Tropes K - Z / The Sopranos

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Karmic Nod: Discussed by the wise guys. Christopher is conflicted because when he nearly died he had a dream where he found himself in Hell, but Paulie corrects him and claims that he was in Purgatory. He further states that they'll probably have to spend several hundred years in torment for their crimes before going to Heaven, highlighting how the mobsters still fundamentally see themselves as good guys.
Karmic Twist Ending: Despite Tony's Karma Houdini tendencies, the series ends with him facing prison time and very possibly murdered.
Kavorka Man: Despite being a criminal prone to violent outbursts and not being particularly attractive in terms of appearance (he's middle-aged, balding, and noticeably overweight), Tony finds himself in relationships with several women throughout the show in addition to his wife, Carmela. All Girls Want Bad Boys working in his favor, no doubt. As does wanting to get ahead at the Bing.
Kick the Dog:
- Georgie gets gratuitously beaten up on a regular basis.
- Ralph beating Tracee to death.
- Corrado's constant mistreatment of Bobby is precisely written to balance the sympathy/empathy attached to his increasing emasculation and senility.
- When Chris is torn apart after ratting on Adriana, Tony gets annoyed by his nephew's plight and brutally beats him instead of giving any kind of humane support.
- Phil killing Vito on merely homophobic grounds and extending his scorn to Vito's strayed son.
- Paulie and his cronies pointlessly bully Christopher and disrespect his daughter. In turn, the evoked sympathy is lost when Chris kills Dolan, his sponsor and only friend as a consequence of his disrespect.
- Tony making contemptuous remarks against Kelli for being too melodramatic during the funeral of her late husband, like "Jackie Kennedy".
Kissing Cousins:
- Little Carmine, the Inadequate Inheritor of the Lupertazzi crime family, is the one-time lover of his second cousin Lorraine Calluzzo, a minor associate. Johnny Sack, the underboss to Carmine Sr., is disgusted by it.
- Vito Spatafore boasts about "how close" he got with Adriana La Cerva, Christopher's girlfriend after it seems that she had an affair with Tony behind Christopher's back. Not only is Vito a closeted gay man, but Adriana is also his first cousin; Richie Aprile is both Vito's and Adriana's uncle. Perhaps a result of the writers simply forgetting who was related to who.
Knee-capping: Paulie threatens a sports teacher who inherits the garbage business with this. Later on, Paulie obliges. Furio does this to a massage parlor owner who owes Tony money in "Big Girls Don't Cry", beating him with a pipe and slapping the man's wife around for good measure.
Kosher Nostra:
- Hesh is an associate of the Italian Mafia in spite of being Jewish. He seems to have a low opinion of other Jewish gangsters and doesn't associate with them much. In the first season, he warns Tony against doing business with some shady Hasidim.
- In Season 2, Melfi's family therapist brags about having family who were associated with Murder Inc., crowing, "Those were some tough Jews!" He sees Jewish gangsters as exotic and exciting because they no longer reflect poorly on their community. This stands in contrast to earlier in the episode when Melfi's family laments how the Mafia continued to cast a shadow on the reputation of Italian-Americans.
Lampshade Hanging/Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the season 6 opener, Tony tells Dr. Melfi when they're discussing Vito's secret homosexuality that it bothers him how every other show on TV tends to rub the gay agenda or lifestyle in your nose.
The Last Dance: Baccala Sr. has a pretty awesome/brutal one, while in the terminal stages of lung cancer.
Last Disrespects: Deconstructed. Upon Livia's death, Janice decides to throw a wake for her despite her own expressed wish not to have one. After many phony expressions of sympathy and mourning from all attendees, it finally takes Carmella to speak up that she was a horribly dysfunctional and manipulative woman who spread misery to everyone who spent time with her and didn't want a funeral because she thought no one would miss her. No one argues with this assessment, least of all Tony (she even gets a hear hear).
Laughably Evil: Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri. A ridiculously rapacious and cheap bastard. Comically absurd like many of his shenanigans.
Lazy Bum: Tony has the hardest time getting his spoiled son A.J. to do any work whatsoever, and almost never without a ton of whining beforehand.
Leatherman: Vito is seen by some low-ranking soldiers attending a gay bar in one of these outfits, which seals his fate.
Let Me Tell You a Story: Tony tells Junior the story of how Octavian became Augustus and ruler of The Roman Empire. The Aesop about greed and generosity is unclear and it's lost on Junior, so Tony switches to a more mundane story about two bulls mating with as many cows as possible.
Licensed Pinball Table: Released by Stern Pinball in 2005, and covers the first five seasons. Click here for details.
Like Parent, Like Spouse: Dr. Melfi helps Tony realize that his tumultuous relationship with his mother leads him to attempt relationships with women almost exactly like her personality-wise. His girlfriend of the third season, Gloria, is arguably the worst in this regard (even using the same "Poor you" catchphrase as his mother), and the consequences are disastrous.
Little "No": One of the most powerful moments in the series occurs when Dr. Melfi tells Tony "No" when he asks her if there's anything he can do when she starts crying in a therapy session. It's powerful, because she'd been raped earlier in the episode, and had seriously contemplated telling Tony and using her connection to him to have the rapist killed.
Literalist Snarking: Richie Aprile, who runs over a man with his car.
Tony: I thought I told you to back off Beansie!
Richie: I did. Then I put it in drive.
Loan Shark: Used quite a lot. It's all but stated that this is one of their main sources of income.
- David Scatino is a local sporting goods store owner who gets in over his head in poker debts to Tony. Tony then "busts out" Scatino's store, buying random crap and exhausting its assets and lines of credit until it is forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation). (Scatino says in-universe it's going to be Chapter 11. While he may have intended to file for Chapter 11—reorganization of debts, with creditors to be repaid from future profits—we very clearly see the liquidators roll into the store, take everything, and put up a "for lease" sign, so we can be reasonably sure that even if he filed an 11, it was converted to a 7). This culminates when Tony, in a genius move, gives Meadow an SUV that he took as collateral from Scatino, her boyfriend's father.
  - This situation actually presents a very peculiar circumstance for a bankruptcy attorney: after the "bust-out", Scatino's debts must have been staggering, but in theory at least, all the crap Scatino's business "gave" for the mobsters to sell (or take for themselves) were a fraudulent transfer or an unfair preference, so David and/or the trustee would be well within their rights to sue Tony to make him give the money back, and Scatino would win given the amount of evidence in his favor (then again, who in their right mind sues a mobster?). The FBI could've also used this as a means to flip David.
- Christopher loaning to, beating, and ultimately murdering his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor.
- One of the thugs exploits Vito by borrowing money from him, then turning him in to the rival New York family that wanted him dead.
- Even Angie Bonpensiero gets in on the game, "putting money out on the street" after she gets ahold of Big Pussy's old body shop. (She doesn't do any beating herself, but it's obvious she controls guys who do).
Local Hangout: The Bada Bing!, a strip joint that Tony owns and operates.
Long-Runners: Eight years is a long time for an HBO show (they tend to run for six seasons, which The Sopranos did, but spread over only six years).
Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: When Junior Soprano attacks another patient in the psychiatric unit, his slipper flies off as he kicks him.
Loud of War: Tony resorts to this against a man who refuses to return him the entrance fee of a house that Tony no longer wants. The man lives by the sea, so Tony's men play invasive crooner music day and night from a boat with almost sheer impunity until the man finally caves in.
Love Martyr: Adriana is this to Christopher. She believes that deep down Christopher is a good person and would choose her over the mob in a heartbeat. When she is forced to become an informant to the FBI, she tells Christopher and after the third beating, she gives him the choice. Christopher chooses the mob and it results in Adrianna's death.
Lucky Charms Title: A Beretta pistol pointed downwards serves as the "r" in the show's logo.

The Mafia: Obviously.
The Mafiya: Makes a rare appearance, most notably in "Pine Barrens", in which a Russian mobster proves surprisingly difficult to kill. Slava, the head of the Jersey branch and close friend of the mobster, is Tony's main money launderer.
Mafia Princess: Meadow Soprano. At first, subverted then embraced: Meadow knows full well that her dad is a mobster, going so far as to out their father to her younger brother AJ when kids at his school start dropping anvils about how AJ can't be bullied because of the fact that the bullies fear what AJ's dad will do to them and their families if they tormented him. However, when Meadow finally confronts her father during a road trip to visit a college, Tony lies and Meadow believes him, even as Tony lies to her about him sneaking out during one of their nights away in order to kill a mob snitch in hiding who they had encountered by chance. She later ends up with Jackie Aprile, Jr.—son and namesake of a respected former boss of the Jersey family.

