The Janice Theory That Would Change Everything On The Sopranos

When Janice arrives at Tony's house in Season 2, there's not a great deal of clarity as to what she has actually been up to for the prior two decades. During her time away, the family learns that she has joined an ashram, changed her name to Parvati, and is working at a Seattle-based coffee shop. According to Dictionary.com, an "ashram" is defined as "the residence of a guru, used for religious retreat or instruction in Hinduism."

A few fans did the math and determined that Janice's time in Oregon aligned with the height of the Rajneeshees ⁠— a cult in Wasco County, Oregon, responsible for numerous crimes in the '80s, including the intentional infection of hundreds of people by contaminating local salad bars with salmonella bacteria (via Oregon Encyclopedia).

On Reddit, u/magecatwitharrows said, "Janice would be intimately familiar with [these crimes] given her familiarity with her father's work. And the timeline matches up perfectly. After the cult disbanded, all of the members who had not been arrested scattered ... They might have done something like go work in a coffee shop in the next state over..."

Other fans were in agreement and highlighted subtle comments from Tony that allude to her possible past. U/ahkond said, "Tony [was] talking about how much lighter his wallet would be before she went 'rain dancing back to the commune.'" U/GetMeAColdPop added, "I can totally picture her spraying salmonella on Artie [Bucco's (John Ventimiglia)] food as some sort of scam/revenge."