Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood


"Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood" is the 27th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the first of the show's third season. It was written by David Chase and directed by Allen Coulter, and originally aired on March 4, 2001.

Starring

* = credit only

Guest starring

Synopsis

agents are conferring about Tony Soprano. They have been listening to his phone calls for years without hearing anything incriminating, and the recordings made by Pussy Bonpensiero also reveal nothing. Using Pussy's file number, CW16, Agent Skip Lipari says that he is "probably compost"; Agent Frank Cubitoso removes Pussy's photograph from the wall and throws it away. Lipari reports that Tony goes to his basement to talk with his associates, believing the conversations will be masked by the noise of the central air conditioning units. They obtain legal authorization to plant a listening device there.
Once a week the house is empty for long enough for the agents to examine the basement and later install the listening device. The first week they enter and find an old reading lamp in which a microphone could be hidden. They take pictures of it so they can replace it with a replica with a hidden listening device. In the second week their plan is aborted when the house's water heater explodes and the basement is flooded. In the third week, they successfully plant the replacement lamp and start listening.
Meadow adjusts to life at Columbia University. Her volatile roommate, Caitlin, is having a hard time.
Tony and the crew eat lunch in the back room of Satriale's. Patsy Parisi is not eating, mourning his identical twin Philly on their birthday. Patsy suspects that Tony had something to do with Philly's death. One afternoon, while the FBI watches Tony's house, they see a drunken Patsy on the pool patio aiming a gun at Tony through the window. Patsy can see Tony clearly in the house, but lowers the gun, turns around, and urinates in the pool. Tony does not see any of this. Some days later, Tony confronts Patsy when they are alone. He tells him that the past is past; he compels and cajoles him into declaring, twice, that he has put his grief behind him.

First appearance

Listed in order of first appearance: