master of sopranos essay

The Sopranos: Definitive Explanation of “The END”

Here it is.  Enjoy.

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Just a tease

Just a tease,  Stay tuned:

Part I: How David Chase killed Tony Soprano: A look at the directing and editing in the final scene and the “Never hear it Happen” concept laid out by David Chase.  Plus a closer look at why the other theories about the end just don’t hold up.

Part II: What does Tony’s death mean? How the themes of the final season and all 86 hours of the show lead to a family dinner in a small diner in New Jersey.

Part III: The Symbology of Holstens.

Part IV: The final season and “The Godfather”.

Part V: How 9/11, terrorism and the U.S. war in Iraq unlock the keys to the final scene in Holstens.

Part VI: Miscellaneous “Fun Stuff” that could only be created by David Chase.

Part VII: “The Public Enemy” and “Goodfellas” influence on the end of The Sopranos.

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This will be an amazing piece that even David Chase will be reading.  Keep checking back.

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The Sopranos : “Made in America”

“Made In America” (season 6, episode 21; originally aired 6/10/2007)

In which you don’t stop

Tony Soprano dies.

Maybe he dies at the end of “Made In America,” when the Members Only jacket guy puts a bullet in the back of his head (something we don’t see, because we cut to black from his point-of-view). Maybe he dies in 40 years, surrounded by family and friends and little Parisi grandchildren. (At the thought of that, maybe he would have preferred the bullet.) Maybe he dies right after leaving Holstens when he gets hit by a bus. Maybe he dies because he gets cancer. Maybe the cancer is eating him alive right now. Maybe he dies in a fight with Carmela, when she finally gets fed up and takes a shot at him. Maybe he decays slowly in a hospital somewhere, like Uncle Junior, the only solace he has a moment to look out the window at the sun and the birds, a moment to wonder who he is or who he was. Tony Soprano dies. So do you. So do I.

A crazy thing happened to me on the way through the final nine episodes of The Sopranos . I’d read the famed “Master Of Sopranos” essay that this comment section has discussed and debated a million times over. I actually read it a couple of times, since I found it a fascinating piece of using formalist film criticism—the picking apart of the smaller elements that go into the whole of a filmed work (shots, cuts, etc.)—to make one very specific argument. If you’ve never read it, I recommend it, even if I don’t really endorse it. After reading it, I was pretty convinced that I would watch these final nine episodes and see everything the unnamed author of the blog post saw, see how everything points to the death of Tony Soprano. Indeed, I find the “head-on shot of Tony cutting to point-of-view shot of the door” argument so persuasive—particularly because this is something the entirety of the series has used for multiple purposes (and once to indicate Tony was having a panic attack by fuzzing out his vision, which would support the “cut to black” hypothesis)—that I toyed with adopting the theory wholesale.

But I can’t, and for reasons that go beyond my general irritation that the blog post, more than any other element, has turned far, far too many discussions of this show into discussions that solely talk about the final five minutes of its entire run. If you haven’t watched this episode in a few years, did you remember that the bulk of its plot is about Tony and Carmela trying to keep A.J. from joining the military? I had remembered that plot point, but not how it dominated the hour, so much weight does the final scene now hold in the minds of people who watched and enjoyed the show. And it’s easy to see why. From just about every point-of-view, it’s a masterpiece of filmmaking craft. In fact, let’s watch it again:

Every shot there is chosen carefully to at once orient you within the reality of that diner and to subtly disorient you at once. The editing does the same (think, for instance, of that much-discussed cut between Tony seeing the place he’s going to sit and Tony actually sitting there, which seems to suggest he, for a brief moment, sees himself), while simultaneously building a tension that never receives proper catharsis, a tension seemingly designed to make you think your TV has stopped working. Absolutely nothing is happening—Tony, Carmela, and A.J. are enjoying sitting together, while Meadow is struggling to parallel park—but David Chase, who wrote and directed, makes it feel like everything is happening, like everything is on the line in this one moment. And for all we know, maybe it is. Maybe this is the last chance for Tony Soprano. Maybe if he doesn’t change his ways, that guy in the jacket is going to stalk out of the bathroom and change those ways for him.

But my primary objections to that reading of the final scene—which I will re-stress is totally valid, and if you think the scene says Tony dies, I’m fine with it, so long as you don’t insist that those who say otherwise are vapid idiots (as too many “Tony dies!” evangelists do)—come, ultimately, from the world I grew up in, the world of fundamentalist Christianity. (And please let me apologize for the slight detour into personal history. I promise it will make sense.) Fundamentalist Christianity—fundamentalist religion, really—is an attempt to take something that purports to be mysterious and more about opening questions than receiving answers, then turn it into a long series of perfect answers to every little question. Why does God allow suffering? Because it’s part of his plan. Why would God create gay people? He wouldn’t, so shut up. Why does there have to be a Hell? To punish those who rejected the good news. And on and on.

The more I watched these final nine episodes of The Sopranos , with the Master of Sopranos essay in mind, the more I felt myself bucking against those constraints again. Yes, all of the death foreshadowing the author finds throughout the series is present, and it steps up a notch in the final season. Yes, all of the signs, portents, and symbols that seem to point to Tony dying within this episode itself exist (and could, indeed, mean what the author suggests). And yes, there’s plenty of compelling extra-textual evidence (the interviews Chase has given; actor Matt Servitto’s remarks; Aida Turturro’s comments in the wake of the finale’s immediate airing; etc.) that could, indeed, suggest Chase intended to show that Tony died in a brilliantly elliptical way. (This could all head off into an argument about bringing extra-textual information to a critical gunfight, whether the author’s intent matters, and a bunch of other stuff, but let’s not go there for now.) I can concede all of that and agree the blog author has made a compelling argument to back up his central thesis of Tony’s death.

To me, though, it’s a lacking thesis because it relies on the reductionist tendencies of fundamentalism. It robs the mystery out of a series that was always replete with it, and it forces things that could mean many things to mean only one thing. That death foreshadowing throughout the rest of the season could mean Tony dies, or it could mean any one of a number of other, equally grim things. This was always a series that was filled with death imagery, simply because of the world these characters operated within. (Remember Pussy’s ghost in the mirror back in “Proshai, Livushka” ?) The more times I watch this series, and particularly this final season, the more I find myself enamored of its refusal to offer pithy answers. It is a show about many things, and the argument that Tony dies works far too hard, for my tastes, to shoehorn it into a “one size fits all” box where plots always have concrete endings. Can you still think Tony dies and appreciate the series in all its multitudinous glory? Sure! But for me, it ends up like hunting rabbits: Sooner or later, every burst of the leaves starts to look like a rabbit.

My friend Film Crit Hulk has this great piece of wisdom he’s beat into my brain over and over again: The ending is the conceit. What he means by it is that the ending is the place where the filmmaker gets his best shot to leave the audience with something to contemplate. If you think of how many times The Sopranos ended an episode with an image that perfectly encapsulated the hour that had come before, like, say, Christopher trying to right that uprooted tree in “Walk Like A Man” or Melfi saying, “No!” in “Employee Of The Month,” you’ll get sort of an idea of what I’m talking about. So what does Chase leave us with when he wants to get us to contemplate the whole series ? He leaves us with a man looking up at a door to see who’s entering a restaurant, then a black screen. He leaves us with almost unbearable tension, which he then doesn’t allow to dissipate. He leaves us with a blank space into which we can project whatever ending we want. The “Tony dies!” argument again reduces this to essentially one possible reading: because Tony rejected the lessons of his trip to Purgatory, he now will suffer for his sins. Does Chase really want to tell us this? Does he really want to leave us with something that boils down to “crime doesn’t pay”? I don’t think it’s really in keeping with his modus operandi, to be honest.

Oddly enough, shortly before I started to research and write this piece, Chase commented the most forthrightly he ever has about the finale, to the point where he suggested it doesn’t even matter if Tony lives or dies. What he’d hoped to convey, he said, was that time is short, that life is fleeting, that we shouldn’t take anything for granted. (The interview, of course, was immediately seized upon as proof that Tony had died.) And that strikes me as more likely. Maybe Tony’s dead. Maybe he’s alive. But we don’t get to see him anymore, and we’re left with mystery and uncertainty and lack of closure. This was a TV show we watched for eight years, and now it’s not a part of our lives anymore. Life is short. Things are taken away.

