Lorraine Bracco AKA Dr. Jennifer Melfi recently joined her co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steven Schirripa on the ‘Talking Sopranos’ podcast, and revealed that she wasn’t particularly happy with her character’s exit and final interaction with Tony Soprano.

Dr. Melfi’s final moment is at a dinner party during which a study that claims sociopaths take advantage of talk therapy comes up in conversation. She thinks long and hard about the study and quickly ends her professional relationship with Tony Soprano. Here’s how Bracco reflects on it…

I remember being upset [with] the direction that [creator David Chase] was bringing Melfi. I just felt like he wanted me to get rid of [Tony]. I felt that he did it in a very abrupt way. I don’t think that she should have done it that way.

I would have liked for it to have been more meaningful. I think she cared for Tony. Even though he was a f – – k-up and he was never going to really straighten out. But I think she really cared for him. You don’t spend seven years with someone and [then] discard them. I felt bad about that.

She does have a point. It did seem a bit abrupt after all those years and things they went through together that Dr. Melfi would just ditch Tony Soprano after seeing an article that suggested sociopaths like Tony used talk therapy to become more skilled manipulators. Initially I didn’t see it that way though. It felt like Dr. Melfi already knew this about Tony on some level and just finally accepted the truth; that Tony’s a sociopathic criminal who she had been inadvertently assisting all these years.

She added that she wanted Tony to be defensive and confront her about the study’s topic:

Wouldn’t that have been great for him to have said that to her? ‘F – – k you. I am doing what I am doing. I don’t care what you say to me. I don’t care morally where you want to guide me.’ I think that would have been powerful.

Yeah, maybe that would have been better. But I think the last thing anyone needs is more gripes with how The Sopranos ended, especially after all these years and how unbelievably boring and disappointing The Many Saints of Newark was. Still, many great moments to relive in the scenes involving Tony & Melfi. Here are some of the best: