Sopranos???

Question

What just happened? the screen went blank at the very end did they shoot tony or did it just end like that?

Answer 1

Even though I thought the entire episode was a bore.......I think I get the ending.


Life goes on as usual for the sopranos. The ending to the series is simply that the cameras will stop rolling. The dramatic cut-off signifies that it is simply cut off on film, but that the life of Tony will go on and on like it has for the past 6 years.

Answer 2

I think it was brilliant. You have to look at the 2 last episodes together as sort of the big ending. Just like David Letterman's top 10 lists, the big "bang"/laugh comes at #2, the #1 reason is not usually as funny.

But mostly, as a television series, most of the time tv viewers are not used to being intensely challenged. They will go see a film or read a book to be challenge but expect tv shows to be comfortably more predictable or have the payoff so to speak they wanted.

Yes, it is open ended but when you think about it:

First case scenario:
Several episodes before Bobby mentioned to Tony on the boat that maybe when you die you don't hear or feel anything. Everything just goes blank. So possible that he was whacked. There were so many characters who could have done it. The guy that had the sporting goods store was there, the suspicious guy who went into the bathroom, etc, etc.

Someone mentioned to me though i didn't catch it - that Adrianna was sitting in the back of the restaurant and there was a trucker there that Christopher robbed and killed in another season. Could they have already been dead?

Second Case Scenario:
He tells Janice about starting a new nuclear family - sort of meaning Janice+Domenica+Bobby's kids but maybe everythign was coming back together and with AJ back in the fold, and Meadow getting married, that that is all that matters now - his biological family and not "The Family" SO END OF STORY.

Story III
If Tony didn't die, but it is inevitable that he will go to the Feds - Carlo flipped and we don't know what is up with Patsy. Does anyone remember - was it in the first half the season he is seen talking as an informant and had been wired at some point? And now with the marriage of Pat and Meadow - does this mean Tony's doom or will Patsy redeem him?

So many questions but also there is an air if inevitability

oh and someone did mention they thought they were in the witness protection program (Tony and Carm were going) because they were eating at a sort of lowkey divey place - esp because Carmela is not wearing her jewelry - but i don't think so because it is mentioned and is a local hangout.

Answer 3

I've heard that they shot about 3-4 endings...

Hopefully when the DVD comes out we can see the others...if they really do exist.

You've got to hand it to David Chase though. You either liked the ending or hated it, either way, all of us are talking about it today. We'll probably be thinking or talking about it for some time because the ending really didn't "End" the show. I think the ending could have been better, but it also could have been worse. I didn't want to see Tony die. That character is one of my all-time favorites. It would have been very typical for him to end up dead or in jail...which is what a lot of people thought would happen (including me). The ending we got instead might not be much, but I would take it over the other 2 scenerios any day!

I also hope the DON'T make a movie. Just let it be. All great things must come to an end.

Answer 4

Ashley made a good point. I feel the screen went black because Tony died. Any other explanation is a let down. This last few episodes were terrible. They were trying to hurry up the ending. Way to many loose ends. If this was anything other then a Tony killing at the end, then it's because they sold out to make a buck off of a movie! If that's the case then they are sorry S O B's. Terrible ending. BORING

Answer 5

I HATE endings like this, when they let the viewer figure it out for themselves. Isn't that the point of a storyteller, to TELL the story? If I have to make up my own idea of the ending, then I'm the story writer. (So where's my ROYALTIES?)

But I like the one person who said this was the "it all goes black" ending... so really that guy who went to the men's room came back out and shot him at that moment. Creative, but I think you would still hear the gunshot. Death doesn't come THAT fast. People who have survived such things DO report hearing the shot. Their brain had already processed the beginning of the SOUND when the effects of the trauma hit. So, that ending would have been a SHOT that quickly mutes.

I agree it was a "leave it open for possible movie" ending. There were lots of hints of other things still to come, for the movie, that wouldn't have been done if such plans weren't in the works.

If they ever really wanted to, they could always do a new series, "The Sopranos: The First Generation". Star Trek did it, so did George Lucas. And they could too, and just show Tony's dad and Uncle Junior in their heyday.

