Whoever Did This

"Whoever Did This"

"Whoever Did This" is the forty-eighth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and was the ninth of the show's fourth season. It was written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on Sunday 10 November 2002. This is also Joe Pantoliano's 2003 Emmy winning submission for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Guest starring roles

• Sharon Angela as Rosalie Aprile
• Murielle Arden as Elodi Colbert
• Leslie Bega as Valentina La Paz
• Dan Castleman as Prosecutor Castleman
• Dane Curley as Justin Cifaretto
• Richard D'Alessandro as Dennis Capozza
• Frances Ensemplare as Nucci Gualtieri

• Joseph R. Gannascoli as Vito Spatafore
• Marissa Matrone as Ronnie Capozza
• Frank Pando as Agent Grasso
• Richard Portnow as Harold Melvoin
• Allia Kliouka Schaffer as Svetlana Kirilenko
• Paul Schulze as Father Phil Intintola
• Matt Servito as Agent Harris

Episode recap

As Junior Soprano is leaving court, he is accidentally hit in the head by a boom mic and falls down several steps. He is sent to the hospital with nothing more than a concussion. However, this minor blow to the head may be a golden opportunity for Junior: Tony suggests to his attorney Harold Melvoin that they could use this in Junior's defense via an unstable mental capacity, and Junior is to act as if he has Alzheimers. Tony tells him all he has to do is "act cabootz" and his will end his legal problems.

Although things may be looking up for Junior, they can't get any worse for Ralph Cifaretto. While Ralph's 12-year old son and a friend are playing unsupervised game of Lord of the Rings, Ralph's son Justin is inadvertently shot in the chest by an arrow. The maid comes banging loudly on Ralph's bathroom door as Ralph is taking a bath, urging him to come to Justin's aide. Ralph in a panic-stricken state rushes outside as quickly as possible and sees his son lying on the ground unconscious. Ralph's son is quickly rushed to the hospital where he remains in a coma. Ralph is guilt and grief stricken and soon begins to regret all the wrong he has done throughout his life. He even goes and visits Father Intintola to try to redeem himself and become a better person.

It is hard to believe by many, especially Tony, that Ralph may be trying to become a better person after all due to the recent misfortune. Ralph apologizes to Rosalie Aprile for not being more sympathetic when Jackie Aprile, Jr. died. He even asks Rosalie to marry him, but she declines. Ralph also creates a $20,000-a-year scholarship at Rutgers University in Jackie, Jr.'s name. Tony is very sympathetic towards Ralphie and is amazed at the new attitude that Ralph now possesses. Paulie, however, still has strong, resentful feelings towards Ralphie, especially since he knows Ralphie prank called his mother in an earlier scene to get even with Paulie for telling Johnny Sack that Ralph made the Ginny Sack joke, which almost caused a war.

Just as people were going to give Ralph a chance to redeem himself after all the malicious and disrespectful things he had done, Pie-O-My dies in a mysterious stable fire, which was ruled an accident by the fire department; however, Tony believes Ralph set the fire intentionally to collect the $200,000 insurance claim he and Ralph had on the horse. After going to the stables the morning the trainer calls and delivers the bad news and sees Pie-O-My's corpse wrapped up and dragged away by a tractor, Tony goes to Ralph's house. Tony delivers the news to Ralph that Pie-O-My is dead. Ralph expresses his condolences to Tony, although not very sincerely. He and Tony go into the kitchen where Ralph is preparing breakfast.

Although Ralph seems sympathetic towards Tony because the horse is dead, he seems more focused on informing Tony of Justin's improving condition. Tony implicitly comments that it's kind of funny how right after they took out a $200,000 dollar insurance policy on the horse that it dies in a fire. Ralph interprets the hint right away and calmly assures Tony he had nothing to do with it. Tony continuously drops hints that he believes Ralph did it, even asking him if he had heard from Corky LaNucci lately - the person responsible for setting Artie Bucco's restaurant on fire in the pilot episode. Ralph begins to grow angry and tells Tony "it was a bolt from beyond; we got lucky; the horse was no fuckin' good." Tony replies "You did it, didn't you? You cooked that fuckin' horse alive!" Ralph exclaims, "No, I did not! But so what? It was a fuckin' animal!" Ralph further implies Tony's hypocrisy since Tony doesn't care where the money-filled envelopes he brings him come from that are collected by hurting innocent people. In a furious rage, Tony punches Ralph, knocking him across the kitchen. The two scuffle briefly, with Ralph unsuccessfully defending himself with pots, pans, a knife, and Raid. The fight culminates with Tony strangling Ralph and bashing his head against the kitchen floor shouting "She was a beautiful, innocent creature! What'd she ever do to you?" Ralph is finally lying dead on the floor.

