"AJ is walking a thin line between prophetic and pathetic."

Exactly, that's the beauty of it!

Every second of this season is pure gold. I can't help but feel for AJ. It's horrible how much of that mediocre everyman I see in myself.

I'd be just fine if they keep the pacing of the show as they have been all season - lingering on moments and detail, pumping silence full of energy. Not everyone has to die. It's going to "resolve" on maybe one or two major events, or maybe not resolve. But not everything can be wrapped up. There is no closure in life, why should there be in this show?

I love that they're making time for things, characters that matter. Yes, AJ is crucial, the fixation on the Soprano children is possibly the show's greatest strength, what it has to offer as commentary on this age. Now it seems that AJ's fate might tie into the Arab subplot.

The peyote was a twist I did not see coming, and that's an understatement. I was even more surprised when they carried the trip aftermath into the next episode. Tony thinks there's something more. I was laughing in disbelief at the scene where he can't help himself, and brings up his psychedelic experience to his mob buddies. He has a Syd Barrett moment there for a second, I almost thought he'd gone right off the rails. That awkward pause - spaced out Tony - is he going to keep talking about peyote? But no, he snaps out of it, finds some secular context to put it in, slough off the sanctity, fuck that. The gravity of "the life" is too much, even mescaline can't withstand it. The scene was brilliantly echoed in Melfi's office, Tony saying "you think you've got it... then..."

How can this show be so brutally real, and still acknowledge the transcendental aspect of human experience? I don't know. Props to the fantastic cast.

"How about: because it's a show, not life."

Lesser shows are concerned with closure. The Sopranos is the Sopranos because, while it may be unrealistic in some ways, it has life-like rhythms to it, people repeating mistakes ad nauseum, learning just enough to be aware of how fucked up they are, plot threads that seem significant and then go nowhere. That's why I love the show, it really does seem true to life in a way that I've seen hardly anywhere else, and I do expect it to end on a sort of "life goes on" note. Certain themes will be brought to a dramatic conclusion, I'm sure, but as far as the plotting - no, it's not necessary for it all to resolve.

I think the folks that are expecting a movie are deluding themselves. Forget exhaustion with the characters on the part of Gandolfini and Chase - that could change. But the show's over. What could they do in a movie that they couldn't do on HBO? What would be the point? There were no limits to content or style in the show's existing format. If Chase had any more to say about the Sopranos, he would have made one or two more episodes. Or another season. The ending was dark and nasty, but beautiful in a way that becomes apparent on reflection. I'll admit, many of the comments here have helped me appreciate.

Not everything was resolved, and much is ambiguous, but it wasn't open ended to the point of Rorschach abstraction, Chase did make statements. Meadow and AJ have wrestled with their own consciences and emerged as grotesque self-justifying parodies of their parents. We were given hope, and it was taken away, made to look foolish. It's been a damn cynical show, but warm-hearted enough, on occasion, to string us along. Uncle Junior's last scene seemed to be the real climax, a bleak, sucking void. But it's not entirely meaningless.

How can you bring a show like the Sopranos to any kind of summation? You can't. But you can use the opportunity of a final episode to comment on the state of the national psyche, using the cast as analogues. I think Heather was on the right track with her reaction. The last episode was primarily about America, the America of today - the "fucked up world" Meadow accurately perceives (but what ya gonna do?). We're left with the inevitabilities of paranoia and escapism. After the shock of the blackout, I'm finding it more and more satisfying, the more I think about it.