Later, after Tony orders Jackie Jr.'s death (not for dating Meadow but for being an idiot who jeopardized the family's security and stability), Carmela gives Meadow a Stepford Smiler speech ordering her to make a vow never to believe the idea that her father ordered Jackie Jr.'s death. This is the turning point, as she ends up having no trouble living the lie, even chiding a fellow mafia princess for speaking of it in front of an outsider, and by the finale ends up telling her father that she is proud of what he does and curses the government for "tormenting" the family in its quest to bust her father. She even announces she's going to become a mob lawyer, though she puts it in much more idealistic terms than that.
Make It Look Like a Struggle: The truck driver Christopher and Brendan rob in "46 Long" requests that they rough him up, since he's expected to put up a fight protecting his delivery. They happily oblige.
Make It Look Like an Accident: A twisted version near the end of the show: Tony suffocates Christopher when they have an accident, killing him. The doctors think Christopher might have made it, but they have no way to determine the actual fact.
Malaproper: A running gag throughout the series is mobsters mangling idioms and getting their vocabulary mixed up. This serves as a constant reminder that, in spite of how cunning and successful many of these men are, they have terrible educations. Some examples:
Little Carmine:
A pint of blood is worth more than a gallon of gold.
We're in a fucking stagmire.
You're very observant: the sacred and the propane.
I give him his present, this mellifluous box.
There's no stigmata connected with going to a shrink.
You're at the precipice of an enormous crossroad.
Tony:
You'd think I was Hannibal Lecture before or something.
I was prostate with grief.
Revenge is like serving cold cuts.
A guy like that is going out with a woman, he could technically not have penissary contact with her Volvo.
I agree with that Senator Sanatorium, says if we let this stuff go too far, pretty soon we'll be fuckin' dogs.
Christopher
Create a little dysentery among the ranks.
He is the hair apparent.
Bobby: Quasimodo predicted all of this.
Paulie:
Sun-Tuh-Zoo. He's the Chinese Prince Matchabelli.
They release these fucks from the can. Obviously, he wasn't rea-bull-ated.
Male Gaze:
- Tony Blundetto lets his minicam linger on Carmela's ample posterior for a nice long while in "Marco Polo".
- An FBI agent ogles Adriana's lithe figure in her skimpy tennis outfit, then nearly explodes when both she and her svelte tennis instructor bend over at the same time.
Maligned Mixed Marriage: Everyone connected to the mob resists the idea of dating outside of Italians. The farther away from Italy, the stronger the objection.
- Tony has fits that Meadow dates a man who is half-Jewish and half-black, seeming to resent the black side much more than the Jewish. It creates serious drama in the household, and Carmela isn't happy about it either.
- Carmela smiles politely to AJ's long-term girlfriend Blanca, but behind her back, she balks at the fact that she's Puerto Rican. Tony points out that at least she's Catholic.
- Christopher claims that he doesn't bring his goomar around because she's black and knows that guys like Paulie wouldn't be OK with it. The others find this sentiment wise.
Manly Gay: Vito is a tragically closeted example.
Masquerade: Tony tries to shield his children from the truth and denies the existence of The Mafia, but Meadow is too smart for that. She gradually embarks on the same masquerade in front of outsiders, a thing noted by her parents.
Matricide: Subverted in the season 1 finale. Livia Soprano manipulates Uncle Junior to arrange a hit on her son Tony (Junior's nephew) out of resentment for putting her in a nursing home. After Tony's faction wins the civil war against Junior, Tony tries to smother Livia with a pillow, but ultimately decides against it.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- Christopher's trip to Hell (Purgatory?) and Paulie's complaints about hauntings and curses might be legit or just the result of troubled minds and mafioso superstitions. We never get a definite answer either way.
- Paulie visits a psychic who seems to have knowledge of Paulie's murder victims beyond what a common shyster could fake.
Psychic: Charles Pagano.
Paulie: How the fuck do you know that?
Psychic: He says he was your first, but I feel many more.
Paulie: Hey!
Psychic: This one's laughing. Poison ivy? He wants to know if it still itches?
Paulie: Don't fuck with me! Who you been talkin' to?
- All the various dreams that characters have. Are they just premonitions and guilt, or are they messages from the other side?
Meaningful Background Event: The FBI approaches Johnny Sack from behind when he is talking with Tony, who reacts in time.
Meaningful Funeral: Frequent for violent and natural reasons; big families have a lot of relatives.
- Against Tony's opinion, Janice tries to forcefully do one for Livia, but it totally backfires. A stoned Christopher delivers a bizarre eulogy, the relatives don't have anything good to say about the deceased, Carmela and her father explode against Livia, and their rant is shared by others.
- Season 3 ends with Jackie Jr.'s wake and half the cast bawling to Uncle Junior's Italian song.
- Subverted with Junior, as he doesn't actually care about some deceased individuals and he just wants to attend to any planned funeral to dodge his house arrest for a while.
Meaningful Name:
- Livia, who shares her name with the Magnificent Bastard mother in I, Claudius.
- A "soprano" is a woman with a high-pitched singing voice. In times past, choirboys would be castrated before puberty in order to retain their soprano voice. At the beginning of the series, Tony Soprano is a man who's afraid that he's losing hold of his masculinity.
- The musical term "soprano" is derived from the Italian word "sopra", which means "above". This could be a reference to Tony's status as the head of the Jersey family.
- Many people have pointed out that Dr. Melfi's last name sounds very similar to "milfy," which is exactly how Tony sees her.
- Vesuvio is named for Mount Vesuvius, a volcano that destroyed several Roman cities. Vesuvio burns down.
Meaningless Meaningful Words: Parodied. Most of the characters do this from time to time but the most egregious perpetrator, by far, is Little Carmine. He would frequently misuse or mispronounce big words in an effort to sound smart or eloquent. Even characters on the show recognized his stupidity.
"We're in a f**king stagmire."
"You're very observant: the sacred and the propane."
"There's no stigmata connected with going to a shrink".
Men Don't Cry: Phil Leotardo loses all respect for Johnny Sack when he cries in public.
Military School: In "Army of One", Tony and Carmela disagree vehemently over whether to send A.J. to a Military School after he gets expelled from his original Catholic school, Verbum Dei. It turns out that A.J. gets panic attacks like his father—and, it seems, like the whole Soprano line going back generations—and couldn't go to military school for health reasons.
Mind Screw: Several.
Mistaken for Cheating: Happens to Adriana in "Irregular Around The Margins". Aggravated by Gossip Evolution.
"Mister Sandman" Sequence: "To Save Us All From Satan's Power." The brief 1995 sequences include multiple references to O.J. Simpson and Valujet and feature Jackie Sr. and Big Pussy prominently smoking in a restaurant. (It also mentions Pussy's wife booking a cruise on the Dawn Princess, which actually set sail two years later, but that's neither here nor there).
Mob-Boss Suit Fitting: "Pax Soprana" shows Corrado "Junior" Soprano, newly designated head of the Di Meo crime family of New Jersey, being fitted for a new suit. His tailor tells "Uncle Junior" that the tailor's grandson recently committed suicide due to drugs sold to him by a member of the Soprano crew. Junior promptly has the dealer killed.
Mob Debt:
- This is standard operating procedure for The Mafia. Most notably, Tony's crew runs an illegal card game which usually attracts several high rollers who can take the hits, but Tony also allows his gambling addict friend David Scatino into the game and racks up a huge debt (after David already owed money to a different mobster). David is an ordinary middle-class guy so he cannot pay them out of pocket and is forced to make Tony and his guys "partners" in his hardware store. They proceed to bust the place out, maxing out all of David's company credits until he's forced to shut down and declare bankruptcy.
- Inverted when Tony himself borrows close to half a million from Hesh, a Jewish music producer and an associate of the DiMeo Family. He repays the debt little by little, but Hesh is very worried that Tony will still kill him if he makes a big fuss about it.
Mob War: The threat of Tony Soprano's New Jersey mob family breaking out into open civil war or becoming embroiled with one of the New York families hangs overhead for several seasons. In the last half of season 6, open war breaks out between the Soprano crew and the Lupertazzi family under Phil Leotardo.
Moe Greene Special: Big Pussy uses that exact name and cites the source of the term after Brendan gets whacked.
The Mole: Big Pussy, Adriana la Cerva, and Raymond Curto are the three most notable ones.
Mood Whiplash: Often masterfully done. Scenes of deep introspection or lighthearted comedy will sometimes, without warning, erupt into frantic violence.
Moral Myopia: The mobsters' extreme case of it is a frequent source of both Hypocritical Humor and drama.
More Hateable Minor Villain: Both Jesus Rossi from "Employee of the Month" and coach Don Hauser are the most blatant examples of this trope, as both are not even in The Mafia; however, they compensate by being particularly despicable rapists with no redeeming traits. It's telling that in a series where even the most brutal mobsters of the show were humanized to a degree, rape is depicted as the lowest of the low, a crime none of the main cast (not even the most despicable members of the DiMeo Crime Family) committed throughout the series.
Morton's Fork: Christopher faces one every time he attempts to get sober. When he doesn't drink, he is called out for being weak. When he does drink, he is called out for being a fuckup. He points this out to Tony and Paulie, who both wonder why he can't just be "normal."
Most Writers Are Writers: In addition to the strong theme of characters referencing movies and literature, Christopher is a cinephile and aspiring screenwriter who gets involved in a lot of screenwriting-related plots.
Mother Russia Makes You Strong:
- One-legged and determined Svetlana remarks that Americans don't know what a real problem is and live an easy existence compared to the average miserable life in Russia/USSR, yet they are wimpy complainers.
- Valery, a Mafiya member and former Spetsnaz who boasts in a frozen forest about harsh weather being warm to him, and gets away from Chris and Paulie when he was suppressed and about to be executed. He seemingly gets his throat crushed and his headshot but manages to escape into the pine barrens. His uncertain fate leads to a WMG that David Chase deliberately HandWaved in the season 5 opener.
Ms. Fanservice: Adriana. If she's not parading around in her undies for Chris, she's bending over a trash can wearing very tight pants. Lampshaded in the third season opener when the FBI agent keeping tabs on her prays to God that he not be reassigned.
Mugging the Monster:
- Bobby goes to make his pickups from an inner-city Newark "client" late at night and winds up getting robbed by some street kids. Because he didn't bring any backup, they get away with it, and the rest of Tony's crew mock Bobby for quite some time.
- Paulie and Christopher needlessly pick a fight with Valery, who turns out to be a Russian special forces veteran and ends up causing them a lot of trouble.
Multiple Demographic Appeal: The mafia action appealed to fans of mob movies (up to and including actual mobsters), the well-realized characters and drama appealed to fans of family dramas, the excellent acting, directing, and production values appealed to film lovers, the excellent soundtrack appealed to rock lovers, the wry wit and middle-aged characters appealed to older audiences, and the complex themes appealed to intellectuals.
Music Video Syndrome: Averted mostly. David Chase had wanted to only use "in-universe" music, but sometimes music plays with no apparent source. When this does occur, the music underscores and emphasizes the emotional effect. "The Beast In Me" plays over the end sequence and credits of the first episode, for example.
- An especially good one is the season three premiere's use of the Peter Gunn theme song and "Every Breath You Take" played simultaneously. The two songs have exactly the same beat and work surprisingly well together.
My Girl Is Not a Slut: Almost all the gangsters cheat on their wives and have sex with prostitutes while expecting 100% faithfulness from their wives — a rumor of infidelity leads to one woman being brutally beaten while already injured from a car crash — and viewing prostitutes as worthless.
My Greatest Failure: Villainous variety. Tony Soprano eventually gets to evaluate Christopher as this.

Naïve Newcomer: The FBI sends a younger agent to "turn" Adrianna because they think she'll respond better to a young woman. When Adrianna is discovered and murdered by Silvio, Chris plants her car at the airport long-term parking to suggest that she ran away. Only the new FBI agent believes it, and the other agents' laughter at her gullibility is a serious Tear Jerker.
Naked in Mink: Some ladies would wear fur with nothing underneath.
Naturalized Name: Phil Leotardo tells a bunch of kids about how his family's name was changed at Ellis Island — it was originally "Leonardo," but the American clerks screwed up and registered the name as "Leotardo." Notably, Phil doesn't treat this as a charming story of his family's assimilation — he's actually still really pissed off about it, as "Leonardo" is a noble name associated with a brilliant artist and inventor, while "Leotardo" is associated with an obnoxious piece of exercise wear.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Furio," lampshaded in his introduction.
Native American Casino: Tony makes a deal with the owner of such an establishment (and even visits his casino) in an attempt to use backdoor politics to stop a Native American protest of a Christopher Columbus parade.
Near-Death Experience: After Tony is shot in the season 6 premiere by a senile Uncle Junior, he goes into a coma where he dreams about being in another city when his wallet and ticket back home get stolen. Before he wakes up he's standing in front of a house party where a person he had killed offers to take his bag and tells him to come inside, but he's distracted from moving on by voices in the wind calling for him (his family in the hospital).
Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: The Jersey mobsters still have a few traditions from the old times that attempt this:
- They throw a traditional Santa Claus party and distribute presents to local children during the Christmas season.
- The mob is responsible for putting on a carnival during the Feast of St. Joseph. When Paulie cuts corners that cause a ride to malfunction, Tony criticizes him for the bad press.
- Junior liquidates a drug dealer for selling drugs to children. This is viewed as old-fashioned and the other capos resent him, as it was a bad business decision.
- Tony praises the neighborhood where he has business ventures for being an old-fashioned place that hasn't been swallowed by corporations. He's seen as a community leader in the area, as evidenced by an old lady who asks him to speak to some Puerto Rican business owners for playing their music too loud. Later, he sells the business she was sitting outside of to Jamba Juice.
Nepotism:
- Zig-Zagged by Chris. He isn't totally incompetent and his status as Tony's cousin/"nephew" doesn't exempt him from hazing like random strip searches and having to buy everyone's meals. However, he rises up the ranks much faster than he probably would on his own merits, and is allowed far more free passes and second chances than Tony would ordinarily grant. Played straight when Tony privately tells Chris that he plans to eventually make Chris his Underboss rather than any of his longer serving and more qualified soldiers solely because he is “blood”.
- Subverted by Jackie Junior, who feels that since he is the son of a legendary mafioso, he is entitled to be a powerful and respected mob boss. Nobody takes him seriously, Tony actively prevents him from getting involved in anything, and his attempts to be a badass criminal end up getting him killed.
- "Little Carmine" Lupertazzi is a straight example, he really isn't cut out for the mafia, and likely wouldn't have ended up with the kind of money and influence he has if it weren't for his dad.
- Subverted by Bobby 'Bacala' Baccalieri. He marries Tony's sister, but his rise from Junior's flunky to #3 in the family is accompanied by him revealing himself to be much more competent and reliable than his initial appearances indicated.
Nerd Glasses: Uncle Junior wears these. Dominic Chianese said that these glasses pretty much were Junior.
Never Lend to a Friend: Very frequent:
- Tony tries to keep his childhood friend David Scatino away from his illegal high-stakes poker game. When Scatino insists and runs up a ridiculous losing streak, Tony agrees to lend him the money to cover it, but at the same terms as anyone else. Scatino soon becomes swallowed by the interest, which destroys his business and marriage. Tony is unmoved by Scatino's plight.
- Artie tries to borrow money for an investment deal from Ralphie, who hears him out but ultimately refuses, reasoning that if Artie couldn't pay, he'd have to beat him up, and he doesn't want to be put in that position. Tony gets offended that Artie didn't come to him first and insists on loaning Artie the money. Artie's investment falls through, leaving him in a hopeless situation. Tony ultimately forgives the debt and lets Artie repay him with free meals at his restaurant. Artie is grateful, but he also accuses Tony of realizing that lending him money was a Xanatos Gambit all along. Their friendship is never quite the same.
- Tony himself runs up some gambling debts and ends up owing money to his Jewish friend Hesh. When Hesh asks for it back, Tony gets defensive and resentful and starts making Greedy Jew jokes. Their long friendship ends.
- Christopher's friend JT Dolan from AA runs up a large gambling debt, and Chris lends him the money to cover it. Dolan balks at the fact that Christopher charges him the same punishing vig as anyone else, but Christopher counters that he won't enable Dolan's bad decisions. Dolan has trouble paying the money back, causing Christopher to pummel him and steal his possessions, ultimately costing Dolan everything but the shirt off his back. From then on, Dolan is resentful and afraid of Chris, but Chris doesn't seem to notice.
Never Speak Ill of the Dead:
- A variation Tony once notes that despite the hostility his mother held for his father when he was alive, she's viewed him as a saint ever since his death. Livia, however, is mostly directly invoking the idea for manipulative persons (usually comparing Tony to his father to himself or somebody else, or calling herself a victim for being deprived of him and stuck with the living).
- Subverted when Livia dies. At first, everyone is mourning her death and consoling her family. However, Carmela eventually calls her a sick and twisted woman when they try to think of good things about Livia, and everyone remembers that she was a senile old woman who was generally unpleasant.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The whole business (and misery for all involved) with Valery was totally unnecessary. It all occurred because Paulie was in a rotten mood and acted like a dick.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Lou Di Maggio and the Atwell Avenue Boys. The whole scene involving them is genuinely disturbing.
Noble Bigot: Tony is more tolerant than many of his friends and colleagues, but...
- Even he freaks out when he discovers Meadow is dating a half-black, half-Jewish classmate from a wealthy New York family.
- He also spews a lot of homophobic slurs after finding out Vito is gay, but when Dr. Melfi points out that he doesn't sound like he means it, he admits that his true feelings are closer to "Who gives a shit?" He even initially tries to find a way to keep Vito in the fold, but the realities of mob culture conspire against him.
No Bisexuals: Despite Vito Spatafore having a wife, children, and mistress he is viewed by everyone as exclusively gay when it becomes apparent that he secretly sleeps with men on the side. The word "bisexual" is never even mentioned throughout the entire story arc. Although, a least partially Justified by the fact that mobsters wouldn't have the most nuanced view of sexuality, and anything less than 100% stereotypical macho heteronormativity would be viewed as "gay" by them, in an earlier episode it's revealed that even performing oral sex on a woman is considered potential evidence of homosexuality.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: A small comedic subplot involved Tony meeting a gangsta rapper in the next hospital bed over during his recuperation. One of the guys' entourage is a fledgling rapper who realizes that surviving a shooting is key to getting famous, to which he hires Bobby Baccala to do it. Bobby shoots him in the ass. If the connection wasn't apparent enough, they dress the character in white pants, a white tank top, and a white hat at the time.
No Dead Body Poops: Averted during the suicide of Eugene Pontecorvo, who also gets A Death in the Limelight.
No Ending: Probably the most notorious example. Take a look at this to see portions of the ending, as well as details that pop up in it. As for the actual ending itself: Tony and his family sit and eat in a restaurant, with Tony continually looking up at the door to see who walks in, obviously expecting his family. Just as Meadow walks in, the show immediately cuts to black, and after a few seconds the credits roll.
No Historical Figures Were Harmed:
- The DiMeos were based on the Real Life DeCavalcante crime family, which controls much of central New Jersey (South New Jersey is part of the Philly Mob's turf, while northern New Jersey is controlled by the Five Families, especially the Genovese and Lucchese families).
- Ercole "Eckley" DiMeo, the crime family's namesake, was based on Simone "Samuel" DeCavalcante, who was nicknamed "Sam the Plumber" because he owned and operated a heating and plumbing company in Kenilworth, NJ. But he loathed that nickname and preferred to be called "the Count" because he often claimed that he was of Blue Blood.
- Tony Soprano was based on real-life New Jersey mobster Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, who later became the DeCavalcante crime family's acting boss (acting on behalf of Giovanni Riggi) before becoming an FBI informant in 2003. Elements of Sam DeCavalcante were also added to Tony Soprano.
- Corrado "Junior" Soprano was based on Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi, who became boss of the DeCavalcante crime family after Sam DeCavalcante stepped down in 1982.
No Name Given: Tony is seen on dates and in bed several times with a blond, Scandinavian flight attendant who is never referred to by name and always credited as "Miss Reykjavik."
Nominal Hero: Tony Soprano is a con artist, a thug, a womanizer, a thief, a murderer, an extortionist, and an adulterer. But the things separating him from a Villain Protagonist are his genuine love for his family, kindness to his friends, occasional pangs of guilt and moments of vulnerability, and the fact that his friends (and enemies) are even worse than he is. It actually makes him seem like a milder case of the trope... and then he loses much of it by Season 6B and the finale.
Non-Actor Vehicle: Steve Van Zandt is primarily a musician. Silvio was his first acting role (it gets somewhat resumed in Lilyhammer). Van Zandt also served as a music consultant for the show and picked songs for the soundtrack from time to time.
Non-Idle Rich: Despite being a Mafia Princess, Meadow works for a time as a social worker: hardly good pay, and you work with the poor.
Nostalgia Ain't Like It Used to Be: A running theme. Tony often laments that the then-current Mafia (the late 90s/early 00s) is nothing like it used to be. He imagines the mob in the days of his father (mid to late 70s), picturing loyal mobsters who would never turn state's evidence and instead just take their prison sentences like "real men", as a period where the mob was "honorable" and well respected by the community. Flashbacks indicate that if anything, his father's day was just as bad or even worse. Uncle Junior, in turn, misses the good ol' days of the 1950's, though Tony is actually savvy enough to point out how ridiculous that notion is. The very clear implication is that mob figures are fundamentally empty and unhappy men, lamenting a non-existent Golden Age where they assume they would have been more successful — the mobsters in the 50's probably talked about the good ol' days of Prohibition in the 20's and 30's.
Nostalgia Filter: A common theme is various gangsters missing the good old days, when the Mafia had more power, men were more honorable and acted like "the strong, silent type". The flashbacks we see make it clear that men like Johnny Boy and Junior were as bad, probably worse, than the current generation.
The Nothing After Death: The last season in particular. The finale, if one interpretation is to be believed.
Not Afraid to Die: Ariel in "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" is willing to die before he hands over a 50% stake in his business to his father-in-law, much to Tony's exacerbation. Ariel considers the threat of a Crippling Castration a Fate Worse than Death, however...
Not in the Face!: Pussy resorts to this before being killed.
Not Now, Kiddo: Chris gets this occasionally, an important one when he — long-time Captain by then — brings a serious feud he has with Paulie only to be nagged by Tony for the interruption.
Not That Kind of Doctor: In "Marco Polo", a revered (and rather snooty) erudite named Dr. Russ Fegoli attends the 75th birthday of Carmella's father Hugh. Tony, upon meeting him:
Tony: A doctor in the house, huh? That’s good ‘cause someone usually goes down at these things.
Mary: He's just joking!
Fegoli: Unfortunately, my doctorate is in International Affairs.
Tony: So your a doctor like Kissinger’s a doctor?
Fegoli: Yes.

