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Outside, Tracee is waiting in the parking lot, smoking a cigarette. I know she's the victim here, but you have to admit that she's made some spectacularly bad decisions in this episode. Never mind smoking while pregnant -- did she honestly think Pants was going to come out and apologize? I'd have been a thousand miles away by the time he made it outside. He walks over, and almost tenderly offers to take care of her and the baby. Wow, maybe I was wrong about this guy, too. But then he mentions that if the baby is a girl, it can grow up to be a hooker, just like Mom. Tracee spits in his face, which he seems to enjoy, but when he makes the mistake of pronouncing "whore" as "hoor," she scratches him across the cheek, drawing blood. He responds by punching her right in the mouth (I feel for her dentist, too). She challenges his manhood yet again, and now he's really furious, punching her and banging her head against a guard rail. The Foley guy certainly wasn't asleep at the switch for that one. When he realizes she's dead, he stands up and quickly heads back inside. And thus ends the tragic tale of Tracee. I hope you've all learned something, since the test on this one will account for fifty percent of your grade this semester.
Madonna: I just want you to know that I find this episode to be more than a little offensive and demeaning to women.
David Chase: Uh, have you seen the video for "Justify My Love"?
Pants returns to the back room and makes a break for the bar, sticking his hand into an ice bucket. The others quickly notice the blood he's splattered with. He tells them that Tracee "slipped," and everyone heads out back to look. When they find the body, Tony is furious, and immediately dispatches Paulie back inside to fetch Pants. Despite Tony's obvious fury, Joey sticks with the "she was a klutz" defense. Tony tells him that his lack of respect for places like the Bing is what cost him the captaincy, and then starts beating the crap out of him before the boys can pull him off. Pants screams that he's a made guy, and that Tony can't hit him, but T just doesn't care. They send Pants away, and Tony stands over Tracee's body, looking remorseful. "Twenty years old, this girl," he says, shaking his head. Finally they pull him away, and the boys set about removing the body.
At the real Columbia library, Noah says he and Meadow need to talk. Ruh roh. He thinks they've been seeing too much of each other, primarily because Meadow is so "negative" all the time. She's a little bit shocked by the fact that he's dumping her, and even more shocked when he blames it on her "underlying cynicism." He finishes his little speech, and then goes right back to studying, leaving them in an awkward silence.
"So, things are better then?" asks Melfi. Carmela admits that she and Tony have been talking more lately, but Tony just sits silently beside her. "Sometimes, even the most painful sessions can break the log-jam," pontificates Melfi, and I'm forced to wonder just what her obsession with logs is all about. "Yes, and then there's this," says Carmela, indicating Tony, who's sitting there like, well, a bump on a log. Tony finally shares that "a young man who worked for us" just died, and it's affecting him. He terms it a "work-related death," which it sort of was, and feels that "it's sad when they go so young." You can totally see him thinking about Meadow in this scene.