The other thing driving me away from this interpretation is something Paulie says early in the hour, after Bobby’s funeral. “Even in death, we are in life,” he says, talking about how much he ate at the post-funeral meal. “Or is it the other way around?” Meadow smiles and says that, yeah, it is indeed, and I thought, briefly, of the Christian concept of spiritual death. Spiritual death means that even when you’re out there, living your life and doing whatever it is you do, you’re dead in your spirit, that your spirit specifically needs Christianity to “come alive.” Coming to Jesus, then, is a literal resurrection of the self, even if your physical state doesn’t change. (Most religions have concepts similar to this, but I’m using the one I’m most familiar with.) From this point of view, it doesn’t even matter if Tony dies at the end of the series. He was given multiple opportunities to come alive and only half-heartedly grasped at a few of them. We know this man well enough now to know he will live the rest of his life—whether that’s 30 seconds or 30 years—in a state of spiritual decay as profound as the physical decay his uncle lives through.

Think about that scene with Uncle Junior, which has always been my favorite in the finale. Chase places it directly before the final scene for a reason, and it’s to remind us that this, all that the series and season and episode has been fought over, ultimately doesn’t matter . It’s all an empty shell that these men pour themselves into, only to come to an ignoble end. Junior used to run North Jersey, Tony says, the start of tears in his eyes. And Junior seems sort of pleased with this knowledge, but it ultimately gets left behind in the soup that his brain has become. He’s much more contented to look out the window at the sunshine, to partake in a simple pleasure afforded to every single person alive on this planet that, nonetheless, most of us completely elide out of our day to day lives. His condition is a profound reminder of the risk of physical death, yes, but an even more profound reminder of the fact that Tony, who’s increasingly incapable of even these small moments of pleasure (though he takes a moment to look upon the trees before going to see Junior), is spiritually lost. He tried to find his way through the wilderness of his own psyche and soul, sometimes with the help of Melfi, and he ultimately failed. When he complains to A.J.’s psychiatrist about his mother in the episode, he’s back to square one. He got so lost in the maze he went right back to the beginning.

Who survives to be Tony’s right-hand man to the end of the series? It’s Paulie, of course, who would have been an unlikely choice back in season one. But Paulie is capable of reading the signs, at least somewhat. He’s somebody who seems attuned to the omens and mystical forces that are always around him as a character on The Sopranos , which could make the moment when he agrees to head up the doomed Cifaretto crew a literal death omen (only for a point after we’ve ceased to watch the series). But Paulie’s openness and understanding also keep him out of the state of spiritual death that Tony exists in, even if he doesn’t quite grasp what it is that’s happening to him. He tries to open up to Tony about the vision of the Virgin Mary he had several episodes ago, but he’s incapable of keeping Tony from busting his balls about it. In one way, Paulie survives because he’s a cockroach; in another, he survives because he’s open to the messiness of life and its myriad possibilities.

Early in the episode, A.J. and his new girlfriend, Rhiannon, are parking his car in a secluded forest grove to make out. Sparks from the engine ignite on dried leaves beneath the car, causing everything to go up in smoke. (The two are listening to Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright, Ma, I’m Only Bleeding,” which is filled with passages that speak to the episode and series, but particularly this one: “Advertising signs that con you/ Into thinking you're the one/ That can do what's never been done/ That can win what's never been won/ Meantime life outside goes on/ All around you.” The episode’s interest in advertising also speaks to the episode of The Twilight Zone the guys are watching in the safe house, which is all about a teleplay by Shakespeare being creatively compromised by a sponsor.) The two race from the car, out to safety, and, of course, there are plenty of scenes of Tony and Carmela chewing out A.J. for not seeing the leaves, but there’s also a telling scene where A.J. tells his psychiatrist that when he watched the fire devouring the seat where he had been just seconds before, it was cleansing. It was like a moment of clarity, and it probably was. For a second, he could see everything , from the fate that awaited him, to the needlessness of his things. But it’s also the moment he begins his “recovery” to the same old spoiled A.J. his parents want him to go back to being, because it’s the moment when he has to start putting that stuff behind him, start ignoring it to get back to the callousness of everyday life.

This is what we do every day. We’re all headed for death. We’re all dead a little bit inside, able to ignore the suffering around us or refuse to change for our own betterment or capable of blotting out the terrible things done in our name (like the Iraq War all of the characters refuse to discuss with A.J.). Rhiannon says that Dylan’s song sounds as if it could have been written today, with a sense of wonder, but she only says that because she flatters herself into thinking her problems are more interesting or unique than anybody else’s, as we all do almost all of the time. Yet beneath all of the petty struggles and mob warfare that drive the plot of season six thrums an insistent terror, a constant mystery that engulfs all of the characters, even if to look at it blinds them. They are going to die. They are already dead. We are going to die. We are already dead.

But, also, we aren’t dead yet . There’s still time to reach out and experience all of the things you’ve missed, to make the most of every moment, to remember the good things. Tony Soprano blinks out, so his time, at least in our terms, is done. But we have this moment and this lifetime, and it will be gone before we know it. What comes after is anybody’s guess, but what we have now is something none of us experience in its fullness every day. The things that seem like they matter often don’t, and the things we lose ourselves in are often the least helpful. Chase leaves us with nothing but the blackness, and he’s giving us space to think, ponder, and consider, not a puzzle to be solved. Embrace the mystery. You’re not dead yet. What are you gonna do about that?

Stray observations:

• This is overlong as is, so I’ll keep these brief. Thanks so much for reading these over the more than two years I’ve been doing them! The community that’s sprung up around these reviews has been more than I ever would have imagined, and I hope we all bump into each other elsewhere on the site. Thanks for indulging my sidelong tangents and rabbit trails! (My original plan had been to mention the final scene only in passing in this review. I guess that worked out well, huh?)
• I apologize for last week identifying the safe house as Tony’s mother’s house. For some reason, I’ve been believing it was that location since “The Blue Comet” first aired and had never been corrected on that fact.
• It’s coming on Christmas again, which marks this episode as taking place roughly one year after “Kaisha.” Time has flown.
• I love the cat that shows up in this episode, and I’ve read some persuasive arguments that it’s a representation of both Adriana and Chris. However, I think it’s enough that the cat suggests both characters, whose presences hang over the final episodes in often literal ways.
• The episode spends a lot of time showing us just how disappointed Tony and Carmela are in Meadow’s choice of mate and career, without really saying anything outright. The look on Edie Falco’s face when Hunter talks about being in her second year of med school conveys so much without any words.
• The two scenes with Janice in this episode are among the most heartbreaking in the series’ run, and they’re perfect reminders of just how much the ghost of Livia still haunts her children.
• I love how the mob plot mostly peters out. Tony brokers a peace with Little Carmine, and New York tacitly allows a hit on Phil, which leads to the horrifying sequence at the gas station, wherein Phil’s head is crushed by a car tire, and the onlookers let out horrified gasps. (Again, we have an audience watching a horror happening but not rushing out to help, just as with the hit on Sil last week.)
• It doesn’t take much to get A.J. back on the self-involved track Tony and Carmela want him on. All it takes is a new car and a nice development executive job, as well as a script that, long story short, is about a private detective getting sucked into the Internet through his dataport. “He's gotta solve some murders of some virtual prostitutes,” Tony concludes his plot summary. It’s “very scary,” he assures us.
• The episode is brimming with meta-commentary on the series as a whole and on the medium of television. To unpack all of it would require another article (though I suspect you guys would read that), but my favorites are the frequent, snide digs Chase takes at broadcast television.
• Another favorite moment: Harris, hearing that Phil Leotardo is dead, enthuses, “We’re gonna win this one!” to the incredulity of his FBI colleagues.
• “If there were children playing in those leaves, you'd have just run them over?” Carmela once again outlines why I so love the Soprano parenting style.
• In case the grade is not enough indication, I will come out and say it: This is the best series finale ever made, give or take a British Office .
• I could go on about this for another 3,500 words, but I’m already well over the limit most people can be expected to read. I thank you all again, and I’m happy to announce that I’ll be starting an 18-week look at the great drama series Slings And Arrows on January 23, 2013. If you’ve never seen it, it’s all on Netflix Instant, and I guarantee you’ll watch the whole thing after you’ve watched one episode. (It’s also slightly more life-affirming than this.) After that, my plan is to go through Freaks And Geeks , probably starting May 29, 2013 (though that date is very tentative). Please join me for either or both!

