# Tony Soprano lives **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694 "2014-08-27T22:03:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/1 "2014-08-27T22:03:32Z")
Not sure why people thought he was dead. They showed every other whacking on camera, except for Adriana. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/08/27/tony-soprano-lives-and-that-is-the-perfect-punishment-for-him/](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/08/27/tony-soprano-lives-and-that-is-the-perfect-punishment-for-him/) ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/2 "2014-08-27T22:09:45Z")
And next week he can say Tony died. Doesn’t matter. What matters is what was on the screen and so it remains up to everybody to decide for themself. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/3 "2014-08-27T22:11:03Z")
I’ve always thought the Tony-gets-whacked interpretation to be facile. If anyone is “whacked,” it’s the _viewer_. The story and its characters go on forever, as it’s fiction. It’s the viewer who fades to black. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/4 "2014-08-27T22:15:42Z")
Sure people can decide, but what evidence says he is dead? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/5 "2014-08-27T22:20:31Z")
[quote=“Subterraneanus, post:3, topic:696694”] I’ve always thought the Tony-gets-whacked interpretation to be facile. If anyone is “whacked,” it’s the _viewer_. QUOTE] I agree with this. Chase couldn’t think of a good ending, so, he cobbled this one together, and then said “whatever YOU think” etc… And, per the article, if he wantedTony Soprano to live a life in hell, Chase should have had Tony wearing the Members Only jacket for the rest of his life. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/6 "2014-08-27T22:21:25Z")
The episode speaks for itself. Are we really still arguing about this seven years later? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/7 "2014-08-27T22:21:56Z")
Of course maybe Tony is a lumberjack out west somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/8 "2014-08-27T22:24:04Z")
[quote=“handsomeharry, post:5, topic:696694”] > [@Subterraneanus](#): > > I’ve always thought the Tony-gets-whacked interpretation to be facile. If anyone is “whacked,” it’s the _viewer_. QUOTE] > > I agree with this. > > Chase couldn’t think of a good ending, so, he cobbled this one together, and then said “whatever YOU think” etc… He’s commenting on the voyeurism of the viewer. He discussed this idea at length during the final season of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/9 "2014-08-27T22:26:51Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Of course maybe Tony is a lumberjack out west somewhere. And he’s OK? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/10 "2014-08-27T22:34:54Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The episode speaks for itself. Are we really still arguing about this seven years later? I certainly found the ending to be satisfying and ‘right.’ For my taste, it wasn’t overly cerebral, yet did manage to go beyond the literal in a gratifying way. (I believe we were being shown Tony’s death–the ‘turning off’ of his brain.) (Has there been a poll on SDMB as to whether people thought the ending was well-done? That would differ from whether they thought he was killed or not, of course. Too bad the polling software can’t show a 2 by 2 question matrix: “well-done” or “poorly-done” on the X, and Tony was killed" or “Tony was not killed” on the Y.) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/11 "2014-08-27T22:39:24Z")
If there ever was a case of the author being wrong about his own work… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/12 "2014-08-27T22:49:20Z")
Related note - other than Edie Falco , the rest of the cast hasn’t done a whole lot have they? ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/13 "2014-08-27T23:11:31Z")
> [@Subterraneanus](#): > > And, per the article, if he wantedTony Soprano to live a life in hell, Chase should have had Tony wearing the Members Only jacket for the rest of his life. Sorry, what do you mean? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/14 "2014-08-27T23:12:41Z")
A guy in the last scene was wearing a Members only jacket. Some people said he was the guy who whacked Tony. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/15 "2014-08-27T23:14:48Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Sorry, what do you mean? You quoted the wrong person. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/16 "2014-08-27T23:21:46Z")
But what about the Russian in the Pine Barrens??? ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/17 "2014-08-27T23:22:59Z")
lol ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/18 "2014-08-27T23:26:04Z")
Chase said a while back the Russian is dead. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/19 "2014-08-28T00:10:03Z")
On 2nd thought Chase says “I never said he was alive” [The Mystery Of Tony's Fate In 'The Sopranos' Has Finally Been Revealed, Kind Of [UPDATE] | HuffPost Entertainment](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/27/tony-soprano-dead-alive_n_5723682.html) ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694/20 "2014-08-28T00:43:07Z")
Full [quote] ([http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/david-chase-finally-answers-the-is-tony-soprano-dead-question-sort-of](http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/david-chase-finally-answers-the-is-tony-soprano-dead-question-sort-of)) from Chase’s publicist: > [@](#): > > A journalist for Vox misconstrued what David Chase said in their interview. To simply quote David as saying,“ Tony Soprano is not dead,” is inaccurate. There is a much larger context for that statement and as such, it is not true. > > As David Chase has said numerous times on the record, “Whether Tony Soprano is alive or dead is not the point.” To continue to search for this answer is fruitless. The final scene of THE SOPRANOS raises a spiritual question that has no right or wrong answer. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tony-soprano-lives/696694.md?page=2)