How do you end something that has so many people's expectations and emotions wrapped up in it? You just END IT. I love some of the "Tony's dead" reasoning in the comments here -- but I don't think it's definitive. I like the ambiguous ending. Whatever happens next, our time with The Sopranos is just over.If you need to see a series ending that wraps up everything neatly, watch the last episode of Six Feet Under again. It gets my vote for the best television episode ever.And for those of you who think the last episode of Newhart is the way to end a series -- honestly, what could be lazier?
The actual quote from Bobby didn't say anything about everything going black, the exact quote is "You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?".I agree about the cat, and I've been thinking the exact same thing. I was also sure that Adriana had said something about that. I just can't recall what episode it was. Glad I'm not the only one.
Everyone was in suspense waiting for someone to pull a gun out and open fire on Tony and the family, when all of a sudden everything just went black and without a sound it equaled the end/death of the show not Tony. Completely out of no where and unexpected ending.
So in the end no one in the immediate family got whacked. Instead the last scene was sort of a variation on the finale of the previous season: the Soprano nuclear unit sitting down and looking forward to a meal in a restaurant and smiling at each other despite the fact that, on different levels, they all know their life is built on crime and Daddy could be popped at any second. Fans may have felt, for a few moments, as if they had gotten caught up in one of those great Brian de Palma murder ballets as the camera lingered on suspicious-looking patrons (was that guy heading into the john to grab a piece from the toilet tank?), and with Meadow, late, parking and reparking her car. It all felt dreadful and full of Mrs. Robert Blake potential.Then fans might have found themselves annoyed instead of intrigued and on edge. The screen simply went black, as if to say: Let the Sopranos eat in peace. They could be dead by the time the cannoli comes. Or they'll get up and go home.I thought it all made sense: After all, The Sopranos wasn't The Godfather. It was The Godfather married to the suburban novel or serial: John the Don Updike, in a sense. Creator David Chase, I suspect, felt he was giving fans sufficient dramatic payoff by letting them hear Phil's head explode as he lay dead beneath the wheels of his SUV. His instincts were right. The comeuppance, it'll come, only not this second.Besides, would you really be enjoying your day if you had to go around thinking about Tony Soprano shot full of lead the night before?The truly lingering question is this: Why was that stupid cat staring at the photo of Christopher?
I wonder what would have happened if, at the end of Return of the Jedi, during the climatic scene in which Darth Vader finally turns back from the dark side and saves his son from certain doom at the hands of the evil emperor, the story ended without a reasonable conclusion, the last scene showing Darth's face floating from Luke to the Emperor, pondering which fate to choose?I'll tell you what would have happened...the audience would have lambasted George Lucas and ripped the projection screens from the walls!I make the connection for this reason, Star Wars is one of the few other projects which captivated so many people over such a long period of time...without the inclusion of regular seasons or installments. Each made their audience wait a despicably long time to find out what happens at each turn.Star Wars paid off. According to the backlash of fans, the Sopranos missed their mark.Leaving a loose end or maybe two (See Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels) is clever. Leaving a thousand, seems like quiting.I like the idea of Tony being capped at the end and fading to black. That seems like the most appropriate ending of the show, but the vague manner in which they pulled it leads me to believe the intention is for business purposes only.