On Jan. 23, 2013: We begin Slings And Arrows with a few theatrical complications.

5 Reasons Why Tony Soprano Is Dead

7 years later and the debate about what actually happened at the end of the Sopranos continues.

Justin has been writing about professional wrestling for more than 15 years. A lifelong WWE fan, he also is a big fan of Ring of Honor.

Den of Geek

The Sopranos: Explaining the Final Scene

In honor The Sopranos' 25th anniversary, we analyze its final scene, and what it meant for Tony Soprano.

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As is said with JFK, no American will ever forget where they were, or what they were doing, when Tony Soprano was shot in the series finale of The Sopranos . Recall is easier in the case of Tony, as every single witness was doing exactly the same thing at the time of his assassination: getting ready to kick their TVs into a million pieces. 

The strange thing is that little of the raw emotion stirred up by the finale was connected with the actual assassination of Tony Soprano. Hardly anyone flinched, raged, gasped, or wept for the terminated mafioso. Do you know why? Because hardly anyone – myself included – even knew that it had happened. Over a million witnesses to a murder, and not one of them could give a credible statement or offer reliable testimony. Now that, my friends, is the definition of a perfect mafia hit.

It begs the question, though: if a mafia boss falls in a diner, and no one is around to see it – or even hear it – does it make him dead? 

He’s Dead? Really?

Yes, to get the most important bit out of the way: Tony Soprano is dead. Sopranos creator and guiding force David Chase has intimated as much throughout the years before all but confirming it to The Hollywood Reporter in 2021 , saying “Because the scene I had in my mind was not that scene. Nor did I think of cutting to black. I had a scene in which Tony comes back from a meeting in New York in his car. At the beginning of every show, he came from New York into New Jersey, and the last scene could be him coming from New Jersey back into New York for a meeting at which he was going to be killed.”

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Why then did Chase and the show ultimately present Tony’s death in such an ambiguous fashion? That requires further analysis.

Let’s just remind ourselves how – to use street parlance – the final scene of The Sopranos “went down”: Tony (James Gandolfini) arrives at Holsten’s diner in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and selects Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” from the jukebox console at his table. One by one, the other members of his immediate family arrive – except for Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) – and they start to eat onion rings and indulge in small talk. Meadow’s a bit late, and seems to be having trouble parking her car. Just as Meadow reaches the diner’s door and pushes it open, Tony looks up and… blackness. Show over.    

Chase decided to end his magnum opus with that sudden cut to black, and then allowed that blackness to linger for 10 agonizing seconds, he convinced millions of HBO subscribers across the continent that their TV sets had committed electronic hara-kiri, or else their signal had cut out at the worst possible moment. It quickly dawned on them, once the end credits started rolling, that not only were their sets and signals in perfect working order, but also that this was the ending David Chase had intended.

This was the ending … This was the ending? Americans stared slack-jawed at their screens – initially too stunned to be angry – wondering if the invisible middle-finger of David Chase had been pointing towards them through the darkness of those final seconds. And then, for the second time in as many minutes, they got ready to kick their TVs into a million pieces. 

It took me a while to realize that Tony was a goner. Even still, at the time of first viewing I wasn’t one of those inspired to mete out toe-in-the-TV justice on account of the ending. I trusted Chase so implicitly that even though I didn’t – at the time – fully comprehend what he’d constructed, I knew he’d perpetrated an act of genius.

The Sopranos was so deliciously bold, fresh, funny, complex, and authentic that, for me, it rendered most other dramas on television unwatchable. This show – that had so honestly and meticulously deconstructed man, society, psychiatry, family, America, anger, love, death, life, guilt, and hate – would never, and could never, end with a “fuck you” to its audience.

And it didn’t.

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There’s no Da Vinci Code at work here, people. You won’t have to quest for ancient manuscripts or spend a few months repelling mad monks in order to see the bullet-shaped truth of The Sopranos’ final scene. It’s more like a Magic Eye drawing. Tony Soprano was shot. You just have to concentrate to bring it all into focus.

It Goes On, and On, and On, and On?

“You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?”  – Bobby Baccala 

Being something of a moron, I initially believed that the final scene and its cut to black signified that Tony’s life would go on, and on, and on, and on, but he’d be forever cursed to see a bullet or a set of handcuffs on the periphery of every moment.

We already knew Tony spent his life looking over his shoulder. He’d been arrested multiple times, and had a gun charge hanging over him that wouldn’t go away. Many of his guys had flipped. Some had been seduced by the allure of Johnny Sack’s former family in New York. People had tried to kill him. Carmela (Edie Falco) herself gave voice to this anxiety in the episode “Chasing It,” when she said to Tony, “I worry, I do. You already got shot. Now you won’t even go down to get the paper. Who is out there? What are the million other possibilities? The FBI waiting to take you away? You eat, you play, and you pretend there isn’t a giant piano hanging by a rope just over the top of your head every minute of every day.”

It’s an insult to believe that Chase would’ve summed up his entire series with a sentiment already expressed by one of the show’s main characters only a few episodes prior to the finale. Besides, Chase ending The Sopranos with the message that mafia boss Tony has to stay on his guard would be like Vince Gilligan ending Breaking Bad with the message “cancer’s not very nice.”  

What Really Happened

“They wanted to know that Tony was killed. They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know? And I just thought, ‘God, you watched this guy for seven years and I know he’s a criminal. But don’t tell me you don’t love him in some way, don’t tell me you’re not on his side in some way. And now you want to see him killed? You want justice done? You’re a criminal after watching this shit for seven years.’ That bothered me .” – David Chase in 2021 .

There is an article online called “The Sopranos: Definitive Explanation of ‘The END'” that reads like a university dissertation. The author is clearly a massive fan of The Sopranos , and provides an analysis of the ending so thorough that it would probably take less time to watch the entire boxset of the series than it would to read the staggering dissection from start to finish. This was the tome that opened my eyes to Chase’s master-stroke. Once I’d absorbed this interpretation, no other interpretation made sense, and I kicked myself for being blind to its genius and logic. In the concluding section of this feature I’m going to distil its main points, while adding a little of my own flourish. Think of it as me standing on the shoulders of giants – those of Chase, and those of the insightful blog author – all the better to spread the revelations of my Sopranos ‘ sermon.  

So let’s revisit the final scene one more time, and this time add some flesh to the synopsis… 

Tony sits in his booth, looking resigned and lethargic. He’s less the vigilant mob boss and more just another regular Joe; one of a million overweight, middle-class, middle-aged men sitting in diners up and down the country waiting for the twin comforts of onion rings and family. There are pictures arranged on the wall behind Tony that serve as a sly wink to the audience, particularly the one of the old mansion house that looks eerily similar to the one from his own near-death coma dreams. Tony selects Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” from the jukebox.

Here’s where Chase starts to get clever. Each time the diner’s door opens, its bell rings and we see Tony looking up in the direction of the noise. In the following shot we see whomever’s coming through the door from Tony’s point of view – or through his eyes, if you like. The bell establishes a pattern of shots and elicits from us a Pavlovian response. We learn to anticipate the sequence: the bell rings, Tony looks up, and we know that whatever immediately follows those raised, expectant eyebrows is whatever Tony is seeing at that exact second. Ding, raised brows, eyes, ding, raised brows, eyes.

Carmela arrives first, followed by AJ (Robert Iler), and all around them, as they sit at their booth, dance the phantoms of Tony’s past: guys who look like guys who’ve tried to kill Tony; guys who look like guys Tony has killed. We know something’s wrong, but we don’t know what. The entire scene is a rising, silent scream of tension. Every moment and movement is pregnant with dread. We know – we just know – that something big – something bad – is going to happen. These are, after all, the dying minutes of the final scene, of the final episode, of the final season. This is it… Tick, tick, tick. Ding, raised brows, eyes. Tick tick tick.

