Saying Goodbye to Satriale's

Well folks, as we all know by now, The Sopranos comes to an end tonight. We've seen A.J. go from whiny pre-pubescent complaining about the absence of the "fucking ziti," to A.J. becoming a whiny deadbeat college-age kid who can't man up when his father (and he and his mother and his sister) are under deadly threat. We've seen Meadow go from hot high school student to even hotter post-college student. We've seen Tony go from perfecting his dialect, to perfecting how to find belts for his ever-increasing waistline. And Carmela... well she's still as fucking annoying as she ever was. Three separate endings were filmed for tonight's episode. Below are this blogger's thoughts on three possible endings. Note that I will not include Jason's idiotic prediction that Tony swallows a gun.

1) Tony flips to the Feds
I gotta think this is a red herring. Sure, we've been shown that his Jersey family is decimated, his earning power is almost gone, and he's built a kinship with Agent Harris who has tried to protect Tony. Still... I can't see Tony being this weak that he would go to the feds and become the person who he despised (and killed Pussy for being).

2) Tony dies
I can only see this happening if Phil also dies. I cannot see David Chase allowing Phil Leotardo (who needs to give Bob Barker his hairstyle back) outliving Tony. Plus, it's too easy and too predictable of an ending. It won't be thought provoking enough and psychological enough for David Chase, who has shown much love for the psychologically complex script and plot.

2b) Tony dies at the hands of a family member
Some people are saying that Janice may kill Tony, as she's already shown that she can go off the deep end when she blew away Richie Aprile. Now, she likely holds Tony responsible for the death of her husband and leaving her alone to raise three kids. Some people are saying that Carmela may find out the sordid truth about Adriana (even though I think that in the subconscious she already knows), and go off the deep end, killing Tony. I still find this implausible.

3) Phil dies, Tony lives, but with nothing left
I personally think this is the most plausible outcome. In Season 5, Phil and Little Carmine went to battle over New York control. Now, Phil is costing Little Carmine money from what Little Carmine realizes is his intractible and irrational stubbornness. Little Carmine has agreed to team up with Tony and thereby has shown that he feels that Tony has tried to be reasonable. Little Carmine certainly, in addition to being cost money by Phil, does not approve of Phil declaring war on Jersey. I can see Little Carmine getting his hands dirty again, going after Phil, and taking control of New York. But even if this happens, Tony is done. His consiglieri is never going to regain consciousness. Paulie and Patsy Parisi are the only Captains left. His earning potential is gone. Carmela's life of luxury will be finished.

So we shall see at 9pm EST tonight. By the way... mad props to David Stern and the geniuses in NBA Marketing who decided to pit Game 2 of the already dismally and marginally cared about NBA Finals against the final episode of what many call the greatest television show of all time (I disagree and my vote goes to The Wire for that honor). What do we think people?