In my experience the kind of girls who are bulimic usually have major self esteem issues and will fall for anyone who makes them feel special and gives them attention.
AJ is a tool but he usually seems to treat girls pretty well, even if he’s slightly whiny.
He’s fairly good looking. I think Robert Iler looks like a young Joaquin Phoenix.
He made her feel like she had a friend when they were in the rehab center together.
Them being together doesn’t seem far fetched to me.
It wasn’t Benny; it was Walden. I’m too lazy to look up the real actors names, but Benny is the guy who was Vincent DelPino on Doogie Howser, and Walden – you know, the guy named after Bobby Darin – played (I think?) Bill Guarniere on Band of Brothers.
Thoughts on the episode – I loved it. But I really, really don’t think Tony got whacked. I know we’re supposed to think that the trucker did it, but we’re only thinking that because of what Michael did in One, when he got the gun from behind the toilet. Think about it. If the trucker were sent to whack Tony, he wouldn’t have to go to the bathroom to get a gun. He could simply have brought it with him, gotten up as if to use the can, but really to just get behind Tony, and then shot him. No need for a piss break at all. It just doesn’t add up.
I do agree that the last scene was from the perspective of Tony; I just don’t agree that he got shot. We’re supposed to suspect the trucker, because Tony’s probably still a little edgy. We’re supposed to suspect the two black guys, because two black guys have been used more than once as assassins in this show. We’re supposed to be paranoid, because Tony’s paranoid. That’s his life. Normal – exaggeratedly so, what with the Boy Scouts and the Norman Rockwell-esque ending of the first half of Season 6 – but also, and not at all oxymoronically, decidedly abnormal. Hasn’t that been the thrust of the entire series? He’s got a normal family life, but he’s got a really, really fucked up job.
Sorry, rambled there. I don’t think he died. Remember at the beginning of the episode, how Tony woke up to a rock station and was disoriented? I think the black before the credits rolled was supposed to be the same thing, except for the viewer. We’re disoriented as we’re “waking up” from OUR collective dream, which is Tony’s life.
Least, that’s what I’m thinking. Or maybe some schlub trucker, who happened SOMEHOW to know where Tony and his family were dining, and who just couldn’t hold it in before he shot the head of North Jersey, managed to get him. Meh. I prefer my mundane yet unpredictable ending to the exciting but expected ending offered by many in this thread.
I’m definitely in the ‘Tony got whacked’ camp. That was what I thought immediately after the screen went black. The talk with Bobby in the last episode about whether you hear the bullet was foreshadowing both of them.
What I really, really liked about it was its honesty. The glamorous way for a mobster to die is in a hail of bullets, defiant to the end. In reality, the lights just go out. You never see it. That’s what happened to Tony. And to Phil. And I think Paulie’s death was also foreshadowed, with his taking the ‘jinxed’ job, and the last scene showing the cat come up to lie down beside him.
I think Tony’s hit was probably the result of Carlos flipping. Somebody was worried that Tony was going to be indicted, and would flip himself. I think Tony’s whole crew just got whacked, to cut off the flow of information and limit the damage from Carlos flipping.
Furthermore, I think that’s what Agent Harris was talking about when he said, “We may just win this thing!” I’m not sure he was ever working for homeland security. I think they told Tony where Phil was because they didn’t want Tony to be hit, because they were working on flipping him. They gained his confidence by forging an association with the government against the ‘terrorists’, then by warning him about Phil and ultimately giving him Phil’s location. Agent Harris was going to try to flip him. They had Carlos turning evidence, but if Tony’s crew got whacked, all they’d have was a low-level captain. But if they could flip Tony, they might be able to bring down the families.
This is exactly what the families were worried about, so they took out Tony and crew.
Why would you think he went to the bathroom for a gun? Michael had to do that because he was patted down when he came in. This guy had the gun on him. He went to the bathroom because that way when he came out Tony would be facing away from him.
This is entirely my point. I don’t think he went to the bathroom for a gun. I think he just went to the bathroom, because he’s a normal guy. If he’s a hitman, isn’t he going to wanna get in and out, do it as quickly as possible, bring as little attention to himself as possible? That is, not risk standing next to some guy at a urinal for 90 seconds, time that may lead to his getting picked out of a lineup someday?
For the “Tony got whacked” theory to be true, the guy would have sat down, because that’s normal, gotten up as if to go to the bathroom, turned, pulled a gun out of his pocket, and shot. Not gotten up and actually GONE to the bathroom. That doesn’t make any sense to me.
I just think it’s amusing how we always get a flood of kneejerk comments when something of a controversial nature like this comes along. Then one or two people who take the time to think and assess the outcome speak up, and everyone starts to agree with them, apologizing for how they were initially wrong to judge. And so it goes, people start to see how brilliant an outcome it is to leave this story up to individual interpretation. And still, people spit on it because it didn’t wrap up everything the way they’d expected. What were you expecting, the unexpected? Well, you got it! Why are you complaining?
