6/11/2007 2:37:53 AM

The ending reminded me of the last episode of angel. The difference is angel went out with a clear statement of the shows theme while this was intended for the viewer to [insert interpretation here].

I see a lot of people on another forum going with the theory that the last moment is tony's perspective as he gets shot by creepy trucker guy.

I'm leaning towards the "life goes on" theory, except that now for tony "life" includes paranoia at every moment that the feds/new york are gonna pop out and arrest/kill him.

[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 2:46 AM. Reason : also, the sound phil's head made was pretty much the best thing ever]

6/11/2007 2:45:31 AM

Tony is not dead, that guy did not whack him. Its fucking 2007 who stashes a guy like that. He would just have come in and done it. Also who would even whack Tony?

6/11/2007 2:47:34 AM

lol i never meant to suggest that the dude would actually stash a gun or whatnot. i just think it's quite obvious that the intent was there to make you expect that the random guy was bad news for tony. maybe i'm crazy, but i thought the scene was constructed in a way to make you think about that Godfather scene. i'm not saying that i think a random guy would really stash a gun in the bathroom.

whatever, it was just a thought anyway. that's just what i thought of when watching it.


and i absolutely do not believe the sudden cut to black was intended to represent tony's death from his point of view. in all the show's years we've never been restricted to only tony's view. we always see everything. there is no basis for that kind of limited perspective based on the history of the show. plus, if that indeed were the intent, i think it would have been done a little differently. for one, i don't think that the last thing we'd see would be tony's face, it would be what he was looking at. and i think we would at least hear a gunshot or something...

it's definitely the "life goes on" ending

[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 2:56 AM. Reason : ]

6/11/2007 2:52:47 AM

^ yeah i got the thought as well but its just not likely to me that he whacked tony, and i know thats not what you were sayin but others are.

6/11/2007 2:55:08 AM

yeah, i don't think he got whacked

6/11/2007 2:56:57 AM

They should have just rickrolled us at the end instead.

6/11/2007 3:02:39 AM

Quote :

"speaking of, i hope one day when im old there's not an amazing show on and i die like, the day before the final episode cause you know that happened to someone tonight god id be pissed"

lol

6/11/2007 4:23:50 AM

Quote :

" i absolutely do not believe the sudden cut to black was intended to represent tony's death from his point of view. in all the show's years we've never been restricted to only tony's view. we always see everything. there is no basis for that kind of limited perspective based on the history of the show. plus, if that indeed were the intent, i think it would have been done a little differently. for one, i don't think that the last thing we'd see would be tony's face, it would be what he was looking at. and i think we would at least hear a gunshot or something..."

Go back and look at the pattern of the last few minutes. You hear the bell of someone entering, and the camera pans to Tony looking at the door, and then you see who's coming in -- from HIS point of view. They repeat the pattern several times until Meadow comes in. You see her enter, and the camera pans to tony, and it goes black.

And as for hearing a gunshot -- this may have been foreshadowed by Bobby a few episodes back when he said something to the effect of "You never hear the one that gets you" which kind of fits here.

If that theory is true, I don't think we have any real insight as to who whacked him. Obviously, this was all left unclear intentionally. You can easily argue both side with plenty of supporting evidence, and I think that was probably Chase's intent.

6/11/2007 7:18:22 AM

Quote :

"And as for hearing a gunshot -- this may have been foreshadowed by Bobby a few episodes back when he said something to the effect of "You never hear the one that gets you" which kind of fits here."

excellent point.

6/11/2007 7:54:29 AM

who would want to kill tony? New York hated Phil, and Tony did them a favor.

6/11/2007 9:01:35 AM

Yeah, i guess everyone else in NY/NJ just loved Tony.

6/11/2007 9:05:37 AM

lol...my brother and I've been emailing back and forth already this morning...his take

Quote :

"I think the non-ending is a statement about how the Sopranos as a show has been a Monday-morning water-cooler "what's going to happen next" prediction fest for the past 7 years, and this was the ultimate send-off - leave EVERYONE trying to figure out 'what happened next' .... Just tremendous, in my opinion. I think he orders a cheeseburger. And a shake."

