No easy ending for 'The Sopranos'
NEW YORK - Tony Soprano carries on.
The much-awaited conclusion of HBO's "The Sopranos" arrived Sunday night in a frenzy of audience speculation. Would New Jersey mob boss Soprano live or be killed? Would his family die before his eyes? Would he go to jail? Be forced to enter witness protection? Would Brooklyn boss Phil Leotardo, who had ordered a hit on Tony, prevail?
In the end, the only ending that mattered was the one masterminded by "Sopranos" creator David Chase. And playing against viewer expectations, as always, Chase refused to stage a mass extermination, put the characters through any changes, or provide his viewers with comfortable closure. Or catharsis. After all, he declined to pass moral judgment on Tony — he reminded viewers all season what a thug Tony is, then gave him a pass.
But Chase was true to himself, and that's what made "The Sopranos" brilliant on Sunday night, and the 85 episodes that went before. The product of an artist with a bleak but illuminating vision, "The Sopranos" has always existed on its own terms. And it was seldom tidy.
The only neat development in the finale was that Leotardo was crushed. Otherwise it was perversely non-earthshaking — just one last visit with the characters we have followed so devoutly since 1999.
Here was the funeral for Bobby Bacala, Tony's soldier and brother-in-law, who was shot dead on Leotardo's orders last week. Here was Tony (series star James Gandolfini) paying a hospital visit to his gravely injured consigliere, Silvio Dante, also targeted by Leotardo.
Tony's ne'er-do-well son A.J. ( Robert Iler) continued to wail about the misery in the world, and voiced a fleeting urge to join the Army and go fight in Afghanistan (Tony persuaded him to get involved in filmmaking, instead). Daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) harped on her plans to be a lawyer.
Tony visits his senile Uncle Junior ( Dominic Chianese) at the nursing home. "You and my dad, you two ran North Jersey," Tony prompts him.
"We did?" said Uncle Junior with no sign of recognition. "That's nice."
Despite suspicions to the contrary, neither Paulie Walnuts nor Patsy Parisi sold out Tony. And neither was whacked. Dr. Melfi, who kicked Tony out of therapy last week, made no last-minute appearance.
Sure, headaches lie ahead for Tony. The Feds are still after him. And Meadow's fiance, Patsy Jr., is a lawyer who may well be pursuing cases that intrude on Tony's business interests.
So what else is new?
The finale displayed the characters continuing, for better and worse, unaffected by the fact that the series is done. The implication was, they will go on as usual. We just won't be able to watch.
Of course, Leotardo (Frank Vincent) hit a dead end after Tony located him with the help of his favorite federal agent. The execution was a quick but classic "Sopranos" scene: Pulling up at a gas station with his wife, Leotardo made a grand show of telling his two young grandchildren in the back seat to "wave bye-bye" as he emerged from his SUV. The next moment he was on the pavement, shot in the head.
Then you heard the car roll over his head. Carunnnchh! Quick, clinical, even comical, this was the only violence during the hour.
Not that Chase (who wrote and directed this episode) didn't tease viewers with the threat of death in almost every scene.
This was never more true than in the final sequence. On the surface, it was nothing more momentous than Tony, his wife, Carmela ( Edie Falco), Meadow and A.J. meeting for dinner at a cozy family restaurant.
When he arrived, Tony dropped a coin in the jukebox and played the classic Journey power ballad "Don't Stop Believing." Meanwhile, every moment seemed to foreshadow disaster: Suspicious-looking people coming in the door or seated at a table nearby. Meadow on the street having trouble parallel parking her car, the tires squealing against the curb. With every passing second, the audience was primed for tragedy. It was a scene both warm and fuzzy yet full of dread, setting every viewer's heart racing for no clear reason.
But nothing would happen. It was just a family gathering for dinner at a restaurant.
Then, with a jingle of the bell on the front door, Tony looked up, apparently seeing Meadow make her delayed entrance. Or could he have seen something awful — something he certainly deserved — about to come down?
Probably not. Almost certainly a false alarm. But we'll never know. With that, "The Sopranos" cut to black, leaving us enriched after eight years. And flustered. And fated to always wonder what happened next.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070611/ap_on_en_tv/tv_sopranos;_ylt=ArLj..Ss0E2bQV2JZSsoU8PMWM0F
I saw this on Wikipedia. It seemed interesting and kind of brought me into a new perspective that makes me a little less angry/confused/disappointed.
