Silvio: I don’t know, Ton’. I mean, he beat one to death for… uh, I forget, what was it again?
Furio learns that his father is succumbing to late-stage cancer, and makes plans to fly to Naples to visit him during his last days. He stops by the Soprano home first, where Carmela comforts him and makes coffee for him. As Furio leaves, Tony gets Paulie to act as his driver instead. Meanwhile, he implements his plan to funnel all orders through Christopher. His lawyer Neil Mink approves of this plan as well. Christopher, however, may not be up to the task, as exemplified when Tony gives him a set of orders over the phone and he hastily writes them down on his pillowcase when no paper is handy.
Paulie's mother Nucci has trouble integrating into Green Grove Retirement Home. While Paulie visits her, she runs into friends of hers, Cookie Cirillo and Minn Matrone. Cookie and Minn speak with Paulie privately, informing him that they don't want Nucci at their table, and Paulie is appalled. Upset as Cookie and Minn continue to ostracize her, Nucci becomes depressed and shuts herself in her room. Paulie speaks to the director of the facility about his mother's difficulties and learns that other residents are put off by Nucci's highly naive and emotional nature.
Tony accompanies Ralph to the stables to visit his horse Pie Oh My. While there, Tony meets Ralph's attractive new girlfriend, Valentina La Paz, who amuses everyone present when she pulls a prank on Ralph and gets him to step in horse manure. Tony warns Valentina about Ralph's temper and an immediate attraction forms between the two. Tony visits Valentina under the pretense of commissioning a painting of himself and Pie Oh My while cropping Ralph out of the image from the reference photograph. Tony and Valentina have sex shortly afterward, but Tony quickly ends the fling, giving Valentina a horseshoe pin as a parting gift, as he does not want to take a goomah who is already sleeping with Ralph.
Furio's father passes away in Italy, and he confides to an uncle that he no longer feels at home in his country, also revealing that he has fallen in love with the boss's wife back home. Furio's uncle chides him for the foolishness, telling him that if he really loves the boss's wife, he must either suppress these feelings or kill the boss. Meanwhile, Carmela continues to fantasize about Furio.
Paulie visits Cookie Cirillo's son Chuckie, who he knew at a young age, and is now the principal at a middle school. Paulie requests that Chuckie speak to his mother and convince her to be more friendly to Nucci, but Chuckie protests that there's little he can do. When he fails to follow through and Cookie remains cruel and dismissive to Nucci, Paulie sends Little Paulie and Benny Fazio after Chuckie. They chase him through the school hallways before breaking his arm. Despite Chuckie's pleas, Cookie stubbornly refuses to acquiesce to Paulie's demands until Chuckie's wife threatens to pull her out of Green Grove.
Valentina pursues Tony, despite his insistence that he does not carry on an affair with the same woman as Ralph. Even when Valentina offers to break up with Ralph, Tony finds the concept unappealing as he sees it as going "where Ralph has already been". Valentina is initially offended by this, but later breaks up with Ralph and reveals to Tony that Ralph never technically had sex with her, preferring to engage in extreme BDSM and have her torture and beat him for sexual release. Tony, still feeling uncertain, consults with Janice, asking for information about Ralph's sexual proclivities. Though she feels that telling Tony about this would be betraying confidence in a BDSM relationship, Janice confesses that Ralph is a sexual submissive who "bottoms from the top", preferring to adopt the role of submissive while having control over the dynamic. Tony discusses this with Dr. Melfi in therapy, who references a rather common link between this type of sexual behavior and childhood trauma, particularly the presence of an abusive mother figure. When Tony briefly broaches the subject of Ralph's mother to him, Ralph quickly dismisses himself. Satisfied that he would not technically be having sex with the same woman as Ralph, Tony resumes regular sexual relations with Valentina.
Inspired by Valentina's penchant for pranks and mischief, Tony pours cold water on Carmela while she showers. Carmela is genuinely put off by this, as Tony had done the same thing on their honeymoon and promised never to do so again. The encounter turns sour as Carmela is hurt by Tony's failure to adhere to a promise. She later finds Valentina's fake fingernail in Tony's clothes and leaves it on the bedside table. In retribution, Carmela attempts to break the padlock on the bird feeder with a shovel, then steals Tony's keys to open it, swiping several stacks of Tony's hidden cash. Tony, meanwhile, sees the fingernail on the bedside table, and later notices damage on the bird feeder padlock. He and Carmela have a brief exchange, each asking if the other has something they want to tell them, and neither confesses to their respective actions.
