In The Sopranos' most searing fight, no one dies, or even draws blood. And while the series has featured bludgeoning, rape and dismembering, I'm not sure if any scene has been more uncomfortable for viewers to sit through than the showdown that leads to Tony and Carmela's separation, after one of Tony's goomars calls and taunts Carm on the phone. It is a pitch-perfect rendering of one of those long-simmering meltdowns in which a couple hurls every grenade in their marital arsenal of grievances, and Edie Falco proves her Emmy-worthiness in a performance that's brave, fearful and just the right amount unhinged.
(Directed by John Patterson; written by Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess and David Chase)