Let’s forget war and strife, theist vs atheist, government corruption and all the rest, and concentrate on the real issue burdening us today: what will happen on the last episode of The Sopranos?
Other than showing Tony’s slide and a pointed reminder that Carm is not an angel of virtue herself (let’s skip what happened in the shower, please), Sunday’s episode was a red herring. I think the real setup was last week with Junior and Paulie.
I think all the speculation on how Tony will die is wrong. Tony dying is melodrama. Tony surviving with his world in ruins is Greek tragedy, and The Sopranos is nothing if not Greek tragedy. Here’s my prediction.
Paulie, afraid for his life after the fishing trip, defects to Phil’s family and is ordered to take out Tony, but Sil shields his boss and he and Paulie die in a hail of bullets. As for Christopher, I think Adrianna’s death will come back to haunt him in some way like appearing to him as he dies of an overdose.
Then, with his money gambled away and his power taken away, the last scene in the last episode will have Tony sitting in his lawn chair next to his pool as the ducks from the first episode land in it. But what’s really eating at him is Carmela and the kids are dead. Junior, in his growing dementia, accidentally killed them instead of Tony.
The one major alternate I can see is AJ surviving to inherit his father’s spot. Then the final scene would be him taking his father’s place in Doc Melfi’s chair.
What’s your theory?
Lets hope it has such a powerful ending. Unfortunately I’ve seen too many great shows end with a weak and over hyped finale.
I dont really have a theory at this time, but I must say I have been very disappointed with the show this season, it seems to have to track to it and for this to be the series final season I would think they would be trying to tie up the loose ends and go out with a bang
I love the way they photoshopped Tony’s jowls out of the picture.Does he have that kind of control over Ads?BTW Tonys dead fish.
Q: What IS a Soprano? A: Singer…
I think he gives up the info to the Feds.
these things aren’t written to have proper ending per se, the week-to-week just doesn’t seem to fit into any framework of a larger arc. so instead something like the last act of King Lear, we get something more like the last episode of Happy Days.
Sopranos may get a decent send-off, but I have slightly more hope for shows like Battlestar Galactica.
I didn’t even know this show was still on the air…
Don’t forget Paulie’s comment about DNA evidence making it difficult to get away with murder these days and, then, having, his shirt ripped away from him when he did the hit in Canada. Chest hairs. That could be his downfall.
There will be a movie.
Nothing will happen in any episode that will spoil a movie.
So in other words, it’s going to be a disappointing ending.
For the record, I quit watching it two years ago because I got fed up with how long they drag out starting a new season.
It was all a dream? Actually, I didnt know it was still on either.
Don’t forget Paulie’s comment about DNA evidence making it difficult to get away with murder these days and, then, having, his shirt ripped away from him when he did the hit in Canada. Chest hairs. That could be his downfall.
Hey moron, that wasn’t Tony but Bobby Bocala who did that hit. Why even comment when you have no clue what you are talking about.
My theory is that HBO realized this last season stinks, and they split it in to two so the hardcore fans wouldn’t realize what a turd the show’s turned in to until it’s too late.
As for the plot line, Soprano coming out of the last show with no power doesn’t setup well for a movie. He, his wife, and his daughter will live. His son, due to becoming a loser in real life, will get killed off… or go to jail after killing his now ex-fiance (damn whore).
As for the rest of the show, watch for the Leotardos to lose out across the board. This was setup by the rant over their name two shows back.
Years ago i looked foward to 9pm sunday nights…..after last year and the first 4 shows this year…..the show is very disappointing. This is what i have been waiting for? What a waste of good characters…..they could have done much better.
Two possibilities, the way I see it: the series will end like every show has ended for the past three seasons – despite all the teases of cataclysmic conflict, everyone will continue to talk and equivocate instead of act, and ultimately the show will end with everything going on just the way it was, except that Tony quits therapy.
