Johnny Cakes

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The Sopranos episode
“Johnny Cakes”

Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 73
Guest star(s)	see below
Writer(s)	Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider
Director	Tim Van Patten
Production no.	608
Original airdate	April 30, 2006 (HBO)
Episode chronology
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Episode chronology

"Johnny Cakes" is the 73rd episode of the HBO original series, The Sopranos. The episode was written by Diane Frolov & Andrew Schneider and was directed by Tim Van Patten. It was the 8th episode for the show's sixth season. It originally aired on April 30, 2006.

1 Guest starring
2 Episode recap
3 Title reference
4 Trivia

[edit] Guest starring

Julianna Margulies as Julianna Skiff
Peter Bogdanovich as Dr. Eliott Kupferberg
Elizabeth Bracco as Marie Spatafore
Cameron Boyd as Matt Testa
John Costelloe as Jim Witowski
Joseph Leone as Vic Caputo
Vincent Piazza as Hernan O'Brien
Artie Pasquale as Burt Gervasi

[edit] Episode recap

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A.J., uninterested in his job or in going back to school, spends more time hanging out in nightclubs in the city with his new friend and underage girls. His club acquaintances are impressed with him because of who his father is. To get more money for partying, he sells the drum set that Tony gave him as a gift. While fishing on his father’s boat, A.J. asks what they are going to do about Uncle Junior shooting Tony. Tony tells A.J. he should not concern himself with punishing Junior.

Vito, pretending to be a writer named "Vince", spends more time at Jim’s diner. One evening he witnesses Jim performing a heroic rescue of a young child while working as a volunteer firefighter, and later compliments him on his heroism. Jim takes an interest in Vito’s non-existent book and questions him about the lonely life of a writer. Meanwhile, Vito manages to steal someone's cell phone and calls his wife. She begs him to come home and to get treatment. She puts their son on the phone, and Vito has a brief, painful conversation with him.

Tony meets Julianna, a real estate agent working for a national chain who asks if he is interested in selling a building he owns, one he is renting out to a local business (a poultry store). Tony rejects her, stating that the poultry store is part of neighborhood. He is interested in her physically, however; he, Silvio, and Christopher, in fact, had been eyeing her before she approached them.

Phil meets with Tony and asks what he is doing about Vito. Tony tells him he will take care of it his own way and that it is not any of Phil’s business. This earns a warning from the New York mobster that he will not swallow his pride on this issue like he did when Tony Blundetto killed his brother Billy. Phil again states that Vito shamed his family by marrying his cousin.

Julianna finds Tony hanging out at the Bada Bing and offers him a second price on the building. Tony refuses her again, but asks her to go to dinner with him. Mentioning the new outlook brought to him by the shooting, Tony tells her he knows what he wants in life and references a story she told him on their first encounter. Engaged to another man, Juliana seems attracted to Tony and claims there was a time in her life when she would have taken him up on the offer; however, she rejects his advances again.

Vito spends an evening with Jim and some of Jim's friends at a local roadhouse. After discussing Jim’s motorcycle in the parking lot, Vito rejects his physical advances and calls him a “fag”. The two throw punches, and Jim leaves Vito beaten and bloody.

After getting little support from his parents to give him a club to run, and spending his days sleeping past noon, A.J. visits Junior in the hospital, taking a knife with him. When he sees A.J., Junior begs him to take him home. A.J. drops the knife and is tackled by the orderlies. After pulling strings to have him released, Tony picks A.J. up from the police station and confronts his son. A.J. calls his dad a hypocrite because Tony admires Michael Corleone for avenging the attempted murder of his father. Tony, although initially touched by his son's intentions, tells him that is just a movie and that he needs to grow up. He also instructs A.J. not to tell Carmela about the incident.

Vito goes back to Jim’s diner for more of his johnny cakes. The two patch things up and take a motorcycle ride together that ends up with a romantic picnic where the two make out.

Tony also has his advances returned. Julianna calls him with a third offer, which Tony accepts, and she agrees to let him come to her apartment that evening for the signing. After Carmela helps pick out his shirt and button him up for the meeting, Tony seems set to have sex with Juliana. But after they sign the papers and begin to make out, she starts unbuttoning the buttons Carmela had slipped together. Tony makes her stop and leaves the apartment.

At a night club, A.J. has another panic attack.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Title reference

The episode's title refers to a type of pancake that is a local specialty at a diner frequented by Vito. "Johnny Cakes" also becomes Vito's pet name for Jim.