The last episode was the end of the show, not the end of Tony. This show was created and intended to provide the audience with a glimpse inside the life of Tony Soprano. The beauty of it was based on psychology, as the first season's backbone was the relationship between Tony and his psychiatrist. We were offered insight into how this man, a character littered with aggression and violence, can also raise a family and be a husband. Although Tony is a unique individual, he feels the same emotions and has much of the same problems that we and our families face. That is why the show is so fascinating. The Sopranos was not so much about full circle character development, as it was about stark contrast. We are given multiple characters with extremely violent lifestyles that must also manage family and intimate relationships; Tony with his wife and kids; Tony and his mother; Pauly and his mother; Bobby and his wives and kids, etc. Not only do we see this in their relationships, but in their behavior as well, and this is paraded in the final episode. We witness tree humping AJ sell his soul to Hollywood, future doctor Meadow opt for law instead. But, of course the character who's internal and external struggles grasped our attention and our hearts the most was Tony. In season one, we are presented with a large, dominant, and connected alpha male on the cusp of leading the New Jersey mafia family, and yet we focus all season and throughout following seasons on his weaknesses. Panic attacks, his kids, his women on the side, his frustrations with Christopher, trust issues, etc. The audience sees a man that every single one of us would be deathly afraid of, and yet we watch religiously as we are presented with the weaknesses and fears of even our worst nightmare.. In these final episodes, after we have witnessed the very human side of Tony through his interactions with his family, his friends, and his therapist, we are again shown that this man is a monster. He killed Christopher. He cheats on his wife yet again. He loses a brother in law and possibly a dear friend only to enlist those around him to protect him, the boss, intent not with remorse, but with retaliation. We see Tony with the biggest gun I have ever seen. We see Leotardo killed, and then much to our delight we laugh with the children in the backseat as his head is crushed. After all this, we are put in that diner with Tony for one last scene, as he sits and waits for his family to arrive. As potential assassin after potential assassin enters the diner, we experience rising paranoia, senses heightened as we prepare for impending doom. We again are reminded what it is like to be Tony, again empathetic to the human side of this monster. However, suddenly we cut to black. Silence. The end. We are all disappointed that there was no kill. There was no FBI raid. There was no spilt blood. There was no retaliation. There are no bullets and no brain matter. And we are all terribly frustrated. The Sopranos was not the story of Tony Soprano from birth to death. Nor was it an ode to Scarface or Goodfellas. It was a case study of good and evil, and how they can both exist in the same body. After 86 episodes of brass knuckles, bullets to the head, and piano wire around the neck, we sat there in front of a pitch black screen in near maniacal bloodlust, waiting for Tony?s head to explode in front of his own family. Perhaps, in the end, it was not only Mr. Chase?s intention to show us the human side of Tony, but to show us the monster in all of us.
Everyone apparently missed one of the *BIGGEST* clues, a clue that dominates an entire episode, the episode where Tony dreams the entire episode... Season 5, Episode 11: "The Test Dream".Notice the giant paintings of those football players on the paintings behind Tony? Tony's entire dream, the recurring dream, was his coach pointing down at him and telling him how he was unprepared ("You're not prepared! You'll never set me up!"). See also the last 15 minutes of that episode, where he talks about the dream on the phone with Carmella (Carmella: "Were you unprepared as usual?" Tony: "I'm sort of a coach now.").Tony's dream is an allusion that he's unprepared when his destiny comes. Tony's statement that he's "sort of a coach now" can be read to be that he's a boss.The far-left picture above Tony is a tiger. What's the tattoo on Tony's shoulder? Yes... a tiger. "Tony the Tiger"?a few other things:season 1, episode 1 - Tony walks behind Uncle Junior in Vessuvio and pretends, with his hand, to point a gun in the back of the head and says "dont move". (about 13 minutes, 30 seconds into the episode)season 6, episode 2 ("join the club") - during tony's cosa mesa visit, tony says, very plainly, "there's always a faster gun." (a little less than 10 minutes into the episode)Looking at the dvd box set of season 1, the tagline reads "If one family doesn't kill him, the other family will." Thinking about it, over the course of the show, Tony's lost his entire mafia family one way or another. By the end of the show, even Silvio is in a coma. The ending of the show can be read to be that Tony's about to lose his other family.season 5, episode 12 ("long term parking") - this has nothing to do with the last episode, but i noticed that the same "fancy luggage" (its actually written on the luggage tag - see s04e01 about 10 min. 45 sec. into it) that christopher throws in the field after adriana dies is the same red luggage he brings home on the episode where the fbi agent "danielle" first shows up at his place. So literally and figuratively he's getting rid of baggage.season 4, episode 10- The jacket that the bum is wearing (about 19 min, 30 seconds into it) when he brings Christopher home is the same jacket that Richie tried to give Tony back in season 2, episode 8 that Tony ended giving to the maid.
manis5Jun 11, 2007
How do you end something that has so many people's expectations and emotions wrapped up in it? You just END IT. I love some of the "Tony's dead" reasoning in the comments here -- but I don't think it's definitive. I like the ambiguous ending. Whatever happens next, our time with The Sopranos is just over.If you need to see a series ending that wraps up everything neatly, watch the last episode of Six Feet Under again. It gets my vote for the best television episode ever.And for those of you who think the last episode of Newhart is the way to end a series -- honestly, what could be lazier?