6/11/2007 9:23:22 AM

I can't believe it's over...

But awesome episode with a great ending.

I will miss the Sopranos. Farewell.

6/11/2007 9:31:15 AM

what Bobby said was "You never even hear teh one that gets you do ya?" And Tony's answer was ask the buck on the wall. His question was answered because Bobby heard his. The first shot was in his shoulder and it spun him around. He heard it.

6/11/2007 9:57:16 AM

^ The one that "gets ya" would be the one that kills you, not necessarily the first bullet that hits you...

6/11/2007 10:00:31 AM

Quote :

"^ The one that "gets ya" would be the one that kills you, not necessarily the first bullet that hits you... "

the first shot was enough to kill him, and the rest of them were all chest and lung shots that would have finished him off but left him aware enough to hear the bullets.

and yes, everyone else was comfortable with Tony being in charge. The other two new york guys at the sit-down had originally advised Phil that he was making a stupid mistake.

6/11/2007 10:05:30 AM

whatever you want to believe, chief.

that's why Chase ended it the way he did.

6/11/2007 10:10:02 AM

Quote :

"the first shot was enough to kill him, and the rest of them were all chest and lung shots that would have finished him off but left him aware enough to hear the bullets. "

how do we know he heard the bullets? this wasn't Bobby's story that we look in on...it's Tony's story that we look in on.

DON'T STOP!...

Quote :

"The other two new york guys at the sit-down had originally advised Phil that he was making a stupid mistake."

only one at the table said he was making a mistake...Butchie was on board until last night when he was on the phone with Phil. That's when Butchie turned.


but still...it's yours to decide. DON'T STOP!!...
[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 10:16 AM. Reason : ]

[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 10:17 AM. Reason : ]

6/11/2007 10:14:59 AM

Quote :

"The other two new york guys at the sit-down had originally advised Phil that he was making a stupid mistake."

and these two guys are the only other people in the New York crew. Phil may have been hated by many, but theres surely one or two people who were still loyal to him not seen onscreen.

Plus there the many enemies Tonys developed over the years: Russian, the Jews, Furio, Terrorists?, Melfi... just to name a small percentage.

6/11/2007 10:17:42 AM

Mr. Seitz's blog

http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2007/06/sopranos-mondays-season-6-ep-22-made-in.html

Quote :

