All Due Respect (The Sopranos)

"All Due Respect"
The Sopranos episode
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 13
Directed by	John Patterson
Written by	David Chase Robin Green Mitchell Burgess
Cinematography by	Phil Abraham
Production code	513
Original air date	June 6, 2004 (2004-06-06)
Running time	55 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
see below

"All Due Respect" is the sixty-fifth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the finale of the show's fifth season. It was written by David Chase, Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, directed by John Patterson and originally aired on June 6, 2004.

Starring

• James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano
• Lorraine Bracco as Dr. Jennifer Melfi
• Edie Falco as Carmela Soprano
• Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti
• Dominic Chianese as Corrado Soprano, Jr.
• Steven Van Zandt as Silvio Dante
• Tony Sirico as Paulie Gualtieri
• Robert Iler as Anthony Soprano, Jr.
• Jamie-Lynn DiScala as Meadow Soprano
• Drea de Matteo as Adriana La Cerva **
• Aida Turturro as Janice Soprano Baccalieri *
• Steven R. Schirripa as Bobby Baccalieri
• Vincent Curatola as Johnny Sack
• and Steve Buscemi as Tony Blundetto

* = credit only ** = picture only

Guest starring

• Jerry Adler as Hesh Rabkin

Also guest starring

Episode recap

Phil Leotardo reclaims his brother Billy's body from the morgue and demands Johnny Sack to get an "eye for an eye" retribution against the Jersey mob.

Raymond Curto continues to provide information to the FBI. His handler, Agent Grasso, avoids telling him Adriana La Cerva was killed for doing just that.

Tony Soprano continues to protect his cousin Tony Blundetto. At Raymond Curto's birthday dinner, Tony delivers a speech regarding the position the family currently is in. He states that "[they] must deal with this as a family". However, behind his back, the mobsters are voicing their disgruntlement. Vito Spatafore states that he would be willing to die for a good cause, but that this situation is "bullshit." At the pork store, Larry Boy Barese and associates discuss Tony's favoritism toward his cousin Tony B and his blood family and speculate that he probably would have surrendered anyone else.

Tony B is hiding out at Uncle Pat's recently vacated Kinderhook, New York farm house, staying in a sleeping bag on the hardwood floor. To a local woman with whom he had sex, he is known as a caretaker looking to move to Italy.

Christopher Moltisanti gathers Adriana's last items (pieces of jewelry) from their apartment to dispose of. Carmela calls looking for her, and Christopher bluntly announces that they broke up and she left town. Carmela is shocked and devastated but tries to console her cousin, telling him he'll find someone else.

In the meantime, Phil Leotardo tries to track down Christopher as an alternative target of his revenge, likening his closeness to Tony as a father/son type relationship. He threatens his mother in front of her home to make her reveal his whereabouts, but she runs off. Christopher tensely watches the scene from behind the curtained window with his gun at the ready. He ultimately decides to go into hiding with the help of Benny Fazio. The following evening, Phil finds Benny outside the Crazy Horse. The Soprano family associate unsuccessfully tries to escape and Phil delivers a message to Tony by beating Benny up and fracturing his skull with his cane. Benny winds up in intensive care, where Tony visits him. After their boss leaves, Eugene Pontecorvo voices they should be looking for payback in Brooklyn, but Vito says that Tony himself should be "taken out" if he gives such an order.

Tony asks for the advice of his Uncle Junior, who is still homebound. Junior turns out to be of no help since he is easily confused and his attention span is impaired. He is more concerned about sending a fruit basket to his lawyer, Harold Melvoin, who recently suffered a stroke, although Junior is also happy the illness of his longtime lawyer will cause a delay for his retrial. Tony then seeks help from Dr. Melfi, but as he cannot go into great detail, she is unable to offer much advice. She does remind him, however, that Tony's concern for his cousin comes primarily from his feelings of guilt and shame regarding Tony B's arrest and imprisonment. Silvio Dante sits down to talk with Tony and tells him discontentment among his family is growing and that the chief reason he is shielding his cousin is because he does not want to "bow down" to Johnny Sack's pressure, but Tony angrily rejects this appraisal and tells Silvio he has no idea of the stresses of being boss. Tony finally visits the home of Paulie Gualtieri, having heard he was dissatisfied with his leadership as well. There, he discovers the painting of his horse Pie-O-My and himself, which Tony had ordered to be destroyed after the horse's death. Unbeknownst to Tony, Paulie had kept the painting and altered it to change Tony's clothes from a business suit to those of a colonial general. When Tony angrily demands to know why he had him painted as a "lawn jockey," Paulie tells him he regards Tony as a general and a leader of men and that he did it out of sincere admiration for Tony. Tony pauses momentarily, but then angrily rips the painting off the wall and brings it to a dumpster behind a restaurant. As he throws the portrait away in the dumpster, he stares at the general's uniform and the sword.

Tony B arrives back at the farm after buying groceries, hides his car in a barn, and mounts the steps to the porch of the farmhouse. As he searches for his key, Tony suddenly comes from around the far side of the porch with a pump-action shotgun and shoots his cousin in the head, giving Tony B a quick death. Soprano then informs Phil Leotardo via Johnny where Tony B is. When Leotardo arrives later to exact his revenge, he expects Tony B to be alive in the farm house but instead finds his corpse lying on a wood pile on the porch, where Tony left him. Later that morning, Johnny Sack calls Tony from his doctor's office and tells him that Tony B's death "didn't solve a thing." Tony agrees to meet Johnny early the following morning at Johnny's house to settle the families' feud.

