SPOILERS: isn’t it funny that __ is the last man standing on The Sopranos?

Writers were too afraid to kill him off

He said he threatened them in the early season on what would happen if his character ever got killed. Paulie has a legit background, they must’ve not wanted to risk it

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He said he threatened them in the early season on what would happen if his character ever got killed. Paulie has a legit background, they must’ve not wanted to risk it

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I wasn't aware of this. Pretty funny. I do remember hearing that he would, under no circumstances, allow his character to be a rat.

Also, I think nobody really took Paulie seriously as an "executive". He was just an enforcer, and his loyalty within la cosa nostra could be easily swayed. I mean, he was ready to jump to New York until he realized Carmine had no idea who the frick he was.

So maybe it was "Why waste bullets on this guy, when we can just have him do our wet work?"

He set the whole thing up with New York

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after Tony & Bobby bite it.

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What are you talking about?

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Patsy too.

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Absolutely, but I always saw Patsy as supporting cast and not a part of the main core of characters. He is certainly that by Season 6 though.

Also I like the theory that Patsy & Paulie conspired with Butchie and New York go take out Tony. Patsy was just acting really bizarre in his last scene when they are all at Tony’s with Meadow & patsy jr. And I doubt that he ever forgave Tony for having his twin brother killed.

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Paulie.

I mean seriously think about it, the character that was by far the most irrational, impulsive and reckless is the last man standing. Even the characters that survive (Carmella, Janice, the kids) are destined to have a bleak life after Tony & Bobby bite it.

I guess you could look at it as a cruel irony as it’s something The Sopranos would do. Or you can look at Paulie season 6 arc of finally making the right decision and forgiving his mother (after a visit from the Virgin Mary) as the universe sparing Paulie at the end.

In a show about people refusing to change, Paulie (of all people) ends up being the one to respond to the wake-up call. Truly amazing.

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He wasn't any of those things. But he was a stone cold gangster in the same vein as the generation before Tony's.

I forget the finer points but Paulie made reference in one of the later seasons about how he barely survived a prolonged gang war years back. Paulie knew what to do to survive. He never wanted a promotion beyond running his own crew. He kept his head down and minus the caddy and suits, he lived a pretty austere lifestyle. Almost like he was still in the Army. In fact, he actually slept on a cot or a single mattress.

Unlike alot of those guys, that gang War wasn't Paulie's first rodeo. He knew how to handle himself in all that shite in ways the others didn't.

Those adjectives you assigned to Paulie actually belonged to Christopher and Ralph.

Can you link to the scene where Tony was whacked????

Didn’t Chase say that Tony did indeed die??