The End of The Sopranos

I predicted it.  Kind of.  If you haven't watched the final episode, don't read below.

**Spoilers**

Before the finale episode aired, we all had our theories on how the show would end.  My guess: it would end with Tony sitting down to a nice dinner with his wife and two children.  Not exactly going out on a limb, but for the most part, I was right.

Despite the mob plot lines, The Sopranos was a story about family and their struggles.  Personally, I thought it was a perfect ending. Did Tony get whacked?  You'll never know.  Ever.  No way does Chase make a movie out of this.  It's done.  The beauty of it was that it ended keeping us all wondering.  That's exactly what the Sopranos was about, keeping us engaged in the lives of these people.  Wondering how it would all turn out.

Some interesting points worth discussing:

• When Tony and Bobby were on the boat earlier in the season talking about what it's like when you get whacked, the response: "I guess you won't even hear it when it happens"
• Someone also mentioned that the guy walking into the bathroom may have been a store owner who Tony may have screwed over in a previous season.  Anyone know anything about that?
• I think it was Tony's mother who said, "It's all a big nothing."
• Christopher's ghost returning in the form of a cat to drive Paulie nuts was hilarious.
• From wikipedia: According to Carmela, Tony's favorite scene in The Godfather Trilogy is when Vito goes back to Sicily in The Godfather Part II. However, A.J. mentions that Tony refers to the scene where Michael kills his father's would be assassins in The Godfather as his favorite scene.

You get left with a picture of Tony's family finally happy but with the inevitable threat of it all falling apart in an instant.  That's the story of Tony Sopranos' life.

And hey, you can always remember the good times.

Finally, some Journey lyrics:

Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

 

Other takes:
>>'The Sopranos' is history; or is it? [Philly.com]
>>'Sopranos' finale: do not attempt to adjust your set [MSNBC]

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Comments

[xxxx]

Tony did not get whacked, at least not until after the VIEWER did and the viewer never heard it coming.

[Jason]

What hit me the hardest was how bleak it all was. Yes, there has always been the inevitable threat of things crashing down, but there used to be some good times as well. This episode was just depressing: Paulie in the empty Bada Bing ... welcoming Patsy and his wife into the Sopranos ... Tony's meeting with Paulie in front of Satriale's ... realizing that Uncle Junior is completely gone ... Tony being left with Paulie as his #1 guy. All things considered, getting whacked in the restaurant might not have been such a bad thing for Tony.

- Funniest moment: Agent Harris' response to the agent who told him that Phil had been popped: "Damn--you're gonna win this thing!"

- Worst scene: The Sofia Coppola-esque Hunter cameo.

- Journey song: Great selection. Seems a little out of character for Tony, though.

- The final scene: unbelievably intense.

[Matt P]

I'm ok with the ending, even if it was something of a cop out--because it was the most brilliantly executed cop out I've ever seen. So many things were off in that last sequence, yet the characters didn't notice it, which really set the stage perfectly for just about anything (or nothing) to happen, while we were left knowing just a bit more than the characters, yet nothing at all. I know I was on the edge of my seat.

Highlights for me were:

•Phil getting got, then having his head run over.
•The cat.
•AJ's car melting. That's what you get for being a little hippie baby.
•Carmella. This character has been perfectly acted from the beginning. Her handling of the news that Bobby died and more blood was on the way was amazing.
•The song choice. Journey has new life.

Lowlights:

•AJ's turnaround. A very contrived and fast ending to a dead end character line that never made sense (and was poorly acted). Like putting a bow on a pile of dog shit. The model girlfriend was hot, but the 5-minute resolution of a problem that's been unsolvable for years was weak. I think with both he and Meadow, they were showing that kids give up their youthful ideals when presented with opportunity. A great theme were it done over the course of a season, but both kids going from ACLU lawyer/counter-terrorist to 6-figure power attorney/Ari hopeful BMW drivers in less than an hour was somewhat implausible.
•Poor development of the mob family structure over the season. There were so many episodes where new characters emerged, but none had any bearing on the future (like the Asian kid in Junior's ward). Why not use that time to show us who's still standing behind Tony with a war escalating against Phil? With Chris, Bobby, and Syl gone, a boyscout troop could run the Sopranos out of town. Luckily, even Phil's own family hated him, so I guess they'll team up with Tony's crew now (ya know, in fantasy world, since it's over).

Overall, I am left happy though. And that was the end. There won't be a movie, another season, cartoon, or anything. That's it.

[Sid]

the viewer got whacked, that is just brilliant. I liked how for the first time in 86 episodes there was no music over the final credits. If the viewer did in fact get whacked, wouldn't the whole soprano family have gotten whacked as well?

