Meadow Mariangela Soprano, played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler, is a fictional character on the HBOTV seriesThe Sopranos. In the early seasons, Meadow is shown as a smart, spoiled, party-goer, over-dramatic, in-denial, and in some ways, a troubled kid. In the later seasons, she would later learn the consequences and reality of life, money, education, politics, and relationships. Her little brother, A. J., would later go through all these phases as he gets older. In 1997, Sigler was cast as Meadow Soprano; when her manager first told her about auditioning for The Sopranos, Sigler thought she would have to sing soprano.
Biography
Meadow is the first-born child of Tony and Carmela Soprano. She was active in extracurricular activities in high school, attended Columbia University, performing well in her classes after a poor first-year performance, and volunteered regularly at the South BronxLaw Center. Since her graduation, Meadow studied for medical school as she was interested in being a pediatrician, but she had second thoughts and considered a career in the legal profession. Meadow was often resentful of her lineage, stemming from a string of failed relationships first with Noah Tannenbaum, a fellow student who was African American and Jewish, who met with Tony's disapproval, who broke up with Meadow after his own father seemed concerned with Tony's occupation. This was followed by a romance with Jackie Aprile Jr., the son of Tony's deceased friend and fellow mobster, Jackie Aprile Sr. Meadow had fallen in love with Jackie Jr., and he made her happy for a while but cheated on her and became increasingly involved in organized crime. Jackie ultimately organized a robbery of a card game in which one man was killed and two others were wounded. After this incident and instructions from Tony to make a timely decision one way or the other, Ralph Cifaretto decided to get rid of Jackie Jr. As Jackie was exiting his hiding place, Vito Spatafore came up behind him and shot him through the back of the head, killing him instantly. The hit was publicized as a drug deal with African Americans gone bad, a story which Meadow publicly accepted but privately surmised that Jackie was killed by organized crime. Her acceptance caused problems elsewhere, however; during her first year in college, she struggles with depression and uses alcohol and drugs. Just before his death, Meadow came to realize that Jackie was unfaithful; nevertheless, she was very distressed by his death, initially blaming Tony for Jackie's involvement with crime and Carmela for standing by and supporting Tony. The irony is that Tony attempted to discourage Jackie's aspirations, having promised Jackie Sr. on his deathbed to see that Jackie Jr. stayed away from the mob life. During her teens, Meadow was both very aware and resentful of her father's criminal enterprise and her family's complicity in it. However, Meadow reconciled herself with these facts and her attitude strongly mirrored Tony's own; publicly, she cited her father's position as a "waste management consultant" but in closer circles she rationalized the Mafia as a cultural tradition borne out of discrimination against her ancestors' social and national origins. Her life seemed further stabilized by her engagement to a Columbia dental student, Finn DeTrolio, of which her father approved. It was later revealed that Finn and Meadow had broken off the engagement. At the film premiere for Cleaver, Meadow reunited with and started dating Patrick Parisi. Patrick was the son of one of Tony's capos. Meadow decided to not apply to medical school and, inspired by Patrick's passion for the law, applied to law school instead. She begins to plan her wedding to Patrick and, in the series' final scene, she is shown outside the diner where she arrived late for meeting her family for dinner, making a number of efforts to parallel park before she finally does, and heads toward the diner. In the final shot of the series, Tony looks up after hearing the restaurant door open. This may have been Meadow's entrance. In Tony's coma, she is voiced by Morgan Saylor.
