Timothy Noah chatted with readers about The Sopranos on June 7. Read the transcript here.
My wife points out that the secret to the episode is in the title of the B side of "Don't Stop Believing." It's as good as any of the conspiracy theories I've read this week. David Chase constructed an IED of a closing episode, chose a New Jersey confection landmark as his tableau, and just before leaving to take cover in France, he gave the Star Ledger, his hometown newspaper, an exclusive interview—around the same time that he told the New York Times he'd have no comment on the final episode. He decorated the dining room at Holsten's with faux sports tribute posters from the local high school (CLASS OF 1971!) featuring a production assistant from the show's art department (football) and the aforementioned parking coordinator (baseball). He stocked the room with enough extras to launch a thousand bogus theories, all of which were somehow forwarded to my BlackBerry over the past 48 hours.
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StumbleUponExcept for the whole sociopath thing, Tony's family is my family. I have a wife, a son, and a daughter—and our time together as a quartet is my only grounding mechanism. During family meals in our favorite places, I look at them across the table and take justifiable pride in the life I've built. I have a beautiful daughter who is a young woman in full, and who would rather walk an extra mile than parallel park. All of this is how I know with such certainty that the next shot (in visual and not ballistic terms), had there been one, would have been of Tony's face, turning from expectant stare into a proud, conflicted, crooked smile as his beautiful girl entered the restaurant and completed the family picture.
That 12 million Americans sat down on Sunday night to a communal viewing experience on pay cable says something about the tug of this morally ambivalent family drama. That the debate over the decide-it-for-yourself ending has yet to cool proves that old media can indeed be interactive. That Gandolfini has grown a Unabomber-like beard in the few weeks since production ended tells us he was anxious to leave Tony back at Holsten's. I won't be at all surprised if he turns up in a summer touring company of Cats, just to drive home the point. The Man in the Members Only Jacket received $3,000 for his much-chronicled walk to the men's room and is now easily the most famous pizzeria owner in Bucks County, Pa.
Then there's the issue of what we're left with.
I have stood in front of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles, and I have admired the beauty of it. I've looked at it up close and from a distance and through squinted eyes, and I get it. As the troubled artist hunched over it, there came to be a particular drip—it's unknowable now which one—that completed it ... and it was declared art. It is what it is. I've now repeatedly watched the closing scene that David Chase splattered across his own canvas, and I come away with much the same feeling: It is what it is. He placed it before us, and then he walked away. It hangs there with his other works, part of a genre of his own creation, and we get it.
It's hard to believe there are those who think we're making too much of a television show.
Brian
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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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