Patsy himself almost took out Tony in the season 3 premiere, so you know his resentment ran deep. I know it happened. Im reminded of that moment in D-Girl where Dr. Melfi summarizes existentialism for Tony. Paulie, long the most useless captain on the payroll, is the only major ally he has left. To paraphrase one of the Four Questions from the Passover seder, on all other nights we dont watch Meadow attempt to parallel park even once; why on this night do we watch her attempt to parallel park over and over again? Crows are a symbol of death, and have appeared as such on the show, during the ceremony when Christopher and Eugene are made. Matt: Yes. The time was certainly right. His eyes are closed, hes not noticeably breathing, and the camera angle makes it look like hes lying in state at the funeral parlor, waiting for his friends, family, and viewers out here in TV land to pay our respects. Later, Tony gets Phils location from FBI agent Harris (Matt Servitto). In the season premiere, Bacala raised the idea of what happens when you die, speculating, You probably dont even hear it when it happens, right? a line so clearly important to the end of the series that the conversation is replayed at the end of the penultimate episode, after poor Bobby had that question answered. Or him surviving three car wrecks, one of which fatally wounded Christopher. Its gonna show what you can do. Funaro saw what an opportunity it was going to be for him. This is just a guy they found specifically because he looks like Robert Funaro, who plays Eugene. Privacy Policy. The episode marks the first appearances of: "7 Surprises From The Sopranos 20th Anniversary Celebration", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Members_Only_(The_Sopranos)&oldid=1134519036. At times a little too much, but Livia never did at all. That's a no-go." Raymond was approached by Tony to replace Jackie Aprile, Sr as boss of the DiMeo crime family, due to his age and experience (Jackie was in and out of the hospital and close to . When Tony prevents Eugene from moving to Florida with his family, he commits suicide. When discussing the final scene of The Sopranos, many people rightly focus on would-be assassins in Holstens. Most people think the crow was there for Christopher. Christopher orders Eugene to kill a fat man -- in this same episode, we see Tony concerned about his ballooning weight, and a slimmed-down Vito makes references to his obesity -- named Teddy Spirodakis, initials TS. Because it wouldve meant that he did the most obvious thing and then tried to hide it by making it seem as if he was creating an ambiguous or art-house type of ending. I knew where I was going. Meadow continues her relationship with Finn. The actor had appeared in mob movies like "Goodfellas," and was also no stranger to crime himself. All rights reserved. It's very rarely discussed, but names are often significant, with probably the best example being Adriana La Cerva, "the doe." Eugene then walks out calmly. And the music is continuous throughout. Later Eugene is revealed (to the viewers, not to the mob) to be an informant for the FBI, who also prohibit him from leaving. But in classic Sopranos form, the war with New York ends not with a bang but. Matt: I think its more interesting if he lives. At Chris's behest, he then kills a debtor; in return, Chris says, "I'll put in a good word to T about the Florida thing." And the last we see them together, Tony was still acting like a jerk toward Patsy. I mean its a prompt for us to think about death and life, and what weve done with our lives. Matt: Yeah, hes checking out the scene in there for self-protection, but he does that everywhere he goes. This is a show thats very interested in dream language, psychoanalysis, and the contradictory, mysterious forces that make us who we are, and its inevitable that this series, perhaps more than other works of art, would have become a Rorschach test. And in the back of my mind, I said, Well, well see what happens.'. Even Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts), the least sensitive person about characters getting killed off, had words of encouragement. He would never kill her, or even beat her up. Did Eugene kill himself so his family could move to Florida? Remember, too, that Tony is the Homer Simpson of crime bosses, miraculously avoiding death or prison even as it claims other characters. Eugene doesn't respond. Certainly. This ending puts us in their shoes. Alan: Yes, the Holstens scene is about death specifically, about the idea that we are all here on borrowed time, and our lives can be snatched away at any moment, without warning or explanation or the slightest hint of fairness. It has also been suggested that Tony himself got whacked in those polarizing last minutes in the series finale. The significance of the crow in that scene has been much discussed. He knew someone in his family would find him, but why would he want them to. Alan: Let me ask you this, then: If, during one of our many conversations with Chase, he had invited us to lean in close, and whispered, Guys, Tonys dead, how would that change your feelings about the ending? 