All Due Respect (''The Sopranos'')

"All Due Respect"
The Sopranos episode
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 13
Directed by	John Patterson
Written by	David Chase Robin Green Mitchell Burgess
Cinematography by	Phil Abraham
Production code	513
Original air date	June 6, 2004 (2004-06-06)
Running time	55 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
see below

"All Due Respect" is the sixty-fifth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the finale of the show's fifth season. It was written by David Chase, Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, directed by John Patterson and originally aired on June 6, 2004.

Starring

• James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano
• Lorraine Bracco as Dr. Jennifer Melfi
• Edie Falco as Carmela Soprano
• Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti
• Dominic Chianese as Corrado Soprano, Jr.
• Steven Van Zandt as Silvio Dante
• Tony Sirico as Paulie Gualtieri
• Robert Iler as Anthony Soprano, Jr.
• Jamie-Lynn DiScala as Meadow Soprano
• Drea de Matteo as Adriana La Cerva **
• Aida Turturro as Janice Soprano Baccalieri *
• Steven R. Schirripa as Bobby Baccalieri
• Vincent Curatola as Johnny Sack
• and Steve Buscemi as Tony Blundetto

* = credit only ** = picture only

Guest starring

• Jerry Adler as Hesh Rabkin

Also guest starring

Episode recap

Upon reclaiming his brother Billy's body from the morgue, Phil demands that Johnny retaliate against the New Jersey mob. Raymond Curto continues to provide information to the FBI, unaware that Adriana has been killed for also turning informant. At Raymond's birthday dinner, Tony delivers a speech urging the family to put up a united front. However, other mobsters express their disgruntlement: Vito doesn't want to die for a "bullshit" cause, while Larry Boy Barese laments Tony's favoritism towards his blood relatives.

Tony B is hides out at Uncle Pat's vacated Kinderhook, New York farmhouse and sleeps with a local woman. Christopher disposes of Adriana's last remaining possessions. Carmela calls looking for her, and Chris bluntly announces that they broke up and she left town. Carmela is shocked, but tries to assure her cousin that he'll find someone else.

Phil tries to track down Chris as an alternative target of his revenge, noting his closeness to Tony. Chris witnesses Phil threatening his mother for information on his whereabouts. Ultimately, Chris decides to go into hiding with the help of Benny, but Phil ends up beating and fracturing Benny's skull with his cane. Benny winds up in intensive care, where Tony visits him. After Tony leaves, Eugene suggests that they look for payback in Brooklyn. Vito says that Tony himself should be "taken out" if he gives such an order.

Tony asks for the advice of his Uncle Junior, but he is too saddled by dementia. He then goes to Dr. Melfi, but she is unable to offer much advice since he cannot go into detail about his situation. She does remind him, however, that Tony's concern for Tony B comes primarily from his feelings of guilt over his role in his cousin's imprisonment. Silvio informs Tony of the growing discontent in the family and asserts he is shielding Tony B to resist pressure from Johnny, an idea Tony angrily rejects.

Tony visits Paulie, having heard he is among those dissatisfied with his leadership. There, he discovers the potrait of himself with his horse Pie-O-My, which Tony had wanted destroyed after the horse's death. Unbeknownst to Tony, Paulie had kept the painting and altered it to change Tony's clothes from a business suit to a colonial general. When Tony demands to know why he had him painted as a "lawn jockey," Paulie says that he did it out of sincere admiration for Tony as a leader. Tony pauses, but then rips the painting off the wall and brings it to a dumpster. As he throws it away, he stares at the general's uniform and the sword.

When Tony B returns to the farmhouse from an errand, Tony suddenly appears with a pump-action shotgun and fatally shoots his cousin in the head. Soprano then informs Phil and Johnny where Tony B can be found. Phil arrives later expecting to exact his revenge, only to find his body where Tony left him. Later that morning, Johnny calls Tony to tell him that Tony B's death "didn't solve a thing." Tony agrees to meet Johnny the following morning to settle the families' feud.

Tony meets with Chris and instructs him to bury Tony B's body. He questions Chris about he could have said anything to Adriana, including details about Matthew Bevilaqua or Ralph Cifaretto, that she could have repeated to the FBI. Chris still feels betrayed by Adriana's, but says that he was careful not to reveal any information relating to the murders. He further assures Tony that he is staying sober and exercising to prove his worth. The two get emotional, hug, and shed tears about their recent losses.

