Tony heads out to Vegas, escaping to the West Coast in a sequence that deliberately echoed his Kevin Finnerty dream that opened the season. Coming shortly after Chris questioning him about his stop and smell the roses attitude, it’s clear that Tony is hoping to return to the place he was right after the coma. The first person driving shots echo the opening titles, implying that Tony is moving into an alternate universe. There, no one knows him and he can sit alone, drinking at a bar. If the Kevin Finnerty story was purgatory, this seems to be hell, with everyone utterly disconnected from the world around them, Tony mechanically throwing chips down the roulette wheel.
He meets Sonya, a stripper Christopher used to have sex with. He likely chooses to meet her as a way of finding some closure about what happened. If he can engage with this part of Christopher’s life, talk to someone who knew him outside of a world where piety and respect for the dead are valued, maybe things will get better.
I love that they had Tony take peyote. Once it came up, I was really hoping it would happen, and I love what happened when he did. The show has always had a strong philosophical and mystical component. Tony’s dreams guide him on a kind of subconscious level, and the sense I got here was that he was in touch with some deeper level of the universe. That’s what allowed him to do so well at roulette, he was working beyond his conscious mind, and in that transcendence, he was able to move beyond the surface concerns that have plagued him for the entire series. The stresses that drove him into therapy in the first place came from his business and his family, here he disconnects from all that, and is able to just get lost in the moment.
It’s even more liberating when he wanders out to this endless desert and sees the sun blink, echoing the Costa Mesa lighthouse. I feel like every peyote trip needs to end in the desert, but maybe that’s just Grant Morrison’s Animal Man and The Invisibles talking. Anyway, Tony yells out, “I get it,” and seems to have a moment of revelation.
What is it that he gets? Does he remember the Kevin Finnerty episode, or is it something else? I can’t say for sure, we’ll have to wait until the next episodes to find out what he means, but the implication is that he has seen beyond the limits of his identity, and perhaps found a way out of this life. The fact that he constructed the Kevin Finnerty world in his mind implies that he has a strong desire to escape his life, and in this moment, maybe he sees a way. He spent the entire episode disgusted by the charade that is his world, it is in his break from society that he found a moment of happiness.
Article comments
1 - gil
Thank you - I looked at several reviews of this episode and wondered if they saw the same episode I did.
Your insight into the peyote trip, the Kevin Finnerty similarities were spot on I think - great review thanks!
2 - David
Great review. I agree that this episode was one of the best. I think the last two episodes have been very good. I also like the way Chase set the murder up. A few episodes ago, Tony was on the boat and almost took advantage of an opportunity to take out Pauly after he point blank questioned his loyalty. In this episode, an accident conveniently helps Tony to do what he knows needs to be done. I thought he was going to give the order to Bobby when they were fishing in an earlier episode and he was expressing disappointment in his heir apparent.
I also think Tony projected his role in Christopher's death in almost every conversation (Carmella, the guys, Melfi, the stripper girlfriend) and it was perceived as survivor's guilt. The only ones who I think recognized that maybe it wasn't an accident was Sil (great look of recognition) in the bedroom scene when the guys visit Tony and Melfi when Tony admits that he's actually kind of relieved.
I also liked that great scene with Butchie laughing as Phil expresses his condolences.
3 - El Bicho
Very good review.
"Tony yells out, “I get it,” and seems to have a moment of revelation."
I read some people thinking Tony said, "I did it," which didn't make much sense. I don't think his "insight" at the moment will be remembered. I lean toward Phil taking Tony out.
4 - Phillip Winn
I wasn't sure if Tony said "get" or "did," either. Will watch it again tonight.
Two weeks ago (after the "Cleaver" episode) I explained to some coworkers why I thought Tony was going to have to kill Christopher, and was mocked for my trouble. The following week they'd started to come around, and of course this week they're marveling at my predictive ability. But like you said, Chase seems to telegraph things pretty well. I guess some people just don't pay enough attention.
Great write-up, thanks!
5 - Victor Lana
Amazing review, Patrick. I believe Christopher has always been a marked man. Remember the scene of his initiation into the mob? The black bird landed on a branch outside the window. Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore?" It was a neat piece of foreshadowing by Chase.
