Remember that Ralphie told Tony that he wanted to give Jackie Jr a pass--with Tony being so close to Jackie's father, and thus feeling responsible for him, he was more than pleased that Ralphie wanted to let Jackie go.

Ralphie planned all along, however, to kill the kid, and never tell Tony a thing about it. Tony never found out. As a result, I think that makes SEASON FOUR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

...Ralphie's murder more justified in season four. END OF SEASON FOUR SPOILER.

I think Jackie Jr's death was very anti-climactic--with reason. Jackie was simply an arsehole with no good prospect of a future. He didn't actually do anything that would get you off your seat jumping with annoyance and calling for his whacking. I think the anti-climactic death, although somewhat disappointing, was a perfect sum up of Jackie's death--he couldn't even get attention when he died. It also added some reality to the show; a nice change from the normal season climax.

Mick