Roy Wood Jr. Talks Scandals at White House Correspondents Dinner, Watching Frank Oceans Coachella Set Online Wont Be Easy. This is just a guy they found specifically because he looks like Robert Funaro, who plays Eugene. Jack Nicholson Reprises Role as Courtside Lakers Fan. With his wife bitter and his son using heroin, Eugene hangs himself. Maybe he wanted to haunt the house or the decision was impulsive and he didn't care who found him. From there, his character continued growing in prominence. In a resurfaced. We can all go home now. And in the back of my mind, I said, Well, well see what happens.'. Only the bravest celebs will go full catboy at 2023s Met Gala. But he always manages to avoid going there. Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! He knew someone in his family would find him, but why would he want them to. You might know this fact even if you havent watched the show thats just how maddening it was for many Sopranos fans. The investigation of identity becomes more overt this season, as both Tony and Carmela ask "Who am I? You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. One by one, the other members of his immediate family arrive - except for Meadow - and they start to eat onion rings and indulge in small talk. Privacy Policy and Because it wouldve meant that he did the most obvious thing and then tried to hide it by making it seem as if he was creating an ambiguous or art-house type of ending. Eugene Pontecorvo has one of the most tragic arcs of all characters on The Sopranos. This was Christopher's scene. A man in Tonys business will always have enemies Eric Scatino probably still nurses a massive grudge so its not outside the realm of plot logic that some rando or long-forgotten character could have hired Members Only Guy to do the deed. When Eugene asks "what about him (Little Paulie)? Do the Feds show up a week later to arrest him, Carlo having finally given them the missing piece of their RICO prosecution? To combat leaked storylines, the writers and Chase used to devise fake scenes to confuse the set. Later, Eugene gives him a cut of the inheritance. Morrow wore his silver medal as he killed himself. Feeling that there was no way out, Pontecorvo hanged himself in his basement. And does that matter? With this in mind, I looked up the meaning of Pontecorvo. However, the FBI said that Pontecorvo had to remain in New Jersey to help build a case against Soprano in the wake of FBI informant Raymond Curto's death. Thats one more reason why this scene feels dreamlike, along with all those incidental characters, like Members Only Guy and the uniformed Boy Scouts, who feel like people youd meet in an 80s music video. Tony, Vito, and Christopher, now a capo in the Soprano family, meet with Phil and Gerry "The Hairdo" Torciano. Hey Bobby, do you know youre getting a wife? Eugene killed himself, after all. Christopher Moltisanti assigns Eugene the task of taking out a guy named Teddy Spirodakis in Boston who owed Christopher money and failed to pay him. willie boy johnson wife. I am now 100% sure that Eugene Pontecorvo's brother killed Tony But I also think its fair to say that he lived beyond that moment, even to a ripe old age, because ultimately this scene is making us ask, What have we learned? or Where have we been? and Where is Tony, right now, as a person? These are reckoning questions, and they can occur at many different points in a persons life. Because nothing in that scene says, Somebody just killed him and thats what the cut to black is about. The only objectively true statement that can be made about that ending is that its ambiguous. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. Translation: He's not an actor. The most popular theory is that Butchie had Tony killed. Matt: Just like the Holstens scene. Christopher orders Eugene to kill a fat man -- in this same episode, we see Tony concerned about his ballooning weight, and a slimmed-down Vito makes references to his obesity -- named Teddy Spirodakis, initials TS. Off the Back of a Truck: Unofficial Contraband for the Sopranos Fan She tells Eugene that he should kill Tony in "Members Only." We know what the scene means, but we dont know what happened. They have the shells and pictures of the beach everywhere, and his wife was clearly dependent on it. Matt: All right, let me back up for a second and say that at no point during my now ten-plus years of arguing about the meaning of this scene have I said that Tony died is an inconceivable or unacceptable interpretation. He loved his family, the only way they could get the inheritance money and go to Florida is if he was dead, he ended his life for their benefit. Little Carmine was the rightful boss of the Lupertazzi family but was outstead by Johnny Sacromoni and then Phil Leotardo. The Sopranos: The Al Green Song David Chase Considered Instead of Dont Stop Believin in the Finale. Whos Going to the Met Gala Dressed as Karl Lagerfelds Cat? Anyway, the focus is on whod order the hit. List of The Sopranos characters - Wikipedia and our The Sopranos was so deliciously bold, fresh, funny, complex and authentic that, for me, it rendered most other dramas on television unwatchable. Eugene Pontecorvo, played by actor Robert Funaro, is a fictional character in the HBO television series The Sopranos. His