1) Carmine Lupretazzi, Sr. Carmine Lupretazzi, Sr. ( Tony Lip) is the best boss on the show by a country mile. Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut joins us for this bonus episode this week! RELATED: The Sopranos: The 5 Tallest (& 5 Shortest) Actors In The Cast. Do the Feds show up a week later to arrest him, Carlo having finally given them the missing piece of their RICO prosecution? But its an enormous leap from how the series told stories in every scene, and episode, up until this one. The most popular theory is that Butchie had Tony killed. To put it another way: Chase was saying that Tony didnt reform and die peacefully in bed decades later. Eugene is also an informant for the FBI, and has become more valuable to the Bureau since the death of Ray Curto; they, too, will not free him. We know what the scene means, but we dont know what happened. Eugene is reluctant, but has to follow Christopher's order due to his rank of capo. Phils murder ends the war, which had been disastrous for mob business in New York and New Jersey. Of course, these questions occurred to Tony after Junior shot him, and thathis response was to absorb rather shallow lessons like, make better choices in the moment, and try being a better listener while ignoring bigger ones like, Maybe youre depressed all the time because youre a gangster. Melfi steers him toward this realization throughout the series, even in the pilot. Since Eugenes suicide in the season 6 opener, Funaro has racked up over 40 credits (including The Irishman and American Gangster). Problem here is Little Carmine had always got on well with Tony and had no reason to kill him, in fact Tony was one of the . With his wife bitter and his son using heroin, Eugene hangs himself. Privacy Policy and It wouldn't be the Enterprise.without a LaForge at the helm! I had thought, for instance, that the sense of paranoia instilled in the viewer by the rapid editing style Chase uses for the scene was shared by Tony himself that, perhaps, the point of it all was to finally put us in the mind-set of the main character, to make us realize, This is how miserable it is to be Tony Soprano: to spend every minute of every day worrying about who could be coming through a door to kill you.. Did he really leave enough money in overseas accounts to take care of Carmela after his passing, or will she soon be taking Angie Bonpensieros old job passing out supermarket samples? Galvatron1117 2 yr. ago The scene in which Uncle Junior shoots Tony was also shot with Phil Leotardo in a window shooting at Tony instead. He was never interested in the Russian, the rapist, the stable fire, or any of the other characters and threads that he left dangling over the life of the series, except as forces that test the main characters and reveal their essence. Why is this night different from all other nights? It wasnt like these staccato scenes. I've also seen it suggested that Eugene's wife ordered Tony's murder. The Sopranos: The Al Green Song David Chase Considered Instead of Dont Stop Believin in the Finale. Now that Fleishman is out of trouble, Caplan can go back to catering. Obviously I'm very very far from the first person to have noticed this connection, which is why I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk of a direct, rather than just a symbolic, connection to Eugene. While Tony is cooking dinner, Junior, thinking he is a long-dead mobster, shoots him in the gut. But did he end up doing it to free his family? And if, to quote Mad Men, the greatest predictor of what somebody is going to do is what they have done in the past, Tonys always going to basically be Tony, the loquacious gangster who puts himself first. But he always manages to avoid going there. (April 2006) This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. Alan: The distance he walks is shorter each time, and when he gets to Holstens, we just cut from him looking at the restaurant to him in the booth, in a way that suggests hes seeing himself really, that hes seeing the whole scene play out, like hes already left his body and is just envisioning what might come next back on this mortal plane. This accomplishment