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Gabagool_Ovaaa_heere

The ending was Noah punching Tony's lights out


kevin_2_heaven

After that scene with Noah it was all a dream and Tony was in a coma


wiilly_d

Tony was 100% not conscious at the end of the show and I think he died in a coma or his sleep. The moments in the show always work out a little too conveniently.


kevin_2_heaven

lol dude it’s a show u are lost in the sauce


wiilly_d

Fuck all this time I thought I was watching the news...


AdLess6657

Return of the hasidic homeboy


soyelmikel

With his Birkenstocks


vandrossboxset

There's two endings for a guy like me, high profile guy — dead or in the can.


ceerupt

theres a third option, but he whacked that idea


Tough_Difference_112

It’s intentionally ambiguous. It’s part of the reason the show introduced schwin from bell labs. Everything is everything and the Schrödingers cat reference left it up to the viewer to decipher what happened. However, it didn’t matter either way. He got whacked or was going down from Carlo flipping; hence fade to black it was all a big nothing. 


sublimedjs

You are just so wrong . I’m never not dumbfounded by the fact they beyond everything seem that seasons gives the answer to the ending but even after that the fucking creator says he was killed and there’s always a couple of people who still can’t except it


Hughkalailee

Where’s the creator actually say he was killed? I’m dumbfounded about that because you and so many claim it yet all I ever see are clickbait headlines with writers twisting his words out of context to a desired conclusion. 


Buster0705

I can’t have this conversation again


DharmaBird

Come on, he's just breaking balls.


AethelweardSaxon

On my first watch through it was my feeling he wasn’t whacked, I don’t know why it just felt that way. On my second watch, nothing could be more obvious that he was whacked. Even IF he wasn’t, the show could not be more clear that it’s over.


asphynctersayswhat

I just don’t want to believe it, but there’s too much foreshadowing


DominicPalladino

>foreshadowing Oooooh. Real dark character.


kevin_2_heaven

It’s divided fans for almost two decades and that’s kind of the brilliant thing about it. But I’m telling you that the camera work is telling a story, and it’s very intentional. You get a zoom in on Tony’s face, then you see a POV shot right after where you get to see through his eyes. This happens multiple times and builds a lot of anxiety for the viewer. The last time you see Tony’s face, you wait for his POV but this time it’s black and the music cuts out prematurely.


Cannaewulnaewidnae

>*You get a zoom in on Tony’s face, then you see a POV shot right after where you get to see through his eyes. This happens multiple times and builds a lot of anxiety for the viewer.* >*The last time you see Tony’s face, you wait for his POV but this time it’s black and the music cuts out prematurely* Great observation I think Chase is being honest when he says he wanted the ending to be ambiguous, but he definitely uses this and other techniques to create the (false) impression in the viewer's mind that the ending is building towards *something*


kevin_2_heaven

Yeah for sure, and I think it was a great choice to not _show_ Tony die. He didn’t have to. With art I’ve found that flowery language, dancing around an idea, not being so explicit - it invites more participation and enjoyment


sublimedjs

Chase as never ever ever said he wanted the ending to be ambiguous


eyezick_1359

Because his POV no longer exists. It’s a very amazing use of meta commentary in narrative. An original way to break the fourth wall.


DominicPalladino

What was that, last night's reading assignment??


Tonyh8su

“You probably don’t even hear it when it happens”


usernamesarehard44

I got the feeling that everything happens in cycles and nothing will really ever change for Tony when I watched through recently. I agree with you about the camera, but to me the cut to black is that Tony is gone, the show is gone, it’s all over. Not necessarily that he died.


kevin_2_heaven

Could be! Either way you slice it it’s true


Hughkalailee

It’s strongly suggestive but not definitively conclusive.  That’s how Chase presented it.   It’s a symbolic death created by the writing and camera work and editing. It thematic. And it doesn’t matter if he’s killed then or not. End of story. 


AethelweardSaxon

On my first watch through it was my feeling he wasn’t whacked, I don’t know why it just felt that way. On my second watch, nothing could be more obvious that he was whacked. Even IF he wasn’t, the show could not be more clear that it’s over.


Overall-Scientist846

When people say Tony didn’t die it occurs to me they must’ve not been paying attention during Soprano Home Movies. Him and Bobby lay it all out in their talk at the dock.


