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Rich
06-04-2007, 10:27 AM
C'mon, last night was terrific. Where's the love?

tonymac
06-04-2007, 10:48 AM
I thought it was great, and I'm still clueless to the outcome after next week. However, I'm convinced that Tony will survive. He will take out Phil in the last episode.

Thoughts?

alteran
06-04-2007, 11:16 AM
C'mon, last night was terrific. Where's the love?

You beat me to the punch. Here's what I wrote:

SPOILERS


SPOILERS


SPOILERS


SPOILERS

Well, what did you guys think of the next-to-last episode of the Sopranos?

The trend to isolate Tony has pretty much reached its peak-- Tony is cut off from his family, four of his top six lieutenants are out of commission, Dr. Melfi has cut the apron strings, and he's on the lam.

I've been assuming that Tony (and the principals) would survive the end of this season because I keep hearing about a potential Sopranos movie, but now I'm not so sure-- if there's going to be a Sopranos movie, it's going to be missing Christopher, Sil, and God knows who else.

The atmosphere of menace is so thick that I was holding my breath half the episode last night. I expected bullets to fly everywhere Tony went that was even remotely familiar (I REALLY thought they were going to fly at Artie Bucco's restaurant).

Chase is so good at yanking my chain that I haven't got anything I'd reasonably call a good guess as to what happens next. But the episode is listed at 61 minutes (only ten minutes longer than a standard Sopranos ep), so I imagine things are going to move rather quickly-- even faster than they did this week.

Here are the things I think will factor in in the finale:

1) The NY/NJ war. Just mentioning the obvious to get it out of the way. Clearly the main focus next Sunday. One of the few things I'd bet on is that Phil Leotardo gets it, I just don't know what it's going to cost Tony.

2) AJ -- this story has been building all season and I can't imagine there won't be some sort of payoff. He's either going to do something spectacular, or spectacularly dumb. Although history would argue the latter, I'm going with the former here.

3) The Arab dudes/ FBI - this storyline has been on slow burn all season long, I'm pretty sure there's going to be some kind of payoff here as well. This plot has not been the focus of even a side story this season, but it has been diligently mentioned in virtually every episode in the back half of the season. I wonder if Tony will survive the gang war, only to have handcuffs slapped on him at the end as the arabs turn state's evidence.

4) Patsy escaping the hit on Sil. As one of Tony's two key remaining lieutenants (Paulie's the other), Patsy is in arguably the perfect position to avenge his twin brother's death at Tony's behest by selling him out or catching him vulnerable. My guess is he doesn't.

5) All season, I've been nursing along the theory that Janice will figure prominently in Tony's downfall, because it fits so well with all the mommy history Tony has. At various points along the season, my belief that this will happen has ebbed and flowed. Right now it's ebbing but I'm still watching for it.

As I look on this list, I think I've even got these items listed in order of likelihood.

Definitely ready to see the last episode. The only thing I know for sure is that Chase will surprise me.

Hector Vector
06-04-2007, 01:12 PM
Who did Sil kill at the start and why?

billybreen
06-04-2007, 01:25 PM
Who did Sil kill at the start and why?

Some dude from their crew who was "playing both sides" with the NY crew and advocating a change of leadership in NJ.

alteran
06-04-2007, 01:30 PM
Who did Sil kill at the start and why?

I don't think I recognized the guy, but Sil explained it later in the episode.

He was presumably one of the made men somewhere in Tony's organization, who was approached by Phil Leotardo's folks, feeling him out about whether he'd work for Phil's NY family. Sil referred to it as "playing both sides of the fence." It seemed this guy approached Sil to do the same, because Sil said garroting him was "his answer" to the offer.

Sil may have said "some guys are playing both sides of the fence," and this may be a hint that Patsy might be doing this as well, although the hitmen were certainly trying to get him at the Bing.

sue71, esq
06-04-2007, 01:52 PM
I can't remember the last time I was so riveted by an hour of tv. At all. Thank goodness for On Demand! I have specific comments below:


You beat me to the punch. Here's what I wrote:

SPOILERS


SPOILERS


SPOILERS


SPOILERS

Well, what did you guys think of the next-to-last episode of the Sopranos?

I've been assuming that Tony (and the principals) would survive the end of this season because I keep hearing about a potential Sopranos movie, but now I'm not so sure-- if there's going to be a Sopranos movie, it's going to be missing Christopher, Sil, and God knows who else.

Agreed- who really is left?

The atmosphere of menace is so thick that I was holding my breath half the episode last night. I expected bullets to fly everywhere Tony went that was even remotely familiar (I REALLY thought they were going to fly at Artie Bucco's restaurant).

I also was holding my breath a lot... also thought something was going to go down at Artie Bucco's, but then at the end when Tony went to sleep, all I could think was to pull down the shade! Didn't he see The Godfather II???? Pull down the freaking shade!

Here are the things I think will factor in in the finale:

1) The NY/NJ war. Just mentioning the obvious to get it out of the way. Clearly the main focus next Sunday. One of the few things I'd bet on is that Phil Leotardo gets it, I just don't know what it's going to cost Tony.

My dad & I were discussing this... Phil gets it, but does he have a heart attack? Is it at Tony's hand (literally)? We think Phil goes down by Tony directly, then Tony inserts Little Carmine as the boss, which should've been done LONG ago (before Johnny Sac).

2) AJ -- this story has been building all season and I can't imagine there won't be some sort of payoff. He's either going to do something spectacular, or spectacularly dumb. Although history would argue the latter, I'm going with the former here.

I think this is one of those story lines that will go unfulfilled and leave the viewers frustrated.

