Jonathan Kleier
04/07/2007
From my analysis, here are the events that can or will play roles in this final season:
SEASON 6:
We are quickly reminded that the Mafia offers few options for getting out via the powerful and difficult to watch scene where Eugene hangs himself.
Paulie gets bad cancer, Tony smashes AJ’s windshield and threatens him to get his act together. Everyone has a heart attack, and this is a possibility for Tony as well in the end.
Tony does lots of favors for Johnny Sack, but that’s all thrown out the window since Sack plead guilty. The Mafia is falling apart and Tony reminds us that things are increasingly difficult for them with all the new competition from other mediums – DVDs, the Internet, digital music, etc. We see a growth of Corporate
Meadow has moved to California and (I think) is becoming a lawyer and she will be the first Soprano that is “legit.” Silvio gets to be acting boss while Tony’s in his coma and it is blatantly obvious he is not good at it. In fact other than Tony, it doesn’t seem that anyone in the family is capable of being the leader. Paulie finds out his mother is not his mother. A rapper pays Bobby to shoot the rapper in “the fleshy part of the thigh” so as to raise the rappers street credibility. This brings up the idea that Tony may have arranged for something similar, which would explain Junior shooting him (though that is very unlikely).
Arabs show up from time to time and it seems like this might come up somehow in the final season, or Chase is using them as a red herring and the terrorism stuff will be not factor in. Christopher sells them guns, and does some credit card fraud with them, so if those guns are used for something nefarious or terror related, the FBI could tie it to the Family.
We also find out that some from the New York family would like to “wipe the Soprano family off the face of the earth,” which Phil responds “whack a boss? Never.” With Phil’s health unknown, the new New York boss might make that happen. But that’s unlikely because, in my opinion, it would be far more tragic an ending if any characters are murdered by their own crew.
Chris dates Tony’s love interest, and Tony is not happy about that.
I think that in the end, one of the major characters will be murdered by another major character. Silvio, Paulie, Christopher or Tony and it will not be easy. Sylvio has only been disloyal to Tony 1 time which was in the fourth season, and it was not a huge deal. It was related to the Columbus Day Parade which was more of a topical episode addressing some of the show’s critics. Paulie has been disloyal too many times to list, but he is dying anyway. Christopher is generally loyal, but he’s drug addict and therefore a wild card and a risk to Tony.
SEASON 1:
Jackie Aprile is Boss, but at the show’s beginning, he is already in the hospital and near death. Tony and Uncle Junior are Capos, and with Jackie dying from cancer, Tony and Junior are the two next in line to take over.
After a lot of consideration, Tony decides, for strategic reasons, to hand over power to his uncle. But Tony plans to run the family silently, and figures that with Junior as Boss, Junior is the FBI’s target.
Meanwhile, Tony puts Livia into Green Grove retirement home, and he discovers that Green Grove is a good F.B.I.-free zone, like a doctor’s office or lawyer’s. This is where he meets with the other Capos, including Junior’s. Livia knows about Tony’s working behind Junior’s back, and she spills the beans to Junior.
The F.B.I., though, has bugged Green Grove and they hear everything, including Junior and Livia’s conversation where Junior says that this means he must assassinate Tony.
Meanwhile, Big Pussy has disappeared and The Gang worries that he’s either dead or has flipped. Tony becomes very depressed. Very depressed, and keeps repeating, “Nobody knows anything,” which they do not.
Junior hires a couple of Black guys to do Tony’s murder. As Tony is getting into his car, he sees the reflection of the murders, and is quick enough to dodge the first bullet. He quickly pulls out his gun as he starts the car and shoots the Black guy in the face, and escapes.
In the Season 1 Finale, the FBI, in an attempt to flip Tony, plays him a recording from Green Grove where Livia and Junior Discuss the murder (this is actually similar to what Agent Harris did in Season 6’s season Finale where he warns Tony that New York is planning on taking out someone in Tony’s crew.) Tony takes the information and launches a “war” on Junior’s crew, murdering almost all of Jun’s Capos and underlings, including Junior’s top advisor, Mikey Palmice.
Before Tony’s crew can get to Junior, the FBI arrests Jun and his life spared.
SEASON 2:
This season is very important, I think, in what will be the ultimate outcome to the series.
If we break the series into the traditional 3-act structure, Season 2 is basically the end of Act 1. This means that in theory, this is the basis and set-up for everything else to come, and it is what is supposed to come back in the 3rd act. The 3rd act began with the sixth season, and the first lines of dialogue in season 6 was Junior asking Tony about Little Pussy Malanga who Junior murdered in Season 1 and the reason Tony torched Vesuvio’s. Also, when Junior shoots Tony, he says something like “fuck you Malanga.” Anyway, sorry for that tangent.
In this season, Tony makes some of huge mistakes, and Big Pussy is feeding all the info to the government.
Midway through the season, a couple of Christopher’s lackeys try to murder Chris. Chris ends up in a coma and loses his spleen.
