# The Sopranos Finale Discussion



## MetalMike (Jun 10, 2007)

Spoiler



Wtf was up with the ending? I figured it was left for the viewer to decide if Tony was killed or if he was just watching his daughter enter the restaurant. I thought her shitty parking was going to save her life. I'd really like to know what happened. 



Am I missing anything?


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## zimbloth (Jun 10, 2007)

They probably wanted to leave it open so they could make a movie. There's other possibilities, that they were just trying to make some kind of statement, but I still think they could have ended it a lot better. I thought last weeks episode was one of the best in years. This one? Eh.

I'm also disappointed AJ survived. And I'm not going to put spoiler warnings. No one is going to view this thread if they don't want to know.


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## MetalMike (Jun 10, 2007)

Any other ending would have been better. I don't want to assume or decide for myself what *could* have happened. I want to know exactly what happened. If what you said is true, I'm really dissapointed that they would sacrifice the integrity of such a great show to open up the possibility of a movie sometime in the future.


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## Vince (Jun 10, 2007)

Hey, did you hear that sound?

That's the sound of 4 million people cancelling their HBO subscriptions.


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## Vince (Jun 10, 2007)

I think this is the best explanation I've heard. I took this verbatim from another forum:



> did tony get killed.
> 
> a few episodes back when he was with bobby on the lake, bobby was speculating that when you get shot, you see nothing and hear nothing. the final scene was through tony's eyes and the last thing he saw was meadow coming through the door. the sudden black was him getting shot by the guy who went into the bathroom. Makes me wonder if thats what he was going for



That's a great explanation, and I remember the conversation between Bobby & Tony on the boat, but still, that's a crap way to end the series.

Still, the ending wasn't as bad as the ending to HBO's series OZ. If I remember correctly, it was an Anthrax attack on the prison.


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## MetalMike (Jun 10, 2007)

As much as I hated it an hour ago, this makes alot of sense to me as does the last explanation you posted Vince. Either way, the ending should have been handled better. 



Wikipedia said:


> At the end of the episode Tony is meeting his family at a restaurant. One by one his family comes in, as do several people who could be potential assailants. As Meadow finally enters, Tony glances upwards and then back down. The screen then blacks out for a full minute, the music stops, and the end credits run in silence. And so the show ends, not with a bang, nor really a whimper, but with the minute-by-minute tension and fear that is the life of Tony Soprano.


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## zimbloth (Jun 10, 2007)

Wow that explanation does make a lot of sense. I guess that is a more tasteful way of doing it than just having someone shoot him up and having people screaming and then the end.... but its still kind of disappointing.


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## Vince (Jun 10, 2007)

One thing that was great about this episode though, was how Phil went. Holy hell! No open casket at that funeral


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## zimbloth (Jun 10, 2007)

Yeah, I thought it was an okay endnig except once again, AJ is the most unlikable character in TV history. For now I believe the sudden blackout was him getting shot as the guy above explained, but even still I could have envisioned many more powerful endings than that. A bit disappointed, but in general this last season was great.


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## Cancer (Jun 11, 2007)

Didn't see it but after reading these posts, I'm thinking maybew they wanted to get across was that the last thing Tony see is the most important person in his life.

I always thought that person was Meadow.


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## Vince (Jun 11, 2007)

Tony just looks up, you hear the bell ring on the restaurant's front door, and then it cut to black & silence for about 15-30 seconds before the credits rolled.


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## zimbloth (Jun 11, 2007)

Nah they show Meadow walking in then it goes black. 

Someone theorized the cat staring at Christopher's photo was supposed to imply he was the rat, or something. Someone suggested maybe the cat represented Adrianna.  Kind of interesting.


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## MetalMike (Jun 11, 2007)

When you think about it, Tony loses either way. Harris was so excited after he received news of the hit on Phil as if that was what the feds needed to put Tony away. Carlo is talking to the feds. So, Tony's screwed whether he was whacked or not.



zimbloth said:


> Someone theorized the cat staring at Christopher's photo was supposed to imply he was the rat, or something. Someone suggested maybe the cat represented Adrianna.



Interesting. I have to watch this episode again. The show relies so much on symbolism that I could have easily overlooked something.


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## Drew (Jun 11, 2007)

I'm in the minority here, and this is probably because this is the first episode I've seen in years so I'm really invested in it that deeply, but I liked the idea. 

Look at it this way - the show is fundamentally about a mob boss with some inner demons to battle with, so he enters therapy. At risk of stating the obvious, Tony Soprano is a fucked up guy with some issues in his life that he's very unhappy about. 

So, in that light, the show ends with Tony Soprano at a small family restaurant, smiling and seeming to genuinely mean it for the first time in the episode, feeling better than he's felt in a while (Journey), with his family around him. Whatever else is going on in his life - he's probably been sold out to the feds by an accomplice and is facing trial, there may or may not be a hit still out for him, and he's lost a lot of friends in the last couple episodes, not the least of which is his uncle who no longer even remembers the family business (whatever else their issues had been in the past) - he's able to sit down with his family in a small local restaurant and, if only for an hour or so, find happiness with his family. 