The way I’d like to see it end: cornered on federal charges, Tony rats out his own organization, not to mention Phil’s and Heshe’s, and becomes a protected state’s witness. But Carm won’t go with him into hiding, and the kids are grown and don’t need to. The final scene is dawn in a shabby little trailer park in Arizona. Dolly in on a specific tacky trailer. The door swings open, and Tony, barefoot and looking like a desert rat but wearing a shabby, open bathrobe, steps out, yells bitterly at dogs barking somewhere else in the trailer park. He staggers down the gravel path to a dirt road where he stops alertly and glances around. But no one’s there. He’s all alone, except for the barking dogs. Tony picks up his newspaper, takes one last look, more hopeful than paranoid this time, and who should materialize coming down the road but Sil, Paulie, Chrissie, Bobby, Big Pussy, Big Vito, Johnny Sack, and all the other guys, dead or alive, that he worked with and/or screwed over during his life of crime. They’re all happy to see him, and he’s thrilled to see them. But they’re not there. Tony’s spirits sink again. He tucks his paper under his arm, and trudges back up the gravel driveway to his lonely trailer as we cut to end credits.
HBO series can deliver a strong ending. The conclusion of Six Feet Under comes to mind as does the finale of Carnivale.
The less said about the way they killed Deadwood however….
It looks like the writers took 2 years off, not the actors.
Every show I go to myself, Is that it ?
What happened to the guy with the restaurant ?
Tony won’t die. You can’t milk a movie with him dead.
I hope it gets better.
Tough to tell…I hope AJ doesn’t take over, he’s a wiener and not 1/10th the man Tony is.
@ BobH…Six Feet Under had a great ending, but Carnivale wasn’t ended well at all. It was the worst atrocity committed by a television network ever to cancel that show. There were 4 more seasons to the whole story.
17. What bothers me is that those 2 shows were far better than almost all Network television shows. And yet we have Deal or No Deal and Idol as succesful examples. Does this say anything about taste?
Scott K commented: “Carnivale wasn’t ended well at all.”
I concur the show _could_ have continued as there was an abundance of grist for the mill. However, after the protagonists for good and evil wage a battle to the death, sequels are left with little more than more of the same.
The characters in Carnivale may have been the best to ever emanate from the beam. Perhaps that’s why the craving for more. A book or an in-depth development of the entire saga (even as online text) might have been exquisite.
Back on topic, The Sopranos, by contrast, is well done — but so is The Wire and when The Wire offs a player, the viewer is stunned. I can’t think of anyone from either NY or NJ who will be missed like several of the leads in Baltimore. It sucked that the Sopranos whacked Frankie Valli but there must be a dozen roles even now in The Wire that I’d hate to see end.
Apparently, the last scene of the show was shot in a bar in NJ.
1. My favorite ending would be seeing Paulie whacked by the Russian assasin left in the snow who ” killed 16 Czechoslovakians and was an interior decorator.” Remember him?
2. I think the Cleaver movie is a foreshadow. Chris and Bobby grow tired of Tony’s tactics and are approached by Phil Leotardo about taking over the NJ mob with Chris as the leader and Bobby as his #2.
3. All of Tony’s immediate family is killed in the power struggle as is Sil, but Tony somehow escapes. The movie will be about how Tony seeks his revenge on those who betrayed him.
I think the previous few episodes have been part of an arc to isolate Tony. The people he thought were his friends, actually fear he will kill them. Bobby and Tony have a fist-fight and now Bobby is being set up to take the fall for what should have been a throw-away murder. Christopher is staying away to stay sober (something that will come to a head next episode, from the look of the preview).
The obvious ending is that Bobby is caught, gives in to pressure from his wife and sells out Tony. Thus, Tony will have been betrayed by both his mother and his sister.
But I don’t think it will be obvious. I think it will be unexpected, but make sense, and it will be satisfying.
I see AJ taking over, he is his dad, and the cycle continues.
In a send up of the entire series that has managed to gratuitously slide in two Sinatras and a Four Season, perhaps the Boss will take over with Steve Van Zandt as consigiliere to Bruce Springsteen in an art imitates life imitates art head twister. Hesh will be happy to be back in his element and HBO will enjoy a wild publicity ride… especially if Jon Bon Jovi whacks Christopher with Patti Scialfa looking on in the final scene.
If you follow all that, you’re to be commended. 🙂
What a bunch of whiners. This show is consistently satisfying on so many levels, Even when the individual episode has less of the elements I enjoy the most, it still takes me to that place that art provides – a timeless place that helps clarify your personal reality while broadening your perceptions of other realms previously unknown. Tony is the anti-hero of these American times. Asking for a conclusion that ties or sums up everything – “Six Feet Under”- is asking too much. I’ll take whatever happens gladly. It’s been a blast.
