Dr. Melfi is the closest thing The Sopranos has to a narrator: the probing, if not all-knowing, voice that walks Tony through his blood-slicked psyche. She's also a stand-in for the viewer, since she's Tony's main confidant outside the mob world. Which is why it was all the more horrible to see her brutally raped in a parking garage, and then to see her assailant let go on a technicality. Seeing her shed her professional calm and break down was anguishing; but seeing her wrestle with—and reject—the revenge fantasy of having Tony mete out justice was inspiring. When Tony asked the shaken doctor if anything was wrong and she answered—after a pause—with a resolute "No," she made us confront the parts of ourselves that so badly wanted her to say "Yes."
(Directed by John Patterson; written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess)