TV Series: The Sopranos Season 4 (Part 3)

It's difficult to keep up with Tony Soprano's love life. I need to make a list. Just when you think he's single (not including his wife) he finds someone else. He meets Ralphie's new girlfriend Valentina La Paz. She makes it clear from the beginning that she's more interested in Tony than in Ralphie. At first he resists her, saying that it's against the rules for him to sleep with a captain's girlfriend. Really? I think he's making up the rules as he goes along. But his hormones win over in the end, and they sneak off for a passionate session in a hotel room.

Valentina tells Tony that Ralphie isn't normal. He doesn't want sex, he just wants to be hurt. In a way I can understand him. Vanilla sex is boring. It can be spiced up with BDSM games, but if the games are a replacement for sex it's going too far. Valentina is bored without sex, so she needs a man like Tony.

As is to be expected, Valentina breaks up with Ralphie. She thinks this will open Tony up for a relationship, but he says the rules still say that he can't date the ex-girlfriend of a captain. Tony and his rules!

Tony doesn't waste any time. He quickly moves on to Svetlana Kirilenko, the close friend of his former goomah Irena. Tony is fascinated by Svetlana. She's lost a leg, but she doesn't let herself become depressed, she carries on with her life. I admit that it would be difficult for me to date a woman with a missing leg, a missing arm or any severe physical disability. I'm sorry if that makes me sound superficial. It's the way I am. But I have to admit that she has a cute face, like a little girl.

Irina isn't completely out of Tony's life. Assemblyman Ronald Zellman, a crooked politician who's helping Tony make money from building contracts, tells Tony that he's now dating and sharing a house with Irina. Tony says that it doesn't bother him, but evidently something about it disturbs him. The rules? Or is it just jealousy? Whatever it is, a few days later Tony bursts into Zellman's house at night and whips him with his belt before Irina's eyes. Is he showing her that her new lover is a lesser man than he was? No explanation is given.

Adriana is different. She doesn't jump from one man to another. She's been dating Christopher since the series began. She's faithful to him, even though he's not faithful to her. Are we talking about rules again? Now she's in a hurry to get married, because she (incorrectly) thinks that a wife isn't allowed to testify against her husband.

Her plans are interrupted by Christopher's drug habits. He travels to a seedy part of town to buy heroin. The dealers steal his car and make him walk home. When Adriana criticises him he hits her. She turns to Tony for help. They arrange for Christopher to be sent to a drug rehabilitation clinic.

The biggest development in these episodes doesn't concern love relationships, it's about Ralphie. Tony receives a phone call that there was a fire at the stables. Pie-O-My and four other horses have died. Pie-O-My especially suffered, because she survived the flames but had to be put down because of her burns. Tony informs Ralphie, who doesn't seem to be overly perturbed. He's comforted by the fact that he'll receive $200,000 compensation from the insurance company. Tony realises that Ralphie arranged for the fire to claim the insurance money. That's the difference between the two men: Tony felt affection for the horse, whereas it was only a matter of money for Ralphie. In a rage, Tony beats Ralphie to death.

Tony calls Christopher (not yet in rehab) to help him dispose of the body. He tells Christopher that he found Ralphie dead, but it's obvious from Christopher's reaction that he suspects Tony of killing him. Tony swears Christopher to secrecy; nobody else can know that they buried Ralphie. The next day everyone wonders where Ralphie is. Tony said that Ralphie might have run away, but it's also possible that Johnny Sack killed him.

There's one small thing connected to Pie-O-My. A few weeks before her death, Tony commissioned a painting of himself with Pie-O-My for $6,000. When the painting arrives Tony is heart-broken and tells his men to burn it. Paulie disagrees. He saves the painting from the fire, and he asks another artist to alter the picture to make Tony look like Napoleon.

This is the new picture that Paulie hangs in his living room. Tony will be furious when he sees it. I'm no art critic, but I consider the new picture far inferior to the original. It's tasteless.

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