Janice is Tony's big sister, the eldest child of Livia and
Johnny Boy Soprano. Unlike her brother, who's spent most of his
life within a short radius of his birthplace, Janice had a serious
case of wanderlust. She hated her home life while growing up and
was constantly at odds with her mother. (Livia chided her about her
weight and, according to Janice, once spiked her iced tea with
broken glass.) So as soon as she graduated from high school, Janice
hit the road.
A selective list of Janice's activities over the next twenty-odd
years includes the following: she lived in San Francisco and then
Los Angeles, where she joined an ashram. While living in the
ashram, she worked for a moving company and changed her name to
Parvati Wasatch; "Parvati" after a Hindu goddess and "Wasatch"
after a Utah mountain range. She traveled around Europe, where she
married a French Canadian named Eugene, and had a son they named
Harpo. Eventually, Parvati ended up in Seattle, working in an
espresso bar. She left that job after convincing a Workers Comp
board that she had developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from operating
the steamed milk machine.
Parvati was living off her disability checks when word reached
her of Livia's stroke. Letting bygones be bygones, she returned to
New Jersey to look after her invalid mother - and her inheritance.
Going home wasn't her only retro move: she changed her name back to
Janice and became engaged to her old flame, Richie Aprile. The
re-christened Janice tried hard to make their relationship work,
but it wasn't meant to be. One night at the dinner table he hit her
in the mouth, so she calmly retrieved a gun from a kitchen cabinet
and shot him to death. Shortly thereafter Tony dispatched the
grieving almost-widow back to Seattle.
But when Livia died, Janice returned home to stay. In short
order she got into a dispute with Svetlana - the Russian woman Tony
hired to look after Livia following the Richie incident - over
Livia's record collection. Svetlana said that Livia had given the
records to her; Janice insisted she return them. The cold war
escalated quickly: Janice stole Svetlana's prosthetic leg,
ransoming it for the LP's. Svetlana retaliated by having a couple
of her friends break some of Janice's ribs. While hospitalized,
Janice experienced an epiphany and found Christ. She took up
residence in the house where she grew up and, for a time,
half-heartedly pursued a career in Christian rock music.
She carried on a brief but torrid affair with Ralph Cifaretto,
but ended it when someone better became available: the newly
widowed Bobby Baccilieri. Janice decided she was just what the
stalwart Bobby needed to get over the death of his wife, and she
quickly stepped into the role, becoming a soccer mom to his two
kids. But when she got arrested for assaulting the mother of a
peewee soccer player, Bobby told her it was time for "anger classes
or whatever." The counseling seemed to be working, until Tony
taunted her about her long-estranged son, Harpo. "What's
French-Canadian for 'I grew up without a mother?"" he asked,
provoking his sister to come at him with a fork.