I thought it was a really good episode. For me anyway, I don't have to see someone get whacked every episode to make it good. It is about "family" and I think the scenes with Carmella and Tony were realistic and very well acted. I don't think the break-up is permanent though. At least I hope not. It did surprise me that Carmella told Tony about her fantasy about Furio. If he ever shows up again I imagine he's history.

All and all, I think it was one of the best episodes. Many shows try too hard and feel they must have cliffhangers and end up being ridiculous (i.e. Dallas).

TIS

Hi,
The scenes between Carmella and Tony were excellent. Edie Falco deserves an award. I almost fell off the chair whaen Carmella told Tony she has been thinking about Furio. I thought Tony was going to hit her but he hit the wall instead. The only thing I was right about was that Uncle Junior would beat the case. The only ones to get killed were the hitters who were supposed to kill carmine. Sort of reminicent of season 1s aborted hit on Tony. Johnny Sac is one cool customer wanting Tony to do the dirty work. I figured sac was still mad at Carmine for not allowing him to kill Ralphie over the fat joke. Next season will be the last as we all know. I expect many will die IMHO.

Paul

I guess this was just another weak ending, to another weak season. Not a good sign consdiering Season 3 was weak too. As always. JMO. YMMV.

I actually kinda liked season III.
Overall... this one REALLY sucked... I honestly can't say that it was entertaining or surprising in the least... where can I get some of that MAD doje that Chase is smoking? He turned all of my favourite characters into losers [Tony, Christopher, Paulie, and Furio] and left us hanging off of soooo many subplots.

What's the deal with Janice and Bobby?
Meadow? AJ?
I could go on and on...

I was very dissapointed in this season... I expected soooo much... possible war with New York... maybe a little Meadow T & A... violence!

But instead of that Chase just kinda dicked it off and made it the modern Italian version of The Little House on the Praire. It makes me sick.

[Cathouse was good though, I wish MY mother would take me to a brothel. ]

-Lucky

By the way I was the one on a previous post to offer odds on who got whacked by the end of this season.......and I believe the DON of our boards thought I'd take a big hit with my odds tables, who's laughing now? NOT ONE recurring character bit it this last episode ( but enough of busting balls)
This was an incredible well acted episode and Edie has just clinched herself a nomination if not an automatic win at the Emmys. It ended with me being disappointed only in retrospect. It felt good at first, but Chase made us wait for this for almost 2 years, this was the best he could've done? I don't buy it.

Oblong, I am with you! I was totally intrigued with the finale. Granted, I too thought there would be more loose ends tied and more "whackings", but I like the direction it took. You are correct that the biggest "entity" is "Family".

I must admit I love to see who will get killed and enjoyed how "Ralphie" was literally slaughtered (even tho I cringed) However, I like too, seeing the "human" side to some of these people too.

I hated the "Russian Bitch" who called Carmela. I felt sorry for Carm. Even tho Carm made her own bed (so to speak),it was her bed. It was only out of spite that the "Russian Whore" called her. If I were Carm, I would whack her myself!! Right after Tony!!! No, can't whack Tony! There'd be no show!!

Anyway, I'd like to hear any other "female" opinions!

TIS

I don't think anybody else being whacked would have really furthered the story.

I can't wait to watch it again tonight. Those scenes with Carm and Tony were so good. When they were in the kitchen and he shoved her against the counter top, in front of the block of knives, did anybody else get a flashback to Ralphie and Tony's fight?

I half expected one of them to die.

I'm wondering if something brings them together. Did they say too much to each other to prevent a reconciliation?

Hey there..Carm was no Angel either...

How about her crying lik a school girl.." he left and didn't even call me" Even old lady Aprillia (sp) rolled her eyes....

First eyes for the father at church, then the wallpaper guy, then Furio...

See was just pissed off because the love of her life, left without her.

She was not in the dark, she knew what Tony was up to and like Tony said she knew what she was getting herself into, just like history, men have fooled around for generations... Its the gangster way..

