The Sopranos Comes to an End

The Sopranos have been on for eight long years. In those eight years, we have seen plenty of "whacking" and enough drama scenes to make you go crazy. The season finale was tonight and I have a few things to say about it. We all know that Silvio is in the hospital and that Phil is in hiding. Bobby is dead and Tony is trying to keep his family safe. As the Sopranos season finale began, I was just waiting for something big to happen.

Personally, I thought the season finale of the Sopranos dragged on too much. It just didn't seem like it was that intense. Perhaps Chase figured that we all wanted to see something like this though. AJ is totally depressed, as he always has been throughout this season pretty much. I found the car scene very humiliating, as AJ and his girlfriend stood outside while watching the car go up in flames. When I think about the Sopranos and this season, I think about AJ a lot, because they really focused in on his life.

Tony has a lot on his plate. I mean seriously, with the "other" mob after his mob, he has already lost a few of his top guys. Bobby, one of Tony's most important made men is dead (Bobby's funeral progressed during the early stages of the season finale), Sil is in the hospital (as we saw in the last episode), Tony places his hand on Sil's hand. As the episode moved on, I was waiting to see what was going to happen to Phil. I knew this final episode was going to be all about Phil, that's just the way it is. As Tony tries to find out more information regarding where Phil is, he fails to do so because it's not in anyones best interest.

I live in NJ and I must say that I recognized most of the areas that were filmed in the season finale. As Tony's guys continue to look for Phil, they try gas stations so that they could find a pay phone that Phil might have used. Tony found out that there was a call at a gas station in Oyster Bay, but many gas stations don't even carry pay phones anymore, so that limits many of them.

It just so happens that one of Tony's guys is at the exact gas station that Phil is at, I know you all know what this means. While Phil was discussing something with his wife, he waves "good bye" to his grandchildren. After a brief few moments, a gun is pointed to Phil's head. At this moment of the show, I was jumping up for joy because I knew this was when the show was going to get good. Meanwhile, Phil get his head blown off and as he falls to the ground, another bullet is put right above his chest. Phil's wife jumps out of the car, as she is totally a wreck, she leaves the car in drive. This is where it got a little gross, but anyway, the car runs over Phil's head and that's the end of that.

The news gets back to Tony's federal agent buddy that Phil is dead. But the fact that the only amount of violence in this one last hour of the Sopranos was that of Phil's death, there were plenty of moments where all of our hearts raced I'm sure. After all, Chase is excellent at making certain moments suspenseful. Towards the end of the show, we are introduced to Tony for one last time. Carmella had told Tony that she thought it would be nice to have a nice family dinner at a nearby restaurant. As Tony browses through the jukebox, he plays a very great classic, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, perhaps this song really caps off the ending to one of the greatest TV Dramas in the history of television.

One by one, Tony's family walks into the restaurant, but this is where is gets very suspenseful. Each and every moment of this scene, we are all thinking to ourselves that something huge is going to happen. Like every Sopranos episode, there are suspenseful moments, but never like this.

It was quite funny because the first couple of minutes into the last scene of the finale, nobody in Tony's family walks in. Of course we are all assuming that something happened to them, but finally Carmella makes her appearance. Now that our hearts are at ease, we then await the appearance of AJ and Meadow. Waiting another minute or two, a few other people walk into the restaurant. One person that seems very suspicious, is a man with darker colored skin, he keeps looking over at Tony. As AJ joins his mother and father, this guy continues to look over at Tony and his family. You just had to think that something was going happen.

As Meadow is having trouble parking her car, this is yet another scene that seems to drag on with suspense. I don't know about you all, but I figured she was either going to get blasted with car, or someone was going to walk up to her car and shoot her. Safely, she parks her car after about two or three attempts. The guy that keeps looking at Tony and his family gets up (this is where I thought he was going to make a move), but he goes into the bathroom. As the tune "Don't Stop Believing" continues to play, Meadow runs towards the restaurant as the whole show comes to a close. The suspense lives on in our hearts. My television screen just went blank.

I had originally thought that my cable went out, but it didn't. The ending credits started up and that was the last time we would see Tony Soprano on the HBO hit series "The Sopranos". I am a huge fan of this show and I really didn't want it to end, but for eight long years, it might have been the right time. Do I think that the season finale could have been better? When it first ended I did, but as I thought about the whole episode and the ending, I figured that this was the best way Chase could have ended the show. Tony is together with his family, they are all safe, nothing happened in the restaurant (at least we don't think so).

As a matter of fact, Meadow didn't even make it to the restaurant. Tony did glance up one last time, but he could have seen anything, doesn't naturally have mean he saw his daughter coming in. This is probably what Chase wanted us to think. Everyone is going to have their own thoughts on what could have happened in the end, but everyone is entitled to their opinions.

I was originally thinking that Chase left the door wide open for a Sopranos movie, but Mr. Gandolfini had told everyone that he was finished with Tony Soprano. I still figure that it is very possible to make a movie, but the ending is the ending, a blank screen for about five to ten seconds. This was the farewell and the most important people in the show were the last to be seen.