Pine Barrens

Did You Know?

• The Pine Barrens is a protected wilderness area managed by the New Jersey Pinelands Commission in Southern New Jersey.
• The song played during the opening scene is Van Morrison's "Gloria" by Them; Tony sang this song to Gloria in "The Telltale Moozadell".
• The music video A.J. is watching on the living room television is "Coffee & TV" by Blur, which contains lyrics that foreshadow the episode's events.

Synopsis

Meadow Soprano suspects Jackie Aprile Jr. is cheating on her after a change in his behavior; she confirms this when she catches him with another girl and ends their relationship. Tony Soprano's affair with Gloria Trillo grows increasingly unstable, with frequent arguments followed by reconciliations. In therapy, Tony tells Dr. Melfi he is seeing Gloria, first speaking of happiness, then expressing alarm at her volatility. Melfi alludes to Gloria as having a borderline personality, depressive, unstable, and impossible to please, asking if this reminds Tony of another woman, but he vaguely shakes his head.

Paulie goes with Christopher Moltisanti to Valery's apartment, where they get the money, but Paulie provokes Valery into a fight that ends with Valery apparently dead. Panicked, they decide to dump the body in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. In the snow-covered woods, they find Valery is still alive and a trained commando; he hits them with a shovel and flees. They chase and shoot, believing Paulie hit him, but his tracks end and he vanishes.

Lost after nightfall, cold and hungry, they find an abandoned van and take refuge, blaming each other and fighting before agreeing to stay together. Paulie calls Tony for help; Tony drives out with Bobby Baccalieri, an amateur outdoorsman. They find the parking spot but Paulie's car, containing the money, is gone. They wait until dawn and eventually find Paulie and Christopher.

Production

The premise for "Pine Barrens" came from a dream Tim Van Patten had during season 2 production, in which Christopher and Paulie get lost in the woods. He discussed it with Terence Winter, who urged him to pitch it to show-runner David Chase, and it was worked into season 3. Director Steve Buscemi said the production was initially expected to be easy but ended up taking twelve days to shoot, the first episode to do so. The crew was denied a permit to film at the planned location, South Mountain Reservation in Essex County, New Jersey, by county executive James Treffinger, who cited the show's depiction of Italian-Americans.

They instead filmed in Harriman State Park in New York, after an initial unsuitable spot was replaced by an alternative. During filming, an unexpected snowfall occurred; director of photography Phil Abraham noted the location was initially "as brown and barren as it could be" but after the snowfall, "you could never duplicate it" for the forest scenes. Winter recalled the crew was uncertain what to do during the snowfall. Executive producer Ilene S. Landress said there was "no real reason" to make episodes take place in the season they aired, believing viewers were intelligent enough not to get confused.

Themes and analysis

"Pine Barrens" is noted as more comedic than a typical Sopranos episode. The three main plots showcase different elements of the family's facades. The main plot continues the casual xenophobia and racism seen throughout the series, as Paulie mocks Valery for his Russian background, but this mockery proves futile as Valery evades both Christopher and Paulie. Two plots focus on infidelity: one continues Tony's infidelity, while the other makes Meadow realize Jackie Jr.'s true intentions.

In a Scrabble scene, Jackie Jr.'s lack of intellect hints at his intentions, but after catching him cheating, Meadow blames herself rather than him. In the other plot, Tony and Gloria's relationship nears collapse despite Tony's claims in therapy that he is happier with Gloria than with Carmela, and that Gloria has made him happier than therapy or Prozac. The main plot presents a comedic situation where the only competent member of the Soprano crime family is Bobby Baccalieri.

Two songs in the episode provide thematic hints: "Gloria" by Them hints at Gloria's character, and the aria "Sposa son disprezzata" showcases Carmela's psychological state. Emily St. James wrote that each plot revolves around characters metaphorically "lost in the woods" during the season.

Critical reception and legacy

"Pine Barrens" is commonly regarded by critics as one of the greatest episodes in the show's history and has frequently been ranked in listings of the greatest television episodes. Newsweek's Devin Gordon praised it as the highlight of the season, noting it exemplified that bad choices don't always come back to haunt characters. Emily St. James of The A.V. Club compared it to the Breaking Bad episode "Fly" but noted that "Fly" focuses entirely on its two leads, whereas "Pine Barrens" does not; she also praised the scene where Meadow catches Jackie Jr. cheating.

Winston Cook-Wilson of Inverse praised the main plot as a "comedy of errors" and a microcosm of what made The Sopranos unorthodox. The Ringer ranked it 5th in "The 100 Best Episodes of the Century", with Andrew Gruttadaro noting Vitali Baganov's performance as Valery and his success in evading death as the best parts. James Poniewozik of Time ranked it the second-best episode of the show, calling it "the most un-Sopranos-like of Sopranos episodes" due to its self-contained main story.

Josh Wolk of Entertainment Weekly ranked it fourth-best, praising the comedic elements as a "comic high point". The episode was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Picture Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In March 2002, Patten and Winter won the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Drama.