Letters to the Editor
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ericg51's letter "Disappointed"
The mode of death was shocking but the murder itself made contextual sense and was heavily foreshadowed. At the end, Tony was seeing Chris's third or fourth major relapse into drugs. Chris himself told Tony that "your hero" Chris's father died a worthless junkie. Tony is in financial peril, more under FBI investigation than ever, and can't afford to hold a loose cannon. Chris had moved into the film industry, wasn't around the Bing as much, and could have been a flip risk. Tony saw signs of regret in Chris (real or not) for not following Adrianna into the program. In Tony's mind there were practical, strategic and emotional reasons for killing him.
Maybe worst of all, Tony believed via Carmella that Chris's movie mocked him. Displaced notions of "honor" are an overarching factor/handy excuse for these sociopaths.
I don't think you're necessarily meant to feel "any emotion except utter contempt for Tony" or for Christopher. Maybe you had an expected emotional response that was unmet, so that you are projecting illogic onto the plot. I sympathize, the incident provokes a complex reaction. But in just one aspect of the multifaceted foreshadowing, Tony had considered killing Paulie, who in the grand scheme of things poses far less risk than Chris. Tony had become deeply afraid and contemptuous of Christopher, and an opportunity landed in his lap.