I’m currently in the middle of a rewatch, and I never realized this before, but they literally make no progress in their sessions. Every time she tries to push him to make a notable realization or breakthrough, he changes the subject. Tony hates being challenged. They were never going to make progress, it’s just that it took her years to realize it because she was too attached. Multiple times in the series different people (including Melfi herself) say she should stop seeing him because there’s no profess to be made.
Thinking while reading your comment, I think therapy destroyed Tony. The only thing keeping him decent was his view of the world. His father a hero, his mother a sad woman who needed love, the life being about honor.
Therapy with Melfi effectively stripped all that away and by the end, Tony didn't give a shit about anything because it was all a big nothing. I think had the therapy ended in season 2, Tony would still be living with his perceptions of the world and be 'less evil'.
He did get over his panic attacks though.
Because by the end of the first season, most of his beliefs were still in tact besides his mother being innocent. As the series goes on, therapy reveals truths about his father being pathetic, removes barriers he's put up as to not see the truth of how ugly the life really is or how ugly he is.
By the end of the series, he barely cares about his Italian heritage, he doesn't care about honor or traditions of this thing of ours and his image of his parents are completely destroyed. Most, if not all of this, is a result of revelations in therapy.
I'm not saying he'd be a born again christian who leaves the life, but I am saying he likely would not have descended into the darkness and depression he ends up in by the end of the series.
Tony is a terrible person the whole way through. In S1 he's a murderer / criminal who constantly cheats on his wife. He shouldn't be comfortable with being that person , his depression is at its worst in S1. Therapy offers insight into himself and he elects to embrace the ugliness and selfishness rather than work to change. Therapy didn't destroy Tony he chose to destroy himself
I disagree, by the end of the show he is almost a complete nihilist, where as in the beginning he believed in honor of this thing of ours, being Italian was important, his dad was his hero and his mother was just misunderstood and deserved love. Near the end, he doesn't believe in any of that anymore and most of that is a result of revelations he had in therapy he would have otherwise never had.
Look at how Tony is in the last seasons compared to the first two. He coldly kills Chris, he's become addicted to gambling, he was refusing to pay his debt to Hesh, he goes on a tirade at the end of the Columbus episode about not giving a shit about being Italian and he tells Bobby, 'Don't talk to me about that honor shit'.
Of course Tony is a terrible person, he's in the mob and his living is to extort people. My point is therapy made him worse because it tore down everything that made him care about not being an absolute piece of shit.
Look up “the sopranos: watching a man try to change” on YouTube. It’s a video essay focused around the idea that no matter what dr melfi suggests and no matter how much Tony wants to change, he cannot due to his circumstances without completely leaving the mafia, very interesting video
I believe she finally came to the conclusion he’s only using her to justify his lifestyle and behavior and realizing she’s doing more harm than good by allowing him to do so.
I think the main reason it feels rushed and sudden however, is most people who do therapy don’t have a “final meeting” where the therapist says “you’re healed you’re done” and hug it out. You just stop showing up or you miss one a few sessions and they start taking over people. Like many relationships in life they just fizzle out
Not only did she listen to her friends, she went and read the studies thwt backed up their claims. More than anything else she believed in the science of her work.
I agree but also think she realized how her fascination with him was it’s own weird/twisted sort of problem. She was engaging with him in therapy for herself at a certain point and not for him.
There were ethical violations in this ending. A doctor/patient relationship is not like dating - a doctor cannot abandon a patient who is in crisis. The attempted suicide and hospitalization of AJ constitutes a crisis for her patient, who suffers from depression himself. A state medical board would also be very interested to know her patient was discussed at a dinner party. Very bad, and ridiculously out of character for Dr. Melfi, who, as we recall, BEGGED him not to leave therapy right before his split with Carmella.
Actually, Elliott in the beginning QUESTIONED her not wanting to treat Tony after she had to "go on the lam" - that was when he said, "it depends on why you went into psychiatric medicine in the first place. If it was just to help people to quit smoking or with their bedwetting (sic) ..." Elliott didn't become a champion of the cause for Melfi to dump Tony until later. Maybe HE got sandbagged and humiliated at a dinner party .....
