I like them individually, but not loving them as a pair. I always thought of the characters as college roommates, but Grande looks so young that she looks like a 16-year-old freshman and next to her Erivo looks like an ABD PhD candidate. It’s not the biggest cinematic leap, though. At least they’ve got the singing…

Which is why there is so much focus on Meadow trying to park the car. Members Only has been instructed to kill Tony only when the whole family is present, as payback for Leotardo.  Meadow's crappy parking is the only thing keeping Tony alive at that point, and neither has any idea. 

In 5-10 years the internet will love Ed Sheeran and pretend they never hated him and everyone will say “oh I was like one of the only people who liked him back then.”

My problem with this interpretation is — Tony isn’t exactly on edge during the final scene. In Holsten’s, he’s the most relieved we’ve seen him in years. He thinks all his mob enemies are dead, AJ and Meadow are both in a better place, his only real concern is Carlo flipping. But the FBI has already flipped several…

Too late, Steven Universe already made all the kids gay, it can’t be stopped, the straights will go extinct!

Bobby’s “You probably don’t even hear it” line is the one argument for Tony’s death that I’ve never felt carries any water, because, in the end, Bobby himself ABSOLUTELY heard it; his death is especially loud and chaotic and messy. Outside of the guy next to Silvio at the restaurant mentioned in amoralpanic’s post,…

Likewise, I really liked that analysis, that we’re not seeing black.  We’re still seeing Tony’s POV, as the editing establishing a pattern.  And his POV is nothing, because he’s dead.  

Absolutely agree with you. In the years following the end of the series, there were so many video essays on that one scene. All of them supported what Chase just confirmed. I have always been convinced that the cut to black meant Tony bought it.

Chase used to say “It’s all there” in response to questions about what happened, and so this is the stance I’ve had about it too. I mean, yeah, he probably does get killed, but I always took that cut to black as it didn’t matter if it happened there or down the line. Right before, he finds out that someone in his crew…

And now you want to see him killed? You want justice done? You’re a criminal after watching this shit for seven years,’” Chase says.

I never really understood how it was controversial to believe Tony died. The entire final season is suffused with death in both plot and imagery. There are multiple scenes (most prominently, Bobby saying “you probably don’t even hear it when it happens” and the one where a guy gets whacked right next to Silvio and…

Hey, wanna hear something say nothing about Star Wars? You've come to the right place!

No. I think that’s why they were called the “Not Ready For Prime-time Players”.

There was a time when I thought I might commit violent, horrific murder if I heard “Shape of You” even one more time, but as much as his music makes me want to time travel and stop the concept of music from existing, he doesn’t seem like a hateable dude.

Is prime-time television ready for the sheer amount of weapons-grade, unadulterated bitterness that is a Mountain Goat’s song? I’m down for it...but is the rest of the world?

That’s a really great catch. I didn’t connect those two couples. Both men embody that stereotypical gangster boyfriend who uses gifts as a means of asserting control over their girlfriend.

That’s a good point. Though Julia clearly isn’t as horrible as Vicious, she does kind of employ similar tactics when she involves Faye in their conflict in order to force Spike’s hand. You can definitely see how she was able to date Vicious.

Asimov and Katerina are parallels to Vicious and Julia. That is a narrative cue that Vicious ruined his relationship with Julia because of his drug use. This is why Vicious can dodge bullets in the same manner Asimov can. Why Vicious’s eyes changed. Why there was a used vial of bloody eye by Julia’s window. Vicious…

Yeah, I always clocked Spike’s confrontation with Vicious in the finale as being motivated in no small part by him knowing that Jet and Faye were next on Vicious’ kill list. A lot of interpretations I’ve read put it all on Spike being completely unable to live in the present or too broken by the death of Julia, as if…