Letters to the Editor
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Heather got it wrong?
Heather you say that Tony falls to the floor at the casino saying"he's dead" and can't enjoy his winnings. I think Tony realizes that his luck has changed because the burden of christopher is gone and now he feels exilerated and free.
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LIVIA
I was just about to mention Livia, when someone else did.
Am I misrembering or didn't Livia mention suffocating a child during one of her rants in the first 2 seasons?
Is Chris's death a reference back to that?
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"I get it"
Per the recap of the episode on hbo.com, Tony said, "I get it!"
"Meanwhile, Tony and Sonya have driven out to park overlooking a stunning desert canyon. Standing at the edge of the world Tony shouts out: 'I get it!'"
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"thank G-d it's ending"
mchebert said:
"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. And a Mafia show to boot -- as if we have never seen anything like that before. Do we have to hear about it every single week? Thank God it's ending!"
That's funny. I wish that I could say the same thing about the war in Iraq--the ending part, that is.
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He said "I get it."
A number of viewers at televisionwithoutpity watched with closed captioning to determine what Tony said and it was definitely "I get it."
My first impression of that moment was that Tony, looking over the vastness of the scene before him, had some kind of spiritual revelation, perhaps even some humility in the face of the incomprehensibilty of the world. Or maybe he was embracing a hopeless nihilism. We will see.
I can hardly stand the tension of watching this show.
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what'd he say?
Yeah, I agree that the sudden winning streak was a symbol to Tony that he'd gotten back on track again. I'll have to listen to it again, but I thought that in his sunset tripping there, he shouted out 'i did it' rather than 'i get it'. As though, finally he could talk about it rather that having to be in literal denial.
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@cestJLD 7 et al
I agree with your analysis of Tony's "baby-death fixation." It brings to mind old images of Livia Soprano, who was also obessed with stories of infanticide. She liked to tell them at the dinner table, as I recall from the early seasons.
It's a subject Tony explored with Melfi, right after Junior's first attempt on Tony's life. He believed his mother was trying to kill him, and sadly, she was.
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Livia
Doctorrick, back in the '60's when Johnny wanted to move to Reno, Livia screamed that she'd rather put a pillow over the children's faces than let him take them there.
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Christopher's death
Christopher's death was absolutely horrifying, second only to Adriana's. It's not just that I knew these characters and had a lot of years invested in them. It's that their deaths were stripped of the macho bravado that many of the other killings in the series have had. No St. Valentine's Day massacre. No gunfights. No last stands. They were put down like animals. That's why both murders particularly horrified me.
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peyote
Peyote can make even the throwing up seem profound (and he should have been doing a lot more of it, and absolutely under no circumstances should have capable of driving into the desert). Even the buzzing flourescent light seemed significant. Having him resort to a drug like that for insight is a great choice by the writers.
I think the "profound" peyote experience is going to define Tony's world view in a way he relied on Melfi to do previously. And it will provide the necessary rationalizations: he won at the table and then God winked at him. I would expect him to end his therapy and then have her killed, since he won't be going back and she could potentially talk.
Like many fans of the show, Tony has charmed Melfi. Her fondness for him is the basis of his loyalty. When he ends his therapy, he won't have a basis for trusting her anymore and will cover his own ass.
Thanks to everyone who's posted letters here. You're all scary smart.
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An unexamined life ...
Even though the final episodes may be depressing and disappointing to those want the Sopranos to play “who-gets-whacked-this week” or have a lovable villain ala J.R., I think they are restoring Chase’s reputation that had started to wane a bit. He has always said Tony is a sociopath, and that even Carmela and other peripheral players in the Mafia are not to be admired (example: Brian Williams’ ignorant attempt to get Edie Falco to portray Carmela as a strong woman during a promo; she didn’t bit cuz she knows her character). It was creatively brilliant to kill off Christopher early on (and yes this was brewing despite what one letter said) and then shove the sad, disgusting aftermath in our faces, totally illuminating Tony’s sociopathic narcissism for anyone left who still wants to love the SOB. Then, most brilliantly, he has Tony, the poster boy for an unexamined life, ingest a psychedelic. OMG, I thought, is this guy finally going to get a look inside himself, unfiltered through the layers of self-justification, self-pity, and the rest of his defense mechanisms. Of course not, and it would be wrong to portray it any other way. Yes, we have seen glimpses of Tony’s humanity when it comes to his children and others, even ducks. But one doesn’t get to the point of being a Mafia boss without all the hostility and self-deception that Chase and Gandolfini bring to Tony’s character. The final episodes may not be going where some people want, or others expect, but to me they are proving that chase is again on the right track.
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Baby Death Fixation and False Epiphany
I think Petrarch is close to dead on about Tony's motivation for killing Christopher. That issue of the child seat, the implications that Christopher is irresponsible and would endanger his child -- that is what weighed most heavily on Tony in the seconds after the accident and then the days following Christopher's death. His awkward repetition of the story to various mourners was an attempt to explain himself. I don't think, however, that he saw the babyseat and killed Christopher because he viewed him as a failed patriarch. I think he killed Christopher because on some level Tony feels himself to be that endangered child. The connection to Livia's constant threats about killing her children really ties it together: in the moments after the accident, Tony's suspicion that Chris was a threat had the added emotional resonance of his experiences as a frightened child who was literally threatened by everyone he might have loved. Chris wasn't his metaphorical son at that moment -- he was a stand-in for every adult who frightened and disappointed Tony when he was a helpless child. This also speaks to how ultimately helpless Tony feels himself to be even as an adult.
Also, I would not assume, just because Tony shouted "I get it" while on Peyote, that he actually had some type of spiritual epiphany. He undoubtedly knows that this is what one is supposed to do while tripping in the desert, and just as he had to put on the "long face" to act normal at Chris' wake, he got his God on for the duration of his hallucinogenic trip. He was going through the motions just as much with the Peyote as ever. More "comfortably numb" than existentially inspired.