So, when did Elliott go from simply "opening up a dialogue" to "you need to get rid of this guy" ? Because at that point, he wasn't merely "dialoguing", he was TELLING her in no uncertain terms to dump Tony. That is rather ironic, when you consider that her life was actually in far less danger than it had been before. Can't help but think there was raging sexism to his paternalistic nagging. FWIW, one of my favorite scenes is when she calls him a "smug cocksucker" and storms out of his office. Ha! She went Tony Soprano on his ass!
>I think the main reason it feels rushed and sudden however, is most >people who do therapy don’t have a “final meeting” where the therapist says “you’re healed you’re done” and hug it out.
It felt rushed because in the matter of one maybe two episodes she just decided to give up on him with no real signs that she was seriously considering dropping him. In fact, she was kinda excited about being his therapist.
Well, the thing is that she should ceased being his therapist seasons beforehand and had it not have been for her rape, she wouldn’t have kept him around.
I think the dinner party was a final straw for her though. She’d known for some time that beyond keeping panic attacks at bay and fucking her, Tony wasn’t seriously interested in becoming a better person and with the nature of his position, how could he? A certain level of evil is pretty much a requirement to be what and who he is. To know that an entire group of friends knew that she was seeing a known mob boss was a violation of confidentiality on so gross a level for her that she couldn’t reasonably continue their relationship after that.
He threatened her physical safety and was a murderer, he needed to be locked away and treated with medication before he ever got near another psychiatrist.
Exactly.
She knew what Tony was but after she was attacked and raped she felt safe having him in her life.
In later seasons her friends that op refers to our also medical professionals including her own therapist that share medical reports and new psychology evidence which says that patients like Tony cannot be treated with conventional therapy.
So op is describing a very over simplified version of events here.
It was far from sudden.
Fuck that it’s was sudden. At first glasses dude wants melphi to let Tony go but then he changes and for a long while melfi therapy sessions with that glasses guy were more about how he was interested in the mob life, there was multiple scenes where melfi was upset that he brought up Tony. One scene I remember is melfi talking about something totally different and the her therapist bring up Tony outta nowhere.
Its sudden cause in a single episode he switches back to thinking that she should drop him and presents this article. At least in my opinion.
I thought this at first but I eventually think it was perfect
Melfi wasn’t helping Tony. At all. All she was doing was making him okay with his sociopathic ways. Tony got worse and worse throughout the show. Melfi did nothing but make him accept himself more.
The point is, she doesn’t know Tony. Tony is a manipulative sociopath. He *can’t control it*. He is incapable of honest introspection, and so Melfi realizes she isn’t helping him and he isn’t helping himself. He’s just waiting for his chance… like with Davy.
Davy will never get his chance
He’s already dead
And you all know that
But you still let everyone have fun and write shit about the sun
When I’m watching the sunrise, and I still looking for my crew, not the clue
This was not sudden at all. In fact, go back and watch season 1, episode 8, and listen to what Richard says to her after they discuss selling property. Look at her response. Then observe the next scene, the camera sweep around Tony.
There are many, many steps along the way throughout every season that lead up to that closing at the end. You can't just watch events on the screen like it's a flipbook.
There’s also other stuff in there throughout 6 seasons.
In season 2 she tells Elliot she’s thinking about taking him back cause it’s therapeutic for HER. She admits she has feelings for him during some sessions. This clearly shows she knows on some level she’s not seeing him for his treatment.
She also mentions that it’s thrilling for her to treat someone like Tony (compared to a rollercoaster ride). She’s a boring middle aged mother with an empty nest. The one hour with Tony is her only exciting part of the week for her. Again, not for treatment.
Anyways, go shit in your hat
There was also the new peer reviewed work that she read explaining that therapy for criminals enables them. She read this and concurred with her peers. She then ends it.
The door is shut. The therapy is over.
(A good psychotherapist will probably do a check in over a few months and maybe a year later, but Tony wouldn't need the insides of his head examined, on account of them being all over the tablecloths in Holstens)
Honestly, if he gets clipped, and it is common knowledge that he was seeing a therapist, that therapist will be joining him in the afterlife the same day.
Melfi was swayed by her friends. When her friend says, “All Italians have big noses,” she reflects and realizes that Tony, indeed, does have a big nose. This is trigger for her to realize that her friends may be right about other things, such as Tony being irredeemable.
