Sopranos Finale: Peace on Earth

SPOILERS BELOW

The last ten minutes of the season finale of THE SOPRANOS were some of the most captivating, edge-of-my-seat moments since....well since Picard got all Borgified. I was a bundle of nerves, expecting the big whack to come any minute.

Every time Christopher was on screen, the pace of the episode slowed to a crawl but in a good way. An intense, 'holy crap they're about to whack Christopher' sort of crawl.

And then, nothing.

And then back to Chris and another long, gut-wrenching scene with undertones of promised violence so intense it distracted from the dialogue.

And still, nothing.

Then, the family gathers for a perfect little XMAS. Everyone's there (except for Adrianna) and again the moment was too happy, too perfect not to be destroyed by the threat of imminent violence about to be unleashed on this family. How could a peaceful moment be allowed to go unchallenged in this world? Holy cow, they're gonna blow up Tony's house with everyone in it! The tension is killing me!

And nothing.

There are a lot of fanboys out there who are thoroughly disgusted with this episode, and the entire season for that matter. I am not one of them. Just like LOST, I'm along for the ride. (That's another post entirely) I'm enjoying Tony's attempts to treat every day as a gift - and how his life is faighting back against that choice. In fact, at one point I thought Tony might be considering buying Tony Sack's interest in that New Orleans shipping concern just to relocate and get away from Jersey and all the baggage that comes with it.

But not so.

So what did we see last night? A happy ending that will be stretched into 8 more episodes? A series limping past it's prime? I don't think so. My guess is last night was Camelot. For one brief shining moment, happiness. A room filled with gifts - just like every day in the rest of Tony's life.

In January, the bills are going to come due and there's going to be hell to pay.