Kennedy and Heidi
| "Kennedy and Heidi" |
| The Sopranos episode |
Tony and Christopher meeting with Phil Leotardo and Butchie. |
| Episode no. |
Season 6
Episode 18 |
| Directed by |
Alan Taylor |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by |
David Chase |
| Featured music |
|
| Cinematography by |
Alik Sakharov |
| Editing by |
William B. Stich |
| Production code |
S618 |
| Original air date |
May 13, 2007 (2007-05-13) |
| Running time |
52 minutes |
| Guest stars |
|
|
| Episode chronology |
|
|
| List of The Sopranos episodes |
"Kennedy and Heidi" is the eighteenth episode of the two-part sixth season—the sixth episode of the second part—of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and the show's eighty-third overall episode. It was written by Matthew Weiner and series creator and showrunner David Chase, both of whom receive credit as executive producers for the episode. It was directed by longtime series director Alan Taylor. The episode premiered in the United States on May 13, 2007.
Near the beginning of "Kennedy and Heidi", series protagonist Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) are involved in a car accident that leaves Christopher incapacitated. Instead of helping, Tony murders him by suffocation. Tony's family and Mafia associates gather to mourn Christopher, after which Tony travels to Las Vegas, where he meets one of Christopher's former mistresses, a stripper named Sonya (guest star Sarah Shahi). In a subplot, A.J. (Robert Iler) continues with his college courses and reconsiders his relationship with his friends.
The episode has frequently been cited by critics and fans as one of the show's best and is noted for its thematic complexity and the plot twist early in the episode. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for writing and won for directing.
Plot
A late-evening meeting is taken between the New York and New Jersey families regarding the removal of asbestos from a building project. Phil is upset because he was unaware that Tony was dumping asbestos. Tony states he should have known that this type of activity is status quo, and suggests there should be minimal repercussions. Phil disagrees, asking for a 25% cut of what they get for the illegal dumping, but Tony rejects his proposal. After the unsuccessful meeting, Tony and Christopher drive home along a winding road and talk about the events of the past year, including Tony's shooting at the hands of Uncle Junior. Christopher complains about the Escalade's stereo, changing from the radio to a CD. Tony eyes him suspiciously but keeps silent. Christopher swerves into the opposite lane, nearly hitting a sedan driven by two teenage girls named Kennedy and Heidi. Christopher's truck avoids the oncoming vehicle but veers off the road and rolls several times, coming to rest upright.
Tony, wearing a safety belt, suffers only minor injuries. Christopher, badly injured, has trouble breathing and coughs up blood. He asks Tony to "help me," and says he will never pass a drug test and will lose his driver's license. Tony notices that the infant carrier seat in the back had been impaled by a tree limb in the crash. Angry, shaken and distraught, he exits the truck, limping around to the driver's side. Christopher again pleads for help, asking Tony to "call me a taxi". He begins to dial 9-1-1 on his cell phone but closes it instead, reaches over and tightly pinches Christopher's nostrils, suffocating him.
Tony is rushed to the emergency room of Saint Clare's Hospital in Denville. A nurse calls Carmela and puts Tony on the phone. Carmela is horrified when he tells her about the accident. Largely unscathed, Tony is home the next morning, and is visited by the members of his Family who all lament the death of Christopher. Tony is ambivalent towards Christopher's passing, and has a dream in which he admits to Dr. Melfi that he killed his best friend Big Pussy, his cousin Tony and Christopher. In reality, Tony finds himself unable to discuss his true feelings about Christopher's death with anyone, only hinting to Carmela that he feels relieved.
During the preparations for Christopher's wake, Tony hears that Paulie's adoptive mother, Nucci, has died of a stroke. The Soprano family and associates attend Christopher's wake in morbid celebrity fashion, with Tony appearing noticeably disgusted by the ostentatious display of Mafia grief. Meanwhile, Nucci's wake is poorly attended, deeply upsetting Paulie, which he admits to Tony during the latter's brief appearance at the ceremony.