A.J. plans a party with a friend, and they end up making $300 each after expenses and drinks. When Carmela and Tony learn about his new business scheme, Carmela reveals that A.J. asked his guidance counselor which colleges would be suitable for studying event planning. Carmela also says that A.J. spends "all his time" watching the DVD of the movie 54, a biopic about Studio 54 founder Steve Rubell, which worries Tony because Rubell was a homosexual. The Sopranos find some solace in the fact that A.J. is at least "fired up about something."

Tony meets Johnny at his New Jersey house, and offers a percentage of Tony B's Bloomfield Avenue casino as a peace offering to Phil. At the moment the feud is settled, Tony looks over Johnny's shoulder and sees armed men approaching outside. Tony flees, but Johnny is arrested as the FBI raid the house. Tony throws his handgun away into the snow and navigates the neighborhood to avoid the Feds. A few hours later, Tony calls his lawyer, Neil Mink, who informs him that Johnny was betrayed by Jimmy Petrille. Mink advises Tony to be happy, since he was not mentioned in the indictment. When Tony finally arrives home, Carmela notices his unkempt appearance and asks what happened to him.

Deceased

• Tony Blundetto: Shot in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun by Tony Soprano in order to make peace with the Lupertazzi crime family and to save Tony B from a more painful death at the hands of Phil Leotardo.

Title reference

• Vito prefaces his criticism with "All due respect" when discussing the family's problems with New York with the other captains.
• Silvio does the same before criticizing Tony for having too much pride. The phrase is intended to be one of reverence, but usually precedes someone in authority being told something they don't want to hear by an underling.
• It could describe the battle for respect of both Tony from Johnny Sack and Johnny's from Tony and Tony's fight to maintain his respect within his crime family.

Production

• This is the final episode directed by John Patterson, who died in 2005. Patterson directed all the season finales for the first five seasons.
• The fifth season begins with scenes of the Soprano house (empty of Tony's presence) and ends again with the house, Tony now returning to it.
• At the end of the episode, Tony's emergence from the rustling bushes reaffirms the use of the bear as a symbol for Tony's dominating presence in his house. Based on the emerging location of the bear in earlier episodes, there is uncertainty as to the identity of the rustling figure.
• Bob Shaw, the production designer for the show, makes a cameo appearance as Ignatz Pravalkis, the architect working with Hugh De Angelis to create Carmela's spec house.
• Drea de Matteo reveals in the DVD commentary for the previous episode, "Long Term Parking", that the character of Tony Blundetto was not initially supposed to die in the fifth-season finale.
• The scene in which Johnny Sack is arrested is shown again in the sixth-season episode "Soprano Home Movies", but a different take is used.

References to previous episodes

• Carmela tells Tony that Adriana was behaving odd at one of the ladies' "movie nights," which took place in "Rat Pack".
• The painting of Tony and Pie-O-My was destined to be destroyed by Tony but then salvaged by Paulie in "The Strong, Silent Type".
• Tony mentions the Matthew Bevilaqua and Ralph Cifaretto murders, which occurred in "From Where to Eternity" and "Whoever Did This".

Other cultural references

• Carmela mentions she wants A.J. to fill out an application to East Stroudsburg State University.
• Tony watches a documentary about Erwin Rommel's campaign in World War II on the History Channel.
• Silvio calls the disguised Christopher Claude Rains, as in he is like The Invisible Man.
• Despite the episode airing in 2004, there is an exterior shot of the Bada Bing which advertises the Holyfield vs. Lewis rematch which took place in November 1999.

Music

• The song played over the end credits is "Glad Tidings" by Van Morrison. It is also played earlier when Christopher talks to Silvio at a Roy Rogers, and later during a scene where Tony B arrives at Uncle Pat's farm, shortly before his murder. A The Star-Ledger review of this episode explains the song's importance to the plot: "The episode's use of Van Morrison's "Glad Tidings" as a recurring motif was a classic example of the show's attention to detail. Moments before buckshot hits Blundetto, we heard the verse that opened with "And we'll send you glad tidings from New York" and closed with "Hope that you will come in right on time."^[1]
• In the scene wherein Tony is sitting on the steps of an elementary school, "Mr. Tambourine Man" is heard being sung by a children's choir.^[2]
• "Smoke N' Mirrors" by Grade 8 plays when Benny tries to leave after he saw Phil walk into the Crazy Horse.

References

External links

• "All Due Respect" at HBO
• "All Due Respect" on IMDb
• "All Due Respect" at TV.com