Pine Barrens (The Sopranos episode)

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“Pine Barrens”
The Sopranos episode

Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 37
Guest stars	see below
Written by	Terence Winter
Directed by	Steve Buscemi
Production no.	311
Original airdate	May 6, 2001 (HBO)
Episode chronology
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Episode chronology

"Pine Barrens" is the 37th episode of the HBO original series, The Sopranos. It was the 11th episode for the show's third season. The episode's teleplay was written by Terence Winter and a story idea by Winter & Tim Van Patten and was directed by Steve Buscemi. It originally aired on Sunday May 6, 2001.

1 Guest Starring roles
2 Episode recap
3 Title reference
4 Awards
5 Miscellanea

[edit] Guest Starring roles

[edit] Episode recap

After Silvio catches the flu, Tony asks Paulie and Christopher to make his collections, one in particular from an associate of the Russian mob, Valery. Tempers flare when Paulie, unprovoked, mocks the Russian and deliberately destroys his universal remote control, causing Valery to insult Paulie and Christopher, prompting them to attack the seated Russian. Paulie chokes Valery with a lamp, severely injuring him and apparently cracking his wind pipe, according to Paulie, which would soon lead to death. Of course, this situation gone quickly and expectedly awry causes Christopher alarm. The Mafiosi wrap him in a carpet and wheel him into their car. While trying to figure out what they will do with the body, Paulie suggests that they bring it to the Pine Barrens since it will be deserted and is in close proximity to Atlantic City. Christopher states he's very hungry and wants to visit a nearby restaurant first, but Paulie pulls rank on Chris and informs Chrissie they will take care of "first things first" and they drive off south towards Pine Barrens.

Meanwhile in North Jersey, Tony is on the outs with Carmela when, on the Stugots, Tony receives a call from his former cumare Irina in front of her, who has a long history of drunk dialing. Tony at first continues Irina's lie about being from AJ's school but then, most likely out of a clear and strong affection--likely even love--Tony decides to come clean, briefly after his little lie. Carmela asks why Tony lied in the first place and Tony slips out he didn't want to "piss her off" and lie to her, and he just wanted to be honest. Carmela has a manic, jealous episode where she gets furious that Tony's more concerned about having to deal with Carmela's emotions as they would be an inconvenience to him, instead of what she feels entitled to: Tony genuinely caring about respecting her and caring about her emotions. She then throws Tony's Christmas gift into the marina and leaves, wrapping up her tantrum. Tony and Carmela manage to reconcile later when she buys him a new gift and they then sleep together. However Tony fails to show up at a dinner Carmela had prepared on time, causing another argument. After reconciling once again and just before eating, Tony gets a call from Paulie telling him to come get them as they're dying of possibly hypothermia, starvation, or even injury to Paulie's foot since he lost his shoe in the snow. Left with no option, he tells Carmela he has to leave for an emergency and can't eat, causing Carmela to get extremely angry and throwing the piece of steak at Tony. Tony, immediately after being struck by the steak, seems infurated, and as if he may be driven to violence. He then rises above his anger and finds the strength to laugh off the situation and walks out her front door, to rescue his friends.

Meadow has a cold and continues to warm up with Jackie, Jr. When Jackie continues to leave early when she declines to have sex with him, and he fails to make any new dates with Meadow, making up excuses about his mom's car needing servicing by a friend who's only available that night, because he didn't feel like just sitting there supporting her and getting nothing in return. She becomes suspicious and follows him, bringing a friend from her dorm and catches him walking down the street with an obvious stripper or dancer type. Meadow then gets out of the car and tearfully confronts Jackie. She then yells at the two, indicating the end of the relationship, and the other woman with Jackie fires back an insult at Meadow. Jackie condescendingly explains to his escort that the woman who just left was Tony Soprano's daughter but she seems indifferent. Jackie is clearly distraught. Meadow is taken to the hospital wing shortly after; since she was out all night she feels even sicker, but she is surrounded by her friends in the dorm who try and convince her that Jackie, although attractive, was boring and pretty lame. Meadow tells her friends they don't know what it was like growing up where she did where he was revered like royalty, and she said he was great, but knew they couldn't understand.

