Pine Barrens, Everybody Hurts and now In Camelot: all terrific episodes, all directed by Steve Buscemi, all dealing with relationships gone bad. In the first two, the concerned parties were Tony Soprano and the now deceased Gloria Trillo, now it's Tony's old man who was involved.
Everything kicks off at a funeral Tony attends: at the cemetery, he spots a woman that's visiting his dad's grave, and decides to have a word with her. After discovering she was his father's mistress years before, he starts spending time with her, seeing as she provides enjoyable company and countless anecdotes on her former lover, not to mention priceless details on his strained marriage to Livia (and flashbacks in previous seasons have more or less confirmed what they both think about the late Mrs. Soprano). This story is juxtaposed with the latest misadventures of Christopher, whom Buscemi used quite prominently in Pine Barrens: this time, instead of almost freezing to death in the woods he makes the mistake of introducing an old friend from rehab, J.T. Dolan (Tim Daly), to the world of gambling, with results that mirror Tony's falling out with a childhood buddy (Robert Patrick) in Season 2.
Less overtly quirky than Pine Barrens, In Camelot is actually more alike to the previous episode of this season, Peter Bogdanovich's Sentimental Education, in the sense that it is mostly calm, warm and far away from crime, only to shock us at the right point with some of the worst consequences of belonging to the mafia. That last aspect is duly covered in the J.T. subplot, which obviously recalls a similar story from past years (see above) but also shows the program's makers at their most brilliant: to play Dolan, one of the most tragic individuals in the series, they cast Tim Daly, the actor another character kept complaining about in a Season Three episode. Sheer, unadulterated genius.