O - P

Obfuscating Insanity: Old mafia widow Livia Soprano engineers a hit on her son Tony, and though she is definitely somewhat senile, it's heavily implied that she's playing it up to give herself some plausible deniability after the plan fails.
Oblivious to Hints: Robert Wegler, a school official Carmela is having an affair with, calls her for sexy talk when Tony is standing a few feet away in the kitchen. He ignores some pretty obvious brush-off attempts on her part.
Off on a Technicality: After Dr. Melfi is raped, her rapist is immediately arrested and then set free on a technicality. In the end, the doctor chooses to allow him to remain a Karma Houdini rather than call in some Soprano Justice.
Off the Wagon:
- Chris relapses several times over the course of the series.
- Vito starts eating unhealthy food and smoking again after going on the run. He also stops ordering "hot water with lemon" and goes back to coffee. Part of the problem is that he falls in love with a short-order cook and orders big, unhealthy breakfasts to spend time with him.
Offing the Mouth: While Jackie and two accomplices are robbing the Pontecorvo poker game at gunpoint, dealer Sunshine heckles them in an attempt to make them leave. Jackie shoots him, which mostly seems to be an act of panic.
Offing the Offspring: Tony's mother tried to do this.
Offscreen Inertia:
- The ending of the series. Complete with soundtrack.
- Uncle Junior gets his hand stuck in the drain of the kitchen sink. Near the end of the episode, we discover that Uncle Junior never got his hand unstuck, and has been standing in the kitchen for an entire day.
Oh, Crap!: Many, many times.
- Applies frequently when someone knows they are about to die.
- Paulie and Chris, when they realize Valery is more than they bargained for and again when they realize they are lost in The Pine Barrens.
- David Scatino, when Tony confronts him in his office to collect.
- Vito, when he sees Phil Leotardo in his hotel room.
- Adriana zones out while Sil drives her across the state to a hospital to see her fiancé—and has an Oh, Crap! when the car stops in the middle of the woods, and she realizes what the drive was really for.
- Paulie's reaction when he realizes he's just ordered Tony Soprano's potential future son-in-law to clean dog mess off his tires.
Once a Season:
- At some point in the season, Tony will walk to the front of his house in his bathrobe to pick up the newspaper, usually in the first episode.
- One episode per season to showcase Tony's dream sequences.
- In every season, even seasons where his storyline is not particularly prominent, everything will stop so we can focus on Christopher. Other characters receive episodes featuring them prominently but most of these episodes focus almost solely on Christopher's development or he is at least most central to the storyline:
  - Season 1: "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti"
  - Season 2:" D-Girl" and to a certain extent "Full Leather Jacket"
  - Season 3: Fortunate Son
  - Season 4: This one's debatable but the season premiere and "The Strong Silent Type" are the prime candidates.
  - Season 5: "Long Term Parking"
  - Season 6 part 1: "The Ride"
  - Season 6 part 2: "Walk Like a Man"
One-Steve Limit:
- Completely averted, repeatedly. A lot of strange nicknames made up for it, though.
- Even the nicknames start to overlap, though... In the pilot, there is some consternation when rumors get around that Uncle Junior wants to kill "Big Pussy" — one of Tony's right-hand men, and not "Little Pussy" — one of Junior's.
- The two Tonys, Soprano and Blundetto, were referred to as "Tony Uncle Johnny" and "Tony Uncle Al" as children, later simplified as Tony A. and Tony B.
- Also subverted. Tony and his son have the same first name, but the latter is always called A.J. to prevent confusion.
- The name "Jason" has to take the cake for most common among satellite characters. You have Jason La Penna, Jason Blundetto, Jason Barone, the "two Jasons" Gervasi and Parisi, and Lorraine Calluzo's younger boyfriend Jason.
- Tony worries Uncle Junior might be going senile when Junior mentions meeting a long-dead friend earlier that day, and Junior has to angrily clarify that he meant Jr., not Sr.
Opinion-Changing Dream: Several characters have opinion-changing dreams. Tony has one about Big Pussy which finally forces him to confront the truth that he had betrayed them, and has another after being seriously wounded that lasts several episodes.
Outdated Outfit: Tony Blundetto went to prison in The '80s. It shows.
Overly Long Gag: Paulie's habit of repeating his jokes is a funnier quirk on its own.
Pac Man Fever: "Meadowlands" has Tony coming in to find A.J. playing Mario Kart 64 and then joins him in the race. We get the correct sounds, there is a cartridge in the Nintendo 64 and they consistently stay on the same track (Luigi Circuit); A.J. does a bit of button-mashing, but not too egregious. A.J. does mention to Tony that he should "watch out for the ghosts" and, while ghosts are one of the weaker items (and a non-avoidable one), they do at least exist in the game. To really nitpick, they complete all three laps of Luigi Circuit in some 20 seconds (though the time shown on the screen shows a more realistic 2 minutes 27 seconds)! All in all a pretty faithful representation of Mario Kart on TV. Oh, did I mention that Tony holds the N64 controller one-handed, using the central grip, only moving the analog stick?
Parking Garage: Dr. Melfi is raped in one.
Papa Wolf: All of the mobsters get very violent when their children are threatened. It's also an enforced trope in the mobster world, as mobsters are expected to get murderous when their children are in any way threatened. Janice criticizes her Gentle Giant husband Bobby for not beating up a carnival ride owner for endangering their daughter, causing Bobby to seek him out and deliver a beating after the fact. At other times, mobsters will use real or perceived threats to their children as an excuse to make business moves or take out rivals.
Parents as People:
- Tony, Silvio, and Artie are understandably outraged that their daughters' soccer coach was having an affair with one of the other girls on the team.
- Tony and Carmela were incensed that Meadow, threw a party at Livia's house. To be fair, the house was utterly trashed, and to make matters worse, ecstasy, Ketamine, and alcohol were found at the scene.
- Tony and Carmela also genuinely love Meadow and A.J., and Carmela especially tries to do what's best for them (such as getting Meadow out of the life), although they range from ineffective to aggressive, although it's still pretty impressive given that Tony was raised by Livia.
Passed-Over Promotion:
- One of the factors that trigger a power struggle between Tony and Junior, acting boss and nominal boss respectively.
- Tony does this to Ralph, who was a veteran of his crew and a big earner but obnoxious and erratic; he gives a captaincy to Gigi, who was from another crew, but also more docile and easier to control.
  - Junior lightly reproves Tony for this move, but then admits Tony didn't really have any good options for the captaincy at that point.
- Both Silvio Dante and Patsy Parisi feel severely slighted when Christopher Moltisanti is declared temporary captain of Paulie Walnuts' crew, and unofficially Tony's successor. In retaliation, they conspire to undermine Christopher's authority and torpedo his endeavors.
Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Played with.
- Tony decides against his initial feelings during the Blundetto crisis. His crew is uneasy, but Tony is a bit shielded, as only Silvio manifests the opposition face to face. It's complicated, as violent pressure from New York is a major consideration too.
- Tony decides against his personal criteria during the Vito situation in season 6; his soldiers and captains are openly rebellious about it, and he finally gives the go-ahead basically because of peer pressure. A moot dilemma in the end because Phil beats him to the punch.
- Averted by A.J., who befriends some gangster wannabes who idolize him for being the son of the big man and make him an accessory to some violent extortions, but he is unaffected.
Percussive Maintenance: In "Commendatori", Paulie Walnuts deals with a recalcitrant DVD player with what his Army Signal Corps training referred to as a "brogan adjustment". It works about as well as you'd expect a Paulie Walnuts plan to work.
Perilous Marriage Proposal: Christopher's proposal to Adriana is bad for both of them, though ultimately much worse for her. It already takes place in perilous circumstances; she's already broken up with him for his physical and emotional abuse. Her mother warns her that if she takes Christopher back, she won't be able to come back when it (inevitably) goes wrong again, but she says yes anyway. All of that happens, and then right after the proposal, Christopher gets betrayed and shot (though he does recover with Adriana caring for him). This also turns out to foreshadow exactly how bad her engagement to Christopher would be for Adriana, which ultimately led to her being recruited as an FBI informant because she was Christopher's fiancée, suffering years of mental anguish, being increasingly physically abused as he descended into drug addiction, and being betrayed by Christopher and murdered when he found out she was an informant, all the while holding onto her Tragic Dream that they would get married.
Perverted Sniffing: In "Second Opinion", newly "made" man Christopher receives a surprise, late-night visit at his apartment from his immediate superior in the crime family Paulie Walnuts and Patsy Parisi. The two gangsters comb through Chris and his girlfriend Adriana's belongings to cherry-pick Christopher's stolen swag. Chris catches Paulie taking a mighty sniff of a pair of panties from Adriana's lingerie drawer.
Pet the Dog: Literally. One of Tony's few virtues is a love of animals. It was used against him via Melfi's fellow shrink friends, who point out that Tony's empathy for animals is also a sign of being a cold-blooded monster since animals often mean more to such people than humans.
Picky Eater: In "Members Only," Silvio is unimpressed with Artie's table rolls at Nuovo Vesuvio.
Silvio: Where'd he get this bread? The bread museum?
Pictorial Letter Substitution: A Beretta pistol pointed downwards serves as the "r" in the show's logo.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything:
- The mobsters all have "legitimate" jobs, which they never show up for, and don't actually work when they do. Getting such "no-show" jobs is an important point during negotiations; the mobsters have to have a legitimate job for tax and medical insurance purposes.
- Christopher is the only one seen regularly earning, but then again, he is a rookie while the rest of the characters we mostly see are bosses and spend most of their time hanging around Bada Bing or Satriales. Explained by the hierarchical system; senior mobsters have their own crews and do mostly managerial work or collections, but do perform delicate tasks or street jobs from time to time — Paulie assaults Columbian drug dealers in Season 6.
- Subverted during an episode after Tony believes the FBI is about to pinch him for executing one of the mooks who shot Christopher. While he doesn't get pinched, Tony's lawyer suggests he clock in at his trash collection company just to create the mask of a "respectable businessman." The job bores Tony to tears and he even develops a rash from the change in routine. So he goes back to hanging out at his restaurant with his crew and everything goes back to normal.
- Begets major plot points later: When Meadow uses her dad to get Finn an allegedly "No Work" job at a construction site, he's not comfortable spending time with the mobsters, so he actually works. And being the young go-getter that he is, he shows up early to see Vito and another man having sex in the parking lot. Later, the man who owns Barone Sanitation dies, and his son (unaware of his father's "arrangements") tries to sell, threatening Paulie's legitimate income cover. Paulie viciously attacks him.
Playing Sick: Junior, feigning dementia to avoid criminal prosecution. Invoked and then twisted, as Junior is really going senile.
Plot Hole: In Season 1, Livia's house is sold by Tony and she is told about it in no uncertain terms, an event which plays a major part in making her angry and colluding with Junior to take Tony out. Come Season 2 and the house is only "on the market", and eventually inhabited by Janice and Livia again.
Police Are Useless: Apparently there is no law enforcement in the state of New Jersey. Tony and his crew are endlessly worrying about the FBI, but there's never a hint of state and local cops investigating them for their various crimes. It's hinted and shown that the Mafia has influence and leverage over the civil servants who can control the local police (e.g. Zellman) and some cops are on the Mafia's payroll; Bobby mentions local police as one of his sources of information. Season 1 explores this with Vin Makazian, the detective who feeds information to Tony, and yet Tony treats him with contempt and not as a valuable asset.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Well, pretty much all of the male gangster characters are quite politically incorrect and are (obviously) professional criminals. Phil might count in particular, as he is a more homophobic/generally unpleasant person than Tony (although not necessarily much eviler). Nicely illustrated during a conversation about Vito's strayed son.
Phil: I guess the turd doesn't fall far from the faggot ass.
Tony (quietly disgusted): That's beautifully put, but you are family, right?
- An aversion exists with Pasquale "Patsy" Parisi. When it comes out that Vito is gay, while he laughs at some of the jokes, he makes it clear that he is the only person in the family that has no problem with homosexuality.
- Notably, most of the characters are apparently self-aware enough to know that they lack N-Word Privileges and tend to use variations of the Italian mulignan (from mulignana, lit. eggplant) or ditsoon (from tizzun, lit. charcoal). One very odd case is Richie Aprille, who prefers the Unusual Euphemism Nigerian.
Porn Stash: When the FBI raids the Sopranos' compound, the main concern of the Soprano children is the discovery of A.J.'s computer, full of porn.
Postmodernism: Very often, almost Once per Episode the show features some classic movies and songs relevant to the plot, and references to other fictional works are common. Tony himself is a movie buff with a great VHS and DVD collection and at one point the roots of gangster cinema are discussed, including the The Public Enemy (1931), the film cited by Creator David Chase as one of his major influences building the main characters.
Posthumous Character: "Johnny Boy" Soprano (a.k.a. Tony's father) plays an important role in several characters' backstories and appears in numerous flashbacks, but has already been dead for years by the time the series begins. Jackie Aprile, while alive at the beginning, dies of cancer after a few episodes and only a few minutes of screen time, but continues to be talked about by his friends, family, and associates throughout the series.
Pragmatic Villainy: Displayed numerous times; the level-headed mobsters know when to avoid high-profile crimes, because being flashy is bad for business. One specific example has Tony berating Richie for selling drugs in the garbage routes, but only because it will draw the attention of the Federal Government, not out of any moral qualms. An issue explored in other works of the genre alluded to in-universe and Truth in Television.
Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
- One of the most iconic instances of this trope on this show comes from Tony to Matt Bevilaqua: "'Cause that sugarless motherfucker, it's the last fucking drink you're ever gonna have."
- Silvio and Chris taunt the government informant Jimmy Altieri before shooting him.
Silvio: Why don't you call for help in your radio mike? You fuckin' rat.
Jimmy: Mother of god.
Silvio: What's the matter? Not wearin' one tonight?
Christopher: Nah. He didn't have time to put on anything decent.
- Gigi Cestone before killing Philly Spoons: "Here YOU go, you big mouth fuck! Fuck!"
- Silvio to Adrianna: "Come on, come on! Fuckin' cunt!"
Pretty in Mink: Several ladies wear furs.
Product Placement:
- If characters aren't drinking alcohol at the dinner table, they'll almost invariably have Coca-Cola or Diet Coke.
- Tony frequently fetches and drinks Tropicana orange juice from the fridge. He even argues with Carmela that he prefers the variety with "some pulp." In some scenes, a carton is simply sitting out on the kitchen counter.
- One must wonder whether Mercedes-Benz paid for the season three plot line where Tony has an affair with a Benz saleswoman. The cars are prominently featured and the company is brought up frequently as a high-end brand.
- In season 5, Tony buys Tony B a new cell phone. One of his contacts asks, "Is that the new Motorola?" Tony replies, "Yeah, it's supposed to be the best." When Tony calls Tony B, he makes a pretense of asking about how the phone is working. Tony says that the signal is great even though he's in his mother's basement. What a phone!
- Tony buys AJ a Nissan SUV and crows about how it's top of the line and has Nissan's "triple safety philosophy.
- Tony spends a whole scene fawning over Johnny Sack's new Maserati, with Sack supplying a variety of technical details about the car.
- The pilot plugs laserdisc. In one of the most shocking betryals of the series, the next episode pugs DVD.
Professional Butt-Kisser: Paulie is a servile brown noser who shows his true allegiance the minute his boss Tony gets indisposed.
Protection Racket: Played with in the final season. One of the family's minor protected businesses folds and is replaced with a Brand X Starbucks. Patsy Parisi and one of his guys go in to try this routine on the new manager. The manager recognizes what they are doing, but in an almost sympathetic tone he points out that the company is a billion-dollar multinational with complete insurance so they won't care — or even notice — if the place is vandalized. What's more, every single bean is in the computer so he can't even cave under personal threats, since if he started skimming for the mob he'd be fired immediately and a new manager brought in. The two mobsters leave, complaining about the state of modern business and how tough things have gotten for 'the little guy'. The episode ends with Tony Soprano himself selling one of his buildings in Newark to Jamba Juice who push out the current tenant to install a franchise, and when Patsy learns about that he wonders what is even happening to the city.
Psychopathic Manchild: Several characters are debatable examples, but Paulie in particular exemplifies this trope. He has the petty self-centeredness and impulsivity of a spoiled child and the callous disregard for human life of a stone-cold murderer.
Punch a Wall: In "Whitecaps", after Carmela reveals to Tony that she has been secretly in love with Furio for months. He then punches the wall behind her several times in anger.
Put on a Bus:
- Finn, who put himself on a bus to San Francisco because he discovered Vito was gay.
- Also Furio, because of the Unresolved Sexual Tension between him and Carmela.
- Also Tony puts Janice on a bus to Seattle, after she shoots her fiance, Richie Aprile. Tony's solace is short-lived; she comes back 'for good' on a plane (that Tony has to pay for) the next season... two episodes later.
- Lots of averted examples. Johnny Sack managed to last for another season after being sent to jail, Rosalie and Angie appeared throughout most of the series despite their husbands being whacked fairly early on, and Junior made several appearances in his psychiatric hospital.
Put on a Prison Bus: In season five, Feech La Manna is released after nearly twenty years in prison. As a sign of respect and as a reward for not snitching, Tony allows him to collect money from various illegal activities. However, Feech stills sees Tony as a kid, completely ignores Tony's status as the boss, and begins to cause headaches. First, he breaks the arm of landscaper Salvatore Vitro to force him to give up some of his routes. Vitro is forced to go to Tony for help and ultimately suffers enough financial difficulty that he has to pull his son from college and landscape both Tony and Johnny Sack's large homes for free. Feech apologizes to Tony and pledges his respect, but when he hears Dr. Ira Fried speak of his daughter's lavish, expensive wedding he organizes a mass hijacking of the guests' expensive cars, causing more headaches for Tony. Because he cannot have such a respected gangster killed, Tony has to resort to alternative means to get him out of the way. To do this, he has Chris and Benny trick Feech into storing stolen plasma televisions in his garage, then they tip off his parole officer. The last scene of Feech in the series is him on the bus to prison, catching as much of the outside world as he can before he returns to prison for the rest of his life.
Pyrrhic Victory: In the second half of the last season, an open Mob War finally erupts between the DiMeo and Lupertazzi crime families. It ends when Phil's men lose faith in his leadership and allow Tony to assassinate their boss. However, Tony lost three of his closest subordinates in the fight, one of whom turned government informant and agreed to testify against Tony. With a severe loss in loyal manpower and a probable indictment hanging over his head, as well as worsening personal family troubles in the midst, it can't really be said that Tony "won".

