Cut to Silent Black

{Turn away quickly if you still haven't watched it.}

I'll get this out of the way.  We'll never know what happened to Tony Soprano in the end.  We're left with silence, the echos of one of the most annoying songs ever recorded (ironic on a show that used so many quality songs on its soundtrack), and a black screen followed by the final, final credits.  Did anyone else wait around to a) see if the joke was on us and the last scene was going to be shown after the final credits or b) see if they were going to preview the next episode, the real finale.  Nope, that's all we get, all we're ever going to get.  We're left to speculate, that perhaps the place was about to blow up or Tony was about to catch a bullet from the guy whom we see disappear into the bathroom, or there's going to be an armed robbery gone bad, or the Feds will bust in and arrest Tony.

My theory is that he chokes on an onion ring, but that's just a contrarian view and one I haven't heard yet.

But what's most important is that we'll never know.  And if David Chase et al. do the right thing, that will be the case.  Forever.  We don't have to know and for godsake we don't need a movie.

And at least it didn't end Six Feet Under style, which I still maintain to be one of the biggest cop out endings ever.

Comments

[Rob]

I believe we got an ending. It was crafty and subtle, but we got one. Earlier in the season, Tony and Bobby were on a boat and (my memory is vague on the exact wording, forgive me) both men wondered about getting whacked. Tony mused that it was probably unlikely you'd know what was happening. Your world would just end, go black. Cut to the diner and the guy goes to the bathroom. (Godfather homage; was he going to get a gun?)

Now here's the key. The last cut of Meadow shows her running into the diner. However, the look of concern on her face is bordering on panic. She SEES the man from the bathroom holding a gun on her dad. She trips the little bell on the door as she enters and Tony looks up. It is at THAT moment that Tony is shot in the kead and instantly killed. At that moment WE were in Tony's shoes, WE lost consciousness and died with Tony.

The man at the counter, who goes to the bathroom and (in my theory only) kills Tony...he's a relative of Phil's. A nephew or something. I remember seeing him in an earlier episode.

So there you have it. Casual fans and non-thinkers hate the episode because it didn't wrap things up, like Six Feet Under. But I maintain it did. Just in a subtle way that you had to think about.

Just my theory, but that's the fun, right?

[Rob]

Crap. Never mind. I just heard a television critic say the guy I thought was Phil's nephew was, indeed, not that guy. He was not a character who had appeared in the series before.

But I still think he killed Tony. Maybe he had a thing against Italians Eating Onion Rings.

PS: Wasn't it odd that all three characters, Carmela, Tony and A.J. each ate an onion ring by turns...what is an onion ring but an o. A zero. Hmmmm, I sense another theory brewing.

[Varg]

I too think Tony was killed. Here's why:

1. The Godfather nod you mentioned.

2. Last week, Paulie said if you whack Phil, there would be "a line of (some Italian word i didn't know) a mile long" backing him up.

3. Tony had Phil whacked in front of his family, Tony gets whacked in front of his family.

4. The way it abruptly cut off, just like life.

oh, and SFU final ruled, RULED!

[Jeff]

But the beauty of it is that we don't know for sure. That's why I really appreciate what Chase et al. did with this finale. Unlike SFU which was about as lame as they come, especially consider the overall high quality of the writing of that series as a whole (sorry Varg, it's true). Might as well have said, "and they all died happily ever after..." Bah.

[georgekaplan]

I'm okay with it either way - either a) things are back to relative normal for his family and he's always looking over his shoulder or b) "a)" plus he's dead. I'm starting to lean toward the latter.

I'm a bit incredulous that that minivan at that speed with tires that wide could've produced what the sound effect implied, unless maybe osteoporosis is a side effect of the Plavix. All the answers I can find talk about fractures instead of a collapse - I guess that's understandable.

In regards to the one kinda hack thing I was mad about, I'll quote NBC's Brian Williams (who's actually entertaining on Slate's "Sopranos" discussion) - "I could've done without the cat."