IT\'S NOT a dream. It\'s Purgatory.
When I had my annual summit with "Sopranos" creator David Chase a few weeks ago, I complimented him on having the onions to put a major dream sequence like this so early in the season, considering how many fans complain about the dreams.
"I, frankly, would not call those (episode two scenes) dreams," he said, which sent me scurrying back to watch my DVD over and over again, until (with some help from my wife) I got it.
Here Tony\'s stuck in Orange County, quite possibly the most personality-free corner of the world, with no way to leave (a k a Purgatory). On one end of town is a shining beacon (Heaven), on the other, a raging forest fire (Hell). Over and over, he stops to assess the worth of his own life, asking, "Who am I? Where am I going?"
Then he steals the identity (sin) of Kevin Finnerty -- a heating salesman who lives in one of the hottest states of the union (Arizona) -- checks into another hotel, and falls down a red staircase, at which point he learns he has Alzheimer\'s (eternal damnation). And while Carmela\'s busy in the real world telling him he\'s not going to Hell, Tony\'s in Purgatory debating whether to tell his wife this is exactly the fate he has in store.
It may be hair-splitting to call this something other than a dream, but Tony\'s misadventures in Costa Mesa were much more linear and coherent than his regular dreams have ever been. There were important details scribbled in the margins (the bartender joking, "Around here, it\'s dead," or the "Are sin, disease and death real?" commercial on the TV), but there was an actual story here instead of Tony bouncing from one surreal tableau to another.
Still, Chase followed last week\'s watercooler cliffhanger with an 11-minute opening sequence set in a world that\'s not our own, with a Tony who wasn\'t quite right (it\'s startling to hear James Gandolfini\'s natural speaking voice), and only one split-second nod to the shooting (the brief flash of the doctor shining a light in Tony\'s eye mixed in with the chopper spotlight).
For years, most of "Sopranos" fandom has been divided into two intersecting sets: those who watch for the whacking and crude humor, and those who watch for the psychiatry and art-house storytelling. By putting the shooting right next to Tony\'s afterlife business trip, Chase is pushing his chips to the center of the table and telling the audience they had better go all in -- murder and therapy, flatulence jokes and metaphysics -- if they intend to stay at the table for this final season.
So will Tony ever get to check out of this hotel, and, if so, where will he end up? Again, I can\'t say, but if this season is going to be about a moral accounting for all of Tony\'s sins, then there\'s no better place to start.