Q - R

The Queenpin: In season 2, Tony and several of his associates go to Italy to forge new relations with the Neapolitan Camorra. However, The Don turns out be a senile old man and his daughter Annalisa is the one who is really in charge, and remains so throughout the rest of the series. She explains to Tony that the rest of her criminal brothers and cousins were all killed in feuds or targeted by the authorities, but that for these Italian mobsters obeying a woman boss is like obeying their mother.
Rail Enthusiast: Nice-guy mobster Bobby Baccalieri has a big interest in trains and can be seen building and playing with model trains in his garage (sometimes while dressed as a conductor). He gets made fun of for this hobby and he is eventually killed while buying a model train at a hobby shop.
Rambling Old Man Monologue: During a period while Tony has had a falling out with Dr. Melfi, he briefly tries to enlist Hesh as a surrogate, but it doesn't work since everything Tony tries to confide just gets Hesh started on a rambling anecdote.
Rambunctious Italian: Tony Soprano is an aggressive, belligerent, and short-tempered Italian-American.
Rape as Drama: Melfi is raped in a rather disturbing sequence and later finds out, due to the police screwing up when they arrested the man, that they can't bring charges against him. And then has the misfortune of finding out that her rapist is "Employee of the Month" at a sandwich shop she frequents. Angry, full of rage, and realizing that Tony would easily murder the scumbag rapist, with or without her permission if told about it, Melfi decides to keep what happened to her a secret.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil:
- Jesus Rossi, Melfi's rapist, may be one of the least sympathetic characters in the whole series.
- It's worth noting that the main characters, as despicable and morally bankrupt as they are, were not known to be rapists and considered it to be a reprehensible crime. The only semi-regular character who is hinted to be sexually abusive is Richie Aprile, who is regarded as a hateful prick even by mob standards.
- Phil Leotardo, one of the most depraved mobsters in the series, attempted to have a rookie FBI agent gang raped and beaten. This is one of the reasons that Harris decides to team up with Tony to take Phil down.
Rasputinian Death: The Russian mobster from "Pine Barrens". After seemingly getting his throat crushed, he turns out to still be alive. After seemingly getting shot in the head, he simply disappears into the Pine Barrens. Paulie even compares him to Rasputin, and we never find out what happened to him or if he even died of his injuries.
Rated M for Manly: Sex, drugs, violence, male bonding, fatherhood, and diatribes about the emasculated state of contemporary Western society abound. The show is a deconstruction and frequently subverts itself, though, by reminding viewers that most of the "manly men" in question are in fact morally bankrupt human beings whose inability to express themselves in any way other than aggression makes both them and their families miserable.
Reaction Shot: One explanation for the abrupt cut-to-black ending is that the final scene builds up a pattern of reaction shots establishing that we are seeing Tony being whacked, from Tony's point of view.
Reality Has No Soundtrack: The series generally avoids non-diegetic music. When it does appear, it's always very noticeable, and the most dramatic scenes tend to be music-free.
Reality Is Unrealistic: In contrast to typical Hollywood portrayals, the experience of being shot in the head at close range would in fact be very much like "cutting to black" — the bullet would pierce the brain before it could process the sound of the gunshot.
Real Life Writes the Plot:
- Nancy Marchand (Livia Soprano) died between seasons. The writers gave her a final scene with Tony, cut from her previous work with him. Most jarring was that Livia's lines are pretty generic with Tony's dialogue made to fit.
- Tony Sirico (Paulie Gualtieri) underwent back surgery around season 4 and was thrown in a jail to reduce his appearances. His role was fully restored once the actor recovered.
- Vito's weight loss was written into the plot due to actor Joseph R. Gannascoli's actual weight loss. It's made surprisingly tragic.
A Real Man Is a Killer: Implied by a spiteful Tony when he assigns Bobby a mission to pop his cherry.
Real Men Wear Pink:
- Bobby Baccala and his love of toy trains, though it goes toward characterizing him as something of a Manchild who was unfortunately born into the Mafia life.
- Furio's Eurotrashy silk shirts, due to being a mobster raised in Italy.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: During his intervention, Christopher responds to the criticism of his drug habit by calling out Tony, Sil, and Paulie for their own screw-ups.
Red Herring Mole: Subverted. Tony suspects that Big Pussy, one of his oldest friends in the mob, has become an informant for the Feds. After Paulie tries to confirm that Pussy is carrying a wire by taking him to a sauna, Pussy refuses to take his clothes off and skips town. Tony discovers that Jimmy Altieri (who also fits the physical description he was given) has been working with the Feds and has him killed with Uncle Junior's approval while worrying that Paulie killed Pussy on his own initiative. Pussy later returns, now actively working as an informant behind Tony's back, before he too is found out and killed by Tony, Paulie, and Sal.
Redemption Rejection:
- Phil Leotardo. After nearly dying from a heart attack and crying in front of Tony when he gave him advice at the end of Part 1 of season 6, it seemed like he was finally going to change his ways. And then Part 2 came out.
- This is one of the reasons why Tony killed Christopher. Despite going to rehab and getting his act together, Christopher still did drugs from time to time, which resulted in the car crash with him and Tony.
- Tony takes a gentler approach to life after a near-death experience; this niceness doesn't last long.
Red Herring Twist: During a food poisoning-induced dream sequence, Tony encounters a talking Red Herring that lays down some pretty hard truths Tony does not want to admit.
Reformed, but Rejected: Chris's sobriety makes him drift apart from his pals, as the Bada Bing and other workplaces are a source of temptation. The others resent him for this. He carefully explains in an A.A. meeting how his sobriety hinders him professionally. Very sad how his almost unbearable struggle and related problems, combined with some disrespectful jokes Paulie cracks about him and his daughter, make him relapse, eventually leading to his fatal car crash with Tony.
Relationship Reveal: Christopher has a new girlfriend, Kaisha; he tells his boss Tony that he's never brought her around because he doesn't want to deal with the racism of the other Mafiosi. A couple of scenes later, we realize he was lying; his girlfriend is actually Julianna, the hot realtor that Tony has been unsuccessfully trying to hook up with.
Released to Elsewhere: Appears to be played straight with Tony, though it's subverted in that his father actually does send the dog to live with a nice family.
Tony: Father told me he took him to live on a farm.
Bobby: That's what they always say. That same farm must have 17 billion dogs on it. Dogshit up to the rafters.
Remember the New Guy?:
- Ralph is in Miami during the first two seasons before he shows up in Jersey.
- Richie Aprile, Tony B, and Phil Leotardo, who were in jail since '83. The Jersey crew avoiding their pinched guys (Paulie in season 4) is internally coherent; the big boss Ecole DiMeo is "a guest of the government" and he is rarely alluded to, if ever, after the first episodes. Lampshaded when Bobby Jr. mentions that he's never heard of Tony B.
- Avoided with "Feech" LaManna, released together with Tony B and Phil Leotardo at the beginning of season 5, but who was frequently mentioned and referred to in season 3, with Ralph recounting how "Feech's" card game was hit and inspiring his stepson to attempt to reenact it. The same anecdote is replayed once "Feech" is released.
Resignations Not Accepted:
- Eugene Pontecorvo requests a resignation from the mob to retire to Florida after getting a hefty inheritance from his aunt. Tony brings up omerta and disallows Pontecorvo's retirement. It also turns out that Eugene is an FBI informant, and they also disallow his retirement, insisting that he continue to spy on the mob.
- Tony tells Dr. Melfi on a few occasions that for a guy in his position, the only way out is prison or a bullet in the head.
- In "Another Toothpick," Bobby Bacala's father is called out of retirement to carry out a hit.
  Bobby: I'm worried about my father - he can't do this! He's been retired seven years!
  Junior: What's this we're in, the Navy?
  - Later in the episode:
  Junior: You choose this life, it comes with responsibility. No one knows that better than your old man.
Retired Monster: How some of the older members of the mob end their careers - the lucky ones. Then again, Uncle Junior's gradual descent into dementia, eventually rendering him a frail, senile husk of his former self condemned to spend the remainder of his life in a dank state-run facility unable to even recognize his family or recall his own accomplishments is one of the most depressing and haunting plotlines in the show.
Retirony: Tony points out to Christopher a man enjoying his retirement party in the nearby restaurant as being the Corrupt Cop who murdered his father. When an understandably incensed Christopher asks him why he's only just now being told this, Tony explains the man has been useful. Until tonight, of course.
Revealing Hug: Chris and Tony — whose relation is falling over — seem to cordially embrace during a baptism, but without any words, their chilling stares powerfully convey a primal fear and a bitter disappointment.
Revealing Injury: Tony Blundetto is identified as the killer of Joey Peeps after witnesses claimed Peeps' killer ran away with a limp. Blundetto received the injury when Peeps' car ran over his foot.
Riddle for the Ages:
- What makes "Pine Barrens" such a well-known episode. What the hell did happen to that Russian mobster?
- What happened to Tony in "Made in America" after there was a Smash to Black? According to Matt Servitto, the scene was at least meant to be less ambiguous with his character coming out of the bathroom and walking towards Tony. Still doesn't explain if he was going to kill him or if he just wanted to talk to him.
Ripped from the Headlines: The dynamics between Tony, Phil, and agent Harris in the last episode are identical to the DeVecchio FBI case. link.
Road Apples: Ralph purchases a racehorse. His mistress, Valentina La Paz, tricks him into stepping into horse manure; partly as a prank to make her and the others laugh and partly because according to superstition, accidentally stepping in horse dung is a sign of good luck.
Robbing the Mob Bank:
- In "46 Long", Christopher and Brendan Filone start hijacking trucks. The owner of the trucks pays Junior for protection and Junior orders them to stop, but their need to feed their drug addictions forces them to continue. After a driver is accidentally killed, Junior orders retaliation against them. Brendan is killed in his bathtub while Christopher is subject to a mock execution.
- In "Amour Fou", Jackie Aprile Jr. and his idiot stoner friends rob a mob poker game, trying to replicate the legendary stunt that marked out Jackie Sr. and Tony for greatness. Unfortunately, they mess it up, wound Furio (a made man), and kill a bystander, and Jackie's stepdad doesn't shield them the way Tony's father and uncle did, and they are swiftly killed in retaliation.
Rogue Juror: Implied when Uncle Junior is on trial. Some of June's associates find one of the jurors (buying candy for his son, no less) and gently inform him that they know where he lives. In the next episode, the jury is hung with a single holdout, leading to a mistrial — and that poor juror is hated by all the others.
Rule of Three: Alluded to by Tony regarding his close encounters with death, after the second one.
Running Gag: Silvio's Al Pacino impression.
Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: While the New Jersey home team is not made of Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters, Furio from the old country is introduced as a fiercer type of enforcer and the antagonist mobsters from New York have an even nastier vibe, especially Phil Leotardo. Several strategic hits are outsourced to Professional Killers from Italy or to black Gangbangers to maintain Plausible Deniability.

