June 9, 2007

"Sopranos" predictions galore.

Collected here. I think it's pretty clear that in the last episdode, the key secondary character -- aside from Tony and Carmela -- has got to be Meadow. She's the one they've been holding in reserve all season. They've played the AJ card and all the other cards. It's gotta be a Meadowdrama tomorrow.

14 comments:

hdhouse said...

I think you are right...my guess...there will be revenge against Meadow after the incident in the restaurant and then tony nearly killing the guy who did it. rape or a beating perhaps. tony will go beserk which is what the set up was and he will go and find and be shot. remember sonny in godfather 1...that set up.

that would be somewhat clever and symbolic...only thing better would be that AJ would also go beserk and shot up the world or have it done and ascend to the new position of boss. carmella would accuse AJ and he would lie to her and tell her never to ask about the family business again.

George M. Spencer said...

The very first scene in every episode shows Tony emerging into daylight literally from the bowels of the earth, a tunnel, and a filthy one at that.

He then buys a pass, giving him time above ground—a miserable decaying industrial wasteland and swamps. A polluted world.

We're told "the world's turned upside down." We see the Twin Towers. "Mama said you'd be the chosen one....Papa never told you about right and wrong."

He is fuming.

Though he ascends to a castle atop a hill, he is a denizen of the underworld, the place he must ultimately return to. The only thing Tony lacks is horns.

Interestingly, in opera, sopranos are female singers. The only male sopranos are prepubescent boys or eunuchs.

Tony is in the process of being castrated. Sleeping with an M-16 does no good if you're firing blanks.

Unknown said...

I don't know...I can't predict a thing.

Maybe there will be less killing literally and more killing spiritually--Tony's family presented with some terrible knowledge about who he really is. That would be an appropriate death for him.

Good thoughts, George. I also wonder about the name Sopranos. His mother, dead or alive, does call the tune, doesn't she?

George M. Spencer said...

...Meadow...a low flat, often marshy, fertile place where cows eat (and flop, if you know what I mean)...a place used for the making of hay...

....Now just how many automatic weapons did Christopher sell those Arabs....

Terrorist events pop out of nowhere, but not entirely without warning...

amba said...

I'm kinda surprised no one else seems to have thought of this.

amba said...

Well, George just did, kinda.

Curtiss said...

The final episode is Made in America: A.J. becomes the “Made in America” terrorist. Who or what he targets is still unknown

Jim Howard said...

Tony will kill Phil, fairly early in the episode. He will discover a terrorist plot. AJ better be involved with this plot, because otherwise there is no reason why we've had to endure a whole season in which his worthlessness was rubbed in our faces every episode.

In exchange for information about the plot Tony gets in the program, but is killed at the last minute by someone he trusts, probably AJ.

We will be left with the impression that Meadow may take over Tony's operation.

PeterP said...

DO NOT give any spoilers.

We in the UK don't see this until later in the year.

A woman might have to sleep with the fishes [all of them?] who revealed the ending!

Bad Penny said...

I think the only question left is just how far Tony will go in protecting himself.

Remember a few weeks ago when he shoved Carmela around to get the money to pay off his gambling debt? Is he willing to sacrifice his family (either one) to save himself? How deep is his depravity?

Can he step in front of a bullet to save Carm or AJ or Meadow? Will he ride off into the sunset with Agent Harris and leave Carm to fend for herself?

Cedarford said...

George had an interesting spin. But as a former resident of Northern NJ, I know those landmarks (the real ones) in the opening scene. I know the smell. And most of all I know the dynamism of the wealth created there...before chunks of it are sucked up by owners, Jewish middleman, law firms, and the Mob as their "cut of the action".

Places like Northern NJ were what millions had in mind who came here seeking the better life.

Hell it is not. It is simply Tony's feeding ground before he retires to suburban splendor with the other sharks. Just like it is Sy's to dip his beak in, the Columbia "admittance donor solicitors", the Counselors&Councimen's, the Ruling Elite's cut of the Esplenade.

************
For almost 9 years I hoped Tony would be able to win. Somehow escape the lifestyle and truly redeem himself as a man. But the last season shows evil and his choices have been his downfall. Maybe we all can escape a few bad deeds done for expediency, disguise them in rules,,,,but regularizing them extinguishes bit by bit the proud son stealing a ride to carnival, the loving son & husband, the man that strikes down the psychopath Ralphie twice as beyond the pale even Tony can abide.