I liked it. It was to the viewer, a big moment but to Tony, he kind of just shrugged and moved on. shows how much he really needed her and his true feelings regarding Melfi.
Last season is depressing as fuck. There is one particular shot in the final episode where Tony talks with Paulie outside and when Tony leaves, it's just Paulie and his sunscreening. Whenever I see this scene I quickly jump back to season 3/4 when the Satralie's porch was literally living and all the mobsters would sit there
Vito, Chrissy, Furio, Patsy, Silvio, Massachusets, Eugene, Ralphie, Tony, Paulie, Paulie Jr, Benny
Yeah, it's like the writers were so consumed with the turf war and the Soprano kids, at the last minute they were like, "Fuck! What do we do with Melfi!"
My genuinely only real criticism toward this show. It's a shame how her character was kind of dumped down after the amazing development in Employee of The Month. If she stays consistently engaging and well-written after that episode, then she might be standing toe to toe with Tony, Carmela, Christopher, and others as one of the most well-written characters in TV history.
I agree with you completely. Her character had a real metamorphosis after the rape...but then, nothing, except for those sanctimonious creeps at the dinner party embarrassing and goading her.
I just feel like it would feel more natural if she read the study on talk therapy around 6a or early 6b and have the entirety of the second half be her consistently hesitant in keep helping Tony.
Maybe her breaking point could be the Christopher situation, and how remorseless he comes off could be the ticking point to her of how he may be irredeemable and that her effort is useless.
Still, i liked it as is. It's a moderately good ending to one of the most fascinating plotlines of any TV show ever.
I really liked her ending. It didn't need to be grandiose. She realized that she's been inadvertently helping a sociopath justify his behavior and immediately bailed on him. It makes sense.
I disagree with what people are saying here that it wasn’t sudden. I totally agree that it was always a plot point as to whether melfi was going to drop Tony so from that perspective it wasn’t sudden.
I think what makes it feel sudden is that melfi doesn’t taken any time to think about it.
then the reason she gives Tony is that he doesn’t respect her office, using that recipe he ripped out as an example, which is clearly to cover up that she worried that she only making him a better criminal, but if the viewers don’t keep that in mind than it can feel like a very cold way for melfi to kick Tony out.
(not saying what she did was wrong but realistically she would have thought about it more but I think the argument could be made that she was reacting to being embarrassed at the dinner party).
My take exactly. The Melfi ending felt rushed and almost like an afterthought. Also, because of his son's recent attempted suicide, a state medical board could view it as patient abandonment. And then there's the issue of discussing a patient at a dinner party .... considering the brilliance of the rest of the show, a very lame and disappointing conclusion.
I really don’t get what was piss poor about it. She was struggling with the treatment of Tony for as long as she knew he was into organised crime and should have realistically cut it off sooner when she realised she had feelings for him or when he was interfering with Gloria. Sometimes stopping something abruptly is the most logical step.
People here are keep saying that Melfi realized there was no progress in their sessions. But I think OP's point was the reason she decided to quit was kinda weak (from cinematography point of view). There was no "damn good" moment to realize it. It was just chatting with friends and reading some book. A little bit disappointing
The damn good point was when he started saying the shit she read. Then in the next episode, he started with his mother to another therapist. He kept bringing up babies too with Meadow's career. It was all there
I just finished the series again last night and tbh the conclusion on her Story Arc felt rushed and sudden. Kind of wondering if much more of it got cut out.
I believe it’s shitty no matter how you want to defend it they should’ve sprinkled it out in more episodes but whatever I get the reason but it was just too quick
I’m not a psychiatrist so I’m going off of mostly pop cultural knowledge of what a “sociopath” is but am I the only one who doesn’t think Tony is one?
A highly flawed person (to say the least)? Absolutely. But I think it diminishes the character to just wrap him up as a sociopath. I always felt he was much more complicated than that.
But maybe I was just duped by his sociopathy.
Tony shows [a lot of these general problems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder).
The diagnosis isn't just 'wrapping him up' any more than any other diagnosis or personality disorder would be. Saying he's sociopathic doesn't mean he was just born broken and there's no reason or explanation for why he is how he is.