[ColeHamelsIn2008]

That last scene had me on the edge of my seat, heart racing, and also fist pumping to the Journey. I do agree, this was the perfect ending, one that will have people talking for years about what they thought would/did happen. I went in to this episode thinking that they would leave it hanging for a movie, but I think they might have left this with the perfect ending. Here are my questions and thoughts:

1. Why do you think they left Syl alive?

2. Why did Meadow take so long to park her car? Shot in the dark, but I thought maybe they were setting it up for a scene like at the end of a Bronx Tale where she would walk in and see the guy walk out of the bathroom with a gun and she would yell to her father, but he and Carmela would be looking in her direction and not even notice the shooter. Also, the whole guy walking into the bathroom thing is all too reminiscent of the Godfather.

3. Wasn’t the last sound before it went to black the bells on the front door?

4. What is the significance of Meadow’s boy all of a sudden working on the corruption case?

5. How about A.J. basically turning into his grandmother? “Always with the drama!”

6. I have read a rumor that it was Chase himself as the scruffy guy in the corner, is that true?

7. Was the camera focusing on the group of black men walking in harkening back to when the first attempted hit on Tony game about? Perhaps foreshadowing?

8. Can anybody sit at work today without the song “Don’t Stop Believin” stuck in their head?

[e howard hunt]

the guy in member's only jacket going into bathroom looked like Tony's father, but different actor.

[Matt P]

from an e-mail i just got:

A theory proposed by a reader of the NJ.com Sopranos blog using the handle Lorbnash: the nine episodes of this season have represented the nine circles of Hell from Dante's "The Divine Comedy." The fourth circle, for instance, is for the greedy and the miserly; the fourth episode was Tony and Hesh's gambling showdown. The seventh circle is where the suicides go; A.J. took his dip in the family pool in episode seven. The ninth circle is for the traitors, and Butchie implicitly betrayed Phil. (For added fun, reader Joe Adler pointed out the similarities between the Eugene Delacroix painting "The Barque of Dante" and the Annie Leibovitz promotional image on the season five DVD set. Google them both if you want your mind blown.)

[Walklett]

Not sure if these are the same people, but Jerry Saltz and Lorbnash have similar theories:

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/06/is_this_the_end_of_tony_new_yo.html

[Walklett]

Also, after getting my google on, lots of people have pointed out the similarities between "The Barque of Dante" and the promotional image. See also "The Raft of Medusa."

[johndewar]

Loved the ending, loved the show. You can't make everyone happy and I don't need closure on every little storyline (i.e.--I don't care what happened to the Czech guy from the Pine Barrens episode). Could have done without the AJ storyline, as I'm not sure what it contributed, but I didn't let it get in the way of my enjoyment of the show.

By the way: That sound you hear right now is the sound of everyone cancelling HBO. There are many who only had it for the Sopranos. For me, since the Sopranos started, there is always more than 1 of their original shows that I have followed (The Sopranos, plus any combination of Six Feet Under, Rome, Entourage, and Deadwood). Now, for me, only Entourage remains. I didn't catch "John from Cincinnati" last night, but I do plan to give it a try.

[Matt P]

johndewar: i could barely follow John From Cinci.

"boring and confusing" is not a good combination in the 10:00 hour.

Rome and Deadwood were amazing, and because I like the latter, I had high expectations for JFC.

More from the office e-mail chain:
Here's something interesting that was posted on a board. Not sure how valid
the info is, though.

"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 when bobby got shot last week 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?). Car jack episode"

[Dubs]

I actually think all that stuff about the people in the bar is basically wishful thinking. The boy scouts have no impact on anything. Tony killed one of the two black guys who tried to kill him, so that's not possible.

And in the final credits, there was no Nikki Leotardo listed.

[Jim]

"Someone also mentioned that the guy walking into the bathroom may have been a store owner who Tony may have screwed over in a previous season. Anyone know anything about that?"

Funny you mention a store owner twist, because in reality that guy is the owner of Penndel Pizza in Penndel, Pa. It's the first he's ever acted in the Sopranos, actually I think it might be the first he's ever acted.

Because of this I really doubt he was the one to whack Tony. The blackout at the end has garnered soooooooo many theories as to what has happened and that's the beauty in it. David Chase is pretty genius for ending the whole thing like that. I agree that a movie can never be made, it'll cheapen that ending so much.

To the naysayers who wanted it all spelled out for them at the end... you really didn't get this show if you expected to be spoon-fed.

"Don't Stop Believin" used to be uber-drunken karaoke, now it's taken on a new stance as the theme to the end of a pop-culture phenom. Steve Perry knew EXACTLY what he was doing when he gave those rights to David Chase.