| |
|
This thread died in the ass, right? Why is that? Here in Australia we're about to watch the final episode of Season Five. Until just now, reading the UK S5 thread, I'd assumed (and heard on good authority) that S5 was the last season of the Sopranos. Anyhow, I need to talk to someone -- anyone! -- about the penultimate episode.
SPOILERS...
(People who haven't seem it: really, don't read the below. Massive spoilers. Spoilers you really don't want to know. You'll regret it. And it'll hurt, too.)
The penultimate episode. Specifically, Adriana. I remember reading an interview with Drea di Matteo somewhere back in March, about how in S5 Ade finally starts learning how to be a player, finds her autonomy. Then, for it to all end like this. Maybe what's so shocking about Ade's arc ending is that while she's a part of the mob underworld, and Carmela or Meadow never would be, you still think of her as completely innocent. And she kind of is, in a way. In fact, her innocence is her downfall: she trusts Christopher, she trusts the Feds. She never realises that going along with the Feds' bad advice/coercion can only end the way it eventually does, with her death. She never seems to hit that moment of knowing she should flee, even when Chrissie practically strangles her. As a spectator, I felt similarly stupid: it was obvious from the beginning that Chrissie would never flip, but I had really hoped Ade would leave.
This episode reminded me of a Buffy episode in Season Six, you know the one where Buffy wakes up and she's in a mental hospital, and everyone's convinced she's delusional? It had the same feeling of the writers fucking with your head because they knew they could: deliberately smashing your narrative expectations that the annihiliating psychopathy of one side of Tony's personality could be separated from the other (biological family) side. And then for Tony to let all hell break loose just because Tony B.'s his cousin. Yeah, right. Whatever.
The other amazing thing about this ep: Carmela. Carmela is becoming steadily more and more stunningly beautiful. And yet, another smashed expectation: the reconciliation is all about money. It's just another economy to finance Carm's $600,000 project. She knows exactly what she's doing. And here is another 'lesson' for the episode: the parallel experiences of Carm, who's a total survivor, and Ade, who's doomed, all lies in their performance of traditional, or non-traditional, 'family' gender roles. Carmela survives by keeping herself legally 'straight' and above board, and pretending nothing is going on. Adriana, as the modern fiance rather than the traditional wife, never has that privilege. Carmela operates on the level of money: Adriana stupidly believes in 'love'. Carm wins, hands down.
Here we see this show at its darkest and most cynical. Possibly also its best. But I came out of this episode with a really bad taste in my mouth and a wish for it all to be over. Other people? |
|
|
