Chris is having a dream in which he sees bizarre and confusing visions while sitting at a table at Satriale's. He rises from the table and moves through the restaurant, seeing Adriana being fed sausage by a human hand and the wrapped-up corpse of Emil Kolar, who chastises him for not cleaning up the murder properly and leaving three bullets inside his head. He wakes up with a start and mulls over what to do.
Tony's crew attends the wedding of Larry Boy Barese's daughter and deliver presents to the prospective bride. Tony congratulates Larry, who in turn reveals to him that he's heard that the FBI is planning to conduct a series of raids against all known mob associates and serve federal indictments. Larry says he doesn't know when the raids will occur but warns everyone to get rid of any incriminating evidence tied to them.
At the same time, Tony reaffirms Junior's authority and agrees with his assessment to keep quiet until the raids blow over. All of the associates immediately take their families and hastily leave the event.
When Tony gets back home, he begins pulling out hidden stashes of money and pooling it to take offsite. Meadow listens at the stairs for a few moments before running upstairs and telling A.J. to delete a Porn Stash on his computer. The other associates are seen burning pieces of evidence.
At his apartment, Chris continues to write his screenplay in frustration. Adriana arrives and gives him some help with the dialogue, and he tells her that he just wants some respect for what he does. He says that he hopes the screenplay will be a success, and mentions that his cousin's girlfriend, Amy, works in the movie business and can help him get it made into a film. He is distracted when Georgie (the bartender at the Bada Bing) calls and tells him to turn on the news.
He does so and sees a news report talking about the indictments coming down on the family, and a reference to the recently-deceased Brendan Filone as a foot soldier. Chris feels anger at Brendan for being more highly regarded in death than him, due to the news reporting the latter as an associate and soldier. The rest of the crew watches the report at their homes at the same time.
That night, Jennifer Melfi attends a family dinner with her estranged husband, Richard, and her parents. When her son, Jason, makes a crude remark (referring to tomato sauce as "ginzo gravy"), Melfi corrects him on the usage and says that she has a patient who would take offense to it. The conversation turns to whether her patient is in the mob, and they tell her to transfer him to another psychiatrist. After Richard rants against Italian-American Mafiosi for negatively impacting culture and causing Italian-Americans for being stereotyped as criminals, Melfi says that they shouldn't talk about any of her patients and tells them to drop the matter.
Chris is asked by Tony to pick up some pastries and head down to the Bada Bing to help them clean any evidence out of the place. When he arrives at a local bakery, he is forced to wait for a long time while the cashier deliberately ignores him. Chris eventually gets fed up with the situation and forces the cashier to give him pastries at gunpoint, then shoots him in the foot before leaving. He arrives at the Bada Bing and gets antagonized by Tony for being late before helping Georgie sweep for bugs.
Tony distracts his mother by having Carmela invite her out to brunch. After they leave, Tony brings the illegal items he took from the home and plants them inside storage boxes in her closet. Afterward, he goes for an appointment with Melfi, who figures out that he has involvement with the indictments.
Still bothered by the Kolar situation, and after talking with Paulie and Big Pussy about it, Chris and Georgie dig up the burial site and exhume the body. He and Georgie eventually decide to move the body to Pine Barrens. Afterward, Tony meets with him and sucker-punches him in the head before ranting about his recent exploits. He points out that he knows about him and Georgie digging up the body and wonders if he has depression or is thinking about suicide. Chris says he doesn't, and he just wants to be respected for his work.
Tony gets back home and hears a knock at the back door. When he answers, he finds an FBI Agent named Phil Harris who politely asks if he can come inside. He tells Tony that he doesn't want to alarm the children, and establishes that he doesn't want the visit to last any longer than he has to. After searching through the home and confiscating the kid's computers, Agent Harris thanks Tony for his help. Despite Tony's anger towards Harris, he realizes that they were very fair to him.
Junior meets with Livia the next day at Green Grove. During their conversation, Junior says that there may be a mole in the organization, and not to let Tony know. In turn, Livia reveals that she knows Tony has been going to therapy. Junior is bothered by the information and pledges to look into it further...
Chris wakes up the next morning, still down on things. He's suddenly roused from his stupor when he hears a voicemail from his mother mentioning that he's been mentioned by name in a Newark Star-Ledger article. He excitedly runs outside and drives to the nearest newsbox, and picks up an entire stack of papers in triumph...
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion:
- Richard LaPenna tells his estranged wife, Dr. Melfi, that American culture is giving Italian-Americans a bad name, pointing out Goodfellas as an example. Lorraine Bracco was in that film, while Richard Romanus was in another Martin Scorsese film, Mean Streets.
