There are two camps of Sopranos fans making noise on the internet this morning regarding last night’s series finale. Like Marmite, Ovaltine, sushi or the Scissor Sisters – you either love it or you hate it. I fall into the former category. Although I had an “oh no Chase didn’t” moment when the screen fell quickly to black at the end, after some thought I calmed down. Like Sam Malone straightening the picture of Coach before turning out the lights on Beacon Street for the last time, it couldn’t have been concluded any better.
Carlo flipped, and ultimately even if Mink can win Tony’s case on the handgun charge there are some seriously rough waters ahead. Three of his best Capos are either dead or incapacitated and of the three remaining one is banging his daughter, one is named after Bobby Darin and one is afraid of cats. But there’s a lot of positives when you think about it that may carry the family through to a feature film, or at least comfort the average viewer who is miffed at the lack of tangible resolution.
AJ finally has his head out of his moonbat ass and is working with Carmine Junior on a movie. Meadow is going to be a lawyer at 170K starting salary and seems to have landed a decent guy in Patsy’s son. Christopher has been reincarnated as an orange tabby. Carmela is pressing on with her real estate development and Janice has 3 kids and Johnny Sack’s old house to be nutty in. And Tony – Tony is genuinely happy. Note the scene where he’s raking the leaves and he pauses to contemplate the back yard, probably thinking about his beloved ducks. Or when he grabs AJ’s hand in the diner at the very end. His closure with Junior in the state mental hospital. I think there were a lot of “finale-worthy” moments that the detractors missed.
Back to Junior and Tony’s scene in the ward. “You and my Dad, you used to run North Jersey.” “Did we? That’s nice.” Maybe it’s due to my current personal situation, but that exchange really choked me up. For all their past glory, and all the ‘respect’ they are supposed to command within their universe – at the end of the day it doesn’t amount to a hill of penne, and the mob simply doesn’t work anymore.
So what happened to Tony at the very end? I remember a scene from a few seasons ago where Bobby is intimidating a guy in a bar who owes him money. It’s the first time you ever see Bobby as anything more than Junior’s flunkie and you can trace his transformation from that specific moment like a road map. He tells the guy that when you get whacked, it just goes black suddenly. Much like the end of the diner scene last night. But I don’t think Tony is supposed to have been clipped in Chase’s final bow. No way.
The level of anxiety that was created in the final moment’s of the Soprano’s last episode was incredible. It was right up there with Henry Hill’s sauce and Carlito’s cousin’s beer cooler. Tony scans the room for potential leftover Leotardo interlopers and FBI goons. From the trucker, to the paisan, to the hip-hoppers, to the couple and back to the guy at the counter again. He’s out in public with his family, devoid of any crew and a sitting duck of the highest order – even with his back to the wall. That’s the life he has chosen and how he’ll have to live it long after we don’t get to follow along anymore.
For this long time Baba-Binger, last night was a calculated mix of both closure and speculation. I am glad Tony and his family survived, and I am especially happy that Paulie didn’t defect to New York – but we know that there can never be a happy ending for any of them. Whether we literally see Tony’s brains all over a big bowl of onion rings or are forever left to wonder exactly whatever happened to that Russian in the Pine Barrens.
I watched the episode again lastnight and I think I may have prematurely wanted to put my remote through the tv too. My final ruling on the last Sopranos is that Tony got whacked. And this is why… There has been speculation that the random people they showed at the restaurant in the end were all people from previous episodes throughout the years that Tony had wronged in some way. The Goomba Johnny seated at the counter is supposed to be Nicky Leotardo, Phil’s newphew. The black guys that he see’s walk in were from the Projects debacle. Now tie all that in with the boat scene Tony has with Bobby in the beginning of this season when they discuss what it’s like to die. Bobby speculated that you don’t feel anything or hear anything. It just goes black. I think he looked up to see Meadow walk in as he gets popped in the back of the head in front of the whole family. Phil was killed in front of his family so it seems fitting for the retaliation.
And as far as that exchange between Junior & Tony, which also got me a bit choked up, I believe that was Tony realizing that the idea of a Mob family just doesn’t work anymore but back in the day “they ran Jersey.”
Some great points, Aubs. They diner people may have been allegories or archetypes. Kids who got hooked on drugs, project residents, murdered mobsters…
Another thing to support that whack theory – Chase, like I said, has a great way of creating tension via closeups, tight angles and other camera methods right before something really bad happens. Who didn’t know, for example, that Bobby and Phil weren’t about to get whacked in their respective scenes? It was obvious and delicious!
So, with Tony’s fervent glances around the diner, and – more specifically – Meadow’s parallel parking debaucle – we all thought we knew the guns were about to come out. Maybe they did. But maybe they just had some rings.
I am still of the opinion that the message to take away from that scene is something like – the entire family (crew and immediate) will have to go through the rest of their days with eyes in the back of their heads – because that is the life they have chosen.
I was reminded of the first season, when Big Pussy and Christopher can’t manage to throw Emile Colack’s body into the dumpster and BP suggests just making the body disappear. “They know, but they don’t know.”
Props to DC for putting the audience right inside Tony’s head with that ending. One of the things that kept “Sopranos” fresh for me was the fact that you never felt like you, the viewer, were being condescended to.
I was having an adult beverage with a friend at the Red Lion in Toronto last night. We were talking about how cool it was that so many TV shows are now available on DVD. She said she really wanted to get into the Sopranos, had never seen a full episode, but “heard the ending SUCKED”.
I contained my annoyance (not her fault), told her I vehemently disagreed and that I envied her – being able to start from the beginning and enjoy the series all the way through at her own pace.
I sincerely hope the legacy of the last episode in popular culture is that “it sucked”. But then again, I get angry when people tell me “Temple of Doom” is a bad movie. But then again I also live alone with a cat.
Obviously I mean to type: I sincerely hope the legacy of the last episode in popular culture is NOT “it sucked”.
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