Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

Schrödinger's cat is a famous illustration of the principle in quantum theory of superposition, proposed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. Schrödinger's cat serves to demonstrate the apparent conflict between what quantum theory tells us is true about the nature and behavior of matter on the microscopic level and what we observe to be true about the nature and behavior of matter on the macroscopic level.

The cat reinforces the layered way the Sopranos can be viewed, both at face value and as metaphor.

the measurement system (the observer) is entangled with the experiment.

These threads prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

the cat must itself be in a superposition of dead and alive states

I can't figure if this is a reference to Tony being alive, but spiritually dead, or if this has something to do with the fact that Tony sees himself sitting at the table in the restaurant. Help me out here!

on the heads of the shallow people who only want to see blood and death.

Beautiful dawdler, perfect.

Hector the Crow:

Not everything was resolved, and much is ambiguous, but it wasn't open ended to the point of Rorschach abstraction, Chase did make statements.

***

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.

I haven't heard or seen anything today that captures it, the show and the episode, any better than that.