In the woods, Christopher and Paulie open the trunk to find that Valery is still alive and has chewed through the carpet tape. They lift him out of the car, present him with a shovel and force him to dig his own grave. When the pair are distracted, Valery smacks them with the shovel, delivering a brutal blow to Christopher's head before fleeing. Christopher and Paulie draw their guns and chase after Valery, but are amazed when Paulie shoots Valery in the head, clearly taking a significant part of his head off, and he immediately gets up and runs into the woods out of their view. They try to track his blood and footprints in the snow but they both disappear and are left with no clues. Still on the hunt, the pair hear something and fire some shots in the direction, amazingly managing to kill a deer. Christopher remarked that they wouldn't have gotten close if they tried on purpose. Now lost in the woods, Paulie's army experience he initially believed would help them navigate their ways back to their car fail and he uses his cellphone to call Tony for help, to his annoyance, but communication is limited by poor reception. Tony learns from Valery's boss and best friend that, although he has developed drug and drinking problems since, Valery was previously in the ministry of the interior and he killed 16 Chechen rebels singlehandedly at one time. The lack of clarity resulted in a mix up where Paulie tries to pass the message on that he killed 16 Czeckloslovakian rebels and he's an interior decorator, to which Christopher replied "His house looked like shit." As the night draws nearer, the lost pair begin to shiver and Paulie loses his shoe in the snow. They manage to find an abandoned van where they spend the rest of the night. For warmth, Paulie rips up the van's carpet and he and Christopher share ketchup packets. When Christopher blames Paulie for the predicament and accuses him of trying to save himself at his expense, the two have an angry confrontation to the point where Christopher points a gun at Paulie, and said he thought Paulie was cooking up a plan to maybe kill Christopher, after he overheard Paulie placing undue blame on Chris when he thought Christopher was too far to make out the conversation. Christopher grabs Paulie and shoves him up against the van and threatens to kill him, despite their long history of friendship and tutleage. Then the two break down in laughter, realizing how ridiculous the thought of them killing each other was, possibly forgetting the severity of the present situation. Paulie is not as amused, however. The morning after, they leave the van and try to retrace their steps.

Tony asks Bobby Bacala who is a skilled outdoorsman to help him find them. He appears dressed far too appropriately, completely furnished in over-the-top outdoor/hunting gear and receives ridicule and laughter that he resents, especially after being called to help at such an inconvenient time. Driving to the Barrens, the two share their first friendly moment when Tony apologizes for making fun of Bobby earlier for the way he was dresse, and expresses gratitude for his taking care of Junior. Bobby tries to make a joke but it was embarrassingly juvenile and old, to the point where Tony couldn't even begin to feign amusement or laughter. Arriving at the woods, they yell for a response, but realize they're gonna have to wait for daylight.

Daylight arrives, and Tony and Bobby are out searching for the other two while Paulie and Chris are continuing to struggle a distance away. Paulie's makeshift shoe falls off and he shoots it in a fit of crazed frustration. Tony and Bacala hear the shots and head towards the source of the noise, calling for Paulie and Christopher. They respond and soon meet up with each other. Paulie and Christopher are grateful they have been found and climb into Tony's Suburban where there are food and drinks, but Tony is clearly irritated with the two for getting himself in such a predicament with Carmela, and losing their car which also contained the original target of their easy mission: Sil's $5,000. Tony tells him to take responsibility for any trouble created by Valery's disappearance or potential re-emergence, and to make an executive decision on whether or not to further pursue Valery, since Paulie holds the position of Caporegime and should have to take responsibility. They decide to give up and drive back home to north Jersey.

During a session with Dr. Melfi, Tony tells her of his problems with Carmela who advises him that she is not the only one who was "impossible to please" and "depressive". She then asks: "Does this remind you of any other woman?". After a thoughtful pause, Tony shakes his head in denial.

[edit] Title reference

The Pine Barrens is an actual area in Southern New Jersey where Christopher and Paulie try to "dispose" of Valery's remains.

[edit] Awards

Terence Winter and Timothy Van Patten received an award from the Writers Guild of America for their work on this episode.

[edit] Miscellanea

As of the sixth season, the whereabouts of Valery, the Russian remain unknown, despite demand for continuity from many fans. David Chase has said in the past that the episode was not intended to evolve into a story arc. HBO's promotional material lists him as dead, although it does so with a question mark.
In the DVD commentary for this episode, director Steve Buscemi has said that he was the one who threw the steak at Tony's head, to perfect the desired impact.
Director Steve Buscemi played a character in Fargo who was also part of a two-man crew involved in taking a hostage into the snowy woods with dark comic results.
This episode was filmed at Harriman State Park in New York. [1]
The song played during the final montage/closing credits is the aria "Sposa Son Disprezzata" from the opera Bajazet by Antonio Vivaldi, sung by Cecilia Bartoli.