I re-watched The Sopranos over the last few weeks... grand total of 86 episodes spread out over six seasons. I posted season-by-season recaps... Season 1 - Season 2 - Season 3 - Season 4 - Season 5.
The initial recap from season one started out as brief rapid-fire observations, but as I got deeper and deeper into the series, the recaps for each episode grew longer and longer.
The final season of The Sopranos consisted of 21 episodes (versus the standard 13), which HBO spread out over two years to bilk the conclusion of the series. The first batch included 12 episodes and the second batch had the final 9 episodes.
I considered splitting up the final season into two recaps covering Season 6A and 6B. Alas, the final season was so dense and intricate that my long-winded, egomaniac self could not squeeze everything into two blog posts. Instead, I decided to spread out the final season into 21 individual posts.
Here are my half-baked thoughts on the first episode of the final season of The Sopranos...
S6, Episode 1: Members Only... The final season commenced with a William S. Burroughs narration about Egyptian mythology's seven souls that depart the body before death. Burroughs' spooky, haunting voice hung heavy over a montage of characters: Bobby Bacala played with toy trains, Janice had a baby, Vito Johnnycakes dropped a ton of weight, Geno and his wife found out great news, Meadow gave Finn a sultry dance, FBI snitch Ray Curto exercised, long-haired AJ dicked around in college, Adriana visited Carmela in a dream, and Uncle Junior made Tony dig for buried loot in his backyard... Junior, supposedly in the late 1970s, buried cash in his backyard, but he could not remember where he stashed it... Carmela told Tony about her nightmare with Adriana showing up at her spec house. Carmela pressed Tony if he knew where Adriana ran away... Carmela's spec house was in limbo because she and her father were shaken down by the building inspectors... Phil Leotardo, the new acting boss of the Lupertazzi family, visited Johnny Sack in prison. Sack griped about cash flow issues after the Feds froze his bank accounts. Leotardo was still bitter at Tony (Tony Bwhacked his brother), but he buried the hatchet for business purposes and to keep things running smoothly between NJ and Brooklyn... Geno inherited $2 million from his aunt and he wanted out of the mob life. He asked Tony's permission if he could retire to Florida. Tony reminded him that a Made Man couldn't walk away from his obligation, but he'd consider his request. Geno tried to bribe Tony with pricey watches and a cut of his inheritance... The crew gave Geno shit for wearing a Members Only jacket, which went out of style 20 year earlier... Hesh and his son-in-law, Eli the shylock, got jumped in Brooklyn in front of a Kosher Chinese. The Hairdo's mooks. beat down Eli, who got hit by a cab while trying to get away. The Hairdo (from Phil Leotardo's crew) thought Eli was moving in on his turf. Phil made the Hairdo apologize, plus he had to pay Eli $50,000 for his pain and suffering... Chris finally got bumped up to Capo.... FBI Special Agent Harris visited Tony at Satriale's. He got transferred to terrorism... Before he croaked, Ray Curto (former capo turned rat informant) provided tapes to Adriana's former FBI contact... Tony and Carmela fell in love with a new sushi joint, which attributed to his weight gain. Tony gifted Carmela a Porsche SUV... Tony dispatched fatherly wisdom to AJ: "Your friends are gonna let you down. Your family is the only ones you can depend on"... Chris dispatched Geno to Boston to whack a broke dick who owed them money. When Geno returned, Silvio informed Geno that his retirement request was denied... Geno's bitchy wife was super angry they couldn't move to Florida. She asked why he couldn't whack Tony. Meanwhile, their son was shooting smack again... We found out that Geno was also a rat! He was a low-level FBI informant, but he still had a shred of loyalty and wouldn't rat out Tony. Instead, Geno hung himself in his garage after looking through family photos... Tony's sister Barb had an emergency and she couldn't watch Uncle Junior, who needed round the clock supervision. Janice was also busy (looking for preschools for her daughter), so Tony picked up the slack. Junior's mental state deteriorated. He was so paranoid that he wouldn't answer his phone. He also thought "Little Pussy" was trying to whack him. When Tony was in Junior's kitchen cooking pasta for them, Junior thought Little Pussy broke into his house so he pulled out a gun and went into the kitchen with guns blazing. Demented Junior shot Tony, who he mistook for Lil Pussy. Junior stashed the gun and hid in the upstairs closet. Tony lost a lot of blood but somehow crawled to the phone and dialed 911.
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Previous recaps: Season 1 - Season 2 - Season 3 - Season 4 - Season 5.
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