Unspoiled Sopranos finale speculation
There are usually only four ways Mob stories end - with the protagonist victorious, dead, in jail, or turning rat. Michael Corleone is victorious, though at increasing cost to himself and his small-f family. Tony Montana goes out in a blaze of glory, while Henry Hill becomes a rat, leaving Jimmy and Paulie to rot behind bars. But will Tony Soprano end up like any of them?
David Chase, who is as evil as Joss Whedon, likes to screw with his viewing audience, never giving them what they expect. So I believe he won't go for any of the above endings. I think he'll go for a more ambiguous ending, leaving little resolved. In fact, Chase is so evil I'm halfway expecting that he'll end the finale with the war between New York and New Jersey still ongoing, so we never even get a resolution to that.
Even if he doesn't screw us that way, I'm almost certain Chase will leave us with no real resolution to the problem of Tony Soprano. He will not get what's coming to him, and he will have learned nothing from his trials and travails of the past several years. Maybe it won't end with Tony on his hands and knees, scrubbing out a blood stain while muttering, "Wants me to tell him something pretty," (I miss my Deadwood), but I suspect the final scene will be just as unsatisfying.
I hope I'm wrong. Guess we'll find out tomorrow night.
Also, I read something interesting about the whole Paris Hilton mess. I don't know if it's true, but I read that the L.A. County jail is so overcrowded that it is actually common practice to release non-violent offenders after a couple of days. If so, that means that everyone's favorite hoo-er (TM the not-so-dearly-departed Ralphie Cifaretto) actually wasn't getting any special treatment, aside from being segregated from gen-pop. And now, ironically, because she is the celebrity everybody loves to hate, she will be serving (probably) her full sentence. I'd like to think that maybe she'll learn something from this, and perhaps become an advocate for judicial/penal reform, but I doubt it.
David Chase, who is as evil as Joss Whedon, likes to screw with his viewing audience, never giving them what they expect. So I believe he won't go for any of the above endings. I think he'll go for a more ambiguous ending, leaving little resolved. In fact, Chase is so evil I'm halfway expecting that he'll end the finale with the war between New York and New Jersey still ongoing, so we never even get a resolution to that.
Even if he doesn't screw us that way, I'm almost certain Chase will leave us with no real resolution to the problem of Tony Soprano. He will not get what's coming to him, and he will have learned nothing from his trials and travails of the past several years. Maybe it won't end with Tony on his hands and knees, scrubbing out a blood stain while muttering, "Wants me to tell him something pretty," (I miss my Deadwood), but I suspect the final scene will be just as unsatisfying.
I hope I'm wrong. Guess we'll find out tomorrow night.
Also, I read something interesting about the whole Paris Hilton mess. I don't know if it's true, but I read that the L.A. County jail is so overcrowded that it is actually common practice to release non-violent offenders after a couple of days. If so, that means that everyone's favorite hoo-er (TM the not-so-dearly-departed Ralphie Cifaretto) actually wasn't getting any special treatment, aside from being segregated from gen-pop. And now, ironically, because she is the celebrity everybody loves to hate, she will be serving (probably) her full sentence. I'd like to think that maybe she'll learn something from this, and perhaps become an advocate for judicial/penal reform, but I doubt it.