The shooting really upsets Tony because he really does love Chris. So after finding out where the shooter, Mathew Bevaloca, is, Tony shoots him to death. But he fucked up because there was an eye witness who identified Tony and this is where Tony starts to unravel.
Eventually, after the witness discovers that case is mob related, he recants his testimony, and Tony dodges the homicide case.
But the FBI really wants to get Tony. The FBI agent working with Big Pussy tells him very forcefully to get, on tape, Tony admitting he murdered Matt. While Tony is normally very careful, he does discuss the murder in Pussy’s presence more than one time. However, we the audience, never find out if Pussy got the admission on tape as he was told to do.
This might come back in the final season.
Also, in Season 3 or 4 Tony and crew figure out that Pussy had been an FBI informant all the way back to 1995, which until then, they had only believed Pussy was working for the govt. for about a year.
In the Season 2 finale, Tony gives his mother stolen airline tickets. She gets busted, and Tony is arrested. Tony has a near breakdown because it’s this type of sloppiness that he thinks will bring him down. He reminds his lawyer that Al Capone was brought down for tax stuff, nothing mafia related. The airline tickets are federal charges. The FAA, wire fraud, etc. Tony makes bail, but to this day, we do not know the legal outcome of this event. Especially because the FBI got its info from Pussy, and we do not know how much more he gave them.
Again, this could come back.
This is also the episode where they kill Pussy in a very emotional scene.
The penultimate episode, Janice shoots Richie Aprile, killing him. They were engaged. Earlier in this episode, Janice makes it clear that Richie should go after Tony and kill him. Richie says he will not do it, he’s old-school. Janice persists, and even brings up precedent of Paul Castellano, a real-world mafia boss who was assassinated by John Gotti outside of Sparks steak house.
I think Janice is intent on having Tony killed and the reason she murdered Richie is that she realized he wouldn’t do it. It makes me wonder what kind of influence she has on Bobby and what role she may have played in Junior’s shooting Tony.
SEASON 3:
Major plot lines:
The season begins with the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” playing behind the FBI plotting to bug Tony’s house.
Ralph (Joe Panteleone) is introduced as a major character.
Jackie Jr. (Jackie Aprile, former boss’s son) is a big character this season. He dates Meadow, cheats on her, and robs a card game, shooting Furio in the leg, shooting at Chris, and murdering an associate. In the Season Finale, Jackie is shot to death, by the then young and unknown to us, Vito. The shooting is blamed on Black Drug dealers, which it seems is a common thing for the Sopranos.
Tony is very affected by Jackie Jr. because it points out to Tony that unless he intervenes, A.J. will meet the same fate as Jackie. Tony makes it very very clear that he does not want A.J. to go into the mob, and as he tells Melfi, A.J. would never make it anyway.
In the same session, Tony explains that he wants Meadow to get as far away from him as possible. He would like her to be a doctor, or a lawyer, anything legit. Tony views Meadow as very bright, and very loyal to the family, which she is.
Meadow is very much like Tony in her street smarts. She has a tight mouth, and she never discusses her father’s business with “outsiders.” Meadow, I think, knows what’s going on and what her dad really does and she respects it.
This is in stark contrast to A.J. In the finale, he is caught cheating on a test and he rats out his friend who cheated with him. Chase shows this to us because it is such an obvious contrast to the ideals of the mafia, and also shows the differences between him and Meadow.
AJ is expelled, and Tony decides that he’s gotta get AJ away from the Soprano environment. Tony insists on sending AJ to Military school, and is ready to until AJ has a Panick Attack and faints. Turns out he inherited it from Tony. Military school is no longer an option and Tony is very shaken up. He knows that unless AJ is shipped away, he’ll end up dead like Jackie Jr.
Very emotional Tony asks Melfi, “How are we gonna save this kid?” He really means it, and he really does not know the answer. He is scared.
SEASON 4:
Christopher becomes a Captain, Carmella and Furio fall in love, and by the end of the season Tony and Carmella divorce. This whole season there was building tension between New York and Tony’s Family and for most of the season it seemed like there would be an all out war between the families, which never happened.
This also happened in Season 5, and Season 6, which a lot of fans criticize this because they do not like that Chase leads down this road every season yet never provides the war that seemed inevitable.
SEASON 5:
Tony B (Steve Bushemi) murders Bill Leotardo, Phil’s brother. Tony, in the Season finale shoots Tony, his cousin, in the face with a shotgun.
Tony is a pragmatist. He really did not want to kill his cousin. But he knew that had he not, New York would have (and they already did) retaliated. Tony also realized that within his own family there was unrest. There was a building mutiny, and Tony made the wise decision and saved himself.
This is also why Tony ultimately had to decide to kill Vito, though he strongly did not want to. Tony understood that, from a business perspective, he had no choice. Tony does generally make good decisions when it comes to these things. He is very principled, and though usually he will not be told what to do, when he needs to, though, he makes those smart decisions. Not to mention that Vito is Tony's Tony's top earner.
Also, at the end of season 5, the FBI came after Johnny Sack while he and Tony were meeting. Tony escaped (the FBI wasn’t after Tony, anyway). And that’s where Season 6 begins.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)