The Sopranos final episodes (SPOILERS!!!)

[LisaB]

It left you on the edge of your seat wondering what was going to happen. It just set it up to either come back or have a movie if they wanted. Not what I was expecting but different

 

[PrincessPatty]

So where was the ice cream shop that all they hype was about??

 

[Hannathy]

Totally lame ending. this show has gone from the best series on TV to only being renewed because everyone kept saying it will get back to being good again. If it had started out as bad as this season and last it never would have made it. I am very disappointed.

I blamed it on our DVR! We've been having problems with it just cutting off and I immediately started saying terms of endearment toward it.

 

[Nickunited]

I think he got shot - remember the guy going into the bathroom - they showed the angle that it was a clear shot from the bathroom to tonys head - meadow struggling to park left the seat next to tony open.

A previous poster said this - the series ended with Tony getting shot and the show stopping with his life. Meadow came in a minute to late to obstruct the shot!

Man goes into the bathroom - comes out and shoots - homage to the Godfather!!!

 

[juligrl]

Here's my take FWIW...

I was feeling extremely paranoid in the end when they were showing all the different shots of people in the diner. I think that may have been the point - that if you choose the life of crime career path (like Tony) you have to maintain a constant heightened state of awareness/paranoia.

Okay so if you followed that then nothing out of the usual happened.

 

[Aisling]

And no music at the end--did the silence mean something--Tony's dead? THey placed so much importance on choosing the music for each episode--I think they even did an HBO special on it.

The producers did say ther were going to end the show tigh dignity, and now I know what they meant. Yes kadies and gentlemen, Tony Soprano is dead. He mentions not being able to hear a gunshot last epidose...the producers were setting the scene already. Then waiting for Meadow to park the car, taking forever...that was to create suspense, that something was going to happen...that she'd be killed or she'd see her family killed. But it didn't happen. Again, the producers were setting the scene. Then Tony sees Meadow, the screen goes blank for a second, no music, TONY HAD JUST BEEN SHOT DEAD by the guy who went into the bathroom. Carmela again becomes "just a small town girl", as the song was singing. The party's over, folks. That's how they did it, without a blood battle. This quiet way was more emotional than seeing a gunfight or an assassination. We just see Tony's light's go out. The end.

forgive my spelling...I was typing so doggone fast!

 

[DISUNC]

DAVID CHASE SHOULD BE WHACKED!

wth WAS THAT?????

 

[PrincessPatty]

The producers did say ther were going to end the show tigh dignity, and now I know what they meant. Yes kadies and gentlemen, Tony Soprano is dead. He mentions not being able to hear a gunshot last epidose...the producers were setting the scene already. Then waiting for Meadow to park the car, taking forever...that was to create suspense, that something was going to happen...that she'd be killed or she'd see her family killed. But it didn't happen. Again, the producers were setting the scene. Then Tony sees Meadow, the screen goes blank for a second, no music, TONY HAD JUST BEEN SHOT DEAD by the guy who went into the bathroom. Carmela again becomes "just a small town girl", as the song was singing. The party's over, folks. That's how they did it, without a blood battle. This quiet way was more emotional than seeing a gunfight or an assassination. We just see Tony's light's go out. The end.

forgive my spelling...I was typing so doggone fast!

But who would have wanted him dead at this point? Phils crew seemed to be getting upset with him too at the private meeting.

 

[DISUNC]

What the....I thought my satellite went out. You gotta be kiddin' me.

SOB's!!!!!

I wonder how many people thought that???????????

 

[Aisling]

But who would have wanted him dead at this point? Phils crew seemed to be getting upset with him too at the private meeting.

I don't know, but there was definitely someone hiding, watching Tony. I wish I knew who the assassin was.

 

[DISUNC]

Ummmm, Tony IS dead.

The show was about him. When he died, it all went blank.

You remember the conversation he had about how you don't hear the shot?

He looked up to see Meadow coming in, and the guy who went into the bathroom came back out with a gun and shot him in the head.

Ya think!

 

[Pop Daddy]

you guys are trying to make an intreasting ending out of total trash, I want that hour of my life back

 

[Va-bear]

I wonder how many people thought that???????????

