informs Eugene they also reject his notion to move to Florida, as they need him in New Jersey to help build a case against Tony in the wake of Curto's death. Exactly 15 years ago, millions frantically yelled, thinking they lost their cable connection as HBO's "The Sopranos" ended its final season thanks to creator David Chase inventing one of the. Meadow continues her relationship with Finn. The most popular theory is that Butchie had Tony killed. Basically, those fans wanted to definitively know if Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) died right there in Holstens. He states to his friends that, "The only thing I ever found in the street was my first wife," showing that he hasn't had much good luck in his life (and at least one failed marriage). Remember, too, that Tony is the Homer Simpson of crime bosses, miraculously avoiding death or prison even as it claims other characters. Fury of the Gods is a 2023 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Shazam.Produced by New Line Cinema, DC Studios, and the Safran Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the sequel to Shazam! Eugene Pontecorvo was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1959 to a family of Italian descent, and he became a made man in Tony Soprano's crew of the DiMeo crime familyafter having worked as a bodyguard for Junior Soprano during the 1990s. Meadow runs to the door, the bell rings, Tony looks up, and nothin. Its not an insult to say that he doesnt really know why he did what he did, because all through our interviews with him, we kept trying to get him to explain the reasoning behind certain choices, only to discover that there wasnt any, and he and the writers and directors were just doing what felt correct. Chase provides glimpses of all the other customers a scout troop, two unidentified black males at the jukebox, a man in a Members Only jacket like Eugene Pontecorvos at the counter because he wants us to wonder if one of them might be there to take out Tony. Its hard to imagine him putting together such a career without The Sopranos. Pussy Malanga, the man Uncle Junior was convinced is after him and whom he eventually mistakes Tony for is the same mobster Uncle Junior wanted to kill in Artie Bucco's first restaurant in, Dr. Melfi recalls that Tony grabbed a pillow in order to smother, Dr. Melfi calls the home that Tony put his mother in a "retirement community" and Tony corrects her and calls it a, Tony refers to his forgetful Uncle Junior as ", Vito asks Agent Harris if he had lost weight due to the, When Eugene proposes retiring, he cites the precedent set by ", When Eugene's conversation with his wife is interrupted by a call on his cellphone, she says he is responding to ", When Junior says Pussy Malanga is prank calling his house Tony says they will get FBI director, The song featured in the opening scene and closing credits is "Seven Souls" by, The song featured in the scene where Tony and Carmela are dining at the, The song playing when Junior shoots Tony is "Comes Love" by, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 02:43. Why did he choose that place to kill himself? His first act on the show is seen in "Proshai, Livushka" when he and Bobby Zanone assault a garbage sanitation man for threatening to rat out Ralph Cifaretto. The schedule includes the premiere of My Dinner With Alan, a feature-length documentary in which we sit in the famous booth at Holstens and discuss the series and the experience of covering it for the paper that Tony used to pick up at the end of his driveway. Alan: I hear what youre saying. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Carmela repeatedly asks Tony to see if he can get the stop order lifted, but he keeps putting it off. Which is perhaps something he telegraphed by bringing that cat into it. The time was certainly right. Bits of time are elapsing in terms of the physical motion of Tony in that space, but thats not indicated by the music, which never stops. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. But now I'm getting into speculation, and Eugene's brother killing Tony isn't speculation. Or if we cant discern that, what is this ending trying to make us think about? Heres how to watch them host the events red carpet, together with Derek Blasberg and Emma Chamberlain. Over the course of the next few minutes, he glances twice at the family's table before standing up, walking past the table before entering the restroom . That's exactly like Dave Bowman watching himself age while inside the alien room. However, the FBI said that Pontecorvo had to remain in New Jersey to help build a case against Soprano in the wake of FBI informant Raymond Curto's death. That coffinlike image isnt the first major allusion to death of the final season, nor the last of Made in America alone. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. I think it would fit with the cycles of experience depicted in the series. With a friendlier boss who didnt have an 80-90% chance of being indicted, New York could make its money with fewer headaches. You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. I couldn't find much of anything. The Sopranos was so deliciously bold, fresh, funny, complex and authentic that, for me, it rendered most other dramas on television unwatchable. For more information, please see our Problem here is Little Carmine had always got on well with Tony and had no reason to kill him, in fact Tony was one of the . I know people generally cringe at "it was all a dream/nightmare!" scenarios, but I like the idea of Tony being in a purgatory state where he's forced to see himself die every day, and worst of all: it all goes black before he can see his daughter one last time. Eugene has a talk with Tony about him and his family moving to Florida permanently. People are gonna remember you,' Funaro recalled. Raymond "Buffalo Ray" Curto is a recurring character portrayed by George Loros. Tony is haunted by dreams of Sal . The following is an excerpt from The Sopranos Sessions, in which Alan and I debate the still-controversial last four minutes of the show and come to different conclusions about what it meant. So maybe it was the