The between the lines in this episode is mind blowing. You see Tony understand he’s in sin city with devils all around….and it’s where he came to be comfortable. He gets that he has a dark side dominant soul. You see the last of Tony’s charm disappear in his empty eyes while killing Christopher. The whole series begs for a rewatch . David Chase is much smarter than the average man, so it takes repetition to understand this masterpiece of television. God, I love this fucking show.
I'm just now finding the whole "Tony has 6 fingers in that one scene in the pilot" rabbit hole and how having 6 fingers is an omen of bad luck. Ofc he doesn't have six fingers but the way the shot is framed there's no way during production/editing Chase wouldn't have noticed it. Sooo more and more I rewatch and learn I kind of believe David Chase was on some other shit when he wrote this show despite some subplots that don't go on as we expect .The story he crafted has people rabidly debating it to this day
@popandroid nah the final episode is perfectly on point with all the themes explored throughout the series and has a genius unexpected but brutal ending. If you want to criticize something of his, criticize that animal movie, "Many Saints", I can't even say its name
I think you’re finally seeing Tony turn completely into Livia. He’s even using the same morbid style of phrasing things as his mom did. Tonys “Mangled beyond on all recognition” vs Livia’s “incinerated to death” or “ throwing baby’s out of windows” phrases. So why all the references to the Kennedy family?? Not just this episode but many others. Like Jr’s love for JFK... etc. It’s not for nothing. For some reason the writers go out of their way to bring up the Kennedy name. Btw... great pick up noticing Chrissy was high. All his mannerisms were a little off but it was very subtle... not obvious at all. Shows how much you let the Chrissy character into your heart that you can read him so well. Great job!!
The most shocking episode in the entire series. The sun "blinking" at him is a call back to his coma dreams at the beginning of the season when the lighthouse was blinking at him.
It wasn’t just a call back to his coma dream... the whole peyote trip was a continuation of the coma dream. Just like the big round light in the operating room... the round light on the bathroom ceiling Tony was tripping on started the finale of his coma dream. None of the gambling & winning at the roulette table actually happened. It’s was all in his head. He was in hell. Tony was seeing what was beyond the front door in his coma dream. It was hell. Same with the desert scene. That was hell. Tony yelling “I get it!!” was him accepting he’s going to hell when he dies.
The reason they kept cutting to the baby seat is to show how Tony justifies murdering his friend and nephew to himself, not to say his actions were right or justifiable, so you read that all wrong Formal. If Tony really cared about Chris or his child, he wouldn't have constantly mocked him about his sobriety all season and basically did everything he could to get him to drink again. So really Tony wanted to murder Chris because he was upset about the film (and other things), and it was really about his fragile ego and having a mirror held upto it. But to make himself feel better, he tells himself it was to save Chris's child, which is nonsense. Btw the in same episode he's not remotely bothered about aspestos seriously endangering children in a nearby school. He's the absolute worst of the worst.
I seriously don't think that Chris would have been high if his daughter was in the car. In the episodes leading up to this we saw Chris was doing well maintaining his sobriety outside of the occasional slip. He was making an effort to stay clean. Stress and tension are some of the biggest triggers that lead recovering addicts to relapse and Chris's entire relationship with Tony was stress and tension by this point. He probably needed to be high just to stand being around Tony. Tony drove Chris to relapse and then arbitrarily used his addiction to rationalize murdering him in cold blood.
- Tony knows Christopher doesn't love him anymore and vice versa. - They're co-existing because of ''this thing of ours'', family and what they used to be. - Tony wants to call a cab/ambulance, but then sees the baby seat impaled by the tree again and decides Christopher is a liability (as Junior said from the very beginning). - Chris was using again and high at the wheel. He was going to get pinned and squeezed by the fed. - Tony had no insurance that a completely unreliable Christopher wouldn't flip at this point and decided to get rid of a thorn that had long been in his side. - In the aftermath, Tony is annoyed/disgusted by people being sad and/or showing sympathy towards the late Chris because in his mind, he did something good and there's in fact reason to celebrate. The universe seems to agree, as he's winning big $$ at the casino (after a string of losses in the previous episode(s)) and having the time of his life on peyotes while f***ng the girlfriend of the guy he just killed. At the end of the episode, he sees the light (flashing ray of sun), laughs and screams that he "gets it", as he embraces how the universe works (sometimes terribly) and who he is (a terrible man).