catapulted Aglieri s name to the top of the ranks. The jacket possibly signifies his affiliation to a special gang. He is a prototypical underachiever and a constant source of stress and anxiety for his parents. Theory 1: Little Carmine (Lupertazzi) had Butch Deconcini kill Phil (Leotardo) and Tony (Soprano). I'm sure you can conjure up some reason, but what's more likely: Butchie had Tony killed for some undefined reason by a guy who looks like Eugene Pontecorvo wearing Eugene Pontecorvo's jacket, or Eugene Pontecorvo's brother killed Tony in retaliation for his brother's death? I just did a bunch of googling and I'm shocked that it's not a more common theory. And he has Phil killed. It could be that Chase simply likes ambiguity and confusion. The final scene of The Sopranos raises a spiritual question that has no right or wrong answer. I think the most important two words in those two sentences are spiritual question. And if we fixate on anything other than that, were missing the point. With a despondent wife, a drug-addicted son, a dangerous and stressful job he hates and can't leave, the specter of the FBI looming over him, and no hope of the new life that seemed so close, Eugene hangs himself in the basement. Janice is raising a new daughter with Bobby Baccalieri, who has taken up model railroading as a hobby. In 2007, he killed himself after both his boss Tony Soprano and his FBI handlers refused to let him retire to Florida . We only have this one life, and precious little control over how long it lasts. Though the cut to black comes before any such execution occurs on screen, there . As for Patsy Parisi (Dan Grimaldi) ordering the hit, that theory does have some validity. "Members Only" is the 66th episode of the HBO series The Sopranos, and the first of the show's sixth season. (Well, maybe not the scouts.) But again, that seems like a reach to me, especially since Members Only Guy hasnt come out of the bathroom yet. Eugene Pontecorvo (1959-2006) was a DiMeo crime family soldier and FBI informant. Tony reminds Eugene that he took an oath. Spending long hours trying to prove Tony was shot at the diner becomes a substitute for meaningful engagement with the shows themes, which are disturbing not just because of their implications, but because Chase and the writers present them in an open-ended, mysterious, or deliberately opaque way, like a brutal reminder to us that we cant absolutely know certain things, and its delusional to insist we can. Matt: Yes, but why does a preponderance of imagery related to death and decay mean that Tony had to be shot dead at that diner at that exact moment? 2023 Vox Media, LLC. Tony says he'll consider it, but he states Eugene took an oath indicating it's highly unlikely he'll approve. Richard "Richie" Aprile is played by David Proval.Richie is the older brother of acting DiMeo crime family boss Jackie Aprile Sr., and was a capo in the DiMeo crime family before being sent to prison for ten years. With that out of the way, we can focus on a more interesting question: Who ordered the hit on Tony Soprano when his time finally came? Not much character development is given to Lorenzo, making him the average informant. Eugene killed himself, after all. Phil is gone, Butchie made peace with New Jersey, and anyone else who might wish Tony a violent end is out of the picture. Eugene Pontecorvo was introduced on the show as an associate in the Soprano crime family in the episode "Proshai, Livushka". Alan: Right. When the Soprano family meet at Holsten's diner for a meal, this man enters the diner ahead of Anthony Soprano Jr. and sits at the counter. Pontecorvo ran a low-stakes poker game, a sports betting agency, and held a no-show job at the Esplanade construction site. Uncle Junior 's mind is deteriorating. I know this is a minority reaction, but I like being baffled or challenged or frustrated by art. So maybe hed have a relatively fine old time drifting into old age. To combat leaked storylines, the writers and Chase used to devise fake scenes to confuse the set. With a friendlier boss who didnt have an 80-90% chance of being indicted, New York could make its money with fewer headaches. Lizzy Caplan Would Return for One More Season of. His wife was already miserable, his son was struggling with drugs and his daughter was still young, any of them seeing his dead body would be traumatized. You might know this fact even if you havent watched the show thats just how maddening it was for many Sopranos fans. Hey Bobby, you know youre getting a son? Hey, this is f*cking great. Eugene Pontecorvo has one of the most tragic arcs of all characters on The Sopranos. I made arguments like