At first, I’d thought my cable went out just as Meadow was on her way in, and I say: “You have got to be kidding me.” A few seconds pass, and, still thinking that the cable went out, I again say “Oh my god, you have GOT to be kidding me …” A few more seconds pass, and then as I’m about to get up to make sure my TV isn’t broken, the credits roll, and I sit there in stunned silence. It was so quiet as those credits rolled that I could hear my heart pounding. I also realized just how much this ending was bound to send the television viewing world into a tailspin of controversy. I also believed that the producers knew the best way to end it was from Tony’s perspective: in a sudden, spinetingling zzzt as the lights are suddenly shut off. Just as most mobsters do not know who it is that kills them or where they are coming from, I believe that such was the case for Tony. The beauty of it is that they crafted it in such a way as to allow the viewer to decide what happens … a truly unique touch.
Oddly enough, I’ve a question entirely unrelated to the controversial conclusion. Agent Harris called Tony with the lead on Phil’s whereabouts … half naked on what looked like a hotel bed, while another [smokin’ hot] agent emerged from the bathroom to get dressed. It was clear from early on in this episode (and the previous episode) that his job was causing marital issues and preventing him from spending time from his family, but were we to take anything away from this scene besides the fact he was having an affair? Was this detail really that important to know, or did they just need to get one last gratuitous shot of a hot, half-naked woman in before it was all over? 
In keeping with the theme of this episode of highlighting the “defectiveness” of American institutions, it showed that the guys who are tasked with guarding our country from terrorism are flawed. Harris symbolizes the defense of America - his affair shows that there are cracks in the wall.
I’d like to recap my night
Call from Dad about 5 minutes after it ended
Dad: Did you watch it?
Me: Not yet, I’ll watch it when I get home.
Dad: I have one thing to tell you.
Me: Shut up lalalalalala I can’t hear you
Dad: There’s nothing wrong with your TV.
Me: Whatever bye.
I get home, hit the Tivo button and go to Sopranos, Made In America, from that screen I see
Duration 1:05, (0:37 Partial) WTF WTF Who changed the channel dammit.
Oh, wait he said there’s nothing wrong with my TV, maybe it just cuts out at 37 minutes. But then it woulnd’t say partial. Hmmm, maybe HBO cut a deal with the Cable Co to cut the feed to the box (Not likely, but who knows). So I watch it, at 37 minutes it stops right in the middle of a conversation. So I go to the dope, find the thread and decide if I should open it or watch the midnight showing. I decide to open it thinking this was all part of the show. The first thing I see is RIP Carmella. Okay, close the Dope, record the midnight showing. About 40 minutes in I start watching it from the beginning, at about 1:05am I realize it only recorded an hour of Sopranos and the other recording said it should be an hour five. Fuck. So I watch what I have recorded. It ends as the two black guys walk into the restaurant. Well, that can’t be the end, WTF. Check youtube, nothing yet. Oh, I have HBO On Demand. Pull it up, find the part with the two black guy walking in. Okay, Meadow walks in then it stops and the credits role.
Jeez, that was a lot of work.
Anyways, I have to say it ended the way we thought it would end, albeit a bit more abruptly, but it’s what we have discussed in the last several threads (I didn’t read the predictions thread, but I assume it was the same). No resolution, just ended in the middle of things, the same way it began.
I intentionally watched the show (and had it on my DVR) as I was sure the DVR would screw up and not show the last three minutes. Needless to say, when the screen went blank I was cursing Cox Cable and certain there was a glitch. I actually re-wound the scene twice to see if I missed something.
I didn’t really expect anyone in the immediate family to be whacked - but as they built up to the ending, I thought, “hmm, maybe I am wrong.”
Put me down as another one who hated the ending. Totally unsatisfying on every level…and read into it what you will, it was basically a non-ending. They might as well have shown Carmilla writing down a recipe for lasagna. No Emmy for that episode.
I assumed that the woman was his “buddy” with the info on Phil’s crew.
Wow, that didn’t even cross my mind.
When she first walked out I was under the impression that it was his wife. And she was giving him the “Can’t you stop working for 5 minutes” evil eye as he almost got caught doing a sort of reverse flip.
I have to add, I liked the “We might win this” comment out of him.
It just occurred to me that Tony asked both a rival mobster and a federal agent to tell him where Phil was. Of course, the lawman and the ganster both told him exactly the same thing: it would inappropriate for me to help you kill him, but you do what you gotta do. Nice juxtaposition.
(a) I didn’t like the ending. If Tony definitely 100% got shot, why not actually show it definitely? Why make things so challenging for the viewers? It’s one thing to not want to spoon-feed the viewers things, it’s another thing to have a definite idea you’re trying to convey about the outcome of the main character of a very successful show that’s been running for almost a decade, and then assume that people will come to that conclusion because of a flashback that happened in the previous episode, etc. Since when is actually showing people what happened such a disaster?
