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"'Cold Stones'" is the seventy-sixth episode of the HBO original series, ''The Sopranos'' and the eleventh episode of the show's sixth season. The episode was written by Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider and David Chase, was directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on May 21, 2006.

Contents

Guest starring

Episode recap

Tony and A.J./Carmela and Ro's Paris trip

Vito returns

Vito has to go

Deceased

Title reference

Production

Music

References to other media

References to past episodes

Guest starring

★ John Bianco as Gerry Torciano

★ Elizabeth Bracco as Marie Spatafore

★ Ron Castellano as Terry Doria

★ John Costelloe as Jim "Johnny Cakes" Witowski

★ Tony Cucci as Dominic "Fat Dom" Gamiello

★ Drea de Matteo as Adriana La Cerva

★ Louis Gross as Perry Annunziata

★ Geraldine LiBrandi as Patty Leotardo

★ Arthur Nascarella as Carlo Gervasi

★ Vinnie Orofino as Bryan Spatafore

★ Vincent Piazza as Hernan O'Brien

★ Lenny Venito as James "Murmur" Zancone

★ Emily Wickersham as Rhiannon

Episode recap

Tony and A.J./Carmela and Ro's Paris trip

A.J. has been fired from his job at Blockbuster for selling promotional items. When Carmela leaves the scene, Tony reminds A.J. of his luck: had Carmela not been around during many of A.J.'s prior indiscretions, there would have been more serious consequences. As Tony leaves the scene, A.J flips both his parents off. Later, Meadow talks to her parents about following Finn to California, though Carmela wonders aloud about what she's perceived as mounting friction between Meadow and Finn. Over breakfast, Carmela asks Tony about a trip to Paris she won at the silent auction she arranged for the Feast of St. Elzear. When Tony declines due to work restrictions, she suggests she could go with Rosalie Aprile, to which Tony agrees. Carmela tells Tony she needs a break because of her worries with the spec house and their children.
In Paris, Ro meets a Parisian named Michel from the Belleville neighborhood, and exchanges numbers with him. Over dinner, Carmela brings up Ro's grief over the loss of her husband and son since they have never discussed in detail what happened. Ro becomes angry that Carmela is spoiling their vacation with her morbid fascinations, but does reveal that she feels her grief is futile. Ro then tells Carmela she is going out with the French man she met earlier, and invites her along. However Carmela decides she will walk along the Seine instead.
At home, Tony sees A.J. giggling and instant messaging on his computer, and leaves in disgust. In therapy, Tony discloses that he has been feeling hatred towards his son, feeling that A.J. is wasting his life. Tony tells her his father would find this hilarious, and tells her that if Carmela had not protected A.J., he would be a better person. Dr. Melfi uses this to approach Tony's personality since she sees his life as a product of his father's own brutality, taking his anger at his father's brutality out on others and having a desperate need to dominate and control. Tony ignores the analysis and says he could not hit A.J. because of his small size, which he says comes from Carmela's side of the family. Melfi then points out that Tony's complaint that Carmela defended A.J. is hypocritical, as he's often complained his mother failed to protect him from his father.
At the Soprano house, Hernan and A.J. play video games. Tony then asks A.J. to join him in the garage where he announces that he has gotten him a construction job. Tired of listening to A.J.'s excuses for not taking the job, Tony threatens to take away his car and other possessions. A.J. rolls his eyes at this, so Tony smashes A.J.'s windshield with a football helmet as a warning and tells A.J. "Don't put me to the test". Hours later, Carmela dreams of Adriana walking Cosette by the Eiffel Tower. In the dream, a gendarme then asks someone to tell Ade that she is dead.