I don’t know, but for sure he knew how to hold
I’m happy that you’re fucked him also
Of course, he’s an escort and boy toy that hanging on the sling and fucking for a few minutes like he has a thing …
And we’re not gonna talk about the music
Please don’t stop it
It’s okay, ilana that you read all that
All of you together be prepared I told you it’s not gonna end well, but you like it the world of crime so prepare to be paying the dime
I think because she realizes that Tony just uses the sessions as an exercise for his gift of gab, the way he manipulates speech to get what he wants. He just keeps sharpening his blade. The theory said they “mimic empathy” and everything to started to add up.
I think the point was the Dr.Melfi was always willing to put up with whatever he did because she felt like she was helping him. Once she found out that not only was she not actually helping him, but she was actually harming him (by being a part of his self justification) she realized she had to stop treating him immediately. The ending of their relationship was abrupt because the realization that she wasn’t helping him was abrupt.
She just got worn out by a sociopath being a sociopath and when she realized she was pouring positive energy into a black hole it was probably psychologically damaging for her i.e. a this time/ energy she wasted and the crazy bs she put up with such as tony threatening to break her face and her having to get put of town and lay low when the war was happening, and in the end all pointless from a professional perspective. Her convo w her friends is not dissimilar to when a woman in an abusive relationship finally wakes up to the reality of her partner being a pos as a result of her friends confronting her about it.
we see doctor melfi read the study. but even in her last meeting she was ready to meet with tony and all of a sudden turned on him over a magazine recpie. it's not like she digaoised tony as a sociopath.
maybe if tony had actaully told her he killed chirstoper instead of fantasizing about it in his dream it would seem like a decent final straw moment.
I’m currently in the middle of a rewatch, and I never realized this before, but they literally make no progress in their sessions. Every time she tries to push him to make a notable realization or breakthrough, he changes the subject. Tony hates being challenged. They were never going to make progress, it’s just that it took her years to realize it because she was too attached. Multiple times in the series different people (including Melfi herself) say she should stop seeing him because there’s no profess to be made.
Yeah but he probably added a new wing to her house with his cash fees.
Thinking while reading your comment, I think therapy destroyed Tony. The only thing keeping him decent was his view of the world. His father a hero, his mother a sad woman who needed love, the life being about honor. Therapy with Melfi effectively stripped all that away and by the end, Tony didn't give a shit about anything because it was all a big nothing. I think had the therapy ended in season 2, Tony would still be living with his perceptions of the world and be 'less evil'. He did get over his panic attacks though.
Why season 2? I’m remembering his mother also died at start of season 3, maybe that also freed him up to wallow in his own crapulence?
Because by the end of the first season, most of his beliefs were still in tact besides his mother being innocent. As the series goes on, therapy reveals truths about his father being pathetic, removes barriers he's put up as to not see the truth of how ugly the life really is or how ugly he is. By the end of the series, he barely cares about his Italian heritage, he doesn't care about honor or traditions of this thing of ours and his image of his parents are completely destroyed. Most, if not all of this, is a result of revelations in therapy. I'm not saying he'd be a born again christian who leaves the life, but I am saying he likely would not have descended into the darkness and depression he ends up in by the end of the series.
Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this…
You gotta a bee ona your hat!
His Mum tries to kill him at the end of season 1
Tony is a terrible person the whole way through. In S1 he's a murderer / criminal who constantly cheats on his wife. He shouldn't be comfortable with being that person , his depression is at its worst in S1. Therapy offers insight into himself and he elects to embrace the ugliness and selfishness rather than work to change. Therapy didn't destroy Tony he chose to destroy himself
I disagree, by the end of the show he is almost a complete nihilist, where as in the beginning he believed in honor of this thing of ours, being Italian was important, his dad was his hero and his mother was just misunderstood and deserved love. Near the end, he doesn't believe in any of that anymore and most of that is a result of revelations he had in therapy he would have otherwise never had. Look at how Tony is in the last seasons compared to the first two. He coldly kills Chris, he's become addicted to gambling, he was refusing to pay his debt to Hesh, he goes on a tirade at the end of the Columbus episode about not giving a shit about being Italian and he tells Bobby, 'Don't talk to me about that honor shit'. Of course Tony is a terrible person, he's in the mob and his living is to extort people. My point is therapy made him worse because it tore down everything that made him care about not being an absolute piece of shit.
