“Season Finale”

The Sopranos season 4, episode 13
Original air date: December 08, 2002

Johnny Sack and Tony are planning a hit on Carmine, so Tony asks Christopher to set it up, making it look like anything but what it is. Christopher says he knows some guys, black guys, that he used to buy heroin off of who can do it. He meets with them and gives them a deposit to set it up.

In the meantime, though, Carmine meets with Tony and strikes a deal: he offers 20% of all future projects, splitting the difference between his demand of 40% and Tony's offer of 5%. Tony gets him down to 15%, and they have a deal. Tony at first tells Christopher to proceed with the hit, but starts to get a bad feeling about being played by Johnny. At the last moment, he calls it off and lets Johnny know that he's not going to go through with it. Johnny's furious, saying that he's tired of waiting his turn, waiting for Carmine to die and watching Carmine's useless son run things. Tony just walks away from Johnny, which could prove to have dire consequences.

Tony's trying to cheer Carmela up by buying a beach house on the Jersey coast. He persuades the seller to back out of another offer that he was about to close on by saying that he'll pay cash. The seller calls his other buyer, backs out of it, and moves ahead with Tony's cash offer.

Carmela's still moping over Furio, though, when Meadow calls and says that for her birthday, before she goes on her ski trip with Finn, she wants to go to tea at the Plaza with Carmela, per their tradition. Carmela's pleased that Meadow wants to do this, so they meet up there. Things aren't peaceful for long, though, since Meadow brings up the dinner at her place. Carmela snipes about Meadow's roommates being hoity-toity, and Meadow shoots back that those are the kind of people who attend Ivy League colleges. She accuses Carmela of being jealous of her life and very hurtfully asks Carmela if she'd rather that Meadow drop out and go to a state school. Or better yet drop out, like Carmela did. Meadow says that the problem will be solved when she transfers to Northwestern to be close to Finn when he goes to dental school there.

Things only get worse for Carmela when she gets home, though: Irina calls, first talking to AJ, and then to Carmela, telling her that Tony's played them both by sleeping with Svetlana, her one-legged cousin. Carmela threatens Irina that if she ever calls again, she'll kill her. She starts tossing Tony's stuff out into the driveway, so that when he gets home, he runs over his golf clubs. He confronts her, and she tells him to move out. She says she's done with being played by him, especially now that his mistresses have invaded her home and spoken to her children. He's furious, but he moves out and spends the night at the new beach house, which isn't technically his yet.

The current beach house owner drops by in the morning and asks Tony not to stay there, since it's not his. Tony showers and then drops by the owner's house, next door, to say that he's going to back out of the offer, saying that it's not a good time to be buying a house, what with his marital problems. The seller lets him out of the offer, but refuses to refund his $200,000 deposit. He's a hard man to persuade, even when Tony begins blasting music from his boat right at the guy's house.

Uncle Junior's trial has concluded, and the jury's deliberating. They keep coming back, telling the judge that there's a lone juror who's holding out. The juror that Junior's men confronted at the gas station squirms uncomfortably every time they're in court, but after they come back a number of times from deliberations, the judge finally declares a mistrial and Junior's free to go.

Tony moves into the pool house at the Soprano residence, where Carmela confronts him again. She tells him that for months she's been fantasizing about Furio, right under his nose. Furio made her feel interesting, because he wanted to listen to her, which she accuses Tony of never wanting. Tony counters that he screwed Svetlana because she's a one-legged immigrant who still never complains, and he was tired of Carmela's constant complaints over nothing. He punches the wall, she leaves, and they have to tell the kids that they're separating. In a moment of desperation, Tony calls Dr. Melfi, but doesn't say anything when she picks up the phone and ultimately just hangs up on her.