Soipranos finale thoughts?

[Bull Dozer]

Anyone here watch the show and have anythoughts on last night' finale.  I thought it was a little ambigious but you can pretty much be sure that tony got wacked in that diner.  Heres a good post from another board that explains it im too lazy to type one out. 

"You never hear the shot, you don't even see it coming. Just Black. Nothing"

Employee, Blastmaster and ThaJim argue reasonable points as to why it was a frustrating/unsatisfactory valediction but, although he is laughable on practically any topic other than tv, make no mistake that Ithithkle is the voice of reason in the thread and is completely on point here.

I loved it. The 2nd half of season 6 was a complete return to form (especially after the diabolical Kevin Finaty episodes in the 1st half of season 6). $o g1ad it didn't end up with one of the cliched endings we've all predicting since around season 3 (mass blood-bath between both crews and the FBI/Tony in jail tending to ducks/Tony snitches and runs off with Melphi/Tony gets' capped by the crazy russian/Furio returns to sweep Carmella off her feet and they run off to Italy together/Jack Bauer and Michael from Prison Break turn up to break Tony outta the clink) or a really contrived plot-twist and it was simply cut short mere seconds before Tony takes a bullet in the back of his head. The key, as Diggedy pointed out, was the "You never hear the shot, you don't even see it coming. Just Black. Nothing" convo between Bobby and Tony, not just for Tony's death but for the finale in general. The atmosphere was as tense and claustraphobic as the last episode of season 1 and then .... Nothing. That's it. Nobody saw that ending coming and, thus, it was a success. The fact that so many shitbird viewers wantin' 2 see da mobstaz bust dey gunz at each odda are up in arms about it only validates the ending even more.

I would hope that they don't go and spoil it now with a bunch of corny alternative endings on the boxset. Now, THAT would completely ruin it.

[BoozedUpBull]

i thought it was a let down.  leaving it up to the audience to decide is a total cop out.

[crambone]

Here's how it ended - Tony died.  David Chase was tired of force-feeding things to us, and he decided to make us think for once.

Here's some more endings:

Darth Vader is Luke's father.

Rosebud was a sleigh.

Verbal Kint was Keyzer Soze.

And for the record, Marcellus Wallace's soul was NOT in the briefcase.

[Drewski]

Although I thought that the last episode was very good for the most part, I'll mainly base this post about what I thought of the ending. I'm one of those who believe that it was an easy way out, and my reasoning is as follows:

Tony is dead theory: If this is really what was meant by the ending, then I think it would make for an absolutely brilliant ending without a doubt. However, the way it was shot provides no definitive evidence that this was unquestionably what was implied. I understand Tony's conversation with Bobby earlier in the season, I understand how the guy with the members only jacket had a clear shot from the bathroom, etc. But if David Chase truly wanted the audience to get the message that Tony was in fact dead, he could have easily shot it differently without sacrificing the need for the audience to think a little bit. The biggest thing that prevents me from fully buying into this theory is that the camera was facing Tony when the screen went dark. It would have been more persuasive, in my mind, if the camera would have been facing Carmella and AJ as Meadow was running in while the screen went black to show that we were looking through Tony's point of view. For this reason, I can't fully jump on this bandwagon and say without a doubt that I believe Tony is dead. As tempting as it is, there are too many holes.

The audience got whacked theory: I think this theory is pretty fun too, and if it were shot in a way that would better suggest that this were true, I would also think that this was a brilliant ending. But because of the ambiguity mentioned above, I can't fully jump on this bandwagon either.

As a result, I am forced to believe that Chase left it open for interpretation. Unfortunately, I can't respect that fully. I can appreciate the fact that it was unconventional. However, just because something is different and unlike anything previously, I don't agree with automatically assuming that this translates into meaning that it is better. Unfortunately, we'll never know what really happens until Chase explains it (which won't happen), or until a movie is released.

[Herman_Momart]

tony waqs definitely killed

The guy at the bar was Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down wih tony and phil concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. he is phils nephew.

the point would have been life continues and we may never know the end of the Sopranos. But if you pay attention to the history, you will find that all the answers are in the characters in the restaurant. The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store when bobby got shot last week and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear . Car jack episode

There were three people in the restaurant who had reason to kill Tony and then it just ends. This was Chases way of proving that he will not escape his past.

Also, when the journey song was playing and carmella walked in you heard the door chime (from tonys perspective and view), then aj walks in and tony looks at him and the door chimes.  Meadow was having trouble parking her car, which is lucky for her becuase she would have been sitting next to tony and could have caught a shot too, i think thats why they put that parking thing in there.  But when she walks in the music is playing and you dont hear any chimes and then it turns black.  And yes before tony goes to bed in the last minute of the 2nd to last episode, when he is in the secret house in the bed hiding with the gun, he has the flashback of him and bobby talking about what it would be like to die.  and bobby says you probbly dont hear anything and everything goes black.  That black screen symbolized what tony saw once meadow walked in and you didnt hear door chimes, it just went black because he was just shot and killed. 

absolutely genius and incredible ending. and i was not a huge sporanos fan the first few seasons because i didnt like they way they stereotyped italians, but have come to love the symbolism and great writing by chase.  i was pleased with the episode. 

[Drewski]

The guy at the bar was Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down wih tony and phil concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. he is phils nephew.

Sorry, but this guy had never appeared in the series before. He's not even an actor, he's actually a pizzeria owner in real life who was chosen to play this role. This rumor was addressed at the end of this article:

http://blog.nj.com/alltv/2007/06/david_chase_speaks.html

But when she walks in the music is playing and you dont hear any chimes and then it turns black.

You do hear chimes when she walks in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN1-3rX9XKk (sorry, don't know how to use the youtube feature yet.)

Not enough persuasive evidence in my mind to fully make the conclusion that Tony's dead. . .

[smazza]

i wouldnt invest in a full length motion picture

[crambone]

But you're not a money-grubbing corporate whore - that's why we are broke Americans...