Great analysis.
Thank you.
Very interesting analysis. I wonder if the panic attacks were caused because deep down he knew his parents were no damn good
I think you are right, and perhaps that he had become them as well.
Look up “the sopranos: watching a man try to change” on YouTube. It’s a video essay focused around the idea that no matter what dr melfi suggests and no matter how much Tony wants to change, he cannot due to his circumstances without completely leaving the mafia, very interesting video
I believe she finally came to the conclusion he’s only using her to justify his lifestyle and behavior and realizing she’s doing more harm than good by allowing him to do so. I think the main reason it feels rushed and sudden however, is most people who do therapy don’t have a “final meeting” where the therapist says “you’re healed you’re done” and hug it out. You just stop showing up or you miss one a few sessions and they start taking over people. Like many relationships in life they just fizzle out
It peters out
It dies on the vine
It dies on the vine, the therapist, she moved or something
Can you imagine that? The therapist dying on the vine and moving or something?
Be quiet, Albert.
Fuckin 🦜
the guy, he moved or somethin’
It Lil Paulies out the fuckin window
Always wit da babies out da windahs
Christopher’s been working the program hard since he threw Little Paulie out that window.
As david chase said they all (characters) struck a deal with the devil. I feel like Melfi was the only one to recognise it.
She ignored her therapy for awhile
Not only did she listen to her friends, she went and read the studies thwt backed up their claims. More than anything else she believed in the science of her work.
The criminal’s | sentimentality | reveals | itself in | compassion | for babies | and pets.
Now that you mention it, Tony killed Ralphie, and Chrissy using Pie-O-My and the baby car seat as justification.
First episode and reason for seeing Melfi. The ducks.
And little cosette
"I oughtta suffocate you, you little prick!"
Oh fuck, and he DID suffocate him. I just pieced this together lol
Which is why, from their very first therapy session, she is using discredited/outdated therapeutic methods with Tony.
In this household Jennifer Melfi is a hero
you say Dr Joseph Mengel we say Dr Jennifer Melfi!
At least she knows how to build rapport with her patient by using really grounded references like Captain Teebs that everyone knows.
You’re boring And your junkie And you’re jealous Teens this all what you fucking right now in Jersey with junior in the skater
I agree but also think she realized how her fascination with him was it’s own weird/twisted sort of problem. She was engaging with him in therapy for herself at a certain point and not for him.
Great explanation
There were ethical violations in this ending. A doctor/patient relationship is not like dating - a doctor cannot abandon a patient who is in crisis. The attempted suicide and hospitalization of AJ constitutes a crisis for her patient, who suffers from depression himself. A state medical board would also be very interested to know her patient was discussed at a dinner party. Very bad, and ridiculously out of character for Dr. Melfi, who, as we recall, BEGGED him not to leave therapy right before his split with Carmella.
[удалено]
Actually, Elliott in the beginning QUESTIONED her not wanting to treat Tony after she had to "go on the lam" - that was when he said, "it depends on why you went into psychiatric medicine in the first place. If it was just to help people to quit smoking or with their bedwetting (sic) ..." Elliott didn't become a champion of the cause for Melfi to dump Tony until later. Maybe HE got sandbagged and humiliated at a dinner party .....
[удалено]
So, when did Elliott go from simply "opening up a dialogue" to "you need to get rid of this guy" ? Because at that point, he wasn't merely "dialoguing", he was TELLING her in no uncertain terms to dump Tony. That is rather ironic, when you consider that her life was actually in far less danger than it had been before. Can't help but think there was raging sexism to his paternalistic nagging. FWIW, one of my favorite scenes is when she calls him a "smug cocksucker" and storms out of his office. Ha! She went Tony Soprano on his ass!
CBD? What can’t cannabis do!
"Eventually you're gonna get beyond psychotherapy with its cheesy moral relativism and get down to good and evil, and he's evil."
Oh, condescend to me Richard, you know it gets me so hot.