An explanation of the final scene in The Sopranos:
The final episode is reported to end in ambiguity, so here are the interpretations and speculations from the viewers about the significance of the final scene in The Sopranos:
1. Tony asked Bobby what he thought the end was like in the previous episode. Bobby supposed everything just goes black. So while he was in the diner, Tony is killed, then everything went black for him. It’s a recurring theme in the series. Remember what Sil said when Torciano got whacked at dinner. You don’t hear the shot that kills you, you don’t see it coming. Everyone had an idea of how the series would end, but in the end we literally didn’t hear the ending, nobody saw that coming.
2.David Chase lets the viewers choose their own ending. Depending on how you viewed Tony and the rest of the dynamic crew will determine the ending in your mind. Maybe you think Tony gets shot. Maybe you think he gets indicted. Maybe Meadow defends him. Maybe the truck driver or the black guys in the restaurant come and shoot him. It is all up to your imagination
3. It is rumored that they filmed 5 different endings. Looked like they didn’t use any of them. So they put out a special collectors DVD with all 5 endings. Sales will be huge.
4. If the series ended in a straight-up fashion that left nothing to the imagination, what would be the point of people watching the show on DVD? With the ending ambiguous, people who never watched the show on HBO can still watch the DVDs without really knowing for sure how it all ends.
5. Tony knew he could never please his mother no matter what he did. Chase knew he could never please the viewers no matter what he did.
6. When Tony walks into the diner, he is wearing a black jacket, it cuts to a scene of Tony sitting alone in the booth wearing something totally different, then cuts back to him in the black jacket, and then back again to him in the booth. Is that Tony looking at the ghost of himself right before he gets killed or is that an image of Tony in the future, always having to look over his shoulder?
Originally posted by ImpedimentI'm going with #1 on this one.
I saw this on Wikipedia. It seemed interesting and kind of brought me into a new perspective that makes me a little less angry/confused/disappointed.[b]An explanation of the final scene in The Sopranos:
The final episode is reported to end in ambiguity, so here are the interpretations and speculations from the viewers about the significance of the final scene in The Sopranos:
1. Tony asked Bobby what he thought the end was like in the previous episode. Bobby supposed everything just goes black. So while he was in the diner, Tony is killed, then everything went black for him. It’s a recurring theme in the series. Remember what Sil said when Torciano got whacked at dinner. You don’t hear the shot that kills you, you don’t see it coming. Everyone had an idea of how the series would end, but in the end we literally didn’t hear the ending, nobody saw that coming.
2.David Chase lets the viewers choose their own ending. Depending on how you viewed Tony and the rest of the dynamic crew will determine the ending in your mind. Maybe you think Tony gets shot. Maybe you think he gets indicted. Maybe Meadow defends him. Maybe the truck driver or the black guys in the restaurant come and shoot him. It is all up to your imagination
3. It is rumored that they filmed 5 different endings. Looked like they didn’t use any of them. So they put out a special collectors DVD with all 5 endings. Sales will be huge.
4. If the series ended in a straight-up fashion that left nothing to the imagination, what would be the point of people watching the show on DVD? With the ending ambiguous, people who never watched the show on HBO can still watch the DVDs without really knowing for sure how it all ends.
5. Tony knew he could never please his mother no matter what he did. Chase knew he could never please the viewers no matter what he did.
6. When Tony walks into the diner, he is wearing a black jacket, it cuts to a scene of Tony sitting alone in the booth wearing something totally different, then cuts back to him in the black jacket, and then back again to him in the booth. Is that Tony looking at the ghost of himself right before he gets killed or is that an image of Tony in the future, always having to look over his shoulder? [/B]
Other things to ponder...
The guy at the bar/bathroom is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident.
The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2 , with the DVD players. The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (in season 2 or 3?).
There were three people in the restaurant who had reason to kill Tony .
BTW- I can't get that damn Journey song out of my friggin' head!!
