The Shocking Significance of Tony Soprano’s Dreams (spoilers) 

Dreams and the weird supernatural elements of the show were by far the things that gripped me the most. They were excellently thought out and conveyed, and made you deeply think about every little detail you'd seen; ranging from the sacred to the propane. It was very allegorical.

I never understood why some people didn’t like the dream sequences. The dream sequences were some of the best scenes/episodes imo.

The mom coming down the stairs scared the s out of me

If one assumes that Tony was in a place between life and death during his Kevin Finnerty experience, I like to think that this flight in the bright airport he wanted to catch was a pathway to heaven, which he was denied, because he is not who he claims to be, whereas the Finnerty home, a dark place with a beautiful exterior, which is more than welcome to have him, is his way to hell.

note also that Finnity sounds like an Irish immigrant name. Conveying the long standing rivalry of the Irish vs Italian mob. In Chris' dream, hell is an Irish pub where it's always Paddys Day and the Irish always win. Kevin Finnity is sort of an opposite of Tony.

Dreams CAN be a gateway into your subconscious desires or motives or wrong doings, but aren’t always that.

Carmel said in Paris that she felt like what tony had shouted in his coma. Also the eiffel tower had a light going round like the one finnerty kept seeing

When a show is so deep, the filmmakers didn't even know how deep it was.

I never realized that was David Chase in the commendatori scene

Very observant, the sacred and the propane.

I loved this so much. Tony's dreams are one of my favorite aspects of the show and you had great insights into them. One thing that's interesting about the wind quote is that in Tony's hallucination about Isabella, wind seemed to play a significant role, when he first sees her there is a great wind around her hanging up laundry outside & the wind continues to play a part throughout the hallucination. I'm not sure what the correlation between the two is but I doubt that it's a coincidence, David Chase was way too detail oriented for that. I was also hoping you'd go into the part about the coach and Artie Bucco more b/c I don't quite understand it. How could Artie be a bad influence on Tony when he's his only real friend who's not in the mob? Am I missing something really obvious lol? Oh and I totally agree that it sounds like Charmaine's voice in the Kevin Finnerty dream. I think in a way, even though he obviously loves Carmella, Charmaine is like "the one that got away" for Tony. He dreams of her/dreams of being married to her and when him and Carmella are separated he keeps calling her and hanging up. And it seems clear from what she says to Carmella that she could've been with him if she'd wanted to but she didn't want to be involved in that lifestyle. Also interesting that his best friend (Artie) ends up married to her. Anyway I could talk for days about this show but I'll try & contain myself. Thanks again for your video!

I had a dream where I was attending a wedding with Tony Soprano. I didn't know anyone there besides Tony. I did notice various other gangsters from the show but none of them acknowledged us. I just kept following him from room to room of this enormous sometimes indoor, sometimes outdoor venue. At one point, while indoors, our path led us to the interior of my childhood home. I went to my old bedroom and looked out the window. Everything was flooded outside up to the first story roof. For some reason it didn't worry me even though I knew my car was parked outside and entirely submerged. I continued following Tony but eventually lost him to the bustling crowd. I made my way back outside through various groups of folks eating, dancing, and talking, room after room of them. I remember there being a huge number of very beautiful women all wearing the same tiny sparkly gold dress, walking in lines like they were being shown off. For some reason, I had no qualms with blatantly gawking at them. Nobody seemed to mind or notice. Eventually I came across a very beautiful older woman in a wispy blue green and purple dress poncho thing leaning up against a street barrier totally giving me the "eye". I approached and asked her her age. She answered "50. But I can be 20 too" we shared a long, silent, seductive look and launched into passionately kissing. As soon as our lips touched, she began going up and down in age. 50 to 20, back to 50, over and over. Eventually I found myself on my back and we were... being intimate... right there outside amidst the meandering crowd. Now, as she was age shifting she also turned into this weird, brightly colored fish lizard creature. All yellow and pink and shiny. From the hips down she was still human, but it was horrifying all the way up. I made sure to not let on that I was disgusted because I didn't want to be rude. I finished up and went on my way searching for Tony. I eventually found him in a giant pale blue tiled room with various pools in it. I remember how loud everything echoed in there. There were a few other gangsters and some other older men with him. It was all a bunch of long winded, seemingly irrelevant chit chat between them but I could sense something bad was about to happen as the tone kept getting lower and more deliberate. Then I was suddenly held down by two of the strangers as another charged up a generator connected to a long wire with a metal measuring triangle at the end. He pressed it to my face and my vision filled with sparks even though my eyes were closed. I was dead. The group of guys left the room. It seems like Tony was protesting but went along with it anyway. Then I got back up and tried finding my way out of the party. It seemed like hours of aimless wandering from weird room to weird room. Ancient Roman garden rooms, mid 90s haphazard gymnasium party rooms, half flooded rooms with decrepit half submerged dock structures. I never found my way out. Then I woke up. ANALYZE THAT.

