The Sopranos: Why Adriana’s Season 5 Death Happened Off-Screen

The Sopranos‘ Adriana La Cerva was a memorable character whose death left a big impact. Portrayed by Drea de Matteo, the Italian-American character plays a prominent role in the HBO series as the girlfriend of Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), the “nephew” of crime boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini). Across 6 seasons, the best episodes of The Sopranos traded heavily in death and high shock factors: in general, the betrayals and tragedies tend to last longest in memory, after all.

Played by Drea de Matteo, Adriana was one of the most impactful characters on The Sopranos, and her arc is possibly the darkest the show ever drew up. Unlike the wise guys and their families who were born into the life, or chose to take that path, Adriana was a true outsider, and when she was killed off in “Long Term Parking,” it landed the tragedy of her situation. As the horror of her fate unfolds when Silvio takes a different turn to what she’s expecting, a real sense of dread hits home about how great de Matteo’s performance was.

How The Sopranos Killed Off Adriana

Adriana Was Killed For Being An Informant

In the penultimate episode of The Sopranos season 5, Adriana gets in over her head with the FBI, and subsequently pays the ultimate price. The stress of being an FBI informant — something Adriana was cornered into doing to avoid facing criminal charges for drug possession — is taking a toll on her health. After Adriana confesses everything to Christopher, he betrays Adriana by informing Tony about her conversations with the FBI. There were a number of informants on The Sopranos, but Adriana’s case was the most heartbreaking.

Adriana’s death sequence in The Sopranos involves narrative misdirection for dramatic purposes. Rather than showing Christopher’s betrayal, The Sopranos series creator David Chase jumps ahead to a phone conversation between Tony and Adriana, in which the crime boss implies that Christopher tried to kill himself. He tells her that Silvio will pick her up and take her to the hospital. This, of course, is a ruse — Silvio drives her to a secluded wooded location and shoots her as she tries to crawl away.

Why The Sopranos Killed Off Adriana La Cerva

Adriana’s Story Was Inevitably Going To End In Tragedy

The Sopranos killed off Adriana in season 5 because it was the inevitable conclusion to the FBI storyline. The show had proved over and over again that being an informant was a marker for death – just like how Tony killed Salvatore Bonpensiero (aka Pussy) in The Sopranos season 2 after figuring out that his long-time friend and associate had flipped. In terms of the metanarrative, Adriana had to be killed as a logical ending to her tragic story. As writer Terence Winter told Entertainment Weekly:

“At the beginning of season 5, we realized it would happen at the end of the season.
“

Adriana’s death also shuffles up the character dynamics for the rest of the series. For one, it forces the audience to reassess their opinion of Tony, just as Breaking Bad fans had to confront the disturbing truth about Walter White. Adriana’s demise leads to further addiction problems for Christopher, which ultimately leads to Tony killing Christopher in The Sopranos season 6. As de Matteo has noted, the off-screen killing of Adriana is symbolic of the inherent darkness in The Sopranos:

“The characters on the show, even Tony’s kids, were operating from this place of primal manipulative existence. The only character who came from a place of love and innocence was Adriana. People say she’s a rat, she’s a whore, she’s a junkie — derogatory words from people who didn’t understand the show… she only operated from a place of light.”

Notable Informants On The Sopranos

Why Adriana Died Off-Screen On The Sopranos

David Chase Spared The Audience The Grisly Details

According to Chase, he decided to kill Adriana off-screen because he didn’t want to show a beloved female character (and actress) in a grisly state:

“It’s the only time in the whole history of the show in which we killed someone and we didn’t show their point of view. It seems to be worse without it; we were imagining what might’ve happened to her and how her body would’ve been destroyed. I don’t think any of us wanted to see Drea in that condition.”

For audiences, Adriana’s death is especially disturbing because there’s no sense of finality. “Long Term Parking” strips the character down to her core, and literally shows her pleading for her life and crawling on her knees. The overall pacing of the extended death sequence creates an off-kilter effect since the audience can’t be entirely sure what will transpire.

