As The Sopranos starts to wind down – and seems like it will never reach the eventual conclusion – at least we’re starting to see some death again. In this case, Christopher is the one who finds a brutal end, but in a bizarre turn of events, it’s only partially due to brutality from another person.
As Chris is driving Tony – and perhaps most importantly, Chris is distracted by just about everything, including the fact that he’s bonkers on whatever is going through his system at the time – he looses control of the truck, sending it off the road and careening into a Talladega-worthy crash. But that’s only the beginning.
Since Tony was wearing his seat belt, he doesn’t even get a scratch (at least nothing noticeable), while Chris is messed up badly, but that’s nothing when he asks Tony for a hand. He suggests that Tony help him out so he doesn’t fail a drug test. Lucky for him, Tony does. He suffocates Chris. Guess that’s one way to beat a drug test, but I’m not sure if it’s really a good one.
At the wake, there’s a good turnout – better in fact than there is for the wake held for Paulie and his aunt – mother – sister – daughter – whatever, a fact that he takes very personally. But then, Paulie takes just about everything personally, so it’s really not much of an issue to anyone but him.
In an effort to avoid any issues that might arise from Chris, Paulie or even his son AJ, Tony heads to – where else? – Las Vegas. Once there, he meets with, sleep with and do peyote with an old flame of Chris’. He also proceeds to bet wildly on the roulette wheel, doing pretty well before collapsing in a heap of uncontrollable laughter when he realizes that Chris is really gone.
I still think the best ending for the series is for Tony to wake up one day and realize he’s imagined it all.