Vito returns

Vito Spatafore approaches Tony at a mall while while his brother Bryan stands guard and tries to convince him he is not really homosexual, but that his blood pressure medication had affected him physiologically, thereby confusing him. Vito asks to buy his way back in, with $200,000 to appease Tony, and operate a business in Atlantic City involving prostitution and drug trafficking. Tony appears willing to consider the offer, and later discusses Vito with Sil, Christopher and Paulie. Sil recalls how Richie Aprile handled his son's homosexuality (by disowning him), and recommends that abandoning Vito would be the proper way to deal with their situation. Tony then relays Vito's request for consideration, and an apparently indignant Paulie responds by silently leaving the room.
Vito has a reunion dinner out with his family in Rockefeller Center. He has told his children that he has been working for the CIA in Afghanistan as an alibi for his absence. As Vito and Marie watch their children ice skate, she asks if he will seek therapy. Vito scoffs at this and recommends they have another child. In a motel room, Vito calls an upset Jim who describes Vito as "seriously fucked up". Jim sees through Vito's excuse that he missed his family and tells Vito it was the life that he missed. Vito says he just didn't want to drag Jim into his lifestyle, but Jim tells him never to call him again, and hangs up. Vito later meets with Terry Doria to lend him money for a profit.

Vito has to go

Tony and Phil Leotardo disagree over "no-show" jobs on a new construction project. When they meet later, Phil is visibly angry after having learned Vito is back in town, and confronts Tony about the matter. Annoyed at being called by Phil for a matter Tony perceives as none of Phil's business, Tony reiterates to Phil that Vito is ''his'' captain, and that Phil should leave the situation alone. Unfazed, Phil continues his tirade while Tony walks away from the meeting. Tony later discusses the situation with Sil and decide Vito has to go in order to appease Phil. Both agree that Carlo would be the best for the job, due to Carlo's tendency to issue blistering, public derisions of Vito's sexuality.
Phil and his wife, Patty, discuss Vito's sexuality; Patty expresses her disappointment and resentment for having a homosexual in the family. She tells Phil Vito has to be made to face his problems squarely. Meanwhile, Vito phones Tony, who arranges a meeting for at the mall the following morning (where the plan is for Carlo to lie in wait, and murder an unsuspecting Vito). However, Vito arrives at his motel, and upon entering his room finds Fat Dom and Gerry waiting. Phil ironically emerges from a closet and watches Dom and Gerry beat Vito to death.
The Soprano crew is shocked by Vito's murder, though Carlo states, ''"you have to admire (Phil)-it's not all talk with him."'' Patsy remarks that he wished he borrowed money from Vito. Terry Doria, one who actually had borrowed money from Vito just prior to his demise, then subtly smiles to himself. Tony then takes Silvio aside and tells him that the murder is as much about Phil's defiance of his authority as it is about Vito. Tony believes Phil is sending the family a message that he can kill one of Tony's captains and Tony cannot do anything about it. Tony tells Silvio he does not want war with Phil, as it would cripple their earning capacity. He decides to hit back at Phil financially, noting that Phil has ''"a wire room in Sheepshead Bay."''
At Satriale's, Carlo and Silvio prepare a meal. Fat Dom arrives makes a payment but declines the meal, as he must visit his daughter. Dom then tells them he is sorry about Vito but then starts making jokes. When he insults the entire Jersey crew and implies that Carlo was involved with Vito sexually, tempers snap and Silvio hits him while Carlo stabs him with a cooking knife. Silvio tells Carlo to call the others and say the dinner is canceled; they then devise a plan on how to dispose of the body. As they wait for night to fall, Tony arrives and enters despite Silvio's warning. When Tony sees what has happened, he exits the store quickly, letting Silvio and Carlo deal with it.
At the Spatafore home, Francesca and Vito, Jr. read the news article about their father's death and realize that he lied about his involvement with the CIA. Elsewhere, Vito's Thin Club photographer recognizes his picture in the paper.

