5x12 Long Term Parking

Full disclosure, I knew what happened in this episode before I went in. Sometimes you just pick things up through cultural osmosis. But it took some of the oomph out of this one for me. It was still tragic to see what Adrianna went through, to see her tentative hopefulness and dreams of getting away from all this dashed completely. But I can only imagine what the impact would be if you didn't know it was coming.

One of the things I find interesting about The Sopranos is that, contrary to a lot of movies and shows about the mob, it's never really on the mobsters' side. Sure, the show invites you to be allured by Tony Soprano and his brood, but at the same time wants to chastise you for being allured by him. The beleaguered gardener throughout the season is a persistent reminder that these are not good men, and most of what they do involves stepping on the little guy.

But at the same time, it doesn't make the FBI agents who are plotting against the mob looking any more righteous by comparison. They gossip casually about why Adriana hooking up with Tony would be good for business. They casually discuss how a woman marrying her abuser could be good for them. They treat Adriana, a woman who is clearly out of her depth with this stuff, like a tool, almost like cattle, rather than a person. Sure, the FBI are on the side of good, to the extent it exists in a show like this, but they're just as dehumanizing and dismissive of anyone who doesn't help them achieve their goals as the mobsters are.

And that's the tragedy. Chris claims to have loved Adriana. His recurring beatings of her don't seem to lend credence to that, but he does seem broken up by it at the end of the episode. And Tony too, though he is allegedly supposed to be an unrepentant monster, has at least a moment's pause there on the lot at the end of the episode, which is more than can be said for the frosty FBI agent who's been Adriana's contact over these years.

At base, Adriana was someone reaching out for a person who cared about her, a real friend. Danielle halfway promised and provided that and then betrayed Adriana's trust. Chris seems entirely dismissive about Adriana's feelings and her stress. Her newer FBI contact bristles at any of Adriana's moments of reaching out for kinship. And Tony Soprano, the only one on the show who seems to actually connect with her, is the one who orders her killed. Adriana is, to the extent anyone on this show is, an innocent. She's dumb and naive and while she knows what's up to some degree, it's easy to see her swept up it at a level over her head. When people like that suffer or get killed, through the actions of both sides of the good guy/bad guy divide, it shows that this "war" has civilian casualties like any other.

The game.

It is so suspenseful, emotional and devastating.
Every award garnered was so well deserved.

Beautiful, beautiful writing.

Life is a game, only the strong can play to the end

Trivia*
*Goofs
--Continuity
+The amount of champagne in Tony's glass changes when he tells AJ to slow down and savor it.
+During the dinner shortly after Tony and Carmela get back together, they pour some champagne but throughout the dinner the amount in the glasses changes many times from a quarter full to almost full to half full...yet no more wine was poured.
--Revealing mistakes
In the scene, when Adriana has her daydream (escaping on the interstate) and looks at her red valise, laid on the passenger seat, while driving, the automatic transmission gear shift can clearly be seen on the "parking" position (upper top).

+Upon arriving late, Christopher says that the "highway was jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive". These are lyrics to Bruce Springsteen's song "Born to Run". Steven Van Zandt is a member of Springsteen's E Street Band.
+Christopher and Adriana reunited after his release from rehab in the Season 4 finale, "Whitecaps", the same episode in which Tony and Carmela separate. In an interesting parallel, Tony and Carmela rekindle their relationship in this episode, as Christopher's and Adriana's relationship falls apart.
+After he moves back in with Carmela, Tony is watching the film It's A Gift (1934) while eating ice-cream. This is the same film he watches in the Season 3 episode "The Telltale Moozadell" as he lays in bed eating cake. Perhaps a signal to Carmela, that nothing really has changed with Tony.
+Both Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo won an Emmy Award for this episode and (#5.5)
+The episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
+According to Drea de Matteo on the Blu-Ray commentary, she says there was a deleted scene that featured Agent Robyn Sanseverino confronting Christopher and telling him that she will get him for what he did.
+The song played during the ending credits is "Wrapped In My Memory" by Shawn Smith.

****Spoilers*****

*Drea De Matteo and Steven Van Zandt asked David Chase to delete the scene where Christopher tells Tony that Adriana is an informant. They felt it would be better to keep Adriana's murder by Silvio a surprise and Chase agreed. The scene was later used as a flashback in the episode "The Ride" (#6.9).
*In the original shooting script, Adriana was to run away and go into hiding. A scene was filmed where she speaks with Tony on the phone and then drives out of New Jersey. Chase changed his mind and the scene was replaced with Adriana's murder. A shot of her driving out of New Jersey from the original ending was used as Adriana's daydream.
*Because the camera deliberately cut away before Sil shoots Adriana to death, many fans speculated that he had let her live after all. But both Drea de Matteo and David Chase got wind of these theories and stated publicly that Adriana had been murdered; Chase added that the show would not "toy with" audiences in that way.
*The episode title is a reference to a few different things including: Christopher parking Adriana's car in the "Long Term Parking" section at the airport. It could refer to a long-term decision, or putting oneself in a lasting or binding situation: Adriana suggesting she and Christopher join the Witness Protection Program, Carmela and Tony moving back in together, Tony B.'s attempts to disappear, and Christopher's and Tony's guilt over the death of Adriana. Death can be viewed as a "long term parking" of the human body. The title could refer to the state of Christopher's soul, which could be forever damned for his betrayal of Adriana.