Letters to the Editor
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Too late for Sundance?
Now that Christopher and T.J. are dead, what's to become of "Cleaver?"
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Don Tony
I too saw Chrissy’s demise as Sicilian mercy killing. Better to end that way. Why should Tony put up with more years of Chrissy's bullshit? I grew up in Jersey with wiseguys in the neighborhood --wonderful protectors -- kind, considerate, strong -- if they like you. But they can change in a flash into terrifying engines of death. They go cold and ruthless. Numb. And if you ever see it in real life you never forget. That’s what I saw in Tony’s face when his fingers closed over Chrissy’s formidable nose and he calmly pushed him into death. Tony's a Don, for chrissake. He's not like normal people, with the standard ideas of right and wrong.
I suspect the element in the story that has the long-term ramifications is the dumping of asbestos in the water. That’s going to come back and bite Tony in the ass.
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re: "I Just Don't Get It" by mchebert
snip< "I have never seen an episode of the Sopranos. Never. I do not have HBO and refuse to get it just to watch a TV series.
What I don't understand is how a TV show can get more attention from Salon than Iraq has lately. It's just a stupid show."> snip
Did you think that maybe this show has garnered this much attention from Salon because it DOES have an end in sight? Unlike Iraq.
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late thought: Killing Christopha this way allowed him a funeral and a send-off ... closure
It might have been hard to artificially manufacture such a "neutral" death for Chrissy ... which reminded me that Carmella's religiousity seems to have evaporated along with her intellectual aspirations, along with her Ladies who Watch Movies group... her spec house has sold, she's got money in the bank, Meadow is living at home as is the recently returned AJ ... but, "Is this all there is?" rings as loudly for her as for Tony.
Is Chris' death the first of that particular (i.e. Meadow's)generation? I'm not a Sopranos' afficionado. I have to wonder if AJ will be enlisted to take his place ... or if there will be competition ... though with only 3 episodes left, there may not be time for that internecine subplot.
Anyone else wonder if the asbestos dump site investigation would turn up Adrianna's suitecase? or Adrianna?
And where would that leave Silvio?
So many questions, so little time ...
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Meadow...?
I have a feeling that the series will end with Meadow dying as some sort of byproduct of Tony's business. What is Meadow doing anyway? Did she graduate from Columbia? Is she working? I thought she was going to be a doctor. She's just around now....I don't think AJ will kill Tony. I don't think he has the courage. I also think the asbestos dump will figure into the ending - perhaps by bringing him and Phil to a dramatic conclusion with Meadow getting caught up in the cross-fire. Or, Phil will cross that line and involve the nuclear family in the dispute.
I'm really going to miss this show. I've always had HBO, and I've been watching this since day 1. I also enjoy listening to the excellent, varied soundtracks.
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Nothing personal, just business
Those of you who are continuing to ruminate over why Tony whacked Christopher are forgetting this basic mantra of mob life. In fact, I think you could see this realization in Christopher's eyes when the camera focused on him as he was being suffocated. There's a moment of surprise ("Wow, Tony's going to whack me?"), but it quickly turns to something else that looks like surrender and recognition. Not resignation, but something very close to it.
Chris, being the mob boss protege that he was, would have to have understood what a business liability he was. He was also, of course, well-conditioned to the notion that if you live this lifestyle or anywhere near it, sooner or later you're going to get whacked (like Adriana, J.T., etc.). The notion that Tony would whack one of his own men is not a foreign concept (remember Big Pussy?). In the time that it took for Tony to go from the passenger seat to the driver's side window, he figured out that all of the previous times he had spared Chris' life were an error of business judgment, and he was suddenly presented with an opportunity to correct that error without suffering any penalty. This is not to say that Chris was accepting of his fate, but I think his facial expression gives some hint that he understood that business concerns had trumped whatever personal advantage he had once enjoyed vis-a-vis Tony, and that his number was up.
I think that Tony was somehow trying to channel Chris and connect with him on a personal level when he was in Vegas--either that, or deliberately crapping on his legacy by sleeping with his woman and partying Chris-style--probably a combination of both, given their tortured love/hate friendship/rivalry. As for the "I get it" comment, I again think this was somewhat of a shout-out to Chris, and as for what he "got," I'd say it comes straight of the Bhagavad Gita:
They perish. Let them perish, Prince! and fight!
He who shall say, "Lo! I have slain a man!"
He who shall think, "Lo! I am slain!" those both
Know naught! Life cannot slay. Life is not slain!
Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never;
Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!
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David Chase hates SUV's
Did anyone else notice this is the second time Tony has rolled in an SUV? The first time he was driving with Christopher's girlfriend, and swerved to avoid hitting a deer. Once again, we see him in an accident avoidance maneuver, and the SUV goes rolling like a log. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think David Chase is making a subtle statement about the inherrent instability of SUV's.
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Actually, I think Tony in Las Vegas was more simply just wanting to "get away" ...
Las Vegas, all shiny and new, clean and well-coordinated, is for many people a blank slate place where people feel both free and safe to try on alternative identities. Tony wanted to go there to be alone, but hooked up very quickly with someone who knew what "Tony Soprano" means. I never felt that he actively envied Chris' life which was pretty fucked up. Instead, he envied Chris' youth and his "future" ...
I was musing the other day that Chris represented a new generation who were likely to USE their mob connections as a way to generate capital to largely move OUT of mob life ... making a movie, probably eventually to move to California or Palm Springs or Vegas ... none of this small New Jersey, one-step-above the alley-ways of the lower classes of life. Tony Soprano's mob riches and power may look like "small potatoes" to the MTV generation. The very real downsides of mob life including the competition from other younger, meaner, more international mobs are fairly self-evident.
The mob was/is an attractive alternative to grunt labor and other shit work ... but "hanging with the crew at the Bada Bing" day after day after day does not have the same cache for Chris/Meadow's generation. Similarly no-show jobs are a crappy alternative to a satisfying career ...
Oddly, AJ -- with the prospect of deadend pizzarria management positions ahead -- is not an unlikely next-generation mob candidate, having no other particular talent or drive.
Meadow has visions of a "career" and "independence" and a successful "professional" husband ... I doubt she'd settle for a mob associate, no matter how slick, but ... who knows.