The Sopranos: Season 6 Part 2

The last season of The Sopranos clearly attempted to give some of the storylines a closure. One other clear theme was that Tony is evil, consumed by his fear and paranoia. We knew that he wasn’t a saint, he didn’t really care about killing people to protect himself or to profit. And he also killed members of his family before (Tony B). But he really showed his true colors in this season.

SPOILERS FOR THE END OF SOPRANOS!!

Tony had always treated Bobby with little respect, but their fight at the cottage really messed things up. Poor Bobby didn’t have any choice but to do what Tony ordered. After that Tony was tempted to kill both Paulie and Hesh. I liked that episode where he was on a trip with Paulie, it reiterated their relationship and what a big mouth Paulie is.

Christopher’s inability to leave the mob after the release of Cleaver pushed him back to drugs (for the millionth time, which I guess is what happens in reality), which in turn pushes Tony to killing him. He justifies it with the baby seat being crushed, but it’s only an excuse. His paranoia reached a peak for me here. He loved Chris, as if he were his own son. But then he kills him, seemingly without remorse.

Dr. Melfi finally boots him as his patient. She finally realizes that their work did not help Tony at all, on the contrary it almost gives Tony an opportunity to refine his manipulation skills. I must say it felt like that during season 6.

On the family front AJ took the main focus, being depressed after the break up. I didn’t feel like Tony cared much about him, at least not until the suicide attempt. Before that he was more annoyed by him than worried. After the suicide he got scared.

NY saw the death of Johnny and the rise of Phil, who has become the uncompromising boss. One of his soldiers bothers Meadow, which sets off a war between the two families. In that instance I agree with Tony, you don’t mess with the daughter. The death of Bobby was touching, being the most “innocent” of the family, being killed right when he was shown at his naive and innocent time. Silvio was also another favorite of mine, and at least we know he is not dead yet. When Phil died I was glad, he was the real bad guy this season and the way he died was both gruel and satisfying.

Which brings me to the final scene. I love it, I think there couldn’t have been a better ending to this series. Let’s leave the end to the imagination of each of us. My own interpretation of that scene is that nothing happens in that diner, they simply have a nice dinner together. Phil is dead so there is no reason for anyone to kill Tony. Sure those guys all looked suspicious, but who doesn’t?

I must say before watching the finale I was convinced that Tony would die, I thought that he should have died for all the sins he’s committed, especially Chris. I thought that if he didn’t die in the end I wouldn’t be satisfied. But after watching the finale I changed my mind. Tony will have more years to live, and he will most probably die of a horrible death, it’s just that we won’t see it on screen.

An era is gone with the ending of The Sopranos, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. This was such a rich and complex and deep series that I can’t wait to go back and watch all the DVDs back to back.

Season Rating: 4 Stars