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Made in America (The Sopranos)

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"Made in America" is the 86th and final episode of the HBO original series, The Sopranos. It is the ninth episode of the second half of the show's sixth season. The episode was written and directed by the series creator David Chase, marking the first time Chase has directed an episode since the series premiere. It first aired on Sunday June 10, 2007.

"Made in America (The Sopranos)"

Episode summary

The episode opens with Tony waking up in the bed of the safehouse. The core members of the crew are there, and have been for some period of time, and a cat has taken to living with the crew. In the next scene, Tony has a meeting, offering Agent Dwight Harris the name of the bank used by the two Arabs who frequented the Bada Bing. Tony asks Harris if he knows the ___location of Phil, Agent Harris warns Tony not to overreach. AJ is then shown developing his relationship with Rhiannon.

Tony has a sitdown with the members of the New York family, except for Phil Leotardo. The New York family members (Butch DeConcini and Albie Cianflone) agree to stop pursuing the war and make reparations for killing Bobby, but won't do anything about Phil (but tell Tony he can "do what you have to do"). Tony comes out of hiding and his family returns to their North Caldwell home. Agent Harris then notifies Tony that calls allegedly made by Leotardo are coming from a payphone in Oyster Bay, New York. Tony's crew sets out to look for gas stations containing payphones.

Phil is shown getting out of his SUV at a gas station, and says goodbye to his wife and grandchildren. Walden Belfiore shoots and kills him as he stands by the passenger side window. His wife Patty then runs out of her Ford Expedition screaming, and the car is left in drive with her two grandchildren inside. The car crawls forward, rolling over and crushing Phil's head, causing an onlooker to vomit, but is brought to a stop by an onlooker who reaches inside the vehicle. After hearing that Phil had been killed, Agent Dwight Harris yelled, "We're gonna win this thing!".

At the dinner after Bobby's funeral, A.J. announces his disaffection with the American Dream and the government's war on terror to the people at his table, but most of them express disinterest or confusion. He decides that joining the Army is his only recourse to contribute to fixing things, but both his parents and his girlfriend Rhiannon are against this. Ultimately, his parents distract him from his Army ambitions by getting him involved in producing a movie with Carmine Jr's production company, and supplying him with a new BMW M3 to replace his Nissan Xterra, which burned to a crisp after he injudiciously parked it in some dry leaves while listening to Bob Dylan and making out with Rhiannon.

Meadow plans a wedding with Patrick Parisi. Tony visits Silvio, who remains in a coma. Uncle Junior is visited in the state mental hospital by Janice, trying to figure out where he has hidden his stash of cash, but his dementia is so far advanced that he doesn't recognize anyone. He thinks Janice is Livia, and that Janice's daughter Domenica is Janice. When she tells him that Bobby is dead, he answers "yeah, Ambassador Hotel," a connection between the name "Bobby" and the ___location of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination. Tony finally goes to visit him, but he doesn't know who he is, or that he shot Tony. He looks confusedly at Tony, who tells Junior that he and his father used to run North Jersey. Junior simply replies, "That's nice."

Tony's lawyer Neil Mink suggests that his capo, Carlo Gervasi, will be testifying to a grand jury and that Tony stands to be indicted. Tony offers the leadership of the Aprile crew to Paulie. Paulie, unsettled by a stray cat that keeps staring at a picture of Chris in the backroom of Satriale's, also feels superstitious about the apparent curse that has struck the leaders of that crew. After he turns down the offer, Tony says that he will offer the position to Patsy Parisi, which drives Paulie to accept the promotion.

At the end of the episode, Tony is meeting his family at a restaurant in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He selects Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" from the table-side jukebox. Various people enter and Tony looks at each of them. Carmela and then A.J. arrive. Meadow is late and has difficulty parallel parking outside. A man walks in and orders coffee at the counter. He seems to look in Tony's direction and walks towards him, going past to the restroom. Tony, Carmela, and A.J. each pop an onion ring in their mouths and finally, Meadow parks and rushes across the street, approaching the door. Tony hears the bell on the door ring and glances up. The screen then abruptly cuts to black. After several seconds, the credits roll in silence.

Final scene interpretation

The ending is said to offer no closure or catharsis for viewers.[1] A major point of contention among fans lies in the fate of Tony Soprano in the episode's final moments.[2] Some interpret is that he is killed while others believe that he remains living,[2] pointing out to an earlier conversation that he has with his brother-in-law Bobby several episodes early in which Tony comments about how suddenly and without sound, death can happen in their profession as gangsters.[citation needed]

Guest starring

Deceased

See List of deaths in The Sopranos series.

