Watch: Pine Barrens: The Greatest Sopranos Episode, Explained

Two wiseguys, one supposedly dead Russian, a stolen shoe, a packet of ketchup, and the most beloved hour The Sopranos ever made. Watch the video above, then read why Pine Barrens became the show's signature episode. Companion page: what happened to the Russian.

Directed by Steve Buscemi, Pine Barrens strips the mob show down to survival comedy: Paulie and Christopher, lost and freezing, reduced from feared made men to cold children arguing over Tic Tacs. It is the series' funniest episode and one of its most revealing, because out in the snow there is no status, no crew, no Satriale's, just two men discovering how thin their competence is without the machine around them. The vanished Russian became legend, but the episode's real subject is the duo themselves.

Quick answer: Pine Barrens is beloved because it's the show at its purest: hilarious, tense, and quietly devastating about how small its tough guys really are.

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