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"Walk Like a Man" is the eighty-second episode of the HBO television series The Sopranos. It is the fifth episode of the second half of the show's sixth season, the seventeenth episode of the season overall. It was written and directed by executive producer Terence Winter in his directorial debut. It originally aired on May 6, 2007.

Episode recap

A.J. struggles with depression over his breakup with Blanca. He quits his job at the pizza parlor, sulks around the house, and disturbs Meadow with suicidal comments that reminded her of an old roommate from college. Tony and Carmela have disagreements about how to help A.J. but for lack of better options, assign him to a therapist who prescribes an anti-depressant. Through his father's orders (and to the chagrin of his mother), A.J. goes to a party with fraternity members who are his age and relatives of fellow mobsters. He begins to associate with the sports betting business they are running at school, from which they are profiting considerably. At a frat party, they use A.J.'s SUV to take a gambler who fails to pay into the woods to beat and torture him by pouring sulfuric acid on his toes.

Meanwhile, Al Lombardo (Kelli Moltisanti's father) is the unwilling catalyst of a new feud between Christopher Moltisanti and Paulie Gualtieri when Paulie's nephew, Little Paulie Germani begins breaking into Al's hardware store along with Jason Molinaro and boosting power tools. After Al gets upset and Christopher has to deal with it, he warns Paulie about flouting his authority. When Jason and Little Paulie take advantage of the elderly employees at Al's store and continue their dealings with the power tools, Chris finds out and beats Little Paulie before throwing him out a window. Although he is badly hurt, Little Paulie survives the incident but suffers six broken vertebrae. In retaliation, a visibly very irate Paulie destroys Chris's front yard by running over flower beds, crushing bushes and doing burnouts in the grass in his Cadillac CTS. Kelli Moltisanti is shaken and scared by the ordeal.

Tony tells Christopher that his frequent disappearances are alienating him from the family and making large problems out of simple ones. Christopher vents his frustration about Tony's ingratitude and insensitivity at an AA meeting. The money situation is worked out between Chris and Paulie and the two reconcile their differences over at the Bada Bing. The two go to toast and Paulie orders a Club Soda for Chris, but Chris decides to have whatever Paulie is having. Throughout the night at Bada Bing, Chris becomes drunk and begins to ramble about his daughter, causing Paulie to make some off-color remarks about her, including joking about Caitlin working at the Bing in twenty years. Christopher (in his drunken state), believes the group is mocking him, and he leaves to see J.T. Dolan, whom he originally met in AA. He makes veiled references to the sacrifices he has made for the sake of the family, and implies that he knows sufficient information to bring down the entire mob family if he wanted to. He attempts to tell J.T. about Adriana La Cerva and Ralph Cifaretto, but Dolan does not want to hear the details, and requests that he be kept in the dark because "you are in the Mafia." After hearing this remark, Christopher decides to leave the apartment, but he shoots J.T. in the head before he departs.

Tony and A.J. return home at the same time to find Carmela and Meadow bonding over a late night snack, which they join. The episode ends with Christopher arriving home, propping up one of the partially destroyed trees in his yard, and then staggering into his house.

First appearances

The episode marks the first appearance of:

Jason Parisi: son of Patsy Parisi and a friend of A.J. Soprano and Jason Gervasi. He attends Rutgers University and is part of a small-time crew that runs sports book operations at his college. He and Jason Gervasi are known as "The Jasons".
Walden Belfiore: soldier in the Gervasi crew.

Guest starring

Marianne Leone as Joanne Moltisanti
Arthur J. Nascarella as Carlo Gervasi
Dennis Paladino as Al Lombardo
Joseph Perrino as Jason Gervasi
Dania Ramirez as Blanca Selgado
Anthony J Ribustello as Dante Greco
Frank Santorelli as Georgie
Matt Sauerhoff as Victor
Matt Servitto as Agent Dwight Harris

Deceased

J.T. Dolan: shot by Christopher

Title reference

The episode's title refers to a song by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, which is about a father telling his son to get over a woman who left him. Tony tries to pull A.J. out of his depression over breaking up with Blanca throughout the episode. Frankie Valli himself formerly had a role in the series as New York capo Rusty Millio, and an earlier episode ("Big Girls Don't Cry") also had the same title as a Valli song.

