The Real Issue of the Day...

Okay, let’s get down to the criticial issue of the day: Is Tony Soprano going to survive tonight.

Let’s face it. Most of the inner circle have been killed off. It’s only Tony and Pauly Walnuts who are left from the original crowd. That leaves some big gaps in management that need to be resolved. And put your self in Tony's shoes: Who can he trust anymore?

Clearly, the New York family is going all out to minimize the competition and the number of ways the spoils gets divided so they don't have to take off their shoes to figure it out....

Regardless what any of us thought when the Sopranos started, we now know it's not easy being a Mafia boss. Not only do you have to put up with a wife whose loyalty does not seem to extend beyond her weekly allowance, and a suicidal son who’s ambition is to run a pizza parlor, and a self-involved daughter who will go to school forever if you continue to provide tuition. Moreover, poor Tony has a sister who killed her last husband and is ready to remind you of your unholy background and a mother, now deceased, who not only promulgated a new low in compassion but also tried to kill you. All this, and you have to survive your business colleagues whose loyalty seems paper thin.

No wonder poor Tony passes out whenever he sees birds and feels that the only way to solace is at the psychiatrist who, incidentally, thinks now that Tony may have used her over the last six years….

If I were Tony, I would take the money and run. Maybe create your own non-witness protection program. Sure as hell I wouldn’t give it to anyone in my family who typically do nothing to deserve it. And I certainly wouldn’t give it to anyone in the family who are just seeking to reduce the number of families to four.

But the family has its own agenda. They think that Tony has gone too far; that he has failed to consider the economic needs of the family which knows no limits.

The big question: Will Tony get blown away tonight.

If he doesn’t, what does that say? It says that crime is good if you don’t have a grabbing family and a son who whines….

If he does, does the Sopranos just become a soap opera that ends predictably?

Even if Tony bites the big one tonight, the Sopranos was really never predictable. The things you expect to happen don’t; the things you do expect to happen never seem to come off.

For all intents and purposes, it was the one show on TV that always left you hanging.

I think the Show’s creator, David Chase, will leave us with an ending we never expected that will leave us craving for more from a series that has delivered all it will deliver for now and likely for the forseeable future. And that’s how it will be.

In the end, Tony will remain the inscrutible politician, the one smarter than all his crew but blessed with genes even he couldn't control. Just like politics.

Who ever said this was going to be easy.

Les Aaron