The sixth and final season of the HBO drama series The Sopranos began on March 12, 2006, and concluded on June 10, 2007. The season consists of 21 episodes split into two parts; the first 12 episodes began airing on March 12, 2006, and ended on June 4, 2006, and the final 9 episodes began airing on April 8, 2007, with the series finale airing on June 10, 2007. The season was initially meant to consist of twenty episodes, but creator David Chase asked for one more to properly round out the story. The first part was released on DVD in region 1 on November 7, 2006,[1] and on Blu-ray on December 19, 2006.[2] The second part was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 23, 2007.[3]
The first part of the season focuses on the possibility of redemption as various members of the New Jersey crime family are offered chances to change their behavior, especially mob boss Tony Soprano, who confronts a spiritual awakening following a near-death experience. The second part focuses on the Soprano crime family suffering through the consequences of their actions as they come into conflict with their New York enemies.
Ratings and critical reception were both strong during the sixth season of The Sopranos, but the ending was controversial. The Sopranos won Outstanding Drama Series at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards for the second part of season six.
Sixteen months later, a DiMeomade man and FBI informant, Eugene Pontecorvo, tries to get permission from either Tony or the FBI to retire to Florida with his family, but he is denied. With his relationship with his family fraying, he commits suicide. Carmela'sspec house has a stop order placed on it because of shoddy wood used by her father. Hesh Rabkin's son-in-law is brutalized by Lupertazzi men. Unable to get in contact with Phil, the acting boss, Tony is forced to go through an imprisoned Johnny to secure a meeting, where Phil agrees to pay the man. As Junior continues to deteriorate, Melfi recommends he be put in a nursing home, but Tony, feeling guilt over doing the same thing to Livia, refuses. With Janice refusing to take care of Junior, Tony goes to his house, where a confused Junior shoots him in the stomach. Tony manages to dial 911 before passing out.
Tony awakens with a different accent in a hotel room in California, where he notices a light flashing out in the distance. He realizes he has the belongings of a salesman named "Kevin Finnerty", who looks exactly like him. While looking for his items, Tony has dinner with a group and alludes to having a midlife crisis. As a woman from the group refuses to have sex with him because he is married, a helicopter spotlight hovers over them. Tony, actually in an induced coma after surviving being shot, rips out his breathing tube and has to be put back under. A.J. initially avoids Tony's hospital room but eventually gathers the courage to see him, vowing to kill Junior in revenge. He inadvertently disparages his family while talking to a reporter. Back in California, Tony is attacked by a pair of bhikkhus who believe he is Finnerty, and later falls down a flight of stairs. His MRI shows that he is undergoing the early stages of Alzheimer's. Tony returns to his hotel room and picks up the phone, but puts it down instead of dialing and stares at the flashing light.
Paulie kills two drug dealers and takes a massive score from them, but Silvio, the acting boss, divides it between the crew in a way that frustrates them. Carmela tells A.J. that he is a burden after discovering what he said to the reporter, and admits to Melfi that while she does not feel guilt over Tony's work anymore, she does for mothering children with a criminal. Chris's interest in the movie industry resurfaces and he forces J.T. Dolan to write a mob-slasher film in exchange for paying off his debt. They pitch it to Little Carmine, and Dolan titles it "Cleaver". As Tony goes into cardiac arrest, he travels to a family reunion he discovered a flyer for in Finnerty's briefcase. He is stopped at the door by a man identical to Blundetto, who promises him he is "going home" but has to let go of his "business" as a shadowy female figure watches them. Meadow's voice calls to Tony and he wakes up, forcing Paulie and Vito, who have been delaying their payments in case he did not survive, to give them to Carmela. Chris excitedly tells Tony about Cleaver, only to notice an Ojibwe saying taped to the wall: "Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while, a great wind carries me across the sky."
A recovering Tony befriends two other patients, a rapper and a physicist. He admits to the physicist that while in the coma, he realized that everyone is part of "something bigger." As he is being discharged, a paramedic he accused of stealing from him en route to the hospital tries to pay him back, but Tony waives his debt. Outside for the first time since the shooting, he declares that "from now on, every day is a gift." Bobby overhears a friend of the rapper wishing for similar notoriety and agrees to shoot him non-fatally for cash. Paulie is horrified to learn from his dying nun aunt that she is actually his mother, having had an affair with a soldier that resulted in his birth. He skips her funeral and informs Nucci Gualtieri, actually his aunt, that he will no longer be providing for her, despite Tony reminding him that she loved him as her son. After the man who ran Tony and Johnny's legitimate sanitation business dies, his son plans to sell the company. Tony settles a price for his share with Phil and allows it to be sold, but Paulie privately attacks the son and orders him to give him a monthly payment that will cover Nucci's retirement bills.
