AllMovie

Some computer-generated imagery summons the ghost of a departed cast member for one final appearance in this turning point episode of the hit crime drama. After learning that his daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) is dating a half Jewish, half African-American student at Columbia, New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) has a stress-related anxiety attack and blackout. His problems are compounded when, after a contentious visit with his mother Livia (Nancy Marchand), he receives word that the manipulative matriarch has died of a stroke. Tony's flower-child sister, Janice (Aida Tuturro), insists on a memorial service but gets more than she bargained for when assembled family members share their true feelings about the less-than-dearly departed. At a session with his therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), Tony about sums it up by confiding that he's glad his mother is gone. A key witness against him in a case involving stolen airline tickets, Livia is now silenced forever, and her emotional passive-aggression is no longer a part of his life.