genetic legacy of depression and mental illness that Tony called "the Soprano curse." In a family therapy session after the suicide attempt, AJ cited Grandma Livia's assertion. And the last we see them together, Tony was still acting like a jerk toward Patsy. At some point, Pontecorvo became an FBI informant, and he sought to retire to Florida with the $2 million that he had inherited from his late aunt. The Sopranos: The Al Green Song David Chase Considered Instead of Dont Stop Believin in the Finale. Pontecorvo ran a low-stakes poker game, a sports betting agency, and held a no-show job at the Esplanade construction site. In Season Six's premiere episode "Members Only", Eugene inherited 2 million dollars from his deceased aunt. The general director was Frank Darabont, but after dropping out due to a disagreement with the production company, Glenn Mazara [7],Scott.M.Gimple was in charge, and from season 9, Angela Kang is in charge. Disputes between Tony and Phil are resolved, and it is explained that the New York associates were protecting Gerry's area and did not know Eli was associated with the Sopranos; they agree to pay Eli $50,000 compensation. While Tony "thinks on it," Chris has Eugene kill a man, implying it will give him a better chance of having Tony let him go. Funaro knew something was brewing when Gene got a family. Now, Off the Back of a Truck takes you one step further into the world of Tony Soprano and his families, offering an Italian potluck of fresh and fun takes that any true fan can get lost in for hours. The cat turns up at the safe house and gets brought back to Satriales, much to Paulies horror You cant even put them near a baby; they suck the breath right out! particularly once it starts fixating on a photo of Christopher from the set of Cleaver. His taking control of the reins of power capped an unusually fast climb to the top of Italian organized crime. He and his wife plan to take the money and retire to Florida, but Tony turns down his request because he's a made man and there's no retiring from that. I just did a bunch of googling and I'm shocked that it's not a more common theory. You knew virtually everything important that was going on, not only with Tony, but with all his enemies and allies. Did Eugene die in Gattaca? It's a town in Italy, but the name translates to "crow bridge." (Well, maybe not the scouts.) Alan: Theres no way around that, and even David Chase says as much in the sixth interview later in this book. It seems so obvious now. In the episode Eugene and his wife have an unexpected financial windfall when a beloved aunt, the wife of a successful Hollywood agent, leaves him $2 million in her will. This is a show thats very interested in dream language, psychoanalysis, and the contradictory, mysterious forces that make us who we are, and its inevitable that this series, perhaps more than other works of art, would have become a Rorschach test. Eugene Pontecorvo has one of the most tragic arcs of all characters on The Sopranos. Taking place in the aftermath of a brutal gang war as Tony Soprano sat down with his family in a diner to enjoy a meal as he had dozens of times before in the show, the scene seemingly built up toward Tony's execution at the hands of an assassin within the diner. In 2007, he killed himself after both his boss Tony Soprano and his FBI handlers refused to let him retire to Florida. With his wife bitter and his son using heroin, Eugene hangs himself. We only have this one life, and precious little control over how long it lasts. When that didnt work out, creator David Chase and his writing team came up with the Gene Pontecorvo character for him to play. After taking turns reading with different female leads, Rispoli told Gandolfini to stop by his hotel when he finished his audition so they could have lunch. Eugene then walks out calmly. There are no cookies for figuring things out. And get this: The actor who plays MIMOJ, Paolo Colandrea, is an Italian-born pizza-shop owner from Pennsylvania who appears to have no pre-Sopranos acting credits and just one after The Sopranos, as "BBQ Guest" in an "over-the-top comedy" called Hooking Up starring Corey Feldman where I'm guessing he's just doing a winking reference to his infamous Sopranos role. It's also a reference to the episode's title, "Unidentified Black Males". He does so by stalking the man, following him into a convenience store where the juror takes a drink and a candy bar. willie boy johnson wife. I mean, if you step back and think about it, killing Tony this mysteriously does defy Sopranos modus operandi in multiple ways. It is a zombie film that focuses on the mental collapse of survivors and the human . Nearly two years have passed. The idea of presenting the ending as a thing that can be mastered and explained is philosophically the opposite of everything that led us to that point. At this moment in Made in America, nobody that we know of wants Tony dead. Sometimes, a cat is just a cat, but its hard not to consider this one within the context of what happens, or doesnt, a few scenes later at Holstens. Matt: If hed said, Yeah, I killed him, I wouldve been deeply disappointed in Chase. More recently, I found myself swaying over to Team Tony Dies, not only because of the death imagery throughout the season including the way so many episodes open, as this one does, with Tony waking up from a deep slumber but because some of my initial, long-hardened impressions of the scene didnt hold up under further scrutiny. The significance of the crow in that scene has been much discussed. Though the cut to black comes before any such execution occurs on screen, there . Scan this QR code to download the app now. Those who subscribe to the Tony Dies theory universally believe that Tony is killed by a mysterious man we haven't seen before, wearing a tan jacket very similar to Eugene's and referred to in the closing credits only as "Man in Members Only Jacket." To combat leaked storylines, the writers and Chase used to devise fake scenes to confuse the set. While Junior cowers in a closet upstairs, Tony manages to dial 911 before passing out. In the episode Unidentified Black Males, while he and Little Paulie Germani are engaging in what initially began as a harmless banter at the Esplanade construction site, Little Paulie goes too far in Eugene's mind when he conveys through an innuendo that Eugene is a homosexual. This accomplishment catapulted Aglieri s name to the top of the ranks. In the season premiere, Bacala raised the idea of what happens when you die, speculating, You probably dont even hear it when it happens, right? a line so clearly important to the end of the series that the conversation is replayed at the end of the penultimate episode, after poor Bobby had that question answered. Theodore "Teddy" Spirodakis (died 2006) was a Greek-American compulsive gambler from Boston who was murdered by the DiMeo crime family in 2006. Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! Theory 1: Little Carmine (Lupertazzi) had Butch Deconcini kill Phil (Leotardo) and Tony (Soprano). Obviously he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The Sopranos has always explored various facets of its characterstheir ethnic, cultural, social/class identities, and even their meta-identities as fictional characters in a 21st century TV show. And the music is continuous throughout. Vito instructs an overwrought Eugene to take the rest of the day off. Tonys personal disputes halted major construction projects on several occasions. Patsy himself almost took out Tony in the season 3 premiere, so you know his resentment ran deep. We dont get to watch the show anymore. The cause was lung . Fuckin internet. Matt: Yeah, hes checking out the scene in there for self-protection, but he does that everywhere he goes. But here's what really clinched it for me, what made me switch from "this is probably what happened" to "this is definitely what happened." I think Tony died at that moment is a valid interpretation. You might know this fact even if you havent watched the show thats just how maddening it was for many Sopranos fans. Matt: The point is, The Sopranos resisted all the usual gangster movie reflexes for seven seasons. Did Eugene kill himself so his family could move to Florida? Youre going out this way, but its gonna be good. But all that stuff exists outside the text, not in it. Did he really leave enough money in overseas accounts to take care of Carmela after his passing, or will she soon be taking Angie Bonpensieros old job passing out supermarket samples? Son on h but he had a daughter. Excerpt from The Sopranos Sessions by Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall published by Abrams Press; 2019 Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall. ' Funaro recalled. Chase lets the tension build and build and build including Members Only Guy walking past Tony and into the mens room so that well be primed for something awful to happen as Meadow sprints across Broad Street and into the restaurant. If the scenes about the fragility of life, and the omnipresent specter of death that leaves us all fumbling about for meaning in this cold, cruel world, why leave even a trace of ambiguity? It's very rarely discussed, but names are often significant, with probably the best example being Adriana La Cerva, "the doe." Eugene Pontecorvo The Sopranos really is about mental illness and the inherent hardships of the human condition, and Eugene Pontecorvo ( Robert Funaro) embodied the intersection between duty. Eugene subsequently becomes a made man in the following episode "Fortunate Son" along with Christopher Moltisanti. Because I really enjoyed acting in it because of that through-line. Richie Aprile. And the single most obvious thing to do in a gangster movie is to kill the main character out of reflex, or because the storytellers want to express that crime doesnt pay. Having just rewatched "Members Only," I'm completely convinced. But the scene can be about the idea of Tonys imminent demise without actually featuring it and, if were being stubbornly pedantic, it doesnt feature it. I think its also interesting if he dies, though thats a less disturbing ending to me, because its the standard gangster-story ending, and no matter how you read it, for reasons of genre history it always comes back to Dont do crime, kids.. Matt: Yes, but why does a preponderance of imagery related to death and decay mean that Tony had to be shot dead at that diner at that exact moment? This guy lives a charmed life. He and his traveling companions Abraham Ford and Rosita Espinosa were en route to Washington, D.C., before Eugene revealed that he had been lying about being a scientist due to being scared of surviving on his own. When Eugene asks "what about him (Little Paulie)? It wouldn't be the Enterprise.without a LaForge at the helm! Alan: Other than maybe the revelation that Big Pussy was an FBI cooperator a plot idea conceived in the shows embryonic stages, without Chase expecting anyone would care about him resolving it The Sopranos tended to keep its plot cards face up. Like Vito Spatafore and Benny Fazio, he is initially introduced as a small character, whose role slowly increases throughout the series. It's Pontecorvo, "crow bridge." That final scene is something he felt was correct, and that came out of his desire to subvert or amend the traditions of the gangster film, while perhaps coming to terms with the fact that he was unable to escape them. Richie was previously married and fathered a son, Richie Aprile Jr. Richie returned from prison to a very different family, with Tony Soprano as the boss, whom Richie . Later, Tony gets Phils location from FBI agent Harris (Matt Servitto). She tells Eugene that he should kill Tony in "Members Only." Or maybe nothing happened in that scene, but Tony went on being Tony and maybe died of heart disease or Alzheimers, which, given all that weve seen him go through, is a sadder outcome. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. Chase replayed the Bacala death line and laid down so much death imagery throughout the season and this episode, so we will understand that when the scene jarringly cuts to black, its because Tony has just died, either via a bullet from Members Only Guy or a coronary from one onion ring too many.
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