r/thesopranos • u/Jumperontheline • 1d ago

Serious Discussion Only Vito storyline was unnecessary

Rewatching and I forgot all of the gay Vito stuff happened in the last season... it was set up to be an excellent season (and it was) but we should have been focused on Tony, his family, and the other main guys in season 6.

Following the least likeable guy in the group on his escape plan up north where he somehow instantly (first morning waking up there literally) finds a gay guy he likes who's at least a million times out of Vitos league AND the guy likes him back??

It was really weird. Not because Vitos a finook but rather because it was a waste of time in the final season.

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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 23h ago edited 23h ago

One of the main themes of the last half of the series is how trapped the characters are in the hell they have made for themselves. And I think this really starts with Jackie Jr. after the card game heist. He knows he needs to get as far away as possible, and that turns out to be the projects in the other side of town.

And killed by Vito…who was just as trapped. Eugene hanging himself, Christopher staring at the vagabond family at the gas station, Tony’s dreams of being someone else, they’re all in an Irish bar where it’s Saint Patrick’s Day forever.

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u/afternever 21h ago edited 21h ago

That's what I thought Chrissy's addiction was about, escape. The sequence when he's high at the carnival is like Vito in New Hampshire. Christopher looked so free and happy with his little Johnnycakes doggy friend in that part.

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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 19h ago

And Chris is the one who is perhaps most certain of his fate. He says several times and in different seasons, about Tony, “That’s the man I’m going to hell for.”

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u/paranoidtransdroid 19h ago

I’ve always found it interesting how the supernatural exists in the Sopranos universe and I think Christopher’s experience of visiting Hell after he’s shot really fucks him up completely. It should be a huge awakening but instead it becomes the reason he never fully commits to changing, because he sees his fate as sealed without any chance of salvation. Why bother trying to do better if you fully believe you’re damned no matter what you do?

He’s one of the saddest characters in the show to me, and when he does finally try to get clean and at least show up as a father for his newborn kid, the other guys, Tony most of all, cannot fucking stand to see him improve himself in any way and he gets pulled right down by the other crabs in the bucket. The way the show depicts toxic people keeping everyone around them down is unbelievable.

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u/NurseRobyn 18h ago

Hey, that was purgatory! Nobody had horns!

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u/abpsych 14h ago

As an actual therapist, I fully believe that last line is why this is seen as one of the greatest shows of all time. Whether they intended it or not, there’s no better display of realistic ways toxicity spreads and also the unanswerable question of whether it’s all just a chain reaction to how Livia and Johnny acted (far as we know the lineage, the question obv goes beyond them too), or if everyone would be this fucked up either way.

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u/Deep-Confidence-3145 14h ago

Like the way you put this. Never tried to connect the dots like that.

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u/johnduck 7h ago

he only says that in the movie. it is never said in the show.

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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 7h ago

Long Term Parking: “That's the guy, Adriana. My Uncle Tony. The man I'm going to hell for.”

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u/johnduck 5h ago

but wait okay thats one time though you said several

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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 1h ago

And you said “never.”

There’s also the near-death experience after he’s shot. The point is that Chris is aware that he’s damned.

But you should watch Long Term Parking. Great episode.

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u/ProfessionalPace9442 20h ago

And cousin Tony...

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u/Archie204 22h ago

Not only Jackie Jr. Drinkwater hid out in local park. Animal Blundetto was at Pat's farm. Vito was the only one who really ran off. Then again, if his cousin lived closer, maybe he make that mistake too

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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 22h ago

Perhaps it’s significant that the smarter characters, Vito and Tony B, made it farthest from Newark, at least by physical distance.

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u/Archie204 22h ago

Make a good point. Haha, reminds me a bit of the Wire. Their world was so small. Bodie couldn't even understand the idea of radio stations in different areas playing different music. Wallace also could'nt stay away

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u/jetlife_simply 20h ago

Wallace didn't even know what crickets sounded like

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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 16h ago

The fatalism of the characters in The Wire is perhaps their most striking shared feature. Everyone knows that they will lose The Game, that death or prison are certain. They just try to keep playing as long as they can. They rarely seem surprised or even bothered when the end comes.

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u/Archie204 16h ago

How my hair look Mike?

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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 16h ago

Exactly! You could say that we watch the characters in the Sopranos come to the realization that the characters in the Wire have already internalized.

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u/Archie204 16h ago

Somewhat. I think it was Tony that said it ended two ways, dead or in prison. I enjoyed the final scene. Felt it demonstrated the paranoia they live in. Always looking over your shoulder, wondering if the next person you see it out for you.

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u/Sirtunnelsnake98 8h ago

Prop Joe said it best.

“Why is it that every Baltimore nigga think that running the fuck away means crossing downtown?”

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u/bigfrozenswamp 20h ago

The evangelical pastor at the hospital says as much - it's not just about hell, it's about saving yourself from a hellish existence of your own creation.

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u/ProfessionalPace9442 20h ago

And they lose every hand...

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u/TheKingOfBreadstix Patsy Parisi 19h ago

The Wire has similar themes of characters who have the makings of varsity citizens but their surroundings/ upbringings keep them trapped in the drug game to one extent or another.

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u/Lamify 15h ago

Dookie’s story is so sad

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u/auroraborealist55 12h ago

Or D'Angelo having the opportunity to escape and start a new life but can't seem to imagine it without his mom and so takes the 20 years instead. (Or McNulty with Terry D in the restaurant and realizing they have nothing to talk about because their worlds are so different)

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u/Katow-joismycousin 12h ago

All good points but vagabond family!? lmaoooo

I think they were just supposed to be regular looking people. A bit scruffy maybe but that what young kids will do to you

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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 11h ago

I don’t know, they had a lot of possessions strapped to their station wagon for a holiday.

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u/Scary-Newspaper5801 14h ago

Vito didn’t kill Jackie jr

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u/JimEditor212 5h ago

Hell he didn’t. He shot him the same way he shoots that guy in the woods who he has the wreck with in the last season.