A.J. is spending time at Rutgers with Jason Parisi, Jason Gervasi and Mark Iscaro. The boy they tortured (in the previous episode) for not paying his gambling debts, Victor, is revealed to have had some toes amputated due to damage from the sulfuric acid that they used (Victor invented his own story, saying that the burns and amputation resulted from an accident with battery acid). Gervasi carelessly opens his car door, causing a Somalian college student to crash his bicycle. A.J.'s friends pick a fight with the bicyclist, call him a "nigger," and then beat him up. Although A.J. does not help his friends beat up the bicyclist, he shoves the youth away from him. The youth then falls to the ground where he is beaten. One of the kids then throws the bike into the path of an oncoming vehicle where it is crushed. The incident visibly disturbs A.J. and he later laments to his therapist.
A.J. tells his therapist he has begun taking college courses again and is taken in particular with one that deals with the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Displaying a show of interest, A.J. remarks that "nobody knew who started it." This, combined with (and in relation to) his experience during the morally disgusting beating of the Somalian biker, causes A.J. to exhibit symptoms of extreme distress. He ends by quoting Rodney King, imploring, "Can't we all just get along?"
Fed up with the outpouring of grief over Christopher, Tony arranges to fly to Las Vegas on a private plane. In Vegas, Tony receives a phone call from Phil Leotardo, insincerely offering fake condolences for Christopher's passing, while providing no relief for the original asbestos impasse. He meets up with Sonya, a beautiful exotic dancer with whom Christopher used to spend time. He tells her that Christopher has died, and she begins to accompany him during his Vegas trip. The two have sex, smoke marijuana, and take peyote. An inebriated Tony then wins a large amount of money on roulette while still high. Believing his recent bad luck has ended with Christopher's death, he mumbles happily, "He's dead" and subsequently collapses in a laughing fit on the casino floor. The episode concludes with Tony and Sonya looking out on the Nevada desert at sunset. Tony sees the sun flicker in the distance. He stands up to walk towards it. Both crying and laughing he exclaims, "I get it!"
Guest starring
Deceased
Title reference
- Kennedy and Heidi are the names of the teenage girls driving the car that nearly collides with Christopher's vehicle. Heidi refuses to stop after the accident for fear of losing her learner's permit from the curfew violation.
- "Sonia" was the working title for this episode.
- Tony observes Christopher's wife at the wake and describes her as "Jackie Kennedy".
Music
- The song playing on the car stereo as Christopher is driving Tony is Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", performed by Roger Waters featuring Van Morrison & The Band from the soundtrack of The Departed.
- The song playing in the background when Tony first meets Sonya is "Outta My Head" by M. Ward.
- The song played over the end credits is "Minas de Cobre (for Better Metal)" by Calexico.
- The song playing in the background as Tony and Sonya are intimate is "The Adultress" by The Pretenders.
- The song playing in the background when Tony and Sonya are talking in bed is "Space Invader" by The Pretenders.
Awards
References to prior episodes
- In the pilot episode when Christopher is first introduced, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony around. Right before he dies, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony around. According to an article in TV Guide, Michael Imperioli states that he does not know if this is intentional or a coincidence.
- In "College" (episode 1x5), there is a shot of Tony Soprano walking up to investigate Fabian Petrulio's store that is lit from the back to make Tony look like an advancing monster. That lighting is repeated when Tony walks to the driver's side of the car, eventually to suffocate Christopher.
- Right after the scene when Christopher's death is confirmed to Kelli, a crow is heard cawing just prior to Silvio and Paulie's entering Tony's room to offer condolences. Christopher saw a crow after becoming a made man in "Fortunate Son" (episode 3x3), which he interpreted as a bad omen.
- When Christopher's Las Vegas stripper-college student girlfriend, Sonya Aragon, sleeps with Tony and gives him peyote, she says, "I haven't done buttons in a while." This reference applies, at once, to the drug tablet[1][2] and to Christopher and Tony (who Sonja says reminds her of Christopher). In mobster parlance, Christopher got his "button" (i.e., became a made man) in "Fortunate Son" (episode 3x3) and a "button man" is a euphemism for a hit-man, a term that applies to both Christopher and Tony. The term "button man" also refers to a soldier[3], which Christopher considered himself to be.