Tony enlists Christopher Moltisanti to help dispose of the body, explaining that when he came to Ralph's place, he was already dead. Even though in a heroin-induced daze, Christopher sees the truth and begins to realize Ralph's disappearance could have serious ramifications. Christopher cuts off Ralph's head along with his hands placing them in a bowling bag. During this process it is also accidentally discovered Ralph is bald and wears a toupee. Christopher and Tony then take Ralph's body, wrap it up, and throw it over a cliff into a quarry. They take his head and hands to Mikey Palmice's hospitalized father's farm. Because the ground is frozen, Tony uses a back hoe to dig up a hole, while he continuously scolds Christopher for his drug use. Christopher tells Tony Ralphie's getting whacked could be a problem, to which Tony replies, "You're the only one who knows about it."

The following morning, Uncle Junior's dementia goes from an act to slowly becoming real. After the feds witness him being brought back to his house after idly wandering to the neighbors' house by his house keeper, he stands in his living room genuinely confused. Back at the Bada Bing where Tony and Christopher disposed of their clothes and showered, Tony awakens calling Christopher's name but does not hear a reply. Tony wanders to the wall where he sees a picture of Tracee, the Bada Bing stripper who was killed by Ralph in the season 3 episode, University. Tony then leaves the club, walking from its darkness into the light of the next day.

Deceased

• Ralph Cifaretto: beaten and strangled to death by Tony Soprano. His body is then dismembered and decapitated with the help of Christopher Moltisanti.
• Pie-O-My: Killed in mysterious stable fire supposedly set by Ralph.

Title reference

• Tony uses the phrase "whoever did this" when discussing with Christopher how others will react to Ralphie's death; earlier he used the phrase in reference to Ralphie's prank call to Paulie's mother.
• The title may also refer to the stable fire and Tony's suspicions of Ralphie.

References to other media

• At two points in the episode, lines from the Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil" are quoted verbatim in reference to Ralph:
  • When meeting with Justin's surgeon in the hospital, Ralph says, "Please allow me to introduce myself."
  • When meeting with Father Phil, Ralph introduces himself with, "Pleased to meet you," (a phrase Ralph has never uttered before in meeting new individuals); shortly thereafter, Father Phil asks Ralph, "Were you there when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain?"
  • Also, Tony admonishes Paulie at one point to 'have a little sympathy' towards Ralph.
• When Tony and Ralph are fighting, Ralph sprays Tony in the eyes with a can of Raid. In True Romance, when James Gandolfini's character is beating up Alabama in the motel room, she sprays him in the face with an aerosol, allowing her to get the upper hand.
• Perhaps a reference to Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, Christopher is disturbed by the dropping of a bowling ball which he mistakes as the beating of a heart.
• Christopher inadvertently yanks dead Ralph's toupee off of his head, not knowing that the hair was fake. This is similar to a scene in Weekend at Bernie's, where Larry accidentally pulls dead Bernie's toupee off.

Foreshadowing

• When Tony has Ralph pinned up against the wall at the hospital to prevent him from escalating the altercation with his ex-wife and her husband any further, you can see Tony's hands around Ralph's throat.

Connections to prior episodes

• When Tony looks in the mirror after whacking Ralph he sees pictures of Tracee, the Bada Bing stripper whom Ralph killed.

• When Tony confronts Ralph about the fire he asks him about Corky Lanucci. Tony believes Ralph hired him to start the stable fire which killed Pie-o-My. Corky was also apparently used by Silvio to help blow up Vesuvio's, the restaurant owned by Artie Bucco, in the pilot episode.

• While killing Ralph, Tony's comment "She was a beautiful, innocent creature! What'd she ever do to you?" may be interpreted as also referring to Tracee, the Bada Bing stripper whom Ralph killed.

• In The Weight, Johnny Sack tells Ralph "I should've let Tony chop off your head a year ago," a possible reference to what happens to Ralph in this episode.

Music

• "When I Need You" by Leo Sayer is playing when Ralph is in the bath.
• The Moonglows' original recording of "Sincerely" plays while Carmela and Rosalie dine at Vesuvio.
• The song played over the end credits is "The Man with the Harmonica" by Apollo 440. It is originally from the Ennio Morricone score of Once Upon a Time in the West, a Sergio Leone film. The man with the Harmonica was played by Charles Bronson.