As influential and important as The Sopranos is, I feel like its final season had the most obvious impact on popular culture. The final season of two-halves, the divisive ambiguous ending, everyone knows about the divisive Season 6 and everyone has an opinion on it. As for me, I thought it was a great ending... at least its second half was.
Season 6A is a pretty weak first half to the season, far worse than Season 2 in many aspects. After a strong opener, its pace slows down to a crawl as it focuses on two incredibly weak and dull storylines. First, there is Tony's coma, which is cool in theory. Seeing the cast live their lives without Tony is an interesting premise, and I'm always down for more dream sequences. However, I think it went on for an episode too long. Even worse, however, is the Vito storyline, where the titular character is outed as gay and is pursued for six episodes. Given that we knew he was going to die eventually, it felt like the season was just being drawn out, especially since there weren't too many other major storylines. There was the Lupertazzi stuff, but even that was mostly set-up for Season 6B. However, Season 6A does one thing that I really liked, ending the half-season on a faux happy ending before things go to hell in 6B. It brings up the question of whether or not these characters even deserve a happy ending (of course not! they were seriously homophobic for half the season!), setting up for when they end up facing the consequences of their actions. This ends up being a trend for a lot of similar dramas like Bojack and Breaking Bad that do a similar thing for their final seasons, and I think it really works for as a dramatic structure.
Season 6B, on the other hand, is phenomenal. As a matter of fact, I'd say it even tops Season 1 as my favorite season. Right from the first episode of the half-season, you can tell there's a renewed sense of energy, as shown in the more experimental Soprano Home Movies. The pacing is brisk, the plotlines start to get resolved, and all of the show's lingering tensions start to completely explode. Even plot threads and Chekhov's Guns from previous seasons like the gun in the snow from Season 5 get paid off here, it's an incredibly satisfying and well-done final season. Chris and Tony's conflict has been building from the season premiere, culminating in the former's shockingly cruel death. The family issues come to a head in The Second Coming where AJ attempts suicide. The Lupertazzi stuff finally erupts into all-out war in The Blue Comet, easily one of the show's most violent and shocking episodes. Even Melfi has some of the most material she's had since the third season. As a whole, the final four episodes is the best stretch of episodes in the whole series, and it all culminates in one of my favorite endings in television history. Yeah, I said favorite endings.
While most of my favorite episodes of the season were in 6B, there are plenty of highlights scattered throughout the season as a whole that are worth noting:
Members Only: This season premiere feels like it sets you up for a drastically different half-season than you end up getting. It's shocking, fast-paced, and devastating. Even if you know Tony's not gonna die, seeing him get shot by Junior in the ending is still genuinely shocking. And while it's not the most crushing FBI informant storyline (Sal's and Adriana's are better), Eugene's suicide is a grim showcase of the pressure that can have on a person.
Kaisha: For a lot of people, Kaisha is disappointing, and I definitely see why. The Lupertazzi conflict throughout Season 6A ends on yet another anticlimactic note, and the half-finale ends an oddly happy note. But that's the point, isn't it? Kaisha seems like it has a happy ending with most of the cast at a Christmas party together, but it's super clear that it's fake. Tony can't just talk Phil Leotardo out of being pissed, Chris and Tony still have a lot of tension, and Carmela has just been lied to about Adriana. Kaisha is purposefully shallow and empty because it's not the show's real ending, rather it finishes setting up the dominoes to fall in Season 6B. I also just found it to be one of the most enjoyable episodes of 6A, even if that's not much of a competition.
Kennedy And Heidi: This was another really divisive episode for a lot of people, with some finding Tony killing Chris in a car accident to be too overly cruel. Personally, I think it's the culmination of their relationship throughout the whole show and especially in Season 6. Between Chris's addiction, Tony's jealousy towards Chris's love interests, what happened to Adriana, etc., Tony and Chris were loathing each other at this point! And it was the decision to resolve that conflict so abruptly at the start of the episode that made Chris's death so memorable, even if the rest of the episode couldn't quite reach those heights.
The Second Coming: While easily the least shocking of the final four episodes, The Second Coming is incredibly heavy, feeling like the show's darkest hour. The biggest scene here is AJ's attempted suicide, which is just so... sad, really. Not only seeing him resort to a suicide attempt, but the fact that it didn't work, leaving him floundering in the pool until Tony came and saved him. It's such a depressing scene that felt like a real rock bottom for both AJ and Tony, made even worse by the fact that Melfi is considering dropping Tony and Phil pretty much declared war against New Jersey. The whole episode has this sense of hopelessness and dread, seriously don't watch this one if you're in a good mood.
The Blue Comet: The Blue Comet is the big bloodbath that it feels like The Sopranos had been building up to throughout its entire run. That shootout in the train station alone that kills Bobby and puts Silvio in a coma is one of the most violent scenes in the series, and the cliffhanger which has the DiMeos go into hiding is a tense cliffhanger for the finale. But that's not even it! Similarly to Long Term Parking, this episode pays off a large amount of the season's threads as Junior is sent to an institution and Melfi drops Tony for good. This episode is absolutely jam-packed with twists and feels like the Ozymandias of the series, though not quite as rewarding.
Made In America: For most of its run, Made In America is a very good series finale. Phil's death is cathartic and pathetic in equal measures, most of the remaining characters get satisfying endings, and the story ends on a fairly neat note. But then we get to that final scene which elevates this episode to classic status. I mentioned this before but I love ambiguous endings, and The Sopranos's infamous abrupt final shot is one of my favorites. The whole scene is expertly done, with the camera darting around the cafe to create a sense of paranoia and dread, and then someone enters the cafe. Was it Meadow? Or was it a death scene for Tony? Personally, I think it's the latter given the whole theme about how when you die, your story pretty much ends. "You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?". It's abrupt, it's sudden, it's the end of Tony's story. But that's just my interpretation. The fact that it's so ambiguous is what makes it so memorable and often-discussed to this day. And that's why I don't get the controversy around ambiguous endings. Satisfying, closure-filled endings are great and all, but they don't quite stick with you the way that The Sopranos's ending does. Made In America is one of the most memorable and talked about episodes in television history, and I think it's going to stay that way for years to come.
Overall, Season 6 is a bit of a weird one for me, with an incredibly dull first half and a phenomenal second half. But despite my complaints, it did end The Sopranos on a strong and memorable note, so I'm not too angry.
Season 6A: 2/5
Season 6B: 5/5
3.5/5 Stars
My ranking of the Sopranos seasons is:
6B > 1 > 4 > 5 > 3 > 2 > 6A
My ranking of the Sopranos seasons is:
1 > 6B > 4 > 2 > 3 > 5 > 6A
Favorite Episode: Long Term Parking
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