The Sopranos 5x12 Reaction
Comments (53)
Its impossible to know if Chris ever seriously considered running away with Adriana. What we do know is that any notion of doing so completely evaporated the moment he saw that destitute and miserable family at the gas station. Chris knew that he could never be happy with that sort of life.
Tony B did Boardwalk empire after this show its a gangster show as well on HBO
Heavy episode for sure but also wanted to mention that Drea (Adrianna) won an Emmy for her performance and during her speech she joked about wanting to simultaneously die, cry and throw up but that everyone already saw her do all of those things, just to add a little levity to this episode. I heavily agree that out of all the "Criminal" characters Adrianna was the most innocent and way too trusting of Chris who has literally given her no reason to trust him, it was so heartbreaking to watch this episode knowing full well what was going to happen.
I haven't even watched the reaction yet: I just wanted to say that you two are the ONLY people I've EVER seen who watched the sopranos properly. That actually understood the dynamics and what the show is saying with these characters. Most people (men) watch the show completely unironically.
Most men watch (and rewatch) the show understanding the dynamics but enjoying the black humour, like the mafia genre deserves.
Fun fact: Adriana didn’t actually die. She managed to escape and reunite with her brother, Joey, in LA who had just moved from New York where he had spent the past decade as a struggling actor and living with his Friends.
This and the next 2 eps is the best 3 episode run of the whole series.
*Very* tough to top 6x18 through 6x21
I might be alone but from this moment on my love for Christopher skyrocketed because he was no longer an abuser and just a victim to Tony, and the way he responds to this. I also blame Tony more for this happening. He groomed Christopher perfectly to make sure if anything like this happened he would choose Tony. Obviously he has a choice and can make it himself but I wouldn’t expect him to considering everything, so I can’t really be mad when he doesn’t.
he's a very love-hate character for me. his treatment of Adriana is horrible, and he's often not much better to other characters, but his arc throughout the whole show is one of my favourite character arcs in any media which leads me to definitely have a level of affection towards him.
sadly, this is one of the big spoilers of the sopranos i knew. i've actually know for like a decade because my college roommates and i binged watched those top 10 mojo videos and this scene came up in a few of those, if i remember correctly it ranks very high in the top 10 saddest deaths on a tv show. so since minute 1 i knew adriana died and for some reason i even remembered the details, so it's been hard watching for the first time knowing how her story ends 😔 i can't help to find silvio and paulie funny but at the same time they're some of my most hated characters. both are sociopaths and literally feel nothing when killing someone they supposedly care about. i hate most of these characters (as persons, they're great characters) but those two take the crown.
Back when Carmela met the Jewish psychiatrist, her price to stay in the marriage is $50,000. Now, her price is $600,000. The Emerald ring can only go bigger and bigger. "La Cerva" translates to "the doe" in Italian, so It's particularly interesting that her final moments depict her embodying her namesake by crawling on all fours. Her crawling also evokes childlike vulnerability, another symbol of innocence. Adriana was always associated with innocence in this show, so it's not surprising that people generally sympathize with her despite her lifestyle. All in all, I think Adriana's storyline in the show is about the dangers of tying your life and worth to abusive partners. They will not change, they will not be better, and you won't get your honeymoon with them. It's a tragically common story as I personally knew some women in real life who keeps coming back to their Christophers.
Tough episode to start a Monday with lmao. Great commentary, I think they nailed Chris' complexities, as well as how sociopathic Tony is knowing exactly what to say to manipulate Adriana. Even watching it's easy to think he's telling the truth at first. Chris is a very fatalistic character, like Tony he's resigned himself to this life. Adriana's death is definitely rough because of how trusting she is. Even the creators hated having to kill her. But there's a lesson that you do eventually have to harden yourself and make tough choices. Carmella's story was interesting to me on rewatch. In one episode the mob wives talk about Hillary Clinton, and how she stayed with Bill but 'set up her own little thing'. How she took a negative and made it positive. Carmella responds with 'that's true, she's a role model for all of us'. It's exactly what happens here. She sticks with Tony now that she feels like she has more control and can 'do her own thing'.
Trivia: They have Adriana's daydream of escaping in the car because they filmed two endings — one where she escapes and one where she is whacked — and it was kept secret until it aired to avoid spoilers. Even Drea de Matteo didn't know what Adriana's fate was. Another detail is that when Chris arrives late at the club, he tells Tony the "highway was jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive". This is a line from classic Bruce Springsteen song "Born To Run", which is sung from the point of view of a man and his woman wanting to make a break for it and get away from the crappy place they live, out onto the highway to find a new life.
When it cut from her driving off into the sunset to her being a passenger in Sil's car. I think that was the point she knew what was going on. I don't feel like there's much you can really do at that point. Grab the wheel maybe? What if there's a chance you're wrong and Chris did really go to hospital? I think she knew what was going to happen but didn't want to believe it. The sense of dread that whole scene was a lot
The point she knew what was going on was literally when she reacted, looked around, said no no no and tried to escape. She obviously was clueless before then.
