Who thinks that things would have turned out differently for Chris if Ade never got mixed up with the FBI? Her being whacked screwed him up big time, or was he always going to ultimately end up dead due to his hot headed nature?

Christopher was a junkie and a lowlife, who beat the shit out of Ade when it suited him. Considering the life he chose for himself, coupled with his out of control drug addiction, he was pretty much destined to die young.

Live by the sword, die by the sword..

Ade whacked? You mean perhaps whacked?

Stop it. Ade was whacked by Sil. Sil wasn't the kind of guy to disobey orders and let the rat go and Tony wasn't the kind of guy to give orders to LET her go. Ade was shot in the head and her body buried or disbursed wherever (since the authorties never found it, it's safe to say it wasn't just dumped or left out in the woods).
Ade was killed. End of story.

Oh right. I forgot. Now I remember watching that deleted scene.

PB had it right: Chris was always a lowlife and a junkie. Many people with addiction problems can get over them in time. But combined with Chris's violence and Mob connection, he never really had an incentive to clean himself up. It would, in the end, have required him to drop the Mob life, too.

I'll be willing to give Chrissy the benefit of the doubt; without any moral guidance, in the absence of his murdered father and his junkie mother, and given the increasing withdrawal on Tony's part, Christopher's situation is impossible. Here's a short extract from the dissertation I wrote last semester:

Tellingly, then, in between beginning and ending his onscreen life as described above, Christopher Moltisanti’s arc is an ebb and flow of recognition and rebuff. At the show’s start, Christopher seeks recognition as a loyal, trusted soldier in Tony Soprano’s crew. Over the course of six seasons, his loyalty to Tony is continually challenged and questioned, just as his temporary bouts of abstinence succumb repeatedly to his love for cocaine and heroin. Crucially, Christopher pledges his loyalty to his business family over everything else – “Everything,” Tony repeats – in “Fortunate Son” (3, III). Essentially, the only way out henceforth is through death.

Once omerta is taken, once in the clutches of the Mafia’s grip, Christopher can only disappoint, as confirmed by the eventual revelation of his drug addiction (4, X). But even after rehab, as seen in “Walk Like a Man” (6, V), his sobriety is mocked and teased. In a life built on and driven so fiercely by appearances, it is not enough that Christopher now has a wife and child; his refusal of alcohol is perceived as a weakness – there is no room for discipline in this indulgent society. “When I was using, I was a disgrace,” he tells Tony. “Now I’m sober and I’m a drip. The fuck you want from me?” But the question is tellingly met with silence.

This impossible situation is highlighted best in “Cold Cuts” (5, X), when Christopher and Tony have dinner with their cousin, Tony Blundetto. Initially nostalgic and reminiscent of their past, the conversation soon leads to comedy and laughs; but when the two Tonys begin mocking Christopher, the latter feels alienated. In showing he is displeased, his sobriety is used as a weapon against him. Low self-esteem, coupled with the growing regret of having been so loyal to Tony Soprano, sends Christopher packing: the tears he sheds on the drive home are as understandable as they are visible.

Great excerpt, Capo! Good writing. What was the dissertation for and what was the main topic, if you don't mind me asking?

It's my final year at university; it was for my degree. "Cyclical Cynicism: The Recurring Bleak Vision of The Sopranos" is the title.

It wasn't academic enough, apparently.

That's pretty much the bottom line on Christopher. Any decent therapist or addiction counselor will tell you that you'll never be able to live a truly sober lifestyle if you're mired in a "toxic" relationship, friendship or environment. You can't get more toxic than the criminal life. Ironically, Chris's two minute window to get out would have entailed him getting into the car with Adriana on that fateful day and going into protection. And in that scenario, the self hate that a rat has to incur would probably just lead to more alcohol and drug abuse in his life after leaving the mob. Just look at Henry Hill. The guy is still getting arrested once a year on drunk and disorderly charges, and he's almost 70 years old. So as Capo pointed out, yeah, he almost gets a pass for the way his life ended up. Almost. Beacause in the end, we're all accountable for the choices that we make.

That sucks, Capo. I'm sure it was a very well written report; just maybe some professors don't consider television an art (even though film is generally accepted as art).

I like Adriana a lot. I wished that she had survived all the way to the last episode.

Rats never survive..

Christopher could have gone into the the witness protection program and live out his life writing a cook book and drawing pictures of rats just like Henry Hill.

I wish they had set it up that Ade never had to cooperate with the Feds.

The future wasn’t bright for neither of them.

Ade was a moron, she should have never flipped, she was too weak and stupid to hire a lawyer to get her off a first time drug offense, she was too dumb to live. She was no smarter than Ralphies who'ah Tracy

She certainly wasn't hard to look at.

Exactly right. I watched "Long Term Parking last night." One of my favorite episodes. Ade should have lawyered up as soon as she found out Danielle was FBI. They had no hard evidence that Matoosh murdered that guy in the club. They played hardball with her without any real evidence and she folded like a tent.

Ade;s not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead.