Entertainment
Every Episode From Season 6 of ‘The Sopranos,’ Ranked
The Sopranos is one of those shows that honestly ended pretty excellently. It did all the things excellently, really. It had a bold first season, an improved second season, some risky things that paid off in seasons 3 and 4, and then a pretty big overall plot in season 5, with gang-related chaos building up and threatening to explode in season 6.
All that while, personal and family relationships were being tested, and it all made for great drama, alongside more than solid comedy (when appropriate). The final season of The Sopranos was extra long, and split into two, with the first 12 episodes being season 6A, and airing in 2006, while the final nine episodes were season 6B, and they aired in 2007. All 21, all up, are ranked below, starting with the pretty good and ending with some episodes that are among the very best in TV history.
This article will contain spoilers for all six seasons of The Sopranos.
21
“Chasing It” (2007)
Episode 16
Across six seasons, Tony’s vices were explored in ways that usually felt organic, and he obviously remained compelling and human throughout, even with him being more flawed near the show’s end than he was at the start. Still, giving him a full-on gambling addiction so close to the end of the series felt weird, and that’s what “Chasing It” is largely about.
There are only five episodes after “Chasing It,” and they’re all much better.
Not that Tony having a gambling problem seemed absolutely preposterous, but the way it sort of just arrived in this episode felt odd, and then felt even stranger because of how close the series was to its end, at this stage. There are only five episodes after “Chasing It,” and they’re all much better (especially the show’s final four episodes). Tony stumbling into an Uncut Gems-esque narrative here for one episode honestly felt a bit like one of his bizarre dreams, albeit unintentionally.
20
“Luxury Lounge” (2006)
Episode 7
Of all the episodes that spend quite a lot of time with Christopher and his screenwriting aspirations, “Luxury Lounge” is probably the weakest, and it does feel a tad gimmicky. Or maybe prone to stunt-casting is a fairer way to describe it. Christopher and Mr. Sacred-and-the-Propane himself, Little Carmine, both travel to Los Angeles to try and cast “Cleaver,” the mafia-themed horror film Christopher’s been developing.
They meet Lauren Bacall and Ben Kingsley, who get to play fictionalized versions of themselves, and that’s a bit fun, albeit also quite broad for The Sopranos, with the comedy and satire dug into here. The show’s usually a little smarter with the things it wants to critique, but The Sopranos at its broadest is still wittier than most other TV shows out there (yes, even the comedies, because The Sopranos is pretty much a crime dramedy a lot of the time, a bit like how Succession is almost equal parts comedy and drama, too).
19
“Moe n’ Joe” (2006)
Episode 10
“Moe n’ Joe” is one of a few season 6A episodes where it feels like things are moving just a tiny bit too slowly. It’s not fair to call the season padded, necessarily, but The Sopranos gets closest to feeling like it has padding in this particular season, or this first half of this particular season, with season 6B generally faring a little better. For season 6A, though, the Vito storyline, where he temporarily flees New Jersey, gets a decent amount of blame for that feeling, but it’s a bit more than just that.
Vito’s time in New Hampshire is a particular focus of “Moe n’ Joe,” and to some extent, the slowness of it all is purposeful, because it illustrates (in a way that’s darkly funny but also tragic) how Vito can’t really fathom living a normal, quieter life after being associated with the mob. He returns to New Jersey at the episode’s end, and that does lead to the most dramatic event of season 6A in the next episode… but more on that later.
18
“Johnny Cakes” (2006)
Episode 8
Vito gets a lot to do in “Johnny Cakes,” because a good chunk of this episode concerns him beginning a brief romance with a man in a peaceful town he flees to, after being outed. It’s a change of pace for the show that doesn’t work 100%, but it is built upon and paid off eventually, as a way to showcase strange morals and prejudice within the whole mafia thing (you know, that thing of theirs).
A.J. continues drifting as well, getting some initiative at one point, but the wrong kind, seeing as he makes a very poorly planned attempt to kill Junior in retaliation for what he did to Tony at the start of season 6. Things generally fall apart in other areas of the show, in rather small ways, and then it doesn’t take too long for the one thing being built, in “Johnny Cakes” (Vito’s new relationship), to also fall apart. That’s just season 6 for you, in all its heaviness.
17
“The Ride” (2006)
Episode 9
Season 6A has been quite well-represented so far, unfortunately for it, and here’s another episode from that first half of the final season: “The Ride.” The strongest scene here is a flashback, which might sound like it contradicts the mixed feelings just expressed about the flashbacks in “Down Neck,” but the “flashback” here was actually more of a deleted scene from one of the best episodes of season 5, repurposed to fit in with “The Ride.”
