by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
When the Sopranos returned last week for its last nine episode story arc, savvy viewers were wondering how creator David Chase would send his antihero, Tony Soprano out. Would he seek redemption, which would be difficult since he has murdered people? Would he get whacked? Or, the most likely scenario, would he go to prison? Speculation abounds, but for the discerning fan (like me) one must get inside the mind of Tony, which means analyzing David Chase’s creative consciousness. Chase’s scripts are never dull, always providing viewers unexpected surprises and intriguing tangents to the main story.
The opening episode of the last series of shows gave fans a significant peek into Tony’s possible future and some insight into Tony’s mind set. Clearly, Tony still defends his fragile ego from being deflated by his underlings, as this segment underscored. Behind the scenes, forces are working against Tony in both his Mafia family and his nemesis, the FBI. Tony sees these things happening and is philosophical about his future.
“My Estimate? Historically? Eighty percent of the time it ends in the can (prison) like Johnny Sack. Either that, or the loading dock at Cozarelli’s,” Tony states. Yes, he is feeling a deep foreboding that his gravy train will soon crash into a cement wall. He realizes his days of living la doce vita are numbered. When he talks to his psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi (Loraine Bracco), deep-down he knows what troubling him. He has killed people and it has darkened his soul. How can he possibly be redeemed? Is there a secular way of atoning for his sins? As a Catholic, can he be forgiven?
In having Tony see a psychiatrist, who is the gatekeeper of society’s morality, Chase is making the point that there is some good in Tony. His guilt is eating him alive. He loves his family and he has been a good provider. Even his loyalty to the Mafia creed is almost admirable. With his future uncertain and judgement day approaching, Tony must rationalize his feelings, which have turned cold over the years of crime and murder.
Nonetheless, as the fight with Bobby in episode one shows, Tony’s ego was bruised when Bobby won the drunken brawl. To get even, when Bobby and Tony meet with Canadian pharmaceutical black market dealers, one of them mentions a problem–the deadbeat father of his sister’s child is trying to get custody of the kid.
In a moment of clarity, Tony offers to make his problem go away (by killing the deadbeat dad) in exchange for lowering the price of the goods. They agree and Tony assigns the hit to Bobby, who earlier had confessed to Tony he had never killed anyone. So now, Bobby must commit murder to appease Tony. He does the job and instantly knows there is no going back. He has blood on his hands as a Mafia captain. The thing is, Bobby is not a cold-blooded killer, but he would have been whacked if he had not done Tony’s bidding. Now Bobby will feel the deep guilt which keeps Tony awake at night and sent him to Dr. Melfi.
Eventually, all Mafia made members face a crisis of soul. Some turn rat to seek redemption, others try to prevent their incarceration by killing anyone who could turn rat. But in the end, their careers end with death or prison. The Italian Mafia is an archaic entity in today’s crime world. The Russian Mafia has emerged as a much more ruthless force in the underworld, and its “Thieves” oath is enforced by blood and fear dating back to Russian prisons. In this dark world, everyone lives in fear and no one dares talk to the police.
One thing we know for sure: If Tony can’t count on loyalty from his captains and soldiers, he is in big trouble. Viewers see that his closest captains are branching out into legitimate endeavors. Christopher has made his horror flick and is planning to produce other films. La Cosa Nostra, “Our thing” is fracturing as more made men are turning rat to get lighter sentences. Surely Tony sees the handwriting on the wall, but has too much at stake to run or turn rat. Besides, no one resigns from the Mafia and lives. Yes, some end up in witness protection or jail, but they are marked men.
For David Chase, it was a complex dilemma how to end this exemplary series. Tony’s facade of living an upper class life, while the FBI builds a Rico case against him, was underscored in the last week’s episode when Tony was arrested for a gun charge. Years before he had dropped the gun in the snow. A teenager saw him drop the gun from his window. He takes the gun and is caught with it, and it is traced back to Tony. But the local DA drops the charges when the Feds intervene, pressuring the DA by saying their Rico case trumps his trivial gun charge. The gun charge is dropped.
Yes, dark clouds are forming around Tony as his kids grow up and he tries to maintain some semblance of living the American dream. Chances are, Chase will not disappoint his loyal fans who have stuck by the series with great interest. Will Tony go out with a whimper or a tumultuous happening? Time will tell as we sit riveted as the last nine episodes play out.
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