The Sopranos is a brilliant crime drama that follows Tony Soprano and the DiMeo crime family that he runs. It has many epic arcs focusing on a mafia family’s criminal activities. As the New Jersey crime family committed numerous crimes, the FBI kept trying to catch the mob in the act. Throughout The Sopranos, many characters became informants to the FBI against both the DiMeo crime family and the Lupertazzi crime family. The end result for anyone discovered to be an informant or “rat” was death. Ratting on the family in any capacity wasn’t tolerated and was dealt with quickly.
When a character was killed for being an FBI informant, it usually lead to the FBI finding someone new to gather information from. One person who had gotten caught up with the FBI was Adriana La Cerva. While the FBI held drug dealing over her head, she did her best to give up little to no information. It wasn’t until The Sopranos episode “Long Term Parking” that the FBI had solid evidence against her and grew more aggressive toward her. Adriana tries to convince Christopher to cooperate with the FBI, but the episode ends in her shocking murder instead. The original cut of the episode included an additional scene before her murder which would’ve spoiled the climactic twist and ruined what is considered one of the saddest episodes of The Sopranos.
Long Term Parking Is One of the Best and Saddest Episodes of The Sopranos
“Long Term Parking” is easily one of the best episodes of The Sopranos, with a balanced story and a heartbreaking ending. It has extended stories about the growing conflict between the DiMeo crime family and the Lupertazzi crime family. It also has moments of Carmela and Tony slowly building back their relationship after it had almost imploded. When Tony Blundetto killed Phil Leotardo, it turned a peaceful rivalry into an escalating Cold War. While pending notions of what’s to come in The Sopranos led the background of the episode, Adriana’s dual life took the forefront and was about to hit a boiling point.
The FBI was able to hold Adriana on an obstructing justice charge after she assisted two regulars at her club in covering up a murder. Because of this, the FBI had greater leverage over her than before, so they decided to push for her to either wear a wire or for her to finally give them proper information. When Adriana realized her options were nil, she opted to bring Christopher to the FBI to turn against Tony Soprano. Christopher had previously expressed growing frustration with how things were unfolding regarding the respect he received in his position within the crime family. Her task, after being held for hours by the FBI, was to convince Christopher to flip against Tony and hopefully go into witness protection with her.
When Adriana comes home to Christopher, she breaks the news to him about being an FBI informant, and Christopher’s thoughts spin out of control. Christopher’s first reaction was to strangle her to death, but at the last moment, he came to his senses, stopped choking her, and apologized. He feared that Tony would not only kill her but kill him for being so closely associated with an informant for such a long time without knowing about it. After a night of convincing, Adriana got Christopher to her side to turn against Tony Soprano and work with the FBI. However, when Christopher goes out for cigarettes, he sees a family getting into their sedan and realizes maybe he doesn’t want to run away with Adriana after all.
The Episode Plays With Deception and Ignorance While Building to a Twist
Initially, in The Sopranos episode “Long Term Parking,” the audience was led to believe that Adriana escaped. After receiving the phone call about Christopher from Tony, Adriana drives alone in her car with her luggage, escaping all the chaos. However, it was a fantasy in her head. When Tony Soprano called and told Adriana that Christopher was in the hospital for a heroin overdose, she believed his ploy and willfully got into Silvio’s car. It’s unknown whether Adriana knew her final fate, but the audience members weren’t sure either. It wasn’t until Silvio pulled over and pulled Adriana out of the car that both Adriana and the audience knew this was the end.
To some, it was pretty obvious what was coming next for Adriana. With Silvio’s heavy association with being alongside Tony when it came to killing rats, it didn’t look good for Adriana once she was in Silvio’s car. However, there was a glimmer of hope, given the lack of information surrounding Christopher’s hospitalization. Given how the episode was presented, it wasn’t a sure thing that Adriana was going to be murdered. In the original cut of “Long Term Parking,” there was a scene before Adriana’s death where Christopher confesses to Tony that Adriana is an FBI informant. Had that scene stayed in the episode, there wouldn’t be any debate about Adriana’s fate, and her death wouldn’t have had the impact that it did.
I went to the writers and said that you can’t air it because then everyone will know that Adriana is walking into her own death. We needed her to go out with a bang, and we owe her that much. Stevie backed me, but I’m not sure about Michael [Imperioli]. And they took out the scene because they realized it was a better way to keep people on the edge of their seats and used the scene as a flashback in the next season.
Drea De Matteo made the right call to talk to the writers about the scene. While the removed scene was brilliantly acted by Michael Imperoli, it would’ve given too much away and made the episode not stand out the way it does. One of the saddest deaths in The Sopranos would’ve been in vain and cheapened by the scene, so thankfully, the creators removed it. The removed scene was able to live on and took on a new life later in the final season of The Sopranos.