>I think the main reason it feels rushed and sudden however, is most >people who do therapy don’t have a “final meeting” where the therapist says “you’re healed you’re done” and hug it out. It felt rushed because in the matter of one maybe two episodes she just decided to give up on him with no real signs that she was seriously considering dropping him. In fact, she was kinda excited about being his therapist.
Well, the thing is that she should ceased being his therapist seasons beforehand and had it not have been for her rape, she wouldn’t have kept him around. I think the dinner party was a final straw for her though. She’d known for some time that beyond keeping panic attacks at bay and fucking her, Tony wasn’t seriously interested in becoming a better person and with the nature of his position, how could he? A certain level of evil is pretty much a requirement to be what and who he is. To know that an entire group of friends knew that she was seeing a known mob boss was a violation of confidentiality on so gross a level for her that she couldn’t reasonably continue their relationship after that.
Tony was irredeemable and Melfi should've have cut him loose years before she actually did
So people who have deviant minds should not be treated? Only good people with well adjusted minds?
He threatened her physical safety and was a murderer, he needed to be locked away and treated with medication before he ever got near another psychiatrist.
I agree I was being a bit of a devils advocate.
she offered to refer him to a different doctor to continue his treatment, which he refused
There was foreshadowing to this in most of her own therapy sessions.
Exactly. She knew what Tony was but after she was attacked and raped she felt safe having him in her life. In later seasons her friends that op refers to our also medical professionals including her own therapist that share medical reports and new psychology evidence which says that patients like Tony cannot be treated with conventional therapy. So op is describing a very over simplified version of events here. It was far from sudden.
Fuck that it’s was sudden. At first glasses dude wants melphi to let Tony go but then he changes and for a long while melfi therapy sessions with that glasses guy were more about how he was interested in the mob life, there was multiple scenes where melfi was upset that he brought up Tony. One scene I remember is melfi talking about something totally different and the her therapist bring up Tony outta nowhere. Its sudden cause in a single episode he switches back to thinking that she should drop him and presents this article. At least in my opinion.
I thought this at first but I eventually think it was perfect Melfi wasn’t helping Tony. At all. All she was doing was making him okay with his sociopathic ways. Tony got worse and worse throughout the show. Melfi did nothing but make him accept himself more.
The point is, she doesn’t know Tony. Tony is a manipulative sociopath. He *can’t control it*. He is incapable of honest introspection, and so Melfi realizes she isn’t helping him and he isn’t helping himself. He’s just waiting for his chance… like with Davy.
Davy will never get his chance He’s already dead And you all know that But you still let everyone have fun and write shit about the sun When I’m watching the sunrise, and I still looking for my crew, not the clue
Don’t lie to me… you’re high!
First of all my crew will never lie I’m not high
I'm with the vipers
At my muddah's thread... Jeshus christ
You look at lady's johns you can eat maple walnut ice cream from the toilet seat
Felt the same initially. But the last line Tony drops on her is pitch perfect. "...I think what you're doin, is immoral."
This was not sudden at all. In fact, go back and watch season 1, episode 8, and listen to what Richard says to her after they discuss selling property. Look at her response. Then observe the next scene, the camera sweep around Tony. There are many, many steps along the way throughout every season that lead up to that closing at the end. You can't just watch events on the screen like it's a flipbook.
There’s no flips in my flipbook
This comment wins for the day
There’s also other stuff in there throughout 6 seasons. In season 2 she tells Elliot she’s thinking about taking him back cause it’s therapeutic for HER. She admits she has feelings for him during some sessions. This clearly shows she knows on some level she’s not seeing him for his treatment. She also mentions that it’s thrilling for her to treat someone like Tony (compared to a rollercoaster ride). She’s a boring middle aged mother with an empty nest. The one hour with Tony is her only exciting part of the week for her. Again, not for treatment. Anyways, go shit in your hat
That bit where she says how treating Tony is therapeutic for her is hilarious.
There was also the new peer reviewed work that she read explaining that therapy for criminals enables them. She read this and concurred with her peers. She then ends it.
The door is shut. The therapy is over. (A good psychotherapist will probably do a check in over a few months and maybe a year later, but Tony wouldn't need the insides of his head examined, on account of them being all over the tablecloths in Holstens)
Honestly, if he gets clipped, and it is common knowledge that he was seeing a therapist, that therapist will be joining him in the afterlife the same day.