Sopranos has never been about the flash bang conventional or the obvious, it has always been more about the nuanced character study and the background details at least after the first couple of seasons. This episode is the epitome of that approach where as in most shows the death of a major character would have predictably been the climax of the episode or saved for the end of the show even here it is more important to see the aftermath and lingering anti climactic effects such an event has in the characters mundane lives. Very unique and much preferable than how most shows would have played such a thing IMHO.
I just noticed that the actress that plays the Chris’ Vegas cumare, looks just like his wife, a reference to tony stopping himself from sleeping with Adriana.
Season 6A is all about Tony trying to be a better person after his near-death experience and even though it's completely uncomfortable to him, he succeeds in many cases (Not cheating on his wife, defending Vito, being closer with Chris, defusing war with New York by reaching out to Phil after his heart attack) Season 6B is about Tony embracing that he won't change and accepting that change hasn't taken root. "Whatever happened to stop and smell the roses". The shooting wasn't enough to wake Tony up so basically at this point, nothing will.
40:34 That's exactly what he meant with his "I get it" moment. From the very first scene of the first episode, this series was questioning whether a mobster can change his ways, with the help of modern psychology. And by this point in the series, we realize he can't. And he does too, and fully embraces it. He knows he'll be a POS, and he's fine with that. Which is depressing when you see the bigger picture, and think about how he didn't have much of a chance because of his dad, just like how AJ won't have much of a chance either.
What an episode, what David Chase decided to do with Tony this season to me is the bravest character decision any writer has ever made. I don’t want to say too much because I’m not sure if you guys are done with the show yet, but this shit would not work under a lesser writer. Just incredible no matter how many times I watch this show.
The sunrise flashing like the lighthouse in that afterlife dream, asbestos being dumped in a duck pond (so he killed off the family he had in Chris and the family he always wanted with the ducks); Tony is fully accepting of his role as the villain in the story. I feel like him killing Chris is the opposite side of the coin of that soccer coach; Then he tried to do the right thing (not kill the coach) and felt awful, here he did the terrible thing and felt relief.
Tony’s arc and episodes like this is why I feel this show is quite a bit better than Breaking Bad and is still the greatest show ever. Walter White is “flawed”, but the writers were committed to keeping him at least a bit likable and somewhat redeemable, and they were committed to keeping that show conventionally entertaining, even when it made no sense for the plot and characters. This series, and especially season 6b, is uncompromising with its vision and characterization and nihilism.
@@tobe1207 I agree. Tony was way more charismatic and complex than Walt, and his demise made more sense. The BB writers had Walt constantly do evil sh*t but also tried to always make him some invincible, dark superhero who could only really be taken down by cancer. That was especially an issue in the latter seasons. While a lot of the audience liked that. They even gave him a lame, undeserved redemption at the end. Only in hindsight did they talk about Walt being the “true villain” of the show. Honestly, as good as BB was, it doesn’t hold up that well on repeated viewings, especially with the inconsistent world logic and characterization. I’d probably take its AMC mate Mad Men over it.
@@liteflightify Yeah. Paradoxically, I think that Gus is both the best of BB but also what limited its potential; when I rewatched the early goings of Breaking Bad, I was surprised at some episodes because you could tell they were trying to go for a Sopranos vibe, with things being both dramatic and funny at the same time (the goddamn pillow intervention scene), but Gus turns the series into something else, and while it was thrilling, it killed any potential for a more nuanced, ambiguous take of things.
This Episode alongside Chasing It really convinced me that Tony was worse as a human being/even more complex than Walter White Like Bralik said Can't Nobody Help Yo Ass, Dr. Melfi sure as hell can't help yo ass
I think the way you guys felt at the end talk is exactly how they intended you to feel, not knowing how to react when one of the main characters gets iced in the beginning of the episode by the main protagonist who ends the episode by laughing about it
Nothing wrong with not knowing how to take this episode. Definitely a pretty massive shell shock. I feel like the show was constantly showing us that they really could go that dark, but it's still a shock when they finally go there.
