The Sopranos: 10 Greatest Ever Episodes

“Captain or no captain, right now we’re just two assholes lost in the woods.” - Christopher Moltisanti.

Pine Barrens is perhaps the single most famous episode of the show, and for good reason. The premise is simple - Paulie and Christopher are making a routine collection from a Russian named Valery, which goes wrong and ends up with the man in the boot of Paulie’s car. As they prepare to bury the corpse in the snowy New Jersey woodland, they discover a slight problem - the Russian isn’t dead, and flees into the forest, forcing the two mobsters to pursue him. Out of their comfort zone, the macho bravado of Christopher and Paulie soon fades into hysterical panic - and it makes for gloriously entertaining viewing.

This episode is overflowing with great dialogue and moments of throwaway humour; from Paulie educating Christopher on the Cuban Missile Crisis (“That was real? I saw that movie, I thought it was bullsh*t.”) to the image of the two men shivering in an abandoned van, desperately tearing open old ketchup packets for sustenance. There’s some wonderful moments elsewhere too, such as the reveal of Bobby sporting his full hunting gear, much to Tony’s amusement. Pine Barrens is an example of a standalone episode you can watch at any time, for no other reason that it’s a hugely entertaining hour of television.

But away from the gags and the quotable lines, there’s a more serious matter at the heart of Pine Barrens. At the mercy of Mother Nature, Paulie and Christopher discover that the concepts of rank and status they hold so dear don’t really matter when you’re lost, freezing your nuts off and pathetically gobbling on packets of ketchup. This is the hard truth that Tony himself is coming to at this point of the series - how valuable is his power really if all it brings him is misery? When it comes down to it, maybe we’re all just assholes in the woods.