""It's my nature." That's the punchline of the the fable "The Scorpion and the Frog," a fable repeated in numerous pop culture works, including The Sopranos, which referenced it in Season Two. About 10 minutes into "Made in America," the final episode of the final season of David Chase's drama, that phrase wriggled into my head and stayed there. It's key to appreciating the final episode, and key to understanding Chase's attitude toward people; they are what they are, they rarely change, and when they do, they stay changed for as long as it takes to realize that they were more comfortable with their old selves, at which point they revert; and once they're taken out of the picture, by illness or incarceration or death, the world keeps turning without them. Which is a roundabout way of saying, what the hell did people expect from David Chase? Closure? Satisfaction? Answers? A moral? It was the perfect ending. No ending at all. Write your own goddamn ending. Tony goes to a restaurant to meet his family for dinner, after an episode showing you that after all the bloody machinations of the past six episodes, life had begun to return to something like "normal," whatever that means for this sordid bunch of self-deluded materialistic suburbanites with blood on their hands; he sits down in a booth and flips through the jukebox trying to pick a song (a great self-referential joke for a show that prides itself on picking exactly the right song for a scene). He chooses Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" (the refrain "Don't stop" expressing the feelings of Sopranos fans so perfectly that I fear it'll be the go-to headline for stories about the finale); when Steve Perry sings, "Just a small town girl," the little bell on the restaurant's front door rings and Carmela enters and sits with Tony. They exchange chitchat -- most of the episode, which was both written and directed by Chase, is chit-chat heavy, with some halfhearted exposition sandwiched in. "What looks good tonight?" Carmela asks. "I don't know," Tony replies. He tells her Carlo flipped, that he's going to testify; Carmela's grave expression indicates that this could be the beginning of the end for their family as well as Da Family. The bell rings again, Tony looks up, and a middle-aged white guy in a Members Only Jacket (so named in the final credits, and another nice extra-textual gag) enters the restaurant and peels off screen right toward the bar, revealing AJ coming in right behind him. AJ sits with them. More chit-chat. Tony makes eye contact with the Members Only guy, who seems to be staring at him a bit too intently; is he an assassin, sent to kill Tony and maybe his family as well, or is he just someone who recognized Tony from TV and newspaper stories? We don't know; the guy eventually gets up from his stool and goes into the bathroom. Is he pulling a Michael Corleone? Is there a gun taped to the back of a toilet tank? We don't know. Moments later, two young black males enter the restaurant. Tony was almost killed by a couple of young black men in Season One; are they assassins, or just a couple of friends going out for dinner? We don't know. Meadow is the last Soprano family member to arrive at the restaurant. The scene cuts between Tony, Carmela and AJ inside and Meadow outside, desperately trying to parallel park. The final episodes of the final episode of The Sopranos, and David Chase is spending a solid minute on Meadow's poor parking skills. Who does he think he is? Doesn't he know we want to know that everyone died or that everyone was all right, or that Tony eventually flipped or didn't, or that the Sopranos went into witness protection or didn't, or that Tony ripped the skin off his face, exposing circuitry, and proceeded to reveal to his family that all this time, he was a cyborg sent from the future to save humanity from extinction? And yet the tension is unbearable. So often on The Sopranos, when a character or characters spend a lot of screen time shooting the breeze or fixating on some mundane bit of business, the non-drama is followed by a beat-down or a bullet in the brain; your attention starts to wander and then WHAM. We expect the same dynamic this time; but Meadow successfully parks the car. She walks across the street. We think she might get hit by a car; she does not. Cut to the inside of the restaurant; Tony looks up at the sound of the bell ringing; cut to black. The sound cuts out, too. The credits roll. There is no music. What happens next? We don't know. We'll never know."

heh...his description of the end was so well done my heart started pounding again

[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 10:24 AM. Reason : ]

6/11/2007 10:20:32 AM

Maybe instead of the Tony-gets-whacked angle we should look at Tony-gets-busted-by-undercover-agents angle. At the very end we have Meadow, the future criminal lawyer *running* in just in time to witness. Recall one time way back Soprano is dragged out in handcuffs as soon as Meadow arrives at the front door.

6/11/2007 10:28:13 AM

Basically, this discussion is why the ending was brilliant. You have your opinion and I have mine. I can't prove mine and neither can you.

BUT, I also understand those who wanted a big payoff or final ending because, in the end, no matter what Mr. Chase says or believes, it's still a tv show.

I loved the ending, however, the rest of the episode was just so-so to me. Things felt very rushed...and that was strange for a writer like David Chase who didn't feel the need to "spoon feed" his audience with neat little story bows.

Personally, I think Tony was shot in the resturant, and not by the last Member in the Member's Only Club. Just somebody he didn't notice or expect before. Bacala asked Tony, "Do you think you ever hear it coming?" Tony says, "No. Ask your little friend in there (stuffed deer)."

Randoms: Anyone hear the faint sound of ducks when Tony was outside cleaning the backyard? AJ and Meadow were "returning to the nest", but like the ducks soon will discover, the pool is drained and disgusting (maybe an insight into Tony's impending death?)

-This is maybe a stretch, but I also thought that the title was not so much a reference to AJ's diatribe at Bobby's funeral, but a commentary on the snapshot of America we saw at the burger joint. It was like the audience of the show was sitting with Tony and the family for one last meal.

-Also, why do you think Tony could be more honest ("I could never please my mother") with AJ's therapist than he EVER was with Melfi? He got more out of his 30 second admission to the new Dr. than he did in seven years w/ Doc Melfi.

