Tony heads to a meeting with Junior at the prison. As he arrives, he chides his uncle for making him wait three weeks before seeing him. Junior warns him that the guards listen to everything and that he has nothing to say to him. Tony brings up the recent deaths of people who were close to Junior, and says that things are different now that he's in charge.
Junior tells Tony that Livia had nothing to do with what happened in the Enemy Civil War, despite the latter's skepticism. He also warns Tony that he will continue spreading rumors about Tony threatening to kill his mother unless he makes peace with her. Tony tells him that no such thing is going to happen, and orders him to set up a meeting with a man named Bobby Baccalieri, who is now Junior's highest-ranked soldier.
When Tony gets back home, he yells at Janice for stealing the real estate sign from Livia. Janice makes up an excuse that she called a fellow friend who works in real estate and told her that she would take less of a commission. Despite Tony's anger, he accepts it and lets her go on her way. Janice also encourages Meadow to visit Livia at Green Grove before she leaves.
Janice arrives at Green Grove a short while later and finds Livia, who is still upset with herself. She gives Janice a blistering speech about how she didn't understand what her parents went through. She criticizes Janice for wanting to sell the family home and initially sends her out. However, Janice later gets back into Livia's good graces by taking a tip from Meadow and playing old musical recordings for her.
At an inner-city construction site, a Reverend is railing to a crowd of workers about their union's failure to employ more black workers. The employees look on in shock as the crowd begins to chant for more work. In the aftermath, the head of the firm meets with Tony, who agrees to send a handful of his own men to break up the protests and sort the situation out. Tony goes back to Satriale's and meets with Bobby, who is a shy, respectful man. Tony tells him to relay to Junior that he'll be able to keep 5% of his businesses and his title as official boss, but that the rest of his holdings now belong to Tony. Despite Tony's mistreatment of Bobby, the latter agrees to relay the message.
Pussy is having his back operated on at a local clinic. When the doctor asks who is coming to take him home, Pussy asks for a man named Skip, and a large man in a tracksuit enters to bring him back. As they drive back home in the car, however, it's revealed that Pussy is an informant, who has been coerced by the FBI to go undercover and relay details of Tony's dealings. Pussy chides Skip (who is an agent himself) for asking him to speak with Tony immediately and says that he's playing things cool for the time being so that he doesn't raise any suspicions. Skip tells him that he owes nothing to Tony before dropping him off back home.
The next day, a judge listens to Harold Melvoin (Junior's lawyer) argue that Junior has an existing heart condition and should be released from prison. Despite the pleading of government lawyers on the opposing side, the judge agrees to release Junior but confines him to house arrest and orders him to wear an electronic bracelet.
Junior meets Tony at his doctor's office after being officially released, now sporting an electronic bracelet on his knee, and tells him that the Feds are prohibited from putting surveillance bugs in medical buildings. They exchange terse words about the latter's reduced earning power before once again moving on to the subject of Tony making peace with Livia. Tony tells him that he heard evidence of the wiretaps being used on Livia at Green Grove, and disputes Junior's claim that she doesn't know what she's saying half the time. In an attempt to change the conversation, Junior lets it slip that the owner of Green Grove, Freddie Capuano, has been gossiping about the family's business behind their back (suggesting Junior and Livia had a sexual relationship) and is the other person who has been spreading rumors about Tony trying to kill his mother.
Capuano goes missing soon after, and a pair of police officers searching for him eventually come across his car left abandoned and idling by the Passaic River.
That next day, Meadow goes on a drive and is accompanied by Janice, who convinces her to visit Livia and spend more time with her at the retirement home. Meadow also tells her that Livia loves certain old musical recordings, and Janice decides to use the idea and brings a handful of records for Livia to listen to the next time she visits. When Janice does so, Livia opens up to her for the first time in years and they reconnect. However, back home, AJ overhears Janice talking with Tony about him signing consent over in case Livia falls into a coma (the "do not resuscitate" clause). The next day, Meadow drives AJ the hospital to see Livia, and AJ inadvertently lets it slip that Janice and Tony have decided to arrange a DNR for her. Thus, the next time Janice comes to visit Livia, the latter coldly refuses the former again. Livia then calls Carmela and promises to leave her belongings to A.J. and Meadow if she dies, but Carmela (already angered by her previous treatment of her) warns her not to call the house again before hanging up.
The owner of the construction site, Jack Massarone, arranges with Junior and Tony to hire a group of dissenters who will break up the ongoing protests and allow the employees to get back to work. The next morning, Tony meets with Big Pussy and they stake out the protests, but they are soon interrupted by Sean and Matthew, who see Tony in his vehicle and loudly go to greet him, shouting his name. Tony gets angered with this display and drives away, angrily telling them that they're not supposed to be seen acknowledging him.
Chris, Sean, Matt, Bobby, and a large group of associates proceed to crash the protest and beat down the protestors with baseball bats. In the aftermath, Tony goes to meet with the son of the Reverend who instigated the protest in the first place, and it's revealed that the whole protest situation was planned by both men so they could bilk thousands of dollars from Massarone Construction.
