A big gamble on 'Sopranos' ending

[Brian Damage]

By DAVID BIANCULLI
DAILY NEWS TELEVISION CRITIC

Tuesday, May 1st 2007, 4:00 AM


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Tony (James Gandolfini, l.) is increasingly suspicious of his crew, including Paulie (Tony Sirico), as the series winds down.

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Sunday's episode of "The Sopranos" betrayed the characters, and everything the HBO series usually works so hard to present.

On a show whose greatest strength is its subtlety, and what its characters take great pains not to reveal, this latest episode spelled things out like a grammar-school primer.

So let me spell something out, just as obviously.

Only five episodes remain until "The Sopranos" is as dead as Vito, Adriana and Big *****. Fans of the show have waited years, literally, for series creator David Chase to dole out an ending to the story of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano.

And when you can count on one hand the hours that are left, you ought to be able to count on them being great. Or, at least, good.

Sunday's episode, repeated tonight at 10 on HBO, was not. Not even close. It didn't propel the story forward, unless you count a bit more jockeying between Tony and newly crowned New York boss Phil Leotardo, or the sudden unhappiness of Tony's son, A.J. - stories that may somehow intersect, if either Tony or Phil decide for some reason to target the other.

What it did do was give Tony a suddenly out-of-control gambling problem, something never established in all these years on "The Sopranos." His sudden large losses led, in turn, to Tony's confrontation with Carmela and his nasty alienation of Hesh. Anger seemed to come from nowhere, and return there just as quickly.

Even less justified was Dr. Melfi's scolding of Tony out of the blue, and the entire story involving Vito's rebellious son, whose public defecation scene had much more shock value than redeeming value.

Nothing was so shocking, though, as the weary, distrustful way Tony described some of his loyal lieutenants to Hesh, just before turning on Hesh, too.

"I look at my key guys," Tony confided, speaking of Paulie, Christopher and Bobby, and overlooking Silvio entirely. "What's No.1 on their agenda, you know? They're all f-ing murderers, for God's sake."

Well, Tony knew that. Tony's a murderer himself, an obvious irony. Too obvious, in fact. Tony's strength is that he thinks a lot more than he says.

What made the previous week's boat trip between Paulie and Tony so powerful was that we knew what each man was thinking, but nothing was stated.

At this point in the journey, we neither need nor want signposts. We want to get somewhere, and fast. If we see Vito's kid one more time, that'll be a clear sign of danger ahead.

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