Watch: Gigi Cestone: The Sopranos' Most Undignified Death

Gigi Cestone defected from Junior's crew, got made captain of the Aprile crew, and died on a toilet in the social club bathroom the night before Thanksgiving. Watch the video above, then read the show's most undignified death.

John Fiore's Gigi is a study in the show's refusal of glamour: a competent, feared soldier whose death has no meaning, no enemy, no music, just a body discovered by the crew and a problem of logistics and succession. His sudden exit destabilizes the Aprile crew, puts Ralph Cifaretto in the captain's chair, and so quietly causes much of the series' worst violence, which is the point: in this world, history turns on a blood clot in a bathroom stall as easily as on any sit-down. The crew's grief is real for about an hour. Then it's about the chair.

Quick answer: Gigi died of a heart attack on the club toilet, and his empty chair is what put Ralph Cifaretto in power over the Aprile crew.

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