The haunting song that ended the episode may be a clue to the finale. "Ninna Ninna" is an old Italian folk lullaby about a mother talking to her son - Antoneddu or 'my little Anthony'. Her husband is an outlaw that has gone into hiding and she must now follow him. She begs her son not to follow in his father's footsteps, saying she would rather see him dead than an outlaw like his father.

Is this a clue that Tony and Carmela will end their life together in the Witness Protection program and AJ will die?

I had a dream last night....one that would redeam the stilted acting and general irritation caused by Dr Melfi's scenes post her traumatic rape scene. No kidding, I woke up around 3a, thinking What if Dr Melfi is actually working for the Feds? As we saw from the promo, even Sil thinks Tony has been "working two sides". Have his cronies suspected all along that Tony might compromise all of them through his 'therapy sessions'. As we saw in his dream last week, he is so close to slipping from his doublespeak with the doctor. She may be the missing link that makes his house of cards finally tumble.

will tony be hamlet and procrastinate or do what he knows needs to be done?

it is obvious that phil is now showing open contempt for him. there is no respect and he is ready to kill tony or at least one of his direct underlings at any moment. tony pretty much realizes this. that was why he was so quick to walk away from that last would be meeting with phil--he realized the time for talk was over(followed by that truly creepy "invisible phil talking from inside the darkened window" scene).

the only "for sure" solution for tony is to wipe out phil and his crew. he has never done anything that drastic....but he has never been treated the way he is being treated. there is no reasoning with phil who is not acting logically...and tony has now seen just how precarious his position is in other areas with meadow being threatened in public, AJ coming unhinged, christopher dead, and his remaining "friends" seeming more untrustworthy than ever.

so there is only ONE over the top and yet logical thing for tony to do: he must kill both phil and his number two (at the very least). there is no time for denial or thought as there was with big pussy. but he will not indulge in that because he already hates phil, whereas he had love both for his cousin (buscemi) AND pussy (both of whom he killed even after agonizing over it). so since he has less than no love for phil it will be all logistics. could he pull off killing phil in such a way as to not end up in prison or otherwise destroy his whole operation?

if he pulls a hamlet and puts it off even a little....he will pay dearly, either with his own death....or that of someone within his nuclear family. either way...it is going to be bloody and harsh. that much is inevitable. as it should be. i suspect that he will survive and if he hesitates to kill phil he may lose AJ, Meadow, or Carmela. he really does love all three of them, whatever his faults. and i can absolutely see an ending which features tony, having killed phil and others, standing at the grave of his wife or child. that would be quite powerful and Shakespearean. not a dry eye in the house.

for whatever reason....i see also see bobby as getting killed by phil....although that is kind of a shot in the dark and with the story so chock full of red herrings...who the hell knows?

man, next week is going to be suspenseful with no ep. we'll have to wait 2 weeks to get a look at the penultimate link in the chain....

greatest thing ever put on TV. thank you mr. chase. as far as how HE views tony....i think he seems him as a metaphor for the now darkened and corrupted american dream...hence the title of the final episode and the pics of tony with the statue of liberty behind him. so tony is not "a sociopath" or "a criminal" or "other". he is us. and yes...chase strikes me as a very depressed and pessimistic guy. look at that mug!

We can't imagine Tony bargaining with the family secrets, and that's why Chase will squeeze it out of him. It's the only way he can nail Phil Leotardo.

In the final episode, Tony is mowing a sprinkler-dependent lawn on a quarter acre in Arizona, literally despising himself. He's done precisely what Adriane was killed not to do. ...What had gnawed at him (not without reason) as the key vulnerability Christopher represented.

Melfi is nowhere to be found. As others have suggested, the promising Meadow may be physically and/or mentally scarred for life. The Lear moment will happen when AJ, who's had a flicker of moral vision for us in the audience to enjoy, takes a decidedly dark turn with choices that lack both financial value and social value, and afford him no practical future. Tony, spreading lyme on his lawn, bristling about what he's done, and the life he's facing, whips the spreader into the winshield of their modest station wagon as a neighbor walks by gawking, and Tony's face is enflamed with anger at this life sentance he's chosen instead of an "honorable" death.

It would be outrageous and hypocritical (and just plain stupid) if terrorism ended up playing any part in this show. As many have noted, this season seems to have some overt criticism of the Bush administration, so if the only 2 middle easterners in this show turn out to be terrorists, that would seem to be a justification for the Bush administration's actions. Seriously, Tony sees a group of middle easterners on the street and the next day he rats them out to the feds (who are, of course, high on the list of mortal enemies), and then...he turns out to have been right? Suddenly we're watching 24, not The Sopranos. What a shame if it goes in that direction.