I thought the Kevin coma dream was his dancing himself an informant and thereby becoming another in the witness protection program....hence why everything is familiar yet foreign because instead of leading a different life he betrayed the life he build.

That was very insightful! You earned a sub! I'd add that David Chase has referred to the Kevin Finnerty sequences as not being dreams. They are more likely a bardo-like spiritual experience, which fits in with Chase's interest in Buddhism and Shamanism.

Great job!! Understated and low key. Great explanations and interpretations. Keep up the great work.

I was at Asbury Park beach over the summer and realized I was standing where most of the dream sequences were shot. Very cool

This is an excellent analysis of the dream sequences. I was often confused as to the relevance of these episodes. You have given me a new perspective that will inform my viewing experience as I continue to periodically watch the Soprano series over & over again. Thank you.

If only Tony had the makings of a varsity athlete

Very well presented video that was. Really fascinating and well edited.

I think what are the hallmarks for a truly great show is how often you see videos of people discussing and dissecting scenes from it even more than a decade after it finished.

Thanks for the upload

good analysis.. what makes it the most compelling show ever is everything you say in your last paragraph with this added dimension: the same is true for nearly all of us.. we are all some form of disappointment.. the character is a mirror for the viewer

Incredible video and analysis. Bravo!

I’m impressed! Great job! 🤗

I had anesthesia delirium after heart surgery. For about 8 days I was seeing and involved in an eight day fever dream, a lot like Tony’s dreams

Being unfaithful to his wife was his strongest weak spot. Can't have your cake. Very deep analysis, cheers.

"the mask of strength that he must DON to maintain respect" heh heh

Tony was a little bit of everything so people would love him

Interesting analysis, although I think you’ve misinterpreted the Ojibwa saying. This saying has a positive message, not a negative one as you suggest. The ‘great wind’ is the abundant, but often ignored, *good* fortune that most people experience in their everyday lives. For example, being born with a healthy body, having enough food on the table, living free from oppression, etc. It is easy to let big or small problems worry or upset us, while taking all the good things in our lives for granted. Developing awareness and appreciation of this fact can also help in the treatment of depression - a condition Tony wrestles with. I think Chase included the Ojibwa saying because, for a while after he emerges from his coma, Tony gains the insight that the saying imparts, summed up when Tony says, ‘From now on, every day is a gift’ and vowing to take time to smell the metaphorical roses. However, the big and small problems that begin, once again, to accumulate after Tony is well eventually make him forget his new mantra and he falls into his old way of thinking, talking the good things for granted, albeit in a more and more dangerous predicament where those good, simple things in his life - like sharing a meal with his family - are *not* granted.

The voice is clearly Gloria

This dissertation deserves 50,000 thumbs up. Well done.

Great insight here.. well done Bro! * Applause *

I remember coming into the living room when my mom and step dad were watching the Sopranos. I walked in on the woman on the stairs dream, scared and creeped the hell out of me back then, and still does now

Great video, Man. Keep it up! DreAMS Were one of my favourite parts of the show.

wow, just amazing. Made me cry..........

Great Job 👍🏿

Great video 👍

Outstanding video and brilliant breakdown.

