Tony Soprano was Killed in the HBO Season Finale of the Sopranos
With as many people who have died during The Sopranos eight year run, you would think the director would hook up his fans with a slam-bang finish. And yet, there you were sitting on the couch with a blank screen, no music and the rage welling up inside while wondering, "Did I waste 8 years for this?"
As the Soprano family arrived to meet for dinner at the local diner, Tony eyeballed a suspicious looking man in a Members Only jacket sitting at the bar. He looked up more than once. The suspicious looking man walked behind Tony and appeared to be entering the bathroom. Just as you think Meadow, Tony's daughter, is about to waltz in, the screen goes blank. Black. Nothing. Roll credits. That's it?
Many people believe there were very obvious clues given in the first few episodes of the last nine created. There was the bonding moment when Bobby and Tony were adrift in the boat on the lake, prior to their fallout, and they were discussing what it feels like to die. Tony was egging Bobby on about how he hadn't killed anyone yet and Bobby, in his nervousness, replied, "You probably don't even hear it when it happens".
Most of The Sopranos episodes revolved around Tony Soprano. He appeared in almost every single scene, in every single episode. The Sopranos are Tony Soprano. Each show was crafted to help you identify with the loveable sociopath who was only trying to do right by his family, which happened to include the mafia. It would only make sense that if you were supposed to be thinking like Tony, feeling like Tony, and hearing and seeing what Tony did, that in the end when he died, your screen would go blank. If he's not seeing his daughter walk in the diner, neither are you.
Source: Yahoo News, "Sopranos 'rub-out- theory gains credence" - http://tv.yahoo.com/the-sopranos/show/218/news/urn:newsml:tv.reuters.com:20070615:sopranos_dc__ER
Published by Kirsten Van Detta
Kirsten is a freelance writer who enjoys writing for Associated Content in her spare time. View profile
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12 Comments
Post a CommentKirsten Van Detta clearly has no idea what 3rd person omniscient means. The entire series was in that perspective. There are plenty of things that the viewer is aware of, and Tony isn't. For instance: all of the times you watch an FBI informant gather information from a flipped mobster. The argument that Tony was whacked because you didn't see the gunman because Tony didn't see the gunman holds less water than steel wool.
I don't think Tony dies. They were in public why would anybody whack someone there
As Tony said before, there are only 2 ways it goes eventually: he would get offed or end up in prison. BOTH are hinted at in the final episode.
But for now, the writers/ director have simply ended the show in the middle of his life. His journey ends FOR US... but for now, it goes on for him, outside of our view.
Why is that objectionable? Seriously, when you watch a movie where boy gets girl and they "live happily ever after", only a moron would assume they don't later get a divorce or one of them get cancer or get hit by a bus. ALL, yeah ALL, movie/ TV endings are artificial; there is no, absolutely no, reason the characters' made up lives have to reach a conclusion at the point that we stop watching. And only the worst kind of narcissist would demand this.
david thank you so much for pointing this out.. those last seconds were not in first person... the camera was staring at him.. if it was 1 st person you would be looking at the door and aj and carmela...and anyone who thinks he reached for a gun.. he reaches for another nickel for the jukebox..just like he does a second before someone walks in the door before carmela comes in... not a gun. the ending was simple.. they want you to end it how you want.. and leave them and option to pick up.
"Most of The Sopranos episodes revolved around Tony Soprano. He appeared in almost every single scene..." This is false. There are many scenes with Carmela and no Tony, gangsters with no Tony, feds with no Tony.
I don't know what happened in the end of "The Sopranos" because of the cut to black before we could see what happened. This was not a series with the camera roaming in front of Tony. It was a third-person omniscient narrative, not a first-person journal.
I also think Tony was killed, but I am one of the fans who was livid after the finale. Chase robbed us of a visual ending, no matter how you look at it. We saw Tony for all those years; we see didn't everything through his eyes. Even if the show closed on that scene and nothing happened, fine. But to end it in a way that keeps us guessing is childish, not artistic. Great article, Kristen!
a lot of people have said this...i loved the ending, personally.
Interesting take on the blackout...
Yeah Kirsten I believe the audience was whacked. Being a big Sopranos mark I was fine with the ending.
I read another article on the net discussing how people think the audience got whacked. Another interesting conclusion...