Tony: How come I'm not making freakin' pots in Peru? You're born to this shit. You are what you are.
A.J. and a group of his friends sneak into the church at their Catholic school and drink some of the communion wine on a dare before going to class. By the time they get to phys-ed, they are intoxicated and fail to perform any of the exercises. A gym teacher calls them out on their poor performance, leading A.J.'s friend to vomit in front of the class and the trio getting sent to the principal's office.
Elsewhere, Tony arrives at a construction site, where it's revealed that the foreman hasn't been paying his union dues. He manages to resolve the situation with the help of Chris. Afterward, he gets word from Carmela that he needs to go to the school and arrives to find A.J. still intoxicated and the principal lecturing them about the incident. The school's psychologist, Peter Galani, goes into a breakdown of A.J.'s symptoms and says that he may have attention-deficit disorder. Both Tony and Carmela pledge to punish A.J. after the principal tells them he'll be suspended for three days.
Livia and Junior come over to the Soprano home that night for dinner. Despite Tony trying to smooth over the situation with A.J., Livia escalates things by pointing out how Tony used to do the same antics (and more) when he was a child. A.J. acts up again and Carmela grounds him for three weeks before he storms off in anger.
Afterward, Tony and Carmela retire for the night. He wonders aloud if A.J. knows about the family business, and she says that Meadow knows. Tony flashes back to the college trip, and says that they'll have to sit her down and tell her eventually. Tony also pledges to agree to psychological testing for A.J. He dreams that he's at Melfi's talking about how A.J.'s behavior is a reflection of himself before waking up and taking his Prozac. He stands in the mirror and stares at himself before flashing back to the past...
The year is 1967. A young Tony walks outside his family's home in Newark, New Jersey and sees Junior, who asks if his father, Johnny Boy, is home. While Johnny Soprano comes outside and drives off with Junior, Livia tells Tony that he's missed the bus and will need to walk to school. As Tony walks along, he is introduced to the family business after witnessing Johnny and Junior beating up a member of a rival crew...
In the present, Tony snaps out of his daze and goes for an appointment at Melfi's. He tells her about his childhood, and implies that his parents were abusive. He says that his father was well-respected in the community, but that he was involved in extortion rackets. When Melfi asks if he's told A.J. about his own work, Tony stresses that he's a legitimate businessman, but hasn't told A.J. anything yet.
A.J. begins his psychological testing at the school, while Tony arrives home and learns from Carmela that A.J. may go into special education. The conversation turns to whether either of them is responsible for A.J.'s upbringing, and Carmela implies that it's her fault for staying with Tony. When Tony calls her out on this and says that her side of the family has a history of behavioral disorders, she storms off.
A.J. is forced to visit Livia at Green Grove as part of his punishment, and she happily greets him when she arrives. When he tells her that he's been going for psychological testing, she refuses to believe him. He then reveals that Tony is also going to counseling. She breaks down in tears after realizing that Tony is likely ranting about her to his psychiatrist.
The next day, Tony takes A.J. for a dentist's appointment, and is forced to stop when the truck gets a flat tire. Tony uses the opportunity to spend some father-son bonding time while he fixes the wheel. When Tony asks what A.J. learned in his testing session, the latter refuses to divulge specific details. Tony calls him out on this. A.J. pointedly asks his father if he's in the Mafia, pointing out the men taking photographs at Jackie Sr.'s funeral. Tony says that Jackie Sr. was "a complicated man" and points out that he isn't like him before they drive back.
Tony goes for another session at Melfi's and muses aloud whether he and A.J. inherited reckless tendencies from Johnny Boy. Melfi brings back the subject of Tony's dream about the ducks flying away and asks if it had anything to do with his own family. Tony flashes back to a traumatic memory of his mother threatening to gouge his eye out with a fork when he was a child. He then recalls how his sister, Janice, was the favored one in the family, as he saw his father and Junior taking her to a fairground for rides and games. When the young Tony took a trip to the fairground on his own, he discovered that the fairground was a front operation for the Mafia, and witnessed a police raid that ended with one associate dead and Johnny being hauled out in handcuffs while Janice cried and pleaded for them to stop.
Back in the present, Tony tells Melfi that the mob associates brought their daughters to the fairground as a ploy. He tells her that despite everything, he was proud to be Johnny's son, but says that A.J. doesn't have to be like him.