Johnny is granted temporary release to attend his daughter's wedding, where he asks Tony to kill a Lupertazzi capo that may cause another power struggle. Johnny is escorted away from the venue before he can see the full ceremony, and he cries in front of the guests, leading Phil to voice his distaste for his supposed loss of masculinity. Junior is transferred to a private psychiatric facility as he awaits trial for the shooting. Vito is spotted by Lupertazzi men in a gay club and he goes into hiding. As Tony refuses to talk to Melfi about Junior trying to kill him again, he notes that his men are giving him "certain looks" since his return from the hospital. She advises him to "act as if you are not feeling vulnerable," and so he picks a fight with his bodyguard in front of his men and wins, only to vomit blood in the bathroom afterwards.
Chris is told by a man in his addiction recovery group about Vito being spotted in the club. Tony admits to Melfi that while he has a religious objection to homosexuality, Vito is important to him and that, like himself, he deserves a second chance. After learning from Finn DeTrolio that Vito was fellating a man, Tony's crew is left disgusted and demand his death. Meadow, working as an intern for a law firm that specializes in white collar crime, argues with Finn about the treatment of financial criminals compared to those involved in the mob. When he points out that Vito may be killed for his sexuality, she storms out. Vito flees the state when men are sent to collect him, but is forced to travel on foot when his car runs over a branch. He winds up in a small town in New Hampshire, where he decides to stay after becoming enamored with its friendly atmosphere.
Artie confronts Tony after learning that he ate at a rival restaurant, but ignores his suggestions to improve Nuovo Vesuvio's declining quality. American Express stops doing business with him after Benny and a hostess he has been having an affair with run a credit card scam on Artie's customers, so he fires her and beats up Benny. Tony forces them to make peace and has Benny have dinner at Nuovo Vesuvio, but Artie references Benny's affair in front of his wife and Benny forces his hand into a vat of boiling sauce. Tony suggests therapy to Artie, but he angrily rejects him. Chris organizes a successful hit on the Lupertazzi capo before going to Los Angeles to cast actors for Cleaver. He meets with Ben Kingsley, who gets distracted by the hotel's luxury lounge, which offers him free items. When Chris tries to intimidate Kingsley into getting access to the lounge, he mentions that awards show presenters are given goods from the lounge worth thousands of dollars. Chris mugs Lauren Bacall and gives her items to Tony, who is annoyed with him for not being in New Jersey to stop Benny.
Despite his parents offering him opportunities, A.J. spends his time sitting around the house or in nightclubs. He takes a knife to Junior's facility, but is unsettled and drops it when Junior, mistaking him for Tony, begs him to take him home. Tony is forced to bail him out, and A.J. insists that he was trying to avenge Tony like in The Godfather. A friend asks him to get Tony to help with a financial dispute, and he has a panic attack. Vito finds himself taken with local chef Jim Witowski and they kiss, but he instinctively punches Jim, leading to a fight that leaves Vito beaten. Several days later, he goes to apologize to Jim, and they have sex. Tony, sexually active for the first time since the shooting, is accosted by a realtor who offers to buy a local store to turn it into a Jamba Juice. He rejects the deals until the price reaches half a million, and they kiss after agreeing on the sale. Tony stops himself from having sex with her and redirects his frustration at Carmela when he returns home.
Chris marries his girlfriend after learning that she is pregnant. While driving back from a business trip, he and Tony impulsively steal expensive wine from bikers who are robbing a liquor store. Chris breaks his sobriety when he and Tony toast his marriage with the wine, and they reminisce about their bond, as well as the day Chris gave upAdriana. Paulie refuses to donate the requested amount for the Feast of Elzéar of Sabran to the church. Chris spends the first night of the festival on heroin. The next day, a ride breaks down, and Paulie is blamed due to his cheapness. Janice, on the ride, fakes a neck injury so Bobby can extort money from Paulie, and Tony orders them to settle the dispute. As Paulie learns that he may have prostate cancer, he curses at Nucci when she chastises him for his handling of the Feast. Early at the Bada Bing, he sees a vision of the Virgin Mary. Terrified, he goes to see Nucci, and they sit and watch television together.