Even Meadow makes a comment of it....

But please let us not make this a men Vs women thing...

Hey there..Carm was no Angel either...

How about her crying lik a school girl.." he left and didn't even call me" Even old lady Aprillia (sp) rolled her eyes....

First eyes for the father at church, then the wallpaper guy, then Furio...

See was just pissed off because the love of her life, left without her.

She was not in the dark, she knew what Tony was up to and like Tony said she knew what she was getting herself into, just like history, men have fooled around for generations... Its the gangster way..

Even Meadow makes a comment of it....

But please let us not make this a men Vs women thing...
Poor Guy couldn't perform after getting beat with the belt.. so they break up. So she get pissed and calls Tonys wife. Her move up the American ladder was derailed so she wanted to strike back.

Tony should of played it cool and make the Russia Bitch come over on her hands and knees and explain to Carm that she wasn't telling the truth.

Hi Cam,

I don't know if because I asked for female opinions you were referring to me making this a male/female thing. My intention was to see if us ladies view this finale differently then the men. My guess is they do.

But to comment on your post, what exactly makes Carm "no saint"?? Granted, very foolish for staying in the relationship, after all she did know what she was getting into, yes. Fantasies of another man, yes. Not good for a marriage agreed. However, not to turn this into male female, but she is no where near the evil, "unsaintly" person that Tony is. Don't ya think? Again, let me repeat, Tony is my favorite character in the show, but that's not to say he is a "likeable" character, even tho he comes close at times.

TIS

Have we addressed exactly why it was this incident that finally caused Carmella to snap? Was it because it was "brought into their home," or was it because Tony was banging a one-legged woman and she took that as a huge insult. I'm sure that when Tony was banging the strippers she figured that it was purely physical, but then she hears about the one-legged Russian person and she couldn't take it.

All of that mumbo-jumbo about her being mad about Tony messing around with someone she liked, and someone that she shared some vodka with was just BS. Carm was pissed that Tony cheated with someone physically inferior to her.

Last night's show was great! when Tony and Carmella started fighting like that, it had me on the edge of my seat. I serously thought Tony was going to beat the shit out of her. Last night's show caught me by suprise, I really thought Carmine would get whacked. Next season is going to be awesome, I heard it starts back up in september. One thing is for certin, Johnny Sac does not look happy with Tony

Hi,
In retrospective I am glad they didn't kill Johnny Sac. He is one good character that should remain on board for season 5. I liked the last meeting between Tony and Johnny. Johnny was losing his cool. Carmine is another good character as well. These are just my opinions.

Paul

Don Corpuzzi,

This is my opinion of why Carm snapped when she did. I think it was the phone call from the Russian whore. It's devasting and humiliating to get a call like that. That long with her feelings for Furio, was the last straw.

I think she knows Tony's been unfaithful many times, and either didn't want to confront it or was afraid to. That phone call "confirming" what she she already knew, along with the "crush" she had on Furio and then him leaving, drove her over the edge.

As far as her bringing up about Tony messing with someone she really liked I think was an example of lashing out thru her hurt. I was too on the edge of my seat, wondering if he would hit Carm. I am glad he didnt.

Did you notice too, how he defended her to AJ, telling him to stay with his mother when AJ wanted to stay with Tony? Also, just my opinion, I don't think this separation is permanent.

TIS

TIS, I agree with you. I don't think that the separation will be permanent, although it will probably take at least half a season for them to get back together. Hopefully the separation will light a fire under AJ so he can be a more interesting character. Maybe he'll do a lot of growing up in a very short time. He even tried to take responsibility for his dad's deciding to get out of the house. When have we ever heard AJ take responsibility for anything?

I'll bet Tony will know that Furio had feelings for Carm as well, when he thinks back to the helicopter incident where Furio almost pushed him into the propellors hu?? Tony did seem a bit baffled when he did that. I don't expect Furio is out of the picture either, but may not last too long.