Production

Carl Capotorto (Little Paulie Germani) is billed in the opening credits but only for this episode.
Georgie the bartender returns in this episode, despite being severely abused by Tony in Cold Cuts, which led to Georgie's resignation, and his insistence for Tony to stay away from him.

References to other media

At the start of this episode, A.J. was in the living room, watching a Tom and Jerry short on TV.

Before Christopher murders J.T. Dolan, he is writing a script for Law & Order. Michael Imperioli stars on that show.

After Tony and A.J. arrive home to find Carmela and Meadow up snacking, Carmela mentioned that they stayed up to see Rachel Ray on "Leno".

Music

Tony sings "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd as he descends the stairs at the start of the episode.

While Jason Parisi is talking to Tony at the Bada Bing, "Body Burn" by Cubanate and "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse are played.

Tony is listening to "Tom Sawyer" by Rush on his way home from the bar.

The song played over the end credits is "The Valley" by Los Lobos.

External links

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 ==Episode recap==
-[[Anthony Soprano, Jr.|A.J.]] struggles with [[Depression (mood)|depression]] over his breakup with [[List of characters from The Sopranos - friends and family#Blanca_Selgado|Blanca]].  He quits his job at the pizza parlor, sulks around the house, and disturbs [[Meadow Soprano|Meadow]] with suicidal comments that reminded her of [[List of characters from The Sopranos - friends and family#Caitlin Rucker|an old roommate]] from college. [[Tony Soprano|Tony]] and [[Carmela Soprano|Carmela]] have disagreements about how to help A.J. but for lack of better options, assign him to a therapist who prescribes an anti-depressant. Through his father's orders (and to the chagrin of his mother), A.J. goes to a party with fraternity members who are his age and relatives of fellow mobsters. He begins to associate with the sports betting business they are running at school, from which they are profiting considerably. At a frat party, they use A.J.'s SUV to take a gambler who fails to pay into the woods to beat and torture him by pouring [[sulfuric acid]] on his toes.
+[[Anthony Soprano, Jr.|A.J.]] struggles with [[Depression (mood)|depression]] over his breakup with [[List of characters from The Sopranos - friends and family#Blanca_Selgado|Blanca]].  He quits his job at the pizza parlor, sulks around the house, and disturbs [[Meadow Soprano|Meadow]] with suicidal comments that reminded her of an old roommate from college. [[Tony Soprano|Tony]] and [[Carmela Soprano|Carmela]] have disagreements about how to help A.J. but for lack of better options, assign him to a therapist who prescribes an anti-depressant. Through his father's orders (and to the chagrin of his mother), A.J. goes to a party with fraternity members who are his age and relatives of fellow mobsters. He begins to associate with the sports betting business they are running at school, from which they are profiting considerably. At a frat party, they use A.J.'s SUV to take a gambler who fails to pay into the woods to beat and torture him by pouring [[sulfuric acid]] on his toes.
 Meanwhile, [[List of characters from The Sopranos - friends and family#Al Lombardo|Al Lombardo]] ([[List of characters from The Sopranos - friends and family#Kelli Moltisanti|Kelli Moltisanti]]'s father) is the unwilling catalyst of a new feud between [[Christopher Moltisanti]] and [[Paulie Gualtieri]] when  Paulie's nephew, [[Little Paulie Germani]] begins breaking into Al's hardware store along with [[List of characters from The Sopranos in the Soprano crime family#Jason Molinaro|Jason Molinaro]] and boosting power tools. After Al gets upset and Christopher has to deal with it, he warns Paulie about flouting his authority. When Jason and Little Paulie take advantage of the elderly employees at Al's store and continue their dealings with the power tools, Chris finds out and beats Little Paulie before throwing him out a window. Although he is badly hurt, Little Paulie survives the incident but suffers six broken [[vertebrae]]. In retaliation, a visibly very irate Paulie destroys Chris's front yard by running over flower beds, crushing bushes and doing burnouts in the grass in his [[Cadillac CTS]]. Kelli Moltisanti is shaken and scared by the ordeal.