With the situation seemingly handled, Junior is in a good mood and sings to himself while having a shower, but slips and cracks his hip. Tony finds him being attended to by Bobby and says that they should call an ambulance. However, Junior refuses to do so, forcing Tony to carry him in his arms. As they leave, he tells Tony that he fears dying and asks him to make peace with Livia.
Clearly conflicted, Tony carries Junior out of the house and drives him to the nearest hospital...
Tropes:
- Acrofatic: Subverted. Bobby can be seen mercilessly beating protestors with a tire iron during the confrontation with the protesters at the Massarone Construction site, but soon after, he slows down and begins sweating profusely due to his weight.
- Batman Gambit: More than one.
- The construction bust out depends on making Jack Massarone desperate enough to come to Tony on his hands and knees, and none the wiser to Tony and Reverend Hanson colluding behind his back.
- Livia pulls one on Janice that uses Obfuscating Stupidity, now that she knows what Janice is really up to (claiming the family home once Livia dies). She vaguely mentions some lost money in the house and not quite remembering where it is, and immediately piques Janice's interest. She's given Janice an incentive to let Livia remain alive, and taken away any incentive to not only invoke the DNR that Livia heard about from A.J., but to prevent Tony from selling the house.
- Batter Up!: The favored choice of the Soprano associates who show up to break up the protests at the Massarone Construction site.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The dinner table scenes really convey the simmering resentments between the family members, especially now that Janice is a regular, and bringing her own brand of toxicity into the picture.
- Bridal Carry: Used when Tony carts Junior to the emergency ward at the end of the episode.
- Butt-Monkey: It's made clear from the opening scene that despite Bobby's prominence and role as Junior's second-in-command, he is treated like dirt by Tony, who threatens to "cut him up into eight pieces" if he says anything about the new arrangements to anyone besides Junior. Tony also repeatedly mocks him for his weight.
- Continuity Nod:
- Skip Lipari says that because of what happened with Jimmy Altieri, Pussy is now their highest-placed mole inside the Soprano organization.
- Tony also brings up the wiretaps he heard of Junior and Livia scheming at Green Grove, which were played for him by Agents Harris and Grasso in the previous season's finale.
- Country Matters: Uncle Junior says "your sister's cunt" after taking a fall in the shower.
- Crocodile Tears: Livia still has plenty to shed.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Tony has an innocent nursing home director killed for the crime of spreading (truthful) rumors about him.
- In fairness, Capuano was also telling totally untrue tales about Livia and Junior having illicit relations during their visits.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Sean and Matthew attempt to warmly greet Tony at the construction site confrontation (shouting his name and bringing attention to him), only for the latter to turn around and rail at them for acknowledging him in the first place.
- Establishing Character Moment: Bobby's first scene has him meekly greeting Tony and the other capos, agreeing to deliver his message to Junior about the latter's reduced assets and getting exasperated when Tony repeatedly calls him out on his weight.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Livia seems to be warming to Janice during Janice's earlier visit. Then after hearing about the DNR from A.J., Livia becomes much colder during Janice's second visit, and follows up by trying to inform Carmela that she intends to cut both Janice and Tony out of her estate.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite their strained relationship Tony rushes straight over to his uncle's house and drives him to the hospital as soon as he hears that Junior has slipped in the shower.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Uncle Junior is truly incensed that Freddie Capuano had been spreading rumors that he had been seeing Livia on an intimate basis. Junior may be a Dirty Old Man, but his outrage conveys he would never go there with the widow of his own brother.
- Foreshadowing: Multiple instances.
- The scene of Uncle Junior cracking a racist joke provides more than one layer of Foreshadowing. It establishes the tone for the rest of Uncle Junior's relationship with Bobby, with the former being an Ungrateful Bastard who treats the latter as his Butt-Monkey despite Bobby becoming practically his 24/7 nurse.
- Uncle Junior also expresses resentment with how he looked on television. Remember this scene when he goes on trial.
- Tony and Reverend Hanson make a brief reference to an Abestos removal project, which will rear its ugly head MUCH later on in the series.
- Hope Spot: After years of cold feelings towards each other, Janice eventually makes a breakthrough in her relationship with her mother and they enjoy each other's company after the former brings some old records. Soon after, though, Livia catches her talking to a nurse about the decision to pull the plug if she goes into a coma, and rejects her and Tony once again, claiming that they're dead to her.
- Hypocrite: More than one.
- Despite Reverend James Jr.'s passionate words decrying the state of the labor market for minority workers, he's later revealed to be in on an extortion scam with Tony. He later concedes privately that his followers would kill him if they knew he was stealing money behind their backs.
- Bobby notes that Tony mocking him over his weight is hypocrisy, as Tony isn't actually a slim man himself, but he can't bring himself to say it to Tony's face. Which is a wise move, considering Tony is now the undisputed Boss of the family and has already threatened to have Bobby killed if he so much as thinks about stepping out of line.
