So…the last Sopranos until 2006 or something? Letdown? Okay?

Of course, it couldn’t match the preceding episode, which was one of the best of the entire series, but I didn’t think it was as awful as some people think. It wasn’t terrifically strong, and it could have used a lot more subtlety, as character after character, in their own way, illuminated Tony S. on what he “had” to do with Tony B. Particularly disappointing this season has been the way they’ve used Dr. Melfi, which, aside from that opening storyline, has been mostly in rather lame exposition.

But I suppose why I didn’t hate the episode was that I thought that Tony S. was stripped of any “attractiveness” he might have had to viewers…I read a couple of weeks ago that David Chase has actually always been rather appalled that viewers have embraced Tony as some kind of big lug with a couple of inconvenient flaws. In this episode, he looked fatter and older than ever, he glowered and lurched and it would take some kind of psychopath to see him as the least bit charming.

And did we think the NY/NJ storyline was too neatly wrapped up? I don’t know, because I’m not sure that Phil was included in that sting. If so, well, yes..but I don’t remember hearing his name mentioned, so…he’s still on the loose.