By VIRGINIA ROHAN
STAFF WRITER
Bergen County Record
Monday, June 11, 2007
Do-o'nt stop ... debatin'.
David Chase apparently wants us to keep wondering if Tony Soprano is gonna get whacked or go to prison.
Those two issues remained unresolved when "The Sopranos" suddenly went to black Sunday night, so abruptly -- after the first two words of a chorus of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " -- some viewers may have thought they were victims of a horribly timed technical glitch.
Though some "Sopranos" fans will no doubt feel cheated because there was no definitive closure after 8½ years, 86 episodes and endless hype, it was actually an inventive way for Chase to have ended. He's often said he hates how broadcast television always ties everything up in a neat little bow, and he gets points for resisting the urge to not be messy.
The finale episode, "Made in America," which Chase wrote and directed, did give fans closure on some issues at least.
Where we did get satisfaction:
* Phil Leotardo is dead. The detestable head of the Brooklyn family got whacked, and in a fittingly ignominious way -- after being shot in the head by one of Tony's guys, he was accidentally run over by his own SUV.
* Tony finally realizes that Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) really is demented. Ever since Junior shot Tony, the old man was dead to his nephew, who thought he was faking the mental fuzziness. But Tony saw otherwise last night, and it was a beautiful scene.
* A.J. is probably going to be all right -- well, as all right as A.J. will ever be.
* Tony is not going into the Witness Protection Program -- and really, this is for the best, since Tony always railed against rats. He garroted one on the college trip with Meadow and even ordered a hit on his own friend, after discovering that Big Pussy was wearing a wire. Besides, we know Carmela (Edie Falco) could never live in Oshkosh. We saw how antsy she was when they were just temporarily hiding out at the shore house.
The final episode also had some nice touches that harked back to the pilot. For example, there was the return of Meadow's old friend Hunter Scangarelo -- played by Michele De Cesare, Chase's daughter. And the onetime party girl is now in her second year of medical school!
Alas, there were no ducks in the finale, but Tony did adopt a stray cat -- whose obsession with Christopher Moltisanti's photo was hilarious.
There was plenty of humor, which had always helped to make "The Sopranos" the great series it was. Some favorite lines:
* After Tony suggested that Janice (Aida Turturro) bring her long-lost son, Harpo, to live with her in New Jersey, she snaps, "Harpo changed his name. He's Hal now." (Remember when she informed Tony that Hal had changed his name to Harpo?)
* After A.J.'s $30,000 SUV exploded into flames because he'd parked it on leaves, he suggests that it's just as well. "We have to break our dependence on foreign oil."
* When Janice informed Uncle Junior that "Bobby's dead," he immediately said, "Ambassador Hotel" -- the site of Bobby Kennedy's fatal shooting.
* And of course, there was the Daniel Baldwin screenplay "Anti-Virus," about a private detective who gets sucked into the Internet through his data port and has to solve the virtual murders of prostitutes. This is the project with which Tony and Carmela were able to divert A.J. from joining the Army.
* Tony makes Paulie the "skipper" of Ralphie Cifaretto's old crew -- after Paulie initially turned it down, because "every guy who has run that crew died prematurely."
Finally, there are the things we don't know:
* Will Silvio ever wake up? He didn't look good.
* The answer to the prison question. By episode's end, Tony knew that one of his crew, Carlo, was singing to a grand jury, and his own lawyer had informed him there was an 80-90 percent chance he'd be indicted.
* Would that shifty-looking man at the counter at Holsten's, the guy in the Members Only jacket (Paolo Calandrea) who kept looking in Tony's direction, hit him first? Or was he just a guy who wanted to head to the men's room? (I vote for the latter.)
Either way, it implies that Tony will always have to be looking over his shoulder. And that's probably Chase's point.
E-mail: rohan@northjersey.com
No comments:
Post a Comment