Letters to the Editor
-
The Second Nothing, or Dying In Your Own Arms
Chase's theme is the Livia's: It's all a big nothing. And his ending stays true to this.
You can interpret that phrase so many ways: Existence is meaningless. Nothing we do matters. Everyone is utterly self-centered and ready to be corrupted, co-opted or bought. So: Chase indicts the whole human race.
Or if that's too broad, you can downsize it to TV: It's meaningless, we obsess over its trivialities, we waste our lives watching it. So: Chase indicts our obsession with his creation.
Or you can think of it as being only about death: Remember that AJ heard Livia say this on her deathbed and it was followed by the phrase, "In the end, you die in your own arms." And here the much-reviled Livia was speaking an existential truth: We may live together as a family (and as part of the family of man) but we all die alone.
I've taken care of many dying people, both family members and strangers. It's not only true, as Tony tried to tell Phil, that no one on their deathbed wishes they'd saved more no-show jobs, but also that when someone has an actual dying process (as opposed to a sudden death), priorities shift during it.
While at first relationships are all-important, at the very end of life, in the last few days or hours, people recede into themselves to do whatever final preparations death requires of them. They retreat inward and they die alone. This isn't a tragedy - it's just the reality of death.
Like the Sopranos, the film American Beauty is a supposed indictment of American life and the American family. Yet when I saw it years ago, I thought what it captured so beautifully was the dying process as I've witnessed it in others. The main character, Lester, tells us at the very start that he's already a dead man, and all of his behaviors in the film have their more subtle echo in people I've known who have received a terminal diagnosis. The film ends with his death, and we are treated to a poignant look at his dying thoughts, which center on those good times that Tony urged AJ to focus on - his memories are all about times when he felt love.
So, I wonder, has this whole last season of the Sopranos been about Tony's dying process? That would explain his morbid thoughts, his reflections on the meaning of life (and 'the life' of a mobster) and his awkward yet sincere efforts to leave his children ready for adult life.
If Tony does die at the moment the camera shuts off (a theory I'm partial to) we get no epiphany like Lester's - but then, would we want one? What would Tony's dying thoughts be? Of murders, betrayals and his mother's contempt?
More importantly, I don't think Chase believes consciousness survives death. It ends abruptly, like when you've used up your time on those coin-operated telescopes on that Atlantic City boardwalk. A snap of metal and your field of vision goes black.
Someone once said to me of a relative who was dying and very fearful: "I think not only does he feel, 'How can I exist without the world?' but also 'How can the world exist without me?'"
For some people, the idea that existence would continue without their presence is unimaginable. Tony Soprano seems like one of those people. So Chase ends the series when Tony's consciousness ends, and the big nothing begins.