And, for a man who's been in therapy because he's *not* happy and who's had a turbulant family relationship, especially considering the strong emphasis on food and family in Italian culture, I think that it's an optimistic ending - that with all the shit he has going on around him, he's got his family. 

I was expecting to see him get shot by the guy at the bar too, but I think once I got my head around this, I like this ending because of it's sense of hope.


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## MetalMike (Jun 11, 2007)

When you look at it that way it's not so bad. However, you have to admit it didn't live up to the hype surrounding a series finale.


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## Your Majesty (Jun 11, 2007)

zimbloth said:


> They probably wanted to leave it open so they could make a movie. .



BINGO. 

Too many open story lines still yet to be resolved. Last night's episode was disappointing. Last week's episode with Sil and Bobby getting shot and killed royally kicked ass. 

AJ should have been gone. That SUV exploding..... would have had a sweeter ending if he and the chick he was about to be skanking would have gotten killed.

Oh well..... I guess a movie will come out in a year or two's time. It's didn't live up to the hype as a series final should be.


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## ohio_eric (Jun 11, 2007)

OK here's how I would have ended it. I'm not a huge fan but I've seen enough to understand the basic premise of the show. 

The mob war starts and Tony's side gets its ass kicked. Paulie and all those guys get whacked. In the midst of all this Carmella runs off with another man and AJ gets killed to. Meadow runs away and abandons the family. 

So Tony goes against everything he believes in and turns state's evidence. He brings down the New York mob as an informant. Tony's anxiesty attacks don't get a lot better because of this. He ends up a shattered man. 

So Tony gets put in the witness protection program and shipped out to Berkley. The last scene is him sitting on a park bench feeding some ducks and fumbling for some pills. A gay couple walk by as does a young African American who talks some shit to him. Tony's too damaged to do shit about it. Then a super hot girl sits down next to him to adjust her shoe. The last spark of the old Tony creeps out and he cracks a smile and asks her "How you doin?" She looks at him disgusted and tells him to go fuck himself. 

So there we have an almost Shakespeare like tragic ending. Of course I like intersting ending and adhere to the writing philosophy that the only good ending is a new beginning.


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## Metal Ken (Jun 11, 2007)

Vince said:


> If I remember correctly, it was an Anthrax attack on the prison.



Offtopic:

Anthrax \m/


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## ohio_eric (Jun 11, 2007)




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## Vince (Jun 11, 2007)

Drew said:


> and he's lost a lot of friends in the last couple episodes, not the least of which is his uncle who no longer even remembers the family business (whatever else their issues had been in the past)



 You should really watch the show more. His uncle shot him, put him in a coma for about half of last season. He wanted Uncle June to rot away & only went back to him to try to get money for Bobby's widow.


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## Drew (Jun 11, 2007)

Either way, my point is that has a way of making him feel kind of empty and lost - that someone who wanted you dead for business now doesn't even remember he was a mobster.  

It's a great show, it's just I'm not big on watching TV. I'll watch if it's on, and this one I figured I'd be sorry if I missed it, but usually I'd rather do other things.


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## shmu96star (Jun 12, 2007)

Are you true fans ready to have your heads spun? Hope so...

Here are some things that definitely give meaning to to the final scene:

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. He is the nephew of Phil. 

The trucker who sits at a table alone is the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. 

There is a table full of boy scouts. These may be the same boy scouts present in the train store when Bobby was killed in the previous episode.

The two dark skinned guys in the restaurant lobby are the same ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (Season 2 or 3).

In the previous episode Tony had a flashback where Bobby talks about how you don't even hear it when you get whacked. Most of the final scene is shown trough Tony's eyes. Since four people in the restaurant had reason to kill Tony, one interpretation of the awkward, sudden fade to black/mute is that Tony has been shot..."you don't even hear it."


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## Drew (Jun 12, 2007)

shmu96star said:


> Are you true fans ready to have your heads spun? Hope so...
> 
> Here are some things that definitely give meaning to to the final scene:
> 
> ...



Interesting... The flashback's been mentioned before - the rest has not.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Jun 12, 2007)

I like how your first post on a guitar forum is about the Sopranos  Welcome to the forums dude.


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## Pauly (Jun 13, 2007)

David Chase speaks! - NJ.com All TV

Read the comments underneath too.


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## forelander (Aug 17, 2008)

Just finished this last night and to be honest I thought it was brilliant. There's no question Tony was clipped, and it was a lot more tasteful than seeing his brains blown out in front of his family. The most telling sign was the flashback to his conversation with Bobby, but I read some articles and it seems like everything in the entire episode leads up to Tony's death.


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