Erm, yeah, so... Er... ja. How was that for you? I don't know if I've just seen the most natural, brilliant ending to The Sopranos that could ever have been imagined or if I was cheated out of the kind of closure an awed viewer like me needs - desperately.
But that was at the end. Lets start at the beginning, a very good place to start. At the safe house The episode opened pretty much where the previous one
"The Blue Comet" ended - Tony waking up in the upstairs room of his safe house. He and his crew are still hiding out there as the war between the two families hangs at a precipitous point after the death of Bobby and the seemingly fatal hit on Silvio. It appears that some length of time has passed and a stray cat has taken up residence with Tony and the crew. Of course, Paulie is annoyed and unnerved by the cat's presence.
During a snowstorm, Tony has a clandestine (is there any other kind?) meeting with Agent Harris to offer up information on the two Arab Bada Bing clients he snitched on and the bank they had accounts with if Agent Harris can offer him info on the whereabouts of Phil Leotardo. Tony gives the bank info, but Harris tells Tony he's "overreaching" when he fishes for details on Phil's movements.
Tony arrives at the safe house where Carmela, Meadow and AJ are staying. AJ sees new girlfriend Rhiannon out the front door (which pisses Tony off) and Carmela complains about the bad, "toxic" smells in the house. They discuss Bobby's upcoming funeral and security issues surrounding it.
Bobby is laid to rest The funeral itself passes by in a whirr of brief, unfocused shots taken from an FBI surveillance camera. We then cut to the gathering afterwards, with all the sober expressions from before replaced with mild joviality in the presence of good Italian cooking and wine.
AJ admonishes the group at his table (including Meadow, her boyfriend Patrick Parisi, Bobby Jr, some relatves and Paulie) for being blinded by the "American Dream" and believing in a fantasy that is materialistic and overly ambitious at the expense of all others. He quotes a line from WB Yeats' "The Second Coming" but mispronounces the name as "Yeets". This display of world weary conscience is, of course, prime material for Paulie to make fun of and the rest of the group brush off AJ's statements.
Just, as an aside, this scene (and others like it from this season) struck a stronger chord with me when I watched the brilliant Half Nelson at the weekend. Its an indepenedent film out at art nouveau cinemas at the moment, and is an entirely different kettle of fish to The Sopranos, but dealing with very similar feelings of inertia in a world that doesnt make sense. I highly recommend it.
Tony offers the Aprile construction job to Paulie, he doesn’t really have anyone else left in his crew to bestow such a big position to, and Paulie doesn’t appear too enthusiastic about this promotion, since he believes it to be jinxed, considering all the fallen comrades (Jackie Aprile, Vito Sparafore) who had the job before, and his prostrate scare had given him a new lease on life that doesn’t include dangerous work. Paulie says he’ll sleep on it, and it really appears as if Paulie has other plans in mind for Tony. Perhaps a realisation of Tony's fears in
"Remember when..."?
Time to call a truce At the safe house, payments brought to Tony are all noticeably lighter, and it becomes clear that the war is seriously hampering business. We later hear more FBI surveillance material, this time a telephone conversation between Tony and another party, brokering "peace talks" between the two families as the current situation becomes untenable.
At the meeting (beautifully shot in icy blue and black hues in a warehouse on the outskirts of town) mediated by Little Carmine Lupertazzi and George Paglieri, Tony meets with Butch DeConcini and Albie Cianflone. Phil remains at large. The two sides bicker over the hits they'd both taken during the war but agree to call off the attacks. On the matter of Phil, Butch tells Tony to "do what you gotta do". Tony also wants his sister to be compensated for the loss of her husband, and Butch agrees to make a payment to Janice and the kids.
With the air cleared, Tony and his family are able to move back to their home. Surprisingly, Agent Harris calls Tony from bed (he is balding, but rather hirsute otherwise from the neck down) after sleeping with a fellow agent, to tell him that Phil has been making phonecalls from a payphone at petrol stations in Oyster Bay, New York.
