"Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this."
This is a fitting, perfect and superlative finale- almost. It wraps everything up nicely (except for Pussy's whereabouts) in terms both of plot and character arcs, It a supremely well structured, written, shot and acted hour of telly. But there's one horrifying moment of bigotry that seriously maims this finale. And that's a shame.
We begin with a calm, cheerful, reinvigorated Tony plotting is revenge while the Feds are planning to strike- and the season finale is a likely time for them to do so. And then a lot of things happen.
The first to die is Jimmy, the rat- his death ordered by Tony after Junior gives the nod. Meanwhile Tony is scarily violent towards Dr Melfi when she suggests his mother may be behind the attempt on his life as punishment for putting her in a home, seemingly severing that relationship forever- only to be played a tape by the FBI which proves Dr Melfi right by doubt. Their later reconciliation is, though seemingly unlikely, both convincing and touching- here is one woman whom Tony seriously respects.
One relationship that is certainly severed is between Carmela and Father Phil, whom she confronts magnificently. She says that he manipulates "spiritually thirsty women", that he's a parasite who enjoys "the whiff of sexuality that never goes anyplace". Ouch. Whether any of this may be aimed at religion in general is not something I will be touching with a bargepole anytime soon.
Junior's two main underlings are killed by Tony's underlings, after he tells them of his seeing a shrink- and cleverly uses that to tie them to him. Junior escapes only by being arrested and charged- and, with his old school valus of Omerta, Tony is ironically now safe, and secure as boss. We end with a nice moment as Tony proposes a toast to his "family"- but which one?
Splendid telly, then. Except... it's suggested, probably accurately, that Livia may have borderline personality disorder. Fair enough, and more than plausible. But let's say I've been close to someone with BPD, and when Dr Melfi is made to say that "these people have no love or compassion".... wow. I'm speechless. Let's just say that I have a more nuanced view. This is a truly shocking thing to hear, it mars the episode severely, and it may be some time before I watch the second series.
A shame. There's no denying the quality here.
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