He left a trail of damage everywhere he went. Tony Soprano killed Christopher Moltisanti because he was a liability. Kenya. Tony survives both attempts on his life. When J.T. Elsewhere, Chris opens the Crazy Horse Nightclub in Long Branch with Furio Giunta as a partner and Adriana as the front operator. Tony even tried to justify it in a session with Melfi later in the episode. Distractify is a registered trademark. He describes Chris as a "drag" on his emotions, and "a weak, lying drug addict". He and Silvio then used chains and cement blocks to dump Chucky's body into the sea. The guy I went to hell for," before the end credits roll. His idealism, especially in this scene, was his initial belief that he would make it out of the car. A few seconds later Tony is badly banged up, but in nowhere near as dire condition as Christopher. Season 2 featured its main antagonistic figure Richie Aprile (David Proval) being taken down not by any of the main gangsters, but by a spur-of-the-moment decision made by his fiance, Janice (Aida Turturro). Before the car accident, we see plenty of times where Christopher caused death and drama. However, time and time again, his protg disappointed him. The two are ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution to Junior and leave the trucks alone. He could take this one chance to kill Christopher without arousing any suspicions. However, the inability of Christopher to get over his drug addiction caused Tony to start disliking him. Tony's enraged when he finds out Christopher accidentally smothered Adriana's (Drea de Matteo) dog to death, then disgusted by the revelation that Christopher was high during his mother's funeral. (9 Reasons Why), Why Are Netflix Originals So Bad? Chris' drug use spirals out of control following his temporary promotion. Moreover, Christopher narrates The Many Saints of Newark as a disembodied voice from hell. However, the meeting ends badly when it is revealed that Chris had accidentally killed Adriana's dog by sitting on it when high. He also tries to distance himself from the criminal lifestyle and stays away from the Bada Bing. Throughout the episode's remainder, Tony displays the proper decorum for the family in mourning yet can barely restrain his relief that he is finally free of the burden Chris has placed upon him for so long his insubordination, his substance abuse, his reckless behavior, and his complaints. In the sequence leading up to Christophers death, Tony was being driven by Christopher. What we never knew was that Junior orchestrated. His volatile behavior was put up with for so long because of his family ties and Tonys wish to have a leader in place. Fearful of hitting another car, Christopher swerves and the car crashes down a hill. With that being said, why is it that Tony killed Christopher on The Sopranos? Adriana's offer comes at a pretty opportune time for him as he's become increasingly dissatisfied with his life, particularly in the way he's been treated by the rest of the crew. It is no secret that throughout the entirety of their relationship, Christopher had a terrible drug habit. Tony didn't have time to rationalize all that stuff a few moments after a major car wreck. He also loves comedy, and his SR highlight so far was when his comedy hero Tim Heidecker shared one of his articles. When an intoxicated Christopher crashed a car while he was driving Tony, the boss couldn't take it any longer. Appropriately, Christopher dies suffocating on his own blood as Tony smothers him. He's somebody with creative ambitions, but he can't pursue them because to do so would be to abandon the mafia world he's always known. However, he somehow always seemed more tolerant of Christopher. Additionally, the scene showcased the emotional trajectory he took at making the decision as he cried as he suffocated his long-standing friend for the mutually beneficial result. TV Guide rated him #13 on their list of "TV's Top 100 Characters"[when?]