“Did (other) kids ever find fifty thousand dollars in Krugerrands and a .45 automatic while they were hunting for Easter eggs?”

Tony and Carmela’s firstborn, Meadow Mariangela Soprano is, in many ways, a typical suburban ingenue: pretty, bright and talented, she was a high school honors student. But, being a Soprano, some of Meadow’s life experiences differ significantly from her peers’. Not many young women have a father who garroted a business associate while accompanying her on a tour of college campuses.

But Meadow is tough and clear-eyed about her father’s profession. She figured out at an early age that Tony wasn’t really in the non-putrescable waste business; when he finally admitted to her that “some” of his income came from illegal sources, she appreciated his candor. Meadow’s opinion had always been that her father is no worse than the “solid citizens” who work as lawyers for tobacco companies. A high school classmate – whose father went bankrupt because of gambling debts he owed to Tony – once told Meadow that her father was a “gangster asshole.” She responded that his father’s predicament was his own fault.

Over the years, Meadow’s relationship with Tony and Carmela has been severely strained. When she dated a fellow student of mixed race, her parents vehemently disapproved – especially Tony. They didn’t like her next boyfriend, Jackie Aprile, Junior – the son of Tony’s deceased close friend and boss – much better. A cugine wannabe, Jackie flunked out of Rutgers and cheated on Meadow. But when Jackie was found shot to death, Meadow was inconsolable, placing the blame on Tony and the “family life.”

As she matured, however, Meadow showed herself to be smart and resilient, excelling in her classes at Columbia and volunteering at the South Bronx Law Center. Seemingly free of the DiMeo family life, she is engaged to her boyfriend Finn DeTriolio — of whom her parents approve — and is living in California.