Two years of growth meet at 'The Funhouse'

It would be easy to look at the season two finale of The Sopranos, aptly titled The Funhouse, and just look at the main action; Big Pussy got offed. As far as the running shorelines are concerned, this is the big headline, but what should also be looked at is what all of these complete characters have gone through over the course of just two seasons on cable's most writer-friendly network, HBO.

When considering this episode in particular it is extremely important to understand where the characters are coming from, or their actions would not make sense. To start, let's take a look at the arc of Tony Soprano's character.

Tony Soprano is exactly where he is in this episode due to what happened in the first-ever episode of The Sopranos, which is untitled, but occasionally referred to as Pilot, or simply The Sopranos. It is in this first episode that Tony has his first meeting with Dr. Jennifer Melfi and being recommended to her by his family doctor after suffering an anxiety attack and passing out.

At this time Tony didn't even admit that it was an anxiety attack, and he was far from ready to accept therapy as a positive tool for mental growth. However, over the course of two years he did learn a lot about therapy and himself. Without therapy Tony would have dismissed all of his dreams as meaningless musings of his mind while asleep, but after the therapy he was able to identify the dreams as subconscious manifestations of his greatest fear coming to the surface.

There is also the highly important reference to the pilot episode when Tony tells of a dream where a "water bird" flies away with his penis. During the first episode a family of ducks makes a home in his swimming pool. The normally hotheaded Tony Soprano looks at this as a very special event, but has his anxiety attack when the ducklings become old enough to fly, and the family of ducks (a.k.a. water birds) leaves.

Through therapy we see that this group of ducks quickly comes to symbolize the meaning of family to Tony. When these ducks fly away Tony has his first fears of loosing his family.

Going back to the final episode in season two, the duck flying away is again a symbol of loosing his family (at this point we are unsure if it is his biological family or this family of business associates). Why would this bird steal his penis? A phallic is often a symbol of power. Therefore if Tony's family falls apart, he is powerless; a major fear of a high-ranking Mafia figure.

It is noteworthy to point out that The Sopranos is one of a very few shows that doesn't run on a phallocentric narrative. Conversely, as far as the Mafia side of things are concerned, Tony is often the most important character.

To further drive home the point, in Tony's subsequent dream at the pier Big Pussy makes a reference to him being carried away with the ducks.
Without Tony ever getting into therapy he would most likely have blown off the dreams, Big Pussy would still be alive, and the FBI would still be building up their Rico case against Tony and his second family.

Of course, this is just one small aspect of the final episode. There are also noteworthy topics brought up with Christopher, Camilla, Dr. Melfi, and Furio, but that's what makes The Sopranos such a unique and special show. The fact that it is a series, it is on a premium cable station, and it isn't a phallocentric narrative allows for characters to constantly grow and change.