Title reference

  • On the promotional poster for The Sopranos final episodes, the tagline is "Made in America".
  • As Tony's crew is looking for gas stations with pay phones, the screen focuses on the flags of the U.S. displayed at each station.
  • Various American-made products are visible in the episode. For instance, Phil Leotardo drives, and is later run over by, a Ford Expedition.
  • During the final scene in the restaurant there are a variety of people from different lifestyles, all "Made in America".
  • When the show was originally pitched for the Fox Network, the tentative title was Made in Jersey.
  • There are various references to Little Italy, Chinatown, American Idol, and other places and things that are distinctly American.
  • One of the patrons of the diner in the final scene is wearing a "U.S.A." baseball cap.
  • At the funeral reception, A.J. bemoans his complaints with the American Dream.

References to prior episodes

  • A.J. quotes "what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" from Yeats' poem "The Second Coming", which he first read in the episode of the same name.
  • Also, A.J.'s mispronunciation of Yeats' name as "Yeets" recalls A.J.'s earlier mispronunciation of Nietzche as "Nitsch."
  • Paulie reveals to Tony that he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in the Bada Bing, as shown in "The Ride".
  • The shirt Tony wears in the diner in the final scene is similar to the shirt he wore in the series pilot, as well as the shirt he wore when he was shot by Junior in "Members Only".
  • Paulie quotes many happenings in various episodes such as "The Knight in White Satin Armor", "Whoever Did This", and "Cold Stones" where captains of the Aprile Crew died.
  • While raking the leaves, Tony hears the sounds of the family of ducks flying overhead. The ducks were the catalyst for Tony's anxiety attack in the pilot episode.
  • In the final scene, A.J. mentions to Tony that he once told the family to "focus on the good times". This happened in "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", at Vesuvio, where the family had gone for dinner during a rainstorm.

References to other media

  • Tony is seen eating an orange when he goes to visit his family at Carmela's beach house. This is a reference to The Godfather in which an orange is often seen before a murder is about to take place. Tony's orange foreshadows Phil Leotardo's death at the gas station.[3]
  • After hearing that Phil Leotardo had been killed, Agent Dwight Harris yelled, "We're gonna win this thing!" which is a reference to former FBI supervisor, R. Lindley DeVecchio, who said the same thing when he was told Lorenzo "Larry" Lampasi, had been shot to death in front of his Brooklyn home.[4]
  • In the scene where Tony catches up to A.J. jogging, Tony sings "Gonna Fly Now", the theme song from the film Rocky, since A.J. was wearing a similar jogging suit and sweating.
  • Tony's lawyer's attempts to coax ketchup out of the bottle recalls the Heinz ad featuring the song "Anticipation"—a feeling well-known to Sopranos fans. The lawyer never gets his ketchup, and has to eat his burger dry. Critic Jim Emerson notes that this foreshadows the episode's ending.[5]
  • In the final scene in the restaurant, a man in a Member's Only jacket who goes to the bathroom, which some fans have interpreted as a nod to the scene in "The Godfather" in which Michael Corleone retrieves a gun from the bathroom before a shooting.[6] Interestingly enough, a Member's Only jacket was the chief article of clothing for Eugene Pontecorvo, a Soprano soldier who committed suicide when Tony refused to allow him to retire and the FBI was pushing him to step up his informant activities.

Production

  • The ending of this episode was filmed in Holsten's Brookdale Confectionery, an Ice Cream and Candy shop located in Bloomfield, New Jersey.[7] When A.J. comments about the onion rings, Tony makes a reference that they are the "best in the state", as far as he is concerned. Ironically, Holsten's does not list onion rings as an item on its menu. There are also no jukeboxes at the tables, nor is there a blue neon sign on the awning; however, everything else in the restaurant is identical to how it appears in real life.

References

  1. ^ Moore, Frazier (June 11, 2007). "No Easy Ending for 'The Sopranos'". Associated Press. {{cite news}}: Text "June 11, 2007" ignored (help); Text "accessdate" ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b Fans still fuming over 'Sopranos' finale amny.com. Retrieved on June 12 2007.
  3. ^ The Godfather, what's with all the oranges?
  4. ^ Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires, Page 341.
  5. ^ Jim Emerson, The Sopranos: Eighty-Sixed
  6. ^ Associated Press, Sopranos Creator: Movie No Sure Thing
  7. ^ Moss, Linda (June 10, 2007). "The Sopranos Ends in an Ice Cream Parlor". Multichannel News. {{cite news}}: Text "June 11, 2007" ignored (help); Text "accessdate" ignored (help)
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