In the end, didn't Livia get the last word? "Ehh...it's all a big nothing."

6/11/2007 10:28:19 AM

Quote :

"Maybe instead of the Tony-gets-whacked angle we should look at Tony-gets-busted-by-undercover-agents angle"

actually that is what i was thinking toward the end.

btw we never actually "saw" Meadow enter the restaurant. We saw her run across the street. Then the camera goes back to Tony before the Black Out. Anyone could have walked in the door right before Meadow.

As far as the episode as a whole that was nice stake out to kill phil but i could have gone for some more action. Maybe Tony wasting a few people with his M16 or something

6/11/2007 10:36:54 AM

if you look at tony's expression after the junior meeting when he talks to him about his money and realizes he doesnt remember anything he did/said, it kind of goes back to the livia " it's all a big nothing" premise...like after all the therapy and soulsearching and such, tony had his first real revelation in the fact that once he gets to juniors age, it could all be for nothing, that he wont remember anything he ever did or worked for

6/11/2007 10:47:29 AM

Quote :

"and these two guys are the only other people in the New York crew. Phil may have been hated by many, but theres surely one or two people who were still loyal to him not seen onscreen. "

those two guys are the only guys that matter, since they are the highest ranking members of the family. You don't just jump over your captain, boss, and underboss because you have bad blood with the boss of another crew. Stop acting like a dumbass to try to play out your death wish fantasies. The ending was the typical "life goes on" scenario seen throughout the series, and that point was driven home even harder by the song choice. Chase loves to pick descriptive background music to set the tone for the scene he is shooting, as evidenced by "Comfortably Numb" during the Christopher murder scene and "When The Music's Over" right before Sil got shot up.

6/11/2007 10:49:23 AM

One other theme to look at in this episode is lonliness. Basically all Tony has left is his biological family (minus Uncle Jr), Artie (sort of), Paulie and Patsy (and an assorted number of dead guy's wives and kids).

Go back to previous episodes, in fact maybe even the first episode during that cookout, all those friends, family, and Family that originally associated with him, Melfi to 'heal' him, all those goomaras he got tail from... Rooms full of people. Now its just him, his dumb wife, is absolute failure 'first born male', and criminal-lawyer who may yet become another housewife daughter.

Perhaps the message is "In the Sopranos family, you die alone". Much like his mother did, and Uncle Jr. will surely die alone too.

6/11/2007 10:51:46 AM

Quote :

"the nine episodes of this season have represented the nine circles of Hell from Dante's "The Divine Comedy." "

i picked up on this too.


i thought the same things -- maybe the guy going in the bathroom has a gun taped up in there, the guy in the USA hat is a fed, those two black guys are the hitmen (as when Livia supposedly ordered the hit on Tony).

also, there was an incredibly worried look on Meadow's face as she approached the cafe. despite taking so long to park - or maybe it took her so long because she was preoccupied. she may be carrying some bad news, such as the death of/attempted hit on Patsy who would've been her father in law. maybe the impending hit is a function of Carlo (who's supposedly missing/turned fed) playing both sides.


...but there was definitely a business as usual theme to this. remember that funeral a few seasons back when Corrado is singing at Vesuvio's, the one where Meadow storms out calling everybody a hypocrite. that was her dead cat's bounce in terms of escaping from the Sopranos ethos, as was this time for AJ when he flips out at the table.

i also remember back when Paulie told Chris, "and after all that, here i am, half a wiseguy". that resonantes when he tells Tony he would rather not take the promotion. its also funny to see him flirting with that young broad at the table.


reflecting on it all, there was definitely a 'Memento' (the movie) type ending -- that the persistence of memory (or lack there of) is all we have keeping us going, and that other people and other social constructs are the main/only conduit to that memory. this is especially clear when Corrado can't remember anything, and we are reminded that he had no children of his own. the Buddhists (who made an apprearance in the Kevin Finnerty/Purgatory episode) say that the soul is like a flame that gets passed from one candle to another.

this entire journey we've been taken on is the work of genius, but i'd be lying if i didn't say i went to bed with a bit of dissapointment from presently seeming the lack of closure.

