A very interesting finale, The dream stuff was well done and did a good job of balancing the sometimes surreal quality of reveries with enough to ground it to make it comprehensible and give insight into Tony's subconscious. I liked how it was, in many ways, about Tony's subconscious, about "that little voice" that makes him do things, that he hides from at times. Him having to face up to Big Pussy's flipping was part of that, and it worked as something tragic.
As did him saying "just let me die." I think, deep down, Tony wants out of this life. He dreams of the perfect life and the perfect home and the perfect family and knows that it's not in his grasp because of what he does, who he is, and the fact that things like his daughter seeing him led out of their home in handcuffs happen. "It's all a big nothing." Tony fears where his road leads, and whether it's worth it to tarry on here before he reaches his inevitable destination. As his scene with the real Melfi shows, he's also good at ignoring all of this, at comparmentalizing his sorrow, his pain, the psychological damage done by his mother and father and the line of work he's in. And he's good at ignoring the pain he causes to others, through sanitation and sex shops and gambling and all the other vices and small people like poor immigrants Davey's son who are hurt by the business he's in that makes his daughter's party and the beautiful home it's held in and the cigar he smokes in the final scene possible. Tony pushes all that to the side, but when that little voice tells him to give his mother the ticket, something inside him is saying that he wants out, one way or another.
(As an aside, I am a 10-year-old who couldn't help but laugh at the fart noises. Also, Barbara is very interesting in how she seems to see through Lyvia in a way that Tony and to a lesser extent Janice can't, and I hope she's more fleshed out down the road.)
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2015-07-07T02:42:14Z
A very interesting finale, The dream stuff was well done and did a good job of balancing the sometimes surreal quality of reveries with enough to ground it to make it comprehensible and give insight into Tony's subconscious. I liked how it was, in many ways, about Tony's subconscious, about "that little voice" that makes him do things, that he hides from at times. Him having to face up to Big Pussy's flipping was part of that, and it worked as something tragic.
As did him saying "just let me die." I think, deep down, Tony wants out of this life. He dreams of the perfect life and the perfect home and the perfect family and knows that it's not in his grasp because of what he does, who he is, and the fact that things like his daughter seeing him led out of their home in handcuffs happen. "It's all a big nothing." Tony fears where his road leads, and whether it's worth it to tarry on here before he reaches his inevitable destination. As his scene with the real Melfi shows, he's also good at ignoring all of this, at comparmentalizing his sorrow, his pain, the psychological damage done by his mother and father and the line of work he's in. And he's good at ignoring the pain he causes to others, through sanitation and sex shops and gambling and all the other vices and small people like poor immigrants Davey's son who are hurt by the business he's in that makes his daughter's party and the beautiful home it's held in and the cigar he smokes in the final scene possible. Tony pushes all that to the side, but when that little voice tells him to give his mother the ticket, something inside him is saying that he wants out, one way or another.
(As an aside, I am a 10-year-old who couldn't help but laugh at the fart noises. Also, Barbara is very interesting in how she seems to see through Lyvia in a way that Tony and to a lesser extent Janice can't, and I hope she's more fleshed out down the road.)