Movies - TV
David Chase and Joe Pantoliano Disagree On This Sopranos Mystery
By DEVIN MEENAN
In season 4 episode 9 of “The Sopranos,” a horse named Pie-O-My that Tony Soprano and Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) co-owned dies in a barn fire, and Tony suspects Ralph set the fire to collect the insurance money, but Ralph denies it. The confrontation escalates and Tony beats him to death, shouting, "She was a beautiful, innocent creature! What did she ever do to you?!"
Critics Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall interviewed "The Sopranos" creator David Chase for their book, "The Sopranos Sessions," and Sepinwall asks Chase if Ralph set the fire which killed Pie-O-My. Interestingly, Chase initially answered no, but it seems this was a slip of the tongue because a moment later he says, "I take that back! I think he did burn it down. That was the intention."
Pantoliano revealed Chase wouldn't give him the answer to Ralph's guilt, so he played his last scene as if Ralph was innocent. Describing Tony and Ralph's fight, Pantoliano said, "They're fighting [...] and it's over the indignation that Ralph has for being accused of killing a horse, when in fact he didn't kill the horse, he says, 'I didn't kill this horse you f***ing miserable piece of sh*t.'"