(b) I also didn’t much care for the rest of the episode. It seemed disjointed and poorly edited. We jumped around a lot, I didn’t find all the AJ stuff interesting at all, and the Phil resolution seemed to come out of nowhere…
Phil is in hiding! And his gang of loyal thugs have killed almost all the top New Jersey people! Oh, but wait, Phil’s henchmen are happy to make a deal to stop the killing and an FBI agent, for no apparent reason, tells Tony where Phil is. Uhhhh… OK?
Now, granted, the point of that might be “hey, real life doesn’t always have satisfying resolutions, things aren’t always wrapped up nicely, yada yada yada”… but I don’t watch a TV show to get a lecture on how real life is different from TV shows. I watch a TV show to be entertained and have a story told, and this was just not a good story.
Compare this to The Wire, which has a level of authenticity and apparent-non-scripted-ness that puts The Sopranos to shame. But they didn’t film The death of Stringer Bell by showing a bunch of people walking into a room and then leaving us guessing what happened in it… and the storylines of the seasons actually go places and resolve.
Joey P, that is why I don’t have TiVo.
I liked it. I would not have been satisfied with a last shot that had action in it. If I knew Tony had been shot, I would have been too frustrated wondering what the aftermath would be, and wondering who ordered it and why. If they’d pulled back and faded out on the nuclear family, I would have been too frustrated wondering if they were really safe, or if the hammer might fall in the next minute, or the next day, or week, month, year…
What I love(d) about this show was the way something was always brewing. Some story lines were resolved, some abandoned, but in such a way that it was reasonable not to follow up on them, but new ones were always in some stage of development. The episode that disappointed me was the finale of the last full season. They all get together for Christmas. … And? …
With this episode, I got the tension I crave, and I don’t have to like or dislike the ending, because there wasn’t one. Tony may have gotten shot in the diner. Or a hit may have been ordered, but not to be carried out that night. He may be thinking about continuing to ease out of the life. He may flip and end up in WP. But each of those options carries its own further possibilities. Chase had to stop telling the story sometime. So he stopped here.
To get the ketchup out of the bottle, you hit the 57. The one on the bottle itself, right where the neck starts to taper.
I am so glad AJ and Rhiannon were not suiciding. I am rather disappointed, though, that there was no followup on his Evil Overlord speech to the therapist. Instead, he’s – what, going to cross over to Entourage? 
I love it that Phil got Billy Battsed! I love that it was Walden, whom everyone on TWoP was sooooo sure was going to betray Tony to Phil. I’m also glad that Phil’s head was what kept the SUV, with his grandbabies in it, from rolling out into traffic. He was a hero in death, which he never was in life. (Although the babies were only in peril because Phil’s whole life had led to that moment…)
I would vote for the cat being Adriana, but Chase confines the woo elements to dream sequences, does he not?
Also glad that Tony did not final-exit Silvio.
Could someone sort of summarize the entire series for those of us who never saw any of it?
I would just read the Wikipedia entry.
I read the following post in a number of other discussion boards, so I am not sure of the original source:
I think having it cut to black was brilliant. Chase had every single person watching the show - millions and millions of people - thinking exactly the same thing at exactly the same moment. How many directors can EVER say that? And now people will be talking about “what happened” for decades. He’ll do interviews and not ever say what his thoughts were. In a week, check google for articles on this - there will be tens of thousands. He has created a cult that will far surpass “what is in the glowing box in Pulp Fiction?”
And I think it’s clear that Tony was killed right then. The viewer can fill in the details.
Who ARE you people in this thread?
Haven’t you watched the Sopranos for 8 years?
That was a perfect, brilliant ending. What were people expecting, a title card to come that said, “After Tony’s death, Carmela went on to start a bake shop. She now lives happily in Middletown with her two dogs, Boo and Fluffy.”
Chase is absolutely FUCKING with viewers. . .just like he’s done for the entire series. Come on. . .everybody’s least favorite character in the history of TV winds up with a 16 year old model, a BMW M3, and a job as an executive on a movie!!! Of COURSE it’s a slap in the face. The entire episode was a Russian in the Pine Barrens, and I couldn’t be more happy.
Awesome.
I’m in the “Brilliant” and “Tony is dead” camps.
The thing that I think too many people are holding onto though is that trucker. I don’t think he did it.
I think the purpose of that scene was showing how Tony always has to look over his shoulder. Is that guy over there going to shoot me? How about that guy? Is this person I’m talking to going to give info to the feds?
Then, suddenly, before you even know what’s going on it comes from somewhere you didn’t see.
I don’t think we ever see the actual hitman, just as Tony didn’t and just as Phil didn’t.
Regardless of what I think happened, or any of us think… well that’s the point (of the ambiguous ending). We’re thinking, and discussing. People will continue to discuss this for years, and there will always be a debate or discussion. Brilliant!
The trucker is not the one who got up and went into the bathroom.
The trucker was wearing a cap and a leather vest. The guy who was at the bar and got up and walked past Tony was wearing a Members Only jacket.