My predictions:
Paulie will survive, because that’s what he does. After the nuclear holocaust it’ll be Paulie Walnuts fighting the cockroaches for scraps of irradiated meat.
AJ is not gay. It’s possible he’s bi, but I doubt it. We know he likes girls - he was making out with a girl on the couch when Carmella came into the room. This led to one a very true-to-life moment where AJ pulled down his shirt to try to hide the fact that he had an erection.
I think Junior will play a large role this season. This is partially a prediction, and partially wishful thinking. He’s a great character, and I neither want nor expect the writers to let him just fade out. I think he will have a sizable percentage of his marbles back and will help Tony out at a crucial juncture.
Meadow will continue to be hot and annoying simultaneously.
Carmella and Tony will actually become closer than before. Carmella will come to grips with Tony’s actions, for the most part. Tony will actually become more devoted to Carmella and his womanizing will diminish (although probably not entirely disappear). They both realize that, for better or worse, they’ve made vows to each other and have been comitted to each other for a long time. Looking into the future, Carmella sees an empty house and Tony sees hints of rats in his crew. In the end, they really only have each other.
I don’t think there will be any major conclusion to the Vito and Finn storyline. It will probably come up in some form, but it will be more subtext than major plot point.
What will happen with Chris? I have no idea. He could easily become more comitted to Tony, since he really doesn’t have anything else in his life anymore. However, he’s probably also burying some kind of deep-seated anger about the entire situation. Even if he mostly blames Adriana herself, anger isn’t always rational and he might hold some kind of unconscious grudge against Tony or Silvio. Or himself. I think his continued devotion to Tony is the most likely path, but I really don’t know.
Bobby will bitch-slap Janice. (Ok, that one is definitely wishful thinking.)
The existence of 8 “bonus” episodes makes me wonder what exactly makes them “bonus”. Why not just have a long season 6? Or a short season 7? I wonder if there is some thematic reason. Could there be some event at the end of season six that shakes things up enough to make the bonus episodes different enough to be classified as separate? If so, it will be either that Tony dies, or Tony is imprisoned, or Tony is in the Program. Of course, it’s possible they have “bonus” episodes because nobody wants to do an entire seventh season but they still want to sell another DVD.
Actually, David Chase said he simply couldn’t wrap up all the threads during the season and needed more episodes. There also might be something in the actors’ contracts that bumps pay between seasons, and by calling it extended, it keeps the costs down. The Sopranos takes longer to make than hour-long TV dramas, and the actors may have committed to other projects after the end of taping (or the shows may not have yet been scripted, only story-boarded), necessitating a break in filming.