Kennedy and Heidi

• James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano
• Lorraine Bracco as Dr. Jennifer Melfi
• Edie Falco as Carmela Soprano
• Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti
• Dominic Chianese as Corrado Soprano, Jr. *
• Steven Van Zandt as Silvio Dante
• Tony Sirico as Paulie Gualtieri
• Robert Iler as Anthony Soprano, Jr.
• Jamie-Lynn Sigler as Meadow Soprano
• Aida Turturro as Janice Soprano Baccalieri
• Steven R. Schirripa as Bobby Baccalieri
• Frank Vincent as Phil Leotardo
• John Ventimiglia as Artie Bucco
• Ray Abruzzo as Little Carmine Lupertazzi
• Dan Grimaldi as Patsy Parisi
• Sharon Angela as Rosalie Aprile
• Kathrine Narducci as Charmaine Bucco

* = credit only

A.J.'s therapist sees that the drugs are working: he is happier and calmer, and taking college courses again. He continues to spend time with Jason Parisi and Jason Gervasi at their frat house. They laugh about Victor, who had his toes amputated after they injured him with sulfuric acid. The two Jasons and others assault a Somali student while A.J. stands by, distressed, and he relapses into depression. "Why can't we all just get along?" he says.

Phil discovers that the construction/demolition waste that Tony has been sending to Barone Sanitation contains asbestos. At a meeting in New York he says that he will not accept any more unless he receives a 25% cut; Tony refuses. As Christopher drives him back to Newark, Tony admits he may have to yield, but the waste is eventually dumped into a lake.

Chris is restless; Tony begins to look at him carefully. Their car drifts into the opposite lane, then swerves sharply to avoid an approaching car. They go off the road in a severe rollover crash. Tony exits the wreckage in pain but with only minor injuries. Chris, who was not wearing a seatbelt, is seriously injured, with internal bleeding. He manages to tell Tony to call a taxi as he would not pass a drug test. Tony begins to call for help, but desists after noticing the baby seat in Chris's car. He pinches Chris's nose shut so that he cannot breathe, and he chokes to death on his own blood.

Tony dreams that he tells Dr. Melfi that he killed Chris, Pussy, and Tony B. During his actual session, he recalls Chris as a liability and an embarrassment, and says he resents having to feign remorse in front of his family. At the wake, he is disgusted by the display of sorrow. He and Carmela also make an appearance at the wake of Paulie's adoptive mother Nucci, who has died of a stroke; Paulie is angered by the poor attendance.

Tony decides to get away to Las Vegas. He meets Sonya, a stripper who was Chris's mistress. They have sex, smoke marijuana, and take peyote. Playing roulette, he has a winning streak. He mumbles, "He's dead," and collapses on the casino floor laughing. With Sonya he watches the sunrise over the Red Rock Canyon. There is a flash in the sky, and Tony cries: "I get it!"

• Christopher Moltisanti: seriously injured in a car crash and then murdered by suffocation by Tony by squeezing his nose shut when he was gasping for air; he dies after choking on his own blood pouring down his airways. According to Tony, he was killed for using drugs again, being a danger to him and his crime family and generally disappointing Tony in the last few years.
• Marianucci Gualtieri: stroke

• Ginny Sacrimoni: Johnny Sack's wife

• Kennedy and Heidi are the names of the teenage girls driving the car that nearly collides with Christopher's vehicle. Heidi refuses to stop after the accident for fear of losing her learner's permit for the curfew violation.
• Tony remarks that Chris's wife, Kelli, behaves and dresses like Jackie Kennedy at Christopher's wake.
• May be a reference to the Chappaquiddick incident, in which Senator Ted Kennedy left Mary Jo Kopechne to die in a car crash.