Another man enters the diner at the same time as AJ; a rather twitchy guy in a Members’ Only jacket, of the kind favored by the late Eugene Pontecorvo. He perches himself at the bar, and steals a shifty glance back and sideways in Tony’s direction, obviously taking a keen interest in the don’s seating arrangements. The man then gets up from the bar and walks past Tony’s table towards the bathroom, and as he does so the camera follows him with a tracking shot – the only such shot in the scene. This is Chase’s way of saying: “Watch this guy. I wouldn’t be imbuing him with this much significance if he was just going for a piss.” Besides, The Godfather has taught us how dangerous it can be when a connected man visits the bathroom in a diner. 

Even though I didn’t “get” the ending at first – and mistakenly believed in the “life goes on” interpretation – Meadow’s lateness always played on my mind. I knew there was something more to it. And, boy, there was. Take a look back at that tracking shot, and notice where Meadow would have been sitting had she arrived at the diner on time. Also bear in mind Tony’s words to Carmela in the previous episode: “Families don’t get touched, you know that.” Think about the line of sight the Members’ Only guy will have upon returning from the bathroom, with Meadow out of the picture.    

Meadow finishes parking, and we see her dashing towards the diner. Any second now we know she’s going to push through that door, and the ding, raised brow, eyes sequence is going to repeat itself. So when that bell dings – or perhaps tolls – for the final time, and we see Tony’s eyebrows and then… nothing… nothing… we’re forced to conclude that this “nothing” is what Tony is seeing at that exact moment. And under what circumstances other than death would a man’s point of view change so swiftly and unexpectedly to nothing? To blackness?

David Chase Did it His Way – The Only Way

In season four, Tony has a conversation with Dr. Melfi in which he sums up the problem that must have faced Chase as he contemplated the final episode: “There’s two endings for a guy like me. Dead or in the can. Big percent of the time.”

In fact, those two scenarios were the only viable options open to Chase, and he knew it. 

So what could Chase do? If The Sopranos had ended with a jail cell door clunking shut on Tony, we, the audience, would have reacted with a shrug. “Oh, the boss of a criminal organization has ended up in jail. What an unexpected and clever twist.”

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How about dead? Sure, it would have been exciting and horrifying in equal measure for Tony to go down in a hail of bullets, but as endings go it wouldn’t have been particularly satisfying or original. Like junk food, it would have sated us for precisely 10 seconds, and then we would have been left feeling sick and bloated. Besides, the bloody violence of such an act would’ve sent a mixed message to those of us who’d let Tony under our skins for the best part of a decade.

Instead, the sudden and bleak finality of that lingering darkness forced us to contemplate the fragility of life, and the ubiquity of death. How, in the end, maybe it’s only the moment that matters. Or maybe the little moments… that were good. I don’t know. Perhaps Livia Soprano was right, and it really is “all a big nothing.” The Sopranos , like life itself, takes more delight in raising questions than giving answers.  

But there’s no question about the meaning of those final seconds. We – the viewer, the fan – got to do what we had always done – what we’d always loved doing – over the course of six glorious seasons: see the world through Tony Soprano’s eyes. Just a little more literally – and finally – this time.

Jamie Andrew | @nottheclimber

Jamie Andrew is a writer and geek enthusiast from Scotland, or 'North of the Wall' as they call it in the UK. You can read his…

JUMP CUT A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

1. References to individual episodes will be given in parentheses. [ return to page 1 ]

2. At the time, as one of the most famous critical pieces about The Sopranos stated, it was “the richest and most compelling” piece of popular culture of the past twenty years. See: Willis, Ellen, “Our Mobsters, Ourselves,” This Thing of Ours: Investigating The Sopranos , ed. David Lavery (New York: Wallflower Press, 2002), p. 2.

3. Viewing figure information can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Sopranos_ episodes#Season_6_(2006%E2%80%9307)

4. It is worth noting that, in some sense, this golden age was somewhat belated, given the kinds of productions that had been happening elsewhere, for instance, to take one obvious example: the German television of the 1970s.

5. Hilmes, Michele, et al., “RETHINKING TELEVISION: A Critical Symposium on the New Age of Episodic Narrative Storytelling” Cinéaste , Fall 2014, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Fall 2014), pp. 26-38.

6. Hilmes, Michele, et al., “RETHINKING TELEVISION,” p. 26.

7. This trope is extensively explored in: Silver, Alain, & Ursini, James, Gangster Film Reader (Pompton Plains, NJ: Limelight Editions, 2007).

8. A whole section of The Essential Sopranos Reader is devoted to its analysis.

9. The most well-known of these being perhaps the “Definitive Explanation of The End,” available here: https://masterofsopranos.wordpress.com/the-sopranos-definitive-explanation-of-the-end/

10. Brett, Martin, The Sopranos: The Complete Book (London: Headline, 2007), p. 184.

11. See, for example: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/01/the-sopranos-finale-david-chase-comments-is-tony-dead

12. Smith, Barbara Herrnstein, Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End (Chicago: Chicago UP, 1968), p. 3.

13. See, for instance: The Essential Sopranos Reader , ed. David Lavery, Douglas L. Howard & Paul Levinson (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2011).

14. Assignations common to the critical literature see, in particular: This Thing of Ours.

15. Elsaesser, Thomas, “Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama,” Imitations of Life: a Reader on Film & Television Melodrama , ed. Marcia Landy (Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1991), pp. 68-91; Gledhill, Christine, “The Melodramatic Field: An Investigation,” Home Is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman’s Film , ed. Christine Gledhill (London: BFI Books, 1987), pp. 5-39; Williams, Linda, “Melodrama Revised,” Refiguring American Film Genres: History and Theory , ed. Nick Browne (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 42-88.

16. Gledhill, Christine, “Rethinking Genre,” Reinventing Film Studies , ed. Christine Gledhill & Linda Williams (London: Arnold, 2000), pp. 221.

17. Gledhill, Christine, “Rethinking Genre,” p. 222.

18. A connection so strong that the philosopher Robert Pippin, in his essay on melodrama master Douglas Sirk, writes that the director “treats America’s deepest understanding of itself, its self-narration, as a form of melodrama.” Pippin, Robert, Filmed Thought: Cinema as Reflective Form (Chicago: Chicago UP, 2020), p. 130.

19. Williams, Linda, “Melodrama Revised,” p. 42.

21. Interestingly, in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich after the first season of the show, Chase spoke about The Sopranos being made at the point of exhaustion for the gangster genre. The Sopranos , “David Chase Interview” (Season 1 DVD, HBO Video, 2001).

22. Pattie, David, “Mobbed Up: The Sopranos and the Modern Gangster Film,” This Thing of Ours , p. 135.

23. Jameson, Frederic, “Reification and Utopian in Mass Culture,” Social Text , No. 1 (Winter, 1979), p. 135.

24. Elsaesser, “Tales of Sound and Fury,” p. 86.

25. This mistake, again, is an echo. In the pilot, Hesh mistakes Gennaro "Little Pussy" Malanga for "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero because of their similar names. [ return to page 2 ]

26. It is worth noting, someone with the initials T.S. is murdered in this episode: Teddy Spirodakis, shot in a diner by Gene on Christopher’s orders.

27. The helicopters, like those following Ray Liotta's Henry Hill in Goodfellas , indicate a world of truth “above” that of the one being watched.

28. Williams, “Melodrama Revised,” p. 53

29. Williams, “Melodrama Revised,” p. 48.

30. Gledhill, “The Melodramatic Field,” p. 45.

31. Notably, the concept of “flipping” (i.e. becoming an informant) is the attempt to swap on form of legibility (the mafia oath) for another (the law).

32. Jameson, “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture,” p. 134.

33. Elsaesser,”Tales of Sound and Fury,” pp. 78-79.

34. Tony acts as inevitable rciorso in Christopher's development. See: “Giambattista Vico,” Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy : https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico/

34. Alexithymia, National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8456171/#:~:text=Alexithymia %20is%20characterized%20by%20an,et%20al.%2C%201976 ).

36. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia . Akathisia is, in a sense, the pathological codification of the restless energy/kinetics of the classic image of the “ideal” gangster.

37. At a meta-narrative level of course there is another world, the world of the viewer, of chronological time. However it is not a realm of infinite paradise or punishment but a world which mirrors the one inhabited by the characters. In fact, in Paulie's case this is further destabilized by the historical instance of Tony Sirico being a genuine mafia associate as well as an actor.

38. Of course, at the level of the series” production, the note was placed there by the props team and set dressers.

39. O’Sullivan, Sean, “The Sopranos: Episodic Storytelling,” How to Watch Television , ed. Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell (New York: New York UP, 2013), p. 72.

40. Once again, it is this inexplicability (instantiated through the show’s postmodern framing) that complicates the classical patient-psychiatrist melodramatic trope e.g. Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper, 1942). [ return to page 3 ]

41. Williams, “Melodrama Revised,” p. 58.

42. Notably, In the episode when Tony gets out of hospital (Mayham), Phil says “I don't forget” right before he and Vito forget what they were talking about. This memorial slip first sets up, and then undermines, the narrative arc of the entire season.

43. See: Esposito, Roberto , Living Thought: The Origins and Actuality of Italian Philosophy , trans. Zakiya Hanafi (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012), pp.45-58

44. Gledhill, “The Melodramatic Field,” p. 21.

45. See: Mason, Fran, American Gangster Cinema: From "Little Caesar" to "Pulp Fiction" (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).

46. Jameson, “Reification and Utopian in Mass Culture,” p. 146.

47. Jameson, “Reification and Utopian in Mass Culture,” p. 146.

48. Warshow, “The Gangster as Tragic Hero,” p. 241.

49. Jameson, “Reification and Utopian in Mass Culture,” p. 146.

50. This notion of ending is part of Agamben's poetics in: Agamben, Giorgio, “The End of the Poem,” The End of the Poem: Studies in Poetics , trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen (Stanford: Standford University Press, 1999) pp.109-115

51. Williams, “Melodrama Revised,” p. 75.

52. Elsaesser,”Tales of Sound and Fury,” p. 74. [ return to page 4 ]

53. See: Gledhill, “The Melodramatic Field,” pp. 16-17.

54. Elsaesser, “Tales of Sound and Fury,” p. 76.

55. Hilmes, Michele, et al., “RETHINKING TELEVISION,” p. 27.

56. Creeber, Glen, “TV Ruined the Movies,” This thing of ours: investigating “The Sopranos, ” New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), p. 127.

57. Elsaesser, “Tales of Sound and Fury,” p. 76.

58. Creeber, “TV Ruined the Movies,” p. 127.

59. For an analysis of silence in the series see: Peacock, Steven “Silence in The Sopranos,” The Essential Sopranos Reader , pp. 277-85.

60. The Sopranos, “David Chase Interview” (Season 1 DVD, HBO Video, 2001).

61. Hilmes, Michele, et al., “RETHINKING TELEVISION,” p. 34.

62. O’Sullivan, Sean, “Epic, Serial, Episode: The Sopranos and the Return Voyage of Television,” Narrative Culture , Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring 2017), p. 50.

63. Mittell, Jason, “Narrative Complexity in Comparative American Television,” Velvet Light Trap 58 (2006), p. 32.

64. O’Sullivan, Sean, “Epic, Serial, Episode,” p. 59.

65. O’Sullivan, Sean, “The Sopranos: Episodic Storytelling,” How to Watch Television , ed. Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell (New York: New York UP, 2013), p. 65.

66. O’Sullivan, “The Sopranos: Episodic Storytelling,” p. 67.

67. Williams, “Melodrama Revised,” p. 53.

68. Elsaesser, “Tales of Sound and Fury,” p. 86.

69. Williams, “Melodrama Revised,” p. 50.

70. Williams, “Melodrama Revised,” p. 58.

71. Bresson, Robert, Notes on the Cinematograph , trans. Jonathan Griffin (New York: NYRB Classics, 2016), p.65

72. Jameson, “Reification and Utopian in Mass Culture,” p. 132.

73. Adorno, Theodor W. Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life (London: Verso, 1974) p.1111

Bibliography

Adorno, Theodor W. Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life (London: Verso, 1974)

Agamben, Giorgio, “The End of the Poem,” The End of the Poem: Studies in Poetics , trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen (Stanford: Standford University Press, 1999) pp.109-115

Bradley, Laura, “David Chase Comments on The End,” Vanity Fair (2019), available: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/01/the-sopranos-finale-david-chase-comments-is-tony-dead

Bresson, Robert, Notes on the Cinematograph , trans. Jonathan Griffin (New York: NYRB Classics,2016)

Brett, Martin, The Sopranos: The Complete Book (London: Headline, 2007)

Costelloe, Timothy “Giambattista Vico,” Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (2018), available: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico/

Creeber, Glen, “TV Ruined the Movies,” This thing of ours: investigating The Sopranos New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), pp. 124-134

Elsaesser, Thomas, “Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama,” Imitations of Life: a Reader on Film & Television, Melodrama , ed. Marcia Landy (Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1991), pp. 68-91

Esposito, Roberto, Living Thought: The Origins and Actuality of Italian Philosophy , trans. Zakiya Hanafi (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012)

Gledhill, Christine, “The Melodramatic Field: An Investigation,” Home Is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman’s Film , ed. Christine Gledhill (London: BFI Books, 1987), pp. 5-39.

Gledhill, Christine, “Rethinking Genre,” Reinventing Film Studies , ed. Christine Gledhill & Linda Williams (London: Arnold, 2000), pp. 221-243

Hilmes, Michele, et al., “RETHINKING TELEVISION: A Critical Symposium on the New Age of Episodic Narrative Storytelling” Cinéaste , Fall 2014, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Fall 2014), pp. 26-38.

Jameson, Frederic, “Reification and Utopian in Mass Culture,” Social Text , No. 1 (Winter, 1979), pp. 130-148.

Lavery, David, Douglas L. Howard & Paul Levinson (eds.), The Essential Sopranos Reader , Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2011)

Mason, Fran, American Gangster Cinema: From "Little Caesar" to "Pulp Fiction" (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).

Master of Sopranos “Definitive Explanation of The End,” Master of Sopranos blog (2008), available: https://masterofsopranos.wordpress.com/the-sopranos-definitive-explanation-of-the-end/

Mittell, Jason, “Narrative Complexity in Comparative American Television,” Velvet Light Trap 58 (2006), p. 32.

National Library of Medicine, “Alexithymia,” National Library of Medicine , available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8456171/#:~:text=Alexithymia %20is%20characterized%20by%20an,et%20al.%2C%201976

O’Sullivan, Sean, “The Sopranos: Episodic Storytelling,” How to Watch Television , ed. Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell (New York: New York UP, 2013), pp. 65–73.

O’Sullivan, Sean, “Epic, Serial, Episode: The Sopranos and the Return Voyage of Television,” Narrative Culture , Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring 2017), pp. 49-75.

Peacock, Steven, “Silence in The Sopranos,” The Essential Sopranos Reader , pp. 277-85.

Pippin, Robert, Filmed Thought: Cinema as Reflective Form (Chicago: Chicago UP, 2020)

Silver, Alain, & Ursini, James, Gangster Film Reader (Pompton Plains, NJ: Limelight Editions, 2007).

Smith, Barbara Herrnstein, Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End (Chicago: Chicago UP, 1968)

Warshow, Robert, “The Gangster as Tragic Hero,” Partisan Review 15, no. 2 (1948), pp. 240–248

Wikipedia, “List of The Sopranos Episodes,” Wikipedia , available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Sopranos_episodes#Season_6_(2006%E2%80%9307)

Williams, Linda, “Melodrama Revised,” Refiguring American Film Genres: History and Theory , ed. Nick Browne (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 42-88.

