Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood

Season	3
Episode	1 #27
Air date	March 4, 2001
Written by	David Chase
Directed by	Allen Coulter
Episode Guide
Previous	"Funhouse"
Next	"Proshai, Livushka"

"Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood" is the 1st episode of Season 3 of the HBO original series The Sopranos. It is the 27th overall episode of the series. It was written by David Chase, directed by Allen Coulter and originally aired on March 4, 2001.

Episode Cast

• 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
• Drea de Matteo as Adriana La Cerva
• Aida Turturro as Janice Soprano *
• Federico Castelluccio as Furio Giunta

* = credit only

Guest starring

• Jerry Adler as Hesh Rabkin

Also guest starring

• Louis Lombardi as Skip Lipari
• Ari Graynor as Caitlin Rucker
• John Fiore as Gigi Cestone
• Dan Grimaldi as Patsy Parisi and Philly Parisi
• Frank Pellegrino as Frank Cubitoso
• Saundra Santiago as Jean Cusamano
• Michele DeCesare as Hunter Scangarelo
• Frank Pando as Frank Grasso
• Matt Servitto as Dwight Harris
• Gary Perez as Joe Marquez
• Katalin Pota as Lilliana Wosilius
• Albert Makhtsier as Stasiu Wosilius
• Jay Alan Christianson as Agent Jongsma
• James Murtaugh as Judge Lapper
• Neal Jones as Agent Tancredi
• Erica Leerhsen as Birgit Olafsdottir
• Robert Bogue as Ed Restuccia
• Glenn Kessler as FBI Tech #2
• Anthony Indelicato as S.E.T. #1
• Frank Deal as R & D #1

Episode recap

FBI agents listen to recorded conversations between Tony Soprano and deceased informant Big Pussy Bonpensiero. Agent Skip Lipari and his colleagues agree that Pussy is likely dead; without his testimony, some of their more promising cases against Tony cannot be tried. As they discuss the possibility of wiretapping Tony's conversations, Lipari recalls that Tony takes his associates down to his basement to discuss private matters that cannot be discussed away from home, using the noise of the 6,000-square-foot (560 m²) home's five central air conditioning units to mask any conversation. If the FBI were to obtain a search warrant and plant a listening device in the basement near where Tony's conversations take place, they would be able to maintain a high level of surveillance on the household. Chief Frank Cubitoso goes to obtain the court order, but is warned by the judge not to linger there for too long.

The FBI identify a one-hour-and-forty-five-minute period each Tuesday when nobody is home. When the Sopranos leave for their Tuesday errands and the maid is absent, agents break into the house and find an old reading lamp in the basement which could serve as a decoy for a hidden microphone. They take several pictures of the lamp and plan to create an exact replica with an embedded listening device, then return the following Tuesday to plant it. However, the FBI's plans are temporarily foiled when the house's 120-gallon water heater explodes and the basement is flooded. Tony and Carmela are called home and gather old keepsakes before they are destroyed by the water. Tony then calls on his plumber, Mr. Ruggerio, to fix the mess. The following week, after the basement is put back in order, the FBI plants the new lamp and leave before the maid returns from lunch.

Meadow adjusts to life at Columbia University, where she meets her energetic but homesick roommate, Caitlin Rucker. A.J. is cutting classes to smoke cigarettes with friends. Carmela begins taking Adriana La Cerva with her to tennis lessons. She is soon upset when she discovers her coach is moving away (and married) and has been replaced with a woman who has more of an interest in Adriana. Tony is concerned about a possible garbage war involving his sanitation company. He gathers his crew at Satriale's, where he finds a still-distraught Patsy Parisi mourning over his deceased twin brother Phillip on their birthday. Tony feigns ignorance, but Patsy suspects Tony had something to do with it. The following day, while the FBI watches, a drunken Patsy aims a gun at Tony from his pool patio. However, he lowers the gun and urinates in the pool instead, none of it seen by Tony. However, some days later, when Tony brings up Patsy's big earnings in the crew and asks whether he is still held back by his brother's death, Patsy pleads his allegiance to Tony.

Gallery

Production

• This is the first episode in which Nancy Marchand (Livia Soprano) is not billed in the opening credits.
• This is the first episode where AJ’s voice becomes fully deep from Robert Iler going through puberty.

References to other media and popular culture

• Caitlin tells Meadow that she and her friends visited two famous NYC landmarks: Smoke Jazz & Supper-Club Lounge, located at 2751 Broadway in Manhattan Valley, NYC; and Ruby Foo's pan-Asian restaurant in Times Square, owned by B.R. Guest.
• The FBI, reviewing video of Tony's basement, discuss his Black & Decker jig saw.

Music

• The song playing when the FBI enter the Soprano's home is "Every Breath You Take / Theme From Peter Gunn (Mr. Ruggerio's Remix)" by The Police and Henry Mancini. Peter Gunn was a TV detective, appearing between 1958 and 1961 on US network television.
• The remix deliberately brings together two very different and distinct songs and their meanings. The Peter Gunn theme likely relates to how the FBI see themselves with an old-fashioned image of a straight-laced cop, catching the bad guys at the end of every episode. The Police's Every Breath You Take famously has sinister overtones and could be interpreted here as the FBI over reaching in their attempts to bring Tony and the Soprano crime family to justice with invasive means.
• The song "Dirty Work" by Steely Dan plays when Tony is driving and sings along to in one scene.