Not whether Tony will die, but how? Given the disappointing arc this (half)season, I will guess that it will not be by fire but by ice. What's ruining the family—beyond the sudden, nearly far-fetched, and certainly disappointing revelations that Tony Soprano has a gambling addiction and that his addiction has driven the family to the brink of insolvency—is the lack of an appropriate successor. It's a shame that the writers invested so much in making the family (that is, on the business side) look incompetent, since this is a problem that could wreck Tony's family (business and immediate) even if the Jersey family were doing as well as it was when Johnny Sacks was running New York. (Which wasn't that long ago, in the series, which is one reason why the sudden alterations to the established power relations between NJ and NY are so unacceptable, notwithstanding the fact that gambling addiction is a powerful disease, evidence of which the viewers should have seen long ago if Tony Soprano had this flaw all along.) I'm envisioning the end of The Sopranos through the lens of Lion in Winter, in which Carmella realizes even before Tony does that Anthony Jr. is unsuitable and makes a play to secure her future: leaving him and wrecking the family, thereby exposing Tony to threats external.
But you go into an open thread with The Sopranos you have, so: I'll say that Tony dies from a heart attack provoked in some fashion by the anxiety he feels in retrospect about having killed Christopher Moltisanti, his last best choice.
Posted by Kriston at June 4, 2007 10:40 AMWell, I haven't watched last night's episode yet. But I found Slate's theorizing pretty convincing: namely, that Tony will be ruined by trying to protect his son from the consequences of his newly thuggish behavior, in much the same way that Season 2 of The Wire finished up.
Of course, maybe something happened last night that makes this implausible. Given the glacial pace of this season, though, I think it might still work out.
The other potential out would be some two-bit crook getting lucky and offing Tony over a long-forgotten slight. I'd be pretty pissed off if that's the way Chase choses to end the series, though.
Posted by: tom at June 4, 2007 3:40 PMEr, um, well . . . you should prolly watch last night's episode.
Posted by: Kriston at June 4, 2007 3:50 PMTony's son will make a suicide bomb attack on the NY mob. Tony himself will trip over a duck, bang his head, and be reduced to posting on blogs with the nom de plume of "Old-School Democrat".
Posted by: MikeJ at June 4, 2007 4:09 PMI think the last episode is going to be a dream sequence that is so inexplicable and boring, and leaves so many loose ends, that there will be an outcry from the televisual community like nothing since Seinfeld's haaaahrible trial-scene ending. I'm only half kidding.
Though I agree in general that this season has been lackluster, I also think think that you misunderstand the gambling subplot. It was clumsily and abruptly introduced, but intentionally so. I don't think his gambling problem alone is what brought his family to insolvency, it's just one part of Tony's wilful thrashing against those forces bringing about his inexorable downfall (and those forces include himself). Everything he has done on this show has always been implicitly tied up with the same risk/thrill as gambling (and in that one episode it gambling is directly related to Christopher's murder). I think there is going to be some acknowledgement that his downfall has always been foretold and propelled by his subconscious (and his mother residing there), which is why I think some dream sequence shiznit is at least somewhere in the cards.
Posted by: Ed at June 5, 2007 11:45 AMWhy is my husband linking his name to my blog like I give a shit about Tony Soprano's mouth-breathing subconscious? No, I only care about PETER BERG DUH. And maybe Ryan Gosling, but only when he smokes a whoreload of crack.
Posted by: sarahb at June 5, 2007 3:23 PMTony talked about how killing Chris got rid of a problem for him.
Tony then realized that Paulie Walnuts was becoming a problem. Took him out on a boat with the intent to kill him. Paulie knew he was going to get killed. Tony doesn't kill him.
Paulie is then seen in his apartment lifting weights - as if to prepare for something.
Paulie "botches" the Leotardo hit. On purpose?
Paulie will kill Tony - the "problem" Tony didn't take care of when he should have.
Posted by: Phil at June 6, 2007 10:15 AMso any thoughts about last nights episode?????
Posted by: Bridget at June 11, 2007 2:17 PMp78Ey2
Posted by: EBWRHHrFgIK at December 30, 2008 12:25 AM