The Sopranos. One of the greatest crime drama series titles of all time, has one hell of a run in it's time, but it's fade to black ending left many mixed feelings, even for myself. Sometimes, I feel like this ending is satisfying, but again, I feel that it could have added something a little more in depth, something with closure. Anyways, my point here is, the plot consists of these bulletpoints:
* Silvio Lives! He survives the coma from the shooting incident, and he, along with Tony, exact some revenge by making a hit on the shooters' safehouse.
* Paulie explains to Tony that Silvio is 'slipping about' and is not as good as he once was before the coma. Tony replies with a discussion about an expensive shaving razor with replaceable cartridges, that although his current cartridge has had plenty of use, it's still new to him, and why discard something if it's still important, still worthy of great use.
* Silvio learns of a new rival mobster quickly rising in the area (played by Dominic West), and he's looking to take out Tony's crew, but before Silvio gets to tell Tony, he accidentally botches a meeting with an mob informant, and gets a few of his lower tier men killed. This leads to a heated discussion with Tony which causes Tony to suspect something is not right with him, leaning closer to Paulie.
* Paulie is eventually revealed to be working for this new mobster, and is angered of the bond he had with Silvio, admitting to feeling like he was a placeholder when Silvio wasn't around, and got fed up with playing seconds and competing for a higher spot, so he played along, and stayed close, waiting around for everyone to fall out of their places, and all the while, building a bigger fish with the new guy, that way he was guaranteed a bigger spot instantly, and able to control anything he want, even with the possibility of branching out with a few ventures of his own when he grew too accustomed to his current positions.
* Eventually, after a heated gun battle, Tony and Silvio emerge, battered, so they return to Tony's place, both have a drink and cigar or something, and reflect.. they begin to discuss gaining and losing friends over the years, and eventually getting to the talks of Big Puss, Silvio tells Tony he dealt with his death by looking into things, digging deep into it all while reflecting, and he discovered that Puss made a deal that was in place to protect him, Tony, and Silvio, his "three amigos". Tony asks why he never said anything, Silvio says, "he wanted to keep this secret a surprise, i thought the least i could do was to respect that. i also didn't want this to weight in on you. i never thought it was the right time until now." Tony shockingly is relieved by this, and has a sigh followed by a slight smile. Carmella, after hearing their voices, comes to the door and says, "my god, what happened?!" to which Tony replies, "tying up some loose ends." The end.
*ALTERNATE VERSION: Paulie never turns, joins them in taking the new mobster down, and learns to trust Silvio beyond his suspicions, and then he helps them, so at the end, Silvio reveals "Puss' three amigos" as him, Tony, and Paulie. This version has all three reflecting, and Tony still says the closing dialogue, which Paulie cracking jokes as they fade out. This is the ending I like better and prefer, but the other was actually the second revised version I had. I don't like the idea of Paulie double crossing them, because he is not a rat, at all, not even in this.