6/11/2007 10:52:07 AM

Quote :

"but i'd be lying if i didn't say i went to bed with a bit of dissapointment from presently seeming the lack of closure."

Maybe one day they'll release the multiple endings Chases supposedly filmed. This is one of those 'you make your own ending' and then your happy with it. There is enough evidence to support and refute alot of theories.

6/11/2007 10:58:00 AM

the rub though, is not that it's a "make your own ending"

it's precisely that there is no ending

6/11/2007 11:07:24 AM

Quote :

"And as for hearing a gunshot -- this may have been foreshadowed by Bobby a few episodes back when he said something to the effect of "You never hear the one that gets you" which kind of fits here."

Quote :

"the first shot was enough to kill him, and the rest of them were all chest and lung shots that would have finished him off but left him aware enough to hear the bullets."

I think it is important to distinguish between hearing the gunshot and hearing the bullets whizz by in this scenario. A friend who had been shot in Vietnam basically said the same thing to me, but he was talking about hearing the bullets themselves whizzing by. He said he could hear each individual bullet fly by him and the only one he didn't hear was the one that went into his leg. So while he may have heard the initial "bang" he would not have heard the bullets whizzing by.

6/11/2007 11:15:00 AM

Quote :

"Tony ripped the skin off his face, exposing circuitry, and proceeded to reveal to his family that all this time, he was a cyborg sent from the future to save humanity from extinction"

6/11/2007 12:04:33 PM

Chase pwnt us all. If only he had made Tony say"

"yo homes to bel air"

[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 12:10 PM. Reason : thats why it was great.]

6/11/2007 12:09:50 PM

I personally hated the episode. Yes, I get the little dynamic or 'trick' of his cracker jack box ending...but that doesnt mean I like it.

Sorry, but I've invested over 5 years in subscription fees to HBO and dvd sales, as well as avid viewership to expect some sort of closure in whatever thematic way it wants to be.

Instead I get some write your own adventure book, a selfish 'lesson to a viewer's expectations' crap, and a left door bail out hatch for a movie if enough money changes hands.

Bullshit.

6/11/2007 12:31:37 PM

I read somewhere this morning about how the ending might have been intended to make us feel how Tony always feels. The last 5 minutes were probably the most anxious minutes ive ever had watching a tv show, and its how tony feels 24 hours a day.

Thinking back, that seems like an interesting theory.

6/11/2007 12:36:26 PM

Quote :

"I read somewhere this morning about how the ending might have been intended to make us feel how Tony always feels. The last 5 minutes were probably the most anxious minutes ive ever had watching a tv show, and its how tony feels 24 hours a day."

Ding ding ding.

6/11/2007 12:58:48 PM

hadn't thought of that, good idea though

6/11/2007 1:12:09 PM

when tony walks in to the restaurant, he sees himself at the table

wearing a different shirt than he has on

insignificant?

6/11/2007 1:15:49 PM

Quote :

"Basically, this discussion is why the ending was brilliant. You have your opinion and I have mine. I can't prove mine and neither can you."

I've been thinking non-stop about the ending since last night. That's what's so genius about it!

6/11/2007 1:17:33 PM

I just saw this posted on deadspin.com, the sports blog. It's an interesting theory...I don't know if it's true or not:


UPDATE: If you REALLY want some closure, here's a theory circulating on the HBO boards that has some validity:

"I tried to post this on the forum; however, my internet is lame here at work, anyway... posted at the HBO boards:

"So here is what I found out. The guy at the bar is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident. Absolutely Genius!!!! David Chase is truly rewarding the true fans who pay attention to detail.

So the point would have been that life continues and we may never know the end of the Sopranos. But if you pay attention to the history, you will find that all the answers lie in the characters in the restaurant. The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (was that season 2 or 3?)."



