I don’t mean to turn this blog into all-Sopranos all the time (Mobster Mountain?), but if they’re gonna keep churning out amazing episodes, whuddamigonnnado? Besides, the season’s just about over and then they’ll go back into cold storage for who knows how long, so might as well write about ‘em now.

First things first – yes, Adriana is dead. I know it happened offscreen, but the Russian didn’t drop out of a tree and rescue her and the bear didn’t jump Silvio and let her escape. This isn’t freakin’ Oz here. They spared us seeing the bullets hit her because we’d already seen enough. When Christopher was choking her, there was a moment when I thought she was dead already – she had the same vacant look in her eyes as Joey Pants did last season when Tony got a little upset about his horse.

Leading up to the most recent episode, “Long-Term Parking” (brilliant title, by the way – a 21st century variation on “The Big Sleep”), I thought I had it figured - Christopher was about to flip to the FBI. And for a minute or two, it actually looked like that might happen, but then Chase and co. sucker-punched me again. And how great was it that they had the normally warm-n-fuzzy Silvio do the deed, especially after Christopher’s crack early in the episode: “the highway was jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive”? Quoting Springsteen in front of Stevie Van Zandt might have seemed like a cute in-joke at first, but by the end – with Silvio driving Adriana to her doom - it had taken on a grim meaning, especially when you think of the next line in “Born to Run”: “everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide.”

Anyway, mail those Emmys to Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo now and be done with it. What, someone on The West Wing has done better acting than that? Come on. As for predictions for the season finale on June 6, well, I’m obviously no Quasimodo when it comes to this show. I would’ve thought a Tony B. whacking was a lock, but with Tony telling Johnny Sack where to stick it, you never can tell. We’re into anything-can-happen territory now, with supposedly only 10 episodes left after this season (though I still think the final season will balloon up to a full 13, since Chase always seems to need more episodes than he thinks he will).

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