After shooting heroin, Christopher obliviously sits on Adriana's beloved small dog Cosette, killing it. Adriana is grief-stricken by the loss, and the toll of Christopher's drug addiction becomes apparent during her next meeting with Agent Sanseverino, who suggests checking Christopher into rehab. Adriana is reluctant to take this step with her wedding to Christopher approaching.
Tony and several guys play pool in the back of the Bada Bing, speculating about the cause of Ralph Cifaretto's disappearance. Tony plays along, keeping it secret that he killed and disposed of Ralph. However, when Christopher arrives with a parcel for Tony, it is revealed to be a painting he ordered of himself posing with the horse Pie Oh My. Tony becomes emotional and wants the painting destroyed, drawing suspicion as to the true cause of Ralph's death from other guys. At dinner with Silvio and Patsy, Albert Barese voices the suspicion that Tony killed Ralph over a horse, suggesting that despite Ralph's unsavory reputation, this kind of act would be unacceptable from a boss. Silvio seems uncertain about the possibility, and Patsy suggests that Silvio himself would kill Tony if the rumor were true.
Furio returns home from Italy, having resolved to restrain himself from getting personally involved with Carmela, as this would risk both their lives. Bringing presents back from Italy, he hands them to Carmela before waiting outside in the car for Tony rather than entering her home. He sheds tears in the car, while Carmela opens Furio's gifts, finding a little bauble for AJ and a book for Meadow (misspelled "Maedo") but nothing for Carmela. Carmela, still hoping to get closer to Furio, visits him at home, and he apologizes for the lack of a gift, handing her a jar of balsamic vinegar from his kitchen counter.
Christopher's heroin addiction worsens. He misses a scheduled pickup with Paulie and Silvio, instead trolling around a bad Puerto Rican neighborhood for a fix. Drug dealers carjack him and beat him brutally, and he has to commission the help of a junkie friend to get him home. Adriana is appalled at the state he's in and shows him a pamphlet for a rehab facility. Christopher hits Adriana and storms out. Adriana goes to Carmela, revealing to her and Tony what's been going on with Christopher but begging Tony not to hurt him. Tony consults with Junior, who claims that heroin will make Christopher a dangerous element who must be put out of his misery. Rejecting this, Tony instead agrees to stage an intervention with the rest of Christopher's friends and family.
Tony meets with Johnny Sack, who reveals his knowledge of the HUD scam and demands New York get a cut. Tony rejects this, and Johnny gives him an ambiguous warning. Tony holds a meeting with his subordinates, using this opportunity to improvise a story about Ralph's disappearance. He suggests that Johnny must have confronted Ralph about the HUD scam and killed him when tempers flared, as Johnny's disdain for Ralph is well known. The story seems to satisfy Tony's men, although it necessitates an escalation of hostilities with New York.
Christopher's intervention takes place, and it quickly spirals out of control. The mediator, Dominic, attempts to keep things civil and non-judgmental, but many of Christopher's mob associates put him down severely, leading to an escalating argument. Tony threatens to kill Christopher after he hears about the death of Cosette, a bad move in light of the suspicions about Ralph. When Christopher calls his own mother a whore during an argument (along with calling out the other members of the intervention on their various sins), the whole room gangs up on him to beat him. In the hospital later, Tony lets Christopher know that anybody else would have been killed if they transgressed like this. Christopher is taken to an extended stay in rehab.
Visiting Junior, Tony finds Svetlana Kirilenko, Irina's one-legged cousin, alone there. Svetlana offers him to share some vodka with her and the two bound over their drinks, with Tony expressing admiration for Svetlana's attitude of taking the world as it comes rather than seeking pity and support. Svetlana chalks it up to American naivety but shows respect for Tony. Tony starts overtly flirting with Svetlana, comparing her looks to those of Greta Garbo, and they end up having sex. Afterward, Tony asks Svetlana if the two of them should see each other more often, but Svetlana insists that it would not be a good idea and that what just took place between them was strictly a one-time thing. Tony is upset by this, but before he can argue too much about it, the two of them are spotted by Junior's caretaker Branca, prompting Tony to quickly leave.
