The Test Dream

"The Test Dream"
The Sopranos episode
Tony in his dream
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 63
Directed by	Allen Coulter
Written by	David Chase Matthew Weiner
Production code	511
Original air date	May 16, 2004 (2004-05-16)
Guest stars
see below
Episode chronology
← Previous "Cold Cuts" Next → "Long Term Parking"

"The Test Dream" is the sixty-third episode of the HBO television series The Sopranos. It is the eleventh episode of the show's fifth season. It was written by series creator/executive producer David Chase, and supervising producer Matthew Weiner, and was directed by longtime series director Allen Coulter. It originally aired in the United States on May 16, 2004. This episode is unique in that it features a twenty minute dream sequence, alluded to in the title.

Guest starring roles

• Leslie Bega as Valentina La Paz
• Annette Bening as Herself / Mrs. DeTrolio
• Chris Caldovino as Billy Leotardo
• John Fiore as Gigi Cestone
• Robert Funaro as Eugene Pontecorvo
• John Heard as Vin Makazian / Mr. DeTrolio
• Will Janowitz as Finn DeTrolio
• Tony Lip as Carmine Lupertazzi
• Kathrine Narducci as Charmaine Bucco
• Joe Pantoliano as Ralph Cifaretto

• Vincent Pastore as Big Pussy Bonpensiero
• David Proval as Richie Aprile
• Richard Portnow as Harold Melvoin
• Joe Santos as Angelo Garepe
• Al Sapienza as Mikey Palmice
• Annabella Sciorra as Gloria Trillo
• Joseph Siravo as Johnny Boy Soprano
• Frank Vincent as Phil Leotardo
• Charley Scalies as Coach Molinaro

Plot synopsis

After having just slept together, Tony's girlfriend Valentina catches the sleeve of her kimono on fire while making Egg Beaters for Tony in her apartment. After Tony spends time with her in a hospital burn unit (with a delirious Valentina thinking he is a surgeon), he drops in on Tony B., at his mother's house. Although Tony senses something is wrong with his cousin, he does not know that Tony B. had just learned about the murder of his old prison friend and cell mate, Angelo Garepe.

Angelo had picked up a toy car at Costco for his grandson and was returning home with it when Phil and Billy Leotardo flag him down, they lie to him saying that Johnny Sack wanted to see him immediately, when he turns around and walks back to his car, they grab him and throw him into the trunk of Phil's car, and shoot him in the head. After Tony checks himself into the Plaza Hotel in New York City, and nearly running into his therapist Dr. Melfi, he hears about the murder from Silvio and tries to call Tony B. His cousin does not answer his cellphone and Tony is worried about how he might handle the news of Angelo's death.

That evening Tony calls Charmaine Bucco, earlier admitting to Tony B. his attraction to her. When she answers he does not speak, and she hangs up after asking the anonymous caller to stop calling, suggesting that Tony has called her more than once. After seeing an advert for an escort agency on television he calls for an Asian girl. Afterwards, Tony goes to sleep and has a dream, lasting roughly one third of the episode, involving people who have made an impact on his life. This dream is the most vivid and detailed dream yet in the series, full of ideas, symbolism and imagery, with characters both living and dead. In the beginning of the dream, he awakens next to the deceased Carmine Lupertazzi who tells Tony how lonely he is on "the other side" and how he misses his wife. Tony then receives a phone call and is told by the voice that he needs to kill somebody. Next, Tony is sitting in Dr. Melfi's office, but instead of Dr. Melfi, he is counseled by his deceased ex-comàre Gloria Trillo who talks about their toxic relationship and how she died too young to have children of her own. She then points to a television set in the corner and says, "Are you ready for what you have to do?" Tony then finds himself riding in the backseat of his father's 1959 Cadillac Eldorado, being driven by his long deceased father Johnny Boy Soprano; also in the car are several deceased characters who have either died by his hand or on his orders, including Big Pussy Bonpensiero, Ralph Cifaretto, and Mikey Palmice. When Tony looks at Mikey and tells him he knows he's dreaming, Mikey replies simply, "I got no opinion. One way or another." Mikey briefly turns into Artie Bucco who simply looks at Tony and asks, "What?" When Tony asks where they are going, Pussy - who has now turned into Ralph - turns around and says, "We're driving you to the job," as they pull up to Tony's mansion.

