When Tony and Paulie were in Miami they started a business relationship with Cubans, running power tools to NJ. cite.
It just seems to me that if you’re going to outsource your hits, the Cubans are a better bet than the Italians in this new century.
Oh, those cubans.
Why were you sure he’d get them to take out Phil? He was concerned about going in on a power tool deal with them.
There was a boss in Philadelphia who flipped. I can’t recall his name, and if I remember correctly there was some question as to whether he was the de facto boss, or only the boss in title (like Junior Soprano).
Tony really doesn’t have anywhere to go. He’s in hiding, most of his A-list crew are dead, and Phil isn’t going to accept any peace offerings. Even if someone managed to kill Phil, it’s unlikely to help Tony out at all. They’d have to manage to take out a significant number of top New York guys in order to get rid of all their enemies, but that would just make more enemies - possibly from the other New York families. (“Some glorified crew from Jersey managed to take out the top eschelon of a New York family? They must pay for this outrage!”)
Did we ever find out who left the note for Tony about going around in pity for yourself while a great wind carries you accross the sky? I have half-assumed that Agent Harris left that. Maybe I’m crazy. But Agent Harris knows how lucky Tony really is. He’s survived a lot of attacks, both from other mobsters and from the FBI. (I would love to see Tony’s face if he were to learn that there was an FBI bug in his house and that his daughter accidentally took it to college.)
Right now it looks like the most probable outcomes are:
(1) Tony dies. Some of what’s left of his inner circle also get killed. Afterwards, the Soprano family is a shell of its former self, although it carries on in some form.
(2) Tony flips. The crime family that Phil now heads has been doing business with the Soprano crew for a long time. Tony knows things. He helps bring down dozens of people in New York and maybe a few in New Jersey.
I still see Paulie surviving for some reason, but Carlo, fat bald driver, and Doogie Houser’s friend are all possible deaths in the final episode. I don’t see any of Tony’s family dying (other than Tony), although of course anything can happen.
I can’t see Tony flipping. What could he give them? If he rats on his own crew, then they rat on him, and he is a bigger fish. He “knows things” about New York, yes, but not specific things like “Phil ordered the hit on so-and-so on this date.” He couldn’t be a witness against New York because he didn’t directly “witness” anything.
I just don’t think flipping is an option.
I still say that Paulie takes out Tony and takes over New Jersey with New York’s support.
Didn’t Bobby’s killers have white tennis shoes on also?
I think if we see white shoes, someone’s going to die, not necessarily the guy wearing them.
What’s the significance of Paulie wearing white shoes then? Nobody’s died yet…
A great final shot would be Carmela with her Century 21 Realtor jacket on, failing to sell a house and then getting in her beater Hyundai to drive back to her apartment. Shades of Mrs. Bonpensiero and Mrs. Spatafore…
Maybe Tony can convince little Carmine to make a move against Phil. It’s unlikely but there you go.
I think he’s going to flip.
Is there a Soprano’s movie planned?
I just thought that he’d contract the job out to his new friends, as a way to cement their new arrangement. Instead he went the “cousin” route which didn’t turn out too well.
He could give them names and numbers for the Esplanade job, if nothing else. That was millions and millions of dollars that were stolen in a shared scam between New York and Jersey. Granted, the biggest fish in that job was Jonny Sack. (Or was that back when the elder Carmine was still around? I don’t recall. In any case, I admit the biggest fish isn’t around any longer.)
But we’ve been told that New York has done business with the Soprano crew for years. Tony undoubtedly knows about any number of jobs that could put at least a few high- and mid-level New Yorkers in the slammer. Maybe not for murder, but who knows, and so what? As the saying goes, Al Capone got caught for tax evasion.
Plus, even if Tony didn’t personally witness most crimes his testimony would still be rather strong. Let’s say a CEO belongs to a club where there are other CEOs and high-ranking businessmen. His testimony that “it was common knowledge in the club that so-and-so sent his underling what’s-his-name to do that thinga-ma-jig” would not be enough to convict on, but it could lend weight to a RICO predicate.