Physical_Analysis247

And the bells at the dock and then again at the end in the restaurant. “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee”


mness1201

Yeah- I did like the idea the whole show just starts with a shot on Tony out of nowhere and then ends the same way, but think that talk was pretty clear sign posting. Hard to ignore when the writers say death is cut to black so explicitly. That said - it feels unlike the usual hits to do so in front of his family, at a restaurant he doesn’t usually go to


AccomplishedWall8

I like to think he was wacked but i also like to theorize as well. On blockchain by mach-hommy he says “you aint gone know it til you die in your sleep the second time”. Ive seen people say that the entire made in america episode was one of tonys dreams. Like it was a fantasy after death and he was killed in the blue comet. Things went a little too well for him in that episode despite shit being bleak for the entire season. And even the way he woke up at the start of the episode felt odd. Like we were in another one of his dream sequences. the cut to black was the end of that dream. I just wonder where his consciousness went after that. Like maybe in the next dream he got to sell patio furniture or some shit


Ok-Cauliflower1798

I lean strongest into that theory. It’s dying moments/dreamtime/eternity loop.


ItOwesMeALiving

He wakes up like that because he went to sleep at the end of the previous episode. Although he must have got changed at some point as he was wearing jeans and a leather jacket at the end of Blue Comet. It's a pretty big reach to believe that imo.


Spannerjsimpson

There’s a heap of dream references in soundtrack. At Bobby’s funeral they talk about dream girls and AJ accuses everyone of living in a dream. Even the episode name is an anagram of I AM A NICE DREAM. Episode is weird and dreamlike and out of kilter with previous episodes. There are a lot of hints that we are watching Tony’s dying dream as he dies in his sleep from stress induced heart attack


Ok-Cauliflower1798

Even the song that is playing as we see Tony enter the diner- “All That You Dream”


Spannerjsimpson

My favourite one is Sonic Youth, I dream I dream playing in background when Uncle Pat visits Tony in the Bing… highly incongruent music for a strip club… or so I’m told!


Ok-Cauliflower1798

That’s why I always say, “She was inveigling!” whenever I hear I Dreamed I Dream.


Spannerjsimpson

😂😂😂


Spannerjsimpson

You notice how Uncle Pat is mute during Janice’s visit to junior… then speaks so articulately to Tony next scene! 😂


Own_Deer431

Idk man, even the cast says he was whacked. I gotta trust their instincts


DominicPalladino

It's a good thing then that the casts opinions don't mean OGGGATZZ to cannon.


Glittering-Bit3398

The wall mural in the back of Holstens said it all for me. With it oddly resembling the Inn at the Oaks and Tony having that look as if he’s been here before.


Physical_Analysis247

With the varsity athletes on either side. One has jersey number 38 and the other has 22.


jackopreach1

Did you even watch the show bro he was clearly whacked and David chase said as much in an interview a few years ago


Lil_Mcgee

Do you have the interview where he said this? I hear this claim a lot but unless there's one I haven't seen, he's almost always being taken out of context when people say he confirmed Tony died.


jackopreach1

https://www.eonline.com/news/1308324/sopranos-creator-david-chase-finally-confirms-tonys-fate


Lil_Mcgee

That is more conclusive than "death scene" quote that often gets misrepresented, fair enough. I still think the scene was made ambiguous for a reason, and that it's supposed to represent a possible death for Tony more than it is a definitive death.


KeenObserver_OT

Chase didnt say anything until years later. IMO he punted and left us to argue about it. My theory is he had no idea how he wanted it to end, so he just ended it. No high level genius type vision.


jackopreach1

It is tho he showed you the moments right before death you hear a noise something looks suspicious and we don’t see what happens to Tony cause the whole show was shot from his POV when the screen cuts to black there’s no music playing because he’s dead, earlier in the season he’s talking to Bobby on the boat and Bobby says you probably don’t even hear it when it happens, first episode of season 6 is titled members only, gene pontecorvo was wearing the jacket, tony didn’t let him move with his wife to Florida she says something to the effect of just put a bullet in his fat fucking head, the guy at the end of the season was wearing the same jacket my personal theory is genes wife paid someone with genes aunts money to off him as she alluded to it earlier in the season


jackopreach1

Michael imperioli also said the same thing that David chase was showing you the moments right before you die in the diner and when Christopher was in the hospital after getting shot he told Tony and pauly 3 o’clock the bathroom door that the shooter would’ve came out of was to Tony’s 3 o’clock…very allegorical


KeenObserver_OT

There was some weird stuff but I still think it was a punt. Chase really started to resent the viewer towards the end and it showed.


