'Sopranos' ends

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Jun 11, 2007

3:15 AM

Fans of "The Sopranos" might be feeling a little, well, manipulated this morning. In its closing moments, last night's series-ender amounted to a goof on peoples' expectations of TV finale shockers. (SPOILERS ahead: If you haven't watched the last episode yet, quit reading now.)

Series creator David Chase, who wrote and directed the episode, has never been a fan of closure -- no, the Russian from the Pine Barrens didn't return -- but Chase did offer some resolution, most significantly an end to the war between Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent). Phil got capped -- twice actually, first with a bullet to the head, courtesy of Tony's guy Walden Belfiore (Frank John Hughes, "Band of Brothers"), and then an SUV rolled over Phil's head.

Tony survived the war but a federal grand jury indictment looms even as life goes on.

A.J. (Robert Iler) snapped out of his depression. After he threatened to join the Army, Tony and Carmela (Edie Falco) convinced A.J. to take a job with Little Carmine (Ray Abruzzo) as a "development executive" on a movie script supposedly written by Daniel Baldwin that sounds godawful (private eye gets sucked into the Internet and has to solve the murders of "virtual prostitutes").

Tony finally visited Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), but the old man didn't remember him, their business or where he stashed his money.

But it's the last scene I suspect fans will debate most fervently. It was a giant tease to the audience. Tony arrived at a dinner spot first with plans to meet the whole family. He selected Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" on the juke box and one by one, the other immediate family members arrived. But Chases's camera also lingered on other shifty-eyed diners a little too long, as if trying to convince us one of them might pull a gun at the last minute or haul Tony away in handcuffs.

Then Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) arrived and kept trying to parallel park and Chase again shot it in a way that probably had viewers holding their breath, half expecting a car to swerve into Meadow.

Chase was just jerking the audience around with red herrings. In the final moment, Tony turned as the restaurant door opened. The last sound heard was the song lyrics "Don't stop." And then the screen went black for an uncomfortably long 10 seconds, enough time to allow viewers to scream at their TVs, thinking the cable went out. Or maybe that was just me.

I suspect some will compare this finale to the end of "Seinfeld," which received a critical drubbing. And there is some evidence to support the notion that Chase punk'd fans with mad, self-congratulatory glee (a "Twilight Zone" episode playing in the background of one scene made note of the importance of writers in the television business as "a major commodity"). But I admire his zeal in defying expectations (there weren't even any ducks in the episode, although there was a scene that would have been perfect for them when Tony was raking leaves in the backyard).

Last night's series finale kept with the tradition of "Sopranos" season finales past: It was an anti-climactic hour with fewer big events than in the penultimate episode.

As "The Sopranos" is sometimes want to do, the last episode hop-scotched all over the place -- a bit about Bobby's funeral here, some character development with Tony's FBI agent friend there -- even taking a moment to bring back Meadow's old friend Hunter (Michele DeCesare), who hasn't been seen on the show since 2001.

Sil (Steve Van Zandt) was still in a coma and Paulie (Tony Sirico) confessed to Tony he once saw the Virgin Mary inside the Bada Bing strip club. (Paulie also got comically creeped out by a cat that kept staring at a picture of poor, dead Christopher.)

Janice (Aida Turturro) had a moment of malevolence when she said dead Bobby's daughter would never be allowed to move out because younger sister Nika worships her.

"Is that a joke, too, 'cause that one even got by me," Tony replied.

No sign of Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) in the finale, but Tony and Carmela did visit A.J.'s shrink. A.J. had quite the reawakening in the hour, going from depressed, the-world-is-awful, President Bush-bashing liberal back to his younger more gluttonous self, hanging with a pretty girl and laughing at President Bush and Karl Rove dance in TV news reports.

Kudos to HBO for the creative clip that preceded the "Sopranos" finale. It featured dialogue from a swath of HBO series (even the long-dead "Carnivale") about the end of things and how unfair it is to have to say goodbye.

"The Sopranos" series finale certainly leaves fans with a sense of hope that there could be more stories to tell ("Don't Stop Believin'" almost begs them to think this), maybe in a movie down the road. But I sort of hope Chase and Gandolfini resist (Gandolfini has said he's done playing the character). As it ended, the audience can believe this fictional universe goes on, even if we don't see what's happening. For viewers who feel like TV show characters are relatable to the point of developing a bond with their crises, joys and sorrows, there's some comfort to think that the lives of these characters continue (even though the lead was a sociopath and murderer).