Most Lynchian episode.
After Tony was shot, he was in a coma and he went to another place. It was so well done it even rivaled Lynch.
shareThe 6th season was so dark, tense & quirky that I always thought it made the 1st season look almost like a conventional & colorful, mainstream gangster flick. That's an exaggeration of course but nevertheless there's a bit of a stark contrast.
shareEven with all the endings and closures of Season Six (Sack's and Chris's, for two), it always seemed to me that The Sopranos really ended at the end of the perfect Season Five, with its final two powerful back to back episodes and the return of Tony to Carmela.
"Season 6A and 6B" seemed to afford David Chase the opportunity to "go off track" and get experimental, with his dream sequences morphing into that long coma episode, and things like Tony's late-breaking trip to Vegas, etc.
It was somewhat of a mess, really, but rather a "reward": Chase would close out everybody's story(except Tony's...) in exchange for indulging himself. Including that ending...
Myself personally, I always felt the 6th season continued the natural trajectory into darkness & quickness, given also "The Test Dream" was the first to be entirely devoted to Tony's dreams.
I've always wondered though if it was just me or did Tony and the rest of the characters seem to become more ruthless, dangerous and unlikable as the show progressed? I've read that was the intention with Tony in season 6b but to me it seemed like he was heading that way.