I got up this morning, intending to rant about how meaningless the ten seconds of blank screen were, and how the episode would have had the exact same meaning (or lack of meaning) if it had gone straight to the credits without that stupid blank screen. But post after post has suggested that the blank screen did have meaning, and was intended to refer the Tony getting whacked. Okay, I don’t necessarily accept that, but it’s a possibility, at least.
Along those lines, can someone offer some commentary on why the episode had to include Meadow’s struggle with parking the car? What was Chase’s point? What does it add to the story? What might we have thought if we simply saw har park, or park with a little difficulty? What would have been different?
Personally, I kept waiting for the restaurant in the back to explode. I think the entire purpose of the scene was to get us to watch for it coming, just as Tony was.
I’m sure there’s some deeper stuff there (Meadow trying something several times till she settles is similar to her trying several careers until she settles), but on the surface I think it was just building the drama of impending doom.
Ducks? In the pool? Panic attack! Black out …thearapy… SHH! New Jersey vs New York. FBI. Bug in the lamp. Lamp in the basement. Lap not in the basement. Pussy don’t talk! Where’s Pussy? Talking fish. Pussy sleeps with the fishes. Jobs. Hits. Gambling. Lies. Betrayal. Loyalty. Deceit. Repeat. Panic Attack! Black out. More therapy, but everyone knows now. Horny Priests. Horny Italians. Where’s the “Gobba Goo?!” Jobs. Hits. Gambling. Lies. Betrayal. Loyalty. Deceit. Repeat. Pine Barrens… lost! Cold. Christophuh. Adriana, booze, drugs, and clubbing. Screenplays. Hollywood. Writer’s block. John Favreau? Jobs. Hits. Gambling. Lies. Betrayal. Loyalty. Deceit. Repeat. Blow. Adriana don’t talk! Fuck. Ride With Pauly. AA. France. Alzheimers. Tony gets shot. Coma. Kevin Finnerty. Salesman, Normal life. Lighthouse? Recovery. Cathartic. Gay mobsters. Problem child. Pool cue up the pooper. Jobs. Hits. Gambling. Lies. Betrayal. Loyalty. Deceit. Repeat. Accident! Euthanize Chris or Murder? New York is pissed. New Jersey gets effed up. New Jersey in Hiding. New York in hiding. FBI. Betrayal. Phil’s head 'splodes. Puking. Everyone out of hiding. Fucking cat! Dinner at a diner. Meadow can’t park worth shit. Jukebox. Steve Perry. “Don’t Stop… Believeing” Tension high. Paranoia. Family coming into diner. Music still playing. Journey still singing. Suspicious man walks into bathroom. Meadow finally parks. Walks into the diner. “Don’t Stop–” /sopranos.
Keeve, I think what matters is that at the end of the day, we don’t know. We don’t know if Meadow dodged or walked into a bullet as a result of her parking struggles. We don’t know if there really was a hit (no, we really don’t know, no matter how sure anyone is). If there was, we don’t know who ordered it and why. And of course, we don’t know what would happen afterwards.
And that’s really the only way to end it. Viewers of this show are never satisfied, and they get way more love than viewers of Lost. If we heard the gunshot, we still might not know if the bullet hit home and where. If it faded out on Tony’s lifeless eyes, we still might not know who shot him and why. And if we knew that, then they’d pretty much have to go into the repercussions of that…
So it’s Schroedinger’s Soprano. It ends at the last possible moment before more questions (beyond “WTF?”) would arise. Which is also a moment that could, after all, be perfectly ordinary, and followed by another perfectly ordinary moment. I’m not denying the perfectly valid possibility that Tony is dead. But if I settle either way, then that closes off the other option, and, I’d simply rather avoid that flat, empty feeling one gets when a story is truly over.
And if the ten seconds was Tony’s death, that calls to mind how Harry Turtledove often ends death scenes with “and then…nothing at all.” If Tony’s dead, I’d rather that my consciousness of him ends when his own does.
