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Sopranos Final Season

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from: Timothy Noah
to: Brian Williams and Jeffrey Goldberg

The Ginger Cat

Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007, at 12:13 AM ET

Timothy Noah chatted with readers about The Sopranos on June 7. Read the transcript here.

Dear Brian and Jeff,

We haven't discussed the possibility that what Chase showed us in the final episode's last moments were Tony Soprano's last moments of life. A Slate colleague suggested that interpretation to me Sunday night and I pooh-poohed it. But it seems to have gathered a following. The idea is that the screen goes black not because Chase is messing with his audience, but because someone has clipped Tony, and when somebody clips you everything goes … black. The most elaborate expression of this theory appears in a phantom e-mail that's been making the rounds. I must have received 12 copies of it Monday. Here's what it says:

The guy at the bar is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of Season Six during a brief sit-down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident. Absolutely Genius!!!! David Chase is truly rewarding the true fans who pay attention to detail.

The phantom e-mail goes on to say that two others in the restaurant had reason to kill Tony, one of them a trucker who got robbed by Chris-tuh-fuh in Season 2 and the other … actually I'm a little unclear who the third potential assassin is. The e-mail is not especially lucid. But let's back up a little bit. How does our phantom e-mailer know that the guy at the bar is "credited as Nikki Leotardo"? I don't have access to an instant replay, but surely the credits would show either the character's name ("Nikki Leotardo") or a description of the character ("Guy in Bar") paired with the name of the actor who played him. It wouldn't show both a name and a description. Anyway, the actor who played the guy at the bar (which on reflection, given Brian's description of the place, isn't a bar at all but merely a counter) has never appeared in any previous episode of The Sopranos. I know this because he was profiled in a June 9 news story in the Bucks County Courier Times. He isn't, in fact, an actor at all. His name is Paolo Colandrea, and he was chosen for The Sopranos by a casting agent who frequents his pizza shop in Penndel, Pa. Colandrea "has no previous acting experience," on The Sopranos or anywhere else, the Courier Times reported.

It may still be plausible to conclude that Tony Soprano died. But that phantom e-mail is a hoax.

Brian: I didn't much like the final episode, but unlike you, I did rather like the cat. Perhaps you're more of a dog person. (I have both.) The puss brought to mind the man-sized Ginger Cat that appears in a fancy-dress ball in Shipwreck, the first installment of Tom Stoppard's trilogy, The Coast of Utopia. Perhaps you saw the plays during their recent run in New York. Brendon Lemon, a New York-based theater critic for the Financial Times, asked Stoppard what the Ginger Cat signified. "Essentially," Stoppard replied,

the Ginger Cat is an arbitrary purposeless malign or mischievous force/fate which deflects the individual life within the overarching Hegelian Law of History … to which populations are subject.

I figure that if I managed to get up from Washington to Lincoln Center to see The Coast of Utopia (it won Best Play at this year's Tony Awards, whose broadcast had the bad luck to coincide with, yes, the final episode of The Sopranos), then there's a decent likelihood that David Chase caught it, too. Even if he didn't, it works. The cat that caught Tony Soprano's fancy was ginger, after all, and malign fate was lurking in every corner of that final episode. Why was Paulie so spooked by the cat? Slate's editor, Jacob Weisberg, shared with me his hypothesis that if Paulie is indeed a rat, then he wouldn't likely feel comfortable in the presence of a feline.

Jeff: I agree with you that David Chase is a genius, but he still puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like us scribblers for The New Yorker and Slate. I don't find it implausible that he would have difficulty figuring out a non-gimmicky ending to The Sopranos. As I've written earlier, the Final Episode is a deeply troubled television genre, one capable of stumping even the big-brained creator of Silvio Dante's hair (with no small assist, I must add, from the show's hairstylist). "Sure, he played a trick on us," you write. But it didn't strike me as an especially playful one. I find myself comparing Chase's blackout to the scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy in which a serial killer enters the apartment of his next victim. The door shuts and the camera starts winding slowly down a staircase as the audience waits for her scream. The camera reaches the ground floor. No scream. It backs out the front door. No scream. The sounds of the old Covent Garden (back when it was still a vegetable market) come up. No scream. Then Hitchcock cuts away. But Hitchcock isn't saying, "I'm not going to tell you whether the woman was killed." He's saying, "I don't need to tell you whether the woman was killed, because you already know. Of course she got killed. He's a serial killer, for Pete's sake!" Frenzy was Hitchcock's second-to-last film, and his last great one, and that tracking shot is the distillation of a half-century's experience crafting suspenseful narratives. By comparison, Chase's final blackout conveyed no sense of mastery or fun. It was just a trick.

Moreover, my friend Bill Barol points out, it wasn't a very nice trick to pull on John From Cincinnati, the new HBO show whose producers thought they'd snagged a dream lead-in, only to discover that their would-be viewers believed HBO's signal had gone abruptly dead. You think the Mafia is tough? Then you don't know show business, my friend.

Cynically,
Tim

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from: Timothy Noah
to: Brian Williams and Jeffrey Goldberg

The Ginger Cat

Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007, at 12:13 AM ET

DISCUSS

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Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for the Atlantic and the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror. Stephen Metcalf is Slate's critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s. Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate. Brian Williams is the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News. Terence Winter is a writer and an executive producer of The Sopranos. His teleplay "Pine Barrens," written with Tim Van Patten, won the 2001 Writers Guild Award and the Edgar Award.