the one above, about how a secret assassin repping an enemy we never heard of before would clash with every narrative rule the show ever followed. Getting killed off on the hit mob show meant losing a well-paying job with unbeatable exposure. why max never talk in max and ruby. Uncle Junior's mind is deteriorating. At the same time, IFC Center in New York City is hosting The Sopranos Film Festival, a mix of episodes, features, shorts, cartoons, and panel discussions. And they weren't. 18 comments 88% Upvoted This thread is archived Little Carmine was the rightful boss of the Lupertazzi family but was outstead by Johnny Sacromoni and then Phil Leotardo. Images of death or a Hell frozen over from overcrowding and neglect by management abound throughout the series finale, as the shows usual fascination with the extremes of weather in the Garden State gets amped up to an almost supernatural degree. But in rewatching the series and writing this book, its clear that among Tony Sopranos greatest gifts is his ability to live in the moment, shrug off the overall pain and paranoia of his life, and enjoy the many fruits that come with being the boss of New Jersey. Chase lingers on the parking job to raise the question of what terrible thing will happen because its taking her so long. It's Pontecorvo, "crow bridge." And, as I said, it proceeds from the speakers need to have Tony die at that moment, not from any evidence in the scene itself. But at the same time it could mean a boost for an actors career, as it was for Vincent Pastore. The Sopranos abruptly cut to black at the end of the series finale. The cause was lung . Shazam! Alan: Theres no way around that, and even David Chase says as much in the sixth interview later in this book. David Chase, in an interview with . In the original broadcast of this episode (March 12, 2006), no previews for the next episode were shown in order to keep the aftermath of Tony's shooting a mystery. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. Youre going out this way, but its gonna be good. what does flight departure mean shein; how much is paramount network; how to make maizena vanilla; how many black millionaires in africa. It is a zombie film that focuses on the mental collapse of survivors and the human . Because I really enjoyed acting in it because of that through-line. You'd expect the family to be long gone, living their lives in Florida, trying to forget Jersey. In the episode Eugene and his wife have an unexpected financial windfall when a beloved aunt, the wife of a successful Hollywood agent, leaves him $2 million in her will. A celebration of life will be held in Redwood City on Wednesday for Pete Liebengood, a longtime Bay Area sportscaster, anchor and author who died in Redwood City on Dec. 22. Only the bravest celebs will go full catboy at 2023s Met Gala. Off the Back of a Truck includes: -New looks at everyone's favorite episodes, scenes, and characters. Sometimes, a cat is just a cat, but its hard not to consider this one within the context of what happens, or doesnt, a few scenes later at Holstens. Hey Bobby, do you know youre getting a wife? It gets harder to watch the episode everytime. As writer Terence Winter told Entertainment Weekly , "At the beginning of season 5, we realized it would happen at the end of the season. Alan: This is all-important, and well see what happens to the conversation now that the phrase death scene is out there. His bad influence helped lead Jackie Aprile Jr. to his death. The hit was ordered by . At the start of Made in America, the Sopranos series finale, Tony and his crew are still at the safe house, where theyd gone to the mattresses. The hunt for New York boss Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) continues. But is that enough to convict Chase for murdering his main character? Pontecorvo had a tendency to lose his temper, and he severely beat Paul Germani for insinuating that Pontecorvo was gay. This guy lives a charmed life. Scan this QR code to download the app now. But still, it's implied she isn't very well connected herself -- she only assumes that Eugene has killed people, meaning she's out of the loop -- and I can't get over the jacket and the family resemblance. Whats more in character for The Sopranos, to kill a magically charmed character in the final scene, or to refuse to do so? Later, Eugene gives him a cut of the inheritance. That cannot be an accident. Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero ( Vincent Pastore) was brutally murdered on Tony's boat Stugots after the Soprano family realized Pussy was a rat for the F.B.I.
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