It involves Christopher telling Tony about Adriana being an informant, and it was left out of “Long Term Parking,” but fortunately not cut altogether, as the acting here, by James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli, is really powerful. Christopher’s scenes in “The Ride” are very strong, but the other major storyline in this episode, involving Paulie and an accident on a ride at a street festival, isn’t nearly as compelling.
16
“Kaisha” (2006)
Episode 12
“Kaisha, whatever happened there…” No, but for real, the complications with season 6 arise once more, because “Kaisha” is the final episode of season 6A. And if you want to count it as a season finale, it is quite easily the worst of them. You’re not going to run into another season finale until you get to the top 30 of this ranking. The season finales are that good, and all range from excellent to perfect, so long as you don’t count “Kaisha.”
The real season 6 finale is “Made in America,” which is also the series finale, or some might still say it’s the season 6B finale, and then “Kaisha” is the season 6A finale. Really, not much happens in “Kaisha.” It is a good episode if you treat it like the mid-season episode (within the broader sixth season) that it is, but it disappoints if you want anything finale-worthy. It’s mostly concerned with being a calm-before-the-storm kind of thing. And it’s a Christmas episode, too, for what that’s worth. Yay?
15
“The Fleshy Part of the Thigh” (2006)
Episode 4
“The Fleshy Part of the Thigh” is a better music-focused episode than “A Hit Is a Hit.” And, to be fair, it’s not as focused on the music industry as that misfire of a season 1 episode. The part the title refers to is more of a humorous subplot that involves Bobby taking part in a staged shooting in a purportedly harmless part of an aspiring rapper’s body, in an attempt to boost said rapper’s street cred.
This comedic subplot then becomes kind of bitter, in hindsight, when you compare it to the shooting Bobby has to do in “Soprano Home Movies,” a good bit later in the final season. “The Fleshy Part of the Thigh” is also quite good as a Paulie episode, and then Tony’s recovery following waking up from his coma (the one he was in throughout episodes #2 and #3 of the season… more on those in a bit, because they’re both amazing episodes) also makes for compelling drama.
14
“Remember When” (2007)
Episode 15
“Remember When” is itself best remembered for being the movie where Paulie really gets on Tony’s nerves, to the extent that Tony seems like he’s right on the verge of just murdering Paulie in the moment. He doesn’t, but then three episodes later, he’s in another situation where someone who’s technically on his side does cross a line in a big way, and he makes a decision in the moment to go through with murdering them.
In that sense, “Remember When” readies you for – or foreshadows – that even more dramatic late-stage Sopranos episode. And then if you want to talk about the thing “Remember When” is second most remembered for, Lin-Manuel Miranda shows up in what feels like a cameo, but it’s just him being an extra, basically, since he wasn’t a recognizable face at that point, unless you were a big theater fan and had seen one of the very earliest shows of In the Heights.
13
“Live Free or Die” (2006)
Episode 6
Not to be mixed up with an identically named Breaking Bad episode, “Live Free or Die” is one of the better hours found in season 6A of The Sopranos. Vito was first caught out in season 5 of the show, but then in “Live Free or Die,” there is no doubt, and it’s mobsters who witness him in an establishment mafia men don’t usually hang out at, which is what prompts him to flee New Jersey.
Tony shows he has some morals regarding Vito, perhaps more than some of his associates, and the conflict around what to do for this whole situation does make for engaging drama. It picks things up a bit, though after this, Vito’s time on the run does slow things down a little, once more, in the next couple of episodes. But “Live Free or Die” is a very good episode, and the main storyline in this episode does prove undeniably important going forward.
12
“Cold Stones” (2006)
Episode 11
Though Vito’s season 6A was mentioned before as a little slow-going, his death isn’t being celebrated here, with the relatively high placement of “Cold Stones.” This is the episode where his attempts to go back to New Jersey cost him his life, since he’s ambushed and taken out by Phil in a way one imagines Phil probably wanted to do a season earlier to Tony B.
So, if you don’t absolutely detest Phil at this point, here’s “Cold Stones” for you, as one more chance to finally get the memo. The taboos and controversies about Junior in “Boca” were played for laughs, but Phil is well and truly a good deal more brutal than anyone back then, since he resorts to doing this when he finds out the truth about Vito. It’s not a nice episode, but it is one where something big happens (and there aren’t a ton of big events in season 6A, once you get past the first three episodes), and it’s undoubtedly important for the narrative going forward.
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