The Criminal Personality

A study which was mentioned several times during the last season, was The Criminal Personality by Samuel Yochelson and Stanton E. Samenow from 1976. This was the study that Kupfenberg mentioned to Melfi in a private session and Kupfenberg later referred to at the dinner party in the second-to-last episode (in a not-so-ethical way...), and which ultimately caused Melfi to terminate her sessions with Tony. It's a real study. Those interested might wanna take a look at the following links (and have a search for reviews on JSTOR too, if they've got the access...)

Anyway, if you wanna read something about it try the following:
Author of 1976 study of criminals surprised to find it featured in 'Sopranos
Bruce Jackson: Why Tony's Shrink Got Stupid
Slate thingy (scroll down to second paragraph...)

Same black guys at Ward 22 / Holstens?

Over at tonyisdead.com I've been debating whether or not the wardens/nurses at Ward 22 are the same as the two guys entering Holstens, just a few minutes before the screen goes black. I think they are not, and another poster, richme, thinks they are.

I've done a few framegrabs to allow people to judge for themselves.

Guy #1 at Ward 22


Guy #2 at Ward 22.


Guys entering Holstens.

If they are the same, then obviously Guy #2 from Ward 22 has had his head shaved in the meantime, grown a faint beard and also put off quite a bit of weight, whereas Guy #1 seems to have had his left ear pierced.

On another note, I've been talking a bit more about the Patsy-theory over at jerseycool.com.

Catholicism

This is really interesting. Go read it.

Patsy...

Over at Tonyisdead.com I attempted to flesh out my idea that maybe Patsy had something to do with what may, or may not, have happened at Holstens that evening.
Turns out I'm not the only one who got that idea. Read it all - some of the most interesting speculation on the subject so far.

Recommended reading

Much has been published about the finale, but little of it really terribly interesting. Below is what I'd recommend you check out:

Head Strong | The Secret Alternative Ending for the Sopranos. Interesting nuggets of information. They interview the guy playing "Members Only"-guy in the last episode, and a few things are revealed. They were looking for an italian-american guy for the role, and - according to him - there was another ending shot:

The first day featured an 18-hour session. His second trip to Bloomfield a few weeks later was for a second, 10-hour shoot.

Colandrea told me the product of those initial 18 hours was ultimately what played in Sunday's final episode. That scene took so long to film "because they shot every angle, and every different shot was taking at least 10 times," he said.

[...]

What he would tell me is that whatever they filmed during his second day at Holsten's didn't make the final cut. But before the episode aired, he thought the series would end with whatever he shot during those final 10 hours at Holsten's. Like the rest of us, he didn't expect the series to simply and suddenly stop.

This much is clear, though: David Chase and Paolo Colandrea filmed something in addition to the ending that had almost 12 million viewers convinced their cable had cut out at the worst possible time.

Bob Harris has a very, very interesting analysis of the final episode. Highly recommended.

Journey's End for the Sopranos from the Richmond-Times Dispatch (huh?!). This is really interesting, and focuses intensely on the music selected in the episode, and what clues might be picked up from that.

The Long Con from New York Magazine. Great stuff.

Alan Sepinwall, TV-critic for the New Jersey Star Ledger, the newspaper that Tony may or may not pick up in the driveway again, though we won't be there to see it. Alan has written terrific reviews along the way, and both his blog and Sopranos-site at NJ.com are highly readable.

Welcome

A blog about the Sopranos finale, "Made in America", and whether there is an answer to what happened after the lights went out. I think there is.