What did Tony's Coma Dream Mean?

When you think of the Sopranos, what comes to mind? Casual violence, constant profanity, and a litany of meme-worthy quotes would probably be the first thing you think of. But the show is also known for its elaborate dream sequences that are used to plunge into the depths of the character's fears and desires.

The Sopranos has several dream sequences, and they are all absolutely integral to the plot. In the Season 2 episode "Funhouse", Tony's dreams help him realize that Pussy is a rat. In the Season 5 episode "The Test Dream", Tony's subconscious fears about his cousin manifest as a dream sequence that takes up almost half the episode. 

But the most important dream for me is the one Tony has in his coma after being shot. As he is hovering between life and death, we get to explore his character in a way we've never got the chance to before. In this dream, we get to see who Tony is, who he could have been, and perhaps even a glimpse at where he is going. So let's take a look and see what we can discern from these episodes. This is the coma dream.

Before we get started, I want to address the fact that the dreams sequences are very esoteric and can be interpreted in many different ways. In fact I'm sure Chase deliberately wrote them that way just to keep the fans guessing. This is just my own interpretation, and if it differs from yours that's great. It just goes to show how multifaceted the show really is. 

Also there are a million details in these dreams that could fill a 10 hour video, but I have to cut it off somewhere. So I won't be covering everything, but hopefully enough to give you a good idea of where I am coming from. But enough with the fucking preambles, let me tell you what's on my mind.

In the first episode of Season 6, Tony is shot by Junior. At the hospital he falls into a coma as the doctors try and save his life. In this coma he experiences a vivid and strange dream where he is not in the mafia, but is instead a precision optics salesman attending a convention in California. At a bar he accidentally switches his wallet and briefcase with a man named Kevin Finnerty, whom he bears a resemblance to. 

He goes back to the bar to look for Finnerty but is unsuccessful. He meets a group of salespeople and has dinner with them, where he admits to being in something of a midlife crisis, asking "Who am I, where am I going?"

He later checks into a hotel using Kevin Finnerty's card, which draws the attention of some Buddhist monks. The monks (believing him to be Finnerty) accuse him of selling them a faulty heating system, which erupts into a scuffle. Later as Tony is taking the stairs he falls down and is knocked out. He wakes up in an emergency room, where a CT scan shows that he is going through the early stages of Alzheimer's. 

Disturbed by his loss of identity, he goes to the monks for help but finds none. After finding an invite for a "family reunion" in Finnerty's briefcase, Tony finds himself outside an old manor with a party going on inside. A man resembling his cousin Tony Blundetto says that he is going home and that everyone is waiting for him. He invites him in, but says that he has to leave his briefcase behind, as business is not allowed in there.

In real life, Tony is dying as the doctors try and restart his heart. In the dream Tony hesitates, saying he feels scared as he see's a woman's shadows in the doorway. But as he is about to give in, he hears a young girl's voice calling for him. He decides he is not going, and they are able to bring him back to life.

Now as someone with a doctorate in pseudo-psychology, I can tell you with certainty the dream represents death and the afterlife. The bartender pretty much says exactly that. The white helicopter lights Tony keeps seeing are actually the surgical lights shining down on him as he hovers on the verge of death. And as Meadow says in Season 3, white means death.

And then of course there is the house.

The Inn at the Oaks house as it is called, represents death, and possibly hell. The doorman invites Tony in, saying that his people are waiting for him there. It calls back to Christopher's experience with hell, in which his dead associates were waiting for him at an Irish bar called the Emerald Piper.

This is not the first or last time we would see a house like this. At the end of Calling All Cars, Tony has a strange dream in which he is an Italian immigrant going to a similar house for a job. Ralph, who Tony killed a few episodes before, walks in front of him into the house first. 

Looking into the house, Tony sees a shadowy figure on the staircase. It's very creepy, and looks just like the shadowy woman we see in Mayhem. Many fans believe this is his mother Livia, still trying to lure Tony to his death. After Tony wakes up, he walks into a bathroom lit by red light, again a connection to hell.

In the last scene of the series when Tony is eating at Holsten's, a picture of the house can be seen on the wall of the restaurant. In the connection with the theory that Tony dies at the end, the picture is only shown as the Member's Only guy, Tony's presumed killer, passes by it. It also just happens to be at Tony's 3 o'clock, which Christopher warned them about.

But of course, all of this is just one aspect of the dream. There is a whole other part where Tony is dealing with a literal identity crisis. So what does Kevin Finnerty represent?

Many fans have suggested that Kevin Finnerty is who Tony could have been in another life, but I actually think it's the opposite. I think Kevin Finnerty is who Tony is, and that the Tony we see in the dream is actually who he would have been if he never joined the mafia.

Remember Tony in the dream is not Kevin Finnerty, no matter what racist monks think. Tony is referred to by name by his wife, and the convention has him under that name as well. No, Kevin Finnerty is who Tony accidentally became, which is why I think he represents Tony's mob identity.

Tony frequently thinks about how his life would have turned out if he didn't join the mob. In almost all of these instances, he says that he would have ended up selling patio furniture. And in the dream, before selling precision optics this Tony sold patio furniture.

Which makes sense. This Tony is not a completely different person than the one we know. He is still a hustler and an earner. He still cheats on his wife while loving his family. The core of who Tony is is still there. It's just without all the baggage of the mob. Even Tony's iconic New Jersey accent is missing.

Tony's family in the dream also represents the different life he could have had. Though we only hear them, we can tell that he has a different wife and different kids. Though the actress who voices the wife on the phone isn't known, I swear I hear Charmaine's voice. Charmaine dated Tony briefly when they were young, and Tony often thinks about her when he is questioning his life. She didn't want anything to do with the mafia, so I think she represents who Tony would have been if he married her and stayed out of the life.

Now as for Kevin Finnerty, we know he looks like Tony, but he's actually kind of a scummy guy. He sells faulty heating equipment to monks, which sounds like the kind of thing a mobster would do. And the family reunion that Tony attends is actually a Finnerty family reunion, which reminds us of Tony's other family, his mafia family.

Finnerty's briefcase that Tony holds onto represents his connection to the mob. Business is a huge part of the mafia. It's heavy, showing how much this life weighs on Tony's soul. But it's also the thing, along with his daughter's voice, that keeps him tethered to life instead of crossing over to the other side. In a sense Tony has literal unfinished business to take care of.

Now all this to say, what does it all mean? Why show Tony dealing with this identity crisis? Tony asks the question, "Who am I, where am I going?" Well as he has one foot in this world and one in the next, I think he's struggling with the knowledge that if he keeps up with the Kevin Finnerty persona, he'll end up dead and even in hell. This is his chance to redefine who he is and who he can be.

After Tony wakes up from the coma, we do see him try to be a better person. He tries to take each day as a gift and tries to mediate conflicts instead of responding violently. But over the course of the season, the challenges of the material world creep back in and Tony goes back to the same person he was before, if not worse.

In a way, Tony's experience is indicative of the theme of the entire show. Chase has often said that the show is about life in America. And despite the fact that people often want to change their lives and be happier, the regular-ness of life can be almost too much to deal with. There is so much getting in the way of our spiritual and psychological development, we end up making decisions that lead us to a place we don't want to be. It's up to all of us to ask ourselves who are we, and where are we going?

Anyway $4 a pound.