The intent is to build suspense, in anticipation that there must be a reason for it. More to the point, perhaps she was struggling with the car outside so that she could be spared the horror that was about to go on inside. It was a horror, that ultimately didn’t come to us as a casual observer, though it did happen through Tony’s eyes.
Every single season of this series has ended with reflection save for the final episode. This one was cleaved off. We have been watching this show for seven years now, and most of it has been from Tony’s perspective. This last scene was one of the few times that we are actually looking through his eyes.
This the the perfect way to look at it. Tony WAS the show. And if he died, then there is no show. On the other hand, it had to end someplace… why not in the middle of another mundane night? What did we want, the whole cast standing and laughing together like the end of a Scooby-Doo show?
It really is Schroedinger’s Soprano. AHHH! That explains the cat!
Did anybody else get the feeling at the very first scene that you were looking down on Tony in a casket? The opening of the song that turned out to be a rock song sounded very funeral to me and the plain white pillow looked like what you’d see in a casket?
Yup! I had the exact same thought. Although I knew he was just sleeping from the previous night in his hidey-hole, I did get that impression that that’s what Chase wanted to convey.
You’ve written exactly what I was thinking. But I have no respect for Chase on this one. Brilliant it was, from his point of view; the ending will be discussed forever. But from my point of view, it’s cheap and a letdown. I don’t want to read an endless blathering debate between the “Tony’s dead” and the “Tony’s not dead” camps.
Nope. I think we’ve had that exact same shot several times this season, starting with the recovery room after Junior shot him, and a few other times too, I think.
What I took away from it was that she was his “friend from Brooklyn” who could give him info on Phil’s whereabouts. Agent Harris probably called her after talking to Tony and slept with her to get the scoop. He called Tony immediately after the act, while she was in the bathroom. I suspect she overheard part of his conversation, hence the evil eye when she came out. Just my interpretation, of course.
Do the Season DVDs include any commentary on the shows? If so, I’d be curious what they’d have to say about this ending when the 6th Season DVD comes out.
The cat reminded me of that weird opening from last season (or was it the season before?) with the recitation of the William S. Burroughs poem(?) about the Egyptians and the transport of souls. You know, because the Egyptians worshipped cats.
This was just a more artistic version of bad '50s monster movies that ended with a final frame of “The End?” It’s lazy and manipulative.
There is a lot of speculation over whether Tony is dead, or having to spend every second looking over his shoulder, or what. But, in the end, it is just speculation. David Chase didn’t do his job.
To paraphrase Steve Harvey, I am paying to be entertained, not to “help out”. I don’t want to write my own damn ending. Chase is like that guy at work who spends twice as much effort avoiding work as it would take to just do his job.
I just want to point this out again to those who just don’t seem to be getting it. There is no reasonable interpretation other than the “Tony is Dead” one.
I completely agree with the idea that Tony’s dead. And Carm. And A.J. And Meadow. The guy in the bathroom definitely came out blasting.
This show has been relatively light on Godfather homages, but they’ve been piling up lately (the way Bobby got Sonnyed, Tony eating an orange, the cat, I’ve lost count).
I’m imagining that Meadow told Jason who told Patsy, who finally got the revenge he’s been waiting for. Now he’ll just have to take out Paulie and then he can go to work with Butchie or what the hell ever that creepy-looking guy in Phil’s crew is called.
Edit: Forgive me if 90 other people have come up with this. I just noticed that this thread has not 2 but 4 pages. :o
“Made in America”. Which could mean a bunch of things:
“Made in America” was the slogan for Ford and a Ford ran over Phil’s head.
The diner was dripping with Americana… Boy Scouts at one table, a hard working truck driver at another, Journey on the good 'ol American jukebox. That diner was “Made in America”. The only thing missing was Norman Rockwell actually sitting there painting a Coke ad!
If you subscribe to the theory that the last few episode titles have been related to deaths (“Kennedy & Heidi” were driving the car that hit Christopher’s car and eventually got him killed, “Blue Comet” is the train Bobby was buying when he was shot) “Made in America” might suggest that Tony does in fact die in the diner.