Sad Clown:
- Tony describes himself as one, in the Stepford Smiler sense; putting on a happy, joking face to his family and friends while keeping his pain locked away. His claims — contested by Dr. Melfi — come across more as self-pitying than anything else, given his behavior throughout the series.
- Reversed with Christopher's death; for Tony, a big liability is 'gone' and he is very happy about that, but he has to put on a sad grimace in front of the families. Eventually, he suddenly just goes to Las Vegas to enjoy himself.
Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: Gangsta Rap exec Massive Genius expresses (in "A Hit Is a Hit") his admiration for the Cosa Nostra by saying he had watched The Godfather "like 200 times."
- Ralph is obsessed with the movie Gladiator, notes he's seen it many, many times, and quotes from it endlessly. In a bit of Hypocritical Humor, the other mobsters roll their eyes at him even though they do the same thing with mafia movies. AJ shares Ralph's fondness for the movie, at least.
Screams Like a Little Girl: Fat Dom's voice noticeably goes up an octave or so after Carlo stabs him with a cooking knife.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
- Paulie resents Chris for playing the blood relation card too many times, but he is not above enforcing the trope shamelessly; his attitude towards Finn takes a radical turn once he learns he is Meadow's boyfriend.
- Carmela implicitly uses the nefarious power of her surname to grant Meadow admission to Columbia.
- Tony and his pals were given a free pass after robbing the cards game of Feech LaManna because his father Johnny Boy Soprano was an influential capo.
Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Only implied. Given the realistic approach of the show, Tony making unilateral life and death decisions is a departure from the Mafia code, as a high-level sit-down is required before the liquidation of a made-man gets approved.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Matush when he hears a gunshot during Jackie Jr.'s card game heist. And then later, Jackie himself, who steals a car and leaves his friend Dino to get slaughtered.
Secret Identity: Tony often conceals his real name to 'civilian' clerks and receptionists. This backfires soundly when he tries to use one of his usual aliases (Mr. Spears) with a new psychiatrist — aware of Tony's identity and line of work — who is Genre Savvy, as he had seen Analyze This. Tony tries to argue that he is Wrong Genre Savvy as "Analyze This" is a comedy, but gets rejected anyway.
Self-Censored Release: The creators made sure to be prepared to bleach their own underpants for syndication. They would frequently record alternate versions of scenes where a nude character (often the strippers in the club) would be in bikinis or lingerie, and occasionally a scene would be recorded with softer dialogue to avoid Hong Kong Dub later.
Serious Business: Junior ends his relationship with his girlfriend (who he quite genuinely loves) and comes within a hair's breadth of physically abusing her after he realizes that she told her friends he was performing oral sex on her. He told her not to, and she tried to keep it a secret, but she let it slip, and it ended up trickling down to Tony, who used it to mock his uncle. This utterly baffles Junior's poor girlfriend, who can't understand why it's such a big deal. It doesn't help that Junior's explanation is that the people he hangs out with consider a man going down a woman evidence that he's actually gay.
Sexposition: There are numerous scenes where The Mafia is discussing important plot points in the Bada Bing strip club. Although if it's something really important or incriminating, they'll take the conversation into the backroom instead.
Sexy Priest: Father Intintola, who also develops feelings for Carmela and needs to beat a hasty retreat out of town after Carmella accuses him of using his position to gain intimacy and gifts from female parishioners.
"Shaggy Dog" Story:
- The show sets up an intense antagonism between Tony and his mother Livia. This never progresses beyond Livia making vicious insults at her children at every possible opportunity and making Tony's life more emotionally exhausting, outside of a short-lived attempt to manipulate Junior into killing Tony, which fails. Tony attempts to send her far away with stolen plane tickets, but this fails when airport security discovers they're stolen. Then she dies suddenly and off-camera. This was a case of real life circumstances preventing a subplot's resolution; it would have continued with Livia testifying against Tony in court regarding the airplane tickets, but her actress died before they could conclude it, leaving the storyline with the airline tickets awkwardly forgotten.
- In the first half of Season 3, the FBI goes to great effort to install a very well-hidden wiretap in the Soprano home's basement (in the form of an unused table lamp which they swapped out). They spend several episodes taping Tony's conversations in a nearby unmarked van, but ultimately learn nothing incriminating before Meadow takes the lamp to college to furnish her dorm room, anticlimactically resolving the subplot without any payoff.
- The FBI's numerous informants in the DiMeo Crime Family ultimately amount to zero worthwhile information on Tony by the end of the series. Jimmy, Big Pussy, Adriana, and Jack are discovered and killed before they could provide anything remotely useful, Eugene kills himself to avoid a Morton's Fork situation, and, most frustratingly, Ray Curto dies of a stroke mid-conversation with his handler right as he was agreeing to testify some damning evidence in a murder case against Tony.
- Carmela and Furio's budding romantic attraction. They never manage to act on it, and eventually Furio flees back to his native Italy offscreen once it becomes too strong to ignore. Carmela and Tony's marriage does get strained shortly after, but it has more to do with Irina calling Carmela to let her know about Tony's affairs with her and Svetlana, and they reconcile afterwards. Furio's fate is never touched upon either.
- Tony and Carmela work to help their kids become as successful and try and keep them away from the criminal side of their family whenever possible. Ultimately, they failed with Meadow, who gradually becomes more accepting of Tony's status as a mobster, repeatedly defending his lifestyle, dropping out of medical school to become a white-collar crime lawyer, and marrying the son of one of Tony's soldiers, much to Carmela's dismay. By comparison, A.J. is slightly better off; although he does not become remotely successful, struggles with depression, flounders aimlessly for years, and even tries to kill himself once, he still has a small hope of escaping his family's legacy.
- Janice continuously struggles to escape the abusive shadow of her mother, even after Livia's death, and this has numerous ups and downs, as she jumps between different mob boyfriends, attempts therapy, and even becomes born-again at one point. This is all for naught, all three of her partners meet grisly ends, she backtracks on all her personality developments, and becomes just as vicious and manipulative as her mother was. Even worse, Bobby's kids are now stuck with her as their guardian, potentially allowing her to pass on the chain of abuse into the future.
- After Vito's murder, his widow begs Tony for $100,000 so she can move to Maine and give her children a chance at a better life, away from the legacy of their late father. After initially refusing, Tony eventually relents, but then gambles away the $100,000 he was going to give on a bad bet, and instead has Vito's son sent to vicious boot camp where corporeal punishment is allowed. Basically, the whole thing was just hammering in to the audience what an awful person Tony really is.
- In the beginning of Season 5, a number of older capos are released after completing lengthy jail sentences. One of these is Feech, who quickly becomes entitled to have a bigger slice of the pie due to rotting for twenty years without snitching. He's built up a potential challenge to Tony's leadership, but Tony quickly recognizes the threat Feech may become in the future has tricks him into being sent back to jail by the forth episode without him becoming a real issue. This is another storyline that was cut short due to the actor's health issues, as Feech's actor had trouble remembering lines (and was later diagnosed with Alzheimer's).
Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story: Numerous characters have personal stories which end in this sort of fashion, where they go through endless ups and downs, struggling and making hard decisions, only to not only end up moot in the end, but worse off than when they started (usually in the most final way possible, or possibly even worse than that). Although figuring out who exactly is a "hero" in this story can be difficult.
- A lot of the early conflict is in regards to Uncle Junior and his nephew Tony over being the leader of the family after Jackie Sr's death, when Junior realizes his boss status is basically in name only. It ends being moot when he's placed under house arrest by the FBI on unrelated charges, rendering him a non-threat to Tony, and then even more so when he develops dementia and is left to rot in a psychiatric facility, abandoned by everyone he's ever known. Eventually, he forgets that he ever even was a mobster or who Tony is.
- Much of Christopher's story involves him attempting to get respect from Tony and the other capos as a made man, to settle down with a family, and to kick his debilitating addiction to substances. Although he does get a wife and daughter, he fails every one of these goals by the end, due to repeatedly going Off the Wagon as a result of his impulsive decisions and inferiority complex. Eventually, even Tony, the one person who repeatedly gave Christopher far more chances than he deserved, loses respect for Chris when realizes his drug addiction makes him a danger to everyone around him, and finishes him off after Chris is badly injured in a car accident (due to driving high).
- Adriana, Christopher's girlfriend and later fiancee, who wants to settle down and start a family with Chris. This is already difficult due to Chris wanting children and Adriana being infertile due to a botched abortion and Chris being a violent addict (more than once beating Adriana and accidentally killing her dog while high), and eventually becomes impossible when Adriana is forced to become an FBI informant or face a long jail sentence. When forced into a difficult decision of either wearing a wire to a meeting with Tony Soprano or going to prison for concealing evidence of a murder, she attempts to choose a third option by confessing being an informant to Chris and going into witness protection together. It doesn't work, Chris reluctantly sides with the family, leading to Adriana's execution.
- Jackie Aprile Jr.'s storyline is attempting to live up to the universal respect and authority of his late father, while Tony attempts to keep him on the straight and narrow on the late Jackie's wishes, away from the criminal side of his family, even allowing Jackie Jr to date his daughter. However, his repeated insistence to command respect from the other capos, dropping out of college, cheating on Meadow, and thinking he's entitled to respect, strains on Tony's patience with him. Eventually, a bungled robbery on a mob card game leaves Tony no choice but to have Jackie whacked, his only legacy having everyone talk about what a moron he was.
- Tony B's story has him getting out of jail, eager to start a new life. His initial attempt to leave his criminal life behind is abandoned when the stress and work of starting up his own honest business leads him to abandon the plot in favour of the easy thrills and quick money that a life of crime afforded him. It quickly goes pear-shaped when he hears the Leotardo brothers murdered his prison buddy, leading Tony B to impulsively murder Billy Leotardo in vengeance. This forces Tony S to kill him despite being family, as Phil made it clear he would stop at nothing to hunt Tony B down and gruesomely torture him to death, risking an all-out Mob War. This attempt to pacify Phil doesn't even work, and is the initial trigger for the eventual all-out war that cripples both the New York and New Jersey crime families.
- J.T. Dolan is a relatively minor character who is roped into helping Chris write a movie script due to being Trapped by Gambling Debts. He's deep in debt and at points addicted to heroin due to the stress, but after the movie comes out, his debt is cancelled, he gets himself clean, and he's back in honest work with no connection to mobsters. Then Chris kills him in a drunken fit of rage one night for basically no reason.
- Vito's story arc begins when he's outed as a homosexual. He goes into hiding in New Hampshire, finds satisfaction in performing good deeds for once, starts a relationship with a handsome man he befriends, and has a chance to leave his criminal life behind. However, he eventually gets bored of his civilian life and comes back to New Jersey to beg Tony for a job in the family out of state. This proves to be a death sentence, Phil discovers Vito has returned to New Jersey, finds his location, and has him brutally beaten to death (and even if Phil hadn't found Vito, Tony would've had to kill him to prevent a Mob War). Even worse, Vito's children are bullied when it comes out in the news that he was gay, the family isn't able to move to Maine like they wanted because Tony gambled the money he was going to give them away, his son is expelled from school for lashing out, and forcibly shipped off to a Military School where corporal punishment is allowed.
- Johnny Sack spent years struggling up the New York family ranks and eventually becomes the boss amidst a Succession Crisis. However, his leadership is short-lived, as he is arrested by the FBI after being indicted by an underling turned informant, he is forced to take a plea bargain to ensure his family isn't left penniless by all his assets being seized, losing him the respect of the other mobsters. Even worse, his reduced sentence is rendered moot when he dies of cancer soon after his sentencing.
- The series starts off with Tony being referred to a psychiatrist, named Dr. Melfi, to deal with his panic attacks, to uncover the root causes, and improve his relationships with his family and other associates, and better himself mentally. While his panic attacks do cease by the end of the series', it can hardly be said that his relationship with his family and associates is any better than at the start of the series, and, if anything, he's a far more violent, detached, and worse person than he was when the sessions started. Dr. Melfi recognizes this fact and cuts Tony off for good in the penultimate episode, seeing him as a lost cause. Then, there's a high possibility Tony is whacked at the end of the last episode.
