“Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in.”

So goes the most-memorable line of the least-memorable installment of “The Godfather” trilogy. You might even catch Silvio Dante offering it up in his Pacino impression when he’s hanging around with Tony and the guys.

The line seems to have special pertinence to “Everybody Hurts,” but not because Tony is trying to give up his life in this thing of ours. The episode is another one of those dripping with dramatic irony, creating a façade of serenity in the life of the big man, but brewing a whole batch of trouble right underneath his nose.

Things don’t start well when he calls Christopher out of a heroin-induced haze to declare the young Mr. Moltisanti his Don-in-training. Christopher doesn’t seem to take the newfound responsibility too responsibly, as we watch him fall further and further into the throes of addiction.

Then, through an innocent piece of gossip from Carmela, T finds out that “nice sales lady” from the Mercedes dealership (Tony’s ex-girlfriend Gloria Trillo) has hung herself. Tony feigns apathy, but stumbles into Dr. Melfi’s office the next day, alcohol on his breath, and explodes at his psychiatrist about her inability to help Gloria.

Depressed and hungover, Tony downs several Prozac pills and decides to make himself feel appreciated. He signs the final trust papers with Carmela, offers his financial advisor some fashion enhancements and takes Janice out to a lavish dinner at Vesuvio (during which his sister earnestly tells him, “You always seem to reach out when it counts.”)

Still riding high, Tony gleefully shells out $50,000 to Artie Bucco for a shady-looking investment with a shady-looking Frenchman. When the deal goes awry, and Artie fails in collecting, he overdoses on pills, only to have T call 911 just in time. Artie calls him out, though, saying Tony smelled the bad deal from a mile away just so he could collect the one-and-a-half points on the loan.

In what has come to be a frustrating theme in the first half of this season, “Everybody Hurts” again forgoes story advancement for (back)story development. The Michael Imperioli (who plays Christopher Moltisanti)-penned script hammers home points that seem to have already been covered in previous episodes — Carmela’s Furio infatuation is going nowhere, and Tony is all over the emotional map in his final scene with Artie.

Thankfully, director Steve Buscemi, who helmed Season Three’s best installment, “Pine Barrens,” lends the episode a consistent voice. Buscemi examines Tony’s struggle through the jaded worldview he seems to have acquired from the Coen brothers, injecting morbidly dark scenes with bursts of satire and vice versa.

One of the best moments is the buildup to AJ’s visit to his exorbitantly wealthy girlfriend’s house, as he gazes up at genuine Picassos and finds himself defending his family’s non-Corleone-esque lifestyle. AJ hasn’t even been pulled in yet, and we already see him pushing away.

Best line: “It’s the greatest cultural center in the world, and you came out here for sex?” (Meadow to AJ about New York City, after he asks his sister if he can use her dorm room for a bit so he can shack up with his girlfriend).