Pine Barrens (The Sopranos)

"Pine Barrens (The Sopranos)"

"Pine Barrens" is the thirty-seventh episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the eleventh of the show's third season. Its teleplay was written by Terence Winter from a story idea by Winter and Tim Van Patten. It was directed by Steve Buscemi and originally aired on Sunday May 6 2001.

Guest starring roles

• Tom Aldredge as Hugh De Angelis
• Vitali Baganov as Valery
• Jason Cerbone as Jackie Aprile, Jr.
• Oksana Lada as Irina Peltsin
• Steve Schirripa as Bobby Baccalieri
• Annabella Sciorra as Gloria Trillo
• Suzanne Shepherd as Mary De Angelis

Episode recap

Tony is on the outs with Gloria Trillo when, on The Stugots, he receives a call from his former comare, Irina, who has a long history of drunk dialing. However, it is Gloria who answers first and Tony continues Irina's lie about the call being from A.J.'s school but then decides to come clean. Gloria asks Tony to explain his deceit and he lets slip that he didn't want to "piss her off", and just wanted to be honest. Gloria is furious with Tony and throws his Christmas present into the marina and leaves. However, the pair manage to reconcile later when Gloria buys Tony a new gift and they sleep together.

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, in Fair Lawn. Tempers flare when Paulie, unprovoked and already angry because he doesn't want to make Silvio's pick-up, mocks the Russian and deliberately destroys his universal remote control. Valery insults Paulie and Christopher, prompting them to attack the seated Russian. Paulie chokes Valery with a floor lamp, severely injuring him and apparently cracking his wind pipe. The situation causes the Mafiosi to panic and they wrap Valery in a carpet before wheeling him out to their car. While trying to figure out what to do with the body, Paulie suggests that they take it to the Pine Barrens, since it will be deserted and is in close proximity to Atlantic City. Christopher, who has not yet eaten, wants to stop for breakfast but Paulie insists that business must come first, and will soon be completed.

In the woods, Christopher and Paulie open the trunk to find that Valery is still alive and has chewed through the duct 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 and a jab to Paulie's groin before fleeing. Christopher and Paulie draw their guns and give chase, but are amazed when Paulie shoots Valery, clearly hitting part of his head, and the Russian immediately gets up and runs into the woods. They try to track his blood and footprints in the snow but are eventually left with no clues. Still on the hunt, the pair hear something and fire some shots in the direction, managing to kill a deer. Now lost in the woods, Paulie uses his cellphone to call Tony for help, 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 Russian Ministry of the Interior's special forces and once killed 16 Chechen rebels single-handed. However, the poor phone signal between Tony and Paulie results in a mix-up: Paulie passes the message on that Valery killed 16 Czechoslovakians and he's an interior decorator, to which Christopher replies, "His house looked like shit." As the night draws nearer, the lost pair begin to shiver and Paulie loses his shoe in the snow.

Sometime later, Tony fails to show up on time at a dinner that Gloria had prepared, causing another heated argument. After making up once again and just before eating, Tony gets a call from Paulie telling him to come and get them as they may be dying of hypothermia, starvation, or even injury to Paulie's shoeless foot. Left with no option, he tells Gloria that he has to leave for an emergency and can't eat, causing her to become extremely angry. She throws a piece of steak at Tony, who suppresses his annoyance by laughing off the situation and leaves to help his associates, as Gloria trashes what was dinner.

Meadow has a cold and continues to warm up with Jackie Aprile, Jr. When Jackie leaves early after she declines to have sex with him, and making poor excuses not to make any new dates with Meadow, she becomes suspicious and follows him. She is accompanied by a friend from her dorm and catches him walking down the street with another girl. Meadow gets out of the car and tearfully confronts Jackie. She yells at the two, indicating the end of her relationship, while the other woman with Jackie fires back an insult at Meadow. Jackie condescendingly explains to his escort that the girl 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 Jackie was revered like royalty, and she said he was great, but knew they couldn't understand.