- One scene in the episode has Chris shoot an innocent person in the foot after the latter fails to follow his orders. We see the inverse in Goodfellas with the character Spider (also played by Michael Imperioli) having the same thing befall him.Christopher: It happens!
- Agony of the Feet: Chris shoots the bakery storekeeper in the foot.
- All for Nothing: Chris struggles with a bout of this, the feeling that all he's gotten for murdering Emil Kolar is being haunted by Emil in nightmares, and not the rise to made man status that he feels he deserves.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Chris is elated when his name appears in the newspaper as a notorious Mafioso. It will bring him no end of grief for the next several seasons when the FBI does in fact make him a prime investigative target.
- Bad Boss: Tony physically abuses Chris for attracting unwanted attention.
- Berserk Button: Tony loses his cool after Chris claims that he's feeling down over not being respected, punching him several times, cutting him off, and telling him to get his head together. He later yells and curses at Melfi for making him pay for a missed visit.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Tony gives Chris several of them while he's chewing Chris out over the latter's mistakes.
- Black Comedy: During the scene when Chris and Georgie exhume Emil's corpse, the former mocks Emil's facial hair still growing after his death, as well as Emil's fingernails "looking like an old woman's".
- Blatant Lies: Carmela maintains that she just wants to be nice to Livia by taking her out for lunch and a good time. She's really just buying time for Tony to move his Hidden Supplies of guns and cash into Livia's closet.
- Call-Back: The death of Emil Kolar in "Pilot" motivates Chris' quest to dig up the body with Georgie and relocate it so the police don't find it.
- Catapult Nightmare: Chris has one involving the late Emil Kolar.
- Category Traitor: Tony is outraged that one of the FBI agents searching his house is Italian-American and curses him out in the mother tongue. Later on, he suspects the guy was deliberately put on the team to mess with his head.
- Celebrity Paradox: Richard mentions Goodfellas while talking with Melfi about the treatment of Italian-Americans in media. Lorraine Bracco (Melfi) and Michael Imperioli (Christopher) played characters in that film.
- Continuity Nod:
- Livia finally tells Junior about Tony's therapy sessions, after A.J. revealed the same thing to her in the previous episode.
- The news report about the indictments makes a point of mentioning Brendan's death.
- Cultural Posturing: Plenty of it from Tony when the family is enjoying takeout Chinese food, and played for laughs. He's insistent that it was really Antonio Meucci who invented the telephone when AJ asks if Alexander Graham Bell was Italian in rather bewildered fashion. And of course, Italians invented pasta, which can't be eaten without a fork. The Chinese couldn't possibly have been doing it first.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The bakery storekeeper was being a Jerkass to Chris by forcing him to wait longer behind somebody who left and came back, and mouthing off to Chris. But Chris shooting the keeper in the foot was just plain going overboard.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Dr. Reis' joke about "Mafia depression" doesn't go over very well with any of Dr. Meli, Richard or Jason.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?:
- The Capos gather at the wedding to discuss the pending FBI search warrants. Junior decides everyone should stay in business without going on the lam. He has a rather ... sensitive reaction when the Capos make a point of asking Tony what course he thinks they should take.
- Chris begins to feel this way due to not being recognized for his handling of the Kolar situation. It's only when he's quoted in a newspaper article that he gets back to his old self.
- Establishing Character Moment: Agent Harris is a Reasonable Authority Figure, who has a friendly rapport with Tony and his family despite being under orders from the FBI to investigate them.
- Everything Is Racist: Tony is convinced that the FBI has it out for him as discrimination against Italian Americans. And of course, Agent Grasso was assigned to the search for no reason other than to send a racist message to screw with Tony's head.
- Evil Is Petty: Chris shoots the bakery storekeeper in the foot just because the keeper made him wait longer in line and mouthed off at him.
- Foreshadowing:
- Chris again mentions that his cousin's girlfriend, Amy, works in film development.
- Later in the episode, Chris and Georgie decide to move the exhumed corpse of Emil Kolar to Pine Barrens.
- A subtle one that has shades of Freudian Excuse. Meadow has her computer taken away during the execution of the search warrant, even though it has her English term paper on it. She remains visibly angry through the process. And it's the first hint that we get that she'll develop an anti-Italian persecution complex, that in turn will feed her gradual Character Development into becoming a Mob lawyer and Daddy's Little Villain.
- Friendly Enemy: Agent Harris, who (despite being with the FBI) is considerate about Tony's family, knocks before entering, and has another agent (who dropped one of Carmela's expensive bowls) clean up the mess and reimburse them for the damages. Despite Tony's initial anger, the most he can muster up about Harris afterward is the fact that he even showed up at all.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Chris has multiple bouts of sudden anger while writing his script, and is seen bashing his laptop in a rage after he...accidentally deletes some text in the document.
