So, Tony Soprano is back at Dr. Melfi’s, despite his apparent anger at her. He just can’t seem to stay away. Somehow, she must be helping him feel better, even though on the surface it looks as if all she ever does is get him riled up. That said, he hasn’t actually had any more panic attacks; perhaps this fact is not lost on Mr. Soprano himself.

Not that the world of the Sopranos isn’t full of things to give him panic attacks. The whole business with the Hasidic Jews, for instance, turns out to be every bit as difficult as Tony’s friend warns him it would be. Tony has to resort to some relatively extreme methods to accomplish his task, which results in Shlomo refusing to give Tony his 50% of the hotel. Tony of course does not take well at all to this, and threatens Shlomo; Shlomo responds by calling Tony a monster, a “Frankenstein”. It’s interesting to note the effect that the term “Frankenstein” has upon Tony; in many ways he is a monster, but he clearly doesn’t see himself as one. And we the viewer see that he’s not an entirely evil person. It’s just that violence and intimidation are the only ways he knows how to do business. His referral to himself and his fellow mobsters are Romans was a very accurate that regard, though it’s probably not entirely what he meant.

Elsewhere in the world, Junior still isn’t happy (surprise). The return of the stolen truck has done nothing to mollify him, and he decides to take more drastic measures. Livia, in contrast to her demeanor in previous episodes, displays a remarkable degree of mental acuity in deciding what should be done to Christopher and his meth-head friend Brenden. She realizes that Christopher should be kept alive, due to his status with Tony, but Brenden? Expendable. Christopher is treated to a “nice little” chat and nearly pisses himself, while Brenden in casually murded while in the bathtub. Christopher is probably not going be happy about this, and most likely will lead to considerable tension between him and Tony.

We also see more cracks appear in the foundation of Carmela and Tony’s marriage, with Charmegne’s confession of sleeping with Tony. Technically, it shouldn’t matter; the whole thing happened before Carmela and Tony were married, back in the 1980’s. But Carmela seems pretty shaken after the revelation, and refuses to hold Tony’s hand while at Meadow’s choir recital.

And of course, poor Jackie, wasting away from cancer. Initially in the episode we see signs of life in him, joking and laughing with his fellow mobsters. We see Tony treat him to a private dance with one of his strippers, something that Jackie quite enjoys. Junior would probably say Tony’s just doing all this so he will be named successor to the family. From his anger and denial of Jackie’s probable imminent death, however, it does seem that Tony really cares for Jackie. When he visits Jackie later in the episode, he’s disturbed to see how aloof and disconnected Jackie appears. Tony attempts to regale him with latest “business” ventures, but Jackie is almost entirely ignorant of anything but his tempture, checking and re-checking it and finally calling for the nurse. His hair, too, is finally beginning to fall out; earlier we hear Tony tell Dr. Melfi that Jackie still had a full head of hair, so how could he be dying? But now, Tony can see for himself.

But by the end, Tony seems to have reached the titular third stage of acceptance, sitting back and enjoying Meadow’s choir performance. Or perhaps, he’s still at denial. The cracks are spreading, all through the world and the family. Maybe he should still be having panic attacks.