The Sopranos' Adriana La Cerva certainly left a lasting impression on viewers, right when we first saw her in the pilot. Her time onscreen saw laughs, but also utter sadness with regards to how she left the show.
Adriana starts off materialistic but ends up falling deeply in love with her abusive partner, Christopher. Her long-time ambition to own a business became a reality, and things were looking good until an unfortunate diagnosis and undercover cop popped in. But as a long-running character, Adirana has more than enough memorable quotes to her name, and we have some of the top 10 best.
“But When You Killed Cosette, That Was The Last Straw.”
This line was delivered with a lot of hate. Taking place at Christopher's intervention for his sloppy work and bad choices, Adriana made it clear his actions were unforgivable. The rest of the mob agreed, and cut into Christopher with insults over his actions, which violated the rules of remaining “non-emotional.” The gang started to question just how the dog could have died accidentally in Christopher’s care. This was a memorable moment in the show for Adriana, as she had the entire crime family backing her up.
“Maybe he's not. Ya ever think that's why he's the gentleman caller? Maybe he's a gentleman.”
This line took place between Adriana and Christopher. The moment does a nice job going over the differences between the characters' personalities as they read over The Glass Menagerie, speculating just which type of man Jim the Gentleman Caller could be. Christopher believes he would be more like a playboy, while Adriana sees him as more of a chivalrous figure. This offers a very deep, strong insight on how the characters act with each other.
“They broke my f***in' chair.”
Adriana was more than a little irritated with the destruction of her property, and her profanity-laced outburst more than proved just how she felt about the situation. Who could blame her? We've known about her ambition to own a business since the first episode. When it finally happened, she busted her tail to make sure everything was going smoothly. The bar was extremely successful with young college students and acted as the outgoing mobsters' home away from home the entire time Adriana owned it.
“I love you very much...”
“I love you very much. My only dream is that we have a happy life together. For the last few months, things have gotten very bad because you're using drugs all the time, you’re high all the time and I can't take it.”
The sadness when Adriana says this is something that really stuck with viewers. This is another line that is delivered at Christopher's infamous intervention. Adriana's frustrations are once again backed up by the family, recalling all the times Christopher did sloppy work, or none at all because of how out of control his drug usage was. His behavior at one of the mobster’s mother’s wake is brought up to prove just how out of control he’s really been since the drugs took over.
“Jon Favreau? He's great. He's also a writer. You should show him your script.”
Adriana showed her support to her Christopher by pushing him to turn his screenwriting hobby into a legit career, and possibly find a way out of the mob life. This does an exceptional job at showing how Adriana serves as Christopher's anchor, trying to ground him in the lawful world.
“Puh-lease!!”
You can count on Adriana to really keep the humor in the conversation and brazenly speak her mind. This is important because she is running around with the mob after all. Her reaction was a response to Christopher when he gave her wrong-sized designer shoes, and it’s often seen as one of her typical reactions to her partner's comments or actions. For a show as intense as The Sopranos, Adriana provided some much-need comic relief.
“Let's be honest. What's our future here, Christopher? You...you could end up in jail or something horrible could happen.”
This was one of Adriana's hardest-hitting moments. Her loyalty to Christopher ran deep, even though he often took her for granted. She always believed that the two of them would end up getting married, even though Christopher repeatedly stated he doesn’t like talking about the subject. The more and more he spiraled out of control with his drug usage, the more concerned about their future she became. His addiction was eventually what helps her get caught and used by the FBI as a mole, forced to work against the family that took her in.
“See, that's where you're wrong. Tony would never let anything happen to Christopher. They're cousins, he loves him.”
Leave it to Adriana to spot the truth. The loyalty that runs through the family is what eventually gets her killed and this comment is a way of foreshadowing just how far each family member will go to protect each other. She was right. None of them would stand for any threats or betrayal, and Adriana ultimately met her bitter end after being discovered as a mole. Christopher’s love for the family was stronger than his love for his future wife.
“I mean, what if we can't? If I can't...would you still love me?”
This is hands down one of Adriana’s saddest lines in the show. You can detect a sense of self-loathing for not being able to give Christopher a child. Adriana had pretty much everything she wanted, but she still held out hope for one more surprise that would see Christopher as a father, and give him the motivation to find a suitable, legal career.
“My regular customers are the ones who pay.”
This quote was shot rapidly and with enough sass to land it on this list. After being told to remember what her regular customers order, Adriana straight up told him the only orders she remembers are from the regulars who pay, a shot to the cheap gangster's ego. This was right in the middle of when things were looking fairly well for her, and it seemed like everything on her end would be fine, until the shocking events of Season 5 and 6 caused her to slowly slip away from the family's loyalty.