Tony: Pain and truth? Come on, I'm a fat fucking crook from New Jersey.
Tony has a strange dream in which he's riding in the back of his father's car driven by Carmela. The other passenger in the backseat with him is Gloria, then Svetlana. Ralph is in the front passenger seat; he has a caterpillar on his head that transforms into a butterfly. Tony discusses the dream in therapy with Dr. Melfi, and as she attempts to help him deconstruct the symbolism he grows frustrated, claiming the therapy is useless as it has failed to help with his impulse control, which has negatively affected his business significantly.
Bobby Baccalieri's daughter Sophia sees a cake in the back of his car, which he later buries at his dead wife Karen's grave, still mourning her and wishing he was with her in death. As a lethargic Bobby lies in bed after dinner, Janice asks him about the cake, having heard about it from Sophia. Bobby confesses that he buried the cake in honor of his and Karen's 14th anniversary, the first after her death. Janice gives Bobby his space, acknowledging his need to grieve. His children, meanwhile, are unsettled by this behavior and discuss ghosts. Sophia believes that Karen is haunting their house. Bobby III tries to reassure his sister that this is unlikely and that Karen would only be a benevolent ghost but sleeps with his covers over his head regardless.
Tony sits down with Carmine and Johnny to debate the HUD scam. Carmine feels New York should get 40% since the HUD involves Zellman, a shared associate of both families, but Tony refuses, and when the subject of Ralph's absence comes up he implies that he believes Johnny is responsible. Later he calls Johnny from the car, offering a much smaller cut of 5.5%, but Carmine is not satisfied with this. He sends Joey Peeps to rough up Vic, the appraiser on the HUD scam, and force him to work for Johnny and Carmine. Meanwhile, Johnny meets privately with Paulie Walnuts, suggesting that he might be needed to step up if there is a change in leadership in Jersey. Paulie expresses his support for Johnny, who assures him that Carmine views him favorably.
The Sopranos host a Sunday dinner for Janice and Bobby, as well as Carmela's parents. AJ would rather hang out with his girlfriend Devin, but Carmela forces him to entertain Bobby's kids, as Bobby III looks up to AJ. Things quickly go south when the topic of ghosts comes up again, and AJ recommends playing with a Ouija board. When AJ messes around with the board and Bobby III calls him out, AJ suggests holding a seance. He plays a prank on Bobby III, claiming to speak to the ghost of a sea captain before dripping water from a sponge onto Bobby III's head. The Baccalieri kids panic, with Sophia convinced Karen is present, and Bobby takes them home.
As Junior awaits the results of his competency hearings, Tony visits him and finds him unkempt, with shaving cream on his face. Later, the judge rules against Junior, moving forward with the trial. Junior is frustrated, while his associates are left with the task of influencing a juror to cause a mistrial.
In retaliation for the attack on Vic the Appraiser, Tony sends Vito Spatafore to rough him up, with orders to get back to work for Jersey. Meanwhile, in the interest of reaching a peaceful settlement with New York, Tony and Silvio concoct a plan to arrange for a "coincidental" run-in with Carmine "Little Carmine" Lupertazzi Jr. in Florida, hoping he will then broker a more favorable deal with his father out of sympathy. They decide to make this arrangement through Soprano associate Beansie Gaeta, who moved to Florida after he was crippled by Richie Aprile.
Tony sends Svetlana Kirilenko a horseshoe pin, now something of a calling card, to end their relationship on good terms. Svetlana thanks him for the pin, but misinterprets that the gift is a sign Tony wants a more long-term relationship with her and tells him that's not a good idea, breaking up with him instead. Tony is miffed by this. He discusses it in therapy, at first chastising himself for breaking up with Svetlana, but then admitting that it was the other way around. He feels that Svetlana broke up with him for being "high maintenance", and attributes this to a lack of progress in therapy. Finally deciding psychotherapy is useless to him, Tony tells Melfi he's done and walks out after kissing her on the cheek and jokingly offering her a horseshoe pin.
Janice and Bobby get into a fight over his idealization of his dead wife, with Janice insisting that he needs to move forward for the sake of his living friends and family. Later, she contacts Bobby III in an online chatroom and sends an enigmatic message directing him to the location of another Ouija board in his own house. This leads to another incident that frightens the kids, and Bobby invites Janice over, apologizing and admitting she was right. As a symbolic gesture, Janice brings out Karen's last frozen ziti, and Bobby agrees to eat it with her.
Tony arrives in Miami, meeting with Little Carmine as planned. Little Carmine is sympathetic to Tony and seems to view the hostile situation as the fault of Johnny Sack. He agrees to speak to his father on Tony's behalf. Tony has a dream in his hotel room, being led from a car to an old house, first by an unknown woman, then by the bald Ralph. Tony sees a shadowy female figure on the stairwell of the house, and claims in an Italian accent to be there for the "mason job". When the shadow does not respond, Tony enters, with the creak of the door startling him awake. He goes outside to get his bearings, overlooking the Miami beach.