Originally posted by Impediment
I saw this on Wikipedia. It seemed interesting and kind of brought me into a new perspective that makes me a little less angry/confused/disappointed.[b]An explanation of the final scene in The Sopranos:
The final episode is reported to end in ambiguity, so here are the interpretations and speculations from the viewers about the significance of the final scene in The Sopranos:
1. Tony asked Bobby what he thought the end was like in the previous episode. Bobby supposed everything just goes black. So while he was in the diner, Tony is killed, then everything went black for him. It’s a recurring theme in the series. Remember what Sil said when Torciano got whacked at dinner. You don’t hear the shot that kills you, you don’t see it coming. Everyone had an idea of how the series would end, but in the end we literally didn’t hear the ending, nobody saw that coming.
2.David Chase lets the viewers choose their own ending. Depending on how you viewed Tony and the rest of the dynamic crew will determine the ending in your mind. Maybe you think Tony gets shot. Maybe you think he gets indicted. Maybe Meadow defends him. Maybe the truck driver or the black guys in the restaurant come and shoot him. It is all up to your imagination
3. It is rumored that they filmed 5 different endings. Looked like they didn’t use any of them. So they put out a special collectors DVD with all 5 endings. Sales will be huge.
4. If the series ended in a straight-up fashion that left nothing to the imagination, what would be the point of people watching the show on DVD? With the ending ambiguous, people who never watched the show on HBO can still watch the DVDs without really knowing for sure how it all ends.
5. Tony knew he could never please his mother no matter what he did. Chase knew he could never please the viewers no matter what he did.
6. When Tony walks into the diner, he is wearing a black jacket, it cuts to a scene of Tony sitting alone in the booth wearing something totally different, then cuts back to him in the black jacket, and then back again to him in the booth. Is that Tony looking at the ghost of himself right before he gets killed or is that an image of Tony in the future, always having to look over his shoulder? [/B]
This would have been all well and good, IF they would have given us more to go on.The scene was pretty cut and dry to me. It didnt leave any opening of ambiguity for me. The scene goes like this. Meadow is running towards the diner,Scene cuts to door ringing, scene goes black. I'm sorry but there is only one thing to be infered by that, and that is that meadow was the on whom entered the diner.
The last show ended telling us only that life goes on unchaged for the sopranos. Which im sorry, but is a cheap way to end a series that massed such a loyal fan base who EXPECTED some kind of closure to the characters they followed for 6 seasons. Not many shows get to write their endings..rather they are cancelled. To purposely build up suspense and not deliver or leave any kind of mystery of alternative events was un called for.
The previous seasons always built up and climaxed with some kind of closure while leaving a cliffhanger to the next season. This entire final season had little to no build up, and left nothing to be desired other than an ending
I like the last 5 minutes, as Tony, Carm, AJ, and Meadow enter the diner, and I like tension, or the paranoia that Tony will always feel as EVERY person out there could be the one who could put a bullet in his head.
I just don't like the cut to black, and upon watching a few more times today after my head cleared, I think it was a cheap stunt, and it got people talking today probably more then ever then anything Chase could have done. But longterm, people are going to look at this simply as a stunt, and The Sopranos never needed that stuff to make it great.
If Chase wanted us to make our own story up, just have the camera pan away, and it tells the viewer that life goes on for Tony.......or maybe it doesn't tonight.
Originally posted by chewy16
I like the last 5 minutes, as Tony, Carm, AJ, and Meadow enter the diner, and I like tension, or the paranoia that Tony will always feel as EVERY person out there could be the one who could put a bullet in his head.I just don't like the cut to black, and upon watching a few more times today after my head cleared, I think it was a cheap stunt, and it got people talking today probably more then ever then anything Chase could have done. But longterm, people are going to look at this simply as a stunt, and The Sopranos never needed that stuff to make it great.
If Chase wanted us to make our own story up, just have the camera pan away, and it tells the viewer that life goes on for Tony.......or maybe it doesn't tonight.
The last 5 minutes stunk, As a loyal fan of the Sopranos, I expected Tony to die.
Originally posted by Da Rev
Other things to ponder...The guy at the bar/bathroom is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident.
The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2 , with the DVD players. The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (in season 2 or 3?).
There were three people in the restaurant who had reason to kill Tony .
BTW- I can't get that damn Journey song out of my friggin' head!!
last i checked, tony killed one of the black guys that tried to kill him.
Originally posted by Da Rev
But then I start to think about it. Remember when Tony and Bobby were in the boat, talking about getting hit? They wondered if it just ended without hearing a thing?I guess it does.
Definite foreshadowing there... I thought the ending was clever. Things don't always tidy up with a nice little bow on top. Life is uncertain.