Willis, Ellen, “Our Mobsters, Ourselves,” This Thing of Ours: Investigating The Sopranos, ed. David Lavery (New York: Wallflower Press, 2002)

Filmography

• Brahm, John (1060) “A Nice Place to Visit,” The Twilight Zone . U.S.A.
• Chase, David (1999-2007) The Sopranos . U.S.A.
• Chase, David (2001) The Sopranos , “David Chase Interview,” Season 1 DVD, HBO Video. U.S.A.
• Coppola, Francis Ford (1970) The Godfather . U.S.A.
• Lang, Fritz (1947) Secret Beyond the Door . U.S.A.
• LeRoy, Mervyn (1931) Little Caesar . U.S.A.
• Minnelli, Vincente (1946) Undercurrent . U.S.A.
• Minnelli, Vincente (1955) The Cobweb . U.S.A.
• Preminger, Otto (1950) Whirlpool . U.S.A.
• Rapper, Irving (1942) Now, Voyager. U.S.A.
• Scorsese, Martin (1994) Goodfellas . U.S.A.
• Scorsese, Martin (2006) The Departed . U.S.A.
• Simon, David (2002-2008) The Wire. U.S.A.
• Sirk, Douglas (1949) Shockproof . U.S.A.
• Sirk, Douglas (1959) Imitation of Life . U.S.A.

Screen Rant

The sopranos: 10 clues in the show that prove tony died.

Fans of HBO's hit series The Sopranos often ask "who killed Tony Soprano?" Though the show never directly answers this question, there are some clues.

• The Sopranos finale left Tony Soprano's fate a total mystery, leading to divisive opinions among fans and critics.
• Clues throughout the series point to Tony's certain death, including the presence of a mysterious man and references to The Godfather .
• Tony's death could be connected to revenge for previous hits and the motives of other characters such as Patsy, who may have hired a hitman.

There have been several polarizing series finales, but few are as polarizing as the one for the HBO crime drama The Sopranos , where many viewers still wonder if Tony Soprano died. "Made In America" ends confusingly and ambiguously, which was divisive at the time, as it was called both " amazing " and " disappointing " by fans and critics. In The Sopranos finale, Tony sits in a restaurant with his family, and though everything seems OK and Tony is seemingly happy, the tension is building. Something significant seems like it is going to happen when a mysterious man enters and continues to stare at Tony.

However, at the very moment that something could happen, the screen cuts to black, leaving the fate of Tony Soprano a total mystery . Series creator David Chase avoided discussing the scene following the finale. Various interpretations and theories have surfaced over the years, the most popular of which is that Tony was killed , but even then, it isn't clear how he was killed or who killed him. As Tony is played by the talented James Gandolfini, the actor's final expression can be interpreted in many different ways. However, there are tons of clues in the critically-acclaimed series that point to Tony's certain death.

Where To Watch The Sopranos

The Sopranos: What The Song In The Final Scene Really Means

10 the man in the "members only" jacket in the sopranos finale is suspect, could he be associated with eugene.

In the final minutes of The Sopranos finale, a stranger walks into the diner wearing a jacket with a "Members Only" logo on it. Viewers might remember the events in the Season 6 premiere where Vito Spatafore mocks Eugene for wearing a jacket that also had a "Members Only" logo on it. Eugene doesn't respond and simply gives Vito a death stare. The jacket possibly signifies his affiliation with a special gang. When Tony prevents Eugene from moving to Florida with his family, he commits suicide. The man wearing the same jacket at the diner might be someone close to Eugene, and he could be responsible for Tony's death in The Sopranos .

9 The Case Of The Oranges Hints At Tony's Death In The Sopranos

A homage to the godfather.

The Sopranos has multiple nods to The Godfather trilogy and in The Sopranos finale, there is another Sopranos-Godfather link that holds meaning. Tony holds an orange at Carmela's project house earlier in the episode. During another assassination attempt earlier in the series, he had just bought orange juice too. Oranges are used in The Godfather to symbolize either natural death or "getting whacke d" .

When Vito Corleone gets shot in the street in The Godfather, he is buying oranges, and when he collapses and dies, he is holding an orange while making funny faces at his grandson. Oranges are also present at the meeting of the five families before the bosses get killed. The Sopranos also featuring so many oranges is a clear hint that Tony Soprano dies.

8 Tony And Bobby's Discussion In The Sopranos Foreshadows Tony's Death

A hint to the silence at the end.

In The Sopranos Season 6, episode 20, "The Blue Comet," there is a flashback to "Soprano Home Movies" where Bobby and Tony talk about what it's like to get whacked. They both agree that it's a mobster's greatest fear. An important quote from their conversation is, " In our line of work, it's always out there. You probably don't even hear it when it happens. " The cut to black in the final episode could mean that Tony does die in The Sopranos , but he doesn't even hear it when he finally gets killed, and neither does the audience.

The Sopranos: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Details You Didn't Know About The Series Finale

7 the stranger who walks into the bathroom in the sopranos finale is a godfather reference, a michael corleone reference.

Another The Godfather reference pops up at the diner . The man wearing the "Members Only" jacket walks to the bathroom, perhaps to relieve himself, but based on the show's endless references to the classic gangster movie, that might not be the case. In The Godfather , Michael Corleone walks into the bathroom to collect a gun hidden behind a toilet just before he shoots Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo and Police Captain Mark McCluskey at a restaurant. The strange man's stare and walk are very similar to that of Michael Corleone. Given that The Sopranos is littered with Godfather references, it's unlikely that the bathroom walk didn't have meaning for Tony Soprano's fate.

6 Tony Frequently States There Are Only Two Ways Out For A Boss In The Sopranos

No one gets out alive.

In several episodes of The Sopranos , Tony states that there are only two ways out for a boss: dead or in jail. He says it in season 2, episode 6, " The Happy Wandere r," as well as the Season 4 premiere and many others. History proves that this has always been the case for real-life mobsters too. Lupertazzi family boss Phil Leotardo was a great character from The Sopranos season 6 but was brutally murdered while Johnny Sack went to jail. It's safe to assume that since Tony never goes to prison, there is only one other way out for him .

5 Silvio Is Also Shot By A Man Wearing A "Members Only" Jacket In The Sopranos

Could tony's death connect to silvio's.

One of the men who shot Silvio Dante multiple times also happens to be wearing a "Members Only" jacket. After the shooting incident, Silvio is left in a coma, and it's never known whether he survives or not, though doctors mention that he is unlikely to recover. A man wearing the same kind of jacket showing up at the diner where Tony is meeting his family is hardly a coincidence. Earlier, the Lupertazi family had set up assassination plots against Silvio , Bobby, and Tony to destabilize the DiMeo family, and Tony was the only one remaining. Just as Silvio's fate is never revealed, Tony's fate isn't revealed either.

The Sopranos: 10 Life Lessons We Can Learn From Tony Soprano

4 tony's death in the sopranos could be retaliation for phil leortardo's murder, revenge for a previous hit by walden.

Phil Leorardo's murder is carried out messily by Walden Belfiore, a Gervasi crew soldier who is also part of the DiMeo crime family. Walden shoots Phil twice in front of his family before his skull then gets crushed by his car. The strange man at the diner might have been sent to exact vengeance. He waits for the right moment when the entire Soprano family is at the table. Killing Tony in front of his family could be a way to send a message that if somebody has their enemy murdered as disrespectfully as Belfiore does, then there will be similar consequences.

3 Uncle Junior Has Men Killed Where They're Most Comfortable In The Sopranos

The diner could be key to tony soprano's death.

Earlier in the series, Uncle Junior clashes with Tony because he intends to kill Malanga at the Vesuvio restaurant. Tony is against the idea because the restaurant belongs to his childhood friend Artie. A murder at the restaurant would be in the news and this would scare potential customers. Junior insists that the murder has to happen at the Vesuvio because that's the only place where Malanga lets his guard down, and Tony does the same thing. Tony visits multiple diners/restaurants, and it's one of his go-to ways to unwind. Anyone planning to whack Tony knows that this is the only place they'll catch him off-guard .

2 Patsy Has Motive To Kill Tony In The Sopranos

Could patsy be seeking revenge.