I only watched the first 2 seasons because I can’t stand shows where literally everyone is aPOS, but I always loved the dream sequences because of how accurately the weirdness yet familiar feeling of dreams is depicted. My favorite one was the psychologist’s dream where a dog is posing a threat to her and there’s a Coca Cola vending machine lol

In my opinion that pity is self consciousness, and the wind is our subconscious agenda.

8:19. I never thought of it as the man upstairs but rather a demon/Lucifer telling him that

Absolutely ❤ how you pick a particular episode to dig thru a theme or a hidden meaning of this masterpiece and an enigma of a show!!! Thank you! P.S. hope to see one day your break down of one of my favorite episodes - s1e9. Especially its final scene. how odd, beautiful, significant and masterfully crafted(especially Gandolfini) that scene is!

Anything worth having, won't come easy.

I also remember a dream in which Tony looks down of his bedroom window to see the pretty Italian woman who was supposed to take care of the neighbours' house. She was hanging out the laundry if I'm not mistaken. He then had a romantic dinner with her and it was all fantastic. Later upon asking the neighbours where she'd gone Tony finds out she didn't exist at all. Great scenes from the 1st season I believe.

Great actor, R.I.P

The dream episodes are by far the best ones IMO. I love them. Couple of my fav episodes are when Tony is shot and dreaming for a few days when in a coma.

Very well done

The voice portrayal of Carmella in the Join Tge Club episode sounds exactly like Gene's wife.

15:50 yeah it’s Charmaine Bucco without a doubt on the phone. Think caller says Home when he asks what that bright light is from his hotel room.

great video.

I remember hearing 3 different voices of his wife on the phone during his coma , its been awhile but i think it was Carmela, Charmaine and Valentina if memory serves

This is fantastic. Super insightful. I've picked up on some concepts that were lost on me when I watched the show. You've earned a sub. Cheers!

This show is insanely great. Every time I get closer to some answers there's more information. So far im up to the Tony Patricide idea but if there's another one ill probably die

I heard Chase say that the voice isnt Charmaine actress or anyone else we know from the show👍

Would love more sopranos content

I have learned so much about myself from watching this show for the first time

Amazing video, well done! The Sopranos wouldn't be the same without those dream episodes.

The Ojibwe saying is just about gratitude. We get so bogged down in the negative aspects of our life that we forget that we are part of something greater. The wind in Sopranos is always a reminder of the fact that there are larger (spiritual) forces at play. Of course, this does constrain free will in a sense, but it's not meant to be a bad thing.

This was really dope. He had no way of reforming. He tried doing it too late especially when that new multi million dollar project. He was distracted by the money when Paulie & Christopher were beefing. Sorry little Paulie. Tony tried peacing it up with Phil but it was too late.

I love Breaking bad and better call Saul very much. Sopranos though, is Family.

The dreams are my favorite part of the show. The Test Dream being my favorite episode.

I always thought the wife sounded like Gloria Trillo.

The dreams were easily one of the best parts of the series and the fact that so many people dislike em tells me we are watching the show for very different reasons. The action and dialogue are great, always well done, but it's the characters as a whole and the stories they tell that make the show the best ever, to me. Thing is, it killed it in every level, so it really doesn't matter what metric ya use, it's forever No. 1 with very few that can hang anywhere near it (Oz, The Wire, The Shield, Mad Men, to some degree Breaking Bad, BCS, etc). The dreams are definitely the best I've ever seen, some are random and don't actually have inherent meaning while others are important windows into Tony. The one I disagree with is that going the LCN route was necessarily the "easy way". Yeah, much of his family and friends were in the life and when he was being rebellious as a kid he largely did so by going a different path entirely til Dickie Moltisanti died. He says himself that being a rebel in his family may have meant selling patio furniture. But there's not as much autonomy in these sorts of things as it's made out to be. We know just off stats and psychological science that it's very hard to escape environments like his. I grew up in a rough area and ended up a statistic and total product of my environment. I'm just one of the lucky few that survived long enough and didn't catch a bad enough case to not be incarcerated that I was able to put myself in a new environment. Very few did I see avoid the streets entirely, and even some that started off that way eventually fell prey to the lack of alternatives. Tony may have been in a nicer community but many of the same pressures existed for em. His dad, Dickie, his uncles, their friends, all loomed so big on em that he was gonna mimic em in many ways subconsciously one way or another. And say he stayed on the path but football didn't work out for some reason or another, he coulda been right back in the streets just a little older and less seasoned. He seems like the type that adopted sociopathic/anti-social personality traits as a coping mechanism to survive, we see he wasn't always this way and it gets worse as seasons pass. So yes, it woulda been very difficult to go another way, but being a gangster, especially with such a high profile, ain't easy. The stress is incredible, constant internal and external threats in the streets, law enforcement from every side, it wrecks your family and personal relationships, ya can't trust anybody, you're put in positions to have to hurt people ya love, prison, death, disability, and all that are the likely outcomes for the vast majority, all that and then some. It's not back breaking labor, but it ain't sweet either. I can tell ya, as bad as things got at times, the pain I felt watching friends die over gang bangin, all the stuff I went through was hell - yet there's times where in the job and life I have now I find myself almost wishing for that over this as crazy as it sounds. Cause that was dying fast, but this ain't living.

