In Camelot

Starring

* = credit only

Guest starring

Episode recap

Tony Soprano seems to have mended his relationship with his sister, Janice, since their last fight, as he visits her and Bobby Baccalieri's house for a meal together where he is informed his Aunt Concetta died. While at the cemetery for her funeral, Tony meets Fran Felstein, his father's longtime comare. Over a matter of days, Tony spends time with her and learns more about his father's life through her stories. He also learns that his childhood dog, "Tippy," that he was told was taken to a farm for an illness, had instead been taken by Tony's father to Fran as a gift for her child. Tony's mother had wanted the dog removed from the house. Tony quickly gets over his anger at this, and Fran also tells Tony about her life, including all the times she resisted Junior's advances and her one-time fling with President John F. Kennedy. Fran and Tony tour a midget car racetrack where Fran asks Tony about the women in his life, his wife, and his girlfriend, while Tony admires her manners and dress as classy.

Fran tells Tony that John Soprano, before his death, promised to leave her a share of the midget car racetrack, but that Phil Leotardo and Hesh Rabkin cheated her out of this investment, with Hesh only sending her $500 once for it. Tony tries to collect the money on her behalf and has a sitdown with Hesh and Leotardo mediated by Johnny Sack. While Hesh agrees to pay, Phil is discontent at the decision to pay 25%, which amounts to almost $40,000 and keeps avoiding Tony. When Tony spots him buying an Italian water ice, the two get involved in a car chase that results in Phil crashing his car into a Boar's Head truck. Later, Tony is able to collect $150,000 for Fran.

Uncle Junior, with his mental health and memory now improved due to the new drugs he has been taking, is going stir crazy while still under house arrest. He begins going to every possible funeral he can, even when he knows the deceased only slightly, just to get out of the house. He seems to be little affected by the atmosphere of grief in these gatherings, where he openly compliments the food served there and even tries to sing on one occasion. However, after attending a number of these ceremonies, while at the funeral of the husband of Tony's Aunt Concetta, Uncle Zio, who died only 15 days after burying her, Junior breaks down and begins crying uncontrollably in public at his wake when Father Phil invites those gathered there for a prayer and has to be helped away by Bobby and Janice. Junior later also breaks down in his physician's office when he mentions the lack of purpose in his life since he has no children and is "trapped." The doctor says they have to find a well-adjusted combination of medicine to successfully regulate his condition and minimize any side-effects the drugs may have, which is a process that takes time.

Christopher Moltisanti begins to spend a lot of time with J.T. Dolan, a friend he met in rehab, who is a television writer. The two offer to support one another when they get the urge to use. After losing a sports bet to him, Christopher introduces Dolan to the high-stakes poker games his crime family runs, seemingly oblivious to the potential for his friend to channel his addiction problems into problem gambling. After Dolan runs up $60,000 in debt and starts missing payments, Christopher and Little Paulie Germani come to his apartment and give him a beating. J.T. loses some writing jobs, further escalating his problems. He eventually turns back to heroin, which causes Christopher to help direct him back toward rehab (after taking his BMW Z3 as a partial payment and making plans to collect more money after he gets out of rehab and gets better work).

Around then, Tony's friendship with Fran begins to sour, as he learns his father was often with her when he was needed at home. An example was one night in the summer of 1975, when Tony was just 16, and his mother was hospitalized after suffering a miscarriage and Tony was forced to lie for his father, who was at Fran's apartment all night. He also learns that she did not quit smoking, even after his father contracted emphysema, something that even Tony's mother did. Furthermore, Fran starts to openly disparage Livia in front of Tony, describing once seeing her dressed "as a refugee," and uses the money Tony collected for her to buy expensive attire when she had convinced him she could not even pay her phone bills. When Tony discusses these revelations with Dr. Melfi, she suggests he could have more sympathy for his mother, forgive her, and forget. Yet Tony remains unsympathetic, remarking that Livia did make his father give away Tippy.

As the episode closes, Tony starts regaling his buddies at the Bada Bing with exaggerated accounts of Fran's involvement with JFK.

First appearances

Deceased

This episode had five deaths, the most of the series, although they all happened offscreen and none of them were murders.

Production

Connections to prior episodes

Music