On a gut level, it was one of the most disappointing things I've ever seen on television (as far as show finales go). But, I'll get back to that in a moment.
It was technically well-crafted, manipulative, and seemed that Chase was showing off (since he also wrote and directed the episode). I really was expecting something more as far as plot and character resolutions. I guess that we should at least be glad that the Phil Leotardo situation ended with (as SC would say) a SPLAT. I did feel incredibly manipulated and then I, too, thought my cable signal had gone out. Like almost everyone else, I was waiting for something that never happened.
So, the whole wrap-up is really telling us, "Nothing's really changed; life goes on."
On reflection, I guess the biggest thing we were concerning ourselves with was: will Phil get whacked before Tony does? And now that Phil is dead, the immediate threat to Tony is over. So, I guess Chase wanted to have his fun at our expense as far as the rest of the episode. Story-wise, nothing else really mattered or called for any sort of resolution except the Phil problem. Fair enough. But, that's why I said that on a gut level, I was disappointed. I was waiting for something to come out of all those red herrings we were thrown and...it ended up as a great big fat Mafiosus Interruptus.
That was my gut reaction.
The ending "works" (if I can call it that) only when you reflect upon it. Tony will probably go to trial, Uncle Junior's too-rapid descent into dementia will continue (helped, no doubt, by the probability of his being over-medicated), Meadow will get married, Sil will remain comatose, etc.
But because I have to "reflect" on the ending to "appreciate" it on any level at all, it still doesn't change the incredible feeling of let-down and disappointment I had when viewing it for the first time. This is one audience member who doesn't care to be toyed with unless there is a real payoff before the final credits. (Maybe that's why I like Alfred Hitchcock's films...)
As an aside, I recognized Donna Pescow immediately. She went to high school with a bunch of friends of mine at Sheepshead Bay High School in Brooklyn (she was class of 1972). Interestingly enough, the other female lead from Saturday Night Fever, Karen Lynn Gorney, has also been on The Sopranos (but I was never able to spot her - anyone remember who she played?). I think that 1980s series she (Pescow) was in was called Out of This World - she played a mother whose daughter was fathered by an alien (outer space, not "undocumented").
Signor V.
"For me, there's only my wife..."
"Sure I cook with wine - sometimes I even add it to the food!"
"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?"
"It was a grass harp... And we listened."
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?"