- Tony's trying to open Christopher's damaged driver's side door, smashing through the window and suffocating him recalls numerous earlier references to incidents in which locked doors could not keep out danger and smashing through glass accompanied harmful actions. In "Cold Stones" (episode 6x11), Tony and Carmela cited A.J.'s "going" through a plate glass window, causing Carmela and Rosalie to cancel their trip to Rome (first mentioned in "The Knight in White Satin Armor", episode 2x12). Tony may have thrown A.J. through the window, in keeping with threats Tony makes throughout the show, such as in "Chasing It" (episode 6x16), in which an increasingly unstable Tony threatens to "introduce" A.J. to a plate glass window. In "Employee of the Month" (episode 3x4), Janice Soprano locked her kitchen door in an unsuccessful effort to keep out the Russian mobsters, who easily smashed through it and forcibly intimidated her. In "Two Tonys" episode 5x1), A.J. scoffed at Carmela's efforts to protect her family from the bear lurking in her backyard by locking the rear-facing glass doors. Finally, in this episode, references are made to Christopher's having thrown Little Paulie Germani through a plate glass window in revenge for stealing hardware from Christopher's father-in-law (in "Walk Like a Man").
- Christopher and Tony are in a black Cadillac Escalade SUV, which flips. In "Irregular Around the Margins" (episode 5x5), Tony and Adriana flip a maroon Escalade, which created a source of later tension between Christopher and Tony.
- Carmela tells Tony that it was Christopher who held her when Tony was in the hospital (referring to "Join the Club", episode 6x2).
- In "Mayham" (episode 6x3), Tony Soprano sees flashes of light on the horizon during his dream while in a coma. In one scene he asks what the flashes are, but the audience does not hear the answer. In "Kennedy and Heidi," Tony sees a similar flash of light from the sunset while he and Sonya are under the influence of peyote. To this, Tony shouts, "I get it!"
- Upon encountering Julianna Skiff at the funeral parlor, Carmela remarks, "Good-looking woman." This reflects the fact that both Tony and Christopher had romantic designs on Julianna (as well as Sonya Aragon). Additionally, both men played a part in Julianna's resumption of alcohol and heroin use and in Sonya's indulgence in sex with married men and use of recreational drugs.
- The monster-movie references are continued when Tony observes Christopher's body bag; there is a cut to Christopher's baseball cap with the logo for Cleaver (the monster movie he produced and screened in "Stage 5", episode 6x14), another quick cut to Christopher's wife Kelli screaming and dropping her phone, and finally to a long scene of Tony in bed.
- In the preceding episode ("Walk Like a Man", episode 6x17), Tony sings lyrics from the Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb". The version of the song from The Departed soundtrack is played by Christopher in the truck immediately before the accident. Brad Grey, one of the producers of The Sopranos, is also one of the producers of The Departed.
- Also in "Walk Like a Man", Phil tells Tony to stop and smell the cognac. Christopher echoes this sentiment soon before crashing the SUV, when he asks Tony, "Whatever happened to stop and smell the roses"?
- At Christopher's funeral, Tony notes that Kelli looks like Jackie Kennedy. Like Jackie Kennedy, Kelli was married to an unfaithful man. Tony's remark is one of numerous references made to John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy throughout the series. Other examples include: "Second Opinion" (episode 3x7), in which Uncle Junior extends his reverence for JFK to his surgeon, Dr. Kennedy; "Camelot" (episode 5x7), in which Tony's meeting his father's former mistress leads to a mutual show and tell of Kennedy memorabilia, as well as anecdotes and tall tales; and "Join the Club" (episode 6x2), in which the police ask Carmela where Tony was when Bobby Kennedy was shot.
- In "Chasing It", Carlo relates the Twilight Zone episode, "A Nice Place to Visit", in which a dead gangster, Rocky Valentine, finds himself unable to lose when gambling and able to have any woman or any other pleasure he desires. Originally, he believes himself in Heaven, until it is revealed he is actually in Hell. Later, in the episode "Kennedy and Heidi", Tony finds himself in a similar situation while in Las Vegas, winning at roulette and having sex with a beautiful young woman while high on peyote.
- In Kennedy & Heidi, Tony holds Christopher's nose closed. In a previous episode, Tony helps Beansie Gaeta blow his nose and tells Beansie "that's as far as I'm willing to go."
References
External links
|
|
|
| Creator and crew |
|
|
| Related articles |
|
|
| Fictional universe |
|
|
| Characters |
|
|
|
Category · Episodes
|
|