Look I live close to the Asbury Park where season 2 finale was filmed (Funhouse) that dream sequence was insane and made that one of my favorite episodes plus to see all of the main and favorite characters at a place I visited go regularly to this very day. It’s astounding and I always be fond of this show. Plus there’s always new things and foreshadowed statements and the dreams have so many layers..

How can you call Jung notorious w/o any explanation as to why you would use a term with such negative connotations as Notorious but not tell us why you think that?

I've got a dream sequence for my film "Rags & Rafels" I only hope it'll be as eerie and convincing as the dream sequences in the sopranos.

This video definitely has the makings of a varsity athlete

Even in dreams, Tony never had the makings of a varsity athlete.

Great views

Head in the toilet, hair in the toilet water! DISGUSTING! I said my peace crissy!

dreams sequences are very good. they are very surreal and full of small details

“You’re unprepared!” - Coach Molinaro aka Horseface.

I know I'm a year late but this was a great video, taking a peek into tonys subconscious. GOOD JOB! Not like that Animal Blundetto. Lol

i think precision optics is more significant. it could mean seeing things clearly, or it could refer to the sight on a gun, it could also mean “optics” as in how a person is perceived by the public, and it could even refer to the actual camerawork of the episode like how the house is out of focus but the tonys & even the woods behind them are clear and when tony wakes up carm & mead are blurry but then come into focus. it also makes me think of the binoculars from the funhouse dream.

I feel like most viewers skip over a lot of shows when mentioning shows similar to the Sopranos, they always give us Breaking Bad, but Snowfall referenced The Sopranos a lot, POWER too, Peaky Blinders and even Vikings in how they dive into a characters emotions and go in-depth into how they actually feel outside of how they act around people. Strong masculine figures who are emotionally and mentally damaged

I tell you what I loved the dream sequence and his other dreams, thought it was fantastic, right down to his teeth falling out and Annette Benning feeling a little Bugsy 😂. I thought Chase encapsulated dreams and how random and weird they are or seem perfectly. Bravo 🙌 Amazing. Edit .. fyi I’m certain Ritchie Aprile came out the joint half a fag yano!?

The Virgin Mary scared me so much

7:18 Peeps was a friend of a friend, not a friend of ours

You keep saying “unconscious”…I think you mean subconscious.

Willem dafoe in the car right corner was so distracting once I noticed it hahahah.

I think the voice is Charmaine and Gloria think they're two separate voices on the phone with Tony

The series is a masterpiece whatever the setting but the Dream sequences are so good and the fun house and test dreams take the top spots for me. Great and surprising returns from Gloria and Makazien and much more to enjoy. I am so glad you particularly highlight our first insight into This Coach who saw so much potential in Tony and it's extremely powerful. It's the first and only time we see this figure from the past but it is so riveting. I understand why they went the route of making Tony's Civilian career being the path that had been referenced of selling patio furniture very successfully. But while in the great Coma dream the test dream often makes me wish in the Dream he could have been a successful football coach. There's nothing wrong at all with the Finnerty dream however, a happy Civilian Tony. Being a Football coach would have been a nice addition. Not complaining though. I also have always has no doubt that his wife on the phone is Charmain. We know their history, we see Tony's desire for her. If Tony had chosen such a path then there would have been nothing in the way really of them getting together. Really glad you brought it up 👍

A minor mistake: 0:50 "preceded" means to come before but I think you meant "succeded"

I wouldn't call Jung "notorious" - that might be more appropriate for Freud. Famous, sure. Good video.

