Letters to the Editor
mattwa33186
Published Letters: 395 Editor's Choice: 41
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Trading places
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OK, I watched the final scene only twice. Why? Because the second time I watched it I realized that nothing at all happened until the final half second. Chase created TV that was more participatory than Rocky Horror or American Idol. Amazing.
I did watch the first and last 10 seconds several times, finally getting my brain to register that weird edit at the beginning correctly and finding no real clues at the end.
I wasn't confused about the ending once I had a chance to ruminate. I thought he was dead, and its nice to have that somewhat confirmed. So maybe that's why I opted not to make the 1800 mile journey to North Jersey to express my displeasure alongside the locals. Well, that and the fact that the last 20 miles of the Turnpike has to be the ugliest place on planet Earth at least, maybe in the entire galaxy. Particularly the 600 mile long Dupont factory.
Chase warned us. He told us. He beat us over the head with it. It's all a big nothing. Everything just goes black. He drew us into that scene like no one in the history of television ever has, and then we died. If you believe in life after death, that 5 seconds of confusion has to be a fair approximation of what the extremely recently dead must feel.
To those who say that they wanted closure, wanted to see Tony get whacked (if that's what he did), wanted to see the light in his eyes go out for the last time, all I can say is My God.
When this show started, HBO had millions of subscribers who were mostly normal people and they premiered a series about a violent, possibly sociopathic mobster and his family.
Now they have many millions more viewers (in no small part because of that show), and in the final 5 minutes of the series we have a mobster who appears mostly normal and millions of viewers who have become virtual sociopaths, outraged that they didn't get to watch Tony die.
And you don't think that's great TV in addition to being great art?
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Who wanted Tony dead
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Phil Leotardo - Sure, he's dead, but reaching out from beyond the grave is not out of the question. He was obviously unhappy with the fact that Tony was still alive, he saw that his guys were losing their enthusiasm for the war, and he was powerless and completely out of his element in Oyster Bay. Would it be that suprising if he contracted with someone from out of town? Was this foreshadowed by Tony doing exactly the same thing, and was that meant to show us that once you wind the boys from Italy up and let them go, they are completely autonomous?
New York - 4 other families in New York. One of them is going to step up, and they might not be happy with someone surviving the murder of one of their bosses. Or they may be worried that the guy who went to a shrink for 6 years will flip when he's indicted, and New York would be the only card in his hand.
Carmine - The dark horse. But all Carmine wants is peace, for everyone to get along and do business and make money. Killing Tony would end all contention between the families - there is no one left to stand up for Tony except Paulie, who is a puppet and has had a working relationship with NY for at least 3 seasons.
Coco - Tony didn't just punish Coco, he humiliated him. He curbed him. This is a guy who threatened to rape Tony's daughter over a few hundred dollars. The only thing I see stopping him from having Tony killed is that it might not be enough for him, or he might want to wait until he could do it himself.
Carlo - He just flipped on Tony. He might be thinking about saving his own life at this point.
All the rest - Hundreds or thousands of friends, business associates, and family members of people Tony had wronged, plus a lot of those people themselves.
There is no shortage of people who could pay to have Tony killed.