- Hidden Supplies: Tony keeps several caches of guns and cash in various hiding places in his house. He moves all of it into his mother's closet at Green Grove after hearing about the pending FBI search warrants.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: In-universe. Brendan Filone's rank and role in the crime family is exaggerated by the news, much to Christopher's annoyance.
- Irony: Livia, when A.J. came to visit her during the previous episode, repeated the newly discovered fact of Tony seeing a psychiatrist multiple times in disbelief and much to A.J.'s annoyance. Livia finds herself in A.J.'s shoes when she relays the news to Uncle Junior. Junior repeats "a psychiatrist" multiple times, and it's Livia's turn to feel utter exasperation.
- It Gets Easier: Big Pussy takes on the role of Evil Mentor for Chris, assuring him that his nightmares will fade away as he commits more murders and becomes more comfortable with the act. Also has shades of Foreshadowing as Chris will have the highest on-screen body count of any character in the series, and with each murder, he becomes progressively more capable of doing it without blinking or hesitating.
- It's All About Me: Livia gets this when she rants to Junior about Tony going to therapy. Junior is concerned with what information Tony might have spilled, while Livia rants on about her son not respecting her, not realizing the other implications.
- Jerkass:
- The bakery storekeeper is admittedly one himself when he forces Chris to continue to wait in line behind somebody who left and came back, and mouths off when Chris tries to call him on it.
- Chris in turn shoots the keeper in the foot.
- Kick the Dog: All of the Sopranos get this when they (and all the other mob associates) take back the presents they had bought for Larry Barese's daughter, in the middle of the wedding. It is explained afterward that all of the presents were bought without receipts. Barese's daughter is seen crying while Big Pussy yanks his wedding card (and cash donation) out of the registry.
- Kosher Nostra: Discussed, as La Penna/Melfi family therapist Dr. Reis claims to have had relatives in Murder Incorporated.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The entire Soprano family gets this when they realize that the FBI indictments will be coming down on them.
- N-Word Privileges:
- Defied by Dr. Melfi, who argues rather vehemently with her own family members that words like "Ginzo" and "Guinea" should never be used with reference to Italian Americans, even among Italian Americans themselves.
- Played straight by Chris, who refers to himself as a "skinny Guinea" in front of Tony, and Tony not even taking note of it in any meaningful way.
- Oh, Crap!: A.J. is unconcerned about the FBI raiding the house until Meadow points out that they'll find all the porn he downloaded.
- Orbital Shot: Seen when Tony is standing by a chain-link fence waiting for Chris to drive up.
- Pet the Dog:
- The scene where Tony makes a genuine attempt to help his nephew with his depression is used to contrast Richard's simplistic view of him as a purely evil monster.
- Paulie shows genuine concern for Chris and makes a sincere attempt to reassure him.
- Porn Stash: A.J. is revealed to have one of these on his computer, which becomes a problem with the FBI indictment.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Tony is angry at Chris for shooting a civilian because it attracts unwanted police attention.
- Precision F-Strike: AJ directs one at Meadow when he gets bored with the Cultural Posturing discussion during family dinner.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tony gives one to Melfi when she forces him to pay for missing a therapy session.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Christopher's script is full of grammatical errors, and Adriana lightly chides him for it.
- Skewed Priorities: Instead of worrying that he may be targeted by the FBI, Chris is angered at the news report not mentioning him whatsoever and describing Brendan as a Mafia soldier.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: Both Tony and Dr. Melfi engage in discussions with those around them about the negative stereotyping of Italian Americans as always being in The Mafia.
- Stupid Evil: Chris shoots the pastry shopkeeper in the foot largely out of ego, and gets himself on the radar of local police.
- Suicide is Shameful: Tony asks Christopher if he's contemplated suicide. He's relieved to find out that he hasn't.Tony: Can you imagine those fuckin' losers blowin' their skulls all over the bathroom?Christopher: It's fuckin' pathetic.
- Tempting Fate: Chris is bothered by the fact that he seemingly gets no recognition for Emil's murder, but becomes jubilantly happy after he discovers his name is mentioned in a major newspaper, in a piece talking about the Mafia...
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Georgie runs off into the distance to vomit after he and Chris dig up Emil's corpse.
- Wham Shot: A bit of a low-key one, with Carmela unhesitatingly helping Tony hide a bunch of weapons ends any lingering questions about her being a fully willing and complicit partner in his criminal activities.
