Two Theories on The Sopranos

RUSH: Here’s Josh in Rochester, Indiana, you’re up first on the EIB Network today. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, how’s it going?

RUSH: Just fine, sir, never better.

CALLER: Hey, my question is about the Sopranos coming up on Sunday. What do you think is going to happen?

RUSH: What do I think is going to happen on the Sopranos Sunday night?

CALLER: Yeah, you think Tony’s going to get clipped or do you think he’s going to make it?

RUSH: I’ve got two theories about what I think’s going to happen on the Sopranos. I don’t know which one. I know they shot a bunch of different endings. I think everybody in Tony’s family, his crime family, his home family are going to get clipped, but he doesn’t, left all alone with nothing.

CALLER: Well, that’s interesting, isn’t it?

RUSH: Well, you gotta think. Now, everybody says that this is it, and there can’t be a movie now since they killed off all these mobsters now in Tony’s family. However, Gandolfini, and he may be tired of the role, but if they do want to bring it back sometime, they can’t kill the guy off, and I think about this, you know, in a creative programming sense. If he gets clipped, I was telling Snerdley yesterday, if he gets clipped, I think that maniac sister of his is going to be the one that does it. She’s wacko in the first place, but her husband just got wiped out in last week’s episode. She’ll probably blame Tony for this. They’ve had this relationship that’s been at odds for the longest time. Tony’s mother had put out a hit on him before she died. What a great character she was, Nancy Marchand. So that’s my best guess but, you know, I’m watching it without my prediction in mind. I’m just going to watch it and see what happens, but those are the two various endings that I have conjured up. Thanks for the call out there, Josh. I appreciate it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Brian, Cedar City, Utah. You’re next, sir, on the EIB Network. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Hey, Rush.

RUSH: Hey.

CALLER: Dittos from an IACS alumni since 1988.

RUSH: Well, nice to have you, sir.

CALLER: Rush, I want to chime in on The Sopranos final with my spin. There’s something that bothered me about the last episode. Something’s been kind of simmering under the surface for a long time, and I think it has to do with Paulie.

RUSH: Paulie Walnuts is going to whack Tony?

CALLER: Well, I don’t think he’s going to whack him, but I think he’s going to let old Phil’s boys know where Tony’s in hiding at, and there’s been some bad blood going on for a long time between these two guys because Paulie is such a loose cannon.

RUSH: Yeah, Paulie tried to defect to the old New York gang headed by Carmine Lupertazzi, whatever, and he was being set up by Johnny Sack. Johnny Sack says, ‘Oh, Carmine loves ya.’ Paulie finally met Carmine, and Carmine had never heard of him. But it could be. I also think, you know, this idiot A. J. could be the one to do it.

CALLER: Gosh.

RUSH: Well, that — because you think down the road on this. I know they’re all saying this is it, there’s no more, and there’s not going to be a movie and all that. If they had to do a movie, it would have to be a prequel to bring all these characters back. But it’s one of the reasons I think Tony may survive. But if he doesn’t, A. J. surviving, he could get through his depression and become the next mob boss. But A. J., you know, he’s cruising. He tried to kill his uncle, couldn’t pull that off, he tried to kill himself, couldn’t pull that off. He might think that his route out of his depression is to get rid of his dad. Who knows.

CALLER: Whew. I can’t wait to see it, Rush.

RUSH: Well, it’s going to be a passing in a moment of history. Oh, by the way, that reminds me. Yesterday, I got up, as I always do, and I got in here to do show prep, and one of the papers I check is the New York Post. I will go on record saying I love the New York Post, owned by the News Corporation, which also owns Fox News Channel, which has still not apologized today to Congressman Conyers for confusing him with Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat-Louisiana). I went to the TV section, and there’s this long story, it’s an AP story, the Post didn’t write it. They’re interviewing psychiatrists and psychologists and therapists about the scene in last week’s episode where Dr. Melfi basically fires her patient Tony because she’s been humiliated at a dinner party of other shrinks where one of her close friends divulges the identity of her star patient, which is a breach of ethics. This story dealt with that scene, those two scenes last week as though it was real life, and they went out and they got interviews with all of these shrinks to comment on the ethics, the lack of ethics, the professionalism of the portrayal of the business in those two scenes. I’m thinking, ‘It’s a television show. They were writing about this as though this were real.’ The scenes were written by the show’s creator David Chase, who himself has been in therapy and I think probably doesn’t like it based on the way he’s writing about it lately. It’s bad enough when they go out and talk to shrinks about a real live person that they haven’t treated, ‘Well, what do you think is wrong with Dick Cheney?’ ‘Well, I think he’s got control issues. Anger management issues.’ They never met him! That’s bad enough, but analyzing these two scenes? It was hilarious to see how seriously they treated all this.