. makes explicit mention of Chris' membership in the Mafia and refuses to let Chris talk out his problems that night, Chris shoots him in the head and leaves. Tony got himself free and Christopher asked that he help him out of the drivers seat. However, Tony Soprano wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty and often took matters into his own hands. More so than anyone else on the show, Christopher was dealt multiple opportunities to separate himself from the mob. While Tony killing Chris in The Sopranos was a shock to viewers when the episode aired in 2006, the show had dropped subtle hints about Chris Moltisanti's murder. Brendan is shot in the eye by Mikey Palmice. Chris marries Kelli Lombardo after learning that she is pregnant with his child. Conclusion. Chris later travels to his uncle Pat Blundetto's farm alongside Tony and Tony B. The hit show officially premiered with the first season in 1999. You see multiple episodes where he reacted in explosive manners and even times this led to a death. Despite it being years since The Sopranos season 6 aired in 2006, there are still many questions about the Chris Moltisanti death scene the biggest being why exactly did Tony kill Christopher? When Chris physically abuses Adriana, Tony organizes an intervention. Head and hands placed in a bowling bag by Christopher, who subsequently helped Tony dispose of the bag and Ralph's body. However, from an organizational perspective, it made sense. Throughout the series, he becomes increasingly more explosive to the point of no return. Tony is prepared to kill Chris, but their cousin Tony Blundetto steps in and saves his life. In "No Show", Chris is made acting capo of Paulie's crew while Paulie is imprisoned on a gun charge, being awarded a no-show job at the Esplanade construction site. To avoid war with Johnny Sack's crew, Tony went to see Blundetto at the lodge where he was lying low and shot him dead, a strange act of kindness given that Tony B likely faced an even more brutal fate from Phil Leotardo. That's part of what makes Tony's smothering of him so especially cruel: Christopher threw away his chance of happiness for the guy who'd end up killing him. The car accident was the breaking point after so many other things had happened from Christophers addiction through the years. The decision Christopher's faced with in "Long Term Parking" had much higher stakes, but Christopher responded in the same basic way. He insists Chris go into rehab and assigns Patsy to guard him. Prophetically, David Chase shows audiences that in Christopher Moltisanti's final moments, he isn't terrified but rather "comfortably numb." In the season four episode "For All Debts Public and Private," Tony tells Christopher that Dickie was shot in cold blood outside his home in the 1970s as a result of a feud with a criminal. We see possibilities of Tony making him his right hand many several times along the way. 164 187 r/thesopranos Join 24 days ago (11 Reasons Why), Why Are Harleys So Expensive? The murder haunts Chris' dreams, and he twice has to dig up and move Kolar's corpse. Even years after its conclusion, the hit New Jersey-based gangster show is still a hot topic of conversation, and new fans are discovering the series to this day. Tony Soprano killing Christopher Moltisanti was one of the most controversial scenes of the whole series. For instance, lead character, Tonys psychological dilemma was straddling between who he is between the cold-hearted Mafia boss, who was always ready to kill, and the kind-hearted and caring family man, the same family man who was cheating on his wife, whom he loved. According to Tony, Petrulio enjoyed telling students how he used to be a big bad mafioso. Frustrated at his low status in Tony's crew, Blundetto accepted a contract from his prison buddy Angelo to kill Johnny Sack's aide Joey Peeps. Christopher struggles throughout the series with major drug and alcohol addictions and repeatedly spends time at AA and drug rehabilitation centers. As a ruthless mob boss, Tony Soprano orders the deaths of many gangsters during The Sopranos, but he's unafraid to take matters into his own hands. He looked at Christopher, high as a kite and wearing a hat for the first time in 6 years, and realized that Christopher flipped. He deals with personal and professional power struggles, affairs, violence, the threat of. Shortly before the shooting, Chris and Adriana had gotten into a fight causing Adriana to move in with her mother. There were also cases of characters being killed for no sensible reason. Mark Donaldson is a film and TV features writer for Screen Rant. However, at that moment, Tony believed that Christopher had the matter under control. Chris is present when Jackie Aprile, Jr. and his friends try to rob a card game run by Eugene Pontecorvo. The TV series only ever revealed a handful of details about Tony's life in the '80s and early '90s, such as the time Paulie Gualtieri helped Tony make his first sanctioned kill and become a made . Furious that Chris would be so reckless and noting the baby seat in the back of the car, Tony suffocates his cousin so that it looks like the crash killed him. But he's still miserable because the cost of all this was way