The Sopranos season 4, episode 7
Original air date: October 27, 2002

Adriana's watching a courtroom drama on TV in which the plot twist in court is that the witness has just married the defendant and so can't be forced to testify. She takes the idea and runs with it, begging Christopher to set a date for their wedding. He asks why she wants to give up their free and easy lifestyle, reminding her that she can't have a club and stay out all night getting high when they have kids. She then tells him that she's not sure she can have kids, because her uterus was punctured during a "medical procedure" before she met him. He explodes, telling her that if she can't have kids, he's not sure he wants to marry her.

Meanwhile, Carmela's cousin Brian is getting sucked slowly but surely into the Soprano family business. Tony throws a party at the Bing for Paulie's return from his unfortunate incarceration, and Brian indulges himself until he finally passes out. He goes to breakfast the next morning with Tony and Ralphie, and while they're chatting, he mentions that the real money is in real estate. Tony and Ralphie press him for details, and he mentions a scam involving black housing advocates who buy up real estate for way more than its worth using HUD programs to get mortgages. The advocates claim they want to revitalize the neighborhood, but then never make payments on the houses and the government has to eat the cost of the loans they've underwritten. The advocates just walk away with the profit they made on the houses.

Tony and Ralphie seize on the idea and recruit Assemblyman Zellman and the head of the Urban Housing League in Newark to work just such a scam. They have a frontman, Dr. Fried, who buys four crack houses in downtown Newark for $500,000 and then sells them to the Urban Housing League for $1.2 million. The Assemblyman and the Urban Housing League each get $60,000 from the profits. Only problem is that the crack dealers are squatting in the house. Tony wants to really get his money's worth and needs to strip the houses of the $7000 or so in pipe fittings and other scrap metal he can salvage. The guy from the Urban Housing League recruits some gang members from an afterschool program for which he's on the board, and the young thugs roust the crack dealers in the middle of the night, (non-fatally) shooting the lead dealer in the process.

While they were talking about the real estate scam plans, the Assemblyman revealed to Tony that he's now dating Irina, Tony's Russian ex-girlfriend. Tony says he and Irina are ancient history, but neither that fact nor Dr. Melfi's lecture about his impulsive, aggressive behavior in her office over Gloria Trillo's death prevents Tony from beating the Assemblyman in front of Irina with his belt. Seems Tony's not quite as over her as he'd like to think.

Christopher seeks Tony, Silvio and Paulie's advice about the situation with Adriana. They convince him that he ought to marry her, because kids aren't as important as marrying a good woman. He and Adriana move forward with their plans, and Carmela offers them the Soprano house as a wedding venue. Adriana discovers from a friend while trying on dresses, though, that it's not true that she can't be forced to testify against Christopher. She confirms this with an attorney as well, who tells her that if, a) the communication happened before they were married; b) a third party was present to hear the communication; or c) the communication regarded the commission of an illegal act, she can be forced to testify. Basically, he summarizes, since she's dealing with the federal government on RICO charges, she'd better be prepared to testify.

Carmela and Furio's attraction seems to be growing, but at the same time, Furio's wise enough not to mess with Tony's wife. Paulie's not as wise, and continues griping to Johnny Sack that Tony's not doing enough for him to get back on his feet now that he's out of prison. He mentions the real estate deal to Johnny and then asks Johnny to promise that what they say never leaves the table. Johnny promises, but it's a bit late for that, isn't it Paulie?