--I think this is prob. bogus, but, hey, adding a little more fuel to the fire

[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 1:41 PM. Reason : yo]

6/11/2007 1:30:02 PM

were they ghosts then? One of the black hitmen fatally shot the other hitman during the hit on tony during season 1. I don't think they looked remotely similar though.

directors often use the same actors for multiple roles just because they are available to work and already have a history with the set.

6/11/2007 1:43:36 PM

^ i think he was imagining those people. sort of thinking about all the guys he has to look out for.

6/11/2007 1:54:39 PM

^^ Doesn't appear to be right

the guys listed for some of those roles:

Paolo Colandrea (Man in Members Only Jacket - the Italian who goes into the bathroom)
Jimmy Spadola (Man in Diner)
Du Kelly (African American Man #1 in Diner)
Sharrieff Pugh (African American Man #2 in Diner)
Patrick Joseph Connolly (Truck Driver in Diner)

The first few guys aren't found on IMDB. Sharrief Pugh is listed, but he has never been on the Soprano's before this. There are a bunch of entries for the last guy, but again, none of them were ever on the Soprano's

6/11/2007 2:14:21 PM

Also circulating the internets is that there were two feeds of the ending of the show...some people's last shot was of Tony (which was mine), a lot of others are claiming that they saw Meadow as the last shot.

Which was yours?

[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 2:33 PM. Reason : edit]

6/11/2007 2:27:51 PM

man it happened all so fast i dunno what i saw

i'll be watching it at least 3 more times this week

6/11/2007 2:30:41 PM

meadow

6/11/2007 2:35:11 PM

tony

6/11/2007 2:38:02 PM

Quote :

