Remember Annabella Sciorra in Jungle Fever? She played a normal Italian-American girl who shamelessly embarked on a relationship with the black Wesley Snipes, causing her closest relatives (including Sopranos cast members Michael Imperioli and Frank Vincent) to embrace a quite bleak solution to the problem. This time around, she has no one to upset with her behavior, but the guy she has chosen to bed spells "mayhem" like few others do: James Gandolfini.
Picking up from a brief scene in the previous episode, we now follow Tony's affair with Gloria Trillo (Sciorra), a patient of Dr. Melfi. At first, everything seems to be fine: they meet, chat and have casual sex without thinking too much. Soon enough, though, it becomes clear Gloria might be as big a pain in the ass as Tony's past mistress Irina, and that one tried to kill herself! Another relationship that is causing controversy is Meadow's involvement with Jackie Jr. : Carmela is particularly annoyed, even though Tony seems to think it could work out fine, especially after having an open conversation with the boy. Of course, no one told him Jackie is friends with a drug dealer who has been bothering Christopher recently, and that things are likely to get out of hand.
With the exception of the Chrissy part of the narrative (he gives Adriana a club as a present and makes sure nothing illegal happens there), the episode is entirely devoid of mob violence, focusing wholeheartedly on the two conflicting romances, one almost idyllic (Meadow-Jackie), the other destined to get screwed up (Tony-Gloria). The latter is given extra energy by Sciorra, who injects her role with appropriately Italian fiery passion that contrasts nicely with the emotional coldness of other women in the show (Melfi in particular). She is not exactly scene-stealing, but hers is one of the better guest appearances in the series.
Oh, and the title? It derives from the American pronunciation of "mozzarella", the kind of cheese they use to make pizza. It is one such meal that reveals A.J. and his buddies vandalized the school's swimming pool. Hilarious.