TIS

Sorry Tis..wasn't posting towards you...

But since you bring it up, I am never suprise to see women come out and take the side of the hurt wife on a subject like this. It seems like it is all out against any and all men who have hurt a female counterpart. It seems like they put themselves in place of that women and take it personal inside of looking at things from both sides.

My point still was that she knew Tonys way of life, and how men like that have outside affairs.
It seems to me that it made a difference only after her beloved Furio took it on the lame...

She could have left at any time, just like she was told before about giving things up and walking away, but she alone choose to stay, why because it fit her needs.
I hate to rewatch the show again but I think Meadow tells her something to that extent...

I think Don Corpuzzi may have hit it on the head about the women being physically inferior to her and nothing seem to cut like that does.

My memory isn't that great, but didn't someone once call Tony's house another time and Carm blasted the shit out of her last time?

Irina called during season 2. I remember she was cursing the housekeeper in Russian or Polish because she wouldn't put Tony on the phone. I don't remember if Carm got on hte phone or not.

Carmela knew what she was dealing with for a long time. Heres her confession to the priest [season 1 episode 6] after her hole jealousy thing over that phone call from Dr.Melphi:

What's killing me is this is a self-inflicted wound. I pushed for it. I could deal with the goomas. I know I was better than them. Stupid as it sounds I viewed them as a form of masturbation for him. I couldn't give him what he needed all the time. You're a man, father, you know that thirst. I was too busy with the house and kids to quench it. But this psychiatrist, she's not just a gooma. For the first time I feel like he's really cheating and I'm the one who's thirsty. I'm not gonna stay in a marriage that's made of... [at this point the priest said to her divorce is for the weak etc..]

Meadow even got upset at her for putting up with it for so long as you saw in this final episode. This is not just a "Tony being unfaithful" thing. If you ask me it had everything to do with the "Furio leaving to Italy" drama. That struck her like a bolt and made her very moody towards everyone in the family. Notice last episode she was already talking like she didnt care if she saw Meadow ever again after that arguement with her? Even Meadow brought it up to her about this being all about Furio. I was hoping that arguement wouldve continued so that she could really get under her skin.

I sure hope this show doesnt get any cornier by showing Carmela chasing after Furio in Italy. If theres really any suspense in this for me, it is to hear what Dr.Melphi has to say to Tony about all this.

Today's paper says 12.5 million viewers watched the last episode, which was more than any show on regular broadcast TV--despite the fact that HBO only reaches one third the number of people that broadcast TV does. However, the first episode this season reached 13.1 million viewers.

I wonder how many people watched the last episode, since your 12.5 million figure is the number of households who were tuned in. I know that a lot of people don't have HBO so they watch the show at a friend's house. The Nielsen people should try to figure out a way to calculate that one. And that figure was probably just for the original air on Sunday night. I wonder how many more people watch it during the week on reruns.

Speaking of multiple airings of the Sopranos, does anyone know why some of the reruns are shown in fullscreen?

It depends which HBO you're watching. AFAIK, "Regular HBO" always shows it in widescreen.
Some of the "Other HBO's" will show it in the regular format.

Speculation is that next season Furio will return to the US, or Tony will go to Italy looking for Furio.

Hi,
Federico Castelluccio was on Connie Chung the other night. He said that David Chase likes to build up the storyline by bringing it along slowely. He was about to say something about who gets whacked when the weather bureau broke in with a severe weather update and I missed the rest. I turned Third Watch on a 9PM to see the end of the two-parter and as my luck would go they lost the station twenty minutes into the show.

Paul

What I want to know is what the future friendship holds for Tony and Sack? Sack looked at him in a coldblooded way when he drove off (Kinda like how Mike looked at Kay).

I just watched that on the rerun..there was no problem, he vented and they embraced and he drove off...and when he drove he drove slow...not hotheaded or burning out...