"The Strong, Silent Type" is the 49th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the 10th of the show's fourth season. Its teleplay was written by Terence Winter, Robin Green, and Mitchell Burgess from a story by David Chase. It was directed by Alan Taylor and originally aired on November 17, 2002.
| "The Strong, Silent Type" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sopranos episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 10 | ||
| Directed by | Alan Taylor | ||
| Story by | David Chase | ||
| Teleplay by |
| ||
| Cinematography by | Alik Sakharov | ||
| Production code | 410 | ||
| Original air date | November 17, 2002 (2002-11-17) | ||
| Running time | 53 minutes | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
| |||
| The Sopranos season 4 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
* = credit only
** = voice only
A week after Ralphie's "disappearance", there is still no word of him. At a dinner with Silvio and Patsy, Albert voices the crew's suspicions that Tony killed Ralphie because of a horse. At a meeting, Johnny demands that Tony let New York in on the HUD scam. When Tony refuses, Johnny threatens him. Tony calls a meeting of key family members and asserts that Johnny had Ralphie killed over the HUD scam. He stresses that no action should be taken until they have proof.
At a session with Dr. Melfi, Tony tearfully expresses his pain over losing Pie-O-My. Melfi comments that he seems to grieve more for animals than for humans. The painting of him and the horse is delivered to the Bada Bing; Tony angrily orders it destroyed. But when Paulie sees Benny and Little Paulie trying to burn it, he rescues it, over-valuing it and saying it would be an honor to have it in his house. He hangs it in his living room but later takes it down to have it modified to garb Tony in a "Napoleon-like" uniform. Paulie hangs it up again and sits with his back to it while watching television, but Tony's eyes are still on him.
Furio returns with gifts for A.J. and Meadow but, to her disappointment, nothing for Carmela. He still declines to enter the house with her. Carmela again finds a pretext to visit him at his home, again taking her unwilling chaperone A.J., who is beginning to understand the situation. Carmela confides in Rosalie, who urges her not to go any further with Furio; they both know what Tony would do if he found out.
Tony admires Svetlana, who has established her own nurses' agency, which supplies the nurse assigned to Junior. When the nurse is ill, Svetlana takes her place. Tony goes to the house one afternoon when he knows Junior is napping. They have sex on Junior's couch. Afterward, Tony is put out when she suggests they not see each other again. The regular nurse returns unexpectedly and can tell what has been going on.
Adriana breaks down in tears when she finds that Christopher, in a heroin-induced stupor, sat on her dog and killed it. Her FBI handler, Agent Sanseverino, says Adriana should urge him to go into rehab, and she has arranged for material to be sent to their home. Chris is carjacked, robbed, and beaten up while attempting to purchase heroin in a low-income barrio. When he returns home, Adriana gives him a pamphlet for a rehab clinic. He is infuriated and hits her. Badly bruised, Adriana goes to Carmela. Junior advises Tony to kill Chris, but he refuses. Instead, family and friends organize an intervention. It soon degenerates as Chris is irate with everybody in the room. Tony is enraged when he hears that Chris killed Adriana's dog. Chris verbally attacks those trying to help him and insults his own mother. Silvio and Paulie turn on him and beat him up, resulting in him being taken to the emergency room with a hairline skull fracture. Tony arranges for him to go to a rehab clinic in Pennsylvania and demands that he not leave until he is clean, telling him that Patsy will be watching him. Chris begins to express remorse for his actions.