Answer 6

I remember that when Tony was in a coma, he kept hearing a bell every time he was going through a new life cycle.

In the last episode, a bell rang when Meadow walked in. There were a few suspicious men in the diner. One of them went to the bathroom just before Meadow walked in and he would have had time to retrieve a gun and walk back out by the time the bell rang. He would have been able to shoot Tony from behind.

I think the show was anticlimactic because of 2 reasons:
1) The writers want enough loose ends to be able to create a Sopranos movie and
2) The writers are punishing the fans for being so engrossed in this crime family drama and liking those bad characters while ignoring things like the war and other issues brought up in the show.

Still, I think it might go down as the most disappointing series finale in history.

Answer 7

All of you "WTF"-ers are such a bunch of unimaginative mainstream morons. The last episode was by no means the "best" one they've ever done (which is what everyone always unfairly expects out of a finale), but it tied up all of the important plot points and left it open to interpretation. Tony could have gotten killed. He could have gone to jail. Meadow could have had inconvenient timing in entering the shop. Who knows...use your imagination. The story...the directing...the acting...the music...it was all fantastic.

And no...I'm not one of those "my favorite can do no wrong" fans. In fact, I hated the first half of the 6th season. In this case, though, for a finale...it was GREAT. All of you wanted a shootout or an actual solid ending (ala GoodFellas). Well life doesn't just end like a movie, and this series in particular was always well known for being close to the real thing. So the ending..."don't stop"...was perfect for the series. Deal with it, stop your whining, and most of all...use your brain. You don't always need everything spelled out for you.

Answer 8

First of all, there will be no movie... no spin-off series. What you saw last night just before the infamous black-screen was the last you will see of The Sopranos clan.

And I for one thought it was blrilliant.

Series creator David Chase played "The Sopranos" to suit right up until the end... trumping his audience and outsmarting those who thought they could predict the fate of its characters. There was never anything conventional about "The Sopranos" so it should not be surprising that the shows long-awaited and highly discussed finale end in an unconventional manner. We're not supposed to feel comfort in knowing these people will live fulfilling lifestyles. And we're too attached to them to see them taken out in a violent conclusion. This way, we're left to work though our own decisions of what kind of demise these characters may or may not have deserved. I was stupefied, speechless and at the same time, mesmerized. An ingenious ending for an ingenious show.

Answer 9

Here is what will happen when the movie comes out. The guy who went into the bathroom is a hitman. He went in before Meadow sat down thinking he has a clear shot at Tony since Carmella and AJ are sitting on the opposite side. Meadow will come in and sit down beside Tony taking away the clear shot. The hitman will back off.

Answer 10

Well this truly is television for people who think - right up to the end. Phil got capped right in front of his grand kids. So New York knew about it right away. If Phil's New York crew wanted to send a couple of guys down from NYC to decapitate the NJ family as reciprocation, that little diner would have been the right spot. Right before Meadow walks up to the restaurant, we see a fleeting glimpse of two black guys just coming into the restaurant, one grabbing someting in the front of his pants. Then the bell that is presumably hanging by the diner door rings (as Meadow enters) and Tony looks up, and everything goes blank...

It could be because Tony had exactly the same experience that we just saw Phil have. I imagine Phil's world went from talking to his daughter about the pharmacist to permanently black in very much the same way. It could be that David Chase just chose to end our glimpse into the Soporano family life right at that moment...

I guess each of us will just have to write our own ending...

Answer 11

We know this much: Phil finally got whacked, keeping the peace between long-time Mafia families. Tony now faced some real legal blues that threatened both his freedom and career. Meadow's new lawyer boyfriend has some interesting career options......AJ seems to have pulled through his depressive state OK.

Happily married FBI man apparently has issues with crossing the line with Soprano...and engaging in an affair w/ a female colleague--who may not be happy w/ her lover's help w/ Soprano.

YOUR IMAGINATION ends the story. YOU answer what happens the second Tony sees Meadow enter the cozy neighborhood diner to join her family.....mundane return to normal Soprano life....or chaotic deadly mayhem?