Vito finds himself bored with everyday work life in New Hampshire. He steals Jim's car and leaves, only to crash into a parked car. When the owner refuses to take cash and goes to call the police, Vito kills him. Back in New Jersey, he idles in front of Satriale's before driving away. After Bobby's eye is badly injured while making collections, Tony admits to Melfi that he treats him and Janice unfairly because of resentments he carries from their childhood, and Melfi points out that Janice may remind him of Livia. Knowing that a plea deal with the FBI would result in losing most of his assets, Johnny asks Tony to get the owners of a company he is a partner in to sell. Tony agrees so long as he sells his house to Janice at a discounted price. Johnny pleads guilty and admits in court that he is part of the mafia, earning universal contempt from his peers. Janice begins to cry while thanking Tony for getting her the house, and Carmela, assuming she is upset, comforts her while Tony rolls his eyes.
Carmela discovers that A.J. has been fired from his job. Tony admits to Melfi that he wants to hit A.J., and she points out that Carmela protects A.J. as he wishes Livia protected him. He tries to speak civilly to A.J. about getting him a job, but smashes the windshield of his car when he complains. Vito meets with Tony and asks to return to the family, but Tony's men disapprove, and Phil, particularly hateful because he is related to Vito by marriage, demands his death. Vito returns to his family and calls Jim, who rejects him. Before Tony can have Vito killed, Phil and his men ambush Vito, killing and sodomizing him with pool cues. One of the made men who killed Vito comes to Satriale's while Silvio and capoCarlo Gervasi are there and begins joking about Carlo also being gay, and they kill him. Carmela goes to Paris with Rosalie and is enamored with the architecture. She dreams about Adriana walking her deceased dog near the Eiffel Tower, and a policeman comments that "someone needs to tell her she's dead."
Tony has Benny blow up one of Phil's venues. Little Carmine hosts a sitdown to try and negotiate peace, but Phil storms out when he brings up Billy. Suspecting Tony's role in the disappearance of the capo, Phil begins plotting a revenge hit, only to have a heart attack. Tony visits Phil in the hospital, telling him about what he learned in his coma and encouraging him to instead focus on family, which emotionally moves him. Tony begins trying to seduce the realtor, unaware that she is seeing Chris. Having met in his recovery group, Chris begins using drugs with her. Tony spots the two talking, and Chris is forced to admit the truth so he does not find out about the drugs. Tony acts indifferent, but expresses jealousy to Melfi, who commends his restraint. While at work, A.J. meets and starts dating single mother Blanca Selgado. A group of youths that regularly bother her hang out outside her house, and A.J. bribes them to leave her alone, after which she has sex with him. After Adriana's mother tries to kill herself, Carmela posits hiring a private investigator to find her. Tony has Silvio get the stop order lifted, and she drops the idea. The Sopranos' relatives come to their house for Christmas, and A.J. brings Blanca and her son. As the families sit together, Carmela takes Tony's hand.
Eight months later, Phil returns from recovery and declares intent to enjoy life with his family, anointing Gerry as his successor. Tony's discarded gun is found on a drug user. He and Carmela travel to Bobby and Janice's upstate New York cabin to celebrate his birthday, where Bobby gifts him a customized assault rifle. He mentions the possibility of promoting Bobby, who has never killed before because his father wanted to keep him out of the mob. The four spend the night playing drunken Monopoly, but when Janice tells a humiliating story about Livia, Tony begins insulting her. Bobby fights him and wins, and the next day, Tony orders him to travel to Montreal to complete a hit job over a custody dispute. As Bobby completes the hit, Tony returns home and is told that the FBI added the gun to their RICO case against him. As he watches Janice's gift, a compilation of old videos of him playing with his sisters, Bobby returns to the cabin and holds his young daughter as he looks out at the lake.
Cleaver premieres, and everyone but Tony seems to notice the parallels between the film and his, Chris, and Adriana's relationship. After Carmela points this out to him and confronts Chris, Chris forces Dolan to pretend as though he stole the film's plot from another film. Unconvinced, Tony tearfully admits his suspicion to Melfi that Chris hates him, and that Cleaver was his way of showing this. With Johnny dying of lung cancer in prison, a Lupertazzi capo has Phil's protégé killed at a dinner with Silvio. Little Carmine declines to get involved when Tony presses him, not wanting to risk his own life. Johnny takes up smoking again and learns from an orderly and former doctor that he may have longer to live than anticipated, only to die soon after. Phil celebrates Billy's birthday, but tells a capo that he was weak when he did not act after Billy's death and promises that he will not make that mistake again. At the baptism of Chris's daughter, he and Tony embrace, their expressions blank.
