Why Was Tony Happy Chris Died? | The REAL Reason | The Sopranos Explained

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:04][Music] So, when Tony looks over to the baby seat and then makes the decision to kill Christopher, he's come to the realization of something that he probably always knew in the back of his head and something that many fans of the show, myself included, thought about Chris. The man is a stone cold liability. He's messed up so many times.

[00:00:24]From small things like coming late to meetings to colossal ones such as his drug addiction. Chrissy being addicted to drugs and selling them means he could land a hefty prison sentence which could persuade him to turn rat and cooperate with the feds, giving Tony up, with whom his relationship is already fractured as it is. Tony knows this. He's known it for a long time. Junior even told him years ago that when a dog gets rabies, you put it down. His advice, the advice of a man whom he respects and seeks wisdom from is to kill Christopher. And yet, for whatever notion, probably because of his love for the man, Tony ignores this advice. Truth be told, Christopher probably should have been killed all the way back in season 1. The only reason he lasted as long as he did, as we all know, is because he's Tony's nephew. But here, the penny drops.

[00:01:12]Christopher's addiction has been going on for so long and has come so far that now it has even endangered his life.

[00:01:19]Tony Soprano, boss of New Jersey.

[00:01:21]Chrissy almost made AJ and Meadow fatherless. Carmelo without a husband.

[00:01:26]And after nearly killing his own boss because he can't control his addictions, he has the cheek to say to Tony he needs to help him out of there because he's going to lose his license. Maybe that would have worked with season 1 Tony.

[00:01:39]But by season 6, Tony has become a monster. He has fully embraced his narcissism and his selfish and sociopathic tendencies. He is to all extent and purposes the main villain of the show, unjustly killing those who he despises like Ralph or those who threaten his power like Junius Kappos.

[00:01:59]There's a level of hypocrisy and irony with Chrissy's relapses because Tony is in part responsible for this. He laughs along with the rest of the crew when Pauly jokes about Christopher's daughter working at the Bing. He alienates Christopher when he remains neutral after Paulie targets Christopher's father-in-law's business. And when you grill Chrissy for his drunkenness and drug addiction, but then chastise him and joke about his abstinence, what's the poor guy supposed to do? What do you want? You can't have it both ways.

[00:02:29]Tony's decision to kill Christopher, it can be argued, was also for Christopher's own good. He's a liability to himself as much as anyone. And what if one day Chris's issues cause the death of his wife and kid? Or he ends up having to do decades in the can? He has to be killed for his own sake. At least that's probably what Tony tells himself to make himself feel better about the situation. And if you've come away from the scene thinking that Tony killed Christopher out of some righteous reasoning about Christopher being his own worst enemy, you've missed a significant development of Tony's character over the course of the show.

[00:03:06]And that is that by the time season 6 rolls around, he only cares about himself. Sure, there is love for his children and Carmela, but that's where the line is drawn. and everyone else is simply a tool, a puppet for Tony's own machinations, much like any random hall at the bing. Tony kills Chris because it's convenient for him for Chris not to be around anymore. And he justifies it to himself with the baby seat. All of Chris's problems and sacrifices, they meant nothing to Tony in the end, and he seized on this opportunity and got rid of a big stone in his shoe. Tony only cares about himself. And so all of that stuff about Christopher essentially killing himself is just Tony covering his sin. It's the way he justifies what he did. When he phones Carmelo when he's in the hospital, he immediately tells her that Chris wasn't wearing a seat belt. He mentions the baby seat about four times during Christopher's wake for no reason. He makes fun of Chris's mother while she mourns him. People are consoling Tony everywhere and yet he seems mildly annoyed and bored by it all. Even Paulie was genuinely distraught at Christopher's death. And yet Tony has become such a sociopath that he is numb, even slightly implying to others that maybe it's a good thing that Christopher isn't around anymore.

[00:04:23]He even suggests to Carmela that she's relieved that Christopher is dead, much to her disgust. And this is clear projection on Tony's part and the entire crux of the issue. Tony is happy that Christopher has died and no one else shares this sentiment. The people that Tony thought might also be happy, like Paulie, are beside themselves with grief, showing you just how far Tony has gone off the deep end that a sociopathic murderer like Paulie comes off as a warmer human being. At one point during the funeral, Tony laments that he can't take this, and is beused to find Carmine Jr. patting him, telling him, "We're here for you." Who clearly misunderstood what Tony meant. The only time that Tony actually comes clean is when he tells Dr. Melie in a dream that he's relieved, unloading everything, saying, "You know what? This is [ __ ] I haven't been able to tell anyone this. I'm [ __ ] relieved. A weak, [ __ ] sniveling, lying drug addict. The biggest blunder of my career is now gone." And he comes close to essentially saying the same thing to Melie in real life. It's worth mentioning that he ceases to refer to Christopher as his nephew or say that he was like a son. Instead, telling Melie in the dream that Christopher was a friend in inverted commas. He talks as if Chris was just another associate, not that he was a son-like figure who Tony himself bought into the mob and taught him his ways. Things come full circle with the murder of Christopher, the killing of what is essentially his own son, his own kin, the original sin, perhaps, which propels Tony into becoming what he was always going to end up as, a fullyfledged narcissist who wants to be perceived as the victim. In other words, his mother, the woman he so despised and wanted to be nothing like.

[00:06:06]This is hinted at throughout the show.

[00:06:08]There's even entire lines of dialogue that Tony shares with Olivia, such as when he says to AJ, "Oh, poor you."

[00:06:15]There was a time where killing someone close to him, like [ __ ] emotionally destroy Tony. But not anymore. Not with what he's become. Now he's so delighted he even goes on to [ __ ] Christopher's ex-girlfriend and take drugs.

[00:06:29]Ironically, the same thing he criticizes Chris for doing. There is also heavy emphasis on the theme of father and sons with Dicki being a father figure to Tony and Tony of course being one to Chris.

[00:06:41]Christopher puts music from the departed on. And this is a film about a crime boss played by Jack Nicholson who wants a son but is unable to have one and he instead has Matt Damon's character who is essentially a protege and a surrogate son. I talk more about the father and son themes of the departed in a video of mine called was Colin gay. But the irony of that film is that Jack is killed by his wouldbe son. Sticking with the father-son theme, Tony's mind wanders to Uncle Junior during the car ride, who was also a father figure to Tony, playing catch with him during his youth.

[00:07:13]And yet he also tried to put out a hit on Tony and later actually shot him, almost killing him. And now Tony in that position of a father killed his own son.

[00:07:24]Tony is an intelligent man and perhaps on some level he felt guilty about Christopher's situation knowing he created it and after looking at the back seat knowing that Christopher will go on to pass his dysfunctional nature onto his progeny. Tony's worst fear is passing off his toxic nature and psychological issues to his children.

[00:07:43]But he's already done this just not to his blood child. Tony is Frankenstein in this case and Christopher is his monster. And on a subconscious level, he knows it is his duty to put an end to the misery of his monster, himself, and others around them. Not the most mainstream of interpretations I know, but one I think is just as legitimate.