The whole series was a study in contrasts.
Examples :
The likability and kindness at times of criminal psychotic killers.
The episode ‘University’Tony’s daughter (Meadow)at college and her ‘problems’ verses the stripper whore at the Bing, who is about the same age as Meadow, getting beat to death by that ‘but he’s a good earner’ super creep Ralph.
Get’s away with it because he’s a made guy.
Disrespected the Bing dat guy….
Loved when Ralph got whacked by Tony in a rage over his dead race horse that Tony was so fond of.
Tony to Christofer, “You’re the only one who knows about it.”
Loved when Ralph got whacked by Tony in a rage over his dead race horse that Tony was so fond of.
Tony also had a thing for animals, remember his obsession with ducks. Despite that, he never had a pet.
That episode was Brutal
I too loved that episode as difficult as it was to watch. It was such a great study of conflicting “morals” and the contrasts and similarities between Meadow and Tracee and between Tony and Meadow.
Also, the dinner scene with the Soprano family and Ralphie and Rosalie Aprile where they seem to be somewhat a typical suburban family.
Tony rebuffed Tracee when seeking his help and advice, and Meadow, while at first sympathetic, ultimately rebuffs and leaves her roommate Caitlin alone to deal with her escalating mental health issues.
Meadow gets dumped by her boyfriend Noah right after losing her virginity to him, perhaps at his father’s instance when he learns about Meadow’s “family” and Noah’s claims that she’s too “negative”, and the good hearted but not too bright and pregnant Tracee gets not only dumped by Ralphie but beaten to death by him.
Later in a therapy session Tony seems to feel remorse about Tracee’s death although he says he feels bad about the death of one of his workers in waste management who died in an accident but it is apparent he’s talking about Tracee. Meadow on the other hand doesn’t seem to care about what happens to Cailin at all.
In a later episode when Tony kills Ralphie, ostensibly over the death of a racehorse, but while he’s choking Ralphie to death, he keeps say “You killed her. You killed her” but at that point I don’t think it was really about the horse.
Ralphie had at first denied that he had anything to do with the fire that killed the horse but then says, “So what. It was just a horse, just an animal” echoing what Ralphie thought of Tracee and their unborn child.
I’ve read some people say that the ending of the Soprano’s, while very ambiguous, is that Meadow, having trouble parking and running late, may have escaped the implied fate of the rest of her family and that she eventually took over the “family” business, even as while when younger and seemed to be sensitive and even “woke” in some respects, but as she got older and after witnessing her family’s deaths, she became very pragmatic and cold hearted and extremely ruthless, maybe even more so than her father ever was. And she brutally took her revenge out on all those who killed her family while under the cover of a legitimate, highly educated and respected business woman. I thought that was an interesting take.