unfknrealJun 11, 2007
The actual quote from Bobby didn't say anything about everything going black, the exact quote is "You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?".I agree about the cat, and I've been thinking the exact same thing. I was also sure that Adriana had said something about that. I just can't recall what episode it was. Glad I'm not the only one.
nomadofthewavesJun 11, 2007
Everyone was in suspense waiting for someone to pull a gun out and open fire on Tony and the family, when all of a sudden everything just went black and without a sound it equaled the end/death of the show not Tony. Completely out of no where and unexpected ending.
jdibiaseJun 12, 2007
"Oversized luxury vehicle"?
Closed AccountJun 12, 2007
So in the end no one in the immediate family got whacked. Instead the last scene was sort of a variation on the finale of the previous season: the Soprano nuclear unit sitting down and looking forward to a meal in a restaurant and smiling at each other despite the fact that, on different levels, they all know their life is built on crime and Daddy could be popped at any second. Fans may have felt, for a few moments, as if they had gotten caught up in one of those great Brian de Palma murder ballets as the camera lingered on suspicious-looking patrons (was that guy heading into the john to grab a piece from the toilet tank?), and with Meadow, late, parking and reparking her car. It all felt dreadful and full of Mrs. Robert Blake potential.Then fans might have found themselves annoyed instead of intrigued and on edge. The screen simply went black, as if to say: Let the Sopranos eat in peace. They could be dead by the time the cannoli comes. Or they'll get up and go home.I thought it all made sense: After all, The Sopranos wasn't The Godfather. It was The Godfather married to the suburban novel or serial: John the Don Updike, in a sense. Creator David Chase, I suspect, felt he was giving fans sufficient dramatic payoff by letting them hear Phil's head explode as he lay dead beneath the wheels of his SUV. His instincts were right. The comeuppance, it'll come, only not this second.Besides, would you really be enjoying your day if you had to go around thinking about Tony Soprano shot full of lead the night before?The truly lingering question is this: Why was that stupid cat staring at the photo of Christopher?
monkeynewsJun 12, 2007
Ignore this post. Sorrry.
spiralystJun 12, 2007
I wonder what would have happened if, at the end of Return of the Jedi, during the climatic scene in which Darth Vader finally turns back from the dark side and saves his son from certain doom at the hands of the evil emperor, the story ended without a reasonable conclusion, the last scene showing Darth's face floating from Luke to the Emperor, pondering which fate to choose?I'll tell you what would have happened...the audience would have lambasted George Lucas and ripped the projection screens from the walls!I make the connection for this reason, Star Wars is one of the few other projects which captivated so many people over such a long period of time...without the inclusion of regular seasons or installments. Each made their audience wait a despicably long time to find out what happens at each turn.Star Wars paid off. According to the backlash of fans, the Sopranos missed their mark.Leaving a loose end or maybe two (See Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels) is clever. Leaving a thousand, seems like quiting.I like the idea of Tony being capped at the end and fading to black. That seems like the most appropriate ending of the show, but the vague manner in which they pulled it leads me to believe the intention is for business purposes only.
