Dr. Melfi is brutally attacked, and when the justice system lets her down, she must consider asking Tony for help.
Plot
Dr. Jennifer Melfi is raped in the stairwell of a parking garage by a man named Jesus Rossi. The attack is brutal and specific, and Melfi's recovery is shown with unflinching attention to what trauma actually looks like: the physical evidence, the police interviews, the grinding inadequacy of the legal system. Rossi is identified, arrested, and then released on a technicality when evidence is mishandled by the prosecution.
Rossi returns to his job at a fast food restaurant and is, in the legal system's terms, free. Melfi's therapist, Dr. Kupferberg, helps her process the aftermath, including the rage at a system that could not hold her attacker accountable. In one session with Tony, Melfi comes close to telling him what happened. She does not. Tony would kill Rossi. Melfi knows this. She chooses not to use the violence she could summon.
Melfi's decision not to access the extra-legal justice Tony could provide is the episode's moral center. She chooses to live within the law even after the law has failed her completely. It is a harder choice than it looks, and the show does not sentimentalize it. Tony drives away from their session with no idea what has just occurred in that room.
Credits
Written by: Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess
Directed by: John Patterson