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"Kennedy and Heidi" is the eighty-third episode of the HBO original series, The Sopranos, and the sixth episode of the second half of the show's sixth season. The episode was written by David Chase and Matthew Weiner and was directed by Alan Taylor. It originally aired on Sunday May 13, 2007.

Episode recap

The episode starts with a meeting between the New York and New Jersey families. They're discussing asbestos removal and how Phil Leotardo was unaware that Tony was dumping asbestos. Phil asked for a 25% cut of what they get for dumping, Tony rejects his offer. After the unsuccessful meeting Tony and Christopher drive home along a winding road in the middle of the night. Tony talks with Christopher about the events of the past year, including his shooting at the hands of Uncle Junior. Christopher, appearing noticeably high and distracted, maintains the conversation on a subsistence level, while his driving becomes increasingly erratic. While fumbling with the car's radio buttons, Christopher swerves into the opposite lane, nearly hitting a sedan (containing two teenage girls named Kennedy and Heidi). Christopher's car avoids the oncoming vehicle, only to veer off the road, flipping over many times and finally coming to rest at the bottom of a hill. Tony suffers minor injuries while Christopher, having not worn his seatbelt, is suffering from a crushed rib cage. Christopher asks Tony for help, telling him that he will never pass a drug test and will lose his driver's license. Tony, shaken and distraught, exits the car, making his way to Christopher's side, and begins to dial 9-1-1 on his cell phone. However, he notices the impaled baby seat where Chris' daughter, Caitlin, could have been. After a brief second of eye contact between the two, Tony closes his phone and kills Christopher by holding his mouth and nostrils shut, causing him to choke on his own blood. Afterward, Tony dials 9-1-1.

Tony is rushed to the emergency room of Saint Clare's Hospital in Denville, NJ, where he calls Carmela to tell her about the accident. Largely unscathed, Tony is home the next morning, and is visited by the members of his crime family who all lament the death of Christopher. Tony is ambivalent towards Christopher's passing, and has a dream in which he admits to Dr. Melfi that he killed Big Pussy Bonpensiero, his cousin Tony Blundetto, and Christopher. In reality, Tony finds himself unable to discuss his true feelings about Christopher's death with anyone, only hinting to Carmela that he feels relieved.

During the preparations for Christopher's wake, Tony hears that Paulie Walnuts' mother Nucci Gualtieri has died of a stroke. (In an earlier episode it was revealed that Nucci was actually Paulie's aunt and had adopted him.) The Soprano family and associates attend Christopher's wake in morbid celebrity fashion, with Tony appearing noticeably disgusted by the ostentatious display of mafia grief. Meanwhile, Nucci's wake is poorly attended, deeply upsetting Paulie, which he admits to Tony during Tony's brief appearance at the ceremony.

Fed up with the outpouring of grief over Christopher, Tony makes arrangements to fly to Las Vegas on a private plane to get away from the sadness back home. In Vegas, Tony meets up with Sonya, a beautiful exotic dancer with whom Christopher used to spend time. He tells her that Christopher has died, and she begins to accompany him during his Vegas trip. The two have sex, smoke marijuana and try peyote together, with an inebriated Tony winning a large amount of money on roulette while high from the drug. Believing his recent bad luck has ended, he mumbles happily, "he's dead," and subsequently collapses in a laughing fit on the casino floor. While in Vegas, Tony receives a phone call from Phil Leotardo in New York, insincerely offering condolences for Christopher's passing, while providing no relief for the original asbestos impasse. Somewhat later, a truck is shown dumping asbestos into the Meadowlands, while the sound of ducks can be heard in the distance. The episode concludes with Tony and Sonya looking out on the Nevada desert. Tony sees the sun flicker in the distance. He stands up to walk towards it. Both crying and laughing, he yells out at the sun, "I get it. I get it!"

In a side story, A.J. Soprano is spending time at the college with Jason Parisi, Jason Gervasi, and Mark Iscaro. The boy that they tortured last episode for not paying his gambling debts is revealed to have had some toes amputated due to damage from the sulfuric acid that they used. Gervasi carelessly opens his car door causing a Somalian college student to crash his bicycle. A.J.'s friends pick a fight with the bicyclist, call him a "nigger," and then beat him up. One of the boys throws the bike in the path of an oncoming vehicle and it is crushed. A.J. does not participate in the bullying apart from shoving the youth away from him when he stumbles. The incident visibly disturbs him and he later laments to his therapist.

A.J. tells his therapist he has begun taking college courses again and is taken in particular with one that deals with the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Displaying a show of interest, A.J. remarks that "nobody knew who started it." This, combined with (and in relation to) his experience during the morally confusing beating of the Somalian biker, sends him off the edge, causing him to exhibit symptoms of extreme distress. He ends by quoting Rodney King, imploring "Can't we all just get along?"

Guest starring

Deceased

• Christopher Moltisanti: suffocated by Tony after Christopher suffered massive trauma in a car accident
• Marianucci Gualtieri: stroke

See List of deaths in The Sopranos series.

Title reference

• Kennedy and Heidi are the names of the teenage girls driving the car that nearly collides with Christopher's vehicle. Heidi refuses to stop after the accident for fear of losing her learner's permit from the curfew violation.
• Kelli Moltisanti (Chris' wife) shows up at Chris' funeral looking, as Tony remarks, like "Jackie Kennedy".
• "Sonia" was the working title for this episode.

Awards

• The following actors submitted this episode as their 2007 Emmy choice: Julianna Margulies (Julianna Skiff), Cara Buono (Kelli Moltisanti), Marianne Leone Cooper (Joanne Moltisanti), Maureen Van Zandt (Gabriella Dante), John Ventimiglia (Artie Bucco) and Sarah Shahi (Sonya Aragon)
• Episode director Alan Taylor won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.

References to prior episodes

• In the episode preceding this one, "Walk Like a Man", Tony sings lyrics from the Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb". The version of the song from The Departed soundtrack is played by Chris in the car immediately before the accident.
• In the pilot episode when Christopher is first introduced, he is seen wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony around. Right before he dies, he is wearing a baseball cap and driving Tony around. According to an article in TV Guide, Michael Imperioli states that he does not know if this is intentional or a coincidence.
• Christopher and Tony are driving an SUV that flips. Tony and Adriana flip an SUV in "Irregular Around the Margins", a source of later tension between Christopher and Tony.

• The Sopranos episodes