Entertainment and Media

DO NOT GO FARTHER THAN THIS IF YOU DID NOT WATCH THE ENDING!

I, for one, am extremely pleased with the ending. I suspected that it would be something like this, and I'm happy that it ended this way, because it avoided all the problems that can plague the ending of a great show. This show was revolutionary when it started, and it's revolutionary with its ending.

My husband has spent nearly the last half hour grilling me about my thoughts on the ending. My thoughts?? I don't care. I can make a case that Tony lived, I can make a case that he died. Does it matter which one happened? No, really. Does it matter? For once, a show dared to say that they don't have all the answers, life is messy, and quite often, shit remains unresolved.

Let's say that the weird guy was has a problem staring. He got up, went to the bathroom, came back and sat down without anything ever occuring. Personally, I would feel cheated by that ending. I would want to know whether Tony was indicted, what happened to the FBI agent who gave him info, whether Meadow was happy, how AJ turned out, whether Carmella ever got fed up with Tony's crap... There is no ending.

Let's say that the guy came out of the bathroom. Tony said last episode that families aren't touched and they proved that with Phil's death tonight. Meadow came right in time. She sits down and because the way the booths are arranged, the guy doesn't have a clear shot and waits. Does Tony get hit later, does it get messy with the guy trying anyway, how did he know Tony was there in the first place... There is no ending.

Let's say that Tony is shot. There's an ending, but as I wrote on a board I belong to (on June 7th, before the finale aired), "I think the finale is going to be very low-key. And I'm glad. It's a slice out of one mobster's life, and to me, it should be life a slide under a microscope. You pick it up, examine it, discover something, and then put it down. There is no beginning and end because you already came into the story in the middle of it." So, even though there's an ending, you bought it at the cost of the entire show.

Is it the lady or the tiger??

By ending the show the way they did, they have guaranteed themselves a show that will stand the test of time. Twenty years from now, I believe people will still be talking about this episode and the finale. It's the Citizen Kane of finales. There are no answers, discover whatever you can. But if you are looking for simple entertainment, you got hooked on the wrong show. You should have known that since at least the Pine Barrens episode.

Do you really want the secret of the show?? The hidden ending??? It was hidden there in the episode. Now go find it. I'm not going to hand you the answers either.

I'm going to say this upfront- I haven't seen this episode yet. In preparation for my move, I've had my satellite turned off and I'm relying on spoilers and DVDs right now. That being said, I still know what happened.

I am not surprised at Tony's move. Christopher has had this coming since season 1. He's always been a hothead, ready to fly off the handle and do whatever he wanted to do, with little thought to the consequenses. Christopher assumed that he was safe because he was Tony's nephew, and in that organization, close as a son to him. And it seems that even in "the family", family counts for something. But unlike Bobby who has been content to sit back and let Tony be in charge (too much, some would say), Christopher has assumed that he could make some decisions that were not his to make, simply because he was Tony's nephew. As much as it grates against Tony's nerves, Bobby is laid back, and ultimately, that's why he's alive after their fight. He knows his place. Christopher never did. In fact, one could argue that Paulie is alive because of the same reason. Paulie gets his place in the organization. The hard and fast rule of business is that you don't step on your boss's toes. And this is a business, however ruthless it is.

Literally, from the first season, Christopher struck me as someone who was in danger at any given minute. I wondered why he was allowed to hang around with the big boys, especially since he hadn't proven himself valuable yet. Even after he showed he could carry out a hit, he was mostly a peripheral character. All of his actions served to frustrate Tony, rather than help him. One could argue that there are several characters who are the same way, but they have always proven, to Tony if not the audience, how much they were needed.

Let me say this though. If Phil Leotardo, a latecomer to the Sopranos universe, and seemingly a background player, is the one that brings Tony down, I will be very disappointed.

I liked this episode more than the first episode of this season. The first one was good, but underplayed. But this one was possibly the perfect episode. We have the knowledge of the characters, but it also felt fresh and new, like you've never quite seen The Sopranos before now. It wasn't until Tony was sitting in Dr. Melfi's office that I realized just how much I was going to miss this show. Tony has really come full circle, hasn't he? He's gone from being completely unaware of his motivations to being able to understand other people's actions in relation to himself.

I LOVED the scene with Silvio in the restaurant. When the noise just cut out, you thought that maybe he had some awful disease render him suddenly deaf. Until he was splattered with blood, that is. His calmness in such a situation spoke volumes about how tough Silvio really is, and how much he has seen and done.

Johnny Sack was the best part about the episode. It was incredibly well-acted, in a way that they didn't achieve in the first season when Jackie Aprile died. No offense to Michael Rispoli. He was very good, and I was just as sad as the characters when he died. But Johnny Sack was someone that we had a chance to get to know over the seasons, and we saw the tension with Tony. It was a character that we were invested in, and as such, it was felt more when it happened.