why did eugene kill himself sopranos

Numerous clues in this episode foreshadow Tony Soprano's death: In the episode, Eugene Pontecorvo commits suicide after Tony refuses to let him "retire" from mob life and move with his family to Florida after receiving a $2 million dollar inheritance. A celebration of life will be held in Redwood City on Wednesday for Pete Liebengood, a longtime Bay Area sportscaster, anchor and author who died in Redwood City on Dec. 22. And I would argue that, if the main takeaway from that scene is, Oh, they shot him, then either the show has failed and suddenly decided to give up and be a typical gangster story in its final four minutes, or theres something else happening here. And the matter of whether Ralphie was responsible for the fire. Hey Bobby, you know youre getting a son? Hey, this is f*cking great. I know now, and I dont have to worry about this anymore.. 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. Maybe the ending is moralistic, but not in the way that some of the people who need Tony to be dead might frame it. Every other major boss on the show, from Johnny Sack to Phil Leotardo ( Frank Vincent . Because, while youre right to point out how Chase and company have very deliberately put us in a death-obsessed frame of mind during this final run, during the preceding seasons he showed us time and time again that he was never interested in doing the obvious thing. Eugene then tells the juror not to bother paying, as he then pays for the man's small purchase. Raymond is also an FBI informant throughout almost the entire series. There's now peace and Tony will be eager to work with him. Are you gonna be like him?. And if it helps to move the discussion beyond the question of whether hes dead or alive, Ill just say, Fine, hes dead. And now what? Little Carmine was the rightful boss of the Lupertazzi family but was outstead by Johnny Sacromoni and then Phil Leotardo. As writer Terence Winter told Entertainment Weekly , "At the beginning of season 5, we realized it would happen at the end of the season. Gianluigi ''Gigi'' Cestone portrayed by John Fiore is a member of the DiMeo crime family and former soldier in Junior's Crew, until his defection to the Soprano Crew in 1999. While Junior cowers in a closet upstairs, Tony manages to dial 911 before passing out. How do we choose to live it? Whats more in character for The Sopranos, to kill a magically charmed character in the final scene, or to refuse to do so? Plus, that last stretch of 21 episodes does have a persistent chill, visually and plot-wise a series of deaths and declines, with a lot of the color bleached out. Matt: Yeah, hes checking out the scene in there for self-protection, but he does that everywhere he goes. (Tony had Patsys brother killed in season 2.) At Chris's behest, he then kills a debtor; in return, Chris says, "I'll put in a good word to T about the Florida thing." 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. Or if we cant discern that, what is this ending trying to make us think about? Why cut to black on that shot of Tonys uninflected face, as opposed to a glimpse of Members Only Guy raising a pistol, or even Tony looking distressed as his body deals with a gunshot, a coronary, a stroke (like the one that killed Livia), or some other cause of sudden death? 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 our I've also seen it suggested that Eugene's wife ordered Tony's murder. And, other than a couple of ugly fights, he has been getting along much better with Carmela since she took him back than he ever did during the first six seasons of the show. Eugene Pontecorvo also appears in a flashback to 1995 in the episode "To Save Us All From Satan's Power" as a bodyguard of Junior Soprano's, along with Gigi Cestone. RELATED: Matt: You mean does it matter if Chase knows what happened? 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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Teddy Spirodakis: Killed at a diner by Eugene on orders from. Eugene then walks out calmly. First, I started hearing rumors. 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. Does he sweat and strain rebuilding the Family after the damage Phil inflicted upon it? So it felt better to go with Tony died. It was An Answer, in a way that Tony lives never entirely felt like one to me, and when Chase wrote that article about the scene for DGA Quarterly, and talked about the fragility of our mortal existence, I was able to smile and say, Aha! Uncle Junior's mind is deteriorating. What is this ending saying? Obviously he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Patsy himself almost took out Tony in the season 3 premiere, so you know his resentment ran deep. But now I'm getting into speculation, and Eugene's brother killing Tony isn't speculation. But Meadow is marrying into the extended Family by getting engaged to Patrick Parisi and becoming a lawyer two things Tony never wanted for her and AJ recently survived a suicide and is so lacking in direction that this low-level job working for Little Carmine feels like a salvation. 