Walk Like a Man (The Sopranos episode)

Infobox Television episode | Title = Walk Like a Man
Series = The Sopranos
Season = 6
Episode = 17
Guests= "see below"
Airdate = May 6, 2007 (HBO)
Production = 617
Writer = Terence Winter
Director = Terence Winter
Episode list = Episode chronology


Episode list = List of "The Sopranos" episodes
Season list = Infobox The Sopranos season six
Prev = Chasing It
Next = Kennedy and Heidi"Walk Like a Man" is the eighty-second episode of the HBO television series "The Sopranos". It is the fifth episode of the second half of the show's sixth season, the seventeenth episode of the season overall. It was written and directed by executive producer Terence Winter in his directorial debut. It originally aired on May 6, 2007.

Episode recap

A.J. struggles with depression over his breakup with Blanca. He quits his job at the pizza parlor, sulks around the house, and disturbs Meadow with suicidal comments that reminded her of an old roommate from college. Tony and Carmela have disagreements about how to help A.J. but for lack of better options, assign him to a therapist who prescribes an anti-depressant. Through his father's orders, A.J. goes to a party with fraternity members who are his age and relatives of fellow mobsters. He begins to associate with the sports betting business they are running at school, from which they are profiting considerably. At a frat party, they use A.J.'s SUV to take a gambler who fails to pay into the woods to beat and torture him by pouring sulfuric acid on his toes.

Meanwhile, Al Lombardo (Kelli Moltisanti's father) is the unwilling catalyst of a new feud between Christopher Moltisanti and Paulie Gualtieri when Paulie's nephew, Little Paulie Germani begins breaking into Al's hardware store and boosting power tools along with Jason Molinaro. After Al gets upset and Christopher has to deal with it, he warns Paulie about flouting his authority. When Jason and Little Paulie take advantage of the elderly employees at Al's store and continue their dealings with the power tools, Chris finds out and beats Little Paulie before throwing him out a window. Although he is badly hurt, Little Paulie survives the incident but suffers six broken vertebrae. In retaliation, a visibly very irate Paulie destroys Chris's front yard by running over flower beds, crushing bushes and doing burnouts in the grass in his Cadillac STS. Kelli Moltisanti is shaken and scared by the ordeal.

Tony tells Christopher that his frequent disappearances are alienating him from the family and making large problems out of simple ones. Christopher vents his frustration about Tony's ingratitude and insensitivity at an AA meeting. The money situation is worked out between Chris and Paulie and the two reconcile their differences over at the Bada Bing. The two go to toast and Paulie orders a Club Soda for Chris, but Chris decides to have whatever Paulie is having. Throughout the night at Bada Bing, Chris becomes drunk and begins to ramble about his daughter, causing Paulie to make some off-color remarks about her. Christopher (in his drunken state), believes the group is mocking him, and he leaves to see J.T. Dolan, whom he originally met in AA. He makes veiled references to the sacrifices he has made for the sake of the family, and implies that he knows sufficient information to bring down the entire mob family if he wanted to. He attempts to tell J.T. about Adriana La Cerva and Ralph Cifaretto, but Dolan does not want to hear the details, and requests that he be kept in the dark because "you are in the Mafia." After hearing this remark, Christopher shoots J.T. in the head and departs.

Tony and A.J. return home at the same time to find Carmela and Meadow bonding over a late night snack, which they join. The episode ends with Christopher arriving home, propping up one of the partially destroyed trees in his yard, and then staggering into his house.

First appearances

The episode marks the first appearance of:
*Jason Parisi: Son of Patsy Parisi and a friend of A.J. Soprano and Jason Gervasi. He attends Rutgers University and is part of a small-time crew that runs sports book operations at his college. He and Jason Gervasi are known as "The Jasons".
*Walden Belfiore: Soldier in the Gervasi crew.

Guest starring

* Cara Buono as Kelli Moltisanti
* Carl Capotorto as Little Paulie Germani
* Max Casella as Benny Fazio
* John Cenatiempo as Anthony Maffei
* Michael Countryman as Dr. Richard Vogel
* Tim Daly as J.T. Dolan
* William DiMeo as Jason Molinaro
* Michael Drayer as Jason Parisi
* Frank John Hughes as Walden Belfiore
* Michael Kelly as Agent Ron Goddard
* Marianne Leone as Joanne Moltisanti
* Arthur J. Nascarella as Carlo Gervasi
* Dennis Paladino as Al Lombardo
* Joseph Perrino as Jason Gervasi
* Dania Ramirez as Blanca Selgado
* Anthony J Ribustello as Dante Greco
* Frank Santorelli as Georgie
* Matt Sauerhoff as Victor
* Matt Servitto as Agent Dwight Harris

Deceased

* J.T. Dolan – Shot by Christopher

Title reference

* The episode's title refers to a song by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, which is about a father telling his son to get over a woman who left him. Tony tries to pull A.J. out of his depression over breaking up with Blanca throughout the episode. Frankie Valli himself formerly had a role in the series as New York capo Rusty Millio, and an earlier episode ("Big Girls Don't Cry") also had the same title as a Valli song.

Production

* Carl Capotorto (Little Paulie Germani) is billed in the opening credits but only for this episode.

Music

Tony sings "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd as he decends the stairs at the start of the episode. While Jason Parisi is talking to Tony at the Bada Bing, "Body Burn" by Cubanate and "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse are played. Tony is listening to "Tom Sawyer" by Rush on his way home from the bar.The song played over the end credits is "The Valley" by Los Lobos.

Trivia

*Before Christopher murders J.T. Dolan, he is writing a script for "Law & Order". Michael Imperioli stars on that show.

External links

* [http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/ HBO.com — "The Sopranos" official website]
*imdb title|0141842|The Sopranos
*imdb title|0995835|"Walk Like a Man"
* [http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/Shows/The-Sopranos?strSeason=all&strSortCoulmn=airdate_asc&ShowName=The+Sopranos&vgnextoid=4c88ef12f85b2110VgnVCM1000006dc1d240RCRD Television Without Pity — "The Sopranos" recaps]
* [http://www.the-sopranos.com/ "The Sopranos" — Family Values]