Dont know if you picked up the fact that there were ducks around when that truck dumped all that poison into that water. Love sopranos symbolism. This episode is good at showing the effects on the world and people Tony has.
i mean this would be the equivalent of Tyrion killing Jaime in GOT or something. Walter White putting his hand over Jesses face came to my mind when they were comparing it to BB
Not only does Tony murder Moltisante but then he feels the need to do his woman. He 1st was playing cutesie with Kelly but when that goes nowhere, he goes and finds this other Vegas chick. Cmon T!!! Great reactiin FRR. I been looking foward to u guys reacting to this 1 for months👍 Pour out a little "Lime Rickey" in honor of our boy Christopher or whatever it is hes drinking these days.
I can understand why you guys are not a big fan of this episode, but its 10/10 for me. The gambling in the casino, was a sign that Tony finally got rid of his bad luck(Chris), and therefore he won a lot of Money.
Apparently by the start of S6, David Chase felt too many people were feeling empathy for Tony and loving him as a person still. Thats why throughout all of S6, we've seen example after example of how Tony has slowly devolved into a real piece of shit.
I don't think it was even that late, you can tell by season 3 there were scenes pointing directly at the audience (that old psychologist Carmela goes to...)
Merry Christmas F Double R Fams!!! This is a great Christmas present. Just got done watching the kids tear open gifts and while they’re playing with their new toys, I can have my coffee and watch my favorite channel react to my favorite show! Oh, and PLEASE do deadwood next!!
This was the episode when I really finally gave up on Tony. It didn't really dawn on me until this moment that there was no hope for this man to find redemption, or at least become a better person. The peyote trip at the end was basically Tony accepting it too, the universe gave him an answer to his question. The dread of this last stretch of the show remains persistent.
In the last desert scene Tony is in hell... not real hell... he’s in a peyote dream hell. The peyote trip is just a continuation of the coma dream he had when Jr shot him. Tony starts to trip after he barfs & stares into the bathroom ceiling light... & from that point on everything is a dream. He’s entered purgatory & is going to face hell again... just like in his coma dream. The bathroom ceiling light (like the operating room light in his coma dream) is his pathway to purgatory. The real Tony never left the hotel room (or probably the bathroom floor). He didn’t stumble to the casino & gamble & discover roulette works off “the same principle as the solar system” & he didn’t hit the same #24 two times in a row & then roll on the casino floor laughing. He didn’t drive his car while tripping on peyote to some remote desert hilltop & watch the sunrise & scream & cry “I get it!!” In his coma dream Tony had no identity (who am I, where am I going) & was mistaken for Kevin Finnerty... a solar heating salesman from Kingman AZ (very close to Las Vegas with the same landscape). I think in his peyote dream Tony is in hell. He’s seeing what was on the other side of that front door in his coma dream. Hell is where you gamble & never lose. Where everything is so perfect & ez it’s maddening. Even the lighting in the desert scene looks hellish red. Tony yelling “I get it” means he gets he’s going to hell & is just going to accept it.
The black man they jumped is not Somali lol. There's a minority Bantu population in Somalia I guess but still... I doubt that's what they were going for. Especially since he says "I'm not a n****r", a common sentiment ethnic Somalis hold.
For the roulette scene it’s kind of showing Tony thinking Christopher was a bad omen or his bad luck charm and since now he’s dead he’s “winning” when in reality, he was just being lucky or even super high that he saw it before it happened
The darkest and most complex episode of the series. Definitely needs a couple of rewatches to see the full picture. The Sopranos’ last 4 episodes are peak TV.
lol so many people turnin' on Tony this episode... like yalls don't remember when poor Chrissy put a moonroof in JT's head it was literally the last episode!
I feel like this is the moment Tony is truly beyond redemption. He's sold his soul and thus he starts to win at the casino. But at what cost, he strangled his surrogate son to death because he was an inconvenience to him. That was the moment I fully turned against Tony. Hearing him say how Chris was nothing but a drag on his emotions while he was constantly driving Chris to extremes and teasing him about his sobriety. Chris wasn't perfect by any means but Tony certainly didn't try to guide Chris into a better life.