"An ending befitting genius of 'Sopranos' Tim Goodman Monday, June 11, 2007 No, your cable -- or satellite -- didn't go out. The ending of "The Sopranos" was both perfect and annoying as creator David Chase chose, once again, to upend the conventions of television by cutting (not fading) to black at an unpredictable, tension-filled moment. Just like that, it was over. No doubt millions of people around the country leapt to their feet, thinking that the worst possible technical glitch had occurred at the worst possible time. But this was no "gotcha" moment from Chase, who created and nurtured one of the greatest series in television history; it was a director's choice that was something close to perfect. He gave a gift to critics who wished that "The Sopranos" would just end, without melodrama or crisply tied-up storylines, but more like a camera shutting off. And it did. That it was a pivotal scene, replete with a tense tease worthy of repeated viewings, will only ratchet up some people's annoyance. In an episode that opened like so many "Sopranos" episodes in this final season -- with Tony waking up in bed -- there was an ever-so-slight release of pressure at first. Tony Soprano, hiding out in a safe house after the New York family led by Phil Leotardo waged war on Tony's New Jersey family, woke up alive. A lot of "Sopranos" fans thought an all-out assault on the safe house would kick off the episode, perhaps led by a tip from a rat in Tony's crew. Wrong. But just because Tony woke up alive didn't mean he'd survive. And the final "Sopranos" episode never had much in the way of taut, agitating moments. A peace was brokered with New York, Phil was killed (an ordinary whacking followed by a brutal scene where his head is crushed under a car tire), and all that is eventually left is the almost predictable news that the feds had flipped a member of Tony's crew and were typing up subpoenas at a furious pace. Chase had always let Tony talk freely of what happens to mobsters -- most end up in jail, the others dead. Period. But that didn't stop fans from thinking up elaborate, often far-fetched endings. Though Tony was fearful of what the feds had and what a member of his crew -- Carlo -- could supply them, his attorney said flatly that trials are made to be won. So viewers were left with a major unanswered question -- does Tony go to jail or get off? But that's nothing at all like the question all viewers had on their minds as they entered this last hour -- will Tony live or die? Jail? Who cares? This was a matter of life and death. And that, precisely, is what Chase preyed on in the finale (which he wrote and directed). As Tony met his family -- each one driving separately -- at a diner, there was an ominous sense of doom. Tony, alone at a booth, flipped through the counter jukebox and selected, appropriately enough, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." (Music and the lyrics of the songs chosen by Chase have been an integral part of "The Sopranos," and this was no different.) But viewers, wary that something could still happen to Tony -- and no doubt moved to the edge of their seats by the dramatic score that preceded Journey -- had to bear witness to Tony looking up, vulnerable, every time the door to the diner slammed open. It was maddening. First, Carmela (though there was a glimpse of a woman who looked like Tony's sister Janice, and a large number of fans thought she'd be the one to off Tony), then, later, son A.J. Except when A.J. arrived, he was slightly behind a man who looked for all the world like he was there to hit Tony. The man sat at the counter and periodically eyed Tony and his family. The tension rose -- highlighted by a beautifully choreographed scene where daughter Meadow arrives but has all kinds of trouble double-parking out front, which prolongs the scene. Is she going to walk in just as the guy at the counter kills her father or slaughters her family? Will Meadow be the one to survive? Before she enters the diner -- still parking, in an excruciating but now somehow funny scene -- the man at the counter walks toward Tony and then ... passes. He heads to the bathroom. Next in the door -- another two characters who could be hired thugs. But no. Then, finally, the camera slowed as Meadow marches across the street to the diner, and we see Tony looking down, the sound of the door pushed open is heard, he raises his head (apparently seeing Meadow) then touches the top of the counter jukebox just as Journey singer Steve Perry says, "Don't stop ..." -- and the screen goes shockingly to black, with no sound whatsoever. The end. It was like Tony hit the snooze button on an alarm clock. And in some way, he did. Our glimpse into the lives of the Soprano family ended in that instant. But the implication is that life for Tony Soprano goes on, and we'll all just have to guess at the end. Conviction or innocence? Mistrial? He gets hit by a bus or has a heart attack? Who knows? We'll never know. And it's better that way. If you're thinking there's a movie in the works, think again. It was supposed to end like this. Sunday night was not a cliffhanger waiting for a movie. The perfect element to the final scene -- other than scaring the bejesus out of most of the country and prompting calls to local cable companies -- is that we don't know what happens. There is no answer. But at the same time, Tony has his family around him -- and "The Sopranos" has always been a show about families. Carmela is there, slightly agitated, slightly distant. You'd be hard pressed to say there was anything different about her in that moment than any we'd seen in the previous seasons. A.J. was there, having survived his SUV igniting a patch of leaves in the forest just as he was going to have sex (so perfectly random and perfectly A.J. as to need no more discussion). He had temporarily thought of joining the Army to fight the war on terror (a thematic backdrop to the recent "Sopranos" season) but was talked, or lured, out of it by his coddling parents, who set him up with a cush film job and the promise that they might front the money for him to open his own club. Again, perfectly A.J., perfectly Soprano family parenting. Then Meadow arrived, the last of the brood, having finally and maddeningly double-parked the car. She appears headed to marriage with Patrick Parisi, son of one of Tony's crew, with a high-paying job in criminal law up ahead of her. It's not the doctor job Tony had envisioned for her, but he's indirectly responsible for that, as Meadow told him over dinner that she wanted to defend minorities mistreated by the justice system: "If I hadn't seen you dragged away all those times by the FBI, then I'd probably be a boring suburban doctor." And so, we get more or less what was expected, besides the oddly edited ending. Tony's family is around him. Life, such as it is for a mobster facing possible criminal indictment, goes on. Chase managed, with this ending, to be true to reality (Tony's lawyer said earlier in the episode, "It's not like we haven't envisioned this day") while also steering clear of trite TV conventions. Tony wasn't killed in a blaze of gunfire. Multiple plotlines were left unresolved (like life). There was no hugging, no moral lesson, no pat ending. It just ended. Before a lot of people wanted it to, but with a clever Chase-like nod to the unknown. "

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/11/SOPRANO.TMP

6/11/2007 3:03:44 PM

tony

6/11/2007 3:08:18 PM

i hope AJ's girl moves to porn next year when she is 18

6/11/2007 3:14:50 PM