In my opinion Chris was going along with the plan to flip right up until he saw that struggling father with his kids. Right then it just dawns on him that he's not going to be a successful writer.. he'd be destined for mediocrity. All he wants from life is a reputation, to feel important and the mob life is the only way he can maintain that facade. We can't know exactly when Adriannah knew that it was over. but my feeling is she knew while she was daydreaming about her alone in her car making a getaway. I think at that point she knew that Chris betrayed her and gave her up to Tony. Would explain why she's sobbing so uncontrollably by then. She's very gullible but even she knew by then I think.
completely agree with yall on the fuck the FBI train. They are like a gang/crime family in and of themselves. Definitely a parallel with The Wire
Honestly, Tony is even more repulsive on my second watch with you girls. Undoubtedly the complex and iconic character everyone thinks he is and I am fascinated by him but God is he hard to stomach
It's funny going back and rewatching your season 1 reactions to the sopranos, it's almost game of thrones level of being sweet summer children. You girls seem so joyful and now your prepared for the worst because of all the f'd up shit you've seen up to this point.
I’ve never seen a reactor more desperate to demonise a character than Milena with Christopher. Well deserved obviously. Throughout the discussion, it was a Christopher hate fest for her. You can almost see her wear down Lola through that 10 20 minute discussion on Chris and Adriana, Lola tries to add a balanced and fair take on it, she’s like nah fuck him he’s a disgrace. And every time Adriana is brought into the picture, “she was a saint”
I don't completely agree with your assesment, I think Milena did give credit where credit is due, but I did find hilarious how despite everything Lola still manages to act more angry and hateful towards Tony in this episode than towards Christopher. Christopher literally almost choked Ade to death and sold her out, yet somehow Tony crying is what really pisses her off lol.
"Long Term Parking" is a great title because beyond the reference to the parking spot, it's highlighting the long term elements of multiple things in the episode: Adriana's fate obviously but also where her soul is probably headed (camera going up at the end of her death scene) where Tony's soul is likely headed (final scene begins with same type of camera work as Adriana's, but going down instead), where Chris's soul is headed (directly spoken by him) and Tony and Carmela's marriage (where she chooses to double down on material things and simply asks him to be more discreet). Adriana's day dream of her driving alone on the highway and showing us different lanes and exit signs can be seen as an echo of the opening sequence of Tony driving along the highway and presumably driving past different exits and he always ends up at his house. A common through-line of the show is showing us chances for these people who escape or change and a lot of the times they walk right up the edge and then back down. Her death is more tragic because she had less agency. Chris chose not to get off this episode. And Tony has repeatedly ignored all signs to change or puts the bare minimum effort.
Nice parallel between Chris and Carmela making their decisions in this episode. Chris realises that leaving the mob would mean a dreary, boring, normal life, and gives up Ade. While Carmela can leave and divorce Tony if she wants to, she just can't take his money with her. She therefore would be choosing a "normal" life, which she doesn't want just as much as Chris doesn't want it, so they arranged a sit-down, and came up with a number, just like mob negotiations.
The cardinal mistake most people make is that they confuse naivety and stupidity for innocence, we afford that luxury to children, that’s not how it works for an adult in her late 20s.
It can be for an adult in her late 20s because when was she supposed to learn or know any better? Physical age is just physical age and you don't just magically gain perspective once you hit an arbitrary age. You have to be fortunate enough to go through the right experiences with your brain wired correctly (or in Tony's case, not be so poisoned by his upbringing) to develop properly from it. I said the same for Tony somewhere in early season 5 and I'd say the same for his kids when they grow up (Meadow is technically an adult already). We just assign more blame based on practical legality and arbitrary emotional feelings but the logic doesn't hold up from a moral or psychological standpoint.
This is a massively heavy episode, but Chris thinking that this situation would be a great opportunity to write his memoirs is too funny.
when is the next severance reaction coming out
Been wondering the same.
lol, thought I knew all the malapropisms on this show, never realized Tony produced another one with his pronunciation of Hermes as “Her-Mees”. Honestly didn’t know what he was referring to and just brushed it off, until seeing L&M laughing at his pronunciation. Learn something new every time
I've always said Her-mees, definitely heard others say it too. Not sure what to think now lmao
both Chris and Ade's actors won an Emmy for this episode, 100% deserved imo. Michael Imperioli's acting during the scene in which Ade confesses is some of my favourite acting in any tv show or movie, period
That scene was heavily inspired (imo) by two other great scenes from Goodfellas and Godfather II, and it honestly holds up compared to them.
Drea De Matteo (Adriana) and Michael Imperioli (Christopher) both won an Emmy for this episode. Amazing performances by both of them.
Well melt it down man. Look, I told you $15!
I know they're angry at how the FBI treated Adrianna but they have to understand that the FBI's job isn't to save her, their job is to take down the mob. From their POV Adriana is part of that world and that makes her an accessory, sure she might be a sweet and caring person but she's still involved in illegal activities. I liked Adrianna too but let's not pretend like she didn't choose this life. You reap what you sow and there are consequences for being a part of that world. Personally, I don't have a problem with law enforcement using dirty tactics to take down these criminals, same as I didn't have a problem with them doing so in The Wire. Sometimes you have to get dirty if you want to clean up the trash.