I like how brahlik points out that guys like Paulie only notice things when it's too late bc it would have went a long way in how he seen himself as a soldier vs how other gsngsters are on liquor and drugs and even betray tony but still get glorified like ralph and paulie
This is a tony soprano moment....walter white had a christopher moltosanti moment...remember what came before any anti hero shows😂😂...also breaking bad is a masterpiece as well
“The child is grown, the dream is gone” Always saw it as on this line Tony sees Chris is high and has given up on him. I’m totally prostate with grief.
This episode is really something. You get smacked to the ground from the get go and spend the rest of it trying to get up. Here's an amazing comment from one ''Angelo Lunch'' about what transpired: ''My opinion is that this is the darkest most disturbing episode of The Sopranos. The scene immediately preceding Tony’s “spiritual revelation” is a truck dumping asbestos into water. Before that we see Tony, an awful man, winning in a game of luck, over and over. “It’s the same principle as the solar system,” he says. EXACTLY. The universe runs on the rule that amazingly good things can happen to awful people. And no God exists to stop it. Am I reading too much into these three final scenes? I don’t think so, because all three are prefaced with AJ’s therapy session: AJ: People walk around like this is all something, laughing, no one takes one second to think about what’s actually going on Therapist: You sound depressed AJ: I mean how could anybody not be? You’d have to be fucking nuts not to be, you’d have to have your head wedged so far up four f-king ass that all you could see was your own stupid face. Therapist: What specifically are you talking about? AJ: I mean everything is so fucked up... What it seems to be saying is when a lot of wealthy or successful people have a “spiritual” revelation and feel like they’ve “found themselves” in our world, they’re doing it while standing on a pile of corpses and filth that make up the modern economy (which includes both legal and illegal injustices and brutality). And so Tony laughing hysterically, winning money at a game of chance, enjoying sex with a beautiful woman who used to date the man he killed, and finally celebrating a spiritual revelation in the desert is truly a harrowing portrait of our world: one where evil frequently gleefully triumphs. His cackling laugh of joy on the floor is a truly terrifying vision''
Your guys reactions to The Sopranos have been great, thank you. I watched them all but not Season 6 as I don't like watching people's disappointment as almost all of the lame episodes are in S6. I'm a huge Sopranos fan but personally I don't like S6. I watched this one though as I always felt it was one of the strongest S6 episodes. I'm a little disappointed you didn't like it. "The beginning was the climax" - exactly, but you should know by now this is what this show does. Remember Jackie Jnr? His death was the ultimate Sopranos anti-climax. His death was used as a catalyst for a story about AJ and Meadow. Here, Christopher's death is used as a catalyst for a story about Tony. The literal climax to a story was never the priority for The Sopranos. It's always about something else. But anyway thanks for these reactions I've really enjoyed them.
A little light entertainment in the spirit of Christmas! Merry Christmas, gents! Have a great holiday! Edit: "I'd like to see some other characters wrap up stories as well." -Brahlik I do believe Brahlik got his wish in this episode and then some. 😂
The fact that formal credited a quote from Rodney King, one of the most famous quotes of the past 35 years, to Barney. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂!! That is so incorrect, that it’s almost dangerous.
The baby seat is just Tony justifying his actions he doesn’t give two shits. If he did he wouldn’t leave chris daughter fatherless, wouldn’t have laughed when Paulie says she’s gonna be a stripper when she’s older, and also wouldn’t encourage chris to relapse
First time we see Chris in this series he is wearing a cap. Last time we see him he was wearing a cap. It is heavily implied and and is a theory in sopranos fandom that Chris became an informant after killing JT and there was a wire in the cap he was wearing during the meeting. Just like the masarone construction guy wore in episode the rat pack.
No contest here, Tony is not a good leader at all. Sil is probably the most professional of his crew, and as for the other mobsters we saw, Carmine and (with faults, but in general) Johnny Sack.
I would say Avon, but then I remember the pointless war he got himself into in 3rd season, and how much Tony tries to avoid war (admittedly, because he knew he would lose against NY), and I'm not so sure. But Avon was going to kill Marlo if the police didn't stop him, so I'm 50/50 on that... In any case, as long as he's not in war mode, Avon.
