Sopranos 6/10 -- THE END

Off-the-wall insight from a caller to a local radio station:

The cat was Adrianna.

 

It's on HBO also. Caught it there myself.

 

Man she packed on the pounds. I almost didn't recognize her.

 

Tony had the same expression when each walked in.

The very same.

 

Really enjoyed the final episode. Forgive me if this has been discussed, but was anyone else surprised at the complete lack of Hesh during the finale? He was once one of Tony's most trusted advisers, but he was missing during the crisis with New York and failed to make an appearance yesterday.

Also, it just hit me yesterday when he killed Leotardo, but wasn't that the guy who played Bill Guarnere in Band of Brothers?

 

Because it's a two-way street. They've had cops on the inside since Season 1 (didn't one guy get thrown off a bridge?). He's not ratting his guys. He's exchanging information.

 

You are always on the money. I will watch it again cause I really think he smiled at Carm. This seems different as I didn't get the impression he was even looking at Meadow but at something else. If I am wrong I stand corrected!

 

Yep. That was him.

 

It's another Derrek Lee stretch by you.

 

I really liked it, and not just because I predicted (mostly) what the ending would be (go back to page 4 and read it), but because it stayed true to what the show was really about. How often in life do you really get "closure" or "resolution?" This has been pointed out previously, but the point of the last 10 minutes of the show is that life goes on (and on and on and on). Tony can never be happy, he'll always have the threat of indictments hanging over his head, he's always going to blame his unhappiness on his mother, his kids ended up in denial and in the mob just like their father. The point of the last scene isn't that the guy at the counter is going to get a gun in the bathroom and do Tony like Michael in the Godfather. That's not going to be revealed "in the movie" as some stupid television critics have wondered. (And by the way, there has been some seriously stupid TV criticism printed today around the country. Anyone who who wrote that they felt "ripped off because we didn't get to find out if Tony sleeps with the fishes" is officially an idiot.) The point is that Tony's unhappiness and his profession will always force him to case a room and wonder if THIS guy, or THIS guy is going to kill him, or his family. He can't even enjoy a dinner with his family, because when his daughter runs into the restaurant, his first reaction is to see if someone is busting through the door with a gun. That's what the rest of Tony's life will ALWAYS be like. Full of dread. And that's a much worse punishment than being gunned down. Eating onion rings and listening to Journey for all eternity.

And if you're mad it didn't end in a hail of gunfire, you missed the whole point of A.J.'s rant about being distracted from the real world by "watching these jack-off fantasies on TV." At Bobby's funeral, we have A.J. quoting Yeats again, and then 30 minutes later, he's driving a BMW, giggling and laughing at clips of Bush and Karl Rove dancing while snuggled up to his model girlfriend.

It was an excellent close to beautiful show. And yes, Tony did hear the ducks as he swept up around the pool.

 

Tony's attorney still hasn't put any ketchup on the burger.

 

It was so abrupt that at first I felt cheated. But the more I thought about it -- and isn't that the point, that it's good enough as art that you actually can think about it? -- a slow fade with the family enjoying dinner is exactly what the Sopranos did NOT deserve. I loved the tension created in the final minutes, and the allusion to The Godfather about getting the gun from the bathroom was spectacular.
The last two episodes of this show were nothing short of brilliant.
The show went out as it came in -- grabbing you by the throat and refusing to let go.