Tropes:
- Anxiety Dreams: Tony has one at the start of the episode, and another at the end of the episode, which effectively turns the dreams themselves into Book Ends.
- His first one has various characters, including Ralph, in the passenger and back seats. But Carmela is always in the driver's seat. Rule of Symbolism suggests that Carmela will not comply with Tony's views that Men Act, Women Are.
- His second dream has him follow Ralph into a house. A dark and shadowy figure resembling the late Livia comes down the stairs.
- Blame Game: Tony blames his lack of progress, and by extension other problems in his life, on Dr. Melfi.
- The Bus Came Back: Beansie has been in Florida since season 2, but he makes a cameo in this episode to facilitate a meeting between Tony and Little Carmine.
- Butt-Monkey: Vic the Appraiser is caught in between the Jersey and New York mobs over the HUD scam, and with no way out of the beatings delivered by both.
- Country Matters: Uncle Junior calls his nurse one.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Joey Peeps and another New York mobster beat the crap out of Vic the Appraiser.
- And again by Vito and another Jersey mobster.
- Dark Is Evil: The second of Tony's Anxiety Dreams sees a shadowy silhouette that resembles Livia coming down the stairs, confirming that she indeed was the Evil Matriarch.
- Dumped via Text Message: Played with. Svetlana dumping Tony during a brief phone call was as close as you could get to this trope at a time
before text-messaging became pervasive. - Establishing Character Moment: This episode is the first time that we see Little Carmine onscreen, and he doesn't exactly come across as the sharpest tool in the shed.
- Excessive Mourning: Bobby is still in this mode over Karen, at least until the end of the episode.
- Freudian Slip: Tony has one regarding Svetlana, saying after a while he "had to cut off the leg."
- Grave-Marking Scene: Bobby visits Karen's grave and buries their birthday cake with her.
- Grumpy Old Man: Uncle Junior is up to eleven this episode because he's stressed out over his competency hearing.
- Gut Feeling: Both Tony and Silvio start to suspect that Paulie is the leak to Johnny Sack. They turn out to be right.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Tony often breaks things off with his Goomahs by giving them a diamond horseshoe pin to "ease" them into it, but then gets miffed when he gets dumped over the phone by Svetlana.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Carmela deliberately and knowingly walks in on A.J. and Devin to get them out of their making out.
- Irony: It's not lost on Tony that Svetlana suffers from a disability, and yet saw Tony as needing to be propped up.
- Jerkass: A.J. dislikes being forced by Carmela to spend time with Bobby's kids, so he grabs every opportunity he can to be mean-spirited towards them during games.
- Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Sil has occasional contact with Beansie, now in Florida, who sees Little Carmine regularly down there, who in turn can provide Tony a voice to the ear of Carmine the New York boss.
- Libation for the Dead: Sort of. Bobby buries a birthday cake at Karen's grave instead of alcohol.
- Manipulative Bitch: There's nothing Janice won't stoop to or stop herself from doing in order to worm her way into Bobby's life.
- Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Bobby, during his Grave-Marking Scene, tells Karen that he'd like to join her in death, but is only hanging on for the sake of their children.
- Memento MacGuffin: Janice's scheming works, and finally convinces Bobby to eat Karen's last ziti, which marks that he's finally ready to move past Excessive Mourning over Karen, and take on Janice as his Second Love.
- Never My Fault:
- Tony blames Dr. Melfi for failing to help him reign in his anger and impulsivity, which in turn has led to some rash decisions he's made as the Boss.
- And again more blame against Dr. Melfi when Svetlana dumps Tony for being 'high-maintenance', which Tony interprets as a lack of progress.
- No, You:Bobby: Shut the fuck up.Janice: You shut the fuck up.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Tony's dream at the end of the episode.
- Ouija Board: It appears multiple times in the episode, and ultimately becomes useful to Janice for purposes of getting in good with Bobby.
- Pac Man Fever: Bobby Jr. is seen playing Max Payne. However, the sounds heard from the computer are not those associated with the game.
- Second Love: Janice's efforts finally pay off, and she manages to cement her status as this for Bobby.
- Shame If Something Happened: Tony implies as much if the New York family won't be reasonable in their negotiations, "My next move will not be further conversation." However, given that this is the New York family we're talking about, it could also double as an example of Bullying a Dragon.
- Stalker with a Crush: Janice demonstrates behavior towards Bobby that could be inserted in movies like Fatal Attraction and The Crush without looking out of place.
- Leads Bobby Jr. to the Ouija Board under a false chatroom name.
- Views Bobby Jr. through binoculars to make sure he's taking the bait.
- Is impatiently waiting by the phone for Bobby himself to call, proclaiming afterward that she was doing housework.
- Pretends to look for something random out of Bobby's fridge, but surely and deliberately brings out Karen's last ziti on purpose, in a hammer and nails approach to get Bobby to move past Karen.
- Title Drop: Dr. Melfi, calling Dr. Kupferberg to let him know Tony is no longer her patient. Given her past resistance to losing him as such, it implies that she is now having an emergency.