Shown Their Work: In true Godfather style, Ralph gives pasta-cooking advice to his stepson Jackie. Writer Michael "Christopher Moltisanti" Imperioli learned it from a chef/fellow cast member and advised people (on the commentary track) to try it. It works.
Shout-Out: A staple of the show. Loads and loads of them, and then more. Examples include:
- Tony rates The Godfather Part II above the original and is not very fond of Part III. The gang starts to watch the movie after they steal some DVDs. And of course, there's Sil's famous Michael Corleone impressions...
- In the first season, Christopher is Wrong Genre Savvy and thinks any business-related problem is resolved with violence, bazooka in hand, and More Dakka à la Scarface (1983).
- Junior comes across an episode of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and thinks it's a cheap Made-for-TV Movie about his trial. The resemblance is certainly there.
- A playful one when Johnny Sack, on the day of his daughter's wedding, asks Tony for a professional favor. Christopher casually points out that Tony can't refuse, as the whole thing is identical to the one from The Godfather; Tony corrects him by telling him it's the other way around, the father of the bride is the one who cannot refuse.
- There's another nod to The Godfather when Tony visits an undertaker to discuss Livia's funeral. The undertaker even offers to use "all my powers, all my skills..."
- Ralphie is a fanboy of Gladiator who disregards Spartacus — a recommendation from Chris — as unrealistic, and who reenacts one scene on Georgie's head.
- Tony revers Gary Cooper, "The strong, silent type". Tony seems to blur the lines between reality and fiction with High Noon and the film appears in his dreams. Funnily enough, he also loves its Spiritual Antithesis Rio Bravo, especially the song "My rifle, my pony and me."
- Silvio and Tony have a Friendship Moment in which they mimic boxing moves while Cavalleria Rusticana plays.
- Numerous little nods and subtle references here and there to Goodfellas, a film defined by David Chase as "My Koran". For example, several characters joke about how scared Christopher is when he becomes a "made man", telling him he "watches too many movies"; in Goodfellas, Tommy's induction ceremony is a ruse to kill him.
- Tony praises The Art of War, ranks it way above The Prince, and gives practical use to the teachings that Sun-Tzu provides in it. Later on, Paulie tries to emulate Tony and reads it in audiobook form. On one occasion, he tries to boast about it, but can't even say the author's name properly (he utters something like Soon-Tizoong) and gets mocked for being an obnoxious brown-noser.
Shovel Strike:
- Former Russian special forces soldier Valery does this to (try to) escape Paulie and Christopher in "Pine Barrens".
- Paulie gets the drop on two landscapers with this technique in "Where's Johnny?"
Shown Their Work: The writers carefully researched the ways in which mobsters controlled and laundered their money in order to make Tony Soprano as realistic as possible, and they employed New York Assistant District Attorney Dan Castleman to advise them on this issue. When Castleman was asked how much they had decided Tony would really be worth, he stated that it was roughly $5-6 million, an amount that fluctuated, of course, because of Tony's substantial gambling problem.
Sibling Yin-Yang:
- Distinguished Meadow and lazy airhead A.J.
- Richie Aprile is covetous and bloodthirsty, while Jackie is benevolent and easygoing.
Silent Credits: After the infamous finale. Executive Meddling vetoed an intended Fade to Black with no credits at all.
Situational Sexuality:
- The prison variant is discussed during one of Tony's therapy sessions with Dr. Melfi. Turns out you get a pass on that in the Sicilian mafia, but actively seeking out men outside of prison is crossing a line for them.
  Tony: Well, what are you gonna do? There's no women there! You're there five, ten years! [beat] Just for the record, my incarceration was very short term, so I never had any need for any anal— you know. (...) You think I'm lying, don't you?
- The very homophobic Phil Leotardo, who did twenty fucking years in the can, very pointedly mentions that he always "jerked off in a tissue" whenever he wanted to be with a woman. The Suspiciously Specific Denial nature of this line, along with a Visual Pun where Phil literally emerges from a motel closet, has led some viewers to suspect that Phil had some sort of sexual encounter with a fellow inmate and is projecting his self-hatred onto Vito Spatafore.
Sleeping with the Boss's Wife: This forms a major subplot in season 4, when there is massive Unresolved Sexual Tension between Tony's underling Furio and Tony's wife Carmella. They never consummate it, but Furio does consider murdering Tony before skipping the country and going back to Italy. When Tony finds out, he has a contract put out on him.
Slice of Life: The show is a character study rather than a thesis-oriented work.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Very, very cynical. While there's some room for interpretation, by and large the show can be seen as an extended critical examination of human nature, and more often than not the conclusions aren't pretty. What unites people of all races, sexes, and socioeconomic backgrounds, as far as The Sopranos is concerned, is selfishness, myopia, and hypocrisy (though also love, family, and moral agency).
Smash to Black: The infamous ending, in the middle of a scene, hell, in the middle of a Journey lyric.
Smoking Is Cool: Tony's signature cigars. It gets visually lampshaded when Winston Churchill, another badass Cigar Chomper, shows up in a documentary that Tony is watching.
Smug Snake: Jackie Aprile Jr., who is all cool persona and zero competence. Varying cases could be made for a lot of the main cast too. His stepfather Ralphie is probably the worst one in the series.
Sore Loser: Silvio is not a pleasant guy to be around when he's losing at poker.
Sorting Algorithm of Evil: With a few twists and turns in the earlier seasons, but played straight towards the end of the series.
- Season 1 gives us Junior and his second, Mikey Palmice. They're dangerous and have some nebulous backing from New York, but Junior lacks his own capos' support and is unseated easily once he blows his chance to assassinate Tony. Mikey and Junior's other key players are whacked, and Junior himself is undone by an incidental ploy that marked him as the family's Fall Guy.
- Season 2 introduces Richie Aprile, a brutal mobster who sours on Tony's leadership and conspires with the deposed Junior to get rid of him. As cruel and personally formidable as Richie is, he's not powerful or charismatic enough to garner sufficient support for a coup, and Junior decides to side with Tony instead. He's ultimately killed during a completely unrelated domestic dispute.
- Season 3 muddies things with Ralph Cifaretto, who is more depraved and erratic than his predecessors but much lower on the Mafia totem pole; an overthrow is never seriously on the cards. It's as much a personal feud between Ralph and Tony as it is a mob dispute; Tony despises Ralph and knows he can be rid of him at any time, but has to take Mafia customs into family politics into account. Tony chooses to give him a pardon, and the two seem to bury the hatchet... for now. His machinations spur Big Bad Wannabe Jackie Jr. on a destructive course, but all the kid manages to do is to get himself killed.
- Season 4 takes an introspective turn, with No Antagonist until the end of the season, when Carmine Lupertazzi positions himself as Tony's major foe. Things do get messy, but the two bosses settle things amicably; their conflict is more a taste of what's to come than a real war.
- Season 5 brings New York to the fore, firmly casting Johnny Sack as the Big Bad and his brutal right-hand Phil Leotardo as The Dragon. An escalating Enemy Civil War also spills over into Jersey, when Tony Blundetto turns rogue agent and murders two well-connected New York guys, including Phil's beloved younger brother, but Tony S is able to tentatively placate his opponents by killing his cousin.
- Season 6 dives into an all-out Mob War, with Phil's ascension to the boss. More savage and ruthless than any of Tony's prior enemies, Phil decapitates most of the Jersey crew's leadership when things go sour between him and Tony, before finally being undone by an Enemy Mine between Tony and FBI agent Harris.
Soundtrack Dissonance: Non-diegetic music is relatively rare on the show, and when it does appear it's often incongruous.
Sour Grapes: Many times when a character gets a rejection, he twists the facts around out of hubris and tells a fantasized version to his peers in order not to lose face.
Chris: "Fuck Ben Kingsley. Danny Baldwin took him to fucking acting school."
Speech-Centric Work: Most episodes feature dialogue heavily, and Tony's sessions with his therapist are nothing but.
Spiritual Successor:
- To Goodfellas.
- Game of Thrones has been described by a series producer as ''The Sopranos in Middle-Earth".
- The also duality-themed Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire created by the show's writers Matthew Weiner and Terence Winter have inherited many concepts from The Sopranos.
Spooky Painting: Tony is sufficiently unsettled by the dreary-looking painting of a barn outside Melfi's office to accuse her of deliberately placing it there to fuck with him.
Staging an Intervention: There's an intervention to stop Chris from taking heroin. It's fairly hypocritical on the part of the mob guys calling Chris out on his addiction, which he doesn't fail to point out. It turns violent when Chris insults his own mother and Paulie beats his face in.
The Starscream: Just about everyone. One of the episodes lampshades this completely.
Stealth Pun:
- Phil comes out of the closet when he is handling the resolution of Vito's situation.
- If Tony dies in the finale, then playing Don't Stop Believing is this - it's Journey cut short.
Stiff Upper Lip:
- Ben Kingsley never loses his polite and calm demeanor when he is uncomfortably approached by some mafia men, who are in fact deflected by his suave manners and refrain from further pressure. The mobsters, however, get frustrated by it and they violently mug an 81-year-old Lauren Bacall so they don't leave their trip empty-handed.
- Kingsley gets to express some restrained disdain and profanity when he finds himself sharing a flight with the gangsters. It's implied he knows they are the ones behind his friend Bacall's incident.
Stock Sound Effect: When Tony gets food poisoning, the noises coming from his bathroom are obvious generic farting sound effects.
The Stoic: This is what Tony would like to be and sometimes laments that Americans - including himself - have gone soft, always whining, complaining, and dominated by their emotions. His role model is Gary Cooper; the strong, silent type, but Tony repeatedly proves himself to be neither, easily losing his temper.
Stolen Good, Returned Better: Dr. Melfi is having trouble with her car, and with the mechanics who are fixing it. When Tony learns this during one of his therapy sessions, he has her car stolen, fixed, and returned that night. She's grateful, but not happy about it.
Stranger in a Familiar Land: A lot of the released Mafiosi — including members of "the Class of 2004" — who were in the can for 20 years are jolted by the changes since The '80s, particularly the increasing laxness respecting Mob tradition. Phil Leotardo is a particular example.
Straw Nihilist: Anthony Jr. briefly becomes one in season 2. To his parents' dismay, he suddenly starts espousing a nihilistic worldview, questions the purpose of life, name-checks Nietzsche, and declares that God Is Dead. It pops back up again in season 6 after his girlfriend dumps him.
Stupid Crooks: A few of the younger mobsters prove themselves ill-suited to the life through sheer stupidity and terrible decision-making.
- Brendan Filone, warned multiple times to behave himself, can't help but disrespect those who command actual respect and has the bright idea to screw with the acting boss of the family. Junior eventually has enough and has him shot in the bath.
- Matt and Sean, two overambitious imbeciles attached to Christopher, hedge all the wrong bets and fail miserably to endear themselves to Tony. They then get the absurd idea to whack the boss' nephew as a "favor" to another mobster, who doesn't like Chris. The hit is a total failure and leaves one of them dead anyway, and all it does it mark the other for death. Even Richie, guilty himself of dipping into this trope where drugs are concerned, is aghast at how utterly idiotic this plan was (not least of all because it could see him dead, too, if Tony believes he had something to do with it).
- Jackie Jr., the late boss' son, throws his weight around and invokes his revered father's name to get his way. He's a fine soldier, but lacks the brains for the boss-like image he'd like to cultivate; he is manipulated by Ralphie into robbing a card game, with fatal consequences.
Stylistic Suck: Christopher's screenplay for Made Man in Season 1 is riddled with spelling errors. Even Adriana calls him out in it.
Succession Crisis: Happens in Jersey after the death of Jack Aprile Sr. and in New York after Carmine Luppertazzi and Johnny Sack pass away. It gets settled by the usual and ancestral methods.
Surrounded by Idiots: Tony, near the end of the show's run, because all of his smart, capable underlings had died, fled, or turned witness.
Surveillance as the Plot Demands:
- The FBI bugs the nursing home where Livia is Junior's Lady Macbeth and plots against Tony.
- The FBI has A Day In The Lime Light episode where the procedure regarding how to plant a surveillance bug in Tony's house is shown in detail. Tony is a Properly Paranoid boss who regularly sweeps his headquarters for bugs, relies on payphones, and avoids talking shop inside his house, but he is vulnerable in the noisy basement. The bug has very limited use and the trope is subverted because the judge is adamant and the FBI is only given one shot at this method that is never used again.
- An overall subversion is also justified.
  FBI guy: We've had every one of Tony Soprano's phones bugged for four years, but the guy says less than Harpo Marx.
Sympathy for the Hero: Tony eventually comes to feel this for Officer Leon Wilmore after seeing the damage he's done to Wilmore's life.

