The Sopranos - How Can We Just Fahgettaboudit?

Warning! The following blog contains spoilers about the Sopranos finale!
The bastards! It went to black. My heart was in my throat, and the screen went to black! Was Tony dead? Probably. Was I, the voyeur, dead? Maybe. Will we be discussing this for years to come? Definitely.
This was an episode like no other, with references to past episodes throughout, and a feeling that everything was slightly off. In a show that has focused on violence, the psychiatrist’s couch, and the family, we got all three, but in a different, somewhat off-putting, way. Phil Leotardo’s death was quick and painless to him, but horrifying to his wife, who was right there. For what seemed like minutes (but was probably a few secnds) we were led to believe that the gas station was going to blow up, with Phil’s SUV driving into the pumps, in a strange homage to Hitchcock. Mercifully, that did not happen, but as the SUV’s tire rolled over Phil’s head (off-camera), we were treated to the reaction of another voyeur, who regurgitated at the sight. Chase drives home the point that what we have been watching is not fun, nor is it pretty.

We saw a psychiatrist, wearing an outfit eerily similar to Melfi’s and sitting in one of Melfi’s almost archetypal poses, right across from Tony. But this washed-out blonde, all cold, WASPy professionalism, was no match for the Soprano bullshit. Talk about the semiotics of hair color!

Then there was the family dinner. Carmella loves her family with food. But the family dynamics have changed. Tony’s beloved swimming pool, source of all life, has been drained. Carmella is not cooking the family dinner (indeed, there were no kitchen scenes in this episode). And the home away from home, Vesuvio, hosts Bobby’s funeral. It is over for this family, as they head for a diner, for the “best onion rings in Jersey,” for the threat of further indictment, for more unhappiness for AJ, another engagement for Meadow (for all of her hip togetherness, this woman can’t seem to make up her mind about anything), and, probably, Tony’s death. As Journey sings in the background, “It goes on and on and on and on . . .”

Ysolde