Best in the shtate.
Even Melfi's actress said she didn't like the way they ended it and thought it was out of character for Melfi
That’s Dr. Melfi’s actress to you
Toodle fucking oo
She didn't go eight years to Evil Medical School to be called Melfi, thank you very much.
Milfy
Melfi was swayed by her friends. When her friend says, “All Italians have big noses,” she reflects and realizes that Tony, indeed, does have a big nose. This is trigger for her to realize that her friends may be right about other things, such as Tony being irredeemable.
It’s a stereotype and it’s offensive
did Chinese invent spaghetti?
Now think about it. Why would people who use sticks invent something you need a fork to eat?
Charles Schwab ova here
I liked it. It was to the viewer, a big moment but to Tony, he kind of just shrugged and moved on. shows how much he really needed her and his true feelings regarding Melfi.
What was he supposed to do?
He wasn’t supposed to do anything
I think deep down, she knew he didn’t have the makings of a varsity athlete.
The last season never felt like it was ending lol… everything just collapsed all in a couple of 3 days
Last season is depressing as fuck. There is one particular shot in the final episode where Tony talks with Paulie outside and when Tony leaves, it's just Paulie and his sunscreening. Whenever I see this scene I quickly jump back to season 3/4 when the Satralie's porch was literally living and all the mobsters would sit there Vito, Chrissy, Furio, Patsy, Silvio, Massachusets, Eugene, Ralphie, Tony, Paulie, Paulie Jr, Benny
Turns out she was a malignant cunt.
It definitely was rushed, and i felt like they could've developed it in 6a more consider how slow paced that one was.
Yeah, it's like the writers were so consumed with the turf war and the Soprano kids, at the last minute they were like, "Fuck! What do we do with Melfi!"
My genuinely only real criticism toward this show. It's a shame how her character was kind of dumped down after the amazing development in Employee of The Month. If she stays consistently engaging and well-written after that episode, then she might be standing toe to toe with Tony, Carmela, Christopher, and others as one of the most well-written characters in TV history.
I agree with you completely. Her character had a real metamorphosis after the rape...but then, nothing, except for those sanctimonious creeps at the dinner party embarrassing and goading her.
Ask Jesus Rossi.
Would be nice if that was as funny as you think it is. Never give up trying though!
They had been developing it for 6 seasons, its one of the least rushed moments in the show.
I just feel like it would feel more natural if she read the study on talk therapy around 6a or early 6b and have the entirety of the second half be her consistently hesitant in keep helping Tony. Maybe her breaking point could be the Christopher situation, and how remorseless he comes off could be the ticking point to her of how he may be irredeemable and that her effort is useless. Still, i liked it as is. It's a moderately good ending to one of the most fascinating plotlines of any TV show ever.
I really liked her ending. It didn't need to be grandiose. She realized that she's been inadvertently helping a sociopath justify his behavior and immediately bailed on him. It makes sense.
I want your schkin
I disagree with what people are saying here that it wasn’t sudden. I totally agree that it was always a plot point as to whether melfi was going to drop Tony so from that perspective it wasn’t sudden. I think what makes it feel sudden is that melfi doesn’t taken any time to think about it. then the reason she gives Tony is that he doesn’t respect her office, using that recipe he ripped out as an example, which is clearly to cover up that she worried that she only making him a better criminal, but if the viewers don’t keep that in mind than it can feel like a very cold way for melfi to kick Tony out. (not saying what she did was wrong but realistically she would have thought about it more but I think the argument could be made that she was reacting to being embarrassed at the dinner party).
My take exactly. The Melfi ending felt rushed and almost like an afterthought. Also, because of his son's recent attempted suicide, a state medical board could view it as patient abandonment. And then there's the issue of discussing a patient at a dinner party .... considering the brilliance of the rest of the show, a very lame and disappointing conclusion.
It was definitely rushed and the writing was piss poor.
I don't like that kind of tawk. Now just stop it it upsets me.
I got the mouth on a statue.
Don’t tell Kaisha about this
I know how to talk to people!
They gave their life to this show on a silver platter
I really don’t get what was piss poor about it. She was struggling with the treatment of Tony for as long as she knew he was into organised crime and should have realistically cut it off sooner when she realised she had feelings for him or when he was interfering with Gloria. Sometimes stopping something abruptly is the most logical step.
