I think they pretty much wrapped up the vacation house storyline. I believe the storyline showed the other side of Tony, loving husband (he does love Carmella, just not enough to give up the girls on the side).
And I still couldn’t be any more annoyed than I am by Janice and AJ. Someone needs to slap the taste out of AJ’s mouth, and Janice should have been whacked long ago.
I liked the finale. The direction they went was totally unexpected. It was very well written and acted.
The last few seasons have ended in violence and/or the wacking of a major character. This time, they went in a new direction. Also, they will have the whole cast next season to work with.
Uncle Jr.'s incarceration was the whole reason Tony was acting boss. Now that Jr. is a free man, is he going to want to run the show? There was some bad blood between Tony & Jr once before over who was really in control. If Sack is smart, he might just approach Jr. Tony’ll be a little preoccupied with his family situation and will be depending too heavily on Christopher, who I bet will relapse. Or maybe the Feds will get somewhere with their investigation. Somehow, I think Tony’s going down in the last season.
Can’t wait! Only, what, another 2, 3 years till next season!
I don’t know, D_Odds, AJ really got to me when he was dealing with the divorce. For all his adolescent posturing and brattiness, I got the sense he really loves his parents and needs them to stay together. I was particularly touched by AJ asking Tony if he was leaving because he asked to live with him in the home theatre. I do, however, agree with you about Janice. I was repulsed when she and Bobby were carrying on in Uncle Jun’s kitchen.
I got the same feeling about Janice and Bobby - and it looks like Junior did too. What is Janice up to anyway? Whatever it is, I think Junior is now suspicious of her. But that arc will probably go the way of the Russian in the Pine Barrens.
Junior has known Janice since she was a little kid and knows that she is a user and bad news in general. He also knows that she deceived Bobby to win his heart. He doesn’t know all of the tricks that she used but he does know that at the very least she claimed that she made the lazagna that was really made by Carmella.
Haj
What a gut-wrencher!
Edie Falco was particularly amazing-- she’s always great but she really rocked out there.
Seeing a finale episode that was so preoccupied with the dissolution of partnerships was a little unsettling, though. Season 5’s a done-deal, right? 
Tony wasn’t just boss because Uncle Junior was on trial. Tony manoevered Uncle Junior into being a figurehead while Tony ran the show in the first few episodes of the series, long before Junior was arrested.
I agree that Edie delivered a great performance. ('Course, if Tony did whack Carmella, maybe she could go back to Oz. :))
I bet they bring back the Pine Barrens Russian next season. I know it was planned to be a one episode thing but everyone seems to want him back.
Haj
I don’t think we’ll see the Russian again. The closest we’ll come is that someone will mention in passing that they found human remains in the Pine Barrens that turned out be him.
(Then again, I thought Paulie would be dead by the end of the last episode so what do I know?)
Just wanted to say belatedly that there are a lot worse sounds a person could be subjected to than Dino at the Sands.
Sure the finale was “unexpected” and “a new direction”. But it was also boring. The acting was great; no argument. But always has been.
I think what doomed the finale was that the writers took two tacks that they thought were clever:
Zag when they think you’re gonna zag. The problem is that zig is exciting and cool. Zag is just plain boring.
Make it real life. Real life has “plot lines” that go nowhere, so we’ll let the show have them too. But once again the problem: real life is boring. That’s why we watch TV!!
I was very dissapointed by the finale. I actually don’t know is I’ll watch the final season. I have this bad feeling that it will be either one show after another of “cashing in the chips” (the Russian and Furio return, etc) or just more “real life in Jersey”.
One thing I do look forward to is the ending of Lorraine Bracco’s charactor. And quite frankly her. I’m sure she’s a nice person and all, but both her acting, her character, and the feable attempt to make “Analyze This”, once again, real life (boring) will not be missed.
:smack:
That’s ZIG when they think you’re gonna zag.
Burn, heretic!