The next segment of his dream involves him waking up at home and getting ready to go to dinner to meet Finn's parents at Nuovo Vesuvio, and Tony distractedly watching clips from several films on the kitchen television. When they finally arrive, Finn's father is actually Detective Vin Makazian, who committed suicide in the first season, but is posing as Finn's father in the dream. Annette Bening, who plays herself, is Finn's mother in the dream. Finn occasionally turns into A.J. during the course of the dinner. Next, Tony's teeth fall out spontaneously. After some symbolic interaction between everyone, Tony and Finn's father go to the restroom. When Tony enters the bathroom stall, he reaches behind the vintage style toilet tank looking for a gun which is not there, an allusion to the The Godfather. Vin then asks Tony, "Are you gonna be able to come through on the thing?" Tony replies, "I've done my homework," reaches into his pocket, and takes out a paperback copy of The Valachi Papers. Then, Tony hears shots firing outside and sees Tony B. shooting Phil Leotardo in his car. A bystander shouts, "Why didn't you stop him?" He says he doesn't have a weapon, It suddenly turns into night and Tony begins running from an angry mob, including Annette Bening (who was blatantly identified by Gloria Trillo, now apparently a reporter) and Carmela; some of the mob carrying torches and pitchforks, a la Frankenstein.

Tony begins running down a long, dark alley, and Lee Harvey Oswald shoots at him from a third floor window, At the end of the alley an ominous SUV is idling, playing rap music. Suddenly Artie Bucco pops out of a near by door, and he and Tony escape together, again in his fathers old car. Tony looks in the backseat and sees the deceased Richie Aprile and Gigi Cestone, two former Aprile Crew capos who had met their demise shortly after taking control of the "cursed" crew. Tony is then suddenly having wild sex with Artie's wife Charmaine Bucco, who is sucking Tony's thumb and is kinkily dressed in black silk stockings, garters and lingerie while Artie oddly coaches him along; it is another ironic symbol in the dream because she and Tony slept together in real life back in high school while Tony was still dating Carmela. Artie then tells Tony that "she loves to have her muzzle rubbed," after which the dream jumps suddenly to Tony then appearing in his living room mounted on top of Pie-O-My, the ill-fated racehorse that was put to sleep after being severely burnt in the barn fire, and Tony is rubbing her neck. He tells Carmela he wants to move back in. Carmela replies by repeating her response when A.J. asked to move back home: "First, there are some non-negotiable conditions." In this case, the horse can no longer stay in the house since Tony never cleans up after it, in this case the horse represents his girlfriends and mistresses and how, if he and Carmela reconcile, they can no longer affect her or the family's lives.

Several of the characters in his dream eventually make it clear that Tony's job is to kill his cousin to prevent Tony B. from starting a war between Tony's family and Johnny Sack's crew. Tony's last encounter in his dream is at his former high school from the football coach, Coach Molinaro. The coach criticizes Tony, pointing out how Tony had "all the prerequisites to lead men on the field of sport" and how he didn't have to be a criminal and live with all the stress the comes from that. When Tony tries to kill Molinaro, his gun malfunctions and the coach continues to taunt him about not being prepared until Tony awakens with a start.

Tony receives a visit from Christopher shortly after he wakes up, who informs him that Tony B. indeed went after the Leotardo brothers. He killed Billy and wounded Phil. Later, Tony calls Carmela and talks to her while waiting for the sun to rise. They joke with each other and Tony tells her he had "one of his Coach Molinaro dreams." Carmela guesses that the coach gave him his usual advice.

Deceased

• Angelo Garepe: murdered by Phil and Billy Leotardo
• Billy Leotardo: murdered by Tony Blundetto to avenge the death of Angelo Garepe. Billy's death is not shown until the next episode, "Long Term Parking," in a flashback by Phil.

Title reference

• David Chase explained that the title refers to the dreams where an individual turns up late for a test in school and is wearing no clothing, meaning that the person is unprepared for a test or another task they have to face.

Production

• The voice on the other end of the phone in the dream sequence is that of David Chase.
• The book that Tony finds in the men's bathroom during his dream is The Valachi Papers, written by Peter Maas; it is the famous book based on the testimony of Joe Valachi, the first member of the Mafia to turn state's evidence and who confirmed the existence of the American Mafia. It is seen again when Tony states he's done his homework.

