Didn't Butchie authorize the hit on Phil? He knew it was all over when he got lost in Chinatown.

SPOILERS


finished rewatching since it first aired. I guess I missed a lot of season 6 back in the day because some of it was new to me.

I always thought it was Gene's wife who got someone to whack tony for revenge. Thats why the guy in the restaurant had a members only jacket.

But now after rewatching it and paying closer attention, i think my original theory is too simple.

Here is what I think happened :

We only know of one of the five new york familes : The Lupertazzi Family - Bosses : Carmine / Little Carmine / Johnny Sack / Dom / Phil Leatardo.

Tony kills Phil without any commision sanction from the other 4 families. He doesn't even outsource it like has been done throughout the series. He stupidly has his own guys do it.

You dont kill a NY boss, especially from NJ which was considered a small time glorified outfit in the eyes of NY.

I think the four other families ordered the hit on Tony. This solves two things - revenge on whacking Phil without approval (and in front of his family), and killing Tony kills the RICO case as NJ/NY have a lot of ties w/ construction projects. If Tony flips, then NY is in big trouble.

But the twist is ................... Patsy and Paulie are in on it!

Paulie always wanted to be close to NY and at one time was considering changing sides. He tells Johnny Sack about the Ginny Sack joke Ralph says and is always close to Johnny Sack. Tony figures this out at the end and almost kills Paulie on the boat but changes his mind. He gives Paulie the Aprile crew job which Paulie doesn't want because its cursed. Paulie is probably pissed he gets passed over as capo by Bobby who is a clown for most of athe series and a driver for Junior. When the NY crew have a sitdown to plan the Sorpano hit, Butchie clearly says don't go after Paulie. And one of the NY crew is making fun of Bobby being a capo as he's considered a cheafur driver to Junior. And later when they have a sitdown with little carmine, Paule shakes Butchie's hand behind Tonys' back.

Patsy - he knows Tony killed his twin brother Spoons. He holds his tounge. At the end, his son is going to marry Tony's daughter. In that meeting where Patsy's family is meeting Tony's familes, he and his wife knows Tony is dead. That's why his wife fucks up the simple long face horse joke. It's the most easiest joke to tell but she is super nervous. Tony brings up their other son Jason and how Carlo's Jason was arrested and Carlo flipped on Tony to save his son. Implying Patsy may do the same thing. Patsy makes sure his wife changes the subject. The mere thought of Tony suspecting Patsy flipping to save his own son is enough to get him killed. Patsy now is more closer than ever to Tony with his son marrying Meadow. He has to act fast to save his own skin.

So Patsy probably works with Butchie to tell them where Tony will be that night. Probably got the info from his son as he knows the Sorpanos dinner plans from Meadow. He knows NY is going to off Tony anyway so he makes a deal by offering them that information.

Aftermath : Paulie and/or Patsy are now head of the NJ crew which is decimated and now owned by NY. NY owns all of NJ and they have a puppet w/ Paulie who was a complete fuck up and only thing he did well was take orders. Patsy was the only competent guy in Tony's crew and he has the makings of a boss or a 2nd like Silvio. Patsy can be counted on by the NY crew. NY is in a win - win situation with either of the two under them.

What do you guys think?

I think you could have saved time by copy and pasting that reddit theory instead of passing it off as your own.

The only correct answer is whatever David Chase thinks. It's his made up story. It's in his head. If he doesn't know, then who cares? It isn't like JLN is going to produce a proper closure.

.then one great episode( Pine Barrens)

"Pine Barrens" is the worst episode in the entire series. Almost an hour of just Christopher and Paulie freezing their asses off and bitching at each other.

.then one great episode( Pine Barrens)

When it's all said and done, I'm still a little pissed about Christopher being dead. Most interesting character in the history of television

What? How is he the most interesting in history?

Every thing he did was interesting. Good, bad, indifferent. For fucksake, he even went to hell. Packed a lot of life into 30 years.

silvio lied to tony about stealing from the esplanade construction site.

"the timelines were off"

Sil fucking with the esplanade job site via Patsy (ha!) was him testing Tony after he (Tony) elevated Christopher to run Paulie's crew while Paulie was in the jail on that gun charge. Silvio appeared to think that Tony was playing favorites with Chrissy and excusing his bad behavior, even as the new leader of Paulie's crew (bringing up Chris' "Napoleon thing", being visibly frustrated with an elated Christopher after the dinner announcing his promotion, Sil tossing in "that's the way certain people want it" in announcing the promotion). In response, Silvio apparently felt that he could make a little easy cash and show Tony that his anointing of Christopher as the "Hair Apparent" could create resentment among people in the family. It was like a test, and Tony's meeting with Sil in the basement at the end of the episode was him passing.

Also, oddly enough, Silvio wasn't even supposed to be the one doing all that. The job-site pilfering plot line was meant to be for Paulie, but Tony Sirico was recovering from back surgery during much of the filming for that season, and was unable to perform, so a bunch of stuff that was supposed to be for him got shuffled around to other members of the family. Silvio is without a doubt the most stand-up guy for Tony in the entire Sopranos world, nobody has Tony's back better than Sil.