Television Review: The Ride (The Sopranos, S6X09, 2006)

The Ride (S06E09)

Airdate: May 7th 2006

Written by: Terence Winter
Directed by: Alan Taylor

Running Time: 54 minutes

The ninth episode of The Sopranos’ final season, “The Ride”, confronts a question that has long haunted the series: why do its characters persistently act against their own interests, embracing self-destruction with such reckless abandon? Writer Terence Winter posits a bleakly human answer: the pursuit of fleeting happiness, however illusory or transient, often outweighs the cold calculus of self-preservation. Through interwoven narratives of impulsivity, guilt, and institutional hypocrisy, the episode dissects the allure of momentary gratification in a world where long-term consequences loom like spectres. The result is a thematically rich, if structurally cluttered, exploration of the series’ core existential quandary—the tension between who these characters are and who they desperately wish to become.

Christopher Moltisanti’s arc epitomises the episode’s central thesis. Upon learning his girlfriend Kelli (Cara Buono) is pregnant, he responds not with panic, but with a burst of romantic impulsivity, marrying her and purchasing a grotesquely oversized McMansion. The decision, greeted with backslaps from Tony and the crew, is less a commitment to maturity than a performance of it—a hollow pantomime of domesticity. Christopher, ever the addict, substitutes heroin for the rush of grand gestures. His “happiness” here is a mirage, a fleeting high that crumbles when reality intrudes.

This pattern repeats during a Pennsylvania trip with Tony, where the pair impulsively rob two bikers of stolen wine. The thrill of the heist—a juvenile fantasy of dominance—briefly bonds them, but Christopher’s subsequent relapse into drinking (and later heroin use) exposes the fragility of his sobriety. His night at the amusement park,where he bonds with a stray dog, is a masterclass in pathos. The dog, a mangy stand-in for his dead fiancée, becomes a mirror to his self-loathing: both are strays, abandoned and scavenging for scraps of affection. Winter underscores that Christopher’s relapses aren’t merely failures of will but acts of self-medication against a guilt he can never articulate.

Adriana’s spectral presence looms large, her absence shaping the episode’s emotional contours. Her mother Liz’s (Arlene Dahl) confrontation with Carmela—a blistering accusation of Christopher’s culpability—forces the series to reckon with its buried traumas. The inclusion of a previously cut flashback to Long Term Parking, in which Christopher betrays Adriana to Tony, reframes their relationship as a tragedy of mutual exploitation. Adriana, once a symbol of doomed innocence, becomes a metaphor for the costs of loyalty in a world that rewards betrayal. Christopher’s guilt, though never voiced, manifests in his increasingly erratic behaviour, suggesting that happiness, for him, is impossible without absolution—a currency the DiMeo family does not trade in.

Parallel to Christopher’s unraveling is Paulie Gualtieri’s farcical mismanagement of the Feast of Elzéar, a street festival steeped in Catholic tradition and Mafia profiteering. The episode’s sharpest satire lies in Paulie’s showdown with Father José (Jonathan Del Arco), a priest whose demand for a fivefold increase in statue rental fees exposes the Church’s own racketeering. Paulie’s indignation is deliciously hypocritical, a mobster outraged by institutional greed. The ensuing chaos—a botched festival featuring a saint sans golden hat and a near-fatal amusement ride accident—serves as a metaphor for the collapse of tradition under the weight of corruption.

Paulie’s subplot, however, strains under its tonal whiplash. His health scare (a prostate biopsy) and visions of the Virgin Mary hint at a deeper vulnerability, but these threads are rushed. His reconciliation with Aunt Nucci, prompted by fear of dying alone, feels unearned, a sentimental beat at odds with his earlier venality. The episode might have better served Paulie by excising the festival storyline entirely, focusing instead on his confrontation with mortality—a theme that resonates with Christopher’s struggles.

The Ride stumbles not in its ideas but in their execution. Christopher’s narrative—a harrowing study of addiction and guilt—is diluted by the broad comedy of Paulie’s festival fiasco. The latter, while incisive in its critique of organised religion’s parallels to the Mafia, belongs to a different tonal register. Bobby Baccalieri’s (Steve Schirripa) uncharacteristic rage at Paulie after the ride malfunction—a rare moment of parental fury—is compelling but underdeveloped, lost in the episode’s cacophony of subplots.

Similarly, the Feast of Elzéar’s potential as a microcosm of Italian-American identity—where faith, tradition, and crime intermingle—is squandered. A standalone episode exploring the Church’s symbiotic relationship with the Mob could have deepened the series’ sociological critique. Instead, it becomes a footnote to Christopher’s more visceral tragedy.

Despite its structural flaws, The Ride succeeds as a character study. Michael Imperioli’s portrayal of Christopher’s fractured psyche—swinging between manic hope and abject despair—ranks among his finest work. The robbery scene captures the childlike glee of his self-destruction. Likewise, Tony’s complicity in enabling Christopher’s addiction reveals the toxic paternalism underpinning their bond.

The Ride may lack narrative focus, but its emotional clarity is undeniable: in the world of The Sopranos, the only thing more terrifying than hitting rock bottom is the realisation that you’ve grown accustomed to the fall.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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