Cold Stones

Starring

• James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano
• Lorraine Bracco as Dr. Jennifer Melfi
• Edie Falco as Carmela Soprano
• Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti
• Dominic Chianese as Corrado Soprano, Jr. *
• Steven Van Zandt as Silvio Dante
• Tony Sirico as Paulie Gualtieri
• Robert Iler as Anthony Soprano, Jr.
• Jamie-Lynn Sigler as Meadow Soprano
• Aida Turturro as Janice Soprano Baccalieri *
• Steven R. Schirripa as Bobby Baccalieri
• Frank Vincent as Phil Leotardo
• Sharon Angela as Rosalie Aprile
• Joseph R. Gannascoli as Vito Spatafore
• Dan Grimaldi as Patsy Parisi

Guest starring

Synopsis

Deceased

• Vito Spatafore: Beaten to death with batons by Dominic "Fat Dom" Gamiello and Gerry Torciano on orders from Phil Leotardo. His body was reported to have been left with a pool cue inserted into his rectum.
• Dominic "Fat Dom" Gamiello: Stabbed to death by Carlo Gervasi while being held by Silvio Dante in the back room of Satriale's.

  Title reference

• Parisian statues, old stone buildings, and ruins that Carmela sees,
• An ancient necklace made from precious stones that Carmela admires in a museum,
• The expressions "stone-cold" and "stones", referring to Phil's killing of Vito,
• Vito's death and gravestone,
• Carmela philosophizing that people get washed away and only structures and history remains.

  Production

• During the shoot in Paris, Edie Falco had the flu which rendered her voice almost inaudible. Sharon Angela had difficulty reacting to Carmela's dialogue when filming the scenes, and Carmela's lines had to be replaced in post-production with Falco recording them only once she had gotten well, already back in the US.
• When Vito is ambushed in the motel to be executed for his homosexuality, Phil, who organized the hit, ironically comes out from the closet in which he was hiding, as a subtle nod to Vito's homosexuality and the persecution for his sexuality.
• The motel where Vito is beaten to death was filmed on location at the former Howard Johnson's motor lodge in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
• Carmela believes that Adriana left Christopher but her dream suggests that Adriana is dead. In Season 2 Tony's dream reveals the truth about Big Pussy working with the FBI, and in Season 5 a dream indicates that he will need to kill his cousin, Tony Blundetto.
• The Star-Ledger article reporting Vito's death being read by the photographer, contains more text than was read out by Vito Jr. to his sister. DVD freeze frame reveals that the same paragraphs are just repeated over and over with the exception of the last. The final paragraph is unique and mentions that the owner of the Fort Lee Motel where Vito is murdered is a Fort Lee resident named Miriam Shapiro who was unavailable for comment.
• Former series regular member Drea de Matteo reprises her role as Adriana La Cerva in this episode.

  Other cultural references

• Carmela says she went to Blockbuster to rent Cinderella Man.
• A.J. mentions Forbes magazine.
• A.J. says the promotional item for cost many trees their lives.
• When he and his crew are in the Bing, Tony points out Mickey Rooney on TV as a very hyper band leader in the movie Strike Up the Band.
• In the same scene above, Paulie mentions how ashamed "Salvatore Lucania" would probably be of him and his cohorts. Lucania was the birth name of iconic Mafia boss Charles Lucky Luciano.
• The Star-Ledger that Tony is reading in the mall contains the headline "The Corzine Era Begins."
• Vito is wearing a University of Notre Dame hat when he meets with Tony.
• When Carmela tells Tony about her plans to visit Paris, he is watching Is Paris Burning? on television. Later, when Carmela calls from Paris, Tony jokes, "Is Paris burning?" When he hears it's been raining over there, he replies "When it drizzles!", a line from the 1953 Cole Porter song "I Love Paris."
• Tony calling Phil "Carnac the Great" is a reference to Carnac the Magnificent, a comedic, soothsaying character played by Johnny Carson during his tenure as host of The Tonight Show.
• Tony presents Carmela with a Louis Vuitton purse.
• The sights seen in Paris besides the Eiffel Tower: The taxi is driving Carmela and Rosalie on the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe. Later, Notre Dame Cathedral is shown in the background. The Palais-Royal gardens and the Pont Alexandre III bridge are visited. The church where the candles were lit is St. Eustache. The women have dinner at Le Grand Véfour restaurant. Rosalie consoles Carmela at the Thermes de Cluny. Additionally, Carmela says they should visit the Louvre.
• Rosalie Aprile sees a ferry in the Seine and says, "Look! Just like Charade!"
• Leaving the hotel, Rosalie remembers she forgot her Toulouse-Lautrec placemats.
• Silvio Dante reacts to the repeated news of Vito's death by responding that Carlo Gervasi is a "regular Jimmy Olsen," a reference to Superman's photographer friend at the Daily Planet.
• Tony tells Silvio that "Joe Bananas" fought a Mafia war with Carlo Gambino of retribution killings for seven or so years.
• As Silvio and Carlo wait for nightfall after killing "Fat Dom," New York's popular sports radio talk show, Mike and the Mad Dog on WFAN, can be heard. A brief snippet of a discussion about the "Clemente" book is heard, which would refer to the late baseball Hall-of-Famer Roberto Clemente, whose biography was published around the time of the original airing of the episode, entitled Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero and written by David Maraniss.

  Music

• "Summer Rain" by Gritty Kitty plays as Vito and Marie Spatafore talk while their kids skate at the Rockefeller Center.
• "Ouvre Les Yeux" by PM, a French rap group from the Paris suburbs, plays during the first scene in Paris.
• "Knights in White Satin" by Giorgio Moroder is played while Tony is in the Bada Bing!
• "Back In Black" by AC/DC is playing on the car radio while Tony is receiving fellatio from a stripper while driving. That song was followed immediately by Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" as Tony speaks to Vito on the phone.
• The melody to "La Vie En Rose" is hummed by Rosalie as she consoles Carmela at the Gallo-Roman baths.
• The ringtone of "Fat Dom"'s phone is Für Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven.
• "Home" by Persephone's Bees plays in the beginning of the credits.
• "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca plays through the rest of the closing credits. The city of Paris plays an important role in both Casablanca and this episode. This particular rendition is sung by Dooley Wilson.