References to past episodes

• Tony previously dreamed about being in his father's Cadillac (including the blurry background) in the Season 4 episode, "Calling All Cars."
• When Tony wakes up in bed next to Carmine and the phone rings, he says to Tony, "answer the fucking thing, which is what Carmine said to Johnny Sack in the episode "Fortunate Son", when Johnny's cell phone was ringing.
• The dream-sequence conversation between Tony and Gloria Trillo (who appeared in "He Is Risen", "The Telltale Moozadell", "Pine Barrens", "Amour Fou", "Everybody Hurts", and "Calling All Cars") references events that were revealed in earlier episodes: Tony once hit and choked Gloria, Gloria died too young to have children, and Tony's mother once threatened to poke out her son's eye with a fork.
• In the episode "Amour Fou", Tony orders Patsy Parisi to get control of the situation with Gloria by taking a test drive with her. Patsy pulls over in an isolated area and threatens Gloria with a gun, telling her in not so many words, to stay away from Tony or they would be "scraping [her] nipples off these fine leather seats." He then gets into his Cadillac, which was already parked at the scene.
• John Heard, who represents Finn's father in "The Test Dream", is the same character who played a pivotal role as crooked cop Detective Vin Makazian in "Meadowlands", "Pax Soprana", "Boca", and "Nobody Knows Anything".
• The chase frames evoke the angry mob scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and recall The Sopranos episodes, "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" in which Shlomo Teittleman likened Tony to a golem or a Frankenstein; in that same episode Tony tells Dr. Melfi that it bothered him. In "For All Debts Public and Private", Bobby Baccalieri tells Tony, "Mom started going downhill after the World Trade Center. You know Quasimodo predicted all this".

References to other media

• The episode makes multiple references to the film The Godfather. Annette Bening speaks the line, "I don't want my husband coming out of there with just his cock in his hand", referring to an almost-identical line spoken by Sonny Corleone. Afterwards, Tony's reaching behind the toilet tank for the non-existent gun is a reference to a similar scene with Michael Corleone. When Tony Blundetto shoots Phil Leotardo in Tony Soprano's dream, he exits the same make and brand car (Lincoln Continental) in a similar fashion to Sonny Corleone, during the famous toll-booth shooting scene.
• When Tony calls Aunt Quinn from his hotel room, an advertisement for Anne Murray is on the TV.
• Lee Harvey Oswald shoots at Tony from an apartment building window, when Tony is running from the angry mob. This is in keeping with his Kennedy interest.
• Annette Bening also says about Tony, "There's something Bugsy about him". This is a reference to Bugsy Siegel, who was portrayed by Bening's husband Warren Beatty in the film Bugsy; she co-starred in the film as Bugsy's lover.
• Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) shoots Angelo Garepe in the trunk of his car, which is a bit of an in-joke to his own demise as Billy Batts in Goodfellas.
• A scene from the movie Chinatown is showing on the television in the kitchen when Carmela tells Tony they are late to meet Finn's parents. It is then replaced with the ending of the film Scrooge.
• Gloria's pointing to the TV in "Dr. Melfi's office" also evokes Scrooge and its inspiration, A Christmas Carol.
• In his dream, Tony turns up at the marital home on the back of Pie-O-My. Carmela tells him: "You can't bring your horse in here". The way she pronounces "horse" can also be interpreted as "whores".
• As Tony and Carmela enter Nuovo Vesuvio to meet "Finn's parents" in Tony's dream, the climactic scene of High Noon is playing on television above the bar. The film stars Gary Cooper, an actor whom Tony repeatedly references throughout the series (notably in the episodes "Pilot", "Christopher", and "The Strong, Silent Type") because Tony believes Cooper's strong, silent type demeanor is a trait lacking in today's psychotherapy-driven society.
• The multiple instances in which Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune" is played, coupled with Tony's repeatedly asking Carmela if it is light yet where she is, emphasizes the importance of the title of this piece of piano music. Several other notable works are pertinent to this episode.
  • Debussy's "Claire de Lune" is a piano depiction of a poem by Paul Verlaine. In 1871, Verlaine escaped a deadly street uprising in France known as the Bloody Week, or Semaine Sanglante, and went into hiding in the Pas-de-Calais. When Verlaine died (in 1896 at age 51), he was drug addicted, alcoholic, and poverty-stricken.
  • "Claire de Lune" is the title of an 18th Century French folk song that refers to a moonstruck, sad clown (Pierrot), who is repeatedly fooled and betrayed by people he trusts, an obvious allusion to Tony.
  • "Claire de Lune" is the title of a track on the 1999 album, Madonna, by the American band ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

Music

• The song played over the end credits is "Three Times a Lady" by the Commodores. The same song was sung earlier, a cappella, by Vin, during the dinner portion of Tony's dream.
• The song that Angelo is listening to on his car radio is "Peanuts" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
• The song heard when Tony first walks into the hotel is "Clair De Lune" (which means "moonlight" in French) by French composer Claude Debussy.
• The music playing when Tony is in Artie's car is "Kulun Mankwalesh" by Mahmoud Ahmed.