Letters to the Editor
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Schrodinger's Cat
From Wikipedia: "A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts."
Also, "Schrödinger's famous Gedankenexperiment poses the question: when does a quantum system stop existing as a mixture of states and become one or the other? (More technically, when does the actual quantum state stop being a linear combination of states, each of which resemble different classical states, and instead begin to have a unique classical description?) If the cat survives, it remembers only being alive. But explanations of the EPR experiments that are consistent with standard microscopic quantum mechanics require that macroscopic objects, such as cats and notebooks, do not always have unique classical descriptions. The purpose of the thought experiment is to illustrate this apparent paradox: our intuition says that no observer can be in a mixture of states, yet it seems cats can be such a mixture. Are cats required to be observers, or does their existence in a single well-defined classical state require another external observer?"
This is the paradox of Schrodinger's Cat. In it, is the observation that creates the objective state of life or death. While the lid remains closed the cat is simultaneously alive and dead and if it lives it remembers only being alive. David Chase has set up the experiment and Tony continues to exist as simultaneously dead and alive. The lid will not be opened. Absolutely perfect episode. Honestly, it is beyond me and this is truly high art.
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Family Values Sopranos style
Again this show had so many layers that it's hard to dissect all that was touched upon. I think Chase took this whole fascination with a fictional story and made a huge statement about our values and the world in which we live.We as audience members want it to be a show about the mob and criminal justice which was secondary to its central theme : a family in disorder . It was a search for truth and meaning in a life that had been dictated to them through the generations. Sins of the Father. How do we change our lives unless we can admit the truth and take responsibility for the consequences of sin.? The family contract was one of deceit and denial and whenever that was violated chaos reigned. AJ was deemed a mental case for trying to escape that agreement and only when he was brought back into the lie could harmony be restored. His attempt to make sense of this world by actually participating in something outside his own narcissist desires was quickly abandoned with the offer of producing a cheesy horror flick. A rather heavy handed indictment of a culture in which a majority of it's citizens could not find Iraq on a map yet could give you a blow by blow account of Paris Hilton's latest travail. Meadow's quest for social justice looks a lot more attractive attached to a 170k salary. And Carmella's attempts to create the perfect nuclear family is constantly thwarted by the ugly face of reality so she will continue to design spec homes to perpetuate that dream.
As for Tony-I can't stop thinking that there was a sense of peace amid the anxiety of that final scene. As he scoped out that diner and all the possible assassins- I don't believe it was a question of if, but who and when. The palatable lie of the indictment was chosen over the truth of his own death. The illusion of family stability was continued amidst the threat of death which swirled around them. The overall frustration dramatically is that none of the characters significantly changed. They maintained that contract of deceit and denial until the very end. Perhaps Tony knew the outcome and instead of a blaze of glory he chose to die in the comfort of that illusory world. In this culture of 24 hours of news and where complex issues are reduced to 15 second sound bytes, I thought it only fitting that the story ends in black and silence. No resolution, no change. On to the next shiny object.
The Greek dramatists would have been appalled at the lack of climax and a proper denouement. It might not have been the most satisfying end, but it was probably the truest
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drifting into pure metaphor
well it's all been said one way or the other.
i am sure chase got EXACTLY the response he wanted....confusion, anger, joy, introspection, hate, dismissal...the full gamut. no "one ending" could have possibly been as provocative and ballsy. would the goodfellas witness protection ending really have been more satisfying? the dead daughter/dead soul godfather ending? the ultraviolent death al pacino scarface ending? the "somewhere in between" casino ending?? no. none of those would do as well as this vaguely david lynch/2001 type ending.
so here is just ONE crucial plot point: who the hell was the shady guy who went to the can?? if he was not directly related to phil we cannot really assume tony's death and we are left floundering in a sea of ambiguity. since tony has clearly set things straight with new york the only mob guy with a clear motive would be a blood relative of phil.
which is fine. and how the hell would the guy happen to know where they were going to dinner anyway? so even if he had somehow followed tony there without his knowledge...how would he know to hide a gun in the bathroom a la michael corleone? it's not really possible.
but this leads to another thought:
the final scene, unlike everything up to that point in the series (with the exception of the dreams) depicted some sort of non reality (from the reality of the show wise asses).
i could be reaching here but i think the weird edit that introduces the scene...as WELL as the impossibly coincidental nature of the people in the restaurant (collected from various episodes) , indicates at the very least heightened reality...and maybe a flight into PURE metaphor. the boy scouts, the jukebox...it all seems like a symbol of...america itself. as tony is.
so you could easily see the scene with it's comfortably banal family dialog set against the ultimately american backdrop of the diner but with a number of potentially ominous people around as a microcosm of tony's every day existence. this is how it has always been....and always will be...until the final blackout, whether or not that occurs as meadow walks into the diner...or 20+ years down the line. we the viewer are left to be as confused, deluded, frustrated, angry, and introspective as tony has been for much of the show.
either way it is NOT a cop out...a simple random (or not quite random) assassination of tony shown in typical sopranos gruesome realistic style WOULD have been the cop out...a lack of imagination. the weird existential ending was the perfect capper to this most brilliant of american television shows.
bravo.
and to all the naysayers.....sorry you missed out. it was a great thing.