Tropes:
- Affair Hair: Or an Affair Nail in this instance. Valentia breaks one of her nails while waiting for Tony. Carmela later finds it, becoming one of several factors precipitating a real downturn in the marriage.
- All the Other Reindeer: Paulie learns from the director of Green Grove that Nucci has been outcasted for crying over every little thing, not always putting her dentures in, and being The Stool Pigeon.
- Awful Wedded Life: Patsy and his wife clearly don't enjoy each other's company.
- Bad Boss: Tony reams out Chris and Silvio for giving bigger kickbacks to their Union and Customs partners without his authorization.
- Bitch Slap: Valentina gives Tony one in response to: "Well, I already took his horse."
- Celebrity Paradox: Tony watches The Fugitive, which had Joe Pantoliano in it.
- Close to Home: Ralph clearly becomes uncomfortable when pressed about his relationship with his mother, and concocts an excuse to leave and get out of the conversation. It's one of the items of proof Tony needs to go ahead with Valentina.
- Coincidental Broadcast:
- Carmela watches a news interview segment where a feminist speaker addresses housewives' issues over being financially dependent on successful men. It helps bring Carmela's own resentments to the fore.
- She also watches a documentary on local Neopolitan (where Furio is from) cuisine, and the presenter himself has a ponytail. She cannot help but be reminded of her feelings for Furio.
- Continuity Nod: Tony asks Silvio if Ralph seems weird when it comes to women. Silvio vaguely remembers that Ralph beat a girl to death some time ago. May also double as an instance of Foreshadowing.
- Country Matters: Paulie calls Minnie one to Principal Girillo.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Furio's uncle points out that it's always a bad idea to sleep with a Mafia boss' wife because if the boss ever finds out, it invariably leads to a death sentence.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Benny and Little Paulie break Chuck Girillo's arm (offscreen) to coerce him into somehow improving Nucci's situation.
- Deadpan Snarker: Adriana takes a turn at this when she brings Ralph a whole bowl of olives after he demands extra olives for his Martini. "These enough?"
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Paulie is determined to do whatever he can to improve Nucci's situation at Green Grove, damn the consequences for anybody else.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Tony, although he indulged himself the first time around, decides he should not involve himself further with the Goomah of another made man, as it can lead to trouble within the crew. When he does resume things with Valentina, it's after he's gone the whole nine yards to make sure that taking things further with her wouldn't technically amount to her cheating on Ralph.
- Every Man Has His Price: Janice insists on collecting $3,000 from Tony before she's willing to share information on Ralph's peculiar sexual preferences. It's the last shred of proof, in addition to everything else he's heard, to go ahead with Valentina.
- Fetish: Ralph's submissive tendencies provide Tony an opportunity to call on Loophole Abuse and Exact Words to justify taking on Valentina as his new Goomah despite his initial hesitation.
- Foreshadowing: Ralph indicates to Tony that Pie-Oh-My will be ready to race in two weeks ...
- Freudian Excuse: It is implied in this episode that Ralph may have been abused as a child by his mother, which would not only explain his bizarre fetishes described above but could also explain his treatment of Tracee
- Gilligan Cut:
- Valentina's suggestion that she and Tony could stop somewhere and get something to eat leads to the next scene of her and Tony shagging each other.
- Janice confirms to Tony everything he's heard about Ralph's Fetish after collecting her fee. She ends with a comment that Ralph wouldn't want to get an erection the usual way, and couldn't even if he tried. Tony is smiling while soaking that tidbit in. Cut to him and Valentina enjoying round two with each other.
- Greed:
- It's a given that The Mafia characters in the series suffer from this. But even the Mafia wives are shown to have it too. Carmela can't help herself wanting to find out how much of a nest egg Tony really has. Rosalie even lampshades her own greed by asking whether there's ever enough money to satisfy their tastes.