Paulie salvages the painting of Tony and Pie Oh My as Benny and Little Paulie try to burn it. He has the painting restored, inexplicably wanting it painted over to dress Tony up as a French revolutionary general, and hangs it in his home. As Tony finds himself alone one night and microwaves a meal Carmela left in the fridge, he is juxtaposed with Furio lovingly preparing a meal of his own. Meanwhile, as Paulie sits down with a TV dinner, he is unsettled by Tony's eyes in the painting.
Tropes:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Chris sits on Adriana's dog and kills her while high on heroin.
- Asshole Victim: Zig-zagged. All the gangsters despised Ralph and aren't particularly sad that he's gone. However, they all agree that he didn't deserve to get whacked over Pie-Oh-My and they're infuriated that Tony would kill a made man for something they regard as a trivial matter.
- Bad Liar: Tony calls Ralph's number to Maintain the Lie that Ralph just mysteriously disappeared without any explanation. Then Chris arrives with the portrait of Pie-Oh-My. It's all Tony can do to hold back the Manly Tears before leaving the room. He soon after calls up Silvio and orders him to burn the portrait. The sequence leads to Tony's murder of Ralph on account of Pie-Oh-My becoming an Open Secret.
- Be Careful What You Say: Paulie tries this more than once to shut Chris down during the intervention, but Chris does not back down one iota, striking back against the other mob family members for their hypocrisy.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Tony manages to shake immediate suspicion for Ralph's disappearance from himself by blaming it on Johnny Sack, who was known to despise Ralph. But it does little to mend the relationship with the New York family. That fact will come back to bite Tony at a time when he would love nothing more than for his subordinates to stay out of the Succession Crisis that will hit the New York family.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: All of the bubbling resentments between the members of the crime family surface during the intervention, leading to the inevitable.
- Blatant Lies: Tony blames Johnny Sack for Ralph's disappearance.
- Tony tells the attending nurse that Chris "slipped off the kitchen counter".
- Brutal Honesty: Paulie's justification for throwing the non-judgmental rules of the intervention out the window, and giving Chris "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- The Caligula: The other Capos and made men start to see Tony as an example. They won't shed a single tear for Ralph, but the Open Secret that Tony whacked him over a horse has them worried for their own skins, and unable to trust Tony to properly observe the rules of The Mafia.Albert: This is bad, my friend. I mean, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't piss on this Ralph if he was on fire. But to whack the guy over a horse? How fucked up is that?
Patsy: If it could happen to him, it could happen to any of us.
Albert: And what's next? You get clipped for wearing the wrong shoes?
Pasty: What can you do? Tony's the boss. Centuries of tradition here.
Albert: Exactly my point. If Tony did do this, whack Ralph over a fucking horse, that guy'd (motions to Silvio while he's in the washroom) be the first guy on line to pull his fucking plug. - Call-Back:
- Tony, at the start of his therapy, described himself as a "sad clown" who has to put on a front for the rest of the world during the second episode of the series. The sad clown discussion resurfaces again during another session with Dr. Melfi during this episode.
- Carmela distinctly remembers Chris went into full Cloud Cuckoolander mode while high at Livia's wake.
- When calling out the others on their lack of self-control, Christopher reminds Paulie of what happened "last winter in the woods with the Russian guy".
- Caught in the Bad Part of Town: Chris tries to buy scag in a rundown Latino neighborhood. He gets robbed of his Range Rover and wallet, and then gets the absolute shit beat out of him.
- Character Catchphrase: "I'm sorry T" multiple times from Chris.
- Character Tic: It has by now solidified that whenever Carmela checks her hair before answering the door, it's in anticipation of opening the door to Furio.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The mob's lack of loyalty is showcased when Tony tries to pin the blame for Ralph's death on Johnny Sack.
- Clingy MacGuffin: Paulie saves the portrait of Tony and Pie-Oh-My from being burnt to cinders, thereby ensuring that it endures not just as a Memento MacGuffin but doubles as a Clingy one too.
- The Consigliere: Uncle Junior urges Tony to get rid of Chris, who's becoming The Load, and even likens it to a Mercy Kill.
- Domestic Abuse: Chris gives Adrianna yet another beating.