3) The Arab dudes/ FBI - this storyline has been on slow burn all season long, I'm pretty sure there's going to be some kind of payoff here as well. This plot has not been the focus of even a side story this season, but it has been diligently mentioned in virtually every episode in the back half of the season. I wonder if Tony will survive the gang war, only to have handcuffs slapped on him at the end as the arabs turn state's evidence.

Ooh, hadn't thought of that.

4) Patsy escaping the hit on Sil. As one of Tony's two key remaining lieutenants (Paulie's the other), Patsy is in arguably the perfect position to avenge his twin brother's death at Tony's behest by selling him out or catching him vulnerable. My guess is he doesn't.

I wondered what was up w/ Patsy escaping... but could Patrick & Meadow play into this somehow? Is Patrick going to become the heir apparent?

5) All season, I've been nursing along the theory that Janice will figure prominently in Tony's downfall, because it fits so well with all the mommy history Tony has. At various points along the season, my belief that this will happen has ebbed and flowed. Right now it's ebbing but I'm still watching for it.

Thought maybe Janice goes after Tony in a fit of hysteria/rage. Not sure how I feel about that one though.

Clipsfan
06-05-2007, 04:06 PM
I didn't watch the episode until last night, but I did enjoy it. After multiple weeks with little action, they finally delivered quite a bit of action.

One thing which confused me was the "mistaken identity". How could the hired killers get the wrong guy? They have an address, and know what the guy looks like, yet they somehow kill someone who looks like Phil at the address? As it looked like the father/daughter they killed lived there, did they just happen to get a wrong address where a lookalike lived? Hard to believe.

NashvilleDevil
06-05-2007, 04:35 PM
I think that it is Paulie who is the inside guy in Tony's crew. He was the only one that Phil did not order a hit on even though he is one of the capos. I have a feeling this is going to come out and Tony is going to get rid of him and Phil.

Rich
06-06-2007, 01:06 PM
I didn't watch the episode until last night, but I did enjoy it. After multiple weeks with little action, they finally delivered quite a bit of action.

One thing which confused me was the "mistaken identity". How could the hired killers get the wrong guy? They have an address, and know what the guy looks like, yet they somehow kill someone who looks like Phil at the address? As it looked like the father/daughter they killed lived there, did they just happen to get a wrong address where a lookalike lived? Hard to believe.

The daughter that lived there was, I believe, Phil's gumar. The coincidence was that the gumar's father, with his white hair, looked like Phil, at least from behind at night, to the Italians in the car. But it's no surprise, or that much of a stretch to think, that they would have thought that it was Phil visiting her at her house.

alteran
06-07-2007, 10:02 AM
I think that it is Paulie who is the inside guy in Tony's crew. He was the only one that Phil did not order a hit on even though he is one of the capos. I have a feeling this is going to come out and Tony is going to get rid of him and Phil.

I can't believe I missed this. It dovetails nicely with the trip Paulie and Tony had where Tony debated killing Paulie, and Paulie kinda/sorta knew it and ended up sending Tony the cappuccino machine.

We already know that Paulie is prone to communicating stuff detrimental to the NJ crew to the NY crew from the incident where Paulie told Johnny Sac about Christopher's insult/joke to Johnny Sac's wife. The show has given us plenty of reason to believe Paulie might be collaborating.

To give you an idea how byzantine my thinking is regarding the Sopranos, the primary reason I don't think this will happen is because it is the most logical theory put forward so far in this thread.

billybreen
06-07-2007, 10:28 AM
We already know that Paulie is prone to communicating stuff detrimental to the NJ crew to the NY crew from the incident where Paulie told Johnny Sac about Christopher's insult/joke to Johnny Sac's wife.

It was Ralphie's joke.

Udaman
06-07-2007, 10:37 AM
I don't think Paulie will be the turncoat. He is simply too loyal to the family. Yeah, he's greedy, and he wants to be boss. But I just can't see him turning on Tony. Plus, if so, he could have done so already.

In fact, I think Paulie is the one who will save Tony. He's the big miscalculation on Phil's part. They say leave him alone because he'll be loyal after this is all over, when he's going to be the one who smokes them all.

I think in the last episode, we will see an angry, sociopathic Tony and Paulie, who pretty much smoke everybody. I also think young Benny (the Doogie Hauser disciple) will take out the short sidekick of Phil.

Can't wait.

alteran
06-07-2007, 10:55 AM
It was Ralphie's joke.

Somebody gets a "loquacious" moniker and suddenly they know everything. ;-)

Seriously, you're right-- and I even think that joke figured significantly in Ralphie's downfall.

captmojo
06-07-2007, 01:29 PM
Remember in the Bing office when Paulie was told about possible hits and he mentioned surviving the war back in the 60's and now he's got to do it again?

billybreen
06-07-2007, 02:20 PM
Somebody gets a "loquacious" moniker and suddenly they know everything. ;-)

Seriously, you're right-- and I even think that joke figured significantly in Ralphie's downfall.

Only 58 more posts to go Alteran -- you can do it! :)

Yeah, Johnnie Sac flipped out, had a hit called in on Ralphie that was on the verge of being exercised in a hotel elevator in Florida (IIRC), when Tony was able to talk him down. Johnnie called it off at the last minute. I believe it was at the end of that episode where Johnnie busted Jeanie with her stash of chocolate bars.

The joke thing definitely annoyed Tony and contributed to his sense that Ralphie was a problem, but it was the killing of racehorses (Tony has that complex about hurting or endangering the defenseless -- see, Christopher and the baby seat) for insurance money that made Tony snap.