• Tony and Phil mention the Barone Sanitation sale, which happened in "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh."
• Tony has been involved in a number of car accidents in the past, and, as in this episode, was not harmed seriously in any of them. He crashed his truck when escaping hitmen in "Isabella," crashed it when passing out from a panic attack in "Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist's Office...," and, in "Irregular Around the Margins", when a wild animal runs in front of an Escalade during a nighttime ride, Tony and Adriana flip the truck and it is totalled.
• In the pilot episode, when Christopher is first introduced, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony to New York City. Right before he dies, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony back from New York. According to an article in TV Guide, Michael Imperioli states that he does not know if this is intentional or a coincidence.
• Christopher dies in large part due to his drug addiction (it both contributed to him crashing the truck, as he was intoxicated, and as one of the motives for his murder by Tony). Christopher struggled with his drug addiction for many years, most notably since the trip to Naples, Italy, seen in the Season 2 episode "Commendatori", where he picked up the habit of injecting heroin from the Italian gangster Tanno. Following the drug intervention in "The Strong, Silent Type" (Season 4) and his stay in rehab, Christopher's life was marked with periods of being clean and relapses after particularly stressful experiences. Additionally, in "The Strong, Silent Type," Tony asks Junior for advice on how he should deal with Christopher, after having learned of his addiction. Junior tells him that he should be "put out of his misery," as it used to be done by the mob in the old days.
• In "The Strong, Silent Type", when Tony discovers during the intervention that Christopher accidentally sat on and suffocated Adriana's dog Cosette, he remarks that he "ought to suffocate" Christopher. Coincidentally, Christopher dies suffocating on his own blood as Tony smothers him.
• In "Long Term Parking," in one of his rants about Tony to Adriana, Christopher says: "That’s the guy, Adriana. My uncle Tony. The guy I’m going to hell for." In "From Where to Eternity" (Season 2) he believed that he went to hell when clinically dead.
• Right after the scene when Christopher's death is confirmed to Carmela, Tony awakes suddenly from a dream of Kelli hearing the news to the sound of a crow cawing, just prior to Silvio and Paulie's entering Tony's room to offer condolences. Christopher saw a crow at his making ceremony initiating him into the mafia in "Fortunate Son", which he interpreted as a bad omen.
• Carmela tells Tony that it was Christopher who comforted her in the hospital when Tony got shot by Junior ("Join the Club").
• At the end of the episode, Tony sees a flash of light over the canyon with the sunrise, and shouts, "I get it!" This may be the same flash of light he sees (but looks away from) in his hotel room during his coma at the end of "Join the Club".
• In "Chasing It", Carlo relates to Tony the Twilight Zone episode, "A Nice Place to Visit", in which a dead gangster, Rocky Valentine, finds himself unable to lose when gambling and able to have any woman or any other pleasure he desires. Originally, he believes himself in Heaven, until it is revealed he is actually in Hell. In this episode, Tony finds himself in a similar situation while in Las Vegas, winning at roulette and having sex while high on peyote. Also, at one point during this trip, he encounters a flashing red devil logo on a slot machine.

• Al Lombardo, angry, says that Syracuse is losing a basketball game when in the family gathering after Christopher's death.
• Hanging out with the Jasons, A.J. and a girl compare antidepressants Lexapro and Wellbutrin.
• A.J.'s English professor talks about Wordsworth.
• A.J. says he took a class about and is interested in the Arab–Israeli conflict, and remarks that "nobody knew who started it."
• Carmela is watching an old episode of The Dick Cavett Show wherein Cavett is interviewing Katharine Hepburn.
• At Christopher's wake, Tony comments, "fucking James Brown", when Joanne breaks down crying. He also says the mourning Kelli looks like Jackie Kennedy with her appearance and the sunglasses.
• After witnessing the savage beating of the unarmed black cyclist, A.J., distressed, asks his therapist, "Why can't we all get along?" Rodney King, a black man beaten by Los Angeles police in an incident that sparked national protests and riots, famously asked the same question.

• The song that Christopher puts on the car stereo and on full volume as he is driving Tony right before the crash is Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", performed by Roger Waters featuring Van Morrison & The Band, the first track from the soundtrack of The Departed.
• The song playing when Tony is first being driven in a taxi in Las Vegas is "Are You Alright?" by Lucinda Williams.
• The song playing in the background when Tony first meets Sonya is "Outta My Head" by M. Ward.
• The song playing in the background as Tony and Sonya are having sex is "The Adultress" by The Pretenders.
• The song playing in the background when Tony and Sonya are talking in bed is "Space Invader" by The Pretenders, which was also featured in the season 2 episode "House Arrest."
• The song played over the end credits is "Minas de Cobre (for Better Metal)" by Calexico.

• The episode's director, Alan Taylor, won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.

• "Kennedy and Heidi" at HBO
• "Kennedy and Heidi" at IMDb
• "Kennedy and Heidi" at TV.com