This info allows Tony's crew, including Paulie, his nephew whom Chris had thrown out a window in
"Walk Like A Man" (probably my favourite episode of the season) and slick Walden Belfiore to cruise for petrol stations with payphones, but are unable to locate Phil.
The Sopranos go back to doing what they do best - lying to themselves
With the war over, the Sopranos are moving on with thir lives. Meadow and Patrick are planning a wedding and as the Sopranos and Parisis meet to discuss the future of their children's union. Carmela is surprised to see an old friend of Meadow's in her room and it emerges that this friend, who had previously been thrown out of college and arrested on a DUI, is now in 2nd year med-school. Carmela's reaction when she hears this is priceless. Clearly Meadow's decision to quit medicine for law still grates.
At the sitdown with Patrick's parents, its revealed that Meadow has accepted a lucrative position at a law firm that will see her earn six figures. The news delights Tony and Carmela who truly can't contain their delight - they'll probably never bring up med-school again.
AJ, on the other hand, has made the bewildeing decision to join the army and serve in Afghanistan while getting flight training so he can fly Donald Trump's helicopter. He later says military training will help him become a CIA agent later on. This at first annoys and then bemuses Tony who sees that AJ is grasping at straws.
The idea of the military is put to rest when Tony and Carmela offers AJ the chance to work for Little Carmine's (porn) film production company, developing a script about a detective who gets sucked into the Internet through his data port and solve the murder cases of virtual prostitutes. Its true! I didn't just make that up. AJ had earlier in the episode watched his yellow SUV burnt to a crisp while he and Rhainnon were listening to Bob Dylan and making out because he had parked it in some dry leaves. The loss of the car infuriated his parents who vowed to never buy him another car.
In therapy, AJ says that he felt cleansed watching his car burn because it meant he'd rely less on foreign oil (a reason for the war in Iraq) and would humble him to learn the bus schedule and be more productive. At a session between AJ's therapist and his parents, talk of AJ's military ambitions leads invariably to Tony's broken record story of his own loveless upbringing with his "vindictive", narcissistic mother.
I was rolling my eyes like crazy throughout this, but couldn't compete with the masterful Edie Falco who was rolling her eyes enough for all who were watching. Tony’s own narcissism is truly incredible. But AJ's decision to take the film job ultimately softened his parents who buy him a brand-new BMW.
Later, Tony meets his lawyer Neil Mink who tells him that he is likely to be indicted. Suspicions are raised when Carlo Gervasi fails to show up at Bada Bing for a meeting with Paulie. Paulie calls Tony to let him know and that he thinks Carlo has become a state witness against the family.
Phil is found - and dealt with In New York, Phil is seen being dropped off at a petrol station by his wife. He kisses her and says goodbye to his twin baby grandchildren strapped in the backseat. As he and his wife talk, he is shot in the head, the gunman out of shot. As he falls to the ground, he is shot again in the chest and the shooter is revealed to be Walden Belfiore, who looked great in a classic Dirty Harry type pose, standing over Phil’s body with his smoking gun.
In the drama that ensues, Phil’s wife leaps out of her car in shock, but the car rolls forward with the twin babies still in the back. This sends Phil’s wife into greater hysterics and the car’s rear wheel then rolls over Phil’s head, crushing it. This causes one of the onlookers at the petrol station to vomit.
The only reaction we see to this death is from Agent Harris, who exclaims “We’re gonna win this thing!” when he hears the news from Agent Goddard while watching what appears to be video footage of al-Qaeda terrorists. From what I can tell, the terrorism detail appears to be the most unrewarding, most soul-sapping work available at the FBI. Agents Harris and Goddard don’t look healthy at all.
Tony visits Sil in hospital, who looks much like Tony did when he was comatose following his shooting at the start of the season. Nothing is said, Tony just sits there with his old comrade while watching Little Miss Sunshine on TV. A sad moment.
Paulie makes up his mind Outside Satriale’s,Tony approaches Paulie for his decision on his promotion, and Paulie again shows hesitation, until Tony mentions Patsy Parisi as an alternative and Paulie accepts the position. The cat that the crew adopted at the safe house has taken up residence at Bada Bing and causes Paulie even more grey hairs when the cat does nothing but stare up at Chris’s photograph hanging on the wall.
