Finally, Junior and Livia carpool to Anthony's birthday party. Junior angles Livia against Tony but largely their conversation is undone by the next episode when Tony is suddenly no longer the boss of the family. But still, the theme of Livia and Junior vs Tony is to continue throughout the series. Everyone has finally arrived at The Soprano's home for a lovely family Dinner... it's just too bad Tony doesn't have it in him to enjoy this lovely dinner with his family.
Tony is a very sensitive and self-centered man. Despite the way he acts, he really cares about what people think of him and strives to please everyone. He can't really deliver emotionally because he's easily irritated, so instead he tries to make it up to loved ones with gifts. Earlier in this episode we see him promising the ducks he would build them a better ramp and now he's bringing his mom a stereo. Within minutes he's yelling and arguing with his mom because she refuses to go to the retirement home. Livia states that girls take better care of their mother, and she expresses that she feels Junior knows what he's doing (in regards to running the mafia) while Tony takes offense to both comments. Tony is not completely in the wrong here, but he is so sensitive, self-centered and most of all insecure, that he turns everything into a personal attack on his character. The birds decide to fly away while Tony is at the barbecue and suddenly he has a panic attack. While Tony lays in wait for an MRI, Carmella tells Tony that he's going to hell when he dies; this is one of those phrases that Tony will haunt himself with like the comment from Junior I mentioned previously.
EDIT: September 1, 2017 - This series is filled with spoilers. If you're looking for a spoiler free conversation, you're in the wrong spot. This episode doesn't completely fit the series because it was filmed as a pilot 10 months before the second episode was filmed. We see Tony does not have his accent down and he's already the boss of the DiMio Family. Tony has collapsed from work related stress and has been sent to see a psychiatrist. He immediately starts talking about how he thinks he's not come in at the beginning of the Mafia but at the end, immediately working an angle of pity. Despite all the hard work he has put in and the stresses he has endured to make a happy life for his family, he is still unable to find long term happiness for himself. Tony talks about the ducks that have been living in his pool and we see that when he sees them, he's ecstatic. When he walks inside to see his family, he's not nearly as excited to see them in comparison to the ducks. We meet Christopher as he drives Tony to work, he complains he felt sick when he woke up.
Meadow is locked out of the house by Anthony, causing her to get busted by Carmella. He's stoked that Meadow is no longer allowed to go to Aspen... Siblings are terrible; why do they thrive on the pain of their brothers and sisters? This orchestrated incident created by Anthony pushes Meadow and Carmella very far apart. Half way through the episode Melfi asks Tony if he's feeling depressed. Tony says, "Whatever happened to the strong silent type. " Tony knows what he needs to be for himself, his family and his work but he does not know how to be that man. Instead Tony is a self-centered, angry and depressed leader throughout the series. He finally answers that yes, he has felt depressed since the ducks left. He leaves Melfi but quickly returns after another day with his mother. Melfi gives him a prescription to fight his depression. Tony skips his third meeting but runs into Melfi while he is on a date at Artie's place where he mentions that the pills are working great. We also see Adriana who was only a waitress in this episode, it wasn't until after filming the pilot her character was developed to be Christopher's girlfriend.
"I don't know what happened with this fellow, I'm-I'm... I'm just saying-" Nothin'. We had coffee. We see Tony get behind the wheel and run the debtor over, the whole time he's wearing a gigantic shit eating grin. Clearly, Tony really enjoys being above the law and acting like a maniac. He calls the man a "degenerate fucking gambler" before leaving the scene. Tony has a meeting with Pussy and Paulie while Christopher sits off to the side. Tony makes fun of Chris for having a stomach ache. If someone ribbed Tony the way he ribs Christopher, it would eat at Tony until he decided to make them pay for it; Tony is extremely hypocritical in this way. "I love my uncle. At the same time, when I was young, he told my girl cousins I would never be a varsity athlete, and frankly, that was a tremendous blow to my self-esteem. " This remark from Junior clearly shaped Tony and his life. He quickly gave up on school and becoming an athlete to start earning respect in the only way he knew how, by becoming a made man.