Y'all wanna dream. Get a eye sleep mask. Some ear plugs and lay on your back. Dream away!

One thing that has changed over the past 25yrs is modern psychology is abandoning dream interpretations as a way of understanding a person’s behavior. Today a clinical behaviorist is someone Melfi would have immediately recommended Tony see for help with panic attacks. Dreams aren’t seen as coded messages from your subconscious. They are seen as your mind taking out the trash. And like garbage it’s all just mixed up random stuff with no logical path or useful clinical meaning to the real world.

Different writers and different directors made different versions of tony

Bro I’ve watched many a crime show before but nothing I’ve ever watched is as unapologetically depressing as the sopranos.. I mean every frame in the entire show is a god damn tragedy and if it’s not it’s just setting up a future tragedy .. brutal shit

Who knows what could have happened had Tony possessed all six Finnerty Gems.

Excellent video my friend!! Well done. 👍👍 I was also wondering if Anthony Soprano’s wife in the dream-does it sound like Annabella Scorria? Gloria Trillo? 💯👍👍

Haven't had dreams because of weed, but when I do... oh boy 😶‍🌫️

I just noticed how ill-fitting Kevin Finnerty's clothes are. Unlike Tony, Kevin buys off the rack.

Even Doctor Murphy had become gangster throughout the whole sopranos season

At the end of the day he wanted what he got but he didn't need it. He wanted to be like the guys in the movies but like he told AJ "its just a movie" and deep down he knows he's just a scared little kid driven by others more than himself.

I have to agree I don't think any other shows accurately depict an actual dream

Precision optics seems symbolic.. clear vision perhaps?

good analysis though describing Jung as 'notorious' was harsh

The end... It may also imply he made a deal and became a witness, got killed or busted. The show shows us all the possible endings throughout the episodes. Just connect the dots. All in all this ending make us feel like Tony Soprano. We are just constantly worrying of all the endings. He, and we are gonna die anyway no matter what, its just a matter of time. The question is are we aware of that and do we feel at peace with the world and ourselves most of all - here and now. The Tony Soprano obviously, deep inside is living a nightmare - and thats why we feel uncomfortable watching the last scenes, we are made to feel what he feels. That's the phenomenon. There is a scene at Many Saints of Newark when Uncle says to Dickie in jail about buddhism...Thats a huge hint. Craving is a reason of suffering. Tony will always be suffering because he cannot stop the craving. He just can't let it go. Same as Dickie. It doesnt matter how it ended. What matters is that vibe, the emotions you go through that you feel watching it. You feel like Tony Soprano. It doesnt matter how it ends. The matter is that he knew that no matter happens, he is F***** anyway. Getting killed means the end of his life and most probably going to hell. Getting busted means that he is done and his previous position will mean nothing anymore, even if he comes out, the times will change and he will eventually gonna get killed just like Aprile or Blundetto. Becoming a witness protection means that he gonna be living in fear for the rest of his life because he knew that somebody could find him and kill him just as he did with the guy in one of the first episodes. The last scene shows us that no matter how it ends... he is constantly convicting himself on living in hell because of the choices that he makes and values he believes in. The point is that psychotherapy was a way to become more succesful criminal, and not to save him or heal him. Melfi was like an Angel. A Gods messenger. He just didn't listen to her. He made a choice. He lied to himself. From the perspective of Christians - he is gonna go to hell. From the perspective of Buddhists... he already lives in hell. Bless.

I've thought about who the voice of Kevin Finnerty's wife is as well, and I think it's more than one woman. One of them I agree is for sure Charmaine Bucco but at other times it doesn't sound like Charmaine's accent.

I think you respond on about the coma dream