Tony remembers another memory of Johnny and Livia getting into a fight over the former's insistence on moving to Nevada to help run a dinner club with the same mob associate he beat up before, Rocco Alatore. Tony goes to Green Grove and speaks with Livia about Rocco, and asks if she remembers. She tells him that Rocco moved to Nevada and eventually became a billionaire, then claims that he should go to a psychiatrist to discuss his familial problems. Tony in turn throws her snark back at her, claiming that she's a lot more devious than she lets on.
Afterward, Tony learns from Dr. Galani that A.J. has a borderline case of ADD. Learning from his experiences and therapy over the last few days, Tony goes back home and spends more time with his son, proving that he doesn't have to be like his own father...
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Tony is emotionally manipulated and terrorized by his difficult mother throughout his childhood and well into his adult life. One notable incident featured his mother threatening to stick a fork in his eye when he was only ten years old. Tony's father was outwardly friendly, but also a manipulative sociopath who indoctrinated his son into violent crime and the mob. It's implied that the various degrees of emotional manipulation and terror Tony suffered under his parents are what turned him into the violent sociopath that heads the New Jersey crime families.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Tony tries to call Livia out on holding Johnny Boy back from joining Rocco in Las Vegas, and threatening to smother the kids if he tried. Livia feigns ignorance to such a degree that it has shades of trying to Gaslight Tony into believing none of it actually happened.
- Butterfly of Doom: When Tony starts reconsidering that he was predestined to be a criminal he thinks back to the time when his father wanted to make an honest living working for Rocco in Reno, and his mother violently shut him down by threatening to kill his kids. The fact that Rocco eventually became a legitimate billionaire haunts Tony and adds to his building resentment of Livia. Had Johnny Boy made the move it's possible Tony could not only be far wealthier but also could have avoided his criminal lifestyle. At the same time, it's equally possible that even if Johnny had made the move he would have continued to be a criminal and simply gotten involved with the organized crime in Vegas.
- Continuity Nod:
- Carmela brings up the admissions trip (from "College") while thinking about whether to tell Meadow about the family's involvement in the Mafia.
- A.J. also brings up the people taking photographs at Jackie Sr.'s funeral (from "Pax Soprana") while he and his father talk about the psychiatry testing.
- Tony's dream about the ducks from the pilot episode is brought up again when Melfi ties it into Tony's fear of being neglected like he was when his father took Janice to the fairgrounds in 1967.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Tony is revealed to have had a tough upbringing, including verbal and emotional threats from his mother, nearly being beaten up by a trio of children, and witnessing gang violence and police raids in close proximity, all within the span of a couple of weeks. Despite his attempts to claim otherwise to Melfi, it's made clear that his experiences helped shape the man he became.
- Evil Is Petty: Tony tries to get back at Melfi for rejecting his advances by telling her about his affair with Irina in the hopes it would make her jealous.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Despite Tony's various machinations with the mob, he recognizes that he had a tough childhood due to his Abusive Parents, and pledges not to make the same mistake with A.J.
- Exact Words: A.J. acknowledges his grounding includes a prohibition against Nintendo and the internet. Loud music on the other hand ...
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: During the school psychologist's speech on A.J. possibly having ADD, Tony butts in by saying that all A.J. needs is a "good smack upside the head". Once the psychiatrist explains the symptoms further and says it's akin to an illness, Tony hastily makes up an excuse to explain why he doesn't hit his children and was just talking in a figure of speech.
- Flashback: To Tony's childhood.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Discussed. Melfi brings up Tony's romantic overture towards her in the previous episode. When he says that he can't just turn off his feelings, she tells him that it's good to let it out and discuss it with her.
- Foreshadowing: Tony's sister, Janice, is seen for the first time as a child, and acts incredibly belligerent and arrogant towards the young Tony.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The episode makes this kind of statement about Tony. We see in his Flashbacks that he was a little kid nobody would be even remotely scared of. Even his own family, including his own sister, frequently treat him with contempt. And we know nowadays that he's a hulking behemoth of a man, and one who is The Dreaded Mob boss of New Jersey.