The FBI discover the body of Tony's first murder, forcing him and Paulie to go to Miami and lay low. He takes a bridge loan out from Hesh to cover a series of lost bets, and learns that Jackie Aprile is being blamed for the murder. To celebrate, he takes Paulie out on a fishing boat, where he asks him if he told Johnny about Ralphie'sjoke. Increasingly annoyed with Paulie over the course of the trip, he considers killing him on the water. Paulie has a nightmare upon returning home about Pussy, where he asks if he will "stand up" when "my time comes." He sends the Sopranos an expensive espresso machine the next day. After Phil's rival capo takes food off his plate at a dinner, Phil has him killed, making him the official boss of the Lupertazzi family. Junior gambles with the other patients in his facility, but is shut down by another patient. Junior attacks him, getting him put on a new set of medications. An ill-tempered young patient who he has befriended encourages him not to take them. He is threatened with transfer if he does not comply, disappointing Junior's friend, who he calls "Anthony" while trying to make up with him. He breaks Junior's arm and Junior later receives animal-assisted therapy, sitting apart from the other patients with his gaze vacant.
As Tony continues to lose his bets, he offers to pay Hesh a vig despite him not charging interest for the loan. When Hesh visits Tony and his crew, Tony makes several Jewish jokes at his expense. Carmela sells the spec house despite feeling guilt over the wood's quality, and Tony demands a cut of the profit so he can bet it, but she refuses. His bet pays off, leaving him enraged at the money he could have made, and they violently argue. They later make up and Carmela admits her fears about the threats in their lives, but Tony insists he is "way up" after surviving being shot. Vito's son begins acting out and his mother requests money from Tony so they can relocate. When the boy is expelled from school for defecating in front of his bullies, Tony decides to pay, but gambles away the money and instead pays for him to be sent to a boot camp that allows the students to be beaten. A.J. proposes to Blanca and she initially accepts, but later breaks up with him. Hesh's girlfriend dies, and Tony finally pays back his loan, offering minimal condolences.
A.J. falls into a depression that Carmela and Tony try and fail to help him out of, and they send him to a therapist. Tony has him spend time with Carlo's son and his friends, and A.J. helps them abduct and pour sulfuric acid on the toes of a debtor. Tony tells Melfi that he intended to quit therapy, but feels he has to stay now that A.J. is suffering due to his "rotten genes." Chris notices that Tony is talking to him less, and he points out that Chris never comes to the Bada Bing or Satriale's anymore, despite his insistence that the substances there make him anxious. Paulie's cousin steals from Chris's father-in-law's store and Paulie refuses him a cut of the profits, so Chris throws his cousin out a window. Paulie tears up Chris's lawn with his car, and Tony helps them make peace, during which Chris decides to drink with the crew. Paulie makes several crude jokes about Chris's daughter, and he leaves when he notices Tony laughing. With his sponsor out of town, he goes to Dolan's house and tries to give him mob stories to write about until he harshly says that "you're in the mafia!" Chris kills him and returns home, where he rights a tree in his yard that Paulie knocked over.
Phil learns that the waste Tony has been sending to the sanitation business contains asbestos, and he demands an increased cut of profits if he is to take more. Driving Tony back, Chris drives erratically while not wearing a seatbelt and crashes, leaving him severely injured. He admits to Tony that he will not pass a drug test if he calls 911, and Tony almost calls before suffocating him. Tony dreams admitting relief to Melfi at the weight Chris's death took off him, as well as his role in the deaths of him, Blundetto, and Pussy. In the actual session, he admits that he is not grieving. He is annoyed by the display of grief at Chris's wake, later attending the much less populated wake of Nucci with Carmela. A.J. seems to improve, but falls back into depression after his friends beat up a young black man. He forlornly asks his therapist "why can't we all just get along?" Tony impulsively leaves for Las Vegas after seeing Chris's widow breastfeed her daughter, where he has sex and takes peyote with Chris's former stripper comare. He has a winning streak in roulette, mumbles "he's dead," and collapses in a fit of laughter. As the waste is dumped into a lake, Tony watches the sun rise over the Red Rock Canyon with the stripper. He sees a flash of light in the sky and cries "I get it!"