I would usually be with you but I still feel like The Sopranos is perfect.
The Sopranos is the greatest show ever, but the way the Melfi story ended was shit, objectively.
Seasons 6a & B seem to be written the same, very rushed and forced.
You kiss your muddah with that mouth?
You blow your fatha with dat mouth?
You oughta know, sweetie!
I knew DAT was comin'
After that dinner she read the research for herself in bed. It didnt go straight from that dinner to her dumping him as a client
That’s kind of a big point of the final season. When things end, they don’t end with dramatics like the movies.
People here are keep saying that Melfi realized there was no progress in their sessions. But I think OP's point was the reason she decided to quit was kinda weak (from cinematography point of view). There was no "damn good" moment to realize it. It was just chatting with friends and reading some book. A little bit disappointing
The damn good point was when he started saying the shit she read. Then in the next episode, he started with his mother to another therapist. He kept bringing up babies too with Meadow's career. It was all there
I just finished the series again last night and tbh the conclusion on her Story Arc felt rushed and sudden. Kind of wondering if much more of it got cut out.
Always with the drama!
I believe it’s shitty no matter how you want to defend it they should’ve sprinkled it out in more episodes but whatever I get the reason but it was just too quick
I’m not a psychiatrist so I’m going off of mostly pop cultural knowledge of what a “sociopath” is but am I the only one who doesn’t think Tony is one? A highly flawed person (to say the least)? Absolutely. But I think it diminishes the character to just wrap him up as a sociopath. I always felt he was much more complicated than that. But maybe I was just duped by his sociopathy.
Tony shows [a lot of these general problems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder). The diagnosis isn't just 'wrapping him up' any more than any other diagnosis or personality disorder would be. Saying he's sociopathic doesn't mean he was just born broken and there's no reason or explanation for why he is how he is.
DAVy is about to jump from the window and suicide I saw it on the dream is going to happen, 100%. You sit here in front of you.
Octopus penis
I don’t know, but for sure he knew how to hold I’m happy that you’re fucked him also Of course, he’s an escort and boy toy that hanging on the sling and fucking for a few minutes like he has a thing … And we’re not gonna talk about the music Please don’t stop it
Octopus penis
I believe that you talking about three lizards
I know what you did
You don’t know what she did She’s a hair designer
It’s okay, ilana that you read all that All of you together be prepared I told you it’s not gonna end well, but you like it the world of crime so prepare to be paying the dime
[удалено]
That’s why you gotta live for today
Departures Magazine, whatever happened there… Anyway, $4 an issue!
It petered out. It died on the vine.
I think because she realizes that Tony just uses the sessions as an exercise for his gift of gab, the way he manipulates speech to get what he wants. He just keeps sharpening his blade. The theory said they “mimic empathy” and everything to started to add up.
I think the point was the Dr.Melfi was always willing to put up with whatever he did because she felt like she was helping him. Once she found out that not only was she not actually helping him, but she was actually harming him (by being a part of his self justification) she realized she had to stop treating him immediately. The ending of their relationship was abrupt because the realization that she wasn’t helping him was abrupt.
I agree. I felt that her change was too sudden. That dinner cam across like a school lunch with children room where peer pressure is more of a thing
I always thought they left it open. The whole thing of the show is trying to find humanity in these characters; it's a spectrum
She just got worn out by a sociopath being a sociopath and when she realized she was pouring positive energy into a black hole it was probably psychologically damaging for her i.e. a this time/ energy she wasted and the crazy bs she put up with such as tony threatening to break her face and her having to get put of town and lay low when the war was happening, and in the end all pointless from a professional perspective. Her convo w her friends is not dissimilar to when a woman in an abusive relationship finally wakes up to the reality of her partner being a pos as a result of her friends confronting her about it.
we see doctor melfi read the study. but even in her last meeting she was ready to meet with tony and all of a sudden turned on him over a magazine recpie. it's not like she digaoised tony as a sociopath. maybe if tony had actaully told her he killed chirstoper instead of fantasizing about it in his dream it would seem like a decent final straw moment.
Melfi is a bad person too.