What happened when the screen cut to black? Back in 2006, when The Sopranos concluded many were left to wonder and speculate the sudden and ambiguous end of the series. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, series creator David Chase stated …
‘I had a scene in which Tony comes back from a meeting in New York in his car. At the beginning of every show, he came from New York into New Jersey, and the last scene could be him coming from New Jersey back into New York for a meeting at which he was going to be killed. But I think I had this notion – I was driving on Ocean Park Boulevard near the airport and I saw a little restaurant. It was kind of like a shack that served breakfast. And for some reason, I thought, ‘Tony should get it in a place like that.’ Why? I don’t know.’
Even more recently, Chase says he was misquoted and went on to elaborate…
‘Everybody who believes I said Tony is dead in a Hollywood Reporter article: works for me. Now you’ll stop fucking asking me’
I never really understood how it was controversial to believe Tony died. The entire final season is suffused with death in both plot and imagery. There are bread crumbs throughout (most prominently, Bobby Bacala saying “you probably don’t even hear it when it happens”) that foreshadow the bluntness of death. In fact, Tony isn’t exactly on edge during the final scene. In Holsten’s, he’s the most relieved we’ve seen him in years. He thinks all his mob enemies are dead, AJ and Meadow are both in a better place, his only real concern is Carlo flipping. But the FBI has already flipped several guys closer to him and he’s always come out on top. Agent Harris even gave him the tip that won the war. Tony is not anxious. He’s not wondering if every guy who walks through the door is there to kill him. He’s listening to “Don’t Stop Believing” and thinking about how awesome he is for outmaneuvering Phil and the New York crew while still doing right by his family.
Now, watch the final episode again or at the very least, that final scene. Every time the bell over the door dings the camera goes to Tony’s point of view for a moment. Every time. The tension is all in the editing, which is done to build suspense for us, because we know it’s the end of the last episode and that death is only now a real possibility. It’s not a reflection of Tony’s state of mind. Tony takes no notice of the Members Only guy and the highlighting of this is very deliberate. The bell literally rings as every character comes into the diner. As you expect Meadow to be the last ring the camera goes to Member’s Only. Right there, just as Meadow enters the diner, while he’s let his guard down it happens. In the episode The Blue Comet, Tony broke the code by sending some goons out and having Phil Leotardo shot dead in front of his wife and grandkids. Members Only has been instructed to kill Tony only when the whole family is present, as payback. Meadow’s crappy parallel parking is the only thing keeping Tony alive at that point, and neither has any idea. It’s all there on the screen. A masterclass in tension, shot composition, direction, etc. The camera tells you everything.
But really, it didn’t matter if Tony got whacked there, or some other time, or not at all. He was effed either way. His crew was decimated, he was about to have a whole host of legal problems, Meadow had basically renounced her earlier ideals and decided to become a mob lawyer, and Dr. Jennifer Melfi (arguably the person who knew him best) had finally washed her hands of him. Tony was a very bad person who was also very sympathetic. But that’s the ending he earns: to never know when it’s coming, but always be fearful it’s any second now. Tony was going to live the rest of his life wondering if the next person to walk in the room was going to be the person who kills him. 99% percent of Mafia films, television, etc. glorify “the life” while paying lip service to the idea that they’re incurring some sort of cosmic retribution. The Sopranos takes every hoary cliché about the Mafia mystique and renders it tawdry and gauche, just greed and mundane laziness. Because, get it, that’s what happened to America, do you get it? That’s the ending.