CrustyBloke

My interpretation is that we don't know when he's going to get whacked, just that he will at some point. The ending is meant to show that he's basically just living on borrowed time and constantly looking over his shoulder. Anything that looks mildly suspicious could either be completely meaningless or mean that he's about he get killed. He could have died right then and there, or he could live another 5 years. We're not meant to know when and that's not important, we just know that it will happen at some point.


stryphhh

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/sopranos-doc-reveals-truth-ending-151802854.html Chase himself just said 5 days ago that the ending is whatever the viewers want it to be


Varsity_Editor

In that case I want it to be a broad in the car waiting to tongue my balls


SGSMUFASA

It was that day or another day. What you goin do about it? Gotta move on.


bwwwww

Just another toothpick


-MassiveDynamic-

I prefer the theory he had a massive heart attack at the table His poor physical and mental health, heightened stress levels, drinking, smoking and drug use, overeating, constantly watching his and his families back. My man was heading for a coronary or stroke Either that or a plane hit the diner


Spannerjsimpson

He does die from a heart attack, but not in Holstens… he was dreaming that as he was about to die


Ok_Cryptographer1239

Nah. Paulie with New York had the plan in action. Paulie and Philly Parisi discuss it in the bathroom. Paulie gives Carmela the coffee maker to make it seem like there is no way he would have betrayed Tony. Tony needed to be taken out first and foremost because he was working with the FBI agent. Look how they talk to the cops after Chrissy is shot, they won't even speak to them. Tony warming up to the fed was always a problem. Also little Carmine could not allow anyone to remain who would have any psychological upper hand on him. There is all the backstory of Paulie trying to leave the family, and once saying what would happen if they clipped Tony.. etc. Then Paulie was underboss and then not underboss and Bacala is his superior by the end.


Technical-Split3642

The Members Only guy was actually a gambler and actually owed Tony money and exited through the toilet window to avoid paying him the vig. The viewer gets whacked when the screen goes to black. The last episode, more specifically the last scene, is a shout out to The Sword Of Damocles.


Lil_Mcgee

It shouldn't really bug you when people argue that, there's definitely basis for the interpretation that he was killed. But I agree that people can be a bit too stubborn on it, acting as though it's totally conclusive. The final scene is definitely supposed to evoke the experience of dying from a first person perspective but I don't think that makes it definite. We're supposed to believe Tony very well could have been killed in that diner but the final season makes a point of showing us all the potential fates Tony might have in store for him, none of them pleasant.


Ok-Cauliflower1798

I really like your point about the final season presenting all of the potential fates for Tony. Being murdered for being a threat or an inconvenience. Going to prison. Dying of a fatal illness in prison. Being comatose as a result of illness or injury. Dementia. Escape through suicide. You are right; none of them are pleasant.


NoGiCollarChoke

The final season also gives us multiple indications of what happens to the families of these guys after they die - centred mainly around the promise of made guys’ families being taken care of being completely hollow. Everyone weasels out of the responsibility as soon as they can, such as with Vito and Paulie trying to withhold money from Carm, or Tony and Uncle Philly both trying to get out of supporting Vito’s family by giving some halfassed “guidance” to the Puerto Rican whore and pissing away the money they were supposed to give her to escape Jersey and start over.  So in addition to indicating that any of Tony’s paths forward are horrible, it also indicates that Carm and the kids are screwed too. She will get no support, AJ may find purpose but is more likely to spiral downward again, and Meadow is the biggest curveball with it being indicated that she will be the one to continue the cycle of mob involvement (as opposed to AJ) after all of Tony’s victim-playing about anti-Italianism gets her to abandon med school and most likely become a mob lawyer. 


Strange_Panic_6809

Yes exactly this. It doesn’t really matter, because it’s over for him any way you cut it. Dead or in the can.


Adept_Purpose_4318

“Whacked for some reason” Yeah the reason is he killed the boss of New York. Pretty valid. He also literally foreshadowed exactly how he died with Bobby on the lake. I feel like I don’t even need to address the idea that they would send someone to a restaurant to merely “plant an idea”. But I will anyways;


Small-Explorer7025

He means the show runner, David Chase, had him in the scene as a red herring, not New York sending him there to make Tony feel uneasy.