too high. If anyone else had done this they probably would've been whacked, but because Tony still has some semblance of humanity left, he makes an effort to find a solution, and the two of them manage to work things out. As a child, he preferred watching movies like Goodfellas and North By Northwest instead of Home Alone. In the scenes from the accident, you see a damaged child seat in the back of the car. Over 86 hours, the series dared us to loveor, rather, arranged it so we couldn't help lovingthe. When Christopher is shot and nearly dies in season 2, Tony's devastated. With shows that stretch out with drama and depiction of the mafia lifestyle for 6 seasons, Tony is the De facto Boss. (11 Reasons Why), Why Does Batman Not Kill? Moreover, seeing that he could not successfully get Christopher out of the car without further injuring him, he decided to asphyxiate Christopher in the drivers seat through holding his nose shut. Tony explained to Chris that the usefulness of the retired cop who killed Chris' father had expired (and that he killed Dickie Moltisanti) and Chris went on to kill him. When the job is called off and Tony urges him to make sure it can't be traced to them, Chris has Benny Fazio and Peter "Bissell" LaRosa shoot Curtis and Johnson to death while he waits in his car watching over the hit. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Why Do People Hate Caillou? Chris and Paulie are put in charge of a cigarette smuggling operation. On the one hand was his love for his materialism, and as such, his addiction to alcohol was the physical signifier of this. He choked me to death." To learn more, you can also read our posts on why Michael killed Fredo, why Walt killed Mike, and why Voldemort wants to kill Harry. He "makes his bones" by killing Emil Kolar in order to settle a dispute with the DiMeo crime family over the Triborough Towers garbage routes. More: 1 Dark Sopranos Detail Makes Christopher A Lot More Like Tony. They help Pat move bodies hidden on the farm as Pat is planning to move away. Chris is also one of the few (along with Furio Giunta) to know Richie Aprile was murdered by Janice Soprano, and (along with Silvio Dante) to know about Tony Soprano's murder of Fabian Petrulio, about the aborted plan to hit New York boss Carmine Lupertazzi, Sr. and about Silvio's murder of Christopher's fiancee, Adriana La Cerva. Tony was grooming Christopher to become the leader. Why The Sopranos Biggest Success Cant Be Repeated. RELATED: The Only Sopranos Episode Carmela Wasn't In (& Why). He pleads for Tony's help, mumbling that he wouldn't pass a drug test and could lose his license. Tony is able to climb out of the SUV, but Chris is badly injured and coughing up blood. Tony bumps into Febby Petrulio (Tony Ray Ross), now living in witness protection as Fred Peters, at a gas station in Maine. That statement is an admission to Tony that Christopher has been lying to him about being clean from drugs. Chris relapses into heroin use and weeps to Tony out of grief for Adriana. Check out what I found below. Tony Soprano killed Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos season 6, episode 6 "Kennedy and Heidi," ending a story arc several years in the making. This was the type of person who could cause real damage to Tony and the rest of the family. There are a lot of reasons for Christopher's relapse in season 6, but at the core of it is his understanding he made the wrong choice and he can never take it back. He then bonds his nephew to him by having him murder the recently retired Lieutenant Detective Barry Haydu, after telling Chris that Haydu had murdered his father. Tony and "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore) tracked down Matthew, and shot him to death in the back of a refreshment stand in revenge for the attack on Chris. Tony, who has a well-documented affinity for animals, is furious about this and confronts Ralphie at his home, resulting in a brutal fight between both men. The aim was to have a fully realised moment for all its leading characters, whether the result was death or life at the end, like the surprising killing of Christopher Moltisanti by Tony. Q.V. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Christopher's life is worth saving, of course, but Tony's subconscious guilt takes over, and he squeezes Christopher's nostrils until he dies. Their relationship nearly ends a season early in "Irregular Around the Margins," where Tony and Adriana get in a car crash in the middle of the night, leading everyone (Chris included) to believe Tony was sleeping with Chris's fiance. Advertisement. He grows disillusioned with Tony and frustrated with his progress in the family, and distances himself from the business by making a film and trying to become a Hollywood screenwriter. The Sopranos is one of the cult classic series of the early 2000s. What's worse is despite the massive sacrifice he made on behalf of the crew, he doesn't get any real credit for it. He jumps into a marriage with a woman he's barely gotten to know, and despite constantly expressing hatred toward Adriana, it's clear he knows deep down he threw away the only woman who ever truly loved him. Of the myriad ways The Many Saints of Newark adds to the mythos of The Sopranos, one of the most pertinent is the fate of Christopher's dad - Richard 'Dickie' Moltisanti. Notably, Sopranos-era Christopher's disembodied voice functions as the narrator to continue the series' long tradition of using elements of mysticism and magic to punctuate crucial points in the lives of the DiMeo crime family members. However, the background of Tony Soprano and Christopher Moltisanti's relationship is revealed in The Many Saints of Newark, HBO's Sopranos prequel movie. Although The Many Saints of Newark is focused on Dickie Moltisanti and a teenaged Tony Soprano, Christopher Moltisanti's death in Sopranos season 6 haunts the DiMeo crime family even in the past. Any gangster-infested area is guaranteed to have plenty of murders and such was the case in New Jersey and New York in The Sopranos. As sad as his death scene was, by this point in the series the Christopher we'd known and loved had long since withered away. The ambiguity here is also clear to Chris. All Rights Reserved. Chris gets her back by proposing to her, against her mother's advice. Tony resented too that Chris could use drugs to escape a reality that was unpleasant; he was almost jealous of it. As the family's newest member, he inherits a betting shop from his capo, Paulie Gualtieri and is charged with paying minimum weekly dues to him. Tony sends Silvio Dante to meet with Adriana, purportedly to drive to the hospital to visit Chris, but in reality, he executes her in the woods. In one of The Sopranos' final episodes, "Walk Like a Man," the long-time friends joke around with each other and appear to be on good terms, despite some conflict to resolve with Paulie. Chris is promoted to capo, in keeping with Tony's long-term plan to raise his nephew through the ranks until he eventually is appointed boss. One of the earliest examples of this was in season 1, episode 5, "College," in which Tony Soprano takes his daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) to various college open days while tracking a known FBI informant. Hough is a senior writer at Screen Rant. While he did not directly participate in the hit (it was carried out by Silvio Dante - see article on Adriana La Cerva), Christopher did park Adriana's car (after disposing of a suitcase that he had stuffed with her belongings and clothes) at an airport's "Long Term Parking" lot in an attempt to make it look like she had fled. In The Sopranos season 4, episode 1, "For All Debts Public And Private," Tony told Christopher that his father Dickie was killed by Barry Haydu, a New Jersey detective. Christopher was getting distracted and far less reliable, leading to a rift in the group and with Tony. Christopher Moltisanti is born in 1969 to Richard "Dickie" Moltisanti, a soldier in the DiMeo crime family, and Joanne Blundetto. Tony has Adriana La Cerva murdered for being an FBI informant, but Carmela, not knowing the truth, spends the first half of Season 6 enraptured by the thought of her potential disappearance. Granted, its popularity was spurred once again by the release of the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark, but even without that, The Sopranos train has seemingly never stopped chugging. Chris couldn't handle the realities of being a gangster and retreated into drugs to cope. As Tony and his family dined, his daughter joined them at the restaurant all while a hitman was waiting to attack. One of the most infamous scenes in the show revolves around the death of Christopher Moltisanti, a main character and direct relative of the show's protagonist, Tony Soprano. As Tony and Christopher drive, "Kennedy and Heidi" plays, with the lyric "the dream is gone" underlining the central message of the scene and foreshadowing Tony's subsequent actions as the mob boss kills his underworld son to save him from a more tragic death. He initially plans to place the body in a Kolar Bros. dumpster to send a warning, but Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero