University (1 Apr. 2001)

Noah and Meadow's relationship is disrupted by a friend, while Ralphie starts getting rough with one of the strippers from the Bada Bing.

Director:

Allen Coulter

Writers:

David Chase (creator), Terence Winter (teleplay),

Stars:

James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
James Gandolfini	...	Tony Soprano
Lorraine Bracco	...	Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Edie Falco	...	Carmela Soprano
Michael Imperioli	...	Christopher Moltisanti
Dominic Chianese	...	Junior Soprano (credit only)
Steven Van Zandt	...	Silvio Dante
Tony Sirico	...	Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri
Robert Iler	...	A.J. Soprano
Jamie-Lynn Sigler	...	Meadow Soprano
Drea de Matteo	...	Adriana La Cerva (credit only)
Aida Turturro	...	Janice Soprano (credit only)
Steve Schirripa	...	Bobby 'Bacala' Baccalieri (as Steven R. Schirripa)
Federico Castelluccio	...	Furio Giunta
Joe Pantoliano	...	Ralph Cifaretto
Ariel Kiley	...	Tracee

Storyline

Ralph Cifaretto, who is still having a relationship with Rosalie Aprile, is having girlfriend problems with one of the dancers at the Bada Bing, Tracee. She asks Tony for help when she gets pregnant by Ralph since she isn't sure Ralph will take care of her if she has the baby. Ralph has been acting over the top lately and when he kills Tracee in the Bing's parking lot, Tony teaches him a lesson. At Columbia, Meadow and Noah's relationship is moving forward but Meadow's roommate Caitlin Rucker is behaving very oddly. She's not fitting in with university life and reaches out to Meadow who is sympathetic but doesn't appreciate just how serious the problem is. Noah is also sympathetic, at least at first, but eventually gets his entertainment lawyer father to get a restraining order against Caitlin. Meadow gets to meet Noah's Dad but Noah shows his true colors.

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Plot Keywords:

men beating defenseless woman | pregnant woman murdered | violence against women | misogyny | rape | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 April 2001 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Silvercup Studios - 4222 22nd Street, Long Island City, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Brad Grey Television, Chase Films

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the Episode "University," Noah's dad is an entertainment lawyer. At the dinner with Meadow, Noah and himself, he mentions that he had been dealing with Tim Daly from Wings all day. Later in the Sopranos series, Tim Daly came on to play J.T. Dolan, Christopher's rehab sponsor as well as a Hollywood writer.

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Quotes

Carmela Soprano: I think you should pay him, Tony
Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr.: No fucking way!
Carmela Soprano: What, your daughter's future isn't worth 50,000 dollars?
Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr.: That's not it. That motherfucker's full of shit. He's shaking me down.
Carmela Soprano: No, he's not.
Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr.: Oh, yeah? Who knows more about extortion, me or Oh, yeah? Who knows more about extortion, me or you?

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Connections

References Gladiator (2000)

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Soundtracks

"Takin' Care Of Business"
(uncredited)
Written by Randy Bachman
Performed by Bachman-Turner Overdrive

User Reviews

Ralphie gets raw

From the moment he showed his nasty face in the second episode of the season, it was clear Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) would cause a truckload of trouble. His bouts of madness reach their peak in University, one of the most truly disturbing eps of the series.

The story focuses on two relationships becoming what Woody Allen wittily described as "a dead shark" - a fitting moniker, given death is heavily involved in one break-up. On the one hand, we have Meadow and her boyfriend Noah (yep, the African-American one) drifting apart after a third person starts getting in the way. Nothing too dramatic, though, as opposed to Ralphie's affair with Tracee, a 20-year old stripper who works at the Bing: she is young, naive and optimistic about her future, not to mention pregnant with the man's child; he is arrogant, kinky, easily irritable, hung up on drugs and tends to get violent with random people for random reasons (at the start of the show he hits a guy just because the latter wasn't familiar with Ralph's favorite movie, Gladiator) - not the ideal father for the unborn kid. Tracee desperately asks Tony for help, but he doesn't respond to her pleas, claiming he can't be friendly with employees. Eventually, he has a change of heart, though not in time to stop an unwarranted explosion of brutality.

For the first and only time in the program's history, more focus is granted to the women who work for Tony and Silvio: most of the time, they're just a nice bunch of tits and ass, but through Tracee the previously labeled "stripper" emerges as a more complex, lovable person, and credit is due to the writers for not indulging in predictable "hooker with a heart" characterizations: this is a real human being we're talking about, and it's this unseen humanity that makes it damn near impossible for everyone involved, both in the show and outside of it, to stomach the bloody outcome of Tracee's attempt to lead a better life.

The whole episode is so brutal even fans of the show could find themselves surprised by Ralph's manic acts. Such is the profound insanity of the character, accompanied by the courage of the actor: a subtle bad guy in The Matrix and Memento, Pantoliano reaches levels he's never approached before, not even in Midnight Run, where he played a sort of proto-Ralph; and yet it never feels like he's going over the top, perhaps because with guys like these there is no top. It's an incredible performance, so strong it makes you wonder how come he won an Emmy for Season Four, but wasn't even nominated for Series Three: based on this episode alone, he would have won as easily as his character kills.