One Final Wack
Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 11:25 Based on what I heard, from a very Bobby Baccaleri (Steven Schirripa), it could all end with tomorrow nights episode. Everyone gets killed? Tony shoots Phil, the Feds shoot Tony? New York Times Sunday article on the Sorpranos
So far, that has been the case. Bobby, Sil and Christopher are gone. I think that David Chase wants to take the moral high road, now that he has made this band of thugs anti-heroes, and show that crime doesn't not pay. The bad guys eventually lose, and the world is a better place, for a while.
It is only going to be a one hour show. I'm surprised. I was hoping that it was going to be a two hour show.
James Gandolfini gave an interview where he said that he is relaxed about moving on to other things after playing Tony Soprano for several years. That might be a tip-off.
One last thought, please let Anthony Soprano live. Maybe Tony turns everyone into the Feds and walks...that would be a good ending.
Wherever you watch the show tonight, enjoy yourself.
Thanks Jeff for being a big Sorpranos fan and for helping me get through the end. So sad. Nothing lasts forever.
Reader Comments (9)
Its been great writing about the Sopranos the last few weeks, and being in touch. It helped me get through it too. Thank you, and your GREAT blog!
Now, what about this last show? I'm sure that a lot of people, myself included, are scratching their heads. At least there was some closure with Phil, and the NY/NJ rivalry. But..the ending? Help!!!
Jeff
Just like that, it was over.
No doubt millions of people around the country leapt to their feet, thinking that the worst possible technical glitch had happened at the worst possible time. But this was no "gotcha" moment from Chase, but rather a director's choice that was something close to perfect.
Phil was killed. Glad for that.He was shot in the head and then the wheel of his truck crushed his head.
Chase wrote and directed the last episode. As Tony met his family - each one driving separately - at a diner, there was an ominous sense of doom. Tony, alone at a booth, flipped through the counter jukebox and selected, appropriately enough, Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." (Music and the lyrics of the songs chosen by Chase have been an integral part of "The Sopranos" and this was no different.) But viewers, wary that something could still happen to Tony - and no doubt moved to the edge of their seats by the dramatic score that preceded Journey - had to bear witness to Tony looking up, vulnerable, every time the door to the diner slammed open.
It was maddening. First, Carmela (though there was a glimpse of a woman who looked like Tony's sister Janice, and a large number of fans thought she’d be the one to off Tony), then, later, A.J. Except when A.J. arrived he was slightly behind a man who looked for all the world like he was there to hit Tony. The man sat at the counter and periodically eyed Tony and his family. The tension rose - highlighted by a beautifully choreographed scene where daughter Meadow arrives but has all kinds of trouble parallel-parking out front, which prolongs the scene. Is she going to walk in just as the guy at the counter kills her father or slaughters her family? Will Meadow be the one to survive? Before she enters the diner - still parking, in an excruciating but now somehow funny scene - the man at the counter walks toward Tony and the...passes. He heads to the bathroom. Next in the door - another two characters who could be hired thugs. But no. Then, finally, the camera slowed as Meadow marches across the street to the diner, and we see Tony looking down, the sound of the door pushed open is heard, he raises his head (apparently seeing Meadow) then touches the top of the counter jukebox just as Journey singer Steve Perry says, "Don't stop..." - and the screen goes shockingly to black, with no sound whatsoever.
The end.
It was like Tony hit the snooze button on an alarm clock. And in some way, he did.
And so, we get more or less what was expected besides the oddly edited ending. Tony's family is around him. Life, such as it is for a mobster facing possible criminal indictment. Life goes on.
Those actors, in my opinion, as excellent as they are would be so type cast with the exception of Lorraine Bracco that they will have a tough time moving on to something else. But hey, the royalties alone make them set for life even though they no longer draw a salary!!!!!
Tiggy
OK. Lets look at the positive. At least Phil got killed, with the blessing of the NY mob. But that's it. The rest was just like a crab cake with lots of filler, and not enough crab meat. We're not sure what really happens, but if there would have been a shot heard, and then the screen goes dark, you can assume that someone was killed.
I see this episode as life coming full circle... when Tony & Carmela go to visit AJ's shrink, she turns out to be a younger version of Dr Melfi... hot legs and all. Tony visits Sil in the hospital... Sil is lying in bed comatose... Tony sees himself lying in that same bed when he was shot by Uncle Junior. Tony visits Uncle Junior in the mental institution... he asks where the stash is... Uncle Junior plays dumb or doesn't know. Tony visits Janice at her house (Johnny Sacks old house) and shoots the breeze with her... is she really upset about losing Bobby?... she's as tough as Tony... and just as crude... Diet? only she would know that its a joke.
They left the door open for a movie... when everyone thought they wouldn't. Would you go to see it? I would... IF JANET PLAYS DR MELFI!!!
Jeff
We all know that death is the only real ending. Our literature and theatre, however, ought to be allowed to come to a conclusion, whether it is a 2 hour play, a 500 page book, or a television series of 8 years, without either killing the hero or anti-hero or having someone win the World Series.
The final episode showed Uncle Junior at his end in the nursing home, yet Tony and we are still allowed to sing Steve Perry's "Don't Stop Believing,"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZsBNJMMhgQ watch video of Christopher