Four shrinks on the season finale of The Sopranos.

Dear Gang,

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First of all, Glen, I totally join you in grieving the season's end. It may seem syrupy, even open to the barb, "Doctors, get a life!" but the truth is we will miss this show because, oddly, we dedicated fans become flies on the Soprano family's walls. We want to see what will happen next, and in that vein, we really want to know how things will conclude. So, last night's finale without conclusion left us with more than simply our grief, it left us also wondering, and hungering for more. This maneuver once again captures the Sopranos writers' brilliance, though it might have left many fans initially dissatisfied. I agree with you, Glen, that this show is a classic, not simply, however, because it echoes classical themes, but because it sets its own contemporary tone in which there really never is any closure. That is bold, especially for a show that teases us with the possibility of human change à la its principals' involvement in therapy. In effect, the show "flips off" managed care and symptom-amelioration forms of treatment, underscoring the underbelly of Jennifer and Tony's psychodynamically informed treatment. Whether we like it or not, the lesson we are left with is that we have to live with ambiguity, with the unknown. We have to learn to live with the fact that things simply often do not happen as expected. And then of course we die--the only closure that we can truly count upon.

But the question is still stirring: What was left undone by this season's end? The answer is: lots! What happened with Noah? What became of Meadow's tricotillomanic (hair-pulling) roommate? Where was the Russian's big revenge? How did Ralphie survive? Is Jesus the "Employee of the Month/Rapist" really going to get away? There are so many, many loose threads such as these. Ones that we all somehow imagined or at least hoped would be woven together by last night. Instead, we were treated to a highly unpredictable ending, not the least of which was Uncle Junior's serenading the people at Jackie Jr.'s wake with operatic laments about "ungrateful hearts." And yet, how else could it be in a family system in which loyalty is so consummately demanded and yet so tenuously held? Beneath this seeming surface of ambiguities, then, there remain certain compellingly enduring patterns. By taking out Jackie Jr., Ralphie earns his own troubling "pass," i.e., surviving being whacked, as many viewers had predicted (read: hoped) as well as being granted leniency in his "sit-down" beef with Paulie. Tony's loyalty tight-rope walk over his twin alligator pits in making these decisions may well have provoked an "ungrateful heart" in Paulie. Meanwhile, Meadow is blossoming like Michael Corleone's sister in The Godfather. She is a volatile critic of the family's hypocricy, while simultaneously being its immediate defender against the purview of "outsiders." In so doing, Meadow bears her mafioso heritage boldly, however conflictually. And finally, the greatest case of vexing loyalty can be found in the inescapable warrior identification between father and son. Jackie Jr. died by the sword by which his father lived. This compelling link, whether due to genetics or breeding, is not lost upon Tony, who recognizes that if his son must become a warrior, it is better he become a military-school-taught mainstream one.

Of course, here the blackout panic attacks that spawned the whole series since Episode 1, first season, once become the ironic symptom-savior. As such, they are not the kind of symptom that any mental-health professional should want to see cured in a hurry. As Tony's own growth-oriented conflicts manifest in his disabling symptoms, so too might A.J.'s save him.

Phil

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