The former FBI agent that now works for Homeland Security will help get Tony off the hook with the government in trade for information on those two terrorist guys that used to work with Christopher.
I disagree that this last season is poorly written — on the contrary, I think it’s extremely well written. The episodes have been richly layered, focusing on themes of how one’s actions in the past affect the present and the future, how one can’t live in the past, how we grow old while continuing to feel young … the palpable effects of the passing of time, and the acceptance and denial of that passing. “Reminiscing; the lowest form of conversation.”
I agree that Tony will be isolated at the end. Isolated, in profound psychic pain, with nowhere to turn except for the horrible crimefather existence he has spent so many seasons and so many sessions with Melfi trying to reconcile within himself.
A.J. will kill his now Ex-girlfriend and get caught because he’s retarded. Vitto’s kid will become more and more crazy and kill himself at camp, or become gay like his dad. I feel that Phil will end up having Christopher killed sometime, but im not sure how it will come to it. Finally, i think it will come down too Melfi taking Tony out. Either by turning him into the Feds, or kills him. All just speculation at this point. I have really enjoyed this part of this season. It started off slow, but im getting into the second half. Looking forward to seeing them all go out with a bang!
I have to agree that the setup on the past few episodes has been to isolate Tony. Every member of the family has a beef with Tony, or a reason to fear him (Paulie remembering the whacking of Big Pussy on the boat, for instance). Every relationship is falling apart. If anyone thinks that Phil is going to be idle by the end of this, I don’t see how. He’s making an obvious power play to become boss and settle the score with Tony over the personal loss of his cousin. Top that off with the fact that all of Tony’s other relationships are cracking, I’m not so sure many people will come to his defense when the confrontations occur.
I’m not sure how this show will end but I hope they take some inspiration from “The Godfather” and make a new show about Tony’s father. This new show would be set in the 50’s and 60’s when the Mob really had a free hand in New york. No RICO, few wiretaps, Hoffa etc. I think it would be great.
#28 I agree, that would make a good show, Tony’s father and Jr. And even little Tony, after all he was a rough neck as a kid.
I do not believe AJ would ever take over, he was not groomed for the position, he would not even know how to run things, if he did take over, I think the ‘family’ would just go down hill, and no one would respect him.
Christopher won’t take over, even though Tony *was* grooming him to do so, the reason for this is that it is real obvious in the past season and a half that Chris really wants out. He has not said it, but he is really moving away from the whole lifestyle.
Pauly is going to get him self killed, just from his own big mouth and paranoia. I think Tony decided to keep him around on the fishing trip.. He gave Pauly a chance to make a move, and Pauly didn’t do anything.. Tony seemed content with that.. But Tony has a habit of jumping the gun on things, so who knows for sure. I really don’t like the Pauly character, reminds me of to many people I know in real life.
Carm, well I think she will leave Tony again, after the BS in the last episode about ‘her money’, I think she will realize that the only way to be independent is to, well be independent :). Plus I believe that the whole reason she was hording her money was because she had plans. She implies that she wanted it incase something happened to tony, that she would be taken care of, but I believe there is more to it than that.
Tony is losing it. The only members of the family that I feel are still 100% loyal to him are Sil, and maybe Christopher, even though Tony thinks Christopher doesn’t respect him.. Tony thinks Christopher’s attempts to stay away from the booze/drugs is a sign that he has lost his loyalties towards Tony.
As for the ending? I hope that they do leave it open for a movie, and keep MOST the original cast for the movie.. Drop Pauly… Maybe have Bobby come back for revenge after serving some time for the murder in canada. *shrug*
-T1
It’s simple how the season ends, you just have to see the direction the show is going in. Tony ends up continuing to be a major puss and eventually co headlines a talk show with Dr. Phil handing out tear stricken advice to reformed gangsters. AJ ends up being gay (who didnt see that coming) and gets gang raped with a smile on his face.
Paulie and Sil end up duking it out with a game of poker and both die of heart attacks, while Christopher ends up being slashed and killed by Daniel Baldwin who in reality was pissed at how much of a puss they portrayed him as.
In the end Phil, the only one left with balls, ends up tying up loose ends and unifies the NJ and NY families into one.
Gawd what a boring soap opera of a show the Soprano’s has turned into.