Even just tying up loose ends and confirming suspicions is useful. As far as I know, only two people know for sure who killed Ralphie, and one of them is comfortably numb. Countless bits of seemingly useless information can be cross-referenced and give weight to various RICO charges. As a boss Tony is well placed to have information that lower-level flunkies might not have, or might not know is accurate.
And there’s always the off chance that Agent Harris wants to flip Tony for personal reasons. “There, I just flipped a freakin’ BOSS! Now send me to fight terror in Hawaii for a change, ok?” 
And the best revenge would be Janice packing up her stuff in her house, while the new owner walks around, talking about the changes she’ll make, a la Janice when she took the house from Ginny Sack.
Also, don’t forget the gun the kid found; if it does turn out that Tony flips (don’t think he will), that might be the token charge they’ll get him to cop to.
That’d be excellent!
Then cut to Janice at the lake house, with Tony and A.J. in a boat on the lake.
This is not original with me but: How about Tony brings in his really, really distant Italian cousins, Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus, to REALLY kick some ass in NY.
…yeah… that joke was made up thread.
There have been too many mentions of the Muslim potential terrorists to just let it die. If Tony helps the feds ,they help Tony by picking up Phils crew.
Melfi was wrong. She talks about her science then when presented with some evidence that she may actually not be helping him but giving him justification 'she quickly abandoned her treatments. It was too easy for her to do. So much for her science.
I don’t think was as simple for her as that. There can be severe dysfunctionality even in what are supposed to be therapeutic relationships and I think she realized that. Yes, part of it was her (and Kupferberg’s) fascination with mob life, but I think she also saw herself as a savior of sorts. It could be when she saw it was all just Tony’s world and she was but a bit player in it, it threw her.
AuntiePam, A- to-the-frickin-Men, baby!
PHIL MUST DIE!!!
I think it makes sense that Paulie could whack Tony – the episode in Miami reinforced his paternal role in Tony’s life, and Paulie could rationalize it as a necessary step to restoring order between Jersey and New York. It would serve as a kind of bookend to Tony’s career in the mob: the man who taught him to murder ultimately murders him. It would also, as others point out, leave Paulie to run the Jersey crew as kind of a client state of New York – not a bad way to end up for a guy in his place.
But I also think that if I predict it, it must be, by definition, quite unlikely to happen. I think Chase and the team are going to deliver an ending far more subtle, ambiguous and unresolved than many of us are expecting. And we’re going to reach the end of the last show STILL wanting to know what happens next.
Interesting idea, but it runs counter to Chase’s approach throughout the series: we know exactly what the feds are doing to get Tony, from bugging his basement lamp to trying to flip Adriana. To suddenly pull back the curtain on such an elaborate ruse would be quite out of character for the show.
“Goomah” is the Jersey pronunciation of cumare, meaning a close female friend or relation. (“Goombah” similarly comes from a mispronunciation of cumpare.)
The key is in the dinner conversation. Someone asked what draws doctors to want to treat criminals, and Eliot (I think) responded “rescue fantasies” – every social worker/counselor/therapist dreams of finding a broken someone and putting them back together. Melfi believes in her work; she has defended the scientific integrity of therapy thoughout the series. She certainly was seduced by the glamor (if that is the word) of being Tony’s doctor, but she also believed that her treatment could eventually win out, and steer him back to the path of conscience and morality.
[spoiler]
Where do you think the much talked about final episode scene with the whole Soprano family in the ice cream shop can fit in?
A flashback to happier times?[/spoiler]
What the fuck indeed! Haven’t you ever heard of a spoiler tag? Jerk.
(edited for language)
What would be interesting about Tony flipping is that Melfi could take as evidence that her sessions with Tony actually helped.
I can see the headlines: “Mobster who helps nab terror suspects turns on mob.” Tony the good guy. He becomes a folk hero, movies are made about him, word gets out that Melfi counseled him and helped turn his evil ways (since her rat of a therapist broke patient confidentiality), she becomes a big star, testifies on his behalf in court, and Tony walks. The two of them play themselves in “The Soprano Story”.
Just before Tony gets whacked.