Here is a real interesting tidbit I did come across, though: [link]

Heh!

Oh, also pointing to an Ambiguity Rules interpretation is the song listed under "Don't Stop Believing" on the jukebox: "Any Way You Want It."

eta: "Either version you're half way up the ass...heh heh. Pardon my French, sweetheart."

Actually, the camera lingered over several titles in that scene. I need to go back and rewatch, as I expect they all have some ironic significance.

Oh, I forgot another great scene. The way Carmela shuts down the conversation after she hears that Hunter is in her second year in med school. She's quick to bring up that Hunter got kicked out of college, but can't linger a second knowing that Hunter's going to be a doctor and Meadow is not.

It's funny that people think Chase left everything unresolved when the whole entire episode is one callback after another. He hits on all of the major themes and dynamics in the family and crew over the course of the series. They refer back to Tony's relationship with Livia, his relationship with Jun, Christopher, Janice, the people who've been whacked. Meadow's run across the street echoes her almost getting hit by a car when she was drunk and going to the funeral of the kid that Tony whacked. If you step away from the straight line narrative and hold it up it's like a map for the entire series.

I love y'all, but you naysayers are nuts. That was a perfect hour of television, and a perfect cap on a great, smart series.

The last five minutes in particular were insanely tense, and somehow (this really gets me!) the Journey song ratcheted up the tension to the point that I nearly passed out from unconsciously holding my breath. Don't stop, indeed.

And MAN, what a funny episode! Paulie and the cat. Agent Harris getting overinvolved in Tony's war ("We're going to win this thing!"). Tony and Carmela bribing AJ to stay out of the Army with a job working for a pornographer. The over-the-top crowd reaction to Phil's death. Meadow's assertion that the government oppresses Italians. AJ's political activism. That incredibly uncomfortable chat with the Parisis. Paulie immediately taking the cursed job when Tony suggested giving it to Patsy. Tony's lawyer distracted by the naked girls on the monitor.

And sad, too! Tony looking at Jun's face and seeing how small and horrible and fleeting his future would be, even if he survives long enough to be old (and that's not too likely, given all the clues the episode left about Tony's future). Silvio in the hospital. The cat looking at Chris (ok, that was funny, too). The kids' complicity with their dad's corrupt life (not that too many civilians in Chase's world are anything other than corrupt). No Melfi!

So, to wit: I loved it and thought the choice to cut off on an ambiguous expression in the middle of a Journey chorus was fucking brilliant.

P.S. the theory about all the people in the ice-cream shop being out of Tony's past demeans us all and indicates that the terrorists may have already won.

Edited because I'm too tired to realize when I can't spell.

Whee! Deadwood season 3 is out on DVD today.

Awesome.

Seconds later, I just checked Amazon and all three seasons are $50 each right now.

If you step away from the straight line narrative and hold it up it's like a map for the entire series.

Yeah, that's a big part of the basis for my "nothing really changes" interpretation, all those little flashbacks.

But then there's the credits rolling without music, and that's just unsettling.

But then there's the credits rolling without music, and that's just unsettling.

I think they did that before in the episode where Dr. Melfi got raped.

Another song I neglected to mention: that was Little Feat playing when they entered the diner.

Deadwood season 3 is out on DVD today.

WOO-fuckin-HOO!

But then there's the credits rolling without music, and that's just unsettling.

But that's one of the classic ways to unsettle your audience... Don't play music where they're expecting it.

See: The Body.

Well, yes, I'm just saying that the deliberate unsettlingness does not support my nothing-changes hypothesis. Unless everything is always unsettling, which it sort of is, so, I don't know.