Mayham

"Mayham" is the 68th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the third of the show's sixth season. Written by Matthew Weiner and directed by Jack Bender, it originally aired on March 26, 2006.

Starring

• James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano / Kevin Finnerty
• Dr. Jennifer Melfi
• Edie Falco as Carmela Soprano
• Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti
• Corrado Soprano, Jr.
  *
• Steven Van Zandt as Silvio Dante
• Tony Sirico as Paulie Gualtieri
• Anthony Soprano, Jr.
• Jamie-Lynn Sigler as Meadow Soprano
• Janice Soprano Baccalieri
• Steven R. Schirripa as Bobby Baccalieri
• Phil Leotardo
• Artie Bucco
• Little Carmine Lupertazzi
• Vito Spatafore
• Patsy Parisi

Synopsis

Although only family members are allowed to see Tony, Silvio and Paulie are smuggled in by Carmela and Meadow. Alone with Tony, Paulie treats his unconscious boss to a tedious and discontented monologue about his current life. Tony's heart rate escalates steadily, but Paulie does not notice it until he goes into cardiac arrest. Hospital staff rush in.

Tony's dream sequence from the previous episode has continued.

At his hotel room, Tony receives a

Tony Blundetto. The man tries to get Tony to enter the light-festooned house, assuring him that "everyone's here" and that he is "coming home"; but he also tells Tony that he must first let go of his "business" and hand over his briefcase. Tony replies that he has already given away a briefcase once which had "his whole life inside" and does not want to do it again. Standing at the steps of the house, Tony hesitates for some time. With the figure of someone similar to his mother

standing by the doorway in front of him, and the faint voice of a little girl coming from the trees behind him pleading with him not to go (Meadow is calling to her father), Tony chooses not to enter the house.

• The title is a malapropism; after Vito gives Paulie bad information about the stick-up job (saying the place was empty), Paulie does not want to give him his full cut of the money, saying that the job was "mayham."
• Disorder is within the ranks of the DiMeo/Soprano crime family, as there are disagreements between some members, dissent is growing, and, at one point, both its boss and substitute acting boss are hospitalized.
• Tony Soprano violently fights to stay alive.
• In legal terms, mayhem refers to the deliberate maiming or dismembering of a victim. The unused title for Christopher's screenplay is Pork Store Killer. As such, "Mayham" could be a nod to said slasher film (combining the words "mayhem" and "ham").

Production

• Little Carmine
  ) is now promoted to the main cast and billed in the opening credits but only in the episodes in which he appears.
• Lorraine Bracco's sister
  Marie
  , the wife of Vito Spatafore.

Other cultural references

• As Vito pulls up alongside Paulie at the beginning of the episode, Paulie greets him by saying "Diary of a Thin Man," in reference to Vito's recent weight loss, misquoting the title of the Bob Dylan song "Ballad of a Thin Man."
• When confronted over his attempted purchase of a gun and told that he cannot get to his Uncle Junior anyway because he is in police custody, AJ says it's "difficult, not impossible," the same words spoken by Rocco Lampone in The Godfather Part II in reference to assassinating Hyman Roth.
• In another homage to
  Virgil Sollozzo
  and the corrupt police captain at a restaurant.
• Vito greets Finn, who flew over from California, as "Phineas Fogg" at the hospital.
• J.T. Dolan is discussing Beowulf when kidnapped from his writing class.
• When pitching Cleaver, Silvio, Christopher, and J.T. Dolan compare and contrast the film to
  Saw, and Ghostbusters
  franchises.
• Tom Giglione says he needs some Irish Spring to look fresh again after a night spent beside Tony's bed.
• Phil Leotardo says everyone thought Vito looked like John Travolta when he married Phil's cousin Marie.
• Paulie Gualtieri refers to Vito as "Bluto" (The large and portly nemesis of Popeye; John Belushi’s character in Animal House).
• Paulie Gualtieri refers to AJ as
  Van Helsing
  .
• Paulie Gualtieri refers to Carmela Soprano as the "Princess of Little Italy." This is a sarcastic reference to Steven Van Zandt and his band Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, who recorded a song by the same name.
• In a rare session with Dr. Melfi, Carmela recalls her second date with Tony, in which he brought her father a $200 power drill as a gift. She says she knew there was "probably some guy with a broken arm" behind it and reflects on whether this made her like Tony less or more. This mimics Bracco's own character's reaction in Goodfellas when she realized what Henry Hill really was early in their relationship.
• Carmela reads Sue Grafton's "C" Is for Corpse.