The Sopranos season 4, episode 12
Original air date: December 01, 2002

Tensions continue to escalate between New York and New Jersey, even after Tony reached out to Carmine, Jr., to intervene in his father's decision not to yield on the 40% on the HUD scam. Johnny Sack meets with Silvio and Tony to offer them a deal, or so they're lead to believe: the deal is 40% of all future HUD scams, leaving aside the ones in the past. Tony's pissed off by this, since the only change is to leave aside the past scams. He has his crew smash up the new restaurant that Johnny and Carmine are building on the Esplanade. Carmine then orders that the union be called to shut down Tony's crews on the Esplanade projects, for using non-union workers.

Tony and Carmela visit Meadow at her new apartment, which she's sharing with a Spanish countess and a gangly guy, both fellow Columbia students. They all have dinner together, including Meadow's new boyfriend, Finn. Carmela gets very upset by the dinner conversation, which involves a debate over whether Melville's Billy Budd is a gay novel. Carmela's disgusted by the notion, but Finn and Meadow argue that current scholarly thinking points to it being true.

Things are not going well for Paulie these days: his mother's in a little car crash when one of her lady pals hits another car. Paulie offers to drive the ladies around from then on, but when he takes them to lunch, he butts heads with Min, the lady who had the car accident, over payment of the bill and to whom the rolls on the table belong. Paulie later runs into Carmine at a wedding and goes over to say hello. Carmine doesn't even know who Paulie is, so Paulie tries to jog his memory by reminding him that Paulie and Johnny have been talking and Johnny's been assuring Paulie that Carmine appreciates his loyalty. Carmine still doesn't have the faintest idea what Paulie's talking about, and Paulie realizes that Johnny's been playing him.

What's more, Silvio warns Paulie that people are beginning to question Paulie's loyalty within the Soprano family, given that his earnings have fallen. Desperate to get back into Tony's good graces, Paulie remembers that Min, at lunch, had revealed that she keeps all her money under her mattress, rather than in a bank. He breaks into her house, thinking she's not there, because her car is gone. She surprises him in her bedroom and tries to call 911. He attacks her, but she breaks free and runs through the house screaming bloody murder. Paulie tackles her and covers her face with a pillow to shut her up. Shuts her up all right - not so bloody murder. He leaves her on the floor, dead, and takes her money to pad his earnings, which he turns over to Tony, making sure to throw in some insults against Johnny Sack in the process.

Furio and Carmela share a moment when she drops by to help him decorate the apartment for his mother that he's building in his garage. Furio tells her she's a very special lady, and Carmela's swept away for a second. Furio and Tony go to a casino in Atlantic City and are being jetted home in the private jet. They're each pissing outside the plane before boarding, and Furio grabs Tony with the intent of shoving him into the plane propeller. He can't go through with it, though, and instead mutters something about Tony "standing too close." Next thing you know, Furio's moved back to Italy with no word to anyone. Put his house on the market and took off. Carmela's crushed that he didn't even call to say goodbye.

Johnny meets with Tony to say that things with Carmine are really getting out of hand. Tony agrees, but doesn't know what to do about it, so Johnny drops some hints about things that could happen to Carmine, since he's getting older.

Meanwhile, Uncle Junior's trial is reaching a close, so a couple of his goons make the acquaintance of one of the jurors while he's buying some candy for his kid in a gas station. They tell him they know he'll do the right thing in the trial, dropping hints that they know all about his family, his wife, his kids, where he lives, and so forth.