Saturday 29 October 2011

024. Long Term Parking (The Sopranos)



"The highway was jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 23rd May 2004
EPISODE NUMBER: Season 5, Episode 12
WRITTEN BY: Terence Winter

As The Sopranos built towards the climax of its fifth season, Long Term Parking ramped up the tension on several plotlines, providing shocking new developments, and did something only one other episode had done at the time: kill a main character that had been part of the show since season 1.

The episode begins with Johnny Sack and Tony Soprano discussing the aftermath of Tony's cousin killing Phil's brother, and Johnny issues an ultimatum that he must hand his cousin over before things get ugly. This is not why everyone loves the episode so much: the really gripping parts are about Adriana, an FBI informant, revealing her secret to Christopher. And boy, does he take it badly.

This was to be Drea De Matteo's last performance as a regular but it was a worthy one to go out on, and some of her best work. Her death scene is perfectly set up - driven to the hospital to see Chris by Silvio, it gradually dawns on her that it's just a ruse, and is shot in the woods as she tries to escape. It's a brutal, dramatic high point of the show as Christopher is forced to demonstrate his loyalty to the family truly has no exceptions.

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