Tony meets with Christopher, who is holed up in a motel room, and instructs him to retrieve Blundetto's body and bury it whole. They discuss Adriana's murder and involvement with the FBI. Tony asks Chris if he "let anything slip" regarding their criminal activities, if she saw or heard anything, or if Adriana may have mentioned anything to the FBI about Matthew Bevilaqua or Ralph Cifaretto. Christopher still feels extremely upset and betrayed about Adriana's actions, but he says that he was careful not to let slip any information relating to the murders. He further assures Tony that he is staying sober and exercising to prove his worth to Tony. The two get emotional, hug, and shed tears about their recent losses.

A.J. plans a party with a friend which turns out to be very successful. They keep order at the party by using violence. He and his friend make $300 each after expenses and drinks. When Carmela and Tony learn about his new business scheme, Carmela reveals that A.J. asked his guidance counselor which colleges would be suitable for studying event planning. Carmela also says that A.J. spends "all his time" watching the DVD of the movie 54 about Steve Rubell, the man who founded the famous New York disco Studio 54, which worries Tony because Rubell was a homosexual. The Sopranos find some solace in the fact that A.J. is at least "fired up about something."

The following morning, Tony and Johnny Sack meet at the latter's New Jersey home, in order to try to work out a solution to the current troubles between their families. Tony offers a percentage of the Bloomfield Avenue casino, which the now-deceased Tony B had been in charge of, as a peace offering for John to pass along to Phil. John is uncertain about his ability to persuade Phil to move past his need for vengeance, and Tony angrily chastises him for not identifying Phil's price and putting an end to the vendetta. After some consideration, John acknowledges that he might be able to work something out. Tony is pleased to continue working with the New York family, and Johnny invites Tony inside for coffee. At that moment, Tony looks over John's shoulder, sees armed men coming through the snowy forest behind the backyard, and runs away. Johnny attempts to do the same, but the FBI raid the Sacrimoni home, and Johnny is placed under arrest. Tony throws his handgun away into the snow and navigates other homes' yards, bushes, and a creek to avoid the law enforcement operation. A few hours later, with Tony having made his way on foot back to his own neighborhood, he calls his lawyer, Neil Mink, to ask what has happened. Mink informs him that John was brought up on charges which were built with the help of Jimmy Petrille, who, it turns out, has been cooperating with the FBI for 18 years. Mink advises Tony to be happy, since he was not mentioned in the indictment. Tony finally arrives home, via his backyard and bangs on the back door for Carmela to let him in, which she does, being surprised by his wet shoes, ripped overcoat and general harried appearance wondering what happened to him.

Deceased

• Tony Blundetto: Shot in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun by Tony Soprano in order to make peace with the Lupertazzi crime family and to save Tony B from a more painful death at the hands of Phil Leotardo.

Title reference

• Vito prefaces his criticism with "All due respect" when discussing the family's problems with New York with the other captains.
• Silvio does the same before criticizing Tony for having too much pride. The phrase is intended to be one of reverence, but usually precedes someone in authority being told something they don't want to hear by an underling.
• It could describe the battle for respect of both Tony from Johnny Sack and Johnny's from Tony and Tony's fight to maintain his respect within his crime family.

Production

• This is the final episode directed by John Patterson, who died in 2005. Patterson directed all the season finales for the first five seasons.
• The fifth season begins with scenes of the Soprano house (empty of Tony's presence) and ends again with the house, Tony now returning to it.
• At the end of the episode, Tony's emergence from the rustling bushes reaffirms the use of the bear as a symbol for Tony's dominating presence in his house. Based on the emerging location of the bear in earlier episodes, there is uncertainty as to the identity of the rustling figure.
• Bob Shaw, the production designer for the show, makes a cameo appearance as Ignatz Pravalkis, the architect working with Hugh De Angelis to create Carmela's spec house.
• Drea de Matteo reveals in the DVD commentary for the previous episode, "Long Term Parking", that the character of Tony Blundetto was not initially supposed to die in the fifth season finale.
• The scene in which Johnny Sack is arrested is shown again in the sixth season episode "Soprano Home Movies", but a different take is used.

References to previous episodes

• Carmela tells Tony that Adriana was behaving odd at one of the ladies' "movie nights," which took place in "Rat Pack".
• The painting of Tony and Pie-O-My was destined to be destroyed by Tony but then salvaged by Paulie in "The Strong, Silent Type".
• Tony mentions the Matthew Bevilaqua and Ralph Cifaretto murders, which occurred in "From Where to Eternity" and "Whoever Did This".

Other cultural references

• Carmela mentions she wants A.J. to fill out an application to East Stroudsburg State University.
• Tony watches a documentary about Erwin Rommel's campaign in World War II on the History Channel.
• Silvio calls the disguised Christopher Claude Rains, as in he is like The Invisible Man.
• Despite the episode airing in 2004, there is an exterior shot of the Bada Bing which advertises the Holyfield vs. Lewis rematch which took place in November 1999.

Music

• The song played over the end credits is "Glad Tidings" by Van Morrison. It is also played earlier when Christopher talks to Silvio at a Roy Rogers, and later during a scene where Tony B arrives at Uncle Pat's farm, shortly before his murder. A The Star-Ledger review of this episode explains the song's importance to the plot: "The episode's use of Van Morrison's "Glad Tidings" as a recurring motif was a classic example of the show's attention to detail. Moments before buckshot hits Blundetto, we heard the verse that opened with "And we'll send you glad tidings from New York" and closed with "Hope that you will come in right on time."^[1]
• In the scene wherein Tony is sitting on the steps of an elementary school, "Mr. Tambourine Man" is heard being sung by a children's choir.^[2]
• "Smoke N' Mirrors" by Grade 8 plays when Benny tries to leave after he saw Phil walk into the Crazy Horse.

References

External links

• "All Due Respect" at HBO
• "All Due Respect" at the Internet Movie Database
• "All Due Respect" at TV.com