A few thoughts, after the jump …
I haven't written about "The Sopranos" for a couple of weeks, trying to figure out what was going on. The first three episodes of this finale run had been very good, the fourth (Tony's gambling) seemed not, the fifth (last week) was a mild rebound. Then the seeming bumps in the road were all smoothed out in last night's show.
Tony's monstrosity and life are systematically isolating him from the few people who mattered in his world. The fight with Bobby destroyed a relationship with a man who had been most loyal to Tony. The argument with Hesh wrecked that deal. Johnny Sack, a rival but also someone whom Tony understood, is dead.
Christopher is now dead. While Tony delivered the coup de grace last night, Chris had really been killed in last week's episode, where his idea of strength was twisted into weakness by the guys around him (including Tony), and his attempt to match their "strength" made him weak again. So of course, when Tony put him away, it was out of fear of what he considered Chris's weakness.
So where does all that leave Tony? Turning inward, high on peyote. Only Tony has had epiphanies before (as Christopher, something of an expert at failed redemption, reminds him just before the accident). They don't take. We're even more into "The Godfather" now, with the possibility that Tony will, in the end, survive — but like Michael Corleone, with no one close by his side. And the fate that then awaits him is what came to Uncle Junior and, in last night's episode, Paulie — isolation, loss of control and whatever sorrow he can muster from his shabby emotional toolkit.
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An interesting take but for me the episode produced more questions than answers. It parallels the episodes when Tony was in a coma a season or two ago; he's alone, on the road, like a salesman or conventioneer. It's a timeless purgatory and I'm not sure if the sun was rising or setting at the end.
I'm also curious about the episode's title, "Kennedy and Heidi." Kennedy seems easy, as Chris was the heir apparent who died too young; Tony even alluded to Jackie O at his funeral. Of course AJ is the new Kennedy–Tony forced him to go to the Bing last week, and has hooked him up with a couple thugs.
The Heidi reference baffles me, though I thought of the infamous incident in which a 1960s NFL game was interrupted when a network switched over to the movie "Heidi." That must have upset a lot of gamblers and might fit somehow. It also reminds me of Meadow now–she's gone the good girl route.
If memory serves, Kennedy and Heidi are the two girls in the other car in Christopher's accident.
I got that, but why title the episode after them if their names don't have some kind of significance to the show as it winds down?
I would probably argue that they're a continuation of the show assigning young characters names that sounded good to their parents but lack any family tie or ethnicity — starting, of course, with Meadow. But I think the names Kennedy and Heidi are used because of their ambiguous innocence — Kennedy the shining knight/womanizer, Heidi the storybook character and the madam Fleiss. And I thought of that while reading the following post from my friend Matt Zoller Seitz:
"That cutaway to the girls in the car made Chase's central, recurring point more bluntly than six season's worth of beatdowns, strangulations and shootings, because the girls seemed so "ordinary" — just a couple of students driving on the highway late at night, maybe thinking that when they got back home they might sneak a couple of glasses of wine and watch some TV (Six Feet Under, maybe). The difference between Heidi and Kennedy and Tony and Christopher is one of degree, not kind. The young women had a chance to do the right thing but didn't. The exact reason for their decision not to help — by driving back to the scene or calling the cops — doesn't matter in the end. What's important — for Chase's purposes — is that they were presented with a moral test and they not only failed it, they didn't seem terribly aware that it was a test."
Those are all interesting connections, and I never thought of Heidi Fleiss even with Las Vegas in the episode and our friend Tom Sizemore back in the news.
The test idea is interesting too. I'm sure the girls knew it was a test–they knew they were doing the wrong thing by not calling 911, but they also knew they were probably doing the smart thing. Tony's in the same boat–it was morally wrong to kill his nephew, but in the end it was the smart, thus right, thing to do.