Thread: The Sopranos' Ending, Did The Audience Get Whacked?
Blame HBO. Rewatch the last Game of Thrones episode it's the same as the Sopranos. It's the same in that it's left open ended to bring back the cast for more episodes in the future ie contract renegotiations. Sex in the City? Same deal

It's why we're getting House of the Dragon and likely to get that future John Snow spinoff which is EXACTLY where Thrones ended.

Game of Thrones ended because the directors were tired and wanted to move on. Once you make that hit show you get the freedom to run with other creative project which is what's happening with the Executive Producers involved with House of the Dragon bailing out.

Sopranos never continued because I get the impression there was no amount of money to make James Gandolfini continue the role.
 
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Tony died as his daughter walked in the diner

It makes sense. He's a vulnerable target at that point, his meta character development is over because of him getting kicked out of therapy, and the camera work made it obvious a guy was there to kill him.
 
He died. They set it up very well with the bell of the door, see Tony's perspective. Last bell, screen goes black. Also with all the "you don't see it coming" in previous episodes. I was just pissed at the time that they didn't show it. This was a show that was very graphic and showed EVERYTHING. Now, I'm ok with it. I like thinking about how asshole AJ and Meadow probably reacted.
 
He's dead. The cinematography is very deliberate and it makes no sense at all unless he's dead. The final scene is a waltz:

1. You hear the doorbell ring.
2. You see Tony's face look up.
3. You see the next shot from Tony's point of view.

The extended cut to black, after hearing the bell and seeing his face look up for the final time, is Tony's POV: oblivion.

Chase has said the truth of the ending was set up in the episode before that and all the episodes before that as well. The penultimate episode ends with Tony recalling Bobby telling him how you probably don't even hear it when the mob whacks you. That didn't happen to Bobby, he got riddled with bullets by gunmen right in front of him, so it's included here purely to remind the audience. Earlier in the season, Silvio doesn't notice Gerry Torciano get blown away right in front of him until after it was already over and he later emphasizes this to Tony in a separate scene later, to once again emphasize it for the audience.

David Chaze also recently said he got the idea for the final scene when he passed a similar small diner in Jersey, and told himself "Tony should get it in a place like that." He's dead.

The chorus of the Journey song also builds into the guitar solo as the camera tracks the Man in Members Only Jacket entering the bathroom, as if he is the real star of the scene, in an homage to the Godfather. In the previous season (6"A"), AJ tells Tony he wanted to avenge Tony's shooting because Michael Corleone killing Solozzo and McClusky at Luigi's Restaurant is Tony's favorite Godfather scene, to which Tony replies, it's only a movie.

The Members Only Jacket is also a homage to the title of the first episode of Season 6, where Eugene Pontecorvo kills a fat man with the same initials as Tony (T.S.) while he's sitting down eating in a diner at night. Vito calls out Eugene's jacket in the episode and how outdated it is. The man in the final scene gets acknowledged in the credits by his jacket, despite being more like an extra. A lot of people who don't want to believe Tony dies rightfully ask, if he was whacked, then, who ordered it? It's a good question and there's an answer to it but it partly doesn't matter - it's just another nameless man in a Member's Only Jacket.

This video is the OP is weird, the kid seems to agree Tony got killed but that the audience is whacked before they're allowed to see it, in which case, why wouldn't the cut to black just be Tony dying and it fulfills the same purpose?

To me the much more interesting theory is that the subplot about the Arabs who disappear and are later seen to be fundamentalists actually snuck a nuclear to device into the Port of Newark and detonated it, with the cut to black being sudden nuclear annihilation. It explains why Agent Harris is a nervous wreck for the entirety of the last season(s) after being transferred to Counter-Terrorism, especially in the finale.

The other is that Tony references how, because of his shooting, he has to avoid certain foods or else he could end up back in the hospital, so him stuffing his face with onion rings at the end is him unintentionally eating his way into his death that night.
 
All I know is that by Season 3 Meadow Soprano was a smoke show:

Meadow-Soprano.gif


Can anyone with the Blu Ray confirm visible camel toe in this scene?
 
You can pretty much believe whatever you want at this point, but an interviewer did trick one of the writers into admitting Tony died at the end if I remember correctly.
 
He died. They set it up very well with the bell of the door, see Tony's perspective. Last bell, screen goes black. Also with all the "you don't see it coming" in previous episodes. I was just pissed at the time that they didn't show it. This was a show that was very graphic and showed EVERYTHING. Now, I'm ok with it. I like thinking about how asshole AJ and Meadow probably reacted.

I always thought it was kind of sad that the writers set up this really amazing ending that is laid out across the previous episodes and builds to the final moment only for the audience to act like this show is Lost or something and try to invent lots of silly theories.

The ending is brilliant because it lays it all out and then delivers at the end then the audience goes "isn't it brilliant how they left it ambiguous, I'm not even sure if Tony is even dead!" LOL. The writers must have been tearing their hair out.
 
All of the clues were given in the 1st episode of the final season, with multiple other hints sprinkled in throughout the rest of the season.

If that wasn't enough, David Chase got tired of the non stop bullshit theories he came out and said it for all of the dummies in later interviews.

Tony got whacked by New York, end of story.
 
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The ending was fine. What do you want, Tony, one of the most detestable villains in the world to walk off happily into the sunset? Leaving the ending somewhat open lets the viewer pick their ending.
 
He died. They set it up very well with the bell of the door, see Tony's perspective. Last bell, screen goes black. Also with all the "you don't see it coming" in previous episodes. I was just pissed at the time that they didn't show it. This was a show that was very graphic and showed EVERYTHING. Now, I'm ok with it. I like thinking about how asshole AJ and Meadow probably reacted.
Is it Tonys perspective or our perspective though?

You dont see it coming etc... describes the audience. The screen goes black for US.

Tony maybe died. Maybe he got busted and went to prison. Maybe he lived and got a new crew. We dont know because our view into that world is over. We were the ones who didnt see it coming who just had a black screen. We spent those years living vicarously through Tony. Living the mob life. And in the end like most mobsters we ended up dead.
 
Oh and another thing. Tony was a horrible boss. The Soprano family was a glorifired crew. Half of them were rats and Tony killed the other half. Christopher was a druggie and was being groomed to be the next boss. The best earner was ralphie and Tony killed him over a horse. Constant troubles with NY. If it wasnt for Carmellas cousin and his HUD scam the Sopranos would have no money. Wibixstixs busted out. Pussy phone card scam was dead. The sports book wasnt a huge money earner based in Christopher chasing his tail.

I think Jackie was probably a good boss but Tony fucked it up because of his greed and psychological issues.