Paulie and Christopher 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 packets of frozen ketchup. 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 pulls a gun on Paulie, saying he thought Paulie was conjuring up a plan to murder him, after he overheard Paulie apportioning undue blame to Tony over the phone. Christopher grabs Paulie and shoves him up against the van and threatens to kill him, despite their long history of friendship and tutelage. Then the two break down in laughter, realizing how ridiculous the thought of them killing each other is, given the severity of the present situation. The morning after, they leave the van and try to retrace their steps.

Tony asks Bobby Bacala, a skilled outdoorsman, to help him find Paulie and Christopher. He shows up dressed far too appropriately, furnished in over-the-top outdoor/hunting gear and resents the ensuing ridicule, 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, and expresses gratitude for his taking care of Uncle Junior. Bobby tries to make a joke but it is embarrassingly juvenile and stale, to the point where Tony can't even begin to feign amusement. Arriving at the woods, they holler for a response, but realize that they will have to wait until dawn.

When daylight arrives, Tony and Bobby are out searching for Paulie and Chris, who continue to struggle some 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 their source, 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 Paulie for getting him into such a predicament with Gloria, and losing the car —- which also contained the original target of their mission: Silvio'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 Gloria, and she advises him that his new comare is not the only one who was "impossible to please", "difficult" and "depressive". She then asks, "Does this remind you of any other woman?", clearly referring to his mother Livia. After a thoughtful pause, Tony shakes his head in denial.

Deceased

Valery? - Possibly killed by Christopher and Paulie.

Title reference

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

Awards

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

Production

• The whereabouts of Valery were never revealed, 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. On the fate of the Russian, Terence Winter said:

That's the question I get asked more than any other. It drives people crazy: 'Where's the Russian? What happened to the Russian?' We could say, 'Well, he got out and there's a big mob war with the Russians,' or 'He crawled off and died.' But we wanted to keep it ambiguous. You know, not everything gets answered in life." Chase said "They shot a guy. Who knows where he went? Who cares about some Russian? This is what Hollywood has done to America. Do you have to have closure on every little thing? Isn't there any mystery in the world? It's a murky world out there. It's a murky life these guys lead. And by the way, I do know where the Russian is. But I'll never say because so many people got so pissy about it.

— Terence Winter,

• 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.
• This episode was filmed at Birch Grove Park in New Jersey.

Connections to other media

• 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.
• At the beginning of Goodfellas, a man named Billy Batts is found in a trunk still alive, just like the Russian at the beginning of the episode. Tony Sirico and Michael Imperioli (who play Paulie and Chris respectively) both had roles in Goodfellas. Incidentally, Billy Batts from Goodfellas was played by actor Frank Vincent, who would also later have a role on The Sopranos as Phil Leotardo.
• In the climactic scene of the Bernardo Bertolucci film The Conformist the character Anna Quadri played by Dominique Sanda is assassinated in a chase scene set in a snow covered forest outside of Paris. The original camera work done by Vittorio Storaro is debatably similar.
• When Paulie mentions Russia's involvement in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Christopher replies: "That was real? I saw that movie. I thought it was bullshit." The movie he is referring to Thirteen Days.
• The scene in the woods, where the Russian is to be killed, is copied almost shot for shot at some points in direct reference to Millers Crossing, which the director of the episode, Steve Buscemi, had a small part in.
• At one point, Paulie compares Valery to Rasputin in passing. Rasputin survived countless attempted murders in his time, and in his final bout, took many bullets to the chest, while continuing to flee from his pursuers.

Music

• 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. This will be the same music that opens the next episode, Amour Fou.

• The music video AJ is watching is "Coffee & TV" by Blur.

• The song played during the opening scene where Gloria Trillo arrives at the docks is Van Morrison's "Gloria".

Trivia

• Widely regarded as one of the best episodes in The Sopranos series, mostly due to the offbeat and dark comedy between Paulie and Christopher.
• Norwegian Prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, lists this episode as his favorite in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.
• In his acceptance speech for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, Alan Taylor thanks Steve Buscemi for his work on Pine Barrens.
• At one point in the episode, Paulie says, "As soon as we get out of here the first place I'm hittin' is Denny's." Coincidentally, Tony Sirico stars in recent commercials for Denny's.
• The producers wanted James Gandolfini to laugh realistically when he sees Bobby in his hunting gear therefore they had Steve Schirripa wear a wig with dreadlocks and also had him hang a large sex toy from his pants.