"From Where to Eternity" is the 22nd episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the ninth of the show's second season. It was written by Michael Imperioli and directed by Henry J. Bronchtein, and originally aired on March 12, 2000.
Christopher is in the hospital after being shot. He is clinically dead for about a minute and his spleen is removed, but he survives. Conscious but heavily medicated with morphine, Christopher tells Tony and Paulie that he went to Hell and saw Brendan Filone and Mikey Palmice; he also saw his father, who gets killed again every night. He reports that Filone and Palmice had a message for Tony and Paulie: "Three o'clock."
Tony comforts Christopher, assuring him it was only a dream. Discussing his experience with Dr. Melfi, Tony says he does not think he or Christopher will go to Hell. He explains: "Soldiers don't go to Hell ... everybody involved knows the stakes and ... you gotta do certain things. It's business. We're soldiers."
Paulie, however, is deeply disturbed. He tries to persuade Christopher it was only purgatory, not Hell, but still has nightmares about it. On his girlfriend's advice, he seeks the help of a psychic, who appears to have a terrifying knowledge of Paulie's past, including the name of the first man he killed thirty years before. Paulie complains to his priest that all the donations he has made to the church should have given him immunity; he will not donate anymore.
Pussy has a bad-tempered meeting with Agent Skip Lipari. He tells him nothing but repeats his fear that Tony suspects him. An informer on the street tells Pussy where Matt is hiding, and he and Tony go there together. Tony questions Matt, establishing that Richie had no part in the attempt to kill Christopher, then shoots him. He glances at Pussy, who hesitates but shoots him too; they empty their guns into the lifeless body. They have dinner in a familiar restaurant and talk nostalgically of old times.
While Christopher is near death, Carmela finds an empty hospital room with a crucifix and prays for him. When he is conscious, she tells him he has been given a second chance, but as they speak she realizes Tony lied when he told her that Christopher dreamed of going to Heaven.
The women are gossiping about an associate of the Sopranos whose long-term comàre has had his child. Dreading the shame if such a thing happened to her own family, Carmela asks Tony to have a vasectomy. He vigorously refuses, and when he assures her that he has had his girlfriend tested for AIDS she leaves their bed in revulsion. Later, having reconsidered, Tony says he will consent – but to his bafflement, she has changed her mind. She says, "All I want is you. That's all I have ever wanted," and makes passionate love to him.
The episode's title is a play on the film From Here to Eternity (1953). It also refers to Christopher's taking a trip to the afterlife and not knowing whether it was purgatory or hell.
In his dream, Christopher describes how Mikey Palmice and Brendan Filone claimed that the time three o'clock would be important in the lives of Tony and Paulie.
This is the second one of four episodes directed by Henry Bronchtein, as well as one of two which earned Bronchtein best-direction nominations by the Directors Guild of America.[1]
In his commentary for the episode "The Telltale Moozadell", Michael Imperioli says the idea of Christopher's experiences in this episode came from a spec script he had written between the first and second seasons about Christopher overdosing on drugs and having an after-life experience. When he talked to showrunner David Chase about this, Chase said that Christopher would get shot in the second season, and the after-life part could be added to the story.[2]
Tony tells Melfi the Hitlers and Pol Pots deserve hell and not people like Christopher. He also mentions America's need for Italian immigrants to "build cities and dig subways and to make them richer." He explains that the Carnegie and Rockefeller families needed "worker bees" (Italian immigrant workers), but some didn't want to "lose who we were, and preserve the things that meant to us: honor and family and loyalty". He says the J. P. Morgans were "crooks and killers too, but that's a business right, the American way."
Carmela is seen reading Memoirs of a Geisha in bed in this and several succeeding episodes.
Bevilacqua hides in Hacklebarney State Park, supposedly near a house that claims "George Washington slept here," a common claim made by old taverns, historic houses and pubs, often with little evidence.[3] There is one building in New Jersey that Washington definitely did sleep in, Dey Mansion, although that is about 29 mi (47 km) from Hacklebarney.[4]
Otis Redding's "My Lover's Prayer" (from Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul) is played throughout the episode and over the end credits (specifically, when Christopher is in the hospital, when his friends and family wait in the hospital waiting room while Chris is in surgery, and over the end credits when Tony and Carmela make love).
The Metallica song "King Nothing", from Load, is played in the background while Paulie talks to Tony at the Bada Bing! after he visits the psychic.
The song "Mona Lisa" is heard in the background at the Duke's Stockyard Inn (an Irish bar and restaurant) where Tony and Pussy eat steaks, reminisce, and discuss God.
