Tony makes a request to Johnny Sack on behalf of his cousin, and Adriana makes a request to the FBI, followed by one to Chris.
Long Term Parking (S05E12) aired May 23, 2004. Written by Terence Winter and directed by Tim Van Patten, it is widely regarded as one of the best episodes the show ever produced. Drea de Matteo won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her performance here.
Plot
Adriana La Cerva has been working with the FBI for over a year, passing information to Agent Ciccerone under duress. She finally tells Christopher. She expects him to run with her, to take witness protection, to choose her over the family. Christopher leaves her apartment, calls Tony, and tells him what Adriana has been doing.
Tony sends Silvio Dante to take care of it. Silvio comes to Adriana's apartment with a story about Christopher being in a car accident, that she needs to come with him to the hospital. She goes. In the car, she realizes what is happening. Silvio drives into the woods, tells her to get out, and shoots her twice. The final image before the cut is Adriana on her hands and knees in the dirt between the trees.
Cutting away from that, the episode shows Christopher in a motel room, drunk. Tony comes in. They construct a story for Carmela and the others: Adriana left Christopher for another man, went to California. Tony frames this as something Christopher survived rather than something he did. Christopher accepts this framing. They hug. It is one of the more disturbing pieces of stagecraft in the season.
Separately, Tony negotiates with Johnny Sack over Tony Blundetto, trying to buy time. Carmela pushes forward with plans for her spec house as part of the terms of her reconciliation with Tony.
Credits
Written by Terence Winter. Directed by Tim Van Patten, who directed more Sopranos episodes than any other director on the series. Drea de Matteo as Adriana and Michael Imperioli as Christopher carry the episode's emotional center. Steve Van Zandt plays Silvio Dante. James Gandolfini as Tony and Edie Falco as Carmela appear in supporting roles. Vincent Curatola plays Johnny Sack.
Music
The episode's score and licensed tracks are calibrated around a slow-building dread that music supervision on the show handles differently from standard dramatic television. The final sequence in the woods uses sound rather than music to emphasize what is happening. Any streaming version may have some licensed track differences from the original broadcast print.
Analysis
The episode is structured so that the audience understands what Christopher has done before Adriana does. The scene of him calling Tony from outside her apartment is staged matter-of-factly. He does not agonize on screen. He makes a call. This is probably the most honest thing the show ever said about Christopher Moltisanti: when the real choice came, he chose without much hesitation.
Adriana's death is not shown in graphic detail, which makes it worse. The sound after Silvio shoots is the point of the episode, not the shooting itself. The episode title refers to how the FBI parked themselves in Adriana's life for months, and also to how the mob parks a story about someone and lets the story sit. Adriana went to California. The car stays in the lot.
De Matteo spent most of season five carrying an impossible weight of dramatic irony: the audience knows Adriana is an informant and Tony will find out eventually. Watching her try to hold the relationship together while the clock ran is what makes her Emmy win feel earned rather than sentimental.
This episode pairs with The Test Dream directly before it and All Due Respect after it. For the season's full arc see the season five guide.