I was always mad that David Chase seemed to take on a "hollier than thou" stance about his pile of "unsolved mysteries," always saying "life doesn't always have closure."
Because, actually, life has a LOT of closure. Weddings, divorces, school graduations, funerals, getting fired, etc.
You have to figure that, in "real life," the fate of the Russian would have mattered.
EITHER:
He died in the woods, and his body would be found eventually -- when the snow thawed at the latest. And his Russian friend and boss would investigate.
OR:
He survived, and returned to his Russian friend and boss -- and told his story of what happened. Which means Tony and his boys would have big trouble in Seasons Four and Five, at least.
In short, in real life, something would have happened to bring the Russian story to more chapters, and then to closure.
I seem to recall Dr. Melfi actually seeing the photo of the man who raped her as "Employee of the Month" at a pizza parlor. Even if she didn't tell Tony, and even if the cops could not prove anything -- she'd keep track of that man.
So to some extent, David Chase's delight and self-satisfied arrogance about "no closure" was really an indictment of his poor storytelling skills at crucial junctures in The Sopranos.
Don't even get me started about that ending....
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TTech (67)
7 years ago
I also didnt like that ending now that I think about it. Fine perhaps, if it was the last season. But as it was, it was a bit forced to be left open "like life is". At the very least im guessing some question or information wouldve come from the Russians if he disappeared since Chris and Paulie were the last to see him (and the russians were aware of the collection that day IIRC). And if he came back...well that wouldve been felt in many ways.
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TexasJack (12516)
7 years ago
His corpse could have been eaten by animals and therefore never discovered.
I think he died, otherwise there would have been repercussions from the Russians. But I agree that Chase was an ass about that kind of thing.
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ecarle (14979)
7 years ago
His corpse could have been eaten by animals and therefore never discovered.
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Hey..OK, hadn't thought of that, I'll give you that one.
In fact, I'll choose it as what had to have happened because otherwise....the story would have had to keep going (body discovered, or he returns alive to the Russian mob with his story.)
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I think he died, otherwise there would have been repercussions from the Russians. But I agree that Chase was an ass about that kind of thing.
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I appreciate that agreement. I think Chase was at his worst in trying to defend his "non-ending" by suddenly indicting his own fans as blood-thirsty morons and (to my mind) totally misconstruing their/our interest in the series (not to say we all have the same interest, but I for one kept hoping to see Tony's comeuppance.)
The Sopranos is a very great show and David Chase is very rich from it, but he never really did much after. I contend that at least some of that is because he ended his show so poorly and was indeed an ass -- towards his own fans -- about what he did. There was a lot of bad will towards Chase(though, to be fair, also a contingent of fans and critics who LOVED that ending.) Also, it is conceivable that Sopranos writers like Terrence Winter and Matt Weiner wrote some of the better stuff after Chase "set the template."
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