That's not to say there weren't a few redeeming exchanges on the topic.

In the episode's opening scene, the boys are all lounging on the sidewalk in front of Satriale's meat shop when Bobby Bacala first reads of the protests in the newspaper. The fellas' in turn all weigh in on the injustice being done to Columbus when Furio - the only first-generation Italian in the bunch - says he loathes Columbus. Columbus, it seems, was from North Italy. The northern Italians have all the money, and so turn their noses up at the south. Furio spits on Columbus and his northern descendants. It was a nice - and wholly believable - turning of the tables, and a reminder that every ethnic group, no matter how loathed, can find a subset ethnic group to loathe even more.

The other saving dialogue comes at the end and, unsurprisingly, is delivered convincingly and passionately by Gandolfini. He admonishes Silvio for his constant griping about the "discrimination faced us Italians." "Look at you," Tony says, "you got a smart kid at Lakawana College, you own the best strip club in Jersey. You got a wife who's a piece of ass - or at least she was when you married her. Did you get all of that because you're Italian? No. You got it because you're you, because you're smart, because you're...whatever the fuck."

In other developments, for reasons completely unclear to me, the writers decided to kill off Karen Bacala, wife of just-named-capo Bobby Bacala, in a car accident. This series is dark, and perhaps the writers are making a "cruel world" point here. Bobby of course is the most sympathetic goodfella in the Soprano family. He's dim, but compassionate, and an avowed family man. At Karen's funeral, the wives all watch with heavy hearts as Bobby weeps openly over Karen's casket. Meanwhile, Tony, Ralphie, Sil and Christopher all talk business in the corner. Sil's wife Gabriella whispers to the other wives, "I once heard Sil talking with somebody on the phone about how Bobby was the only one of them who didn't have a goomara. They were laughing at him [note: a "goomara" is a mistress]." Two observations from that quote: 1) Fucked-up mafia world observation: Odd, isn't it, that the wives of the mafiosos would nod approvingly that Bobby's a good man for not having a mistress - acknowledging without question that the implication there is that each of their own husbands has one? 2) So the writers of the show reward the series' only faithful husband by killing his wife.

Other plotines:

Ralphie then walks out on Ro, who is particularly hit by her friend Karen's death, considering that in the last two years, she's lost her husband and her son, too ("I've had big chunks of flesh ripped out of me," she says). Ralphie's leaving Ro for Janice, who has second thoughts the moment he steps in the house. In the night's most comical scene, Janice and Ralphie are in bed when Ro calls and asks him to come home. The two are - ahem - deep into a game of "bend over boyfriend," as Janice is pleasuring Ralphie with a sex toy. "You're my little slut, aren't you," she says. Ralphie nods. The scene's a pretty literal illustration of the habit Soprano family (that's "family" with a small "f") women have of emasculating their men. Tony by his mother Livia, his daughter Meadow, and, at times, by his wife Carmela. Janice, now emasculates Ralphie - literally, with a vibrator, and figuratively, when she ditches him just as he's left his "legitimate" girlfriend for her. The scene takes on even more significance when, later, Janice concludes through her new-age therapist that she's only dating Ralphie because he reminds him of her father and of Tony - the paternal influences she feels never gave her love.