Despite being one of the best supporting characters in The Sopranos , Patsy's loyalty has always been questionable. Patsy has always had problems with Tony, ever since he promoted Christopher instead of him. While drunk, Patsy points a gun at Tony through a window and considers whacking him as revenge after Tony sanctioned the murder of Patsy's twin brother. Patsy chooses not to do it and urinates in Tony's pool instead. It has also been implied that he was working with the crew that shot Silvio. It's possible that Patsy hired a hitman to kill Tony in The Sopranos to stage a coup d'état and take over as the boss.

1 The Sopranos Finale Is The Only Episode That Ends Differently

Did the sopranos end with tony's story's conclusion.

Instead of fading to black and then transitioning to the credits like other episodes, The Sopranos finale simply cuts to black and stays that way for about three seconds before the credits start rolling. This means that something significant just happened, and there aren't many options about what might have happened other than that Tony dies at the end of The Sopranos . There's no other reason why the series finale would end so differently from the way the 85 other episodes ended, and there's nothing significant or eventful that could have happened at that moment other than Tony's murder.

The Sopranos

The Internet killed Tony Soprano

Among the profound questions of the early 21st century, perhaps none have been bigger than: “what happened at the end of the sopranos".

Chris Osterndorf

Internet Culture

Posted on Aug 28, 2014   Updated on May 30, 2021, 4:54 pm CDT

Among the profound questions of the early 21st century, perhaps none have been bigger than: “What happened at the end of The Sopranos ?”

That’s why it was frankly shocking yesterday when, in a piece from Vox ’s Martha P. Nochimson, the show ’s creator, David Chase , seemed to clear up what most interpreted as the central mystery at the core of the finale: whether Tony Soprano died, or not.

You’re probably familiar with the ending of The Sopranos , regardless of if you watched the show. The iconic sequence , wherein Tony (played to perfection by the late, great James Gandolfini ) meets his family at a diner for some onion rings. While his daughter is parking her car, a suspicious-looking guy in a “Members Only” jacket walks into the bathroom. Journey plays in the background. Tony says something, and then in mid-sentence—cut to black. Cue angry/confused fans.

So can everyone looking for concrete closure from The Sopranos now rest easy? Nochimson relays in her article that when she asked Chase whether Tony perished or not, like so many had done before, he got angry and asked, “Why are we talking about this?” But then, she says he relented, telling her, “No,” boredly, matter-of-factly even. “No, he isn’t.”  

Halleluiah! Tony Soprano lives! Right?

Not exactly. Chase has since backtracked on these statements, following the ensuing uproar they caused. But no matter what you believe, none of this really matters in terms of the larger context. Any way you look at it, the bickering around the Sopranos finale is emblematic of the way the Internet has taught people to watch TV .

David Chase’s reluctance to answer Nochimson’s query about Tony’s fate should come as a surprise to no one. In the years since the finale aired, he hasn’t been shy about expressing his distaste for this line of questioning. Shortly after the finale aired in 2007, Chase talked to Brett Martin for Entertainment Weekly  and complained, “It’s one thing to be deeply involved with a television show. It’s another to be so involved that all you do is sit on a couch and watch it. It seemed that those people were just looking for an excuse to be pissed off. There was a war going on that week and attempted terror attacks in London. But these people were talking about onion rings.”

Chase didn’t exactly quiet any of the speculation with this interview, though, and if anything, he exacerbated it. At one point, he mentioned, “There had been indications of what the end is like. Remember when Jerry Toricano was killed? Silvio was not aware that the gun had been fired until after Jerry was on his way down to the floor. That’s the way things happen: It’s already going on by the time you even notice it.”

Martin responded to this, gingerly beginning, “Are you saying…?” to which Chase fired back, “I’m not saying anything. And I’m not trying to be coy. It’s just that I think that to explain it would diminish it.”

We’ll return to whether Chase “diminished” the finale later, but the other important revelation from this interview is what a fascinating, enigmatic character this man is. Nochimson’s piece is actually more about Chase than it is about The Sopranos finale, and Martin found him so compelling that he used Chase as the centerpiece for his 2013 book, Difficult Men , which focused on the showrunners (and yes, they are somewhat disappointingly all men) who made TV’s new “ golden age .”

What’s really funny about Chase’s place as the leader of the show which basically orchestrated this golden age is his skepticism about the medium he was working in. Chase has not been shy about sharing this either, although he does frequently come off as hopeful about the elevated potential of “art” as a separate entity from television. Talking to Nochimson about his 2012 major feature debut, Not Fade Away , he says, “I guess what I was trying to get to in Not Fade Away is that experiencing art is the closest an atheist or agnostic can get to praying.”

Chase’s high-minded view of what constitutes great art is all over his comments to Nochimson, who frequently returns to literary heavyweights like Edgar Allan Poe and Carlos Castaneda . These forces were a direct influence on the end of The Sopranos , according to Nochimson, who proposes, “The cut to black brought to American television the sense of an ending that produces wonder instead of the tying-up of loose ends that characterizes the tradition of the formulaic series. Tony’s decisive win over his enemy in the New York mob, Phil Leotardo, is the final user-friendly event in Chase’s gangster story that gratifies the desire to be conclusive, and it would have been the finale of a less compelling gangster story. The cut to black is the moment when Castaneda and the American Romantics rise to the surface and the gangster story slips through our fingers and vanishes.”

However, Nochimson believes this vanishing should not in theory have been as opaque to the American public as many of them found it. She asserts that to a certain extent, a story’s finale is almost always inherently unresolved. “Though you wouldn’t know it from watching Hollywood movies, endings are by nature mysterious,” he writes. “Chase’s art seeks a silent level of knowing more profound than words. He believes we already kow if we open up to that deeper part of us.”

In some ways, Nochimson is justified in positing that even the most satisfying endings leave questions open to the viewer. Because unless everybody dies, these characters lives go on in a world which we’ll never get to see.

But the “unless everybody dies” aspect also happens to be precisely what has driven the primary conversations around The Sopranos in recent years. Either most fans have not been able to access that “deeper part” of themselves that simply accepts the ending for what it is and formulates their own opinions about what happens to the characters once the show ends, or they have looked in that deeper part and found death to be the only logical possibility. This is most clearly evident in the famous, and moreover, incredibly well-written “Master of Sopranos” essay which has been circulating all around the web since the show’s end.

Written by an unnamed author, this essay states emphatically and rather convincingly that the only explanation for the finale lies in Tony Soprano’s death. But as fun as it is, it also may be part of the problem with the way people have started to look at television.

In the years since The Sopranos finale aired, viewers have basically gone in the opposite direction of the episode’s intention, with Internet speculation making it impossible for fans to embrace ambiguity. Lost  inspired so many theories that they have their own website . And they’ve been so persistent that ten years after the show premiered, its creators are still debunking them.

More recently, True Detective prompted viewers to swarm the Internet, obsessing over the “Yellow King” and almost every other single detail the show offered. It got to the point where creator Nic Pizzolatto had to do as the Lost   showrunners eventually did, and set the record straight on the most ridiculous theories out there. This over-hypothesizing also turned conversations about the show’s literary references into a debate over plagiarism , which didn’t really add up to anything but annoying nitpicking in the long run.

And the Internet hasn’t made things much better for film. A 2011 Cracked list called “7 Hotly Debated Movie Questions That Totally Have Answers” attempted to explain purposefully ambiguous elements in titles across all genres. The list included entries such as the briefcase in Pulp Fiction , the FedEx box in Cast Away , the whisper in Lost in Translation , and the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey (the Sopranos finale is in there, too, despite the fact that The Sopranos is a television show.)

It also doesn’t help that directors like Christopher Nolan (and the actors he works with ) have been overly eager to explain his movies away to whoever is listening. This wouldn’t be such a problem if not for the fact that Nolan is one of the few Blockbuster directors working today who tries to inject his films with just a soupcon of ambiguity.  

All of this begs the question, is all of this explanation necessary? Many of the stories in question aren’t really that ambiguous , for one thing. Which isn’t to say there haven’t been plenty of aggressively ambiguous projects (some better than others) to come out in the last few years. Sean Durkin ’s Martha Marcy May Marlene , Kelly Reichardt ’s Meek’s Cutoff , David Fincher ’s Zodiac , and the Coen brothers ’ A Serious Man are all examples of this. And Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve was so desperate to contain “explanations” of his 2013 thriller, Enemy , that he made the cast sign a confidentiality agreement barring them from discussing interpretations of the movie.