Slate home page cover, June 11, 2007: Still of James Gandolfini in The Sopranos by Craig Blankenhorn © HBO. All rights reserved. Still from The Sopranos of James Gandolfini on Slate's home page; still of: James Gandolfini; Edie Falco and James Gandolfini; Steven Van Zandt, James Gandolfini, and Tony Sirico; James Gandolfini and Edie Falco; and Robert Iler all by Craig Blankenhorn/courtesy HBO. All rights reserved. Entry 9: Still of Tony with a tomato, and Entry 10: Tony's dad and young Uncle June © HBO. Entry 21: Still of Tony Sirico as Paulie "Walnuts" by Craig Blankenhorn. Entry 27: Still of Robert Iler and James Gandolfini by Craig Blankenhorn. Entry 30: Still of James Gandolfini and Sarah Shahi by Craig Blankenhorn. Entry 38: Still of Steven Van Zandt and James Gandolfini by Craig Blankenhorn. Entry 40: Still of James Gandolfini and Edie Falco by Craig Blankenhorn. Entry 45: Still of James Gandolfini and Steven Van Zandt by Craig Blankenhorn. Entry 48: Still of Dominic Chianese and James Gandolfini by Craig Blankenhorn.

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Remarks from the Fray Editor:

As a basic cable slum-dweller, the Fray Editor has been following the discussion of The Sopranos with admiration and envy. The passion, erudition, and insight of the show's fans—Slate's commentators and Fraysters alike—proves the case that this series is not to be missed. Below, Fray poster lucabrasi considers how the 6.5 season story arc has led the show inevitably to the present moment.

May this weekend's finale exceed your wildest expectations. My prediction? Paulie Walnuts in the Bing with a shoe buffer.—G.A.

Remarks from the Fray:

I must salute the excellent close of the mob wars arc that started way back in Season One.

Looking back from today, with Tony's Jersey crime family indeed looking like a "glorified crew" in the eyes of New York, one can see it, almost clearly:

Season One: Tony's issues were of ascension in that smallish Jersey family. Jackie Sr. was dying; Uncle Junior was the designated "front don," and yet bitter enough about Tony's power to use Livia's ambiguous directives to hit Tony. Didn't work. Junior was exiled and took on Federal heat; Tony had the others killed.

Season Two: Richie Aprile gets out of prison. A theme begins: guys out of prison resent Tony, who never served. But Richie, too, is "local Jersey trouble." His escalating conflict with Tony is going to be dealt with rather easily -- Tony wants Richie hit, but Janice delivers a dose of even MORE "local" justice.

Meanwhile, I think NYC underboss Johnny Sack turns up living in Jersey, but promising Tony "I don't want to wet my beak."

The main NYC Don is Carmine Sr, an old school guy. Tony can deal with Carmine Sr, but Sack starts getting that lean and hungry look...

Seasons Three and Four: Other issues are on the table (Jackie Jr., Tony and Carm's marriage), but Tony's adversaries are manageable: made guy Ralphie and the ever-more-ambitious and angry Sack. Ralphie is eliminated, quietly (if NYC ever finds out...). Sack wants Tony to hit Old Man Carmine; Tony pulls out at the last moment. Sack looks to be vengeful.

Season Five: The big trouble all starts here, with the release of the "Class of '84". It's like four Richie Apriles. Tony has a lotta plates to spin: an old-timer named Feech who wants it all, locally, Tony's cousin Tony B, the "Rockford Guy" (Joe Santos) who Tony B idolizes as a father, and a real hothead named Phil Leotardo.

Carmine Sr. croaks. Phil joins with Sack against Little Carmine, Tony B joins with the Rockford Guy and Rusty in backing Little Carmine's play. Tony elects to back off and see how Jersey can benefit from the ensuing bloodshed, of which there is a lot.

During all this, two little matters occur: Seeking owed cash, Tony subjects Phil Leotardo to a body-breaking car crash and beats up Phil at the accident site as a "throw-in." Tony B kills Phil's brother Billy Leotardo.

In retrospect, these last two actions were perhaps...unfortunate.

Sack and Phil kill more guys than Little Carmine's team. Little caves ("It's a stagmire.") Sack ascends to Donhood. Tony can deal with Sack (having killed Tony B as a burnt offering), and Sack will stave off the still vengeful Phil Leotardo.

But right at the end of Season Five, the Feds nab Sack. Go directly to jail.

Season 6A: Sack's in prison, but the putative boss, with Phil fronting him on the outside. Tony's shot for a few episodes. The "gay Vito issue" gives Phil new reason for putting the pressure on Tony's Jersey boys. With Sack losing power by the day, Phil contemplates his rages against Tony: getting beaten up by Tony, paying money to Tony, brother killed by the cousin of Tony, gay Vito protected by Tony. Phil has a heart attack to match Tony's gutshot. Things seem peaceful between these two wounded warriors. But this guy Butch turns up, taunting Tony.

Season 6B. Tony's luck with New York runs out, via a series of crap outs: Sack dies of cancer; Doc kills Gerry; Phil kills Doc.. Phil is "the big boss man," finally, and the worst possible New York Don Tony Soprano could face. Filled with jailhouse vengeance and itching to consolidate power, Phil pushes Tony too far (with the sexual insult of Coco towards Meadow, ultimately). Tony retaliates (curbing); Phil says "there's nothing left to talk about," and here we are.

Now, I' m not sure how much of that was plotted early on by Chase and Company, but looking back on it, you see how this final, fatal gang war was literally years in the making. Tony Soprano fended off Jersey threats (Junior, Richie), kept the peace with Carmine Sr, dangerously dueled with Sack (the longest of Tony's strategic encounters), sat out the gang war to replace Carmine Sr...and ended up on the wrong end of Phil's bloody ascension to the throne of the New York Family.

Where things are now is where they HAVE to be. Inevitability.

--lucabrasi

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