Really!!! Our cable is going all digital and annouced they would make the change AFTER the Sopranos (a few days after...)....I thought maybe they did it a bit early!

Crazy ending.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

Ummmm, Tony IS dead.

The show was about him. When he died, it all went blank.

You remember the conversation he had about how you don't hear the shot?

He looked up to see Meadow coming in, and the guy who went into the bathroom came back out with a gun and shot him in the head.

Okay, now taking this in for the last 10 minutes and telling DH we are totally convinced that this makes total sense and therefore is the greatest ending! Like another poster said....I feel like I have closure now!!

Now if we could only find the episode where he says that.....

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Well the cat stole the show!!

Aside from the cat and the fact that the Journey song has the line "Working hard to get my Phil." I want my hour back to!!!

 

[juligrl]

But who would have wanted him dead at this point? Phils crew seemed to be getting upset with him too at the private meeting.

AJ?
Listen to his comments at the end...

 

[Aisling]

you guys are trying to make an intreasting ending out of total trash, I want that hour of my life back

It wasn't trash, it just wasn't spelled out for us. If you've watched the Sopranos from the beginning, you got a feel for how they use subtle ness and metaphors. They never wanted to spoonfeed us. This was supposed to be a sophisticated show for the discearning viewer, not just a mob and cop show. From all the circumstances, clues, and set-ups, I'd bet my dog that Tony was shot in the head, just like he spoke of in the episode last week. Galdolfini swore not to reprise the role of Tony. This is the was of keeping this series a cult phenomenon, an icon, by not coming out with Sopranos movies of the week.

 

[Pop Daddy]

View larger image

NEW YORK (AP) - Tony Soprano carries on.

The much-awaited conclusion of HBO's "The Sopranos" arrived Sunday night in a frenzy of audience speculation over the fate of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano: Would he live or be killed? Would his family die before his eyes at the hands of his enemies? Would he go to jail? Be forced to enter witness protection?

And what of his vindictive rival, Phil Leotardo? Would the Brooklyn boss, 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 expectation, as always, Chase refused to stage a mass extermination, or put the characters through any major transformation, or even provide his viewers with comfortable closure.

The most decisive development: Phil was crushed. But there were few other tidy resolutions.

This much-anticipated farewell, the series' 86th episode, was brilliant. But it was also perversely non-earthshaking—just one last visit with the characters we have followed so devoutly since 1999.

Here was Bobby Bacala's funeral (the Soprano soldier 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 (Phil put bullets in him, too).

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?" says Uncle Junior with no sign of recognition. "That's nice."

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 their lives 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, Phil (Frank Vincent) hit a dead end after Tony found him and had him clipped. The execution was a quick but classic "Sopranos" scene: Pulling up at a gas station with his wife, Phil 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 dead.

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 the viewer 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), as well as Meadow and A.J. meeting for dinner at a cozy family restaurant.

When he arrived, Tony dropped a coin in the jukebox to play the classic Journey power ballad "Don't Stop Believing." Meanwhile, every moment seemed to foreshadow a disaster: Suspicious-looking people coming in the door or sitting at a nearby table. Meadow on the street having trouble parallel parking her car. With every passing second, the audience was primed for tragedy. It was a scene both warm and fuzzy, yet full of dread. It set every viewer's heart racing, for no clear reason.

But nothing would happen, just a family gathering for dinner at a restaurant. Four people among many.

But then, with a jingle of the bell from the front door opening, Tony looked up, apparently seeing Meadow make her delayed entrance. Or could he have seen something awful, something her 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 nourished after eight years. And flustered. And fated to always wonder what happens next.


Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

[Aisling]

AJ?
Listen to his comments at the end...

Tell, tell!!!!!!!!!

 

[DISUNC]

you guys are trying to make an intreasting ending out of total trash, I want that hour of my life back

i BEEN THINKING ABOUT THE "WENT TO ALL BLACK THEORY"!
That would have been good...IF the whole series was thru Tony's eyes....and IF WE saw the murderer!


But yes it was HORRIBLE!