Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
The FBI watches the Soprano home and slips a listening device into a lamp, but Meadow unknowingly removes it. Livia dies in her sleep after suffering a stroke, leaving Tony with grief and guilt; Janice takes over her house and turns the wake into a gathering that unravels under the family's anger. A.J. struggles at school, while Meadow begins college and dates Jackie Aprile Jr., whose father had been a respected boss. Tony hopes to keep Jackie away from mob work, but Ralph Cifaretto encourages him to collect debts, exposing him to the life Tony claims to shield him from.
Christopher becomes a made man but resents paying Paulie, while Ralph's brutality toward Tracee, a pregnant dancer, ends with him beating her to death outside the Bing. Tony attacks Ralph, worsening their strained relationship before promoting him after Gigi Cestone dies. Melfi is sexually assaulted and her attacker escapes conviction; she considers telling Tony so he can retaliate, then chooses not to. She continues treating him, and their work connects his panic to childhood memories of his father's violence and Livia's reactions to meat.
Jackie Jr. robs a card game with Christopher and Furio inside; gunfire kills the dealer and one accomplice, and wounds Furio. Tony tells Ralph that Jackie's fate is his call; Ralph orders Vito to kill him and disguise it as a drug deal. At the wake at Nuovo Vesuvio, Junior sings “Core 'ngrato”; Meadow heckles him and leaves. Tony follows her outside, where she calls the funeral bullshit. A.J.'s expulsion brings talk of military school, but he has a panic attack as Carmela dresses him, so Tony lets him stay home.