Sopranos 6/10 -- THE END

Tour guide: "This is New York's famous Little Italy. It once covered over 40 square blocks but has now been reduced to one row of shops and cafes."

I think someone mentioned it before, but that was a nice touch, especially in light of the conversations we've been having about the increasing irrelevance of the mob in the age of global terrorism and global economics.

It would be a shame if the disagreements and focus on the abrupt ending make it impossible for some fans of the show to notice the little gems like that in the 55 minutes or so leading up to the ending.

 

Hey, if you're Tony Soprano, you can get onion rings. 8)

 

Anybody who wants to wade through the thread over on twop.com can see some interesting discussion of the onion rings as eucharist.

I'm not sure if I want to go there.

 

Jamie Lynn Sigler's next project is due soon

Homie Spumoni.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464051/

 

Prototypical David Chase - imploring the viewers, "figure out your own ending."

I expected Meadow to come running into the diner with big news - "I'm pregnant!"

Deadspin posted an explanation to the collection of folks in the diner, unearthed on one of the HBO message boards ...

The guy at the bar is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident. Absolutely Genius!!!! David Chase is truly rewarding the true fans who pay attention to detail.

So the point would have been that life continues and we may never know the end of the Sopranos. But if you pay attention to the history, you will find that all the answers lie in the characters in the restaurant. The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (was that season 2 or 3?).

 

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Bob Dylan



After the lyrics in bold (and while the next stanza plays), A.J. says to Rhiannon: "You kept telling me this guy's good."

Rhiannon: "It's amazing it was written so long ago; it's so like about right now."

 

Nice get, J_D.

That bolded section added to AJ's unconnected rant at the funeral and the title Made In America certainly add up to a statement of some kind.

 

What punctuated that was Phil's guy walking and talking on the phone and when he was done he's in Chinatown. The look on his face was priceless.

 

Absolutely.

 

JD...I noticed the tour guide thing too, and then he looks up and he's walking in Chinatown.
That was the New York crew realizing that NJ was the future, and the best group to align with.

 

I thought the cut to black added more suspense/intrigue to it.

 

Especially to anyone who read "Made" in context.