Writer: Mark Saraceni
Director: Nick Gomez

Guest Stars:

John Heard – Detective Vin Makazian
Michael Rispoli – Jackie Aprile
Jerry Adler – Hesh Rabkin
Al Sapienza – Mikey Palmice
Anthony DeSando – Brendan Filone
Drea de Matteo – Adriana
Tony Darrow – Larry Boy Barese
George Loros – Raymond Curto
Joe Badalucco, Jr. – Jimmy Altieri
Sharon Angela – Rosalie Aprile
John Arocho – Kid #2
Oksana Babiy – Irina
Michael Buscemi – Lewis Pantowski
T.J. Coluca – Jeremy Piocosta
Michele de Cesare – Hunter Scangarelo
Guillermo Diaz – Salesperson
Ray Michael Karl – Teacher
Theresa Lynn – Stripper
Shawn McLean – Yo Yo Mendez
Annika Pergament – News Anchor
Sal Petraccione – George Piacosta
James Spector – Kid #1
Corrine Stella – Woman
Anthony Tavaglione – Lance

Tony is finding himself more attracted to Dr. Melfi, but he’s also terribly concerned someone will find out that he is in therapy. Going to his appointment he almost runs into Silvio, who is leaving his dentist’s office. He also doesn’t feel comfortable opening himself up to someone he knows nothing about, so he gets Vin Makazian, a cop with a gambling (and drinking) problem, to run her background for him. He finds out she lives in Essex Fells, is divorced, has a 19 year old son and sees a shrink once a week. What Makazian doesn’t tell Tony is that he assaulted and arrested Dr. Melfi’s date, completely traumatizing the poor guy. Dr. Melfi even brings it up during one of Tony’s sessions. He almost slips, but she doesn’t know he had any involvement in the incident.

Trying to be a good son, Tony pays Livia a visit at Green Grove and brings her favorite cookies. She is her usual surly self and refers to the other residents as lunatics. Tony also tries in vain to talk with AJ but he is concentrating on playing a video game. At school, AJ isn’t quite so withdrawn, he sends prank messages to another kid’s pager and a fight ensues. He and Jeremy Piacosta used to be friends, but now they constantly pick on each other. When AJ tells Jeremy to give him $40 for the shirt that got ripped during the first fight, another fight occurs, but their friends break it up. Instead, they’ll fight the following day at “The Pit”. Instead of fighting, Jeremy hands over the cash to AJ, probably because his dad had a fearful encountered with Tony at the garden center, but AJ still doesn’t understand what’s going on. He turns to Meadow, who explains that people are afraid of their dad and his “other” family. Then she shows him a mob web site to get him up to speed. (Anyone else catch the error here? On Meadow’s computer screen the web site is called “Megabytes of Bad Guy”, but later when AJ is looking at the print-outs, the title correctly reads “Megabytes of Bad Guys”!)

Adriana picks up Christopher from the Emergency Room and he is still terrified that Tony found out about the drugs. They go to Brendan’s apartment and discover his body in the bathtub. When Tony finally finds out what Uncle Junior did to Christopher and Brendan, he realizes their battle for control is quickly getting out of hand. He and Junior continue to butt heads, but Tony releases some of his anger by stapling a parking ticket to Mikey’s chest. All of this stress causes Tony to suffer another panic attack, so Dr. Melfi prescribes some Xanax for the short term.

Later at the Bing, a news reporter announces Jackie Aprile’s death. Christopher storms in during this solemn moment, raving about Uncle Junior collecting on his route and the need for respect and Tony throttles him for his insubordination. But Tony also knows he’s got to fix this situation. With the approval of the other capos, he goes to Junior and tells him they will back him as the new boss. This is what Junior has wanted his whole life, but he doesn’t realize that they are only making him a figurehead and Tony is still going to run North Jersey.