“The Sopranos” — Kennedy and Heidi
Picture via HBO.com
Wow. Where do I even begin? I guess we can both find out after the jump (major spoilers included)…
In an amazing episode it’s pretty notable that the most shocking moment happened about four minutes after the titles rolled. Most series would have ended with this, leaving us glued to our chairs for another week. Luckily for us and for The Sopranos there is no reason to try to maintain an audience. Three more episodes and we’re all walking away. It’s also important because it didn’t give us any time to do any moralizing for Tony and instead saw him getting the hell on with his life whether everyone around him was ready or not.
When Christopher rolled the SUV off the road and down the embankment, I instantly began speculating on the outcome. Tony dies in a car accident! The feds never get him. He doesn’t get wacked. He loses it all to complete chance. Then, Christopher and Tony die, and we spend the next three episodes sorting out the aftermath. What actually happened, Tony smothering Christopher as he drowned in his own blood, was completely unexpected though made sense the longer the episode went.
Again, Edie Falco earned her paycheck as the best actress on television. Her response to Tony’s call telling her that Christopher was dead was brilliant and chilling.
I loved hearing all of the crew talking about how proud they were of Christopher and how they couldn’t believe he had fallen off the wagon, when last week each and every one of them resented his “disease.” The cherry on the sundae being Pauly’s chance to be jealous of him one more time when no one attended his mother/aunt’s wake which was scheduled on the same night.
After a quick, unincriminating meeting with Melfi Tony up and takes off for Las Vegas. There he lays around, gambles, drinks, and nails a stripper-friend of Christopher’s. Toward the end of the episode the two take peyote and wonder through a casino. It’s during this trip on the trip that Tony feels like he “get’s it.” His bad luck streak has snapped and it certainly must be because Christopher is dead and his negative energy has been sucked dry. He’s free.
Of course, Tony Soprano had lost that last shard of relatability fifty minutes prior. We no longer see him for anything other than the cold-blooded killer that he is. He might have seen God, but we see three more episodes to go and know his recent good-luck streak is certain crash hard.
Another interesting side story in the episode was A.J.’s realization that he isn’t cut out for the gangster life. He’s too passive. Despite the easy thrill of holding down a kid who didn’t pay so that acid could be poured on his feet, this week he got a better glimpse of the business’ ugly side.
A.J. does is like his father — almost. But it is those small differences that make one a brutal killer and the other a complete drain on society and those around him.
So now we’re left with under a month to go and an end in sight. It seems likely at this stage of the game that Phil Leotardo will try to have Tony knocked off. Now that Christopher is gone he seems to be the biggest threat.
Though my theory is slightly different. I suspect Tony’s undoing will be based on the popular mob-horror film Cleaver, which itself is based on real life. In the movie the monster was a former mobster killed by his boss. The monster gets a cleaver for a hand and then seeks its revenge. In the end this ghost kills the boss.
Tony isn’t going to die at the hands of the living. Eventually, perhaps when the peyote wear off, the ghost of Christopher will start to haunt him and will ultimately result in his undoing. Art imitates life which imitates art… right? The way Tony tossed that swag coffee mug into the bushes suggests he might know this as well.
Oh and apparently Kennedy and Heidi, who the episode is named after, are the two girls that caused Christopher to swerve on the road and roll to his eventual death. Thanks a lot kids.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
First of all, great site you have here! Keeps me updated on shows that I have no time (or DVR space) to watch.
Good call on the Falco performance. She left me speechless. She definitely portayed the grief-stricken, yet dutiful person in a tragedy to a T.
My theory on the “I get it!” exclamation goes back to Chris’s last words before the accident: “What happened to stop and smell the roses?” Tony remembers the promise he made to himself after getting shot about living life one day at a time. This explains his pleasure trip to Vegas. The two shots with the bathroom light and the sun are callbacks to the scene of his awakening.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
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