The Sopranos: 10 Best Minor Characters

Tony's relationship with Ralph Cifaretto was always an uneasy one. Though Ralph was a top earner, he was also a grade A !*$% in Tony's eyes, who was more of a pain in the behind than he was anything else. In the moments where Tony kills Ralph over a racehorse, there was a real feeling from the audience that Ralph was finally getting his comeuppance. Though not for killing the racehorse, for killing Tracee.

Tracee was a stripper at the Bing that had a small crush on Tony and was always asking after him, even baking him some bread after he advised her to take her son to the Doctor when he was sick. She was in a relationship, of sorts, with Ralph Cifaretto and ended up pregnant with his child. When she asks Tony what to do he tells her that she is only 20 and she doesn't need another child in her life.

After telling Ralph about the baby he insults her and she retaliates, which causes Ralph to beat her to death outside The Bing. Tony is furious when he finds out and retaliates himself against Ralph, though he is dragged away.

Tracee was naive but not a bad person, she clearly had a traumatic childhood and ended up indebted to Sil as he paid to fix her teeth. Tony never showed too much interest in Tracee, though she had a big impact on him when she died. First, by him being so upset that he wanted to kill Ralph, and afterwards when he had a vision of Meadow looking like Tracee at one point after her death.

Tracee's death and limited minutes on the show left a huge impact on audiences too, some of whom cancelled their HBO subscriptions after seeing the episode.