Sidney Pollack was great

Nope, not alone. I think the episode gave Tony and Phil a look at their own mortality, and how they might be regretting the life they've chosen. Notice how the camera lingered on Tony when he learned about Johnny dying; Little Carmine refusing the leadership of the NY crew and wanting to instead focus on his family and personal happiness was a very important scene, and probably affected Tony more than he might be willing to admit. Seeing his onscreen death in Cleaver probably didn't help matters either.

As for Phil, I know a lot of people are thinking he'll take his revenge on Tony and the NJ crew, and for all I know that might happen, but I got the sense that he's sick and tired of the constant fighting. At the Cleaver after-party, Phil sounds almost completely disinterested in things like choosing a successor or the tribute money being a little light; all he can talk about is Johnny's cancer and how their business is "a young man's game."

It was also no coincidence that Phil was holding Billy's party in a bar where he's surrounded by portraits of fellow mobsters who have fallen, and he sounds disgusted about serving 20 years in prison only to protect people who have gone against him. And don't forget that in "Soprano Home Movies," Phil made it clear all he wanted to do was lie back and enjoy spending time with his grandchildren.

All in all, a fantastic episode; I was quite sad to see Sack die, as he's easily my favorite character in the whole show. Sunday can't come fast enough.

By the way, during the cancer ward scene where the guard is telling Sack's family to keep their distance, was I the only one hoping the guard would yell out "No touching!"? Maybe David Chase isn't an Arrested Development fan.

Love it or hate it, The Sopranos is the greatest, most compelling series on television... ever... period! I'm gonna miss it.

Tonight's episode was freaking brilliant!

lol, tomorrow night they are going to do a 'making of Cleaver' hbo first look, 7:45

How long before HBO has a Cleaver movie?

As a recent and very grateful discoverer of AD on DVD, I definitely thought the same thing.

"And THAT's why you don't shoot a guy with a cleaver for a hand!"

Gotta get my 2 cents in...

SOPRANOS
- Excellent episode, but a lot of it felt rushed as way too much happened off camera. For instance, Meadow and Finn are kaput, and Johnny Sac is dying of cancer...

- Blanca & AJ. Despite Blanca's hotness, she's completely insane and
insecure. She looks out of place at the Soprano dinner table; adds nothing to the conversation except the non-subtle digs at AJ (agreement with Meadow over something "wrong" with me, and his desire to hang with celebs, which she automatically takes as his wanting to sleep with Paris Hilton). Regardless, a relationship with a latina with a baby who works at a construction site who gives out a guy younger than him only 6 digits of her phone number isn't exactly the bastion of stability. I fully expect her to get pregnant, and it couldn't happen to a nicer kid than AJ.

- Tony is the source of Meadow's misery, yet she doesn't realize it. Think back when she starting dating the half black-half jew student back in college. Tony effectively destroyed their relationship,
forcing her to stick with her kind. She hooks up with Jackie Jr. out of
family obligation, and he eventually gets killed by Tony's hand (indirectly through Ralphie). Finn is the most normal of the bunch, and he ends up getting his pride handed him on a platter by Tony (He wanted to pay for dinner, Tony puts him in his place in front of Meadow). Later on, Finn is forced to confess his knowledge of Vito to Tony's crew (not one friendly face in the bunch). Meadow feigns ignorance of how terrible her father is (like mother, like daughter); and Finn breaks up with her off camera. At least he got out.

- Cleaver. Wow. That movie looks like such a piece of dog shit, its not even funny. The scenes we saw were laughable at best, ripping off the vibe of "Saw" as much as possible. Everything from Baldwin exclaiming there is a rat in their crew, to the Cleaver chopping him in the head was total cheese. This won't even end up as a direct-to-DVD feature. Still, I can't wait to see the "in-character" making of featurette tonight on HBO @ 7:45.

- R.I.P. Johnny Sac. The cancer thing was way too sudden, and Gotti-like, but not without reason. It should have been addressed last year with the payoff coming this week. Regardless, he is the second mob boss to die of cancer in the show’s run (the other Jackie Aprile). I find that the theme of cancer on the show is quite intriguing, as many characters have had the scare of some sort of cancer. These macho tough guys would rather catch a bullet and see it coming than have to suffer over time.

- Carmella is evil. We’ve always known it. She knows who her husband is, what he is capable of, and how easy it is for her husband’s associates to just “disappear”. But if there is anything we know about her, is that she now refuses to look bad. The mob boss in cleaver is Tony, and now Carmella has to live with a celluloid version of her husband’s infidelities. I doubt she’ll ever watch the film again. Scorned and vengeful, Carmella turns the screws to gullible Tony, convinces him that Christopher hates him; and then confronts Christopher with Adrianna’s disappearance. For blood relatives, I’m surprised how little interaction they’ve had through the series.

- Who wants to be the boss? Little Carmine stated it perfectly. He can make tons of money and have the joy of his family. Tony realizes that being the boss is a thankless job. His life isn’t better as the boss; he’s just richer. The stress of being boss has destroyed Jackie, Carmine, and Johnny Sac. Tony realized last year that there is no way out; and there is no stepping down. If the series doesn’t end with Tony dead; just know he’d be dead from the stress soon after anyway.