bad influence helped lead Jackie Aprile Jr. to his death. That's traditionally the episode that sets up everything that happens throughout the season. Or it could be, as I wrote in my original recap hours after the finale aired, that the character who died there was us, the spectator. I know this is a minority reaction, but I like being baffled or challenged or frustrated by art. It's very rarely discussed, but names are often significant, with probably the best example being Adriana La Cerva, "the doe." In fact, his debut is the same episode where Livia dies, and if I wanted to get really conspiratorial, I might suggest that he was introduced specifically because Nancy Marchand had died in real life between Seasons 2 and 3, and the original plan was for Livia to have been instrumental in Tony's death somehow. Gene Killing himself It makes it so much harder watching that after the scene where he finds out his son his using heroin. Certainly. I've also seen it suggested that Eugene's wife ordered Tony's murder. Which is perhaps something he telegraphed by bringing that cat into it. In 2007, he killed himself after both his boss Tony Soprano and his FBI handlers refused to let him retire to Florida . And thats even before we get to Holstens, a scene shot and edited unlike anything else in the history of this show. Eugene Pontecorvo was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1959 to a family of Italian descent, and he became a made man in Tony Soprano's crew of the DiMeo crime familyafter having worked as a bodyguard for Junior Soprano during the 1990s. The Obama-Springsteen friendship continues on. What does that leave us with, if that cut to black means somebody somewhere shot Tony? Now that Fleishman is out of trouble, Caplan can go back to catering. I know people generally cringe at "it was all a dream/nightmare!" scenarios, but I like the idea of Tony being in a purgatory state where he's forced to see himself die every day, and worst of all: it all goes black before he can see his daughter one last time. I suppose you could argue that somebody snuck in from the side, out of frame, and shot Tony. I think were supposed to be thinking about death, or the finiteness of life, during that last scene, but not necessarily that Tony died right then and there, and thats the end of the story. Alan: Maybe we should ask the cat. The Sopranos: Tony's 8 Coldest Kills, Ranked - Screen Rant By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. Matt: Well, this isnt how I thought this would go. Eugene drives to Boston and finds Teddy eating dinner at a fast food restaurant and shoots him repeatedly in the head. After Raymond Curto dies of a massive stroke while giving potentially damaging information to Agent Robyn Sanseverino about Tony discussing a murder, the F.B.I. The Sopranos: 10 Clues In The Show That Prove Tony Died - Screen Rant The Most Devastating Deaths On The Sopranos - Looper And it throws all the other things weve been discussing, here and throughout this book, into sharper relief. It is revealed Eugene has been an informant for the F.B.I., though it is unclear for how long. I had thought, for instance, that the sense of paranoia instilled in the viewer by the rapid editing style Chase uses for the scene was shared by Tony himself that, perhaps, the point of it all was to finally put us in the mind-set of the main character, to make us realize, This is how miserable it is to be Tony Soprano: to spend every minute of every day worrying about who could be coming through a door to kill you.. Explore the world of Jaguar cars and learn more about models Scan this QR code to download the app now. The idea of presenting the ending as a thing that can be mastered and explained is philosophically the opposite of everything that led us to that point. David Chase had this all planned out since at least the beginning of Season 3, when Eugene first appeared. One afternoon, Junior is particularly agitated, and Tony goes to his house because no one else is free to look after him. Her father, Hugh De Angelis, thinks an inspector he used to know would waive the requirement, but his contact has retired. Eugene's basement. Alan: Made in America opens on Tony asleep in the safe house. By telling other people what we think happened, we are revealing ourselves. Maybe the ending is moralistic, but not in the way that some of the people who need Tony to be dead might frame it. Whats more in character for The Sopranos, to kill a magically charmed character in the final scene, or to refuse to do so? Why did Eugene kill himself? : r/thesopranos - Reddit I think Tony died at that moment is a valid interpretation. Alan: Its hard to play dumb about what we discussed with Chase, but the great thing or the maddening thing, depending on your point of view is that even with all he ultimately told us, theres still no definitive answer to the dead/alive question. La La Anthony, Chloe Fineman Will Play Fashion Correspondents at Met Gala 2023. Did he just want out ? To put it another way: Chase was saying that Tony didnt reform and die peacefully in bed decades later. Dye played just 10 games due to injury and saw his season end with an injury against Colorado last November. When Tony prevents Eugene from moving to Florida with his family, he commits suicide.