And Saint Carmela is just as complicit...maybe more so. NO victim, is she. Carmela knows full well her lifestyle rests on malfeasance, knows the violence it hinges on, knows it perverts Tony...but she is fine just as long as the money and status continue to come in, risks to herself are minimized, and Tony doesn't openly shame her....

For that reason, I'd like Carmella to be shot Amy Fisher-like by Phil.
AJ and Meadow were never characters many felt any warmth for, IMO. Bobby, Chris, Andrea, and Big Pussy were better.
Saint Carmella getting it for 30 years of living off the lard of evil deeds - then pretending she is such a good person? Worth a faceand speech slurring bullet, IMO.

Leave Tony alive for the feature movie, Carmella damaged...And Furio returning from Italy to help rebuild and still loves Saint Carmella...Tony finally bangs Dr Melfi for real..Takes down Phil in a duck pond. Stalked by psychotic Janice who blames him for Bobby's death, joined by Tony's older sister who did escape Tony's descent. Tony is rescued by a "Good Religious Person" that turns Hollywood's anti-Christian bias in major movies on it's head....

And let the Russian come back to gut Paulie Walnuts with a Spetnaz knife in the last episode.

Thorley Winston said...

My predictions – I think that David Chase will try to avoid any “Godfatheresque” ending simply because throughout the six years of the show he and the other writers have referred to the movies (but never the books) and made a point of showing how the main mobsters (Tony, Sal, Chris, Paulie, Big P) are fans of the movies but the actual lifestyle doesn’t match up to the hype of the movie (think back to season two then Chris, Tony, and Paulie went to Italy and found it to be nothing like they thought it would be after watching Godfather).

That being said I do think there is going to be a shakeup in the Soprano nuclear family. AJ is an obvious choice because he’s been the focus of so many of episodes this last season and has been portrayed as a generally useless little twerp. The foreshadowing seems to suggest his final arc will be terrorism related but I’m not sure whether he’s going to go John Walker Lind or find some sort of redemption (probably the former since there is very little redemption in this series).

Something else might happen to Meadow but she’s a survivor (so long as she’s got someone else’s wallet or checkbook to live off) but I don’t see her taking over the family. If Tony dies, it might send her over to the light side of criminal law and she could end up becoming a prosecutor determined to bring down the mobsters who killed her father.

Dittos on the hate for Saint Carmela. She’s only barely less annoying than Janice or AJ. I think though that in the final episode she will learn or suspect that Tony had Adriana wacked and she will either (a) realize what it is she’s turned a blind eye towards during her marriage or (b) accept it as an acceptable loss for preserving her own family and having to come to grips with her own loss of innocence.

Regarding the mob war – my prediction is that Philly is killed and the New York family is reluctantly taken over by Little Carmine who makes peace with the Soprano family. I thinks it’s possible that Furio could be one of the “Italian cousins” that Tony sent for last week to help them out. Paulie is a likely casualty because he’s lost his own family, he’s alienated himself from everyone else, his health is poor, and he would be the last of Tony’s original crew (assuming Sil doesn’t survive). We’ll also probably see the deaths of some of the newer/minor mobsters like Benny.

Tony probably won’t die but he will be in the final scene and it will have something to do with him reflecting on the choices he’s made and their consequences. More likely than not, he won’t learn from it.

hdhouse said...

I woke up in the middle of the night. I saw the ending. I was earlier part right and part wrong...I didn't include enough people...now think of all the people on the show, who is the least likely to rat on Tony and his buddies but is probably by lack of understanding, the mostly threatening...and who knows Tony even better than Carm? Remember 2 episodes before where it was tossed out that sociopaths make the worst patients and the cure rate is really almost nil?

I can't say more. Everyone is watching me. My emails are tapped. Certainly my IP address is known. I must sleep with an automatic ...

ron st.amant said...

I think Meadow will be kidnapped to try and lure Tony out of hiding. He does, and somehow Leotardo and his crew are killed. (Perhaps Meadow herself kills Phil to save Tony).
Meadow then sees the only way to save herself (and AJ) is to turn to the Feds, rat our her father (and possibly her mother who she blames as much as Tony for the sins of the Family) and goes into witness protection.

Thus Tony's inital anxiety (the escape of his children- the ducks flying away from hom) is realized.

In his series long attempt to 'save' his family (and his Family) he has lost both.