convinces him to put it elsewhere as it would bring less heat to the crew. Meanwhile, Tony anticipates yet another Christopher meltdown after he throws Paulie's nephew through a window. Tony didn't have time to rationalize all that stuff a few moments after a major car wreck. Throughout this time, Chris maintains a turbulent and sometimes violent relationship with Adriana. The biggest test of Christopher's loyalty to Tony happens when Adriana reveals she's been an informant for the FBI. Ralph then downplayed the death of Pie-Oh-My, a beautiful racing horse that Tony was very attached to. Even the Showrunner Has Weighed In, Show Creator David Chase Sheds New Light on Tony's Fate in 'The Sopranos', 'Many Saints of Newark': Mattea Conforti, Who Plays Young Janice, Talks Prepping for the Role (EXCLUSIVE). Chris is a cousin once removed of Tony's wife Carmela. During the TV series episode 'For All Debts Public and Private', Tony tells Christopher that the retired police investigator Barry Haydu killed Dickie. From a personal point of view, this was a horrible act on Tonys part. When Imperioli auditioned for the role of Christopher, he thought that series creator David Chase was unimpressed with his audition and was surprised when he was offered the part.[2]. Christopher was one such problem that had to be removed. He killed Chris because tony sympathizes with any living thing that's harmless. Sure, Tony had other reasons to want Chris dead. Importantly, though, Tony doesn't realize that Christopher is no longer sober. The final straw is when Ralphie orchestrates the death of his and Tony's horse, Pie-Oh-My for the insurance money. As Tony and Christopher's relationship comes to a bittersweet end, there is a faint sense of acceptance - and even relief - from both characters. RELATED:The Sopranos: 10 Best Cars On The Show, Ranked By How Much They Cost. Chris Moltisanti wasn't killed by Tony as part of a mob hit, but because of what Christopher represented in regard to Tony's son, A.J, and where Tony was on his journey as a parent. Ever since the show premiered in 1999, Christopher's character was unapologetically rash, bold, erratic, and fueled by drugs and alcohol. To teach him a lesson, Junior orders his mock execution. Tony often tried to play a guiding role in Christopher's life, and it was presumed for a while that he would be Tony's successor, but that changed as his behavior grew worse. The mangled car seat is another angle: Tony saw that Christopher posed a danger not only to him, but also to his family, including his infant child. As they speed down the highway the two argue about the deal going bad while Christopher keeps messing around with the car's sound system. As Christopher was attempting to change the radio station while chatting to Tony, he swerved into the wrong lane and in an attempt to avoid crashing into the other car, overturned his own on the side of the road. The episode is titled Kennedy and Heidi and, spoiler alert, sees Tony killing his long-standing friend, Christopher. Tony was even reluctant to promote him to Capo. Christopher Moltisanti's death, years before Christopher narrates The Many Saints of Newark, was thematically foreshadowed in "Walk Like a Man" through Tony's interactions with his son A.J. Tony Soprano Saw Killing Christopher As Merciful Although the moment was shocking, Tony's motivations in The Sopranos presciently link to a song that plays before the accident, with Christopher referencing The Departed soundtrack and playing Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." It's a moment that shows how hypocritical Tony is, because he had previously forbidden Paulie from killing Ralphie for disrespecting his mother. As Tony and Chris drive back from a meeting with Phil Leotardo and the New York crew, Chris clearly impaired by drugs and alcohol crashes his Cadillac Escalade. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OiMsOlZAbys/hqdefault.jpg, Scan this QR code to download the app now. Shortly before Tony Soprano kills Christopher, there is a tragic car accident. (2001), Ralph Cifaretto: Decapitation and removal of hands with a cleaver. Its quite clear to us in many ways that Tony Soprano took Christopher under his wing. When Tony was first informed by the dirty cop, Detective Vin Makazian, that Big Pussy was an informant, he doubted it because he liked the man so much. While they initially seem unrelated, they reveal a great deal about Tony Soprano's worldview and outlook at the time, which by extension explain why he killed Chris. acro police certificate example,