- Escalating Brawl: The inevitable outcome of the intervention.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Subverted to a degree. Chris may care for his mother to some extent, although it can be hard for the audience to see it. But he resents her participation in the intervention and calls her a whore at the end of it. This prompts Paulie, who loves his mother dearly, to strike him, which leads to everyone beating Chris up.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Chris is spared by his uncle for his drug addiction despite the fact that Tony would kill anyone else for this infraction.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Tony is shocked when he sees how Chris has beaten up Adriana and furious when he finds out he killed Cosette.
- Evil Is Petty: Tony's willingness to blame Johnny Sack for Ralph's disappearance is motivated at least partly by spite over Sack trying to cut in on the HUD scam.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Carmela has her hair cut down almost to a pixie. Tony lampshades that he'd prefer it longer. It signifies that she now consciously wants to be with Furio and is growing more distant from Tony.
- Foreshadowing: Tony to Chris: "I oughta suffocate you, you little prick!"
- Forgot the Disability: Tony has an awkward turn of conversation with Svetlana, who doesn't really feel that encumbered on account of a missing leg.
- Gang of Bullies: How the intervention goes for Chris, and he's got plenty to say in return.
- Gilligan Cut:
- Albert ends his declaration that, if it's proven that Tony whacked Ralph without sufficient cause, Silvio would be the first in line to "pull his plug''. Cut to a close-up view of the life support machine keeping Justin alive in a coma. The shot gradually expands to show Tony maintaining an Unbroken Vigil over Justin.
- Tony tells Furio to quit crying and get over his father's passing. The very next shot is of Tony shedding plenty of Manly Tears in Dr. Melfi's office over Pie-Oh-My.
- The next cut after the Escalating Brawl that ended the intervention is a scene of family members (most of whom were responsible for Chris' condition) at the hospital.
- Friend to All Living Things: Tony threatens to suffocate Chris when he learns Chris killed Ade's dog.
- Hypocrite:
- Tony sheds tears for a horse, then berates Furio for crying over his father's death.
- How Chris feels about the Gang of Bullies who are running him through the wringers at the intervention, and he isn't wrong either.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Furio, even after his return from Italy, tries to distance himself from Carmela to avoid possibly life-threatening repercussions for both of them. He waits in the car instead of coming into the Sopranos' house, and he gifts the children but not Carmela so as to avoid encouraging her.
- Innocently Insensitive: A car pulls up next to Robyn and Adriana, with a small dog resembling Adriana's recently deceased pet barking at them. Robyn gushes at how cute the dog is, forgetting that she was just trying to console Adriana over her dog just moments earlier. It goes without saying that Adriana is in tears.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Mocked by Svetlana, who ironicallys says that the whole purpose for people like her is to inspire people like Tony.
- Irony: Chris during season 1 dissuaded Meadow against trying to buy meth herself as it would likely put her in danger in the wrong part of town. Chris' Descent into Addiction has by now made him so desperate for his next fix that he heads into a rundown Latino neighborhood by himself, and thereby incurs upon himself those same risks he cautioned Meadow against. And sure enough, he gets robbed and beaten to a pulp as a result.
- It Tastes Like Feet: Tony and Junior are sampling some wine Furio brought back from Italy, which Junior grumps "reminds [him] of people's feet." After which, he continues drinking it.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- During Christopher's intervention, Silvio cites a time where he found Christopher with his head in the toilet as an example of how bad his addiction is, to which Christopher claims that that instance was actually a result of him having the flu. Tony begrudgingly vouches for him by confirming that he was legitimately ill during that time period.
- As shitty as he is acting, Chris is right that none of the other mobsters have much moral high ground in lecturing him about his behavior. Specifically, he calls out Silvio for constantly cheating on his wife, Paulie for constantly creating problems with his impulsiveness, and Tony for his gluttony as examples of how they don't have self-control themselves.
- Kick the Dog: Tony shows No Sympathy for the death of Furio's father.
- Chris does a literal if unintentional, version of this when he accidentally sits on and kills Cosette. He gets a straighter example when he violently smacks Adriana and steals money from her purse when she tries to suggest rehab.
- Living Lie Detector: Paulie asks Silvio about Ralph, and that Tony looked like he wanted to cry when he saw the portrait of Pie-Oh-My. The look on Silvio's face clearly indicates that he of all people has figured it out to a certainty that Tony whacked Ralph on the assumption that the latter burned Pie-Oh-My to death.
