Nearly Identical to Last Season... Here's that Analysis

Jonathan Kleier

June 5th 2006
This was written last year immediately following the season's finale (or as HBO calls it, Season 6A) It seems Season 6B was just a repeat. Sorry, I couldn't help putting this up. Chase is a mysterious man.

For the most recent Finale, here.

The Sopranos is essentially the only film or T.V. show with the balls to set-up major things and leave those things unresolved. And that's part of what makes this show so spectacular. But this time it was different. Maybe for the reasons of wasted time on unimportant characters, maybe because the show is winding down to its end, and here with the season finale, NOTHING happens, NOTHING important gets paid off. Not only not paid-off, but in fact nullified... War with New York? Nah, Phil has a heart attack. Fine, these things happen in real life. But drama need not and should not be reality, it does, though, need to be authentic. Such a coincidence is an unacceptable plot device. It's one thing if this were the first time a heart attack saved the day, but it's the 3rd that I count -- Carmine senior, the rat in the first episode of this season, and Phil. Each conveniently averting major disaster for Tony.

I'll say this, in retrospect, the only way this episode could have provided satisfaction is if either Chris, Paulie, Silvio, or Tony had died or been murdered. Not because of some primal urge for blood and guts as a lot of other fans might want, but because one of their deaths is both the logical climax, and the ultimate set-up for this bullshit "bonus" season.

This episode had no dramatic tension. No consequences (negative or positive). Just more of the same. More of the same bullshit. Christopher's identical 30 minutes of drug induced coma a month ago was boring, but because it was early in the season, there was potential for it to have meaning because of what it would eventually lead to, yet it didn't. Nothing happened.

And so on, no consequences for anyone. No consequences for Tony’s shooting, no mention of it. Tony has not changed. He has not and will not. He’s a Mob Boss, and that’s how he likes it.

It all comes down to Tony as he's the only character that matters. What defines a protagonist are the decisions he makes in the face of pressure or crisis. There was none of that last night. As opposed to, for example, season 5. Some would argue that the main dramatic tension was the penultimate episode where Adrianna is murdered. But really, that season's finale is what this show is all about, and the manifestation of it with Tony's coming to understand that he must act on his cousin or else face severe consequences from his crew, or from NY. He quarreled with it for a lot of the season, and completely resisted it up to the penultimate episode where he told Johny Sack to "go fuck himself." Then in the finale, after seeing his mistakes, and the mounting pressure from all sides, he makes a choice that goes against everything he wants, and blows a hole in his cousin's face.

This is similar to the Vito situation, but he got to keep his hands clean for that one. Which is fine, because the Vito thing was not the necessarily the drive of the season, but in light of the season finale, one wonders what was the point? Just to demonstrate more inaction by the only character, Tony, who by definition must be the one who perpetrates the action, yet does not. Phil does.

Chase has painted himself into a corner now. He set us up to think Christopher was gonna get it. It wouldn't have mattered if the set-up made it somewhat predictable, because no matter what, if Christopher were killed, it would have been utterly tragic and surprising no matter how much he has become irrelevant lately, he is 1 of 4 of the original crew that we have known for 7 years.

Paulie has faded into irrelevancy as well, but more tragically as he has cancer and looks to be dying anyway. Silvio is still a major player, and one who has always been loyal to Tony. So if he gets killed, that would be big, same with Tony. But that ship has sailed.

Now Phil is either dead, and thus the only connection we know of between NY and NJ is dead. Or Phil recovers, and his heart attack becomes a joke of a plot device. They might as well tell us that the whole show was a dream. Tony Soprano is really Kevin Finnerty, a patio salesman. There's misdirection (good film-making), and there's utterly fake, and inauthentic (the worst film making possible). (Bold below was added today).

Maybe that's how it will end, like it began. Tony's own family cannibalizing itself... Junior's ordering the hit on Tony, Tony retaliating and taking out Junior's entire crew, ultimately concluding the first season with a quaint family dinner on a stormy night.