- In the Blood: Tony initially holds this opinion about his family, believing that A.J. is going to end up just like him because of his own relationship with Johnny Boy Soprano. It takes Melfi telling him that everyone has a choice in life before he sees the matter differently.
- Just a Gangster: Tony tells Melfi that being born into the Mob means that he can't be anything else besides.
- Lady Macbeth: Livia continues to wrap Uncle Junior around her finger, with a long game in mind. Tony even lampshades it, even if unintentionally, when he notes that Livia would have been the "real gangster" if she had come after feminism had made real progress.
- Leitmotif: "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane plays more than once over the course of the episode. The song itself came out in The '60s when Tony's childhood took place. Grace Slick also said the song's multiple references to characters from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a musing on why parents would expose their children to certain kinds of information (like the Alice novel) and then wonder why their kids became screwed up afterward. It overlaps with Tony's reflections on following in Johnny Boy's steps, wondering how much A.J. knows about him being a mobster, and wondering what A.J. finding out about Tony being a mobster will mean for A.J.'s future.
- Like Father, Like Son: A major theme in the episode. Tony admits that learning that his father, Johnny Boy, was a mobster made him idolize his old man. And it became a major factor in Tony himself becoming a mobster. Tony is unsure of how much A.J. actually knows about what he does for a living. And he admits to having fears that A.J. will himself want to become a mobster should he find out for sure.
- Manipulative Bitch:
- Livia is incredibly warm and friendly towards A.J., to the point that it would otherwise scream O.O.C. Is Serious Business. But it becomes obvious she's cultivating A.J. as an info leak with the hopes of getting dirt on Tony. And boy does it ever work.
- And of course, she continues to wrap Uncle Junior around her finger in a manner befitting a Lady Macbeth.
- Masquerade: Discussed. Tony and Carmela muse aloud whether or not to reveal the topic of the family business to A.J. (who's beginning to suspect it) and Meadow (who definitely knows).
- "Mister Sandman" Sequence: Tony's first flashback is backed by the usage of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", and features plenty of '60s-era signifiers.
- Mommy Issues: It's revealed that Livia was emotionally and verbally abusive towards her son, to the point of threatening to poke his eye out with a fork and claiming (in a conversation with Johnny) that she'd rather smother her own children than let them live alone with their father.
- Never My Fault: Livia moans to A.J. about how she gave her life to her children "on a silver platter", and does not show any awareness or sense of responsibility about how her woeful approach to being a mother royally screwed up at least two of her children.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In the flashbacks, Johnny Boy and Junior Soprano beat up a rival mob associate, Rocco, by punching him numerous times, smashing a vase over his head and both kicking him repeatedly as he lies on the ground.
- Parental Hypocrisy: When Livia and Junior visit for dinner and they learn about A.J.'s suspension, they point out that Tony did much worse stuff when he was a kid and list several examples. A.J. is amused, while Tony tells them to be quiet because he wants A.J. to be better.
- Reaction Shot: Used to the point of becoming an Overly Long Gag. When A.J. tells Livia about how Tony's going to counseling, Livia says "He does not!" several times as it cuts back-and-forth between both of them.
- Shout-Out: A.J. tells his father that he's aware that there were people at Jackie Sr.'s funeral taking photographs, "just like Godfather 1".
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Tony and Livia have a round with each other.
- Spotting the Thread: The school psychologist lays out all of A.J.'s behavioral issues, which causes Tony to shift uncomfortably once he realizes the psychiatrist is talking just as much about him as he is his son.
- This Is the Part Where...:Tony: This is the part where I'm supposed to tell you...how terrible my father was...and how he ruined my life. But I'll tell you, I was proud to be Johnny Soprano's kid. When he beat the shit out of that guy...I told the class how tough my father was.
- Title Drop: Like any true Newarker of his age, Tony calls his local neighborhood "Down Neck."
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: A.J. telling Livia about Tony seeing a psychiatrist will very nearly lead to Tony's death.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: At the beginning of the episode, when A.J.'s friend vomits up alcohol off-screen, to the disgusted reaction of other gym students.
- You Are Grounded!: Played for Drama. Tony and Carmela punish A.J. for three weeks when they find out about A.J. and his friends stealing and drinking the sacramental wine by taking away his screen time privileges and his skateboard and ordering him to spend time with Livia at the Green Grove nursing home.