Deceased

★ 'Vito Spatafore': Beaten to death by Dominic "Fat Dom" Gamiello and Gerry Torciano

★ 'Dominic "Fat Dom" Gamiello': Stabbed to death by Carlo Gervasi and Silvio Dante in the back room of Satriale's

Title reference

★ The episode's title may refer to the architecture and statues that Carmela and Rosalie see during their trip to Paris. It could also be a reference to Phil Leotardo's cold blood and "stones" for having the audacity to kill a made guy from the Jersey family.

Production

★ Blooper: During the fight scene in which Carlo stabs Fat Dom to death, while Silvio holds Dom back, Silvio accidentally calls Carlo "Rocco" during the fight.

★ This episode continues the trend of sleeping characters realizing a truth they had been avoiding (Carmela's dream suggests to her that Adriana is dead). In Seasons 2 and 5, Tony's dreams tell him truths about both Big Pussy working with the FBI and the need to kill his cousin, Tony Blundetto.

★ The ''Star-Ledger'' that Tony is reading in the mall contains the headline "The Corzine Era Begins," placing the events of this episode in mid-January 2006. Earlier references this season have implied that the show should be well into 2006 at this point, such as Christopher's allusion in "Live Free or Die" to the Muhammed cartoons, which did not receive coverage in the US media until January 2006, coupled with later episodes showing the feast of St. Elzear taking place (September 26) and the NFL season being underway.

★ Vito is wearing a University of Notre Dame hat when he meets with Tony. Later, Notre Dame Cathedral is shown in the background while Carmela is visiting Paris. (The church where the candles were lit is St. Eustache.)

★ The motel where Vito is beaten to death was filmed on location at the former Howard Johnson's motor lodge in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

★ Four alternative versions of Vito's death were shot.

★ It can be seen as highly ironic that Phil Leotardo is hiding in the closet before murdering Vito, as Vito is been killed for being homosexual. Before the murder, Phil can be seen - literally - coming out of the closet.

Music

★ "As Time Goes By" from ''Casablanca'' plays over the closing credits. The city of Paris plays an important role in both ''Casablanca'' and this episode.

★ "Back in Black" from AC/DC is playing while Tony is receiving fellatio from a stripper.

References to other media

★ Silvio Dante reacts to the repeated news of Vito's death by responding that Carlo Gervasi is a "regular Jimmy Olsen", a reference to Superman's photographer friend at the Daily Planet.

★ Silvio decides against disposing of the body of Fat Dom by using Satriale's sausage grinder, concerned about "DNA". Christopher and Furio once made Richie Aprile's body disappear in such a way. Recent episodes have made references to television's "CSI" procedures.

★ Fat Dom's insult-induced murder echoes the death of Frank Vincent's character Billy Batts from ''Goodfellas''. Both men took "ball busting" too far and got stabbed with large butcher knives for their taunts. A similar reference is made in the season 5 episode "The Test Dream"; the murder of Angelo Garepe by Vincent's Phil Leotardo also seems to reach back to the Batts killing by having Leotardo shoot Garepe after trapping him in the trunk of a car.

★ While comforting Carmela in Paris, Rosalie Aprile hums "La Vie En Rose," the signature song of French singer Édith Piaf.

References to past episodes

★ In an episode that features Carmela's philosophical musings about the vastness of time and human existence, references to past plots litter the action, letting the viewer walk through the relics of ''The Sopranos'', just as Carmela and Ro visit those found along the Seine in Paris. Examples include: References to A.J. discovering Nietzsche before his confirmation (episode 2.07 "D-Girl"), A.J.'s football helmet being used by Tony to crack the windshield of his truck (episode 3.03 "Fortunate Son"), Carmela recalling Mr. Wegler's story of Abelard and Heloise (episode 5.06 "Sentimental Education"), candles lit for Jackie, Sr. and Jackie, Jr., a dream of Adriana and Cozette, and subtle references to Richie Aprile's gay son "Little Ricky" and the practice of chopping up bodies at Satriale's (episode 2.12 "The Knight in White Satin Armor").