriana can't have children due to an abortion gone wrong that damaged her uterus. It turns out she wants to give Chris a son, but can't.
- Living Lie Detector: Dr. Melfi nods when Tony says that Jackie was killed by black drug dealers. It's easy to see that she knows that Jackie was taken out on Tony's orders, and that it's become a source of tension between Meadow and himself.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Chris reaches into Danielle's pants, sending Adriana into full Clingy Jealous Girl mode and cutting off Danielle. The basis for Danielle's sting was to establish and exploit a Commonality Connection with Adriana. The FBI realizes that Chris' sexual appetites have effectively become an Outside-Context Problem. Any future attempt to repeat the process will only make Adriana more wary, and likely run into the same fatal problem with Chris. That obliges the FBI to change tactics and set up the Morton's Fork for Adriana.Agent Harris: You know what the problem is, right? She gave Moltisanti a hard-on.Agent Cubitoso: So what do we do? Hire only schifosas? (Italian for 'ugly women')
- Meaningful Look: How the optical fiber heist gets ordered.
- Morton's Fork: The FBI agents set one up for Adriana after Danielle's sting folds on account of Chris' horniness creating an Outside-Context Problem. If she doesn't cooperate, she could end up in prison for a maximum of 25 years for trafficking in cocaine. Another potential problem is if she posts bail without an adequate cover story to explain it, which could lead to Tony having her and Chris killed if he finds out that she brought an undercover FBI agent into his home. She's left with no choice but to become The Mole, with all the fear and stress that's going to bring her.
- Mouth of Sauron: Tony's attempt to have Chris fulfill this role for him doesn't work out very well. Chris isn't able to function adequately as the Mouth due to things becoming complicated and tense on account of several other mobsters feeling that Chris got his promotion to interim capo through Nepotism rather than merit, and that a more suitable candidate in Patsy was Passed-Over Promotion. That in turn fuels even further the issues Chris already has with Dude, Where's My Respect?.
- Ms. Fanservice: In her first scene, Meadow appears in a revealing plum red bikini and hip-hugging cutoffs.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Christopher can tell something is off about Danielle and points out the peculiar circumstances behind her and Ade's meeting. Unfortunately, genius that he is, he arrives the entirely wrong conclusion.
- Nepotism: Tony's favoritism of Christopher starts to cause problems when he decides to name him acting captain of Paulie's crew over the more experienced and deserving Patsy.
- Never My Fault:
- Silvio absolutely refuses to admit he deliberately undermined Tony's orders. Also doubles as a bit of Foreshadowing as it sets up a yardstick of sorts for when a character (more than one by the way) under Tony's suspicions can expect to survive. Maintain your innocence all the way through, you will probably live till the next day at least. Admit to any degree of culpability, even implicitly, not so much.
- Of course, Tony also refuses to own up to the fact making Christopher the acting captain was a poor decision on his part and that his choice was clearly based on nepotism rather than any objective reasoning.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Chris towards Danielle.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Tony's reaction to Janice taking up with Ralphie, complete with a reminder of how her last relationship with one of his captains turned out.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Up until this point, Silvio as The Consigliere and a Flat Character has arguably been Tony's most loyal underling. Sure, Silvio would provide other viewpoints as a natural part of his role. But once Tony gave the order, Silvio always carried it out to the T. It is in this episode where we see Silvio for the first time defy Tony's orders and engage in deliberate insubordination. It marks that Chris' rapid ascension through Nepotism is becoming problematic and that the DiMeo crime family is truly becoming A House Divided.Tony: You know you're getting to be a very strange man in your old age. You know that?Silvio: Why? I'm just asking. Is it a hanging offense or not?Tony: Did you deliberately disobey me?Silvio: Of course not.Tony: Cause Patsy says you gave the ok. This is after Chrissy talked to him.Silvio: Timeline got fucked up.Tony: We go back a long way, Sil.Silvio: Indeed we do.
- Passed-Over Promotion: The camera makes a point of lingering on Patsy when Silvio announces that Chris is promoted to acting captain of Paulie's crew while Paulie is in jail. It also turns out that Chris got the no-show job, which was the prize amongst the phony construction jobs from the Esplanade project. Explicitly confirmed when Silvio takes up a With Due Respect conversation with Tony.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Tony becomes furious over both the fiber optic cable and floor tile busts. The reason being that the whole Esplanade arrangement itself is illegal. Doing additional side jobs on the construction sites themselves, which amount to pennies, by comparison, risks exposing the Esplanade project itself, where the real money is. "Big fucking picture" is the term Tony uses on Chris.
- Relationship of Convenience: Janice has a Squick reaction to catching Ralph's cut toenail on the face lampshades that this is indeed the arrangement for both of them. Janice seems to do it almost for no reason other than to spite Tony, while Ralph hopes to realize his ambitions by tying himself to Tony's sister.
- The Shrink: Anyone in the know thinks Dr. Kobler at best didn't help or made things even worse, but for different reasons. Meadow doesn't feel she got anything out of her session. Carmela and Tony are aghast that Dr. Kobler actually encouraged Meadow to take the trip.
- Smug Smiler: Patsy when he realizes that Silvio is going to back him in a power play against Tony, where the objective is not so much to pull a coup on Tony but get him to make better decisions.
- Social Climber: Ralph outright admits that his motive for seeing Janice is that she's Tony's sister.
- Spotting the Thread: Tony knows exactly who that tasseled loafer belongs to without question.
- Stress Vomit: An epic version, when Adriana is pressured into becoming an informant for the Feds and suddenly blows chunks all over the conference table.
- Three-Way Sex: Christopher seems to be trying to initiate this at the Crazy Horse back room. Leads to trouble, as it is wont to do.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Carmela and Furio kick this off with each other near the start of this episode.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Little Paulie shares Ralphie's joke about Ginny Sack's 95-pound mole to Paulie Walnuts, unintentionally setting in motion a minor gang war to come.
- Adriana cutting ties with "Danielle" results in her being forced to become a cooperating witness by the FBI, which doesn't end well for her in the long run.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Adriana does not take well to the idea of her and Christopher "disappearing."
- With Due Respect: Silvio verbally tries to warn Tony about carrying his Nepotistic favoring of Chris too far, that Patsy being Passed-Over Promotion at the same time may lead to a weakening of Tony's authority among the rest of the crew, and that Chris is turning into The Napoleon. Tony gives short shrift to the verbal warnings. Silvio then turns to authorizing Patsy to do the floor tiles heist, and against Tony's orders, to drive the point home that had previously been ignored. Carried through to the last conversation where Tony gives Silvio a pass and accepts his cut from the floor tiles bust.
- Womanchild: Meadow's attempts to assert herself as an independent adult to Tony and Carmela basically amount to crying and throwing temper tantrums that are more akin to a child. Carmela boils this down most succinctly when she points out that just getting what you want whenever you want is what babies do, not adults. Having the freedom to make your own choices also means bearing the responsibility for them.