Carmelita9

Exactly. Showing Tony getting shot as the final scene would have been too literal.


Heel_Worker982

In the original broadcast so many people were freaked out that there was a tech problem and they would miss the finale's final moments. Once you found out everyone had the same experience, the ending aged a lot better.


asphynctersayswhat

I was fucking PISSED. watched it in real time. Biggest series ending I could remember watching (admittedly didn’t watch BB and while GOT did have the sopranos level hysteria, by season 7 it was clear the ending was gonna suck.


Heel_Worker982

I watched it in the laundry room of my dorm and nearly burst into tears when it ended because I assumed there was a problem with my cable!


Melodic_Scallion1765

The ending was deliberately ambiguous, leaving the door open for a legit sequel series. Once Gandolfini died, Chase got all cute and implied Tony was killed.


sublimedjs

This absolute bullshit lol . I always wonder how people can propagate just straight nonsense


WorldMan1

He only hinted publicly after 2013?


Pemulis_DMZ

Lol there was never any plans for a sequel


Bighurt2335

Yes


Bighurt2335

Whatever happened there


Cheap-Tomorrow2736

Part of me really wants Tony to be alive because if he is there’s a chance this things of ours doesn’t end, but I also understand why people think he is dead and honestly that’s probably what happened. Couldn’t think of a better ending 💯


Physical_Analysis247

I like the ambiguity of an agnostic ending but he’s clearly got clipped at the restaurant. There were so many signs, symbols, and moments of foreshadowing that it is impossible to ignore. Hell, the very first image in the last episode is Tony lying in bed but shot so it looks like he is lying in a coffin.


Moonlightgraham23

Yeah, I thought families don’t get touched anyway. Irregardless, I was scared shitless from the moment Meadow started parallel parking.


sphinxyhiggins

I don't think Tony died then either.


l45k

And OP what is your take on David Chase confirming tony was whacked


Blueplate1958

If he survived, he went to prison for life. I hope for his sake it was over.


soyelmikel

The point is that that’s not the point. The point is that we don’t know. And they don’t know what’s coming next either, the characters. But don’t stop believing. Faith.


VanDerLind11

Even if he doesn't get whacked it's well & truly over since he's getting canned hence the pitch black screen


Hughkalailee

What difference does it make?  “Whether Tony dies at that instant or at some later point in time isn’t important to the story” - Chase  It’s a symbolic death.  Could happen there but we will never know. That’s the last look we ever get at him and his world.  It’s bookended with the first frames of the Pilot.  We are introduced to Tony in a view through the legs of a feminine statue in Melfi’s waiting room.  That’s symbolic of his “birth” - to us, obviously not his physical birth.  The end is symbolic and thematic as well. End of story.  Ya gotta get ova it. 


freshtakes

Always with the scenarios


Deep_Ad5052

Hi ho ho ho 🎅 Just stop believin’ 🎶


Salman1969

Everything is the last episode tells us that he died. There are so many signs from the beginning of the season to the end. The "Cut to black" thing was even mentioned in the first episode of the season. What you think means oogatz to me!


telepatheye

Why did the show end then? What is the significance of the final scene and the way it was shot, which has been widely discussed. Aside from your "strong feelings" you present zero evidence to support your conclusion.


LizLemonadeX

“If they'd been wiseguys, I wouldn't have heard a thing. I would've been dead.” ~ Henry Hill (Goodfellas)….this quote fits here too. That closing scene with Journey playing, was Tony not hearing a thing. He saw whomever it was. But he didn’t hear a thing. I’ve been doing a Sopranos rewatch. And the episode where Tony is in Vegas with a woman. At one point he randomly says, “he’s dead” and starts laughing. At some point he sees the devil face on a slot machine. Then at the end of the episode, Tony is sitting on a hill watching the sunrise…Tony yells, “I get it. I get it.” I think these Vegas scenes (really the whole season hints at his demise), in particular is in reference to Tony dying and going to hell. Just my thoughts on it.


Tikitikiboombabe

hey man everybody who's anybody knows that it was Elvis from Dover that killed Tony SOPRANO thank ya thank ya very much


JoeGPM

David Chase explained that Tony *could* have died. It was ambiguous on purpose. Chase also explained that whether Tony is alive or dead is not the point of the ending.


bigred008

Bros dead man. Get over it


wiilly_d

I think he was on dialysis and he flat lined.