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. Gandolfinis playing it as Tony enjoying a peaceful night out with Carmela and the kids, up to and including that final look on his face in between when the bell rings and the screen goes black. Obviously I'm very very far from the first person to have noticed this connection, which is why I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk of a direct, rather than just a symbolic, connection to Eugene. Does Tonys death alter the career plans of either kid? The Sopranos: The Al Green Song David Chase Considered Instead of Dont Stop Believin in the Finale. I dont believe its necessary to establish that to discuss the ending of the show, nor do I think the evidence necessarily points to that. The show absolutely dabbled in the supernatural throughout, from Paulie being haunted by Mikey Palmice, to Tony dreaming something that Tony B was actually doing, to whatever and wherever Kevin Finnerty was. He begins developing serious stress with his home life due to his wife pushing him to talk Tony into their retiring to Florida with the money and also his son's incessant drug-use. Does Paulie freaking Walnuts somehow become boss of the Family, or does Butchie throw up his hands at this point and decide to put his own guy in charge of the gang that couldnt shoot straight? Crows are a symbol of death, and have appeared as such on the show, during the ceremony when Christopher and Eugene are made. Alan: I spent many years after the finale as a card-carrying, vocal member of Team Tony Lives. Carmela repeatedly asks Tony to see if he can get the stop order lifted, but he keeps putting it off. I think you could make a better case for Tony Dies if you assume hes dead before this scene even starts. Privacy Policy. Alan: Yeah, I would say the circumstantial evidence of death in the scene is overwhelming. Yeah, I was thinking that, too that despite the hours weve spent talking to Chase about the ending, I dont think its necessarily been explained in any meaningful sense, in terms of what happened next, and I get the impression that Chase cant really explain it either. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. And the Russian. I know this is a minority reaction, but I like being baffled or challenged or frustrated by art. Gene Killing himself It makes it so much harder watching that after the scene where he finds out his son his using heroin. 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 . From there, his character continued growing in prominence. Son on h but he had a daughter. The Sopranos abruptly cut to black at the end of the series finale. But at the. 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. In 2007, he killed himself after both his boss Tony Soprano and his FBI handlers refused to let him retire to Florida . Richie Aprile. And does that matter? The way the ending teases audiences by seeming very definite while denying us answers and closure makes it the ultimate Sopranos moment. ", Vito responds with "What? Alan: Right. Professionally, he has just survived a war with New York has, in fact, enough juice that he was able to kill a rival boss with the tacit approval of Phils successor but his organization is in a shambles. Alan: Let me ask you this, then: If, during one of our many conversations with Chase, he had invited us to lean in close, and whispered, Guys, Tonys dead, how would that change your feelings about the ending? With Barry on the loose, all Gene, Fuches, Hank, and Sally can do is crumble as they wait to see who hes coming for first. He is either an enormous success or a pitiful failure. my husband defends his sister over me anime characters born in july 31 did coco die in sopranos anime characters born in july 31 did coco die in sopranos This leads me to believe that a relative of Eugenes, The Man In The Members Only Jacket is the one who killed Tony out of an act of revenge for Eugenes suicide. All rights reserved. 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." The bulk of the episode is devoted to Eugene Pontecorvo, previously a very minor character who appears infrequently and barely ever has any lines. I think were supposed to be thinking about death, or the finiteness of life, during that last scene, but not necessarily that Tony died right then and there, and thats the end of the story. But the very fact that Chase devotes so much time to what seems like nothing makes the whole scene all the more nerve-racking. To put it another way: Chase was saying that Tony didnt reform and die peacefully in bed decades later. With this in mind, I looked up the meaning of Pontecorvo. Why did he choose that place to kill himself? The jacket possibly signifies his affiliation to a special gang. I like having to make a case for a particular interpretation or just throw my hands up. Follow the Clonestar's Socials Follow Ashlei on Twitter and Insta Intro music courtesy of bensounds.com Good for them (and us!). That's traditionally the episode that sets up everything that happens throughout the season. The Austrian physicist Erwin Schrdinger famously theorized that if you place a cat into a box with some kind of hazardous material, the cat may live or die, but until you actually open the box to check, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive. I couldn't find much of anything. In a single close-up, we can see that the man strongly physically resembles Eugene. Eugene Pontecorvo (1959-2006) was a DiMeo crime family soldier and FBI informant. Matt: There was a moment a few years ago when a journalist reported that Chase told her Tony lived, and he got mad at that as mad as hes gotten at all the people who keep saying Tony died. Though he was present and had lines in the episode He is Risen (S03E08), actor Robert Funaro is not credited at the end of the episode. On The Sopranos, they didn't know Vito Spatafore was gay when he was made, and when they found out, they killed him, which is the expected reaction when it comes to homosexuals in the mob. But he always manages to avoid going there. Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, youll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. ". Matt: An important distinction. Except the longer you and I talked about it, both on our own and with Chase, the less substantial that idea felt, too, until by the end, I wasnt entirely sure that even Chase knows if the guys dead or alive. Butchie gave Tony permission to kill Phil. Funaro, who has worked more in theater than on the screen, really saw on opportunity with his big episode, Members Only. While hed felt more satisfied with theater work to that point, the chance to complete his characters arc appealed to him. 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. No. That coffinlike image isnt the first major allusion to death of the final season, nor the last of Made in America alone. This guy lives a charmed life. Though Funaro had the occasional moment on an episode, his first big scene came when he smashed Little Paulie with a bottle at the construction site. -All 92 deaths analyzed, evaluated, and . And thats even before we get to Holstens, a scene shot and edited unlike anything else in the history of this show. Flash forward to the end of the season. willie boy johnson wife. The final scene of The Sopranos raises a spiritual question that has no right or wrong answer. I think the most important two words in those two sentences are spiritual question. And if we fixate on anything other than that, were missing the point. In short, the New York families would have been fed up with Tonys behavior to that point. Whos Going to the Met Gala Dressed as Karl Lagerfelds Cat? Tony helps him look for some money he thinks he buried in his backyard thirty years ago, but they find nothing. Meadow runs to the door, the bell rings, Tony looks up, and nothin. 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. Because it wouldve meant that he did the most obvious thing and then tried to hide it by making it seem as if he was creating an ambiguous or art-house type of ending. In Season Six's premiere episode "Members Only", Eugene inherited 2 million dollars from his deceased aunt. And he has Phil killed. The Sopranos was so deliciously bold, fresh, funny, complex and authentic that, for me, it rendered most other dramas on television unwatchable. Off the Back of a Truck includes: -New looks at everyone's favorite episodes, scenes, and characters. To have that storyline, I jumped on it and tried to ride it as best I could.. 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. La La Anthony, Chloe Fineman Will Play Fashion Correspondents at Met Gala 2023. I know it happened. Excerpt from The Sopranos Sessions by Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall published by Abrams Press; 2019 Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall. 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. Or it could be, as I wrote in my original recap hours after the finale aired, that the character who died there was us, the spectator. You might know this fact even if you havent watched the show thats just how maddening it was for many Sopranos fans. In fact, his debut is the same episode where Livia dies, and if I wanted to get really conspiratorial, I might suggest that he was introduced specifically because Nancy Marchand had died in real life between Seasons 2 and 3, and the original plan was for Livia to have been instrumental in Tony's death somehow. To paraphrase one of the Four Questions from the Passover seder, on all other nights we dont watch Meadow attempt to parallel park even once; why on this night do we watch her attempt to parallel park over and over again? Matt: All right, let me back up for a second and say that at no point during my now ten-plus years of arguing about the meaning of this scene have I said that Tony died is an inconceivable or unacceptable interpretation. In 2007, he killed himself after both his boss Tony Soprano and his FBI handlers refused to let him retire to Florida. By 20 March 2023 benjamin moore to behr paint conversion. He simply gives Vito a death stare. So was it in part to free them? Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! 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. Why did he choose that place to kill himself? Because its taking the question of whether Tony lived or died off the table. And the scenes he got to do for Eugenes death helped. Later, Tony gets Phils location from FBI agent Harris (Matt Servitto). Alan: Made in America opens on Tony asleep in the safe house.

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