Bloodbath

[Brian Damage]

June 3, 2007 -- Tony Soprano is losing it.

The mob boss is surrounded by soldiers he can't trust – except maybe the docile Silvio – a family that he can't connect with for long and violent rages he is increasingly unable to control.

Tonight's show is a bloodbath, say industry sources, and the body count will rise, giving "Sopranos" its biggest bang in an adrenaline-pumping episode – the next to last in the series' history.

Every relationship seems on the line. The New York family headed now by Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) is ready to rumble to with the New Jersey mobsters, if only to avenge Phil's vendetta against the Soprano family for the murder of his brother Billy by Tony's cousin Phil Blundetto (Steve Buscemi). The New York family suspects that Tony and his crew are going to cheat them over money to be earned from asbestos dumping.

Tony Soprano's own crew seems to be running out of steam, with Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) literally out of the picture and Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico) hugely insulted after few people showed up at the wake of his mother. If anyone on Tony's team was likely to defect to New York, Paulie would be the man. That would leave Tony with Silvio (Steven Van Zandt) and Bobby Bacala (Steven R. Schrripa) on his side.

As for Tony's grisly murder of Christopher, no one has put two and two together though Tony nearly let it slip to his therapist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), in one of their sessions.

Tony Soprano faces upheaval in his personal life as well. His son A.J. (Robert Iler) has already fallen into the pointless life of crime that shaped his father's life and attempted suicide as he faces a life of bleak prospects. After a promising start at Columbia University, Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) has lost her drive for academic accomplishment, first switching majors from pre-law to pre-med but then deciding not to go to medical school at all.

As Steven Van Zandt told the Post, the chances of "The Sopranos" having an afterlife, perhaps as a movie, were slim because of "what was about to happen."

The next-to-last episodes of the "Sopranos" seasons have often been the most violent and dramatic, while the season finales have closed on a more contemplative note. The murder of Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo) by Silvio in season five immediately comes to mind, as does the season-two shooting of Richie Aprile (David Proval) by Janice Soprano (Aida Turturro).

There's no reason to think the June 3 episode of the entire series will be any different.


THE SOPRANOS

Sunday, 9 p.m., HBO

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06032007...bert_rorke.htm