Foreign cinema is different, in that explanations aren’t offered so readily. The idea that everything must be spelled out for the audience is mostly an American conceit.

What’s so disappointing about this is that trying to crack the end of a movie like 2001 takes away from the greater point of the film. The stylistic, sensory, and thematic joy of this movie (another Chase favorite) isn’t ultimately about “explanations.” Sure, explanations are fun, in so much as they can further the conversation about a great film. But looking at it under a microscope can be tedious. Lately, even lesser favorites like Mary Harron ’s American Psycho have prompted viewers to look for answers while missing the overarching ethos , along with downright dumb pictures like the Alien -baiting Prometheus .

This fits in with TV, too. There is a line of thinking which supports the idea that a little messiness in a show’s finale is a good thing. Sure, no one wants anything as far out of left field as the Dexter sendoff , but a dash of ambiguity doesn’t hurt. For instance, as widely loved as the ending to Breaking Bad was, there were a few people in the minority who thought it was all a bit too neat , that it didn’t leave the viewer enough to wrestle with.

Revisiting The Sopranos in 2012, The A.V. Club ’s Todd VanDerWerff wrote about how he felt that the show’s followers were starting to miss the forest for the trees:

A crazy thing happened to me on the way through the final nine episodes of The Sopranos . I’d read the famed ‘Master Of Sopranos’ essay that this comment section has discussed and debated a million times over. I actually read it a couple of times, since I found it a fascinating piece of using formalist film criticism—the picking apart of the smaller elements that go into the whole of a filmed work (shots, cuts, etc.)—to make one very specific argument. If you’ve never read it, I recommend it, even if I don’t really endorse it. After reading it, I was pretty convinced that I would watch these final nine episodes and see everything the unnamed author of the blog post saw, see how everything points to the death of Tony Soprano. Indeed… I toyed with adopting the theory wholesale. But I can’t, and for reasons that go beyond my general irritation that the blog post, more than any other element, has turned far, far too many discussions of this show into discussions that solely talk about the final five minutes of its entire run.

In addition to this, VanDerWerff contends that endorsing or rejecting the “death theory” doesn’t mean that The Sopranos can’t be appreciated for its meditations on mortality. For him, it’s not important whether Tony dies in the finale or not. The show’s observations on death are about more than that.

Tony Soprano dies. Maybe he dies at the end of ‘Made In America,’ when the Members Only jacket guy puts a bullet in the back of his head (something we don’t see, because we cut to black from his point-of-view). Maybe he dies in 40 years, surrounded by family and friends and little Parisi grandchildren. (At the thought of that, maybe he would have preferred the bullet.) Maybe he dies right after leaving Holstens when he gets hit by a bus. Maybe he dies because he gets cancer. Maybe the cancer is eating him alive right now. Maybe he dies in a fight with Carmela, when she finally gets fed up and takes a shot at him. Maybe he decays slowly in a hospital somewhere, like Uncle Junior, the only solace he has a moment to look out the window at the sun and the birds, a moment to wonder who he is or who he was. Tony Soprano dies. So do you. So do I.

Nochimson emphasizes in her Vox piece that discussing the underlying motifs of Chase’s work “is a better kind of discussion than furiously arguing about Tony’s ultimate survival.” That said, while her article is intermittently excellent, it has reopened old wounds about the show’s endings which would have been better left untouched. And while Chase has now backtracked on his statements about Tony’s survival or lack thereof, the fact is that the whole incident is only likely to reignite shouts of “You’re wrong! I’m right!”

But The Sopranos isn’t a puzzle to be solved. Its insights on life, death, love, community, and identity are more complex than that. This is why (with all due respect to The Wire , Breaking Bad , and Mad Men ) The Sopranos is the greatest television drama of all time. And no amount of straightforward explanations can change that.

Photo by Jason Reed

Chris Osterndorf is an entertainment reporter and movie critic based in Los Angeles. He holds a degree in cinema from Chicago’s DePaul University. His work has appeared on the Daily Dot, Mic, the Script Lab, Salon, the Week, xoJane, and more.

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Analyzing The Soprano's First Episode

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The examination of the definition behind quality television.

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Semiotic Analysis of the Opening Sequence of "The Sopranos"

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Cinematography And Storytelling Innovations In Sopranos And House Of Cards

Throughout the Golden Ages of television, there has been one constant - innovation. Quality television usually challenges societal norms, tackles stigmatized topics, or paints the world in a picture that brings a nuanced meaning to artistic expression. As viewers, we often look past these subtleties...

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The Sopranos Episodes of Season 1: How the TV Show Intrigues Its Audience

The Sopranos is a Drama with 6 seasons and its first episode was aired on January 10, 1999 and the final episode was aired on June 10,2007 with a total of 86 episodes.The Sopranos is David Chase's produced American crime drama television series. The story...

Best topics on Sopranos

1. The Examination of the Definition Behind Quality Television

2. Semiotic Analysis of the Opening Sequence of “The Sopranos”

3. Cinematography And Storytelling Innovations In Sopranos And House Of Cards

4. The Sopranos Episodes of Season 1: How the TV Show Intrigues Its Audience

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The Sopranos

Updated 29 August 2022

Subject Movies ,  TV

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Category Entertainment

Topic Sopranos

The Sopranos is a television series that starred Al Pacino as crime family boss, Tony Soprano. The series was known for portraying a complex, twisted character who struggled with everyday life while trying to run the criminal organization. Tony also had a short temper and serial womanized women, but his antics endeared him to fans who grew to love the character. The show aired for seven seasons, and the first season aired on HBO.Voice types Soprano voice range is not confined to one type. There are different types of sopranos: head, chest, bass, tenor, and mezzo-soprano. These different types can perform the same range of notes, but they differ in timbre and texture. In general, sopranos tend to be higher in tessitura than mezzo-sopranos, while mezzo-sopranos tend to have a lower tessitura and darker timbre.There are also dramatic sopranos. They lack agility and range but have a strong, powerful voice and can cover a full orchestra. These sopranos are frequently found in lead roles in Wagnerian operas. This voice type is known for its rich, dark tone color and layers of sound. It is highly prized in opera literature. It can also cover a wide range of range. These types of sopranos are considered the most versatile.Characters The Sopranos is a series about gangsters. The Sopranos is set in New Jersey, and the characters are made up of mobsters who are involved in organized crime. The series focuses on the lives of the members of the Aprile Crew. Several characters are recurring and have significant roles throughout the series. In addition to Vito, the other main characters include Tony Soprano, Carmine Fellini, and Angelo "Frankie" Giannini.The Sopranos is a complex show with complex themes. The central theme is tied to existentialism, which preaches the message that life has no meaning. The Sopranos explores this concept with many twists and turns. Here's a closer look at the characters:Storyline The first season of The Sopranos focused on Tony Soprano, a capo in the DiMeo crime family. His relationship with his mother Livia and his uncle Junior is troubled, but things get worse when he begins having panic attacks. He then begins therapy sessions with Dr. Melfi, who believes that Tony is using talking therapy to deal with his traumatic experiences. The season three finale follows Tony's therapy sessions with Melfi.The Sopranos is a landmark television series that influenced the industry. Its writing team struggled to find an open story to tell. Ultimately, the characters of the show were chosen for their unique abilities. For example, Edie Falco was cast as Carmela Soprano and Tony Sirico as Paulie Walnuts. However, the creative team found a way to create a storyline that was emotionally engaging for viewers.Background story The Sopranos is a TV series that has many characters. The main character is Tony Soprano. However, the show focuses on the lives of the other characters as well. For example, the background story of Dickie Soprano is often overlooked. He is the figurehead of the family. Although he isn't exactly a villain, he's one of the main characters.His father, Jackie Aprile, died of cancer and is the acting boss of the Family. When The Sopranos begins, Eckley DiMeo is in prison. Initially, Chase did not like the idea of a boss above Tony, but later said that Eckley did die in prison. In the pilot episode, Eckley is seen talking to wiseguys, despite being a convicted felon.

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