- Tony also goes ballistic when he hears that Silvio and Chris gave bigger percentages to the Unions and Customs officials, and immediately rescinds it, even though it would make those players happier and more cooperative partners.
- Half-Truth: Valentina wonders in bed why Tony changed his mind about seeing her again. He terms it as "getting his head into the right place" so that he could commit, and give her the attention she deserves. He of course avoids fully explaining what his prior hang-up had been about, and how he resolved it.
- Implausible Deniability: Carmela and Tony pull this on each other in the last scene of the episode. Carmela won't admit to stealing from the duck feed bin even though Tony indicates through questions to A.J. that he knows there's less cash in it. Tony in turn won't admit to an affair with Valentina even though he knows Carmela found Valentina's nail.
- In Love with the Gangster's Girl: Furio admits to his uncle that he's fallen hard for Carmela, whom the uncle only knows as the wife of an American boss.
- Loophole Abuse:
- Tony goes the whole nine yards to satisfy himself that Ralph and Valentina techinically didn't have sex with each other, so that taking her on as his Goomah would not be intruding on what belongs to a fellow made man.
- Carmela periodically steals cash from Tony's duck feed bin. And each time she does, she makes a stock investment to the tune of $9,900. One of the brokers she sees lampshades that if the investment were $10,000, he'd have to report it to the IRS. Carmela's notepad indicates that she's made several $9,900 investments, obviously well aware of the limit.
- Memento MacGuffin: Tony commissions an artist to paint a portrait of Pie-Oh-My and himself together. The painting itself later becomes a plot driver.
- Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: Italian-American Tony Soprano is immediately interested in Richie's beautiful and playful new girlfriend Valentina, and is even more intrigued when she tells him she's half-Cuban and half-Italian. He calls it a dangerous combination.
- Mouth of Sauron: Tony continues with his plan to make Chris his Mouth, but it doesn't work out very well.
- The Oath-Breaker: How Carmela views Tony pouring cold water on her in the shower. It's one of several factors that lead to a real downturn in their marriage.
- Old Friend: Principal Girillo used to be one for Paulie when they were in school together.
- Parental Issues: Dr. Melfi theorizes that Ralph has peculiar sexual tastes from having had an abusive mother.
- The Prankster: Valentina shows herself to be one, and it rubs off on Tony, leading to the misguided cold water stunt with Carmela.
- Road Apples: Valentina tricks Ralph into stepping into horse manure; partly as a prank to make her and the others laugh and partly because according to superstition, accidentally stepping in horse dung is a sign of good luck.
- Sadistic Choice: Furio's uncle tries to frame the available choices for him. He either has to bury hard his feelings for Carmela and never be with her, or he has to kill Tony, and risk forever being on The Most Wanted for death list of the Jersey mob.
- Satellite Love Interest: Remember the blonde Icelandic stewardess Tony has been enjoying himself with? He is clearly bored when he doesn't find her jokes funny, and excuses himself to talk to Chris and Silvio. It's clearly become a pattern by now, he'll enjoy the physical thrill with a new Goomah for a little while, but gets bored when he can't connect emotionally or mentally with them. It doubles as Foreshadowing as it won't be any different for Valentina.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A.J. goes upstairs once he realizes he's a go-between for another tense situation between Tony and Carmela.
- Shame If Something Happened: Paulie initiates a chain of it. Having Chuck's arm broken offscreen by Benny and Little Paulie carries with it the threat of even worse if he can't do anything about the Green Grove situation. Chuck's wife in turn threatens to pull Cookie out of Green Grove if she won't be nicer to Nucci.
- Spirited Young Lady: Valentina shows shades of this in her initial appearance alongside Tony and Ralph, but it will ultimately get subverted as she shows Yandere tendencies just like Irina and Gloria.
- Stealing from the Till: Carmela helps herself to some of Tony's cash in the duck feed bin.
- Toilet Humor: Valentina tricks Ralph into stepping into horse manure. Tony loves it, but Ralph is anything but amused.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Carmela and Furio still have it going on.
- You Did the Right Thing: Tony hopes to get a go-ahead regarding Valentina from Dr. Melfi as The Lancer. Dr. Melfi isn't exactly cooperative.
