The Sopranos: 10 Most Disturbing Episodes

An underrated skill of the Sopranos writers is cultivating an energy of impending doom over a long period. From the moment Adriana La Cerva is picked up by the FBI and turned informant, we know that she’s headed for a sticky end, and it feels as though the hammer could fall at any moment.

Her actual demise is so tragically mundane in the end. Unable to take any more secrecy, she confesses to fiance Christopher. He reacts unsurprisingly aggressively, but ultimately agrees to run away with her, but changes his mind in a heartbeat on seeing a visual reminder of what life is like without the money and power afforded to you by mob connections.

From there, he chooses The Family over his family, and Adriana is driven to the woods by a merciless Silvio, a character with whom she’s always had great rapport, and coldly dispatched.

To make matters worse, the offscreen nature of her death leaves an element of uncertainty over the rest of the show. You can tell yourself that maybe, just maybe, Sil showed mercy and allowed her to scurry away. If you’ve been watching and following The Sopranos thus far, though, you know that’s just a fantasy.