In one moment, it had just been a tense dinner. Donna had stormed out in a blur of drunken fury, leaving behind a stunned-into-silence family in her wake before she'd fled outside into the night. When Lee mentions something about everyone being able to relax now that she's blown her top, everyone murmurs back in strained agreement.

It's too good to be true. Not even a minute later, Mikey throws his third fork of the evening right at Lee's head, and everyone is up on their feet when both men rush at each other. It takes nearly the entire table to hold them both back so they don't start exchanging blows, but that doesn't even come close to being the night's climax. Donna's car drives straight through the wall, and the woman drunkenly laughs as drywall crumbles atop the smashed hood of the vehicle. It goes silent again, but Mikey's voice breaks it as he repeatedly asks his mother to open the car door.

But she won't. Why won't she?

Carmy had promised an "eventful" Christmas evening to say the least, and you should have known better than to accept the invitation expecting otherwise. After years of being his childhood friend and only visiting the Berzatto home sparingly-- not to mention his refusal to speak about his home life-- it should have been obvious.

But hey, he'd finally come back down from Copenhagen for the first time in what feels like forever, and you'd jumped at the chance to see him. Jumped, and instead fell face-first into the chaos that had been hidden behind closed doors.

You mumble his name once before rousing from your state of shock, and you notice he's in his own world. Carmy's just staring blankly at the large plate of cannolis in the corner; one of Mikey's forks sticks out of it. It's a painful reminder of what started this whole descent into madness.