Silvia could offer Adriana a way out, but his actions underline the cold reality of his chosen profession. When discussing the construction of the scene, screenwriter Terence Winter expressed the same thoughts as Chase by noting that he didn’t want to see Adriana, or de Matteo, covered in blood:

“I’ve written some very graphic violence for the show and for some reason — and this was completely subconscious — I scripted this scene where she crawled out of camera. People asked, ‘Why didn’t you show it?’ I realized that I didn’t want to see it myself. I completely didn’t think about it when I wrote it. But it just felt like the right thing to do, filmically and cinematically. I think it worked really great, but I guess I did not want to see Adriana/Drea get shot. It speaks more to how much we fell in love with this character and that actress.”

Adriana’s Death On The Sopranos Was Almost Very Different

Drea De Matteo Recommended The Change

Originally, Adriana’s death on The Sopranos was different, thanks to an additional scene that was removed at Drea De Matteo’s request. An extra scene for “Long Term Parking” was shot that showed Christopher telling Tony that Adriana had talked to the FBI. However, De Matteo pushed to have the scene removed since it revealed her fate before she entered the car with Silvio.

Without that scene, audiences don’t realize the truth of the situation until Adriana does — making the sequence all the more devastating. The scene between Christopher and Tony was subsequently included in The Sopranos season 6 — and Adriana’s death scene in “Long Term Parking” was better for it.

What Drea De Matteo & David Chase Said About The Adriana Death

David Chase Also Suggested The Death Changed The Perception Of Key Characters

When it comes to Adriana’s death on The Sopranos, Chase thinks it’s one of the best choices he made for the series (via GQ). The filmmaker commented:

“
When I look back on the show, it’s one of my favorite decisions, if you want to call it that. I came away thinking that Drea De Matteo was superlative. It’s one of the best acting jobs I’ve seen in a long time
.”

The Sopranos creator is right, as the decision to kill off one of the most beloved characters made audiences hate Chris and Tony even more.

Additionally, the decision to remove the scene of Chris confessing to Tony was a stroke of genius, as audiences didn’t know whether or not Tony knew Adriana was a rat when she was on the car ride with Silvio, and the suspense was unfathomable. De Matteo had some input on the choice to remove the scene too. The actor recalled:

”
I was like, then there’s no build-up, there’s no drama to it. I just didn’t understand how that scene would play out with Stevie [Van Zandt, who played Silvio] and I in the car. It just felt redundant
.”

Chase ultimately has endless praise for De Metteo’s performance in “Long Term Parking.” The showrunner revealed:

“W
hat I should have done after “Long Term Parking” was gone to her and said, ‘You see? You see what you’ve built here? This miracle that you made?’ I told her great job, but I didn’t tie it into our prior conversation
.”

De Matteo won an Emmy for her performance in the episode, and Adriana’s death is one of the most memorable scenes in The Sopranos.

How Adriana’s Death Compares To Other Off-Screen Killings

There Are Risks To Not Showing A Character’s End

Off-screen deaths of key characters are tricky things to pull off. While the legacy of Adriana’s death in The Sopranos indicates that the show handled it successfully, there are some risks to presenting deaths in this way. For instance, Game of Thrones is another series that is known for killing off a lot of characters and many of them died in brutal ways. However, the death of Stannis Baratheon was uncharacteristically not shown in detail. Instead, the scene ends with Brienne of Tarth swinging her sword after sentencing Stannis to death.

While the implications seem quite clear, since Game of Thrones is also a show with plenty of twists and turns, there were a number of fans who suspected Stannis might still be alive. Despite the fact that it made sense in the narrative for him to die in that moment, not seeing the death planted a seed of doubt in the minds of some fans. It wasn’t until the showrunners came out and confirmed that he was dead that the theories stopped.

Another risk of an off-screen death is that it can seem anti-climactic. This is especially true of main characters who are unceremoniously killed off-screen. One of the most famous examples of this is the character of Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men. While he was followed as the hero of the story for the entire movie up until that point, his death is revealed as another character comes across the aftermath of a shootout and finds him dead. While many praised the reveal for subverting expectations, others found it a letdown after the build-up.

However, there are other instances in which off-screen deaths can make for a more impactful end for a character. Similar to Adriana’s death in The Sopranos, the audience imagining the outcome of a character’s final moments can be more unsettling than seeing it. Lambert in Alien is a prime example of this. While most of the deaths in the movie happen off-screen, the image of the xenomorph approaching Lambert only for the camera to cut away and the audience to hear her screams of pain is one of the most terrifying moments in the movie.