I have ideas about how it will end. Tony's last name is "Soprano" after all. Why does the caged bird sing? Maybe, just maybe, this one can avoid the cage if he sings a happy tune about Phil and all the rest of the wiseguys.
Stay tuned.
6 - Charley
Wow that was some great insight into this article. I really enjoyed reading it - the parallels with the Kevin Finnerty storyline are awesome...I never thought of that, although I knew there was some sort of mystic underlying storytelling going on there...great stuff.
7 - Randy
You never know for sure about the symbolism with this show, but my theory is that Kevin Finnerty was a shadow piece of Tony Soprano, one that feared to accept the truth about Tony that the light would have shown on him. On peyote, in the desert, Tony finally accepted the truth of who and what he is--a murderous thug; nothing more, nothing less. I suppose that it's also possible that Tony's realization also implies an acceptance of his own mortality. If that's all true, watch out Phil Leotardo, and watch out Jennifer Melfi, though even David Chase might flich at whacking the character who seems to be a stand-in for those of us who get vicarious thrills from mob dramas. Of course, I could be wrong, and there could be more to Tony's enlightenment. The Tibetan monks in the Finnerty dream and Carm's dream narrated by William S. Burroughs must play into all of this somehow.
I had thought the Kevin Finnerty dream sequence was a waste of time during the first half of season six, when it never came up again. Now it does make sense.
8 - Pat
I thought the episode was great. I was thinking that maybe Tony "gets" the high that drugs offer..as in Christopher....maybe he now will "relate" to Christopher on this level..and might even feel remorse for what he did...he never believed Christopher when he said it was a disease..he completely dissed it...only saw it as a weakness.
9 - aimes2
Great deconstruction of the show. I emailed it to my crew of Sopranos watching buddies.
I am still just saying "wow" about the whole episode. The Sopranos is the best television program in history. There is no way anyone can argue against that.
Last night was the first time I said to myself, "Tony is a psychopath," and yes, of course he has been a psycho the whole time. Awesome.
10 - aimes2
Oh yeah, also wanted to say that the "sun blinking" -- I just couldn't place that until you mentioned the lighthouse.
Anyone know where I can get some peyote?
11 - Eric Berlin
Great great review. This episode is putting us into the end run of perhaps the greatest show of all-time, and man it was a whopper, dense and rich and thematic as all get out as you say.
I've also had conversations about whether it was I get it or I did it! (I thought it was "get," and more people *seem* to agree with this).
One final tid-bit that I picked up on that I haven't seen anyone else mention: Chris wearing the Cleaver hat during his final car ride. In my view this clearly hearkened back to the pilot episode of the show. The first time we meet Chris he's driving Tony and wearing (I believe) a black hat. A darkly comic chase of a dead beat gambler ensues. I don't recall Chris ever wearing a hat in between these two book-ended scenes.
12 - fdssa
Why did he continue to fuck with the radio. I mean it was up all the way, he found the song he wanted, why was he still messing with the radio? Don't get it.
13 - Lamar
So who played the Stripper Sonya in Vegas? Can't find the actress' name.
14 - El Bicho
"Why did he continue to fuck with the radio."
Because he was wasted on drugs.
"So who played the Stripper Sonya in Vegas?"
She was also on The L Word
15 - Patrick
He kept messing with the system because it "had no balls."
And the actress's name is Sarah Shahi.
As for the hat, I can't remember for sure, but I'm almost positive he was wearing one at some point. But, it's notable that back in the pilot, I believe Tony said he'd kill Christopher if he sold his story for a screenplay. And, now he's wearing the Cleaver hat. That played a critical role in Tony's decision to kill him, as we see in the dream therapy session. The beauty of the show is the way it can present a scene we can all relate to, Tony's disappointment at Christopher's portrayal of him in the film, then turn things with Tony's reaction, the murder, which is totally out of ordinary.
16 - Lee Stranahan
Great review - I have a bunch of stuff on my blog at Stranahan.com about theories on this episode that tie into peyote, Van Morrison, and a lot more...
17 - Max
to answer #13 Lamar--
Sarah Shali played Sonya in that episode of Sopranos. Quite beautiful. Born 1980