Adriana did not have the same level of self-reflection as Carmela or Meadow. She also is a different type of informant than say, Pussy or Ray in that she isn't actually part of the mob and has murdered people. So I think (and pretty most of the writers and David Chase) still views her as drastically different than all of the other characters. I wouldn't be as comfortable saying that she reaped what she sowed as much as Tony or Christopher or even Carmela. She's just too naive and clueless. And yeah the FBI's job isn't to save her, and she wasn't valuable to them if she can't turn Chris. But they were more callous and spiteful than they needed to be.
Ooooooooh this episode is such a heavy hit. People argue to this day why -- exactly -- Chris chose to inform Tony instead of accepting the offer of testifying for the FBI. He really does resent Tony at this point, and he hates almost everybody else he works with, so why not throw it all in? You both actually touched on the two most commonly proposed ideas: That he saw how miserable the family was and didn't want to have that miserable 'normal' life, or that he realized he still wants kids and can't have them with Adriana. I can't say which one is true. This is one area without one definite answer, it's all open for interpretation. Adriana was daydreaming about running away on her own as Silvio was driving her to her execution. The highway she pictured herself driving on is one that leads out of NJ without any stops. So she saw that she had an opportunity to get away....but she didn't see it until she was already in the car with Silvio. And by then it was already too late. A "spec house" specifically is a house that is built fully by a construction company as ready-to-sell before they begin looking for a buyer. So this is Carmela trying to jump-start running a real estate and home selling business.
Regarding the two possibilities for why Chris betrayed Ade: Personally I don't think there's much ambiguity to it, and that the correct reading of the scene is that Chris saw the unbearable dreary ordinariness of the family as his future and he couldn't walk away from the mob. The "not having children" thing was basically put to rest in s4 when it is brought up but then Chris comes to peace with it, and doesn't feature as an issue in s5 (and besides it's only a possibility she would have trouble conceiving, not that she literally can't have children). If that was an issue for him and he was concerned about a future without children, then he would have just dumped her at any time. Besides, if that was how the scene was intended, the family would have been a happy, good looking middle class family which he would see as a desirable life. The parents in the scene are obviously cast as ugly doppelgangers of Chris and Ade, and Chris clearly focuses on the man and relates to him and his unhappiness in his poor, ordinary, family life, being pestered by the kids. I think it's a pretty straightforward reading of the scene that Chris was afraid that he *would* have that guy's life, not that he *wouldn't* have that guy's life. Since the beginning of the show, we've seen the Chris wants to be a notorious gangster and has Hollywood dreams, and explicitly says to Tony that the 'regularness' of life is something he can't handle. When Chris sees that family, he sees that if he runs away with Adriana, he will have to live out his life as Joe Schmo, working some crappy job. No thanks.
Chris was actually going to leave with her. The family he saw changed his mind because they were poor and practically living out of their car, and looked miserable. He was scared that this would end up being his life if he went on the run with her.
I disagree. No matter what, he was going to see something that would change his mind; he couldn’t leave the mob life behind.
The after the episode discussion followed almost exactly my train of thought after seeing the episode for the first time. I watched this live when it aired, and my wife and I had almost the same exact conversation. What an episode.
David Chase, the creator of the show, said that Adriana is the only "innocent" character, in the sense that pretty much every other character that dies in the series deserves it at least a little bit, but Adriana didn't deserve her faith in the slightest. She genuinely was a sweet woman that got caught in the crossfire due to the life her boyfriend chose. She was unlucky, and her only sin was being dumb and naive. I think that's also in part why Tony seems so affected by her death in the ending of the episode (originally the shot of the woods would pan out directly from the scene in which Ade gets killed to the last scene with Tony and Carmella, which would've been good to make it clear he was thinking about her). With any other character he has killed or ordered to kill he can rationalize it as them being part of the life and accepting the stakes, but that was not the case with Adriana, she was an innocent civilian killed strictly to cover their own asses, despite her being dear to him and the rest of the crew.
The girl that Ralphie killed was also 100% innocent. She did nothing to deserve her fate.
i'll see you up there. Last word Tony said to Adrianna, Tony stil thinking he's going to heaven.
Yup, and the camera work undermines this too. At the end of the scene where Adrianna was shot, the POV of the camera moves up. And in the final scene when we see Tony and Carmela at the spec house, it starts from the top of the trees and moves downward.
Always hated this episode. So good, and so exhausting. Made me want to take a break from the show when I first watched it.
My favorite episode of the show.
Oh man I’ve waited for this. Poor Adriana
any idea when you’re dropping severance?
Man.. I’m not reading for this show to end. I don’t know if the girls will put a poll after this show or they already decided but whoever show is next has some big shoes to fill.
What an episode. What a character. What an actress!
Immediately clicked I haven’t been this excited for a post episode discussion ever