Meadow’s character arc at the end is pretty clear to me. She’s taking full advantage of her father’s money with full knowledge.
She is at the point at which she has the requisite moral sense, knowledge, and independence to refuse to take her father’s money to attend an Ivy League school or whatever.
And it was shown that she has bought into the charade with her fully aware dishonest defense of mobsters and keeping family secrets.
Anthony Junior also showed his development into a young thug. I’m willing to give him a little more slack, however. He’s not quite at Meadow’s level yet.
I just don’t think it’s a particularly accurate or useful metaphor.
The general idea is that she sells out by adopting Tony-style rationalizations for everybody’s behavior. She becomes a lawyer instead of a pediatrician, which is a metaphor for helping the bad guys instead of the innocent. She comes to view the mob as a cultural practice excused by discrimination against Italian-Americans.
He didn’t become any kind of thug. He’s probably going to go through his life about as miserable as Tony, but without the drive or the criminality. He is too spoiled and soft to be a thug, which ironically is not a bad thing.
I wonder if the Dexter ending was influenced by Sopranos - they could have left doubt about Dexter but did not. (and yes, I know most people hated that ending)