This article contains spoilers for “The Sopranos.”
“The Sopranos,” commonly regarded as one of the greatest and most important television series, has hit its 25th anniversary this past week. One of HBO’s most popular series created by David Chase, “The Sopranos” follows New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano and shows how he balances everyday life, in and out of the crime scene and how the people around him change.
I have recently finished watching the show for the first time before the new year. While I believe that it has some of the best examples of character writing and development in television, one character quicky became my favorite to watch: Tony’s nephew Christopher Moltisanti.
With practically every character developing or changing in a certain way, the same cannot be said about Christopher. I realized that his character never changes, with his blind loyalty bringing his downfall.
Christopher’s inability to change was the real reason for his death. After being given multiple chances to leave the life of crime and move on with his life, he refuses and cements himself.
I will be discussing the show, season-by-season, and discuss the moments that have affected Christopher over the story’s seven-year timeline and show how he doesn’t develop.
Season One
Christopher was introduced in the series pilot as Tony’s personal driver and enforcer for the Soprano family. In his late 20s, Christopher is shown as ambitious. Midway through the season, Christopher has shown signs of depression, with Tony blowing his concerns off as a lack of sleep.
“The Sopranos” displays the more conservative and dismissive feelings that older generations had about mental health in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, with the attitude towards Christopher’s condition being a prime example throughout the show.
Another seed of Christopher’s eventual downfall comes with the murder of Emil Kolar, a manager of a rival sanitation company that was involved in a bidding war against the family. The act led him to suffer from several nightmares. This affected the only thing Christopher was passionate about outside of the world of crime: movies and screenwriting.
While studying screenwriting during the first two seasons, Christopher compares himself to movie characters. In one of my favorite scenes from the season, he discusses character arcs. He bears his soul to Paulie Gualtieri, an older captain in the family, and wonders about when his arc will come and what he will become.
Season Two
Season two begins with Christopher being put in charge of the family’s Webistics branch, using multiple stock market scams to earn for the Soprano family. He takes two men, Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte, under his wing, performing side jobs with the two. These men, ambitious in their own rights, reflect the aspirations Christopher had in season one.
Another big plot point in the season comes with the return of Tony’s old friend Richie Aprile from prison. Richie had a stake of his own in the family and would constantly defy Tony throughout the season. These points would converge when Matthew and Sean decide to betray Christopher and whack him to rise the ranks under Richie.
The plan goes awry, with Sean dying in the crossfire and Christopher surviving, being shot twice. Christopher is rushed to the hospital, at one point being declared dead for four minutes. After a grueling recovery and losing a spleen, Christopher returns to screenwriting with the help of his girlfriend and future fiancé, Adriana La Cerva.
He later tells the crew that he saw himself in either hell or purgatory, with him seeing his late father. At the season finale, Tony gives Chris an ultimatum between the family business or pursuing his screenwriting career. Christopher, ever loyal to his uncle, chooses the former, further sealing his eventual fate.
Season Three
This season was another big step for Christopher. At the beginning of the season, Christopher becomes a made man in the Soprano crew. As the ceremony commences, he notices a crow in the windowsill and takes it as a bad omen.
With his promotion comes more responsibility. Chris controls a local betting shop and has to make weekly payments to his captain, Paulie. This is the start of a divide between the two men, with them butting heads over money and business decisions.
Season Four
After Paulie gets arrested on a gun charge, Christopher is made a temporary captain by Tony. The added stress pushes Chris’ drug addiction. While we see bits and pieces of Christopher’s use of heroin throughout the show, he loses himself to it, with Tony eventually finding out.
After a dramatic family intervention, Tony makes sure Christopher is sent to a rehab clinic. Tony has a couple enforcers of the family stay nearby to watch Chris’ recovery, implying that he will be killed if he attempted to leave rehab early. By the end of the season, Christopher recovers, swearing off drug use and alcohol.
Season Five
A few months after the previous season, Christopher was put in charge of a cigarette smuggling operation. Meanwhile, Tony and Adriana were involved in a car accident, and rumors spread about how the two were cheating behind Christopher’s back.
When Christopher found out, he got drunk and pulled a gun on Tony. After disarming him, Tony was ready to kill his own nephew when their mutual cousin, Tony Blundetto, stepped in and saved Christopher’s life.
After returning to North Jersey, Adriana admits to Christopher that she was an FBI informant for the past year. She fought to protect him while willingly giving information on Tony to the government. Despite this, Christopher chooses his uncle over his fiancé, leading to Adriana’s fate.
Season Six (parts 1 and 2)
Christopher is officially promoted to being a captain for the family. A year after Adriana’s death, he meets and marries a woman named Kelli Lombardo. The two plan to start a family, with them having a daughter in part two.
Christopher returns to his screenwriting ambitions, convincing the crew that there is a lot of potential profit to be made. While working on this, he distances himself from the business and criminal lifestyle. Christopher premieres his film, “Cleaver,” with his original take on a mobster movie featuring some subtle counterparts to some of the family members, including Tony.
Christopher would meet his end in episode 18 of the season. He and Tony get into a car accident after Chris loses control of the vehicle. Christopher sustains terrible injuries, but Tony, much luckier with his own injuries, makes the impulsive decision to take out Chris, and suffocates him.
This character study just goes to show how incredibly complex “The Sopranos” is just by looking through the lens of one character. This will always be one of my favorite shows, with Christopher being my favorite character, even though he never got his arc.