Take a Third Option:
- In the pilot, Junior wants to kill Pussy Malanga, one of his underlings and insists on doing it in Artie Bucco's restaurant. Tony, knowing that would destroy his friend's business, tries to stop Junior. When Junior refuses to be swayed, Tony burns the restaurant down so Artie can at least take the insurance and start over. After some time, Artie gets suspicious and resents Tony for it, who feels a victim of the No Good Deed Goes Unpunished syndrome.
- During the alleged Tony-Adriana affair, the two suffer a car accident that arouses much suspicion and gossip. Chris refuses to believe Tony's innocence plea and Tony feels his only option is to kill the erratic Chris for it. Blundetto meddles and suggests an alternative; they go and ask the E.R. guy who treated the car accident. Blundetto, thanks to his medical knowledge, asks the right questions that debunk the rumors about Adriana and Tony (the driver receiving a blowjob, mind you).
Taking the Kids: Done in a consensual manner; A.J. moves quite happily with his father for a while, but it doesn't work as Tony is not exactly a pushover.
Talking Your Way Out: David Scatino seems pretty confident in his ability to do this. He tries to keep Tony at bay with this, but Tony isn't amused.
Take That!:
- When J.T. attempts to pawn his Emmy Award in order to pay Chris what he owes him, the dealer only offers him $15. "Maybe if it was an Oscar, you know, an Academy Award... but TV?"
- In "Kaisha," Chris offers to watch a DVD of Get Rich or Die Tryin' with his goomar:
Chris: They were giving it away at the car wash.
Tantrum Throwing: Tony is prone to this, a trait later recreated by the boss in Cleaver. Tony is also at the receiving end of a steak when he infuriates Gloria Trillo.
Technology Marches On: Used in-universe to deconstruct several tropes:
- Shame If Something Happened + Stealing from the Till can no longer be used in a protection racket because everything is accounted for in the computers. "It's over for the little guy."
- Disposing of a Body can't be done butchery-style inside Satriale's anymore because of DNA forensics.
Therapy Is for the Weak: A recurring, discussed theme. Tony considers that therapy is for the meek and has to keep his a secret, because if a guy in his line of work is known to be talkative, he may very well end up dead.
Tony: Let me tell ya something. Nowadays, everybody's gotta go to shrinks, and counselors, and go on "Sally Jessy Raphael" and talk about their problems. What happened to Gary Cooper? The strong, silent type. That was an American. He wasn't in touch with his feelings. He just did what he had to do. See, what they didn't know was once they got Gary Cooper in touch with his feelings that they wouldn't be able to shut him up! And then it's dysfunction this, and dysfunction that, and dysfunction vaffancul!
There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
- In retribution for an attempt on Christopher's life, Matthew Bevilaqua is shot over twenty times by Tony and Big Pussy.
- Christopher and Ally Boy Barese shoot Dino Zerilli in the head three times...and then Christopher walks up to his corpse and shoots him in the head two more times. This happens after the Pine Barrens incident, and Chris has valid reasons for making sure a dead body stays dead.
- A capo who disrespected Phil Leotardo is whacked by a few hitmen. One of them shoots him in the eye, and then riddles his abdomen with bullets.
- An unintentional example occurs in the final episode, "Made in America". The New Jersey/New York mob war ends when Tony discovers Phil Leotardo's location and Soprano family members Benny Fazio and Walden Belfiore shoot Phil in the head at point-blank range outside his Ford Expedition. By sheer happenstance, Leotardo's dead body falls under the car and the large SUV rolls forward, crushing the mob boss's skull.
Thicker Than Water: Family is a key theme of the show, and the importance of blood and marriage is played in every which way. Tony and Christopher's relationship is the premier example, although their actual blood ties are a bit vague (an FBI agent has to pick Adriana's brain to make sense of it: Chris is Carmela's cousin by blood, and Tony's honourary nephew... but Ade claims they're actual cousins too through extended family). Tony trusts and favors Christopher over more proven and competent underlings, as their familial bond ensures his loyalty. In theory, at least — Christopher's constant fuck ups and poor judgment eventually torpedo Tony's plan to groom him as an heir.
Too Dumb to Live: Some of the minor characters are positively suicidal. For example:
- In season 2, Matt Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte, two small players, decide to try and kill Christopher in an attempt to please Richie Aprile, who despises him, with the hopes that they'll get promoted. It doesn't work. Sean is killed by Christopher in self-defense during the attack when his seatbelt jams, while Matt gets hunted down and butchered by Tony. It doesn't even succeed in impressing Richie, who Hot-Blooded as he may be, sees immediately how stupid it is and chases Matt off for fear of being connected to the hit.
- Then there's also Darwin Award winner Jackie Aprile Jr., who tries the same thing in season 3 by robbing Tony's gang.
- The waiter in "Two Tonys". He chooses to accost no less than Christopher and goddamn Paulie Walnuts while they're in the midst of a heated argument and apparently about to come to blows, and nag them about the low tip he received.
- Also, in season 6, after Vito gets brutally murdered because it was discovered he's gay, one of the visiting New York guys openly implies in front of Silvio and Carlo that they had gay sex with him. Hilarity ensues.
- New York mobster Salvatore "Coco" Cogliano spots Meadow having dinner with her fiance, and has the bright idea to come over and sexually harass her. He's lucky he was only beaten within an inch of his life by Tony.
Tragedy: At its core, the series is a slow burning version of this. In chronological order, the series goes into detail of how Tony Soprano was born into a family involved in organized crime, whose influence led him to choose a life in the Mafia, following his father's footsteps. After a gradual decay of the lifestyle in the 90s due to changing times and loss of many privileges, Tony and both families (biological and criminal) find themselves trapped in their ways, both personal and professional, which undermine any attempt of self-improvement. For his part, Tony ascends to the role of The Don of a Vestigial Empire, with a large chunk of his character arc seeing him tossing most of his positive qualities as loss, paranoia, resentment and an already worsening personality takes its toll. By the end, most of his actions, good and bad, coupled with his peers' own contributions have resulted in his murdering his protege, becoming an even worse version of himself, destroying most of his relationships with people outside a very narrow social circle and heading an almost cadaveric shell of the famiglia, not to say the almost certainty that he'll never escape the criminal downward spiral he's in.
Tragic Dream:
- Adriana has her dream to get married and have kids with Christopher. It's pretty clear to the observer that this won't end well, given that Christopher is extremely violent to her. And Adriana has stated fertility problems, and then she flips and turns informant. She still holds out hope that she and Christopher will run away together, and he seems to briefly consider it...then he tells Tony.
- Carmela has her hope that the intelligent Meadow will become a doctor, giving her mainstream social respect and putting her out of the mob's reach. Then, after some back-and-forth where it seems like it might come true, Meadow opts instead to be a lawyer, putting her right back in the mob's pocket.
Tragic Hero / Tragic Villain: Tony does try to be a good person for his family and friends. The fact he's a sociopath does kind of hinder that, though.
Tragic Keepsake: Tony actively defies it with an artistic picture of Pie-O-My. He gets rid of it because it brings painful memories and gets very angry when he discovers that Paulie rescued it from the garbage and restored it. The picture is finally disposed of for good.
Trouble Entendre: In the first episode, Tony is about to tell Melfi what he did to a guy who owed him money when she interrupts by telling him that knowing the details of his crimes would put her in a very precarious legal situation. So Tony tells her that he took the guy out for coffee. The scene then cuts to a flashback of Tony running the guy over and beating him up. Tony slips some feeble truth in the story, as he was finishing a coffee in the meantime.
Tropaholics Anonymous:
- Christopher occasionally goes to a meeting on account of his drug addiction.
- In season 2 David Scatino's brother-in-law, and Melfi's therapist, try to talk them into going to addiction programs for gambling and alcohol respectively, but are unsuccessful.
Truth in Television: Junior's gradual descent into senile dementia was realistically done, including accurate depictions of the victim's good and bad days, and the eventual separation from reality.
- The depiction of Tony's depression is also excruciatingly realistic, with his condition rising and falling continuously even after he starts therapy and medication.
Turn Coat: A disgruntled Paulie tries to defect to New York, so he starts feeding sensitive information to a cajoling Johnny Sack. Paulie discovers he has been duped when he learns that the New York big boss practically doesn't know who he is.
TV Never Lies: Adriana gets the idea from a TV legal show she's watching that married people can't testify against their spouses, and decides to marry Chris to gain this protection. But a real lawyer tells her it doesn't work that way, mentioning retroactivity and precedents where the Department of Justice circumvented the privilege.
Two-Person Pool Party: Tony and Carmela in the episode "Marco Polo".

