News > FEATURED: What Happened to 'The Sopranos'
June 12, 2007
As Devin Faraci at CHUD wrote, 'The show, being about him, ceases to exist, the moment he does. That's an explanation that feels incredibly non-'Sopranos' to me.' Agreed.
2. Meadow Bites the Big One
The relationship between Meadow and Tony has been one full of peaks and valleys. The first two seasons dealt with Tony and her relationship more than almost any other in his real family. For a long time, Meadow, realizing where exactly the family's money was stemming from, turned her back on Tony. He only furthered this in Season Three with his systematic dismantling of (my least favorite character to ever grace the show) Noah Tannenbaum. Somehow though, after Noah had screwed her and screwed her over, Meadow turned. She started working at the poor person law firm, dating nice normal boys, and basically being the poster-child for parental love.
Tony always knew he could count on Meadow. No matter what they went through. Over and over again, Meadow Soprano always stood behind her father, regardless of her feelings about his business and his means. In the final episode, the differences are brought out again, Tony brings up how he's still sad she's not going to be a pediatrician, but Meadow turns it around, telling Tony that without all of the sieges of the house, she might never have been interested in law. With this, Tony just smiles. The two disparate worlds have come together, a perfect 'agree to disagree' situation'.
With Meadow the second to last thing we the audience see before the interminable blackness of the pre-credit roll, it could just be that Meadow is one that catches a bullet. Maybe, the Italian, or the gangster youth, or whoever, pulled the gun to shoot at Tony, but the loud bell jangle of Meadow crashing in to the door, brought the gun on her, boom, bye bye Daddy's little girl.
This ending could be even sadder then just poor old Tony losing his life. 'Cause now he's left with the impetuous AJ and Carmela, a character who no matter how much I love, has all of Tony's negative traits in spades. Tony's worst fear comes to pass, the death of his favorite family member, and all he's left with is tenuous relationship with Carm, and a son so self-obsessed and stupid that he couldn't care less.
3. Tony Gets Arrested
Alright, maybe Tony doesn't eat hot lead, but the way this episode crept towards a dark ending certainly made it seem as if something bad was going to happen. And what is Tony as afraid of as death? Gettin' sent to the can. Instead of assassins, perhaps the ominous crowd of individuals slowly trickling in to the diner are government agents looking to finally put the kibosh on North Jersey's biggest mob guy. Take note of the hokey fellow in the booth, sporting the 'Made In The USA' hat, looks horribly familiar to the bugged-M.O.S.T. hats donned by the FBI mole at the beginning of the fifth season. When Tony turns his smashed up mug to the camera in the final shot, maybe he's looking at the blues and reds of squad of cop cars. Or maybe he's looking up at the badge of Agent Meyers.
One way or another, Tony could be getting nabbed.
4. Nothing #1 - Loose Ends Don't Add Up
A popular theory, based on David Chase's curmudgeonly attitude towards fans of the show and the fact that he's a master storyteller who won't pander to sensationalism, is that when the show ends with the silent blackness, it's just that: the end of the show. Chase's way of telling the audience that life is full of loose ends. Everything doesn't get wrapped up, things fall to the wayside, life steams ahead without us. It's not that the life of Tony Soprano is over, it's just that we, the unlucky audience, don't get to see it anymore. Death, arrest, a life of happiness, the sordid twists and turns of the Soprano clan aren't ours to be a part of anymore.
But you know, as AJ says in the series finale, you have take the good parts of life and love them, no matter how everything ends.
5. Nothing #2 - A Vicious Fate
Again, when the blackness hits, and the credit rolls, the show is over, it doesn't matter what happens. Loose ends aren't tied, we're just left to wonder what happened and what will happen. The important aspect is to watch the camera work during the final scene. Each time the jangle of the bells sounds, the camera cuts to a close-up of Tony's face looking up from his menu at the door. At first it's easy to assume that he's just looking for his family. But in truth, Tony has positioned himself facing the door, so he can see who's coming for him. The FBI, a nameless killer, a member of Phil Leotardo's crew out for revenge - it doesn't matter, Tony is waiting for them all.
And he'll be waiting that way for the rest of his life. Every time a door opens, every time a car drives by, every time someone knocks at his door, he'll look up, fearing the worst. Tony will fear the life he's always loved so much.
Sure, seven seasons of moral grayness may not have facilitated Tony's death, but it certainly has led him to a much worse fate.
6. Nothing #6 - Jokes On You, Sucker!
This theory originally came from my editor, and at first it seemed just like television snob hullabaloo, but after much thinking, it's my favorite theory. The blackness equals the end of the show, but it doesn't matter if Tony lives or dies, because that's not what the show ever meant to David Chase. He always attacked the idea of the Mafia from angles unseen before and part of that was eschewing forecasted episodic events. Season finales were usually quiet moments after the storm. Big events, like Ralphie Cifaretto's death, played out when Chase felt they should and traditional big moments often times happened off-screen, or in the background when you least expected it. The show was always about the journey (hmmmm... maybe that "Don't Step Believin''' jukebox pick had a symbolic air to it) and the characters who took this journey, and why would David Chase change that in the final moments.
The interminable blackness was really just a huge middle finger to those sensationalists who just tuned in to see Tony get wacked. This beautiful 57 minute coup de grace rewarded those who'd sat through it from the beginning with a subtle look back on the storylines we all loved, no matter what occurred with them. To end the series with Tony's smiling mug surrounded by the family we've come to love, is Chase saying thank you, in his own backhanded way, to an audience that helped the show to become what it was. Those who just stopped by when the show got hot in Season 2 and then again in these last few episodes, David Chase wants nothing to do with.
It doesn't matter what happened to Tony in the final moments, he and the entire cast of characters have been entertaining us for seven years now, and David Chase just wanted to give us a chance to say goodbye.
