Noah and Meadow's relationship is disrupted by her roommate, while Ralphie starts getting rough with one of the strippers from the Bada...
Plot
Ralph Cifaretto, a capo newly arrived in New Jersey, has been involved with a young stripper named Tracee who works at the Bada Bing. Tracee is twenty years old, pregnant with Ralph's child, and economically dependent on him. She makes the mistake of teasing Ralph in front of other made men outside the club. Ralph beats her to death in the parking lot of the Bing in a rage.
Tony finds out and confronts Ralph directly and furiously. Ralph's position is that Tracee was a whore, not a member of the family, and that what he did to her was a personal matter rather than a business crime. Tony physically attacks Ralph, which violates mob protocol since Ralph is a made man. Silvio has to pull Tony off him. Tony does not apologize. The confrontation damages the relationship permanently.
At Columbia, Meadow's roommate Caitlin has become increasingly unstable. Meadow tries to help her connect with campus counseling while managing her own studies. A professor develops an uncomfortable professional interest in Meadow. The two storylines -- Tracee's death and Meadow's navigation of power and vulnerability in a university setting -- run in parallel throughout the episode without drawing explicit connections between them.
Credits
Written by: Terence Winter, Robin Green, and Mitchell Burgess
Directed by: Allen Coulter