chrisskinrJun 12, 2007
The last episode was the end of the show, not the end of Tony. This show was created and intended to provide the audience with a glimpse inside the life of Tony Soprano. The beauty of it was based on psychology, as the first season's backbone was the relationship between Tony and his psychiatrist. We were offered insight into how this man, a character littered with aggression and violence, can also raise a family and be a husband. Although Tony is a unique individual, he feels the same emotions and has much of the same problems that we and our families face. That is why the show is so fascinating. The Sopranos was not so much about full circle character development, as it was about stark contrast. We are given multiple characters with extremely violent lifestyles that must also manage family and intimate relationships; Tony with his wife and kids; Tony and his mother; Pauly and his mother; Bobby and his wives and kids, etc. Not only do we see this in their relationships, but in their behavior as well, and this is paraded in the final episode. We witness tree humping AJ sell his soul to Hollywood, future doctor Meadow opt for law instead. But, of course the character who's internal and external struggles grasped our attention and our hearts the most was Tony. In season one, we are presented with a large, dominant, and connected alpha male on the cusp of leading the New Jersey mafia family, and yet we focus all season and throughout following seasons on his weaknesses. Panic attacks, his kids, his women on the side, his frustrations with Christopher, trust issues, etc. The audience sees a man that every single one of us would be deathly afraid of, and yet we watch religiously as we are presented with the weaknesses and fears of even our worst nightmare.. In these final episodes, after we have witnessed the very human side of Tony through his interactions with his family, his friends, and his therapist, we are again shown that this man is a monster. He killed Christopher. He cheats on his wife yet again. He loses a brother in law and possibly a dear friend only to enlist those around him to protect him, the boss, intent not with remorse, but with retaliation. We see Tony with the biggest gun I have ever seen. We see Leotardo killed, and then much to our delight we laugh with the children in the backseat as his head is crushed. After all this, we are put in that diner with Tony for one last scene, as he sits and waits for his family to arrive. As potential assassin after potential assassin enters the diner, we experience rising paranoia, senses heightened as we prepare for impending doom. We again are reminded what it is like to be Tony, again empathetic to the human side of this monster. However, suddenly we cut to black. Silence. The end. We are all disappointed that there was no kill. There was no FBI raid. There was no spilt blood. There was no retaliation. There are no bullets and no brain matter. And we are all terribly frustrated. The Sopranos was not the story of Tony Soprano from birth to death. Nor was it an ode to Scarface or Goodfellas. It was a case study of good and evil, and how they can both exist in the same body. After 86 episodes of brass knuckles, bullets to the head, and piano wire around the neck, we sat there in front of a pitch black screen in near maniacal bloodlust, waiting for Tony?s head to explode in front of his own family. Perhaps, in the end, it was not only Mr. Chase?s intention to show us the human side of Tony, but to show us the monster in all of us.
cryptoplexJun 2, 2008
Here is a detailed analysis of Made In America: <a class="user" href="http://www.mikecole.org/writing/made-in-america/">http://www.mikecole.org/writing/made-in-america/</a>
anon748296Jul 7, 2008
Everyone apparently missed one of the *BIGGEST* clues, a clue that dominates an entire episode, the episode where Tony dreams the entire episode... Season 5, Episode 11: "The Test Dream".Notice the giant paintings of those football players on the paintings behind Tony? Tony's entire dream, the recurring dream, was his coach pointing down at him and telling him how he was unprepared ("You're not prepared! You'll never set me up!"). See also the last 15 minutes of that episode, where he talks about the dream on the phone with Carmella (Carmella: "Were you unprepared as usual?" Tony: "I'm sort of a coach now.").Tony's dream is an allusion that he's unprepared when his destiny comes. Tony's statement that he's "sort of a coach now" can be read to be that he's a boss.The far-left picture above Tony is a tiger. What's the tattoo on Tony's shoulder? Yes... a tiger. "Tony the Tiger"?a few other things:season 1, episode 1 - Tony walks behind Uncle Junior in Vessuvio and pretends, with his hand, to point a gun in the back of the head and says "dont move". (about 13 minutes, 30 seconds into the episode)season 6, episode 2 ("join the club") - during tony's cosa mesa visit, tony says, very plainly, "there's always a faster gun." (a little less than 10 minutes into the episode)Looking at the dvd box set of season 1, the tagline reads "If one family doesn't kill him, the other family will." Thinking about it, over the course of the show, Tony's lost his entire mafia family one way or another. By the end of the show, even Silvio is in a coma. The ending of the show can be read to be that Tony's about to lose his other family.season 5, episode 12 ("long term parking") - this has nothing to do with the last episode, but i noticed that the same "fancy luggage" (its actually written on the luggage tag - see s04e01 about 10 min. 45 sec. into it) that christopher throws in the field after adriana dies is the same red luggage he brings home on the episode where the fbi agent "danielle" first shows up at his place. So literally and figuratively he's getting rid of baggage.season 4, episode 10- The jacket that the bum is wearing (about 19 min, 30 seconds into it) when he brings Christopher home is the same jacket that Richie tried to give Tony back in season 2, episode 8 that Tony ended giving to the maid.
kimhuangDec 31, 2008
Watch full streaming episodes at<a class="user" href="http://www.watchsopranos.net">http://www.watchsopranos.net</a>