I too picked up on the Tracy/Pie-O-My double meaning. Irony at its most Sopranoesque: Ralphie is a pain in the ass to Tony, wanting to be captain, killing a stripper, and getting away with it. Ralphie is Tony's best earner, is a captain, and there's no actual evidence that he killed Pie-O-My. But he is brutally murdered anyway.

Would Ralphie have been killed had he not reacted the way he did to Tony's suggestions? My thinking is not necessarily, but he was a dead man anyway, with Tracy (so clearly) on Tony's mind.

I don't know if his love for animals is more sincere than for humans, but he certainly feels more comfortable expressing such compassion about the creatures who do't talk back to him. Through caring for animals, it seems, he can evoke all of his "human-related" emotions out. And thus, Pie-O-My was a catalyst or direct excuse for avenging Tracy's brutal murder.

Mick

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