We wait nine months for an original episode of "The Sopranos," and when the show finally returns, the highlight of the opening hour is watching Tony Soprano play Monopoly? Well, yes.

   It's a great scene showcasing Tony (James Gandolfini) and his wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), sister Janice (Aida Turturro) and brother-in-law Bobby (Steven R. Schirripa) in all their inebriated, uninhibited, unstable glory, as Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" plays on their stereo.

   It also propels the plot, and helps establish the themes for the show's final nine climactic installments: family, legacy, mortality, resentment and revenge.

   Still, even the most fervent and forgiving fans of the HBO series (and I count myself among them) have to start looking at the clock and stop excusing every scene as merely a foundation for the Big Ending.

   After last year's season of simmering, this mixture has to boil fast.

   The first two hours of this final cycle are really good, alternately funny, dramatic, poignant and surprising, but they're all mostly teasing. At this point, "The Sopranos" can't afford to play too many games. It should go directly to the big showdowns, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

   Tuesday night at a preview party at Radio City Music Hall, HBO unveiled the first two episodes (on HBO, the first new episode arrives April 8 at 9 p.m. EDT). The same two, a smaller number than usual, were sent to critics, suggesting that major fireworks, too incendiary to reveal, are just around the corner.

   They better be. The first two episodes show Tony and his New York counterpart, the incarcerated Johnny Sack (Vincent Curatola), both contemplating their own mortality, and Sack's loyal lieutenant, crusty Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent), turning 66 and confiding to Tony, "Being a boss is a young man's game."

   But the game is almost up, and "The Sopranos" is finishing by giving almost everyone around Tony; the FBI, the New York mob, even some of his own cronies a reason to target him or his loved ones.

   At this point, series creator David Chase can go only so many ways with this story. Tony dies, Tony goes into the witness protection program, or one of Tony's dearest family members is either killed or drawn into the illegal activities Tony himself is weary of running.

   If Chase chooses the right path, all's well that ends well. But if "The Sopranos" ends without a savory sense of closure, like one more Russian stranded up a tree, then Chase will have stranded the viewers.

   For now, I still love being on the ride as "The Sopranos" winds down. But this novel for TV can't be judged completely until the final chapter. In this case, it's not just the journey that counts. It's the destination.