Ralph's callous behavior finally steps over the line, while Chris gets deeper into his heroin habit.
Plot
Pie-O-My dies in a stable fire. Tony is grief-stricken in a way that surprises even him. He goes to the stable to see the aftermath and is barely holding himself together. The horse meant something to him that went beyond the financial interest. When he begins to examine the fire with a calculating eye, the conclusion that Ralph Cifaretto burned the stable for the insurance money becomes inescapable.
Tony drives to Ralph's apartment to confront him. The confrontation quickly becomes physical. Tony beats Ralph with his fists, and when Ralph headbutts him and keeps fighting, Tony chokes him to death on the kitchen floor. Tony calls Christopher, who comes immediately. The two of them methodically dismember and dispose of the body, boiling the head to destroy dental evidence. It is among the most explicitly violent scenes in the series, shot with the procedural calm of men who do this for a living.
The episode begins with another storyline running in parallel: Bobby Baccalieri's wife Karen is killed in a car accident. Bobby is devastated. Janice begins calling and visiting Bobby, bringing food and offering comfort in ways that Tony reads immediately as opportunism. The Karen subplot and the Ralph subplot run side by side -- loss and grief handled in radically different registers within the same hour.
Credits
Written by: Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess
Directed by: Tim Van Patten