U - V

Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Almost every single male character is married or in a relationship with insanely hot women, while usually also cheating on them with other even hotter women. Subverted with Johnny Sack: due to his high rank in the New York crew, it's assumed that like all the others, he has a hot wife with affairs on the side. In season 3, however, we see that his wife is an obese woman whom he loves deeply and does not cheat on.
Undignified Death: Gigi Cestone, who suffers a heart attack while constipated on the toilet and surrounded by porn magazines.
Unfortunate Names: Phil Leotardo openly complains that his legal family name used to be "Leonardo," as the painter. But an Ellis Island bureaucrat goofed it up, and now he's saddled with a name for a ballet outfit.
The Unfair Sex: Averted. Annalisa Zucca and Lorraine Calluzzo, the two female Mafioso characters who appear on the show, are as ruthless as the male gangsters. There's also Evil Matriarch Livia and immoral Janice. The wives on the show are depicted as hypocritical for claiming to be religious while living off blood money.
Unions Suck: The DiMeo crime family has long worked their way into various labor unions, particularly construction, that they exploit for personal gain, such as "no show" jobs for crew members where they receive full salaries and benefits without ever needing to do actual work.
The Unreveal: So did Ralphie really kill Pie-Oh-My? What happened to the Russian? Did Hadyu really kill Christopher's father? Was the psychic really communicating with Paulie's victims? And what about that ending?
The Unseen: Janice's son Harpo, who is mentioned repeatedly but never appears.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ralphie's cruel joke about Ginny Sacrimoni resulted in a lot of headaches for everyone. A war nearly started when John found out, and Ralphie, Paulie, and even John himself came very close to being killed over the fallout.
Vader Breath: Tony snorts heavily when he gets particularly agitated.
Verbal Tic: Paulie's heh-heh. Tony gets annoyed by it and asks Paulie if he has ever been checked for Tourette's Syndrome.
Vestigial Empire: The mafia is shown like this, a tired organization nostalgic for the golden days, tracked by the FBI, avoiding conflict with other gangsters, rotten with internal strife, and having problems renewing its ranks. It can still produce a lot of damage to society, though.
Viewers Are Morons: In two different scenes, Junior and Butchie are shown personally accompanying hitmen during assassinations. There is no reason for those senior bosses to be physically present at a crime scene, as it negates the point of having a hierarchy, making them also accessories to murder. The real purpose of their presence is to remind the audience who sanctioned the hit
Villain Eats Your Lunch: "Doc" Santoro takes a piece of food off Phil Leotardo's plate during a meeting. Leotardo is so offended that he has him whacked.
Villain of Another Story: Tony's glorified crew sometimes has to deal with similar mafia organizations, particularly the Lupertazzi family in New York. Sometimes allies and sometimes rivals, the Lupertazzis are indicated to be much larger and have a much wider reach than Tony does but their criminal empire never really comes into focus since they're not the main characters. Even within the Soprano family itself, most of the characters we see are upper management (bosses, underbosses, capos, and consiglieres), while most of the soldiers are out doing their own thing and kicking money upstairs.
Villainous Breakdown: Tony's panic attacks are triggered by repressed phobias, thoughts, feelings, and some unpleasant situations. He also can't go an episode without breaking down in anger or throwing a temper tantrum.
Villain Protagonist: Tony himself isn't one of the show's best protagonists. He is a thug who kills other mobsters, is a womanizer and adulterer who cheats on his wife behind her back, has a gambling addiction in the form of horse races, not a nice mafia boss to work for, and not to mention, being an asshole who frequently curses.
Villains Out Shopping: Omnipresent, since the show focuses on both the personal and professional lives of the mobsters.
Visual Pun: In Season 6A, "Members Only," Junior has Tony digging holes in his backyard to try to find a buried stash of cash. Junior can't remember the exact location, either due to his dementia, or he has in fact invented the money ever being there, so he has holes in his memory.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Chris and Paulie, sometimes. Their relationship varies from brotherly buddies to hating each other's guts. They tend to be polar in this regard.
Vomit Discretion Shot: Averted. Frequently. If someone pukes on this show, there's a 95% chance the bile will be shown. One messy example has the FBI guys affected by the splash.
Vorpal Pillow:
- Tony grabs a pillow and is going to smother his mother, but he gets interrupted. Melfi makes a Call-Back to it much later, but Tony is in denial.
- Paulie smothers an old woman with a pillow when she surprises him by breaking and entering.

W - Y

Wager Slave: What David Scatino becomes to Tony when he "busts him out."
Wake Up Makeup: Averted, Tony frequently rocks some impressive bed-head.
We Used to Be Friends: Tony bitterly comments this regarding Johnny Sack as the New York boss gets more ruthless and less pragmatic and amiable. Still, Tony is very sad when Johnny passes away and still loves him despite some of his final actions.
"Well Done, Son" Guy:
- Tony is this to Christopher, who regards him as a Parental Substitute.
- Tony goes out of his way to please his unreasonable and sociopathic mother. Since he's never able to reach some harmony, he's helplessly haunted by this failure long after her death.
  Tony: Our mothers are... bus drivers. No, they are the bus. See, they're the vehicle that gets us here. They drop us off and go on their way. They continue on their journey. And the problem is that we keep tryin' to get back on the bus, instead of just lettin' it go.
Wham Line:
- "I'm sure he's tellin' his psychiatrist it's all his mother's fault."
- "I used to fuck your husband."
- From the season 2 finale: "You know I've been working with the government, right, Ton'?" It was heavily implied since about halfway through the first season, though, and this is in an Acid Reflux Nightmare where a fish is speaking in Pussy's voice; the wham isn't in the confirmation that Pussy is The Mole, but rather in Tony finally admitting as much to himself.
- "Can I tell you something, Tony? The last year I have been dreaming, and fantasizing, and in love with Furio."
- "Angelo got it. Last night. Probably Phil." That line, received by Tony over the phone by Silvio, immediately lets Tony and the viewers know that when the highly volatile Tony B. hears that his old friend and mentor has been murdered, bad, bad shit is about to go down.
- Phil has two when he escalates the conflict to unprecedented levels:
  No more of this, Butchie... No more.
  There are no scraps in my scrapbook, make it happen.
What Does She See in Him?: Adriana and Chris. His looks aside, his demeanor, in general, was extremely creepy, and he certainly did not treat Adriana well. Tony says it himself:
Tony: Frankly, you scored so far over your head. She's a knockout, a 10, and look at you. You're average at best.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Or to the Russian. It gets discussed briefly and handwaved in season 5, as David Chase deemed it unimportant.
What the Hell Is That Accent?: James Gandolfini's signature Joisey accent drops significantly during his season 6 Adventures In Coma Land.
What You Are in the Dark: Melfi gets an awesome one of these in season three. After getting raped, she realizes that she could tell Tony, and he would ensure that the rapist died screaming... and chooses not to.
Wicked Cultured:
- Zig-zagged. As mentioned above, depending on the occasion, the mobsters dress sharply or casually. They often enjoy luxury items and refined cuisine, and Artie's restaurant is one of the usual hangouts. On the other hand, below the surface, they are somewhat glorified ruffians.
- While Tony has moments of unsophistication, he is not the average goombah, his "semester and a half of college" background really shows up from time to time: he is attracted to sophisticated women, and can hold his ground intellectually with Dr. Melfi, understanding many references and complex concepts, e.g. he can cite Freud and Sun-Tzu. This particularly shows in his happiness that Meadow is on the path to a professional career, and his disappointment in A.J.'s... divergent trajectory.
- Paulie tries too hard to emulate Tony and appear cultivated (he appropriates a fine painting made for Tony), but he fails many times; he is prone to malapropisms and misconceptions.
Widow Mistreatment: Subverted with Big Pussy's widow Angie Bonpensiero. After her husband is "disappeared" by Tony and his crew for being a government informant, she voices her financial problems to Carmela, Tony's wife. While he initially considers helping her out, he decides to vandalize her car and tells her to come directly to him with any problems. Later on, she is forced to become a cashier at a supermarket to make ends meet. Tony takes pity on Angie and puts her in charge of Pussy's former car shop. Angie excells at the job and becomes an integral part of Tony's operation, far moreso than the other mob wives.
With Due Respect: Done in the episode "All Due Respect."
- Silvio pulls this with Tony when Tony seems willing to go to war against New York over the Blundetto-Leotardo situation. Tony gives it right back to him:
  Tony: All due respect, you got no fuckin' idea what it's like to be Number One. Every decision you make affects every facet of every other fuckin' thing. It's too much to deal with almost. And in the end you're completely alone with it all.
- Tony with Johnny Sack in a heated discussion regarding the Blundetto situation. Tony then gets tired of this formality and delivers an outright insult.
Witness Protection:
- A former associate turned informant and relocated via it is found and executed by Tony during a trip with Meadow.
- Chris and Adriana contemplate the option of joining it. They don't.
- The mobsters tend to use "witness protection" as an explanation for the whereabouts of many of the colleagues they murdered.
Women Are Wiser: Played straight more often than not; while there are certainly a few dimwitted or crazy women in the cast, the major female characters tend to be wiser or at least more mentally stable than the men.
The Worf Effect: Happens both out of and in-universe when Tony comes back after his near-death experience and worries that his men will see him as weak. He visually examines each of his soldiers and settles on the hulking Perry Anunziato (a brand-new character) as the strongest, then beats him up to show that he's still strong.
World of Jerkass: Even for a show about the mafia, it's easier to name the characters who aren't reprehensible assholes.
World of Snark: While some characters are more sarcastic than others, most characters make at least one memorable sarcastic quip. It's particularly notable in the "meeting of minds" between Tony and Phil, which features these exchanges:
Little Carmine: For whatever reason, certain incidents have expired lately, that, in addition to being dangerous, could have an adverse impact on our respective bottom lines.
Phil: I know Vito's bottom was impacted if that's what you're referring to.
- Then a few seconds later:
Phil: He's MIA, a lot of people are concerned for his well-being.
Tony: So what the fuck would I know about that?
Phil: Well as coincidence would have it, he was last seen in New Jersey.
Tony: So was the Hindenburg, maybe you wanna look into that too.
Would Hit a Girl:
- Christopher and Tony. Subverted in the Season 4 finale, when Tony stops himself from hitting Carmela and punches the wall.
- Ralphie takes this to the extreme and not only punches a pregnant woman but beats her to death.
- Hot-headed Richie Aprile hits Janice. She hits him back. With a bullet to the chest.
You Always Hear the Bullet: Discussed and debunked by Tony, Bobby, Silvio, and physically averted in the final scene, according to the main theory.
You Remind Me of X: As pointed out by his shrink, Tony's goomahs bear a resemblance to his unpleasable mother — dark hair, contemptuous, and with issues — and even to Dr. Melfi herself — interesting, independent, and sophisticated women. Tony asks his first and simplest lover to dress more businesslike, with Melfi in mind. Later on, Tony makes an explicit mother connection with the troubled Gloria Trillo.
You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Lost in Pine Barrens and fearing for his life, Chris draws a gun on Paulie, who tries to calm him down:
Paulie: All the shit we been through. You think I'd really kill you?
Chris: Yeah, I do.
Your Head A-Splode: In the series finale, the fate of Phil Leotardo after his head is run over by a tire. Off-screen. Given his nature, that was probably something the viewers wanted to see.
You Talkin' to Me?:
- Parodied by Father Intintola when he is discussing what The Last Temptation of Christ could have been with Robert De Niro.
- Emulated by Artie — minus the gun — when he is rehearsing how he is going to confront a man who owns him money.

The Sopranos / Tropes K - Z

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