Season 4 (2002)¶
At a glance¶
- Episodes
- 13
- Aired
- September 15 – December 8, 2002
- Avg. viewers
- 10.99 million — the show's peak
- Premiere
- 13.43M, the highest-rated episode of the run
- Emmys
- Gandolfini, Falco, and Joe Pantoliano (Supporting Actor), all in 2003
I don't love you anymore. I don't want you. You're not sleeping in my bed, Tony. Carmela, "Whitecaps"
The most divisive season, the most rewarding on rewatch, and the one where the show's real subject stops being crime and becomes money.
Episodes¶
| # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | For All Debts Public and Private | Allen Coulter | David Chase | Sep 15, 2002 |
| 41 | No Show | John Patterson | Terence Winter & David Chase | Sep 22, 2002 |
| 42 | Christopher | Tim Van Patten | Story: Michael Imperioli & Maria Laurino · Teleplay: Michael Imperioli | Sep 29, 2002 |
| 43 | The Weight | Jack Bender | Terence Winter | Oct 6, 2002 |
| 44 | Pie-O-My | Henry J. Bronchtein | Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess | Oct 13, 2002 |
| 45 | Everybody Hurts | Steve Buscemi | Michael Imperioli | Oct 20, 2002 |
| 46 | Watching Too Much Television | John Patterson | Story: David Chase, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess & Terence Winter · Teleplay: Terence Winter & Nick Santora | Oct 27, 2002 |
| 47 | Mergers and Acquisitions | Dan Attias | Story: David Chase, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess & Terence Winter · Teleplay: Lawrence Konner | Nov 3, 2002 |
| 48 | Whoever Did This | Tim Van Patten | Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess | Nov 10, 2002 |
| 49 | The Strong, Silent Type | Alan Taylor | Story: David Chase · Teleplay: Terence Winter, Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess | Nov 17, 2002 |
| 50 | Calling All Cars | Tim Van Patten | Story: David Chase, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess & Terence Winter · Teleplay: David Chase, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess & David Flebotte | Nov 24, 2002 |
| 51 | Eloise | James Hayman | Terence Winter | Dec 1, 2002 |
| 52 | Whitecaps | John Patterson | Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess & David Chase | Dec 8, 2002 |
Where an episode carries separate story and teleplay credits, both are listed.
The season about money¶
The standard complaint is that nothing happens. That's close to true and entirely deliberate.
The economy has tightened. The earners aren't earning. Tony spends the season on schemes that are small, grubby, and legally exposed — an HUD housing fraud, a phone card scam, an esplanade contract. Paulie is in jail in Youngstown and sulking about who's paying for it. Christopher is on heroin. Junior's RICO trial grinds on and his mind is going.
And Carmela, who has spent four seasons declining to ask where the money comes from, becomes obsessed with the fact that none of it is in her name. Her scenes with the financial adviser, and later with Tony about a life insurance policy, are the season's spine. She isn't having a moral crisis. She's doing due diligence.
Meanwhile Furio is in love with her, and she with him, and neither of them does anything about it — which is somehow worse than if they had.
"Whoever Did This"¶
The season's turn, and one of the show's great hours.
Ralph Cifaretto's son is critically injured in an archery accident. Ralph, genuinely destroyed, becomes briefly sympathetic — Pantoliano plays it without a shred of the character's usual performance. Then the racehorse Pie-O-My, which Tony had come to love more than most people, dies in a stable fire that Ralph probably set for the insurance.
Tony confronts him in his kitchen. The fight is ugly, clumsy, and not choreographed like television — two middle-aged men in a small room. Tony kills him with his hands.
Then he and Christopher spend the rest of the episode dismembering and disposing of the body, arguing about logistics, and Tony gets a call from his son.
Why it matters: Tony kills Ralph over a horse, not over Tracee, and the show knows exactly what that says. He also violates the code by killing a made man without sanction, and spends the rest of the series quietly managing that lie.
"Whitecaps"¶
The finale is 75 minutes long and contains no crime.
Tony puts a deposit on a shore house. Then a former mistress calls the house and tells Carmela everything. What follows is an extended, escalating fight across a whole episode — the accumulated grievances of a twenty-year marriage delivered at full volume in a kitchen, a bedroom, and a hallway.
Carmela says the thing she can't take back: she names Furio, tells Tony she doesn't love him, and puts him out of the house.
Gandolfini and Falco both won Emmys off this episode, and it's obvious why. There's no gun in it and it's the most frightening hour in the series — because for the first time Tony encounters something he genuinely cannot fix by force, favor, or charm.
Also notable¶
"Christopher" (S4E42) — Columbus Day, and a whole episode of Italian-American characters arguing about Italian-American representation. Written by Michael Imperioli. Widely disliked on broadcast, and the most direct thing the show ever said about its own critics. See Italian-American Identity.
"Everybody Hurts" (S4E45) — Artie's suicide attempt and Tony's realization that his generosity is a form of control.
"Eloise" (S4E51) — Carmela and Meadow at the Plaza, one of the show's best two-hander scenes about class and self-deception.
"Calling All Cars" (S4E50) — Tony walks out of therapy, and the season's dream sequences turn genuinely opaque.
Reception¶
The ratings peak of the entire run: a 13.43M premiere and a 10.99M season average. Critically strong at the time and rising since — the "nothing happens" complaint has aged into the observation that a show about a business in a downturn is supposed to feel like that.
Three acting Emmys in 2003: Gandolfini, Falco, and Joe Pantoliano, whose win came for a character killed off in episode nine.