Paulie even tried to club the cat with a broom before Tony walked in. Paulie tells Tony of the cat’s weird habit, and when Tony brushes him off, Paulie says that, as a test, he moved Chris’s picture to another spot on the wall, and the cat followed it and continued to stare. How bizarre...
Janice goes to visit Uncle Junior to find out where he's hidden his stash of money, but of course Junior's demetia is so advanced that he can't remember and thinks Janice is her mothr Livia. When Janice shows him a photo of her daughter Domenica he thinks its of Janice and relates a childhood misdeed of Janice's.
When Janice tells him that Bobby is dead, Uncle Junior replies with, "Yeah, the Ambassador Hotel" referring to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy back in the 60s. A friend of Junior's is present and he later goes to Tony to tell him of Janice's ploy to get the money.
Tony visits Janice who is grieving rather graciously on her back porch. He brings her some pstries, but she jokingly tells him she can't afford to get fat because she needs to find another husband. They talk about the past, the future and Tony assures her that he will be there for her should she need anything.
Tony faces his nemesisAnd then finally, Tony visits the one cross that's been heaviest to bear throughout this season - the reality of the existence of his insane uncle who shot him. In a very poignant scene, Tony lets his Uncle know that any money he has should be left in trust with Tony, who will make sure that Bobby's kids are taken care of. But it becames painfully clear that Junior truly has no idea who Tony is and what he is talking about.
This realisation that he's been holding such a grudge against an old and senseless man touches Tony, who tells his uncle, "You know this thing of ours - you and my Dad, you remember Johnny your little brother? You two ran North Jersey". Junior, surprised and impressed, simply replies, "That's nice" before losing his train of thought again and goes back to staring blankly into the distance. Tony then leaves him, and walks rather hurriedly out of the room.
That final scene Later that day, we finally arrive at the now-infamous final scene as Tony arrives at the diner that Carmela has arranged for her family to have dinner. Tony finds a booth and takes a good look at all the faces of the other customers there - we see a loved-up couple enjoying a meal, a scout troupe and their leader, a solitary man having dinner, and many others. Tony flips through the playlist of songs on the jukebox and selects "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. As the song blasts, and i do mean blasts throughout the scene, Carmela arrives and joins him. They talk of the possibility that Tony will be indicted by a grand jury based on testimony from Carlo Gervasi.
AJ then arrives and Tony looks up each time to see who enters the diner. Mostly obscuring AJ as he enters is a mysterious man who we later see sitting within sight of the Soprano table and ordering a coffee. he appears to be keeping a close eye on Tony. Meanwhile, outside the diner, Meadow is struggling to parallel park her silver sports car. Inside, AJ says he is taking his father's advice to "focus on the good times" and they order onion rings.
As they munch on the onion rings, the mysterious man walks towards Tony's table and I think the hearts of everyone watching must have skipped a few beats. But the man passes their table and makes his way to the men's bathroom. As Meadow makes her way into the diner, Tony spots her and the scene cuts to black... and remains so for about 5 seconds, before the end credits finally start up - and for the first time ever - silently, with no music in the background. The Journey song was cut off at the word "stop".
So.... what was that? And there you have it - the final ever scene of the final ever episode of the final ever season of a show that has left an indelible impression on the history of television. And I havent even begun to be able to wrap my head around what that last scene was all about and what it could possible mean for Tony.
Is he truly safe? Is that mystery man in the diner not going to emerge from the bathroom and shoot Tony on his way out so he has a better escape? Is he accidentally going to shoot Meadow instead since she'll naturally take the seat next to her father? Or rather why did writer/creator and director of this finale David Chase choose to play with us all with those last torturous seconds of silence and nothingness before the ends credits?
Throughout this episode, I had a sinking feeling of trepidation throughout, and it grew and grew exponentially during that last scene. I felt like I was at the precipice of something. And whatever it all meant - I know that it felt great. No, fantastic. Even to its very end, The Sopranos confounded its viewers.
I'd love to hear what everyone else felt. We'll surely never see or experience anything like this ever again.