SOPRANOS--da lass seezin.

Would you insiders mind telling us foreigners what happened?

The last episode was just that, afinal snapshot of anever ongoing story. The only thing that was really a resolution ws the NY family sanctioning the hit on Phil Leotardo. This indicated that the need for order would always prevail over individuals. A lot happened as a series of vignettes,

Tony came out of hiding by arranging a meeting with the NY families.

AJ plans his future life , but was easily talked out of it and Chase shows us how shallow this kid is.

Tony attends the funeral of Bobby Baccala and lets Janice know that hes there for her and the kids (he also gets a guaranteed pension from the NY mob)

Hes clued in on Leotardos location and on facts concerning Tony's own legal future

Tony , aftersome argument, gets Pauley to take Bobby's (previously Vito's) crew. Pauley, in his usual form, lets us know that hes truly a whackadoo.

Parisi Jr, who is now dating Meadow and is also a lawyer, lets us know that his firm , which may offer Meadow a position, will have some future interactions with Tony's business interests.

A few other devices also let us know that this aint gonna be resolved in an hour, and the occurences of these plot devices , IMO, kept piling on with closer and closer frequency as the hour unrolled. .

The ending ws the most brilliant part.After all these occurences Tony's family is, for some reason that I missed, meeting at a new restaurant for supper and each arrives separately , almost like an extended scene in which the word "dread" is a constant feeling.. Tony arrives first and chooses some songs on a jukebox, and hes then starting to watch people in the restaurant as these extras, some looking to us like mobsters and others looking like feds, come in the restaurant and move around and in and out of the focus , into, what we are certain , are assigned positions.( I was always amazed at how much of this series surrounded eating and mealtimes) Meadow, last to arrive to the restaurant, is having trouble parking and they keep switching back and forth to the restaurant and then to her poor parking (It was like the scene in the Godfather where Sonny is caught behind cars at a tool booth and is shot , its a drawn out series of punctuated scene snapshots.
The final scene has Meadow running into the restaurant and, supposedly, as she enters the restaurant, Tony looks up to the door to see her, or maybe something else, and then the scene goes strait to black, no music, nothin, just dark black. . Many feel let down, many dont. I was reminded that the writer has always steered US in this story. Hes always done what weve least expected and he came through again with what I consider an ending that did this entire series proud..
In a series that was always interspersed with humor, tragedy, evil, and stupidity, we are reminded by AJ , at the end, that we should always remember the good times and Tony , almost forgetting that this was his own advice, agrees. They were complex and highly flawed people, but they continue with their lives and we were just a bunch of voyeurs .

David Chase was fully in control on this ending. I dont think that anyone saw this coming , which was probably the main reason that he pulled it off so well.

maybe , just maybe, theres gonna be a movie.. I really hope not.

He sure has prepared the setting for whatever movie he may want to shoot. Thanks for the description, farmerman.

I don't know if it was fitting as an an ending...it was mostly like just another episode. Kept waiting for something big to happen....but nothing....except for the truce.

I suppose the door is open for a movie or anything, intended or not.

The song Tony played in the jukebox in the end was "Don't Stop Believing."

Working hard to get my fill,
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

I was really disappointed.

Ok, so they couldn't kill Tony. I figured so much and knew that I should expect the unexpected. But what the f*ck? For such brilliant writers, this should have been a chance to really shine. Instead, they left it to us?

It seemed like nothing from the past was addressed in this final episode, save the whacking of Phil. It made this whole story ordinary when for the past 6 seasons, it has been anything BUT ordinary.

What's with the FBI now? They are helping Tony?
AJ suddenly is better because he is working as a grunt guy for some movie?
Paulie is now the right hand man despite his ever present hesitance?
What was with the cat? Crissy incarnate?

I know they often left the details up to the viewer but this is just way to out there for me. I'd like a little closure.

reviews were mixed. Maybe it would have been totally different had George Lucas done it.

I liked the part where AJ and his girl were getting ready to "do it" in his SUV while listening to DYlans "Its Alright Ma, Im Only Bleeding" . Amazed that anything could have happened before their birthdates.

I dont feel bad, were now done with this and can move on to something else. I was getting tired of commenting on the appropriate ending song that they chose for each episode. Sometimes my choices were far more creative.

I watched John from Cincinnatti. Switched over to the Hitler Channel.

I almost died laughing when Journey began playing. I turned to my husband and said "They are NOT going to end the Sopranos with Journey!" But they did!

And maybe that's the key.

Hm.

New outlook forming here.....


Don't stop believing....Journey....is he saying that life for the Sopranos will just continue as it has in the past?

Rather anti-climatic and un-Sopranos like but at least something.

Whoever wrote the last episode of Six Feet Under should have handled it, that was brilliant.

How do the writers from one show "handle" another show?

They don't, just wishful thinking. :wink:

Paulie and his prostate. Still the best character on the whole fuckin' show, IMO.

A big ARRRGGGHHHH! to the ending.

Shame on you, Squinney! The next time please use a decent adjective for the show such as cöcksücking.

Paulie was always one of my favs too.

Him and Sil. Sil always made me laugh...just the way he acted and his manerisms. Such a typical wiseguy but always kindof the big softie too.

Sorry.

(I don't have cute little dots over my vowels to throw off the system.)

Oh, and what was the deal with meeting at an old diner for their last meal? No friggin' ziti? Ya gotta be kiddin' me! They go out eatin' friggin onion rings. Was there something to that that I am missing?

I have that damn Journey song stuck in my head now.

Me too.

I know. Forgive me. I'm still a little pissed over the finale.