After reading the poem "The Second Coming", A.J. ties a cinder block to his ankle and jumps into his pool. The rope is too long to keep the block from drowning him but too short for him to escape. Tony finds and saves him, initially furious but trying to comfort A.J. after seeing how distressed he is. Guilty, Carmela and Tony blame each other. In a therapy session with his parents, A.J. recounts upsetting memories of them going back to his childhood and mentions Livia's depressing words having an effect on him. Tony rejects Melfi's idea that A.J.'s attempt could have been a cry for help, and mentions that, in Las Vegas, he realized that there is "something else" beyond the human experience, but does not want to look into it further. Elliot Kupferberg tells Melfi that a recent study shows sociopaths use therapy as a way to sharpen their skills. Phil rejects Tony's compromise about the asbestos. A Lupertazzi capo approaches Meadow, who has recently committed to law school and started to date Patsy's son, and harasses her. When Tony finds out, he curb stomps the man. Little Carmine again tries to broker peace, but Phil refuses to see Tony.
Silvio kills Carlo's cousin for trying to work with the Lupertazzis. Phil orders Tony, Silvio and Bobby killed. The FBI warns Tony, and he orders a hit on Phil. In inpatient, A.J. notices his friend's ex-girlfriend. The two begin seeing each other after they are discharged. Janice tells Tony that Junior's savings can no longer pay for his facility and asks him to help, but he refuses. Melfi, at a dinner with her colleagues, hears about the study again, and she later reads it and realizes it applies to Tony perfectly. As he complains about his children in his next session, she becomes increasingly vindictive and tells him she intends to stop treating him when he compares her to Carmela. He argues with her, but she remains unmoved and closes the door after he leaves. The hitmen go to the house of Phil's comare, mistaking her father for him, and kill them both. Tony learns of the failed hit and orders everyone to go underground, but Bobby is killed and Silvio is shot, putting him in a coma he may never wake up from. Tony orders Carmela to go into hiding and tries to get A.J. to do the same, but when he begins to cry over Bobby, Tony drags him out of bed and throws him to the floor. He goes to a safe house and lies on his bed fully clothed, clutching the rifle Bobby gave him.
Tony gives the FBI information on a pair of suspicious Muslim men who hang around the Bada Bing in exchange for Phil's general location on Long Island. Phil rejects a suggestion to make peace and warns that there will be consequences for failing to kill Tony. Phil's underboss meets with Tony and agrees to a truce in exchange for sanctioning Phil's death and paying Janice for Bobby's hit. Tony's men spot Phil and kill him. A.J. announces his intent to join the army, but his parents convince him to work for Little Carmine's production company instead. Meadow gets engaged to her boyfriend and is fully dedicated to becoming a white-collar lawyer, leaving Tony disappointed that she is now working adjacent to his criminal life. Carlo disappears after his son is arrested, and Tony's lawyer suspects that he may become an informant. Tony offers Carlo's position to Paulie, who reluctantly accepts. Janice visits Junior, now in a state facility, and tries to tell him of Bobby's death. When Tony learns that Janice is trying to get Junior's remaining money, he speaks to him for the first time since the shooting and tries to convince him to give it to Bobby's children, but Junior does not recognize him. Tony reminds him of how he "ran North Jersey," and leaves in tears when Junior blankly murmurs "well, that's nice." Tony meets his family in a diner. He tells Carmela that Carlo will be testifying against him, and A.J. reminds him to "remember the good times." A man who has been staring at them goes into the bathroom next to their table, and as Meadow enters the diner, Tony looks up and the shot cuts to black.
Reception
Critical reviews
On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the sixth season scored 96 out of 100, based on 18 reviews, indicating "Universal acclaim".[22] On Rotten Tomatoes, the first half of the season has an 89% approval rating with an average score of 9.8/10 based on 37 reviews with the following critical consensus: "The Sopranos' final season craftily builds to its anticipated climax with more of the dark humor and heartfelt characterizations that made it one of television's strongest series."[23] The second half of the season has an 84% approval rating with an average score of 8.5/10 based on 31 reviews with the following critical consensus: "America's first crime family bows out in a chilling cut to black during a meditative final season that is debatably cruel to audience expectations but wholly committed to its thematic integrity."[24]
In Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston placed The Sopranos at the top of his list of the best TV of 2007, stating: "Even before the final episode aired, the last half-season of David Chase's Garden State gangland saga embodied everything that was great about The Sopranos. Then came the Chase-directed 'Made in America,' which miraculously restored Journey's street cred and created the kind of zeitgeist moment that wasn't supposed to be possible anymore in a fragmented, 600-channel cable universe. Lots of TV dramas are compared to novels these days, but few others (maybe only The Wire) have achieved the scope and substance of literary fiction while painting between the lines of small-screen convention."[25]