- The Load: Chris becoming an Addled Addict is sending him hard into this territory. Not only did he get robbed and the shit beat out of him in the bad part of town, he didn't even show up for a scheduled pick-up with Paulie and Silvio.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: Adriana relates during the intervention that Chris can't perform anymore as a full-blown Addled Addict. Chris is quite embarrassed, but Paulie is quietly amused.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Chris' mom lets it be known that she wouldn't mind Paulie smacking some sense into Chris. It's the straw that leads to Chris calling his own mom a whore, and the Escalating Brawl.
- Malaproper: When flirting with Svetlana, Tony compares her to "Greta Garble". He is clearly referring to Greta Garbo.
- Manly Tears:
- Plenty from Furio, many on account of personally letting go of Carmela, but implicitly also some on account of his father's passing, as he relates to Tony.
- Tony is practically a fountain of them over Pie-Oh-My and the portrait while having a session with Dr. Melfi.
- Meaningful Look: Chris and Tony share one as the rest of the guys at the Bada Bing are wondering out loud where Ralph has gone.
- Memento MacGuffin: Chris shows up at Satriale's with the newly completed portrait of Tony and Pie-Oh-My. It sets off a new set of problems for Tony and the rest of the Jersey mob.
- Nepotism: Tony outright admits to Uncle Junior that he would have given anybody else besides Chris a death sentence if they had become an Addled Addict unable to do their jobs and liable to rat to the feds. And he spells it out to Chris after the intervention as well.
- Never My Fault: Chris couldn't possibly have been responsible for the dog's death. Surely she crawled under him and suffocated herself ...
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Chris suffers one at the hands of a few Latino gangsters.
- Open Secret: Despite Tony's best efforts to avoid arousing suspicion, pretty much everybody else in the crime family suspects that Tony offed Ralph over Pie-Oh-My.
- Self-Made Woman: Svetlana oozes this quality, despite her handicap, and it's what has Tony fascinated with her.
- Shame If Something Happened: Johnny Sack when he wants a piece of the HUD action, "You sure you want to go down this road, Tony?"
- Spooky Painting: Played with. There's nothing supernatural about the portrait of Tony and Pie-Oh-My. But Paulie, who's far from the most rational person on the series, is thrown into a real funk with thoughts that Tony is watching him through the eyes of the portrait itself.
- Staging an Intervention: A serious example is the intervention to stop Chris from taking heroin. It's fairly hypocritical on the part of the mob guys calling Chris out on his addiction, which he doesn't fail to point out. It turns violent when Chris insults his own mother and Paulie beats his face in. Tony himself states that if it were anyone else but Christopher, the "intervention" would have been quite different.
- Stepping Out for a Quick Cup of Coffee: Legally Inverted. Silvio eases Albert and Patsy's worries at their lunch meeting by saying their conversation will be "off the record". After Albert voices his suspicions with Patsy about Ralph's real fate at Tony's hands, Silvio recognizes their need to vent and heads to the washroom.
- That's an Order!: Chris would love nothing better than to walk away and not even bother with the intervention. It takes a quiet "sit down" from the recognized boss, Tony, to get him to participate.
- Trauma Conga Line:
- Adriana has been on the slow burn version for all of season 4, but special mention is warranted for experiencing the death of her beloved pet dog, getting pinched harder than ever by the FBI, and suffering another round of Domestic Abuse from Chris all in one episode.
- Tony certainly feels like he's experiencing one of late, with Pie-Oh-My's Cruel and Unusual Death, Chris' Descent into Addiction, and 9/11 being in the news. All of it is enough to convince him that he lives in a Crapsack World, one that ironically he helps create.
- Ungrateful Bastard: How Chris' junkie friend feels about bringing Chris home, but then having Adriana throw him out of the apartment instead of compensating him for it.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: More than ever between Carmela and Furio.
- You Are Fat: How Chris lashes out at Tony during the intervention.
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Chris tries to invoke his connections to the Jersey mob in an effort to dissuade the Latino gangsters from beating and robbing him. It doesn't work. The Mafia may be powerful, but they aren't all-powerful, and can't extend their reach with obvious shows of force in certain neighborhoods that themselves have plenty of ruthless gangsters. Also, Chris is unlikely to want the other guys to know that he got beat up while trying to buy heroin.