- The Informant: Big Pussy, who is revealed to have been working with the FBI as their inside source for a long time, even before the events that kick off the series.
- Late to the Punchline: Uncle Junior's racist joke (noted below) completely flies over Bobby's head. Bobby isn't just late, he never gets it.
- Loose Lips: Freddie Capuano, the last individual who knew that Tony was planning to kill his own mother, is killed on the family's orders after Junior reveals the information to Tony during a meeting.
- Manipulative Bitch: Janice tries to glean from Meadow where Livia's pleasures may lie. Meadow initially struggles with coming up with anything other than an enjoyment of "negativity", but eventually remembers that Livia liked music and records from certain artists. Janice takes that info and immediately puts it into use. She begins playing the music for Livia in an effort to please her mother and weasel her way into taking over Livia's house for free.
- Matricide: After Livia discovers that Janice now has the power to decide if she should be taken off life support if she goes into a coma, she claims that she doesn't want Janice to come behind her and push her down a flight of stairs. Janice even has an Imagine Spot about this afterward.
- My Greatest Failure: After finding out through AJ that Janice has been talking with a nurse behind Livia's back about giving the power to take her off life support if she goes into a coma, the latter has a breakdown and says that she feels her two children have failed her and pledging to give all of her possessions to A.J. and Meadow in the event she dies.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Played With. Reverend James' public outcries about the treatment of Black workers, with a very passionate narrative style and demands for justice, can be evocative of Martin Luther King Jr. It's not long before he's revealed as a total Hypocrite.
- Not Helping Your Case: When the Judge orders Junior to be put under house arrest with an electronic bracelet, the latter compares the punishment to being in Nazi Germany. The Judge (who is implied to be Jewish) scowls at him and says, "Obviously you need a history lesson".
- Not So Stoic: Junior emotionally breaks after cracking his hip in the shower, and begs Tony to make up with his mother if he should pass away due to his injuries.
- Orbital Shot: When Bobby stares at Tony after the latter drives away in his vehicle.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Uncle Junior cracks a racist joke to Bobby that both uses the word "Chinaman" as a slur, and makes fun of how Asian people are perceived to speak and comprehend English.
- Pride: Uncle Junior absolutely refuses to let an ambulance take him away, both as a refusal to admit that something may be very wrong with his hip, but also because he's afraid of looking weak in front of his fellow Mafiasos if it gets out that he was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Tony has to settle for the Bridal Carry noted above.
- Shout-Out: After Livia finds out about Janice's plans regarding the DNR (and that Janice will be moving in with her), she confronts her daughter, saying: "I've seen that movie with Richard Widmark". This is most likely a reference to the film Kiss of Death, in which Widmark's character (a gleefully psychotic killer) pushes a wheelchair-using elderly woman down a flight of stairs to her death. This is reinforced by the fact that during this scene, Janice briefly hallucinates an image of Livia falling down the stairs on an "In case of fire use stairs" sign on the hospital wall. It may alternatively be seen as a reference to the 1978 film Coma, also starring Widmark.
- Sole Survivor: Judging by Tony's comments, Bobby is the only man out of Junior's crew who wasn't arrested by the Feds or whacked by Tony's guys during their little civil war for control of the family.Tony: Bobby Baccalieri! The last man standing! A lot of funerals in your corner of the world, huh Bobby? What did you have to do, refinance your house?
- Small Reference Pools: Averted - one might assume the singing sisters that Livia likes are the Andrews Sisters, but they are the more obscure De Castro Sisters.
- Spotting the Thread: Despite her initial anger with Janice, Livia figures out very quickly that the latter is only visiting because she wants to sell the family home, and immediately calls her out on it.
- Title Drop: By the nurse to Janice while explaining choices that need to be made with respect to Livia.
- Unwanted Assistance: Junior initially tries to dissuade Tony from helping him, claiming that the injury isn't as bad as it looks. It's only when Tony tries to lift him up that Junior recoils in intense pain, and expresses his fears about dying.
- Xanatos Gambit: Tony and Reverend James Jr. are revealed at the end of the episode to be colluding in an extortion scheme against Massarone Construction, including the entire series of protests and the resulting fight with the Soprano associates.
- You Are Fat: Tony does this to Bobby multiple times, hypocrisy notwithstanding.
- You Didn't See That: Jack Massarone delivers Tony's payment in an envelope hidden in a magazine to Uncle Junior and Bobby while they're in the waiting room of a medical clinic. All it takes is for Junior and Bobby to look around at the other patients briefly, without saying a word, to make them look away and pretend they didn't see anything.
- You're Not My Mother: Tony is emphatic that Livia is dead to him, and states it multiple times to Carmela, Janice, and Uncle Junior. It becomes a temporary sticking point in negotiations between Tony and Uncle Junior. He also refuses to allow Livia into her former house when she can no longer stay in the hospital, no matter how much Janice pleads with him.