- Christopher. Life is good. He’s made a movie. He’s married. He’s got a daughter. The allure of the gangster lifestyle is gone. Strangely enough, Christopher has always looked for a way out. Whether it was writing his life story, a screenplay, or contemplating running off with Adrianna and taking the FBI deal; he’s always looked for a life outside the mob. He has not kicked his addiction, although he looks cleaner than ever (what was the point of Julianna last year). Now he’s on the outs with Tony. Tony is too self involved to realize that Christopher is an addict, and being around all that alcohol is enough to catapult him off the wagon. Tony is obviously hurt by Christopher; his would-be successor. The trust is gone, and the hug at the end of the episode was chilling.

- New York. Phil’s speech at the end of the episode was very telling. His anger over “Leotardo” and the fact that he did not do anything about his brother’s murder was enough for him. He now has free reign now that Johnny Sac is dead, and I fully expect him to unleash his simmering rage all over New Jersey.

With seven episodes left, the show’s mood has become increasingly tense. I can’t wait for next Sunday.

I liked how Tony wasn't buying at all that the other guy, not Christopher, wrote the part about the main character doing his friend's fiancee--"What happened to your eye?"

The Tony/Christopher part is the most interesting to me, and there were some ominous overtones at the end...

your second part answers the first.

julianna drove a deep wedge between the two and setup their current tension. tony was working her to be a goomar and chris swoops in and fucks her. tony was NOT happy about that.

The best laughs of the episode was when Christopher said who needs Sir Ben fucking Kingsley-Danny Baldwin rules! I also laughed when they pulled the microphone away from the director at the premiere and wouldn't let him give his shout outs(he had already pulled out his index cards for his speech). What's happened to Murmur? With this being a big Christopher episode, I was surprised not to see him in the episode.

The guy has not aged a minute.

Very good ep. We are getting Season 1-3 material here, it's great to see that this show is going to finish on top.

I would guess the people that hate it don't feel that way so your statement love it or hate it makes no sense.

They were interviewing Steven Van Zandt on a local radio station this morning. Although he obviously wouldn't discuss any spoilers, he did indicate that it would basically be "impossible" for them to create another season.

Well, actually that's the point... these Sopranos threads get full of people hating on the episodes so fast and yet they don't realize there may never be a show like this again. Even at it's weakest (or perceived weakest, i.e. "not enough wackings"), I'd take any Sopranos episode over anything on T.V. past or present. Nothing compares to the quality of these shows, production, writing, direction and the attention to detail, so the "hate" was directed towards the "... only seasons 1-3 were any good" crowd.

So let me re-phrase what I said in my first post... Love it, or love to hate on it, The Sopranos is the greatest, most compelling series on television... ever... period!

And I'm gonna miss it!

Those people said 'only 1-3 were good' generally watched and started seeing Season 4 and dropped out. It's a shame they missed Season 5 and 6 part 1. They don't know what they'r emissing.

There hasn't been one season of the show I didn't like. I know S4 is much maligned, but I enjoyed quite a bit when O watched it non-stop on DVD about a year after its broadcast.

Great, great episode last night...well written and with all those little "moments" that make the show so great. After seeing the very Godfather-like ending last night, I can't help but speculate if we're heading down the road to a Godfather II-like conclusion:

Speculative spolier:


Anyone else picking up on this foreshadowing...or am I just seeing what I want to see (actually I DON'T want to see it...would be downright depressing!).

corrected.

'The Secret' shoutout was the funniest thing in the episode. I also loved the DaVinci Code bitchslap.

The only foreshadowing that jumped out at me was Tony flipping out and telling Carmela he never wants to go down the driveway to pick up the paper again. While too obvious, I thought maybe this was where Tony would finally get taken out in a later episode.

Does anyone know what the toast was (in Italian or in English) that was said by the NJ crew in Johnny Sac's honor?

I'm now betting on the Deus Ex Machina finale. Terrorist attack. They're setting it up with the FBI agents working for the counter-terror unit and Christopher's dealings with the shady Arabs.

Nobody but Osama or Carmela will kill Tony. If anyone kills Chris, it will be Paulie. I am hoping Paulie gets killed instead. His character has been begging for it for a while.

I still hold out hope for the finale scene I came up with years ago:

Tony has a panic-attack-related heart attack in his backyard. His body, in a white robe, slowly slumps to the ground. With his last strength, Tony looks up to see the last thing he'll ever see... the ducks return to the swimming pool. A smile barely forms; fade to black.

i thought the same thing

Yeah, by talking on his cell phone during the movie.

I'd bet Tim Daly finally fights back and kills Chris. Hopefully with a meat cleaver.

But then everyone (especially Carm) suspects Tony did it.